Ray LaHood: Obama's Power-Mad Cell Phone Czar

Creators Syndicate ^ | November 19, 2010 | Michelle Malkin

[Scanian]

America is in debt past its eyeballs. Unemployment remains stuck near double digits. Small and large businesses, unions and insurers are clamoring for Obamacare waivers in droves. Jihadists are making a mockery of homeland security. And border chaos reigns. So, what's one of the Obama administration's top domestic policy agenda items this month? Combating distracted drivers.

What? You missed the Million Anti-Distracted Drivers Protest March on Washington and the Great Grassroots Groundswell for federal intervention on our highways and byways? Don't worry. You weren't the only one.

Making the cable TV rounds to unveil a public service announcement campaign against "epidemic" cell phone use and texting on the road, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood revealed bizarre and alarming plans on Wednesday to install devices in cars that would block a driver's ability to communicate.

"There's a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones, and we're looking at that," he threatened. LaHood -- a liberal Republican and pork-addicted Chicago crony who embodies Obama "bipartisanship" -- envisions centralized government mechanisms to shut off commuters' BlackBerries and iPhones.

And that's just the start. "We need to do a lot more if we're going to save lives," LaHood vowed, while paying obligatory lip service to encouraging "personal responsibility." Will the cell phone banners ban radios, GPS devices, makeup and fast food in cars next? All are also listed as causes of distracted driver-induced accidents.

Any death due to such reckless behavior is tragic. But by "saving lives," what cell phone czar LaHood really means is "controlling lives." There are already 30 states with laws in place regulating drivers' cell phone and/or texting habits. The District of Columbia and Guam also passed bans. The safety benefits of such laws are in dispute.

[ari-freedom]

This would kill Google nav in smartphones. Stop nannying.

[bronxville]

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones, and we’re looking at that,” he threatened...

They already have the technology made already and it’s got a tracking device within... No, I’m not crazy or a kook. They’ve been doing this globally and with a conglomerate - forget the name.

[Impy]

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones, and we’re looking at that,” he threatened. “

Blatantly unconstitutional statist insanity from our least favorite combine DIABLO scumbag Ray LaHood.

[Irenic]

If they screw with the cellphones and the FCC screws with the net...people will HATE Obama and the democrats.

The youth vote they’ve farmed will be toast.

[Impy]

Ping

[Little Pig]

They’d better have a way to distinguish between cell phones of drivers and those of passengers, as well as those that are moving and those that are stationary.

I don’t think you could disable cells of drivers from the outside without affecting the reception of everyone else. You’d have to be able to do it everywhere, from the open highway to suburban neighborhoods (for the chillrun dontcha know), and there are a lot of non-drivers in all those places who are perfectly safe to use their phones.

[Scanian]

Shoot, the old Soviet-bloc governments had jamming devices galore.

I’m quite sure some of them went on to develop the kind of freedom-destroying equipment that LaHood is looking for.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This from the very SAME government that proposes to put tracking radios in every vehicle so they know how many miles you drive, how much CO2 you put out, and can charge accordingly. I guess their jammers would exempt the spectrum for the Big Brother tracking radio.

Don’t tire pressure sensors communicate via RF, too? The WON says that tire pressure is the key to curing our addiction to foreign oil. So I guess that would have to be another spectrum exemption.

That’s going to have to be one smart jammer to avoid interfering with other Big State crap, but totally block out Personal Freedom. Maybe they can sell this as a “Jobs Bill” because it will take so many engineering hours to design the jammers.

[Erik Latranyi]

Moreover, the push for federal policing of our driving habits comes just as the federal government itself reports that the rate of teenage-related car accidents has fallen. Yes, fallen. Despite increased cell phone use, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that when the years 2004 through 2008 were compared, there was a 38 percent reduction in the number of car accidents involving 16 and 17 year olds.

So, there is no problem with mobile phones.

It is another second-hand smoke, global warming hoax meant to give gov't more control over your life.

[Rocky]

Why can’t we force the Federal Government to stick to their Constitutional powers?

D.C. needs to shrink, not expand.

[Caipirabob]

They’ll probably end up disabling pacemakers and other critical tech...This IS the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

[Scanian]

Sure...that entire regime is intoxicated with power. And Chicago lapsed Republican hack, Arab totalitarian Ray LaHood is no exception. He is a convenient tool for Hussein’s gang since they can point to him as evidence of “bipartisanship.”

All their claims an attempts to gain power over us need to be vigorously DISPUTED and CONTESTED by us. They have to learn that there will be no easy battles in their war against American freedom.

In that regard, I was rather dismayed by the feeble effort made by the right to stop the Food Bill the other day (S510). I think we can still beat it if it could be delayed until January when the conference committee with the House should be much more conservative. But it is a real threat to personal freedom and needs to be resisted!

[1_Rain_Drop]

Cell phones do as much good as they do bad.

How about getting rid of cell phones altogether? There's nothing worse than thinking your cell is in working order only to find out the gov has turned it off. Thus having a cell phone would be a false sense of security.

If they disable cell phones, what happens if one needs to call 911, what happens to the responder's cell phones?

I wish new trinkets would stop being invented. All they do is add more laws, rules and regulations. Right now we're overloaded with them!

[PalmettoMason]

Exactly!
There are eighteen enumerated powers granted to the Federal Government by the Constitution ... beyond those, the government has ZERO authority!

[ballplayer]

What about My satellite Radio? I guess they can kill two birds with one stone,Get Talk Radio and Phones out of the car