States to Track Drivers Through Licenses
A federal program promotes driving license technology that allows the tracking of motorists even when they are not driving.

Electronic monitoring of motorists will soon expand dramatically as states including Arizona, Michigan, Vermont and Washington begin to use radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in drivers’ licenses. These electronic chips broadcast the identity of any card holder to any chip-reading sensor within a minimum of thirty feet. The US Department of Homeland Security is promoting the tracking projects as part of its Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

“Multiple cards can be read at a distance and simultaneously with vicinity RFID technology, allowing an entire car full of people to be processed at once,” a DHS fact sheet on the Passport Card technology explained.

So-called enhanced drivers’ licenses are designed to meet the DHS travel document requirements. Enhanced card holders will be allowed to travel across the border without a passport when new regulations take effect in January 2009. The enhanced licenses electronically store the motorist’s name, date of birth, height, weight and identity number on the card. RFID readers use the identity number to access additional private information from a department of motor vehicles database.

Although the licenses will initially be offered on a voluntary basis, the National Motorists Association suggests that it will not take long for the program to become mandatory.

“The federal government just incentivizes their proposal so that each state, and by extension its citizens, feel like they have no choice but to go along with their program,” the NMA stated today.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) warns that the move is another step toward a national identity card.

“DHS, Arizona, Vermont and Washington are creating these new ID cards in order to change the state driver’s license in to a federal border security identification document,” the EPIC website explained. “The license is pulled away from its original intent — to ensure driving competence — and used as a multi-use federal identification document that could easily be transformed into a national identity card.”

Not every state is sold on the idea. The California State Senate voted in April to ban RFID drivers’ licenses. The bill passed an Assembly committee by a 9-5 vote in July.

I was in Sears today exchanging a gift and when I found the Men’s Department the sign said Caballeros on top, and Men on the bottom.

This just goes through me.

If I were to go to Mexico there would not be signs written in English for my benefit.

If you want to live here, either learn to read our language/speak our language or go home.

Why is it that it seems like the Hispanic community is the only one that doesn’t want to assimilate into American Culture?

I don’t want to shop somewhere in America where signs are written in Spanish and English. I like Sears, but honestly. Let’s just encourage Hispanics to NOT learn to read or write or speak English. Can we?

Why don’t we just quit speaking English altogether and quit making signs in English and make it all Spanish? How about that?

If you could see me now, you’d see my rolling my eyes.

Flat Tax Fred
November 28, 2007; Page A22 WSJ

Fred Thompson’s Presidential campaign has been struggling, in part because of a sense that he lacks passion and an agenda. But late last week he unveiled a tax reform that is more ambitious than anything we’ve seen so far from the rest of the GOP field.

Mr. Thompson wants to abolish the death tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax and cut the corporate income tax rate to 27% from 35%. But his really big idea is a voluntary flat tax that would give every American the option of ditching the current code in favor of filing a simple tax return with two tax rates of 10% and 25%.

Mr. Thompson is getting aboard what has become a global bandwagon, with more than 20 nations having adopted some form of flat tax. Most — especially in Eastern Europe — have seen their economies grow and revenues increase as they’ve adopted low tax rates of between 13% and 25% with few exemptions.

The main political obstacle to such a reform in the U.S. has come from liberals, who favor punitive taxes for “class” reasons, and K Street corporate lobbyists who want to retain their tax-loophole empires. The housing and insurance industries, states and localities, charities, bond traders and tax preparers are all foes of low tax rates.

That’s why the idea of a voluntary flat tax — introduced on these pages a dozen years ago — makes political sense. The Thompson plan would allow taxpayers to keep their mortgage and charitable deductions if they prefer, by adhering to the current tax code and rates. But it would also allow the option to abandon those credits and deductions except for a single allowance based on family size ($39,000 for a family of four). Most taxpayers would pay a 10% rate on income above that allowance, with a 25% rate kicking in at $100,000 for a couple. There would only be five lines on the tax form and most taxpayers could fill it out in minutes.

