The ISS comes together

A friend sent this to me. Very interesting Flash animation. Follow the link.

http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm

A lesson in Economics.

Some people had difficulty understanding what taxing corporations and business really means. Here's a hint via Dick Locher.

There IS a difference

Found this YouTube video. It says a lot.

Quote of the Day

Oldie but goodie! The quote below was written in response to Roosevelt's efforts to use Tax 'n Spend to get the country out of the Great Depression. Instead, Roosevelt extended the Depression until the advent of World War II.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

Goodbye, Shifty.

I just received the e-mail below. A true American hero died last month and without media notice. If you have ever watched Band of Brothers, you'll recognize the name.

Memorial service - you're invited


Stand up... hook up... shuffle to the door...

We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.
I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.

Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.

Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at  Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?"

I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day.

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.

I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach.

He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17, 2009 after fighting cancer.

There was no parade.

No big event in Staples Center .

No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.

No weeping fans on television.

And that's not right.

Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way.
Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

"A nation without heroes is nothing."
Roberto Clemente

Obama: I just don't get no respect...

It's tough to get respect out in the world today. Obama went to Russia to suck up to Putin and got nothing in return. Towards the end of the meetings, Putin and Obama went down a reception line of Russians and former Sovs. Each one warming shook Putin's hand. When it was Obama's turn and he extended his hand, they ignored him.

Wow! Russians Snubbed Obama-- Refused to Shake His Hand! (Video)
Funny... Our state-run media didn't report on this?
The Russians snubbed Obama- BIG TIME!
Hat Tip Desert Conservative

So much for pushing that reset button.

Leaving Russia, Obama went to Italy for a meeting of the G-8 where Obama in turn snubbed Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi.

Obama snubs Italian PM, walks on without shaking hands

CNN-IBN

New Delhi: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in the centre of another diplomatic incident, this time at the G5-G8 summit. Berlusconi was reportedly snubbed by US President Barack Obama.

But, when it came time to discuss "Cap 'n Trade" among the G-8 members, China, India and Brazil told Obama to go pound sand. They weren't interested. These three nations are working to raise themselves out of the 3rd-world status. Many area of these nations have no electrical power, no running water---no public, disinfected drinking water, no modern road infrastructure and only limited rail transportation. Dana Summer's cartoon below just fits the bill.

Perhaps Obama will learn that a charming appearance and manner will win him nothing when he has earned no respect nor gives respect to other world leaders. Unless, of course, that "leader" is Castro, Chavez, Ortega, or Ahmadinejad.

Another view: Why Republicans need Sarah Palin

The left and many of the "cocktail circuit" of the right are dumping on Sarah Palin over her resignation as Governor of Alaska. No one really knows the reasons behind that nor her plans for the future. But---you wouldn't know that if you listened to the Obama State media organs. Everyone claims to know but no one really does.

Chris Stigall is a conservative radio host on KCMO 710 in Kansas City. He publishes opinions at several sites, Big Hollywood for one, and subs for Michael Savage and appears regularly on Lou Dobbs' show as well. Here is a column he posted last week on Big Hollywood about his view on Palin's resignation. Who's to say, Stigall isn't as prophetic as any of the others?

Sarah Palin: It’s Her Party And She’ll Resign If She Wants To

by Chris Stigall

It has been amusing to watch the speculation of the Alaska Governor’s motivations and future aspirations after announcing her resignation last Friday. Senate bid? “No, Alaskans would never forgive her for leaving them” said the Sunday shows. Presidential bid? “Not possible now,” say the smartest strategists and campaigners. Host a talk show? Sell books? Go on the lecture circuit? All possible, though not all probable. But the one thing most of the pundits on both the left and the right in Washington D.C. have declared certain - Palin’s political career is D.O.A.

Not so fast, my friends. Since we’re all engaged in wild speculation, allow the reading of one more set of tea leaves, if you please.

