New pay-per-mile scheme would boost taxes 250 percent

Washington Secrets  "An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study."
..."An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study."

Transportation Secretary Considers Pay-Per-Mile Tax  "Meanwhile, the only real argument against raising the tax on gas (for which demand is quite inelastic) is political cowardice. La Hood might consider the VMT scheme “thinking outside the box,” but an enormous infrastructure of GPS chip makers, monitors, maintenance, and assessors (not to mention the possibility of privacy intrusions, a notion La Hood airly(sp) dismisses) is hardly a streamlined, efficient approach to the problem."

The New Way to Tax: Pay Per Mile Driven  Let us count the ways:
"There is also the idea of monitoring how many miles are driven using transponders on all cars and trucks. This idea pits benefit of having a more accurate read on the mileage of each vehicle against concerns the state will be able to monitor where you have driven your car. Who would have access to that information? Is that too much of 'big brother' tracking our lives?
"There are still more questions than answers when it comes to the VMT, but make no mistake: The idea is gaining steam and coming to a state near you."
 

Tyrannysaurus rex; today's Obama press conference

Legal Insurrection  "Completely unrelated to that, we didn’t watch the Obama press conference today.
"Via Common Cents, you can watch it for me:".... 

"Mark Levin apparently watched it.  Protein Wisdom has the transcript of Levin’s comments.  Here’s the video:" 

Nile Gardiner; Mark Levin is right: Obama is an imperial president  "It was the clearest signal yet from the White House that Obama’s second term in office will be deeply arrogant in tone, dismissive of any criticism, contemptuous of Congress, and averse to political compromise."

...."Today’s defiant White House press conference does not bode well for Obama’s second term. The president’s first four years were an economic disaster. Expect more of the same, and even worse, in the next four."  (Emphasis added.)

Yid With Lid; Obama Still in Campaign Lying Mode  "Then the president threw down the gauntlet at the foot of the GOP:"....
 "Lets not forget what a rookie Senator said in 2006 when he voted against the raising of the debt ceiling:"

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (In 2006): "Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America's debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is 'trillion' with a 'T.' That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President's budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion."

 

Obama Scaring The Seniors - There He Goes Again

JustOneMinute

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama demanded on Monday that lawmakers raise the nation's $16.4 trillion federal debt limit quickly, warning that "Social Security benefits and veterans' checks will be delayed" if they don't and cautioning Republicans not to insist on cuts to government spending in exchange."

The Pinocchio Test

"The president obviously does not want to show all of his cards in this high-stakes game of poker. Raising the specter of not issuing Social Security checks is designed to raise pressure on Republicans, but could also cause angst among the elderly.

 "At this point the answer is unclear but we become suspicious when politicians begin to use “may,” rather than speak in definitive sentences. If Treasury has the ability to keep paying Social Security benefits, even if the debt limit is reached, the Obama administration should make that clear. The Treasury Department’s new statement begins to add some clarity. We will keep watching how the president speaks about this issue."

 

White House to Paul Ryan: Yeah, about that budget deadline… "Last week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan queried the White House on whether they had any intention of getting him a budget proposal in a timely fashion: “Given the critical importance of addressing our nation’s fiscal problems, I am writing to ask whether the President will submit his budget request this year on or before February 4 as required by law… If the Administration does not plan to meet the statutory deadline, when do you anticipate the request being made?” " 

CBS News’ Major Garrett To Obama: Hey, You Know You Voted Against Raising The Debt Ceiling In 2006, Right?…

Weasel Zippers  "Unsurprisingly, Obama can’t offer up a reasonable explanation as to why it was ok to vote against it in 2006 and not in 2013."

Timeline of today's Obama press conference

CBS News correspondent Major Garrett notes to Obama that there are often debates on the debt ceiling. As a senator, Obama even once voted against the raising of the debt ceiling. Obama says he won't have a conversation "every month or every three months conversation about whether or not we pay our bill

Obama and Hagel

Obama's Pentagon begins campaign to bust ‘myths’ about nominee Hagel    "The papers — one of which is titled “Chuck Hagel’s Record: Myths and Facts” — kick off what is expected to be a strong lobbying effort by the Obama administration and liberal groups to win Mr. Hagel’s confirmation by the Senate Armed Services Committee and then the full Senate."

Ben Stein; Dropping the Hagel Bomb  This and the previous via Lucianne  ...."President Obama has not changed his views on Israel since his first speech at the Democrat convention in 2004, when he made it clear that his sympathies in the Middle East lay with the Palestinians. In a way, you have to admire his consistency. Of course, he has to pay lip service to Israel when he visits Miami Beach, but how he must laugh at the audiences that applaud him."

Mark Steyn; Obamacare’s Other Shoe  "Just to be clear: I disagree with Hagel on Israel, on Iran, and on most everything else. But my colleagues on the right are in denial if they don’t think there are some very basic questions that need to be asked about the too-big-to-fail Department of Defense. Obama would like the U.S. military to do less. Some of us would like it to do more with less — more nimbly, more artfully. But, if the national-security establishment won’t acknowledge there’s even a problem, they’re unlikely to like the solutions imposed by others. “Petty” and “spiteful”? No. Obamacare’s other shoe."