Liberals are already objecting that the plan is not “paid for,” by which they mean it doesn’t raise taxes the way they hope the next President will. But Mr. Thompson is right in refusing to play by the “static revenue” scoring game that demands that one dollar in estimated tax cuts be offset by one dollar in estimated tax increases somewhere else. “The experts always overrate the revenue losses from tax cuts,” Mr. Thompson says, and history supports him going back to the Mellon reductions of the 1920s, the Kennedy tax cuts of the 1960s, the Gipper’s in the 1980s, and this decade’s success with President Bush’s reductions.

Mr. Thompson’s plan is based on one introduced by GOP Representatives Paul Ryan and Jeb Hensarling that is in any case not designed to lose revenue. It is intended to allow federal receipts to grow at the rate of the economy, which would leave them at some 18% or 19% of GDP — roughly their average of recent decades. When critics object to revenue losses, they are really saying that the tax share of GDP should be allowed to rise to 20% and higher, which is where we are headed if the Bush tax rates expire.

We’d prefer a flat tax with one rate instead of Mr. Thompson’s two. Once the concession is made that richer people should pay a higher tax rate, the political temptation is always to raise the rate on the wealthy. The virtue of the single-rate flat tax isn’t merely its efficiency but also its moral component: It treats all taxpayers equally. If a person makes five times more money than his neighbor, he should pay five times more taxes, not 10 or 20 times more.

However, what’s refreshing about the Thompson plan is that it goes well beyond the current Republican mantra to make “the Bush tax cuts permanent.” That is certainly needed, but the GOP also needs a more ambitious agenda, especially with economic growth slowing. The flat tax has the added political benefit of assaulting the special interests who populate the Gucci Gulch outside Congress’s tax-writing committee rooms. Lower rates and simplify the tax code, and you instantly reduce the opportunities for Beltway corruption. It is both a tax policy and political reform.

The two apparent Republican front runners, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, should be paying attention. Both have called for tax cuts in general but have dodged any endorsement of the flat tax — presumably because they think it is too politically risky. The politically calculating Mr. Romney has questioned whether the flat tax is “fair.” Mr. Giuliani is more open to the idea, saying the flat tax “would be a lot easier. It would probably bring in a lot more revenue and it would not have some of the burdens on the economy that the massive tax code has.” That’s right, so why not go all the way?

Mr. Thompson’s voluntary proposal is one way to deflect some of the inevitable political opposition. Anyone who prefers the current tax code can stick with it. The rest of us can have a better choice.

Here is countless reasons why Live Earth is such a crock of BS.

I’m so tired of hearing about saving the planet.
I’m tired of hearing about going *green*.
I’m all for recycling, and helping out where I can, but I’m not in favor of massive propaganda such as being spewed forth out of the mouths of these politicians (namely Al Gore the Bore) and musicians. What gives them the right to tell us how to live?

Furthermore, as my friend Steve points out, Madonna has issues with hypocrisy too. http://gayconservative.org/2007/07/06/madonna-more-hollywood-hypocrisy/

Irritating.

This was posted in a horse group I belong to.
____________________________________________________

It is time to change from REDNECK humor to TRUE AMERICAN Humor!

Only it isn’t seen as HUMOR, but the correct way to LIVE YOUR LIFE! If you feel the same, pass this on to your True American friends. Y’all know who they are…

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, “One nation, under God.”

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You’ve never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You still say “Christmas” instead of “Winter Festival.”

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You treat Viet Nam vets with great respect, and always have.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You’ve never burned an American flag.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You know what you believe and you aren’t afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You respect your elders and expect your kids to do the same.

You might be a TRUE AMERICAN if: You’d give your last dollar to a friend.

If you got this email from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough TRUE AMERICAN in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about in this email.

God Bless the U S A ! Amen

AND PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM IN ENGLISH.

This was a response to the above post:

I take offense at being a “true” American means being Christian. Being a true American means being open minded and letting other people believe what they want. It is the reason most colonists fled to the “New World” in the first place, being persecuted for their beliefs. Don’t try to cram your beliefs down my throat. I am American through and through, but I do not believe in God and do not want to see that junk all over the place. People just assume EVERYONE believes in that stuff and so why shouldn’t it be every where? I don’t shove my beliefs in your face and you shouldn’t do that to me. I respect that you believe in God, why can’t you respect that I don’t want to see these ridiculous phrases (phrases with God in them or the 10 commandments) all over the place where things should be IMPARTIAL (government buildings). I tried the whole God thing for 24 years and it made me miserable, so do not try to tell me “that” is the way to live just to be American. Religious freedom is what America is (or should be) about!

