[ken21]

"[Possible Update: Robert Black, a spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, has said that the “tolls cannot be set without state approval” (Feb., 2005). Since the contract has not been finalized and released to the public, it’s difficult to see how this can be verified – but in fairness to others, I promised to include this in the my posting.]"

i hope the contract can be nullified.

i have all kinds of responses to your post, but i'll keep them few:

#12 the transponders may be what a lot of this is about. homeland security and crime prevention in a nutshell, at the expense of our constitutional rights.

the not-so-amusing thing is the leftists who supposedly hate homeland security aren't much aware of this!

[BobL]

"#12 the transponders may be what a lot of this is about. homeland security and crime prevention in a nutshell, at the expense of our constitutional rights"

Actually, I'm sure that Uncle Sam doesn't mind if we all drive around with little transponders in our cars. As I understand it, it will become standard and integrated into newer cars anyway (I doubt if we'll be able to disable them). Most of the drivers will not even know they're there, unless they drive on toll roads. But very few of the drivers will realize that these cute little transponders can be read anywhere a transmitter is set up, toll road, freeway, surface street, entrance to work, political event, protest, football game, etc. We can all be identified and entered into a database, without even knowing it. As to who can read this data - that depends on who has the transmitters and who has access to the master databases that government will own. For example, I have no doubt that the IRS will soon be able to fully re-create our movements - something very handy when checking for tax cheaters. But the list goes on...

While it's certainly understandable that the Dems would love to know where we all are, at all times, given their history with fascism and socialism, the fact that Republican toll road supporters conveniently ignore this massive invasion of privacy leads me to think that they simply haven't thought it through.