You can roll your eyes and tease Palin’s supposed lightweight intellectual status. You can bury your head in shame when Charlie Gibson peers down his nose through his reading glasses and stumps her with international policy questions. You may say she had no business on the national stage from the get-go last fall when John McCain announced her as his vice presidential pick. But what you cannot ignore, nor take from her is what she is about to seize on in a big way.The dirty little secret is the 2010 and 2012 Republican candidates in both houses of Congress need Palin now more than ever. They need her just as John McCain needed her. Conservative voters both independent and Republican don’t trust the crew in Washington. Historically it is true they never have when asked. But this is not your typical “throw the bums out” mentality fomenting at tea party protests of late. This is a time when long term blue dog Democrat and Republican moderate office holders are nervously wondering, “Just how real IS the anger?” Bailouts, takeovers, stimulus spending, aggressive energy taxes, and nationalized health care have this electorate frightened and angry. The public is paying attention to their every vote, and those that are on the side of the American taxpayer will be rewarded in coming elections.

Then there are those politicians who got it right most of the time, but voted to bail out car companies because, “American car companies going bankrupt would signal the end of our economy.” Or a personal favorite, “Well, sure, I voted to bail out Wall Street and the banks, but, can you imagine the kind of trouble we’d be in today if I hadn’t?” One shudders to think. (Tongue firmly buried in cheek, or course.)

Americans aren’t buying what Washington’s selling anymore, and politicians know it. Especially wary of this fact are the damaged Republicans who bought into the economic Chicken Little routine last fall. So just how does a Republican candidate whip up a base of support when voters are angry or suspicious of their voting history? Enter the most powerful motivator and fundraiser in all of Republican politics today.

Name a Republican today who could draw a larger crowd, and encourage more checks to be cut to a political candidate than Alaska’s governor. Ex-presidents don’t count, by the way. But even if you included George Bush - I think she’d give him a race for the dollar. That said - go ahead, try it. Cheney? Romney? Pawlenty? Jindal? Rove? Steele? Rice? Powell? McCain? Huckabee? Ron Paul? Nope. None of them touch the pull of Palin. Remember, it’s not about whom you like personally. It’s who can raise the most money and draw the biggest crowd that matters most in this game.

You don’t have to like the unseemly truth of what Reagan called “the second oldest profession.” You don’t have to like Palin’s magnetism. Heaven knows many of the names just mentioned don’t. This one-term pony from the sticks is stealing their thunder. Plain and simple, this woman is not only a license to print money; she is the belle of the ball - the envy of the Republican political establishment. Palin has achieved a level of authentic, average-Joe appeal unmatched by any Republican on the national stage since Reagan and that is sexy as hell to a party who needs money and excitement now more than ever.

No, they’ll not say it publicly. In fact, they’ll dismiss her influence altogether if asked. But I’ll bet my house that the weekend voice mailbox of Governor Palin was full of begging, pleading Republican Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates humbly requesting this “erratic, irrelevant, lightweight” to come stand at their side during their upcoming picnic/potluck/town hall/ cocktail fundraiser.

Perhaps the political chattering class is correct. Maybe Sarah Palin isn’t electable anymore. It’s highly doubtful that even came close to the top of her list when weighing the option of resigning last week. Sarah Palin knows she holds something more powerful than elected office right now. She has a consistent, unwavering commitment to celebrating American exceptionalism, freedom, and less government in the lives of every American. She now has the ability to hold each and every politician who calls on her for help to rise to her standard and maintain the integrity of the conservative movement. Put plainly, she will now determine the standard, direction, and message of conservatism going forward if they want her help. And there can be no doubt they crave her help.

She holds popularity, trust, interest, and an excitement with a sizable national constituency who listen to her more than any public official today. She can write a best-selling book, turn out big donors, and virtually steal the spot light from anyone who shares the stage. Not bad for an “erratic, lightweight, quitter with no political future.”

Sarah Palin will be around and relevant long after those quietly begging her to save their political lives today. When she leaves office in a couple of weeks, she assumes the role of the Republican’s titular kingmaker. Call it “Palin’s Green Party.” Green - the color of envy and the color of money and oh, how she’s going to create both.

Why the Census is critical and must be non-biased

Orson Scott Card has a posting on this topic that goes into much detail. In short, the census determines if new Congressional boundaries are needed, if new Congressional seats are to be added, or deleted from any state. If the liberal metro areas suddenly show a population growth, a new district may be added to that state. The state legislature(s) will then determine new Congressional boundaries depending on the population trends and locations.

