Finally, some good news for Detroit.  Ford Motor Company sold 155,954 vehicles in May.   That’s up 20% from April, and the highest number since July of last year.

The sales figures seem to support a May Rasmussen poll which indicated that “51% of all Americans say they are more likely to buy a car from Ford because it did not take bailout funding from the government.”  The findings also revealed that 61% believe Ford is the car company with the best chance of surviving the industry’s current woes.

There’s still a long way to go, however, and there’s no doubt that the Dearborn based company is still hurting.  Overall sales are still down compared to those of one year ago. 

Caveats aside, the May numbers are big news – the best they’ve been in ten months. Ford is looking to increase its momentum with a new “Drive The Ford Difference” incentive, coupled with a 25,000 unit production ramp-up this fall.

Sadly, the same poll indicated that 58% of Americans believe that the government will pass laws favoring GM and Chrysler, now that they are partial owners of the two companies.

They’d be wise not to.  If people are already reluctant to buy cars from a company that’s taken federal funds, just wait until the government tries to pass legislation forcing them into one.

-Robert Laurie

Yesterday, two Florida representatives introduced a bill which  “Urges Congress to honor provisions of U. S. Constitution & U. S. Supreme Court case law which limit scope & exercise of federal power.”   It’s another declaration of state sovereignty, and they are the 37th State to introduce such a measure. 

Similar bills have already been ratified in 7 states.  They are:  Louisiana, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Idaho and Tennessee

3 States have rejected similar measures, and they are pending in the remaining 27.

As the United States continues its march away from the concept of a republic, towards an all powerful central government, expect more states to resist control.  Already, Texas and Montana are pushing back against the federal government’s  intrastate commerce interference, via firearms law.  Tennesee is expected to join them soon. 

For more information about states exerting their rights as delineated in the tenth amendment, please visit http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/

-Robert Laurie

Enjoy your freedom while you can folks, because the University of Iowa is currently field testing hardware for a system that will all but eliminate it.

It’s an Orwellian plan known as a by-the-mile road tax, and it’s allegedly designed to replace current gas taxes.  The tax works by tracking your vehicle’s every movement via GPS satellites.  Information regarding where, when, and how far you drive would be uploaded to government computers, and they would generate a tax bill based on the data.   

In April, a 15 member government body, dubbed the  National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, ended a two year study by unanimously reccomending the by the mile system.  They called a one or two cent per-mile tax “the best path forward,” saying that it would ensure revenue streams to highway projects. 

The group’s chairman, Robert Atkinson, went a step further, claiming “If you’re committed to the system being improved then it was a no-brainer.”

Obviously, ”the system” he’s referring to has nothing to do with a free and open society, since the complete and utter horror of such a tax is almost too great to fathom.

First of all, if ANYONE in the government believes that big brother has the right to track every US citizen’s movements, they should immediately be removed from their position.  There is no way that the feds have ANY right to know where I am at all times.

Secondly, the freedom to go where we want, when we want is so basic that the mind reels at the insidious stupidity it would take to limit it.  What would be the penalty for a failure to pay this evil little tax?  Will they remotely shut off my car?  Do I go to some sort of traveller’s jail?

Finally, and far less importantly, even if we feel like letting the feds take away our freedom, we know they’ll never eliminate the gas tax.  They’ll claim that by-the-mile taxes will end the need for taxation at the pump, wait a few years, and reinstate it.  We’ve been burned this way too many times to remember.   

Really, though, the money’s not the issue here.   This one’s a freedom-destroyer, pure and simple.  Clearly, the measure would be wildly unpopular, but that only matters in a system where politicians feel that they have to answer for their actions.  More and more, it feels as though we no longer have that.  With their current majorities in Congress, the Dems could have this on Obama’s desk at any moment.

We can only hope that somewhere, behind all that rhetoric, there are still a few people in Washington who actually remember what “freedom” is supposed to mean. 

-Robert Laurie