(The President’s new campaign slogan, rolled out this week to much fanfare. You can imagine how the Right is going to doctor this one up.)

Morning. I am not back from the astonishing freedom of the road, where I was complete Captain of my destination (and, perhaps, Destiny.) According to the messages from my body, I have been bludgeoned physically. Mentally, I am now back in the hermitically-sealed bubble of the Beltway, and I am having a hard time transitioning from real life to the one here in the capital. Plus, the President’s re-election slogan has been bugging me since I first heard it.

I have chuckled with amusement that the millionaire Chief Executive (how exactly did he pay for Harvard and get all that money as a community organizer or a state representative? Book royalties? Hah!).

“Forward” is the one-word phrase for the campaign that replaces “Change.” At least I can get onboard with the truthiness of the latter- and I imagine the tone-deaf moron who suggested the former word thought he was dealing with an electorate who does not remember the rich association of the word with radical- no, Communist- politics.

I could rant on about that, but either way you look at it, the slogan is remarkable. It is either a colossal mistake, or one of the weirdest events in recent politics- a politician who is honest about what he is up to.  “Forward” is a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism. In 1905, jolly Vlad Lenin called his party’s newspaper “Vpered,” the Russian word for “forward.” Stalin used it later in his cult of the personality. It is truly an evocative word.

I need to talk to Svetlana down at the fence line at the farm and ensure that is an accurate translation. She is wonderful, and agrees with me in the most sincere manner that having a dacha in the country is only prudent, given the times.

With an exclamation mark behind it, “Forward!” is a call for the vanguard party of the proletariat to advance past capitalism and enter into the Worker’s Paradise. In fairness, I should note that “Forward” is also the state motto of Wisconsin, and many say that Republican Governor Scott Walker thus is a fellow traveler, based on the logical association.

I would say this: Walker did not get to pick the state motto, and the motto dates to 1851. The entire bizarre recall confrontation is about rolling back the “forward” accomplishments of progressive Wisconsin Governor and Senator Robert Marion “Fighting Bob” La Follette. Now there was a forward guy- but when he urged his progressive movement to move forward, he knew exactly what he meant.

(Senator “Fighting Bob” La Follette. I really like this portrait. I may grow my hair out.)

But I am so tired of politics. We are moving forward on so many things whether we like it or not.

No one represents fiscal sanity and civil liberties except Loony Ron Paul- all the rest of them are just recycled business as usual, with either a lot more or a little less intrusion on our ordinary lives. Some of this crap just comes out of left field, and you know some busy lobbyist has been working hard behind the velvet curtains.

Here is one for you: I just read an alarming piece that described a Senate provision in the Transportation Bill- Senate 1813, or, the “Moving Ahead for Progress-21 (MAP-21) Act.” It is for bridges and highways, and has the dreaded words “and for other purposes” in the title. Those are the ones that lard earmarks into the strange omnibus bills that the Hill has been producing for years- vast things, with thousands of pages no one has read and all sorts of little surprises.

You can read the whole thing online, if you have no life, and it is sponsored by noted progressive legislator Senator Barbara Boxer:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s1813/text

I dealt with her staff when I worked on the Hill years ago, and while I would not say that the Senator and her people are deranged, but they are certainly breathing air that is more rarified than the one I am accustomed to.

The “other provisions” line appears in Senate Bill 1813. You would think it would set off alarm bells, but it has not. The other provisions include mandatory installation of Vehicle Event Data Recorders (VEDRs) in all passenger vehicles.

That is the equivalent of the Black Boxes in civil airliners, and like every other casual assault on our liberties, this one comes with some impressive protection for our personal information. Naturally, VEDRs would be hooked to the vehicle navigation systems and have connections to off-board data networks (think about the “OnStar” system) and installation is mandatory.

That provision is on Page 1,068 of the Bill, starting with the 2015 model year. The Bill says the data recorded remains the property of the owner, except when the government decides it is not.

Or your insurance company. One of them- the Progressive One with that crazy lady who is always getting you the best deals- is up front about pricing policies based not on the official record of compliance with the rules of the road, but by onboard monitoring of how you drive.

(Flo from Progressive Insurance will go forward with you, adjusting your rates by the way you drive in real time. Photo Progressive Insurance.)

That is to say, Law Enforcement, should it have a desire, could get a court order (or in my line of work, a “National Security Letter,” which is much easier) and then have complete real-time access to your location, speed and driving habits.

A case disturbingly similar to this just hit the Supreme Court. You may recall that Antoine Jones, a defendant in a cocaine distribution case, argued that police should have obtained a warrant before attaching a GPS device to his Grand Cherokee to monitor his movements. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion for a unanimous court finding that the police conduct was an unconstitutional search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

The case was United States v. Jones, and Antoine won, big time, with the Progressive justices joining the traditional conservative block of Roberts, Thomas and Alito.

“It is important to be clear about what occurred in this case,” Scalia said. “The government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information. We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered a ‘search’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was adopted.”

Scalia said Fourth Amendment jurisprudence was tied to the common law tort of trespass, at least until technology began to morph the technical capabilities of the National Security State for monitoring its citizens in the last few decades.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that a search occurs “at a minimum” when the government physically intrudes on a constitutionally protected area- which includes Antoine’s Cherokee. Even in the absence of a trespass, she said, the Fourth Amendment is implicated when there is a violation of a suspect’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

Senator Boxer’s provision is going to have the GPS tracker already installed in your car, hooked up the event recorder. It will be illegal to disable the device. There is so much that pisses me off about where this “forward” bullshit is going. Another step- and some Law Enforcement officer could get a court order to monitor your speed on the PA or Ohio Turnpike.

In the interest of safety, mind you, like that voracious Cop at the border to Ogemaw County. For your own good, of course. Like all those other speed traps- it is not revenue, it is safety.

I saw something odd on I-270 the other day, stuck in the Never-land of gridlock, still miles north of the Imperial City.

It was in the construction belt north of where the two-lane intestate turns into three lanes to snarl into the Capital. In the northbound lanes, a vehicle was parked behind some of the ubiquitous Jersey barriers.

I saw a flash of white light, which indicated that an automated ticketing system had been deployed to bag speeders. I had never seen a mobile unit before; they are common at intersections here in the urban environment. One of coworkers has a continuing problem with an auto-ticket location where I-495 peters out into Pennsylvania Avenue- a four-lane highway were the legal speed drops, for no particular reason, from 65 to 45 over the course of a couple hundred yards.

Senator Boxer’s Senate Bill seems to provide protection to vehicle owners and their data, but this is just one more step in giving the government real-time information on where we go, how fast we get there, and even the ability (like OnStar) to disable the vehicle remotely.

I want one of these devices why?

It will be mandatory in 2015. I may have to think about a new car now, or hang on to the old ones I have and flog them longer. I wonder what else we will have imposed on us through the miracles of technology? You could contact your local idiot in the House of Representatives and comment- the House has not got around to passing its own version of the Transportation Bill, and may take up the Senate version. Or just let the “and for other things” provision of the Bill make you partner up with the government behind the wheel.

It is all about safety, right?

Oh well. “Forward!”

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com