The calculator is useless for a lot of people because it only goes back to model year 1990.

Lucky for me, I've found that I don't have to hand over 1/5 of my income to auto makers, road builders and oil companies just to have a lifestyle.

Most people in this country have been tricked into centering their lives around one or more automobiles because of pervasive marketing and because governments have been building infrastructure to accomdate little else. The result is that most of us live in hell holes. Instead of addressing that, politicians more often seek votes by telling us they will make our automobile addiction even easier to sustain.

And who could suggest factoring in the cost of wars to secure contracts in oil rich territories or the climatic destabilization coming out of your tail pipe.

Too bad the calculator is based on an untruth. Yes, Kerry spoke of raising the gas tax, but he never tried to introduce or support legislation that would've raised the gas tax by 50 cents. Cheney, on the other hand, tried to introduce legislation that would've taxed imported oil. Whether Cheney's proposal was a good idea or not, it still was an example of an actual action that he attempted to do that would've raised the price of gasoline. Kerry did, on the other hand, vote for the Clinton budget in 1993, but that was a more modest increase in the gas tax. Kerry has not proposed ANY gas tax increase in this campaign.

If we are looking at 1993, let's look at the comments from Paul Tsongas, co-chair of the Concord Coalition and the Boston Globe 50 cent quote. In 1994 Mr Tsongas, Massachusettes democrat gave Mr. Kerry a failing grade for his 1993 votes on several deficit-cutting bills. As reported:

"The report was especially galling coming from Mr. Tsongas, the former one-term liberal Democratic Massachusetts senator whose seat Mr. Kerry won in 1984 after Mr. Tsongas retired. A Kerry spokeswoman told the Boston Herald that Mr. Tsongas had engaged in "sick political gamesmanship." The Boston Globe reported that Mr. Kerry himself called the group's scorecard "irresponsible." What was Mr. Kerry's principal complaint? The Concord Coalition report failed to account for "my support for a 50-cent increase in the gas tax," Mr. Kerry angrily complained.

From the Washington Post:

On March 30, the Bush team released an ad noting that Kerry "supported a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax" and saying, "If Kerry's tax increase were law, the average family would pay $657 more a year." But Kerry opposes an increase in the gasoline tax. The ad is based on a 10-year-old newspaper quotation of Kerry but implies that the proposal is current.

Other Bush claims, though misleading, are rooted in facts. For example, Cheney's claim in almost every speech that Kerry "has voted some 350 times for higher taxes" includes any vote in which Kerry voted to leave taxes unchanged or supported a smaller tax cut than some favored.

The strategy was in full operation last week, beginning Monday in Arkansas. "Senator Kerry," Cheney said, "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all. He said, quote, 'I don't want to use that terminology.' In his view, opposing terrorism is far less of a military operation and more of a law enforcement operation."

But Kerry did not say what Cheney attributes to him. The quote Cheney used came from a March interview with the New York Times, in which Kerry used the phrase "war on terror." When he said "I don't want to use that terminology," he was discussing the "economic transformation" of the Middle East -- not the war on terrorism.

On Tuesday, the Bush campaign held a conference call to discuss its new ad, which charged that Kerry was "pressured by fellow liberals" to oppose wiretaps, subpoena powers and surveillance in the USA Patriot Act. "Kerry would now repeal the Patriot Act's use of these tools against terrorists," the ad said.

Kerry has proposed modifying those provisions by mandating tougher judicial controls over wiretaps and subpoenas, but not repealing them. In the conference call, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman was prodded to offer evidence that Kerry was pressured by liberals or that Kerry opposed wiretaps. He offered no direct evidence, saying only that Kerry objected to the Patriot Act after liberals did, and that "a common-sense reading indicates he intends to repeal those important tools."

Meanwhile, Kerry was greeted in Oregon and Washington state with television ads paid for by the Bush campaign that underscore what ad analysts call the negativity and misleading nature of many of the Bush TV spots. One titled "Doublespeak" pulls quotes from several major newspapers to argue that Kerry has waffled on major issues and has often said one thing and done another. The quotes, however, are often from editorials, sometimes from opinion pages hostile toward Kerry, such as that of the Wall Street Journal.

It is true Kerry has voted numerous times to eliminate weapons systems and opposed the 1991 Iraq war. But Cheney voted against many of those same weapons systems, and Kerry has voted for several defense increases, especially in recent years.

On Wednesday, a Bush memo charged that Kerry "led the fight against creating the Department of Homeland Security." While Kerry did vote against the Bush version multiple times, it is not true that he led the fight, but rather was one of several Democrats who held out for different labor agreements as part of its creation. Left unsaid is that, in the final vote, Kerry supported the department -- which Bush initially opposed.

Where can I order bumper stickers that say John Kerry is for a 50 cent per gallon gasoline tax?????

JHH