How close are we to tracking autos and taxing mileage ? Closer than you know

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/governme...veillance.html

Government Prepares the Public for Cradle to Grave Surveillance

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
February 28, 2009

Last week Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea of a mileage tax. “The idea — which involves tracking drivers through Global Positioning System (GPS) units in their cars — is gaining support in some states as a way of making up for a shortfall in highway funding,” reports CNN.

It didn’t take long for Obama to reject the idea — at least for now. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission report rolling out the mileage tax is designed not to foist this intrusive technology on the American people in the short term, but rather get them acclimated to the idea of being tracked and taxed.

“The White House was somewhat premature,” commission Chairman Robert Atkinson told Bloomberg. “It’s absolutely critical that we look at it. The members of Congress that are committed to a robust transportation system are certainly very aware of the risks of that system not having as much money as it needs because of the stated policy of the Obama administration.” According to Atkinson and the panel, the so-called stimulus bill won’t be sufficient to meet highway-funding needs and financing programs in partnership with private companies “can play an important supplementary role.”

Private companies such as defense contractor Lockheed-Martin currently manufacture and profit from red light cameras now going in around the country. Lockheed-Martin not only manufactures the cameras, it also takes a cut from fines issued to red light violators.

“Not only has the sheer number of tickets issued and money reaped increased, but the type of photo enforcement and surveillance the government uses has also vastly increased,” notes the National Motorists Association. “There are red light cameras, speeding cameras, railroad crossing cameras, and most recently face identification cameras. Tampa Bay, Florida is now scanning the faces of pedestrians on the street to compare them to their database of criminals. The Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles is investing in a camera system that will map the face of anyone with a driver’s license thus creating a photo database of the vast majority of their population. How long until the system used in Colorado is married to the system used in Florida?”

Adding GPS tracking to this emerging surveillance network would be a control freak’s wish come true. Obama’s supposed rejection of the GPS track and tax idea is a public relations trick. In fact, the global elite have long planned to impose a high-tech surveillance and control grid on humanity.

At approximately the same time we were told Obama rejected the GPS track and tax idea, CFR member and current DHS boss Janet Napolitano was rolling out the idea of “enhanced driver’s licenses,” that is to say RFID national ID cards.

“Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government rallies simply by walking through the assembly,” writes Bob Unruh for WorldNetDaily.