Plans for tracking all U.S. vehicles

This is almost funny, considering just a couple of days ago, in a post about Britain monitoring every car with cameras, I said:

"...but I suspect that with the growing use of OnStar-type GPS systems built into new vehicles, such wide-spread use of street cams like Britons', may not even be necessary here to keep us under surveillance. I'm sure that if the government wants, it can simply tap into the satellite signals,...."

Well they will be using GPS, but the excuse is to create a new method of charging road tolls based on the time of day.

"The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go. So far, Washington state and Oregon have received fat federal checks to figure out how to levy these "mileage-based road user fees."

"Now electronic tracking and taxing may be coming to a DMV near you. The Office of Transportation Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million. A spokeswoman on Friday said the office is "shooting for the end of the year" for the announcement, and more money is expected for GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking efforts."

"Airlines and hotels have long charged less for off-peak use. Toll roads would be more efficient--in particular, less congested--if they could follow the same model and charge virtually nothing in the middle of the night but high prices during rush hour."

"That price structure would encourage drivers to take public transportation, use alternate routes, or leave earlier or later in the day."

Hmm, now you just know that if people do find ways to avoid or reduce their "fees", that means the states have to continually raise the "tax" on those forced to drive during peak hours, to compensate for the loss in revenue from the others. Even though this scheme may sound reasonable at first, this is the government we're talking about here, and they do nothing to benefit us, more than themselves, so something just doesn't smell right about all this. Somehow, either the government feels they can profit more than they do now, or some corporate interest is pushing for this to profit from in some way. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

P.S. don't think it hasn't occured to me that this "tax" may only be a cover story, and the real reason is to allow the government to monitor more of our daily activity, for our Great Crusade against those fiendish Terrorists, which, in itself, is a way to keep us under tighter control.