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LaHood Gives the Green Light (Secretary of Transportation: Get us out of our cars)
American Spectator ^ | April 19, 2010 | Matt Purple

Posted on 04/19/2010 6:46:15 AM PDT by IbJensen

At a National Press Club event last year, a panel moderator decided to quiz Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on his department's policy. "Some in the highway-supporters motorist groups have been concerned by your livability initiative," he said. "Is this an effort to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars?"

"It is a way to coerce people out of their cars," answered LaHood, with a blunt frankness rare for a politician.

These days, the Department of Transportation is sticking its nose into everyone's lives. DOT has teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development to create the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Their actual purpose is somewhat foggy and loaded with Orwellian language -- something about creating more "livable" and "healthy" environments. As transportation goes, that means creating more "choices" for commuters: the choice to leave your car at home and take the train, for example. Or ride your bike. Or walk.

It's an alarming fact that's eluded even many conservative commentators: The core of the president's progressive agenda is to fundamentally change in the way we move from one point to another.

American transportation is dominated by the car. According to a USA Today study, 91% of Americans drive to work. Another study by Experian Automotive found that an American household has an average of 2.28 cars in the garage. That's a dire crisis for a president who thinks the entire economy should "go green." With cap-and-trade having gone rigor mortis in Congress, the Obama Administration needed easier ways to create serious environmental change.

Enter the Department of Transportation.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: dot
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What is a country to do when the people in charge are out of their collective rockers? There must be a way to rein these whackos in, but when the entire executive branch and a good portion of the legislative branch (along with 4-5 of the Supremes) are in lockstep as they merrily march the country off the cliff -- what do the rest of us do?

There should be (in addition to treason) a way to remove people from office for insanity or for ruining the country. When can we throw people in jail for their abuse of the country?

1 posted on 04/19/2010 6:46:15 AM PDT by IbJensen
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To: IbJensen

Is Ray the Hood going to coerce truckers out of their trucks, too? and bring in our food supplies by ox cart?


2 posted on 04/19/2010 6:50:51 AM PDT by silverleaf (Karl Marx was NOT one of America's Founding Fathers)
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To: IbJensen

Feds vs. USA Government against the people..For the government and by the government...Disgusting.


3 posted on 04/19/2010 6:56:17 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (i)
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To: IbJensen
The core of the president's progressive agenda is to fundamentally change in the way we move from one point to another.

Control, control, control. If the government controls your personal mobility, your access to health care, and maybe even requires you to get a license to sell your house through cap-and-trade, what else is left in the way of freedom? NOTHING!

4 posted on 04/19/2010 6:56:47 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: IbJensen
ray laHOOD, Vichy Republican, 0bama Cabinet USDOT, Chicago-way ...
5 posted on 04/19/2010 6:58:11 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Rummyfan

AGENDA 21


6 posted on 04/19/2010 6:58:20 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Should people be questioning their government? Yes and "Where's the birth certificate?")
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To: Servant of the Cross

Ray LaHOOD
7 posted on 04/19/2010 7:00:00 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: B4Ranch

I’m thinking Agenda 21 may be behind the drive to evacuate Michigan.


8 posted on 04/19/2010 7:00:11 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: IbJensen
""It is a way to coerce people out of their cars," answered LaHood"

And how did LaHood arrive for the press conference...by horseback?

Let's see now, from the people Washington wants:

Our cars;
Our manufacturing base;
Our income (at least 75% of it in taxes);
Our 401K and retirement funds;
Our healthcare;
Our elderly;
Our jobs;
Our childrens future;
Our future;
Our productivity;
Our salary limits;
Our deficits;
Our homes;
Our Land;
Our obedience;
Our silence;
Our sovereignty;
Our National defenses;
Our Natural Resources;
Our peace;
Our security;
Our guns;
Our freedom of choice;
Our Constitution;

But the only things they need to get all that is:

Our cowardice;
Our complacency;
Our compliance;
and

OUR VOTES!


But what we need to give them is...

our middle finger.
9 posted on 04/19/2010 7:10:22 AM PDT by FrankR (Those of us who love AMERICA far outnumber those who love obama - your choice.)
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To: IbJensen

.
Someone needs to remind Mr. Hodd that he is OUR servant and not the other way around.

Americans want to drive — his job is to make it easier for us to drive.


10 posted on 04/19/2010 7:13:49 AM PDT by Touch Not the Cat (Where is the light? Wonder if it's weeping somewhere...)
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To: IbJensen

Of course starting with the PROFITABLE Toyota Motor Corporation.

Toyota and the Union-Backed, Government-Led Witch Hunt

http://biggovernment.com/brjohnson/2010/02/17/toyota-and-the-union-backed-government-led-witch-hunt/


11 posted on 04/19/2010 7:22:53 AM PDT by aSeattleConservative
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To: Touch Not the Cat
Americans want to drive — his job is to make it easier for us to driveUBCONSTITUTIONAL.

Unless someone can show me in the Constitution where the fedgov is specifically granted the power to regulate modes of transportation.

12 posted on 04/19/2010 7:23:14 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: Repeat Offender; Touch Not the Cat
Should be....

Americans want to drive — his job is to make it easier for us to driveUNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Unless someone can show me in the Constitution where the fedgov is specifically granted the power to regulate modes of transportation.

13 posted on 04/19/2010 7:24:57 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: IbJensen

Considering some metropolitan areas have been forced to stop public transportation due to funding issues, this is going to hurt more people than they can imagine. Not that Obama cares.


14 posted on 04/19/2010 7:40:18 AM PDT by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the chariot wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: IbJensen

By the way, this also goes to show how ignorant the politicians are in not grasping that all of America is a metropolis.


15 posted on 04/19/2010 7:40:49 AM PDT by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the chariot wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: IbJensen
....Guess the Hood didn't get the 0bambi memo...

since we are full steam ahead building roads, bridges and infrastructure to get unemployment down and the economy turned around.

16 posted on 04/19/2010 7:51:27 AM PDT by spokeshave (They'll get my false teeth when they pry them from my sister's cold, dead mouth)
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To: All

Here’s the deal, I will get out of my car and let someone else do the driving when:

The schedule fits my life
The route goes where I want it to go
The time it takes is the same, or less than when I drive
The seats are as comfortable as the ones in my vehicles
The driver will stop when I have a hankering for a snack, or drink on the way home.
The driver will stop at all the places I need to hit on the way home and wait for me until I am finished.
The owner of said transportation will ensure that I will not be subjected to the political views/life story of someone I may find totally undesirable.
My safety is guaranteed, with a HUGE monetary settlement guaranteed, if it isn’t
The list goes on.

Until the above can be satisfied, then Mr. laHOOD can keep his green shoots and skittles, lest he get run over trying to force them on me.


17 posted on 04/19/2010 8:06:05 AM PDT by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
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To: IbJensen

sfl


18 posted on 04/19/2010 8:09:07 AM PDT by phockthis
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To: Repeat Offender

.
Good point.


19 posted on 04/19/2010 8:24:46 AM PDT by Touch Not the Cat (Where is the light? Wonder if it's weeping somewhere...)
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To: IbJensen

yet more evidence why the Republicans need a formal mechanism for drumming people out of the party. This guy needs to be one step behind Lindsay Graham and the Maine Sisters.


20 posted on 04/19/2010 8:34:15 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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