Barry Rubin; Why Obama's Foreign Policy Doesn't Make Sense

Yid With Lid  "In effect, the Obama argument is this: In the past, the United States has been a bully. It has supported bad governments for the people living in those countries. Now, however everything is going to be different. We are going to support bad governments that not only hurt the people in those countries but also hurt U.S. interests! And we are going to give such radical, dictatorial-oriented forces preference over helping moderates, liberals, and pragmatic reformers!"

 Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.

 

Crusader Rabbit said this, not me. However...

"Excuse me while I vomit……. "  "‘A new video game featuring a black alien female superhero delivered to Earth to fight global warming is about to hit the market thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Obama administration. The National Endowment for the Arts is funding the Spelman College of Atlanta, Ga.’s multi-episode game called “HERadventure.” In the grant announcement made last year, the NEA said the story “focuses on a young female superhero sent to Earth to save her own planet from devastation because of climate changes caused by social issues impacting women and girls.”
"The game is set to debut on March 8 on International Women’s Day.’ "

From Moonbattery: HERadventure: Your Tax Dollar at Play  The article quotes from the Spelman College site:

The backstory of HERadventure begins when HER, a warrior woman and inhabitant of Earth’s sister planet, comes to Earth to investigate why it is causing her native planet to freeze and slowly die. HER discovers that the auras of Earth’s women are diminishing. Consequently, Earth and other parts of the universe are negatively impacted. HER enlists a corps of “superheroes in training” (HERadventure users) to take meaningful action and offer solutions to issues such as negative self-esteem, discrimination, eating disorders, and depression, which are causing women’s auras to suffer. These issues are dealt with through visual metaphors in a 3-D environment. HERadventure users “teleport” through various levels of the gaming experience by using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, with a goal of helping the superhero save her planet and ultimately serve as catalysts for positive change in the virtual and real world.

Obama voters.

Neal Boortz: I'm really gonna miss the guy

This is Neal Boortz's final week on the air and his insights will be missed by me. Boortz had a lawyer's skill at taking a complex issue and boiling it down so even I can understand the concepts and principles as you will, hopefully see in these post excerpts from just today: 

(I believe even Obama voters and the first OJ jury can grasp Mr. Boortz's points. Naaaaah)

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You  "When the country was gearing up to re-elect Barack Obama (don’t say I didn’t warn you!), I warned you that a second term of Dear Ruler would bring about a few things … that there were going to be a few focuses for his second term:"....
"Whatever way the White House could find to thank the labor unions for their support, they would exploit in Obama’s second term.  We are already seeing the beginning signs of that in the second term via the National Labor Relations Board.
"Then there is climate change."....

"President Obama"  "If I had it my way, the two words would never be uttered in the same sentence.  I still have enough respect for the Office of the Presidency to not call the current occupant of the White House, President Obama.
"Apparently this doesn’t sit well with certain liberals like MSNBC’s Toure.  Racially-chipped people like him consider calling Obama just “Obama” without the “President” to be an outrage."....

Rectal-Cranial Inversion Moment of the Day "The truth is that deficit reduction is not a worthy goal to Obama because he doesn’t know how to accomplish it.  He CAN’T accomplish it by increasing the size and scope of our government, as he has already done and will continue to do.  Even with his precious tax increases, it won’t make a dent in our deficit because our government simply spends too much.  Yes, we could grow our way out of this mess, but Obama doesn’t know how to do that either!  Taxing the producers, the job creators and more government spending isn’t exactly a recipe for economic growth. "

Blame .. Talk Radio!  "So now … the progs are after the Second Amendment.  Make no mistake, the First Amendment is also on their list, especially talk radio.  Obama has plans to destroy syndicated talk radio before this term is up.  It’s something called community advisory boards.".

Gun Show Loophole Nonsense "The fact is that a criminal who is out to kill someone is going to get a gun through whatever means they can, legally or illegally.  So why then restrict the people who seek to protect themselves from such evil?  Liberals say it is the government’s job to protect you from such evil.  But when your house is being broken into and you have a predator aiming a gun at you or your family, the government isn’t there to disarm the thug.  That is your life on the line … and don’t let these liberals convince you that you don’t have an "unalienable right” to protect it."

At This Rate ... Boortz asks: "The truth is that I believe America is on the decline and that our best days are behind us.  Here are a few reasons as to why …

Logicology

Read more here, but his list ends with this:

• An electorate ignorant enough to re-elect Barack Obama

"If you can read those and then honestly tell me that we can overcome this, then I want to know who is going to do it and how it is going to be done.  Can’t think of anything or anyone, can you?"

Ready To Rule From Day One  " It is said that no decision is made without input from Valerie Jarrett.  As she was heading Obama’s transition team Jarrett famously said:  “We will be ready to rule from day one.”  Not “lead” …. RULE.  Funny..."