Now, Did I MISREAD the initial TRUE AMERICAN post, or is this woman who replied, just seething with ANGER? She points out that we should be free to believe in God, and that part of being an American is the right to religious freedom, but in that same post she says that she doesn’t want it crammed down her throat. Have I missed something, or am I right?

Ok. So I admit that I blog in spurts. And while I love to discuss politics and issues of the day, I have to often wait until someone says it better than me, because honestly, there are times when I’m so mad, I can’t think straight. Enough about that.

Since I last blogged- I have had an injured horse and filled my barn with another horse! Yay me!

I was very glad the horse injury wasn’t career ending, as I was just certain something terrible had happened. But it ended up just being a hoof abscess. Bad news was that I was entered in a barrel race on that horse, and we ended up not getting to run. My client had to eat her entry fee. The good news is she’ll be back in training by the middle of next week, if all goes well. This is a horse we are talking about after all. You know the saying, “the best made plans of mice and men…” well it should read “the best made plan of vets and equines…”

And I’ve all of a sudden gotten a barrage of calls for riding lessons and horse training. Where were you guys this winter? HUH!?! Now I’m full to the brim and really in need of cutting back my office hours- too bad it’s not enough to replace all my office income!

And while I’m at it, I’m really tired of hearing about immigration. There’s legal and illegal immigration. And if you’re here illegally, and all your family is not, too bad, so sad, I’m sorry, but I don’t feel for you. YOU BROKE OUR LAWS to get here. You are a criminal. Go back from whence you came.

This whole thing is interesting.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0407/3684.html

From ABC News:

April 24, 2007— The mayor of New York City hopes a proposed tax on commuters will reduce congestion and help make the city greener, but it’s the loss of green in commuters’ wallets that has some drivers and their representatives worried.

In an ambitious speech made this weekend to mark Earth Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined 127 proposed environmental projects for the city’s transit, water and energy sectors. But the proposal that’s surely the most controversial would impose a tax on motorists when they drive through the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan.

Under the three-year pilot program, which is similar to projects in London, Stockholm and Singapore, motorists would be charged $8, and trucks $21, to enter Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays during business hours.

City officials said the “congestion charge” would reduce traffic and pollution, and the money collected — an estimated $400 million in the first year — will go toward public transit projects.

“Let’s face up to the fact that our population growth is putting our city on a collision course with the environment, which itself is growing more unstable and uncertain,” Bloomberg said.

But commuters and politicians said the toll, collected electronically and without the use of tollbooths, penalizes drivers from the outer boroughs and suburbs, and ignores other measures that could reduce congestion.

Full Story: Here.

Ok. Now. I’ve been on my global warming rants before but this is the first that I’ve heard about what I’ve thought was really going on- It’s another reason to tax, and have more government control. And are we really that jaded as to think that the entire $400 million in revenue will actually go to public transportation? OMG!

I am about to go POSTAL.

If I hear about global warming once more, I will scream. People!!! The earth is not heating up. You’re supposed to be able to *feel* global warming in the winter. Have you been outside lately? It’s effing cold out there. Scientists can’t even come to consensus. And data doesn’t go back far enough to say that it’s been caused by humans. Besides the fact that it’s cold, global warming is really nothing more than politcal propoganda to get people to depend on and need the government to fix things (and I think too, it’s forced on us by anti-capitalists, but that’s a discussion for another day!). Frankly, the government *fixes* too much as it is. Additionally, I figure that since God is in control of the universe, I need not worry about it. Oh, but I forget. Those that tell us that we are destroying the universe are most likely secularists. Right? And why is global warming all America’s fault? Have these *politicians* and *scientists* (read secularists) not been in other countries to see the pollution in other parts of the world?

I don’t want to hear it about this subject anymore. Our lives are not doom and gloom. I don’t need the government to tell me that my SUV (and my truck) are killing polar bears. BTW- that was staged. I don’t want to have to see ads on my TV- that say we are killing *mother earth* and please, go to www.fightglobalwarming.com. I’m done. Finished. I love my friends that read my blog and don’t take this the wrong way, but if you buy into all the BS you need a dose of common sense. And reality.