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Virtual Border Patrol



The latest absurd twist in the immigration issue:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry unveiled plans on Thursday to place hundreds of surveillance cameras along the Rio Grande and stream the images to the Internet so computer users everywhere can help patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaking to a gathering of sheriffs from border counties, Perry said virtual border patrollers spotting illegal immigrants would be able to call a toll-free phone number to report them to Texas authorities.

What they need though is to make it into a game where you can win real cash prizes for ratting out your fellow man. Or at least rack up points for doing the devil’s work, like in that new murderous Christian video game.

Seriously though, where do these people get their ideas from, comic books? Actually, virtually this same idea is put forward in the online comic series, The Spiders, on e-sheep. In it, millions of electronic bugs are released into Afghanistan to track down Osama Bin Laden or whoever. And little kids are basically trained to monitor the webcams attached to the bugs as a sort of game in the midst of their online chatting and other innocuous activities. It’s an