I’ve railed on and on about this in conversation, but apparently the only place I’ve mentioned it on MO was in this comment on the post about Fulton County awarding water conservation with a rate increase.

Motorists’ habits spur call for tax increases

WASHINGTON – Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren’t raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

A federal commission created by Congress to find a way to make up the growing revenue shortfall in the program that funds highway repairs and construction is talking about increasing federal gas and diesel taxes.

A roughly 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The commission will also recommend that states raise their own gasoline taxes and increase the use of toll roads.

But since the future seems to be filled with ever-increasing fuel efficiency, the long term plan apparently involves equipping all vehicles with GPS devices so that the government can charge you for how man miles you drive.

Seriously.

Via Jeff Soyer.

UPDATE: While posting at GunPundit, I realized that the GPS thing might be the diversion to keep us from looking at the tax increase.

Maj. Rick Wageman operates the virtual cockpit of an MQ-1 Predator Oct. 25 at a base in southern Afghanistan. The remote nature of the control allows the Predator to stay airborne for longer periods of time, changing pilots periodically to reduce stress and fatigue which can lead to mission failure. Major Wageman is a 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron pilot deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel Morse)

As is usually the case, click for a bigger image.

Instapundit points out an article about a family that ditched their satellite TV: You don’t need satellite TV when times get tough

After a few Google searches, James said she found a wealth of legitimate sources for TV programming online. Sites such as Hulu, Fancast, Joost, YouTube, and most major TV networks’ Web sites offer TV shows and other video content for free. Using an existing rooftop antenna, James plugged her TV into the hook-up to get more than 50 high-definition TV channels over-the-air. The cost for these HD channels: zero.

And instead of spending an extra $20 a month for HBO or any other premium movie channels, James subscribed to a $17-a-month Netflix service, which allows her to rent three movies at a time and download some movies right to her computer.

They took the exact same route that Murdoc’s family did last spring when we ditched our satellite service for six months.

We actually watched a lot of programming during the summer, including DVDs and video on demand from Netflix (which we already subscribed to), Hulu (which a commenter pointed out for us) and the online offerings at the television network web sites. We watched the Olympics online, and I think I watched more coverage than I ever have before, while also watching only events that I was interested in. How often can you score a quality+quantity double for free? However, our attempt to follow our Detroit Tigers via MLB.TV was an utter failure.

We’ve always watched a lot less television than most people we know. Cutting back even further didn’t really bother us all that much. Sure, we missed a few things that we would have liked to have seen, but overall we saved money and still watched plenty tube.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

One other thing I forgot to mention was that we also make good use of our public library’s DVD collection. Some libraries charge rental fees for DVDs, though ours doesn’t. We’ve watched a lot of documentaries and classic movies, plus old television series, this way. It’s worth checking out. (Pun unintentional but so bad I left it in…)

Just got this notice from Army Public Affairs:

Please join us this afternoon for the FINAL day of the 26th Army Science Conference. Some conference presentations are now available at www.asc2008.com.

For those of you interested in Army gaming, our afternoon begins with a 1:45 roundtable with the Army’s experts on autonomous systems – find out the latest in Army artificial intelligence and robotics!

Then stay tuned as we hear from the dynamic duo and closing ceremony keynote speakers, Dr. Joel Primack, Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Dr. Nancy Ellen Abrams – they’re discussing The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos. This is your chance at an exclusive sneak peak before their official remarks!

Listen and ask questions live at
www.blogtalkradio.com/asc-2008! You can ask questions in the chat room, dial-in, or send me your questions via e-mail at this address.

I won’t be able to listen in, but go ahead and check it out yourself if interested.

The Top Holiday Deals continue at Amazon.

I’m a bit tempted to pick up an Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop for $380. Does anyone have any experience with one of these little guys?

I continue to hope that increased online shopping will not only kill the “Black Friday” one-day sale model but will also keep me out of stores altogether. You never know what’s going to happen in those madhouses.

One of the coolest things around is GasBuddy.com. Here’s their current US price temperature map:

By way of comparison, here’s a map from the AP showing state-by-state gasoline tax (including federal tax):

There is some noticeable correlation between the two maps. The red (higher tax) states on the tax map tend to be orange or yellow (higher price) on the price map. Blue states (lower tax) on the tax map tend to be green states (lower price) on the price map. But it isn’t absolute. For instance, Arizona and New Mexico have lower taxes but higher relative prices. The same goes for Vermont and New Hampshire. On the flip side, Michigan seems to be the only state with higher taxes and lower prices right now. For which Murdoc is thankful.

