Friends, The following excerpt is from an official government website, taken from a letter to Congress from the Secretary of the Department of Transportation. It is several pages long, mostly talking about 'improving safety'. Buried down in the fine print is a single paragraph about user charges. ___________________________________ Original source URL: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/transletterhastert.htm ³Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003" (SAFETEA). Reauthorization will supply the funds and the framework for investments needed to maintain and grow our vital transportation infrastructure. In addition, our proposed legislation seeks to place a central focus on transportation safety. Although we have made improvements in the rates of fatalities and injuries on our highways, the total numbers remain intolerable, and they are rising. Every year, nearly 43,000 people lose their lives on our highways and roads. Families are destroyed and promise is lost. ...Allow States to establish user charges on Federal-aid highways, including the Interstate System, if certain conditions are satisfied. ___________________________________ I looked that up just to make sure 'infowars' was for real. Their article is below. rkm ___________________________________ Original source URL: http://infowars.com/articles/ps/toll_roads_its_the_law_feds_pave_way.htm IT¹S THE LAW! FEDS PAVE THE WAY TO TOLL AND PRIVATIZE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS AS PART OF AMERICAN UNION Infowars.com | June 29, 2006 By Bob Dacy On July 29, 2005, President Bush signed a bill which permits and promotes the charging of tolls on existing and planned interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels. Before the passage of the bill, known as SAFETEA-LU, or ³Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users², it was generally illegal to charge tolls on roads built with Federal funds. What¹s more, the tolls collected will be automatic, requiring universally compatible toll transponder tags on every vehicle. SAFETEA-LU makes possible a variety of programs, all aimed at forcing Americans to pay to travel. To wit: * ³Interstate System Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Pilot Program² allows the tolling of existing interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels to fund repair of existing highways. * ³Interstate System Construction Toll Pilot Program² authorizes tolling existing facilities on the interstate system to fund new interstate highways. * ³Value Pricing Pilot (VPP) Program² allows new tolls on existing toll free facilities such as high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, tolls on new lanes added to existing highways, and electronically collected variable tolls on existing and new toll facilities. * ³Express Lanes Demonstration Program² allows tolling to finance new lanes. Automatic toll collection is REQUIRED and revenue collected may be used to provide a reasonable rate of return on PRIVATE financing, operation, and maintenance costs. * ³High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facilities, SAFETEA-LU Section 1121 (23 USC 166)² authorizes states to build high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on interstate and non-interstate facilities. Although most of these programs are experimental, the mindset they demonstrate and the precedents they intend to set will have devastating consequences on all Americans. The mindset is that Americans are lab rats in a maze, who must be tagged and tracked everywhere they go. Cockroaches control the maze. The consequences to the heretofore taken for granted freedom to travel and to individual pocketbooks are ominous. Imagine for a moment what must have been going through the minds of the six-legged elites when they thought up this diabolical scheme. The question is ³How do you destroy the national sovereignty of the United States, merge it with the rest of the western hemisphere, build the infrastructure system needed to link up the entire landmass, confiscate private property on a wholesale level, spy on everyone¹s comings and goings, and trick American suckers into paying for their own demise all in one fell swoop ? The answer: TOLL EVERYTHING! As with any diabolical plot, many problems and obstacles had to be removed in order to insure success. As the Wicked Witch of the West once said, ³The question is `how to do it`. These things must be done delicately, or you¹ll hurt the spell². The first obstacle is that it is generally illegal to toll federally funded roads. No problemŠjust sneak section 1604 into a telephone book sized highway bill and no one will notice. Everyone knows Congressmen and Senators do not actually read the bills they vote on. How do you get the super rich elites to go along with the plan? SimpleŠgive them a piece of the action. Construction contracts will go to selected insiders and toll facilities will be given to private investors. We will call it ³public-private partnership². But wait! State by state, the local politicians must be persuaded to pass legislation to further the scheme. How to do it? Tell the contractors to write the necessary legislation, line the campaign coffers of key legislators, convince the Governor of each state that it was his idea via more campaign contributions, and sneak the bills through the state legislatures when nobody is looking. After all, state representatives do not read the bills they vote on either. Yet another requirement in order to pull this off is to keep the unwashed masses in the dark It would not do to have the sheep to find out they are about to be shorn. So how do you keep the press quiet? No problemŠwe control the press! The watchdog will remain asleep, and no one will find out until it is a done deal. Besides, when the cretins begin to realize what is going on, they will complain to their local transportation officials and wonder why no one is listening. Just don¹t let the slaves know that the ³massa² barking the orders resides in New York City at the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). But the Constitution stands in the way of the plot. What to do about the pesky supreme law of the land which prohibits the taking of private land and handing it over to other private entities? How fortunate that the globalist infested Supreme Court, in June of 2005, legislated from the bench by re-writing the takings clause of the 5th Amendment in Kelo vs. City of New London. Now the Supremes say it is okay to force people to sell their land to private developers who promise a kickback to the government, we are free to proceed with the tolling of America. Still one more problem must be overcome. We must propagandize transportation officials into believing this is a great idea so they can sell it to private investors and politicos nationwide. ADVERTISING is the key. We will get the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to put up a website called www.innovativefinance.org. It will be a veritable ³how to² encyclopedia of fascism, but we will call it ³public-private partnership² because ³fascism² does not roll so well off of the tongue. Multi-millionaire highway contractors and local politicians will be able to swill at the federal trough to their hearts content. It will be a win-win setup for everyone except regular Americans, who are just being set up. This malicious plan is being implemented all across America. Such plots survive and thrive only in the dark. It is time to turn on the lights and watch the cockroaches run. In Texas, pro-toll politicians have been replaced with anti-toll newcomers. This trend must continue, and spread like a wildfire of truth throughout the country. The alarm clock is ringing. Wake up. Get up. Open your eyes. Get out the roach spray. Fumigate your house. Go wake up your neighbors. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