Prior to the 2000 census, I lived in Ike Skelton's district to the south of the KC metro area. (Don't ask me what the district # is, I don't know.) Skelton, a democrat was in a district that was shifting to Republican. In 2000, the dems had control of the Missouri state legislature. The northern portion of Cass County is heavily Republican, as is most of Cass County. The dems sliced off the northern portion of Cass County and moved it into the KC district of Emanuel Cleaver where the population was overwhelmingly democrat. That allowed Skelton to retain his seat. If the northern part of Cass had stayed in Skelton's district, it is quite possible he would have lost his seat to a Republican.

This is just an example why the Census is important. Go read Card's posting for a greater understanding.

Would this be the trigger?

My wife is upstairs sleeping after her out-patient procedure today. So, while she's napping, I thought I'd come down and do a bit of web surfin'---something I'm a bit behind on this week. I drifted over to Hot Air and spotted this article about a bill Alcee Hastings is trying to push through Congress.

This bill is nothing less than giving Obama the right to create his version on the soviet Gulag for anyone he deems to be a terrorist. Seems to me Janet Napolitano has already said that most of us are just that. If this passes our single party congress and Obama starts using it to lock up his critics, it just could be the straw the broke the camel's back.

The lock-up-your-opponents bills of 2009?

posted at 11:08 am on July 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Share on Facebook | regular view

Would Congress ever pass legislation that would allow the executive to determine at its own discretion whether political opponents had crossed the line into domestic terrorists and build camps in which to keep them? Sounds like something out of 20th-century totalitarian systems or dystopian fiction. Mark Tapscott says it’s not fiction, and he warns readers about an effort by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) to do just that:

Rep. Alcee Hastings - the impeached Florida judge Nancy Pelosi tried to install as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee until her own party members rebelled - introduced an amendment to the defense authorization bill that gives Attorney General Eric Holder sole discretion to label groups that oppose government policy on guns, abortion, immigration, states’ rights, or a host of other issues. In a June 25 speech on the House floor, Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, blasted the idea: “This sounds an alarm for many of us because of the recent shocking and offensive report released by the Department of Homeland Security which labeled, arguably, a majority of Americans as ‘extremists.’”

Another Hastings bill (HR 645) authorizes $360 million in 2009 and 2010 to set up “not fewer than six national emergency centers on military installations” capable of housing “a large number of individuals affected by an emergency or major disaster.” But Section 2 (b) 4 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to use the camps “to meet other appropriate needs” - none of which are specified. This is the kind of blank check that Congress should never, ever sign.

It’s not paranoid to be extremely wary of legislation that would give two unelected government officials power to legally declare someone a “domestic terrorist” and send them to a government-run camp.

To be fair on the second point, most legislation includes phrases similar to the “meet other appropriate needs” as a means of allowing flexibility in using facilities commissioned by Congress. Under unforeseen circumstances even apart from creating concentration camps for abortion opponents, the six national emergency centers might need to get some use other than housing military personnel or civilians evacuated from a disaster area. That language allows the Pentagon and Homeland Security leeway to adapt for other issues without having to worry that lawyers will descend upon them like locusts for not strictly limiting use to the statutes.

However, the designation of domestic terrorist groups — a necessary and critical process for keeping the peace — should not fall into the hands of just one person. That process needs oversight and consensus to be credible and fair. Congress should have some involvement, especially in oversight. Holder could be the greatest AG in the history of the US but still should not have the absolute authority to make that designation, especially after the track record of the DHS in using vague parameters and broad-based smears of legitimate political protest earlier this year.

Mark may also want to look at HR 1966, introduced by Rep. Linda Sanchez last April in reaction to the suburban mother who drove one of her daughter’s acquaintances — a 13-year-old girl — to suicide. Bas cases make bad law, and that’s doubly true here. Look at this language and imagine how this could be used:

Sec. 881. Cyberbullying

‘(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Who decides what constitutes “substantial emotional distress”? What is the definition of “severe” and “hostile”? What kinds of persons can claim victimhood under this bill? This purports to be a bill to prevent cyberbullying — which is hardly a crime wave in America anyway — but could easily be perverted to shut down “mean” bloggers.