Compare this price map to two previous versions posted on MO, one from June 2007 and one from November 2006. Note that the price range varies over time and green in 2006 is not the same as green in 2008.

Meanwhile: Venezuela’s Chavez calls for fix oil price

CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 25 (UPI) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said crude oil prices should be set at a fixed price in the wake of recent oil price decreases.

Chavez said that prices should be set between $80 and $100 a barrel, El Universal reported Tuesday. Prices closed Monday at less than $54 a barrel.

Chavez said that price fixing would stabilize the market and prevent the sharp spikes and declines in the petroleum market that marked the last year.

Especially the declines is what he’s thinking, I’d guess. Oil is currently uner $51, and the head of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation thinks it will go down to $40.

I would have never guessed it would drop this far. I doubt it’s going to stay for long.

I wonder if we’ll see an effort to push through gas tax increases while prices are down in an effort to get rate hikes in while they don’t seem so bad.

Thank-you.

UPDATE:

Here’s a screenshot of today’s front page at Live.com:

Korean War Veteran's Memorial on Live.com

The new front page at Live.com features images that include hotspots with links to related content if you hover over them.

UPDATE 2: Also see America’s War Stories In Honor of Veterans Day at Smithsonian Channel.

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

Army Times had a story a few weeks ago about the 3rd infantry Division’s 1st BCT upcoming mission:

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

The Einsteins at Reddit seem to have just noticed it now and are fully supportive:

• U.S. Troops In Homeland “Crowd Control” Patrols From October 1st (in complete violation of Posse Comitatus)
• US troops will patrol American streets, starting on 1 october 2008
• U.S. Troops, Just Home From Iraq, In Homeland “Crowd Control” Patrols Beginning October 1st — R.I.P. Posse Comitatus

I pointed out that there’s nothing in the story about patrols, but my comments are sure to be downvoted because instead of playing nice I’m getting all factual and everything.

Does anyone have a favorite social bookmarking-type site with a wide range of submissions that doesn’t seem to be populated mostly by teenage revolutionary wanabes?

UPDATE: Here’s a brilliant comeback to one of my comments:

And maybe they are getting ready for the “october suprise” that a few politicians have warned us about.

And I am just as sick of the anti-alarmist. The ones who have been warning have hit the nail on the head every time, including this current wall street problem, the housing market, wars, false flag operations, media lies, government deceptions and coverups.

geeze, I fear the anti-alarmist more than the alarmist.

If I could make up stuff like that and publish it, I wouldn’t have to work for a living.

I’m a little confused about the “anti-alarmist” tag. Is everyone who doesn’t get alarmed an “anti-alarmist”? Or only people who say that alarmist claims aren’t correct?

UPDATE 2: A couple more posted by the same guy seven minutes apart:

• US Combat Troops to Patrol the ‘Homeland’ Starting October 1st in Complete Violation of ‘Posse Comitatus & Insurrection Act’ for “Civil Unrest & Crowd Control” – NORTHCOM Martial Law in America!
• US Combat Troops to Patrol the ‘Homeland’ Starting October 1st in Violation of ‘Posse Comitatus’ & the ‘Insurrection Act’ for “Civil Unrest & Crowd Control” – NORTHCOM Martial Law in America!

You might think I made a mistake and posted the same one twice. I didn’t. He just apparently isn’t terribly creative other than posting crap headlines.

This sort of thing has to stop.

(more…)

Really really sucks. Sucks, as in Murdoc will probably be dropping SiteMeter from all his sites at the end of the month if this is for real sucks.

Just my opinion. It’s only after looking at it for a little bit. However, unless my browser has been hijacked and this really isn’t SiteMeter, I probably won’t be changing my opinion.

UPDATE: Murdoc will give them credit. They appear to be in the middle of a total roll-back due to negative feedback and performance issues. Though I believe that their screw-up is of monumental proportions, they wasted no time stepping back. You can’t really ask for a whole lot more.

I was a bit surprised to see that the bad feelings about the new SiteMeter were so widespread. Lex had rounded up a few links, and in the comments section here asked what I might be thinking about trying.

Well, the first traffic meter I ever used (other than the old Blogspot meter) was ExtremeTracker. That served well for quite some time, and I kept it running until just a few months ago when I removed the code from MO during some housecleaning. I also have Google’s Analytics set up and running, though I don’t often look at it. I’m not overly excited to get more involved with Google, and I’m glad that SiteMeter is rolling things back.

UPDATE 2: Even more linkage to suckery at PoliGazette.