This Congress has taken a strange and dangerous turn away from the principles of free speech and towards … something else entirely.

You just can't make this up.

I'm on vacation this week. My wife and I have been going off on day-trips while the gas prices have been dropping. There are a number of gunshops in very small towns around here and I've been visiting them just to see what can be found. If I see a nice used J-Frame, I'll pick it up for my wife. She likes revolvers.

Today is a bit different, the wife has a Dr appointment so I've been surfing just to see what's happened the last few days and I ran across this. We've always known that Biden is a few cells short of a quorum. This statement is just another proof that liberalism increases stupidity.

Joe Biden update: No 'private meetings,' just meetings closed to the press

Possibly a very important policy change quietly emerged in the daily schedule of Vice President Joe Biden today.

Loyal Ticket readers know that as a patriotic duty we monitor the long-time senator's schedule with a close eye for detail because, after all, this man is only a heartbeat away from having to give a toast at a G8 summit. We've especially noted Biden's innumerable "private meetings" that are closed to the press because, well, they're private.

And we've wondered aloud how this Democratic VP's private meetings with unnamed people on unnamed subjects differs from the private meetings with unnamed people that his evil predecessor had that got so many Democratic senators and representatives worried about nefarious secrets.

On one recent long weekend the man who became a Delaware senator when his future boss, Barack Obama, was an inexperienced fundraiser of only 11, devoted an entire Monday to "private meetings" that are closed press in his Delaware home.

If that isn't dedication for the $208,000 salary.

Well, today's schedule, unlike many at the end of Biden's work weeks, contains no "private meetings." Not one.

Having spent Thursday traveling and successfully selling the nation on the so far hard-to-detect effects of the $787 billion Obama administration economic stimulus spending plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave them, Biden will show up for work around 11 today.

He'll join Health and Human Services Secy. Kathleen Sebelius in a roundtable to discuss only the rising costs of healthcare for people who own or work for small businesses. One suspects the absent president's ambitious plan to spend billions more to impose his healthcare reforms might also be mentioned.

OK, so figure an hour for the roundtable, maybe 75 minutes max. You can only talk about that stuff so long before requiring healthcare yourself. Fifteen minutes for handshaking, cellphone photos and congratulations on the excellent roundtable. The VP should be outta there by 12:30.

That leaves -- what? -- five, maybe six hours to make it a seven-hour workday.

According to the White House schedule, Biden will not spend the remainder of the work day in private meetings that are closed press.

Instead: "The Vice President will spend the remainder of the day in meetings that are closed press."

You get the difference, right?

-- Andrew Malcolm

Words to ponder

I received this link in an e-mail from a friend. The link points to a blog with a message from a Columbus, OH cop and Police Academy Commander/Professor. It is disquieting. What is worse, is that I've had friends and fellow church members ask me the same question, "Is another revolution coming?"

I don't know. I pray it does not. I fear that it is.

Note From a Cop

Written By; Scott Wagner a Police Academy Commander and Professor at Columbus State Community College in Columbus Ohio, and Commander of the 727 Counter Terror Training Unit.. A 29 year law enforcement veteran, and current Deputy Sheriff, he is the Precision Marksman for the Union County Sheriff’s Office SRT Team.

The fear on the street is palpable. Ever since the election of Barack Obama as President of these United States in November 2008, coupled with the election of a democrat party majority in both the U.S. House and Senate, concern for the United States and personal safety has ignited like a fire in dry grass.

Sales of guns – black guns, rifles, shotguns and handguns (particularly 9mm) everywhere, have gone through the roof. AR15s have literally flown off of dealer shelves, and only now in the spring of 2009, have I seen the display samples of ARs begin to reappear on the wall of my favorite shooting emporium after the initial post election rush.

Manufacturers of ARs are still working to catch up and some of the major suppliers are as much as 150,000 guns behind. Not only that, ammo is in the shortest supply I have ever seen in the 43 years of my shooting life. Have you recently tried to get 5.56mm, 9mm or even 380 ammo?

Supplies of 5.56mm and 9mm ammo are in short supply due to the black gun buying craze; .380ACP because of the rise in people getting concealed carry permits and the resurgence of interest in convenient 380 handguns like the fine Ruger LCP. In fact, in doing a review of the Ruger LCP, my gun store only had a small supply of ONE .380 round on hand, the Winchesters 95-grain SXT, which they had just gotten in. Unfortunately, I had to do a 30-round review of that pistol. There was none other to be found.

What is odd about this new fear is that it is not coming from the average citizen gun owner out there, but it is coming from what to me is an almost shocking source: street cops.

Street cops and SWAT cops that I know from various agencies – rural, suburban and metro – in my area are scared. Cops that before November 2008 never gave much thought (that I knew of anyway) to politics or more
importantly to gun rights. For the most part, these are the guys that didn’t generally have any interest in shooting or gun ownership beyond keeping track of where their duty gun is, and a few of them didn’t even do that so well.

The guys I am talking about now are some of the same guys who used to not even carry off duty on a regular basis- but not anymore. They don’t scare easily, defenders of the Constitution of this State and the United States (as our oath of office reads), have been buying ARs, survival gear, and all the ammo they can lay their hands on. All of them (or I should say “us”) have been discussing and have been acquiring guns to provide a layered perimeter defense.

What are we suddenly so afraid of? Well in our discussions it seems to boil down to four areas.

You can read more at the site, but the four areas are: the federal government, fear that there is an assault weapons ban looming, one that would make the Clinton Ban appear like a look of disdain in comparison, civil disobedience coming if the federal government attempts to confiscate weapons, assault rifles or others, and fear of another revolution.

Read the source and ponder. The police in America are just like us; having the same fears, dreads, and hopes. And, they are preparing. I wonder how much more they know than we do?

History Channel: The Revolution

I'm sitting in my recliner, laptop on my lap, watching the History Channel's re-run of their "Revolution" series. At the moment, they are showing the events leading up to the revolution---the high taxes, the arrogance of the British government and the assumption of the British that the Americans would just roll over at the first "whiff of grape." At the moment they are talking about the pamphleteers and Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet that made Americans finally realize their only course was separation from the British Empire.

The British thought the Americans were weak and divided. Many were, but those remaining were not and were determined to succeed or die. Strange how the events leading to that revolution some 233 years ago are mirrored today---the democrat high taxes, the arrogance of our single party government. I wonder how long it will be until that arrogant government seeks to oppress their opposition? The first mechanisms are already in place with the state controlled media.

On Vacation

I'm on vacation this coming week. Blogging will be erratic and possibly light. Y'all have a fun 4th of July!

RUSH: Feds go door-to-door seizing guns in Houston

The following is a transcript from Rush Limbaugh. Elections have consequences.

Elections Have Consequences: Feds Door-to-Door Seizing Guns It can't happen in America, you say? Well, it is. BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: They are rounding up guns in Houston. Have you seen this? Now, the guys here, they are rounding up guns in Houston, the feds are going door-to-door in Houston because they say they're trying to round up guns that are being used in drug deals. Some woman had just bought four brand-new weapons and they found out about it and they went to take them away. Look, folks, what's the big deal about this now? I mean elections have consequences. Well, I'll tell you what, elections have consequences. It's about time people started facing up with what they did here. This is just the first-ever census for guns. You know, ACORN, AmeriCorps, going to be joining the feds soon, they'll sweep the country, they'll do an inventory, they'll get one or two more liberals on the bench, Supreme Court, they'll find a way to get rid of the Second Amendment, then they can confiscate guns like FDR confiscated gold in 1933. Do you remember that? By virtue of executive order, Franklin Delano Roosevelt confiscated American gold. He made it illegal for anybody to have any, by executive order. Now, there wasn't a constitutional amendment allowing gold or the use of gold in the Constitution, but still. "I'm sorry, an American president would never do that, Rush. American presidents don't have this kind of authority, no, no, just rounding up guns in Houston now. No, American presidents don't have that kind of authority, never happen. This is the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela, Rush, it's too extreme. You're going off the deep end here." END TRANSCRIPT Read the Background Material... • Houston Chronicle: Federal Agents Hunt for Guns, One House at a Time • American Spectator: ACORN Rent-A-Mob Thugs to Harass Lenders in 14 Cities Tuesday

Big Brother is Watching You

Headline: Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax. The McClatchy news organization reports today that another tax scheme is being investigated. That scheme is to tax users of the nation's roads a fee per mile. If enacted, all vehicles would have a GPS device installed and each owner-of-record would receive a tax bill monthly based on the amount of usage of that vehicle.

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

By Steve Everly | The Kansas City Star

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.

The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention. A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion.

Supposedly, this usage tax would replace the existing fuel taxes (currently totaling around $0.72/gallon in Missouri) with the usage tax. Fuel taxes are falling due to the economy and high fuel prices. Does anyone in their right mind really think the taxers would remove a tax and replace it with another? No, of course not.

The sad fact is that only about 20% of the existing fuel tax gathered by taxing agencies is really spent on roads and highway infrastructure. The rest is frittered away on a variety of "special projects." If the totality of the fuel tax revenue was fully spent on roads and highway maintenance, there would be no short-fall in funding those highway projects.

The University of Iowa, using a $16M federal grant, is testing the technology to enable this tax. From the Kansas City Star...

Oregon did a field test in 2007, concluding it was possible to collect a road tax. The University of Iowa’s Public Policy Center — with support from the Federal Highway Administration and 15 states, including Kansas and Missouri — began work a decade ago on how a road tax could be deployed.

Now the University of Iowa, with the help of a $16 million federal grant, is beginning the field test that will eventually include 2,700 vehicles in six states. The vehicles equipped with computers and GPS devices will keep track of the miles traveled and send the data through wireless technology to a billing center that will compute “simulated” tax bills.

“There is a lot of work nationally going on that is beneath the surface,” said Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

If this technology is enacted, why would it be limited to just collecting mileage data? This of this as a State-operated version of On-Star. You could track each vehicle and store origin and destination. We could track criminals night and day (of course, that would also depend on your definition of "criminal") plot their activities, who they met and cross-check the addresses against a database of undesirables. Why not include a State-operated emergency system integrated into the 911 emergency response? That would require a telecommunications system in case of an accident to allow emergency responders to speak directly to the occupants for injury assessment and other needed communication. At the same time, law enforcement could ease-drop on any conversation, a 'la On-Star without notice to the occupants as happened as documented here and here.

It appears that 1984 is coming, just a few decades late.

Dear Mr. Obama...

Sometimes, a cartoon just says my feelings so well.

Cartoon of the Day: Rameriz

Obama is appalled that a Central-American politician gets booted from office by the country's military on orders from their Supreme Court when that politician violates the country's constitution in an attempt to be "President-for-Life."

Wonder why?

July 4th National Tea Party

This coming Saturday, July 4th, 2009, is the next National Tea Party. My wife and I attended the last Tea Party in Kansas City and it was a great success. BTW, that's my picture in that posting.

This coming Saturday, is the next National Tea Party. You can find the closest Tea Party to your location at http://www.teapartyday.com/. In Kansas City, there are fourTea Parties listed, one at the J. C. Nichols Fountain on 47th Street in the Plaza area. Another will be in Independence, another north of the river in Kansas City, North and still another in Lees Summit.

Please plan on attending one in your locale.

Words can't describe how I feel

I had to go into the office today. This was the first time in over a year because my company laptop went toes-up and I had to get it fixed. So, I spent a good part of this morning and afternoon running from one office to another. And, it was hot!

Betwixt offices I listened to Rush on the radio. Just before he went off the air, a caller announced that she'd finally read all 300 pages added just before the vote. In that mess were provisions for a government inspection required before you could sell your house. It had to be "green", meet all EPA requirements and contain "government approved" wiring, appliances, windows and insulation, etc. If you didn't meet the required specifications, you couldn't sell your house until you did!!!

This is tyranny. At the present time, as long as the seller was truthful with buyer about the condition of the house, the two parties could negotiate selling/buying terms until both parties were satisfied. Now, the government will make that decision and that means another new federal bureaucracy, more waste and more tax money to fund the new agency.

Arrghhh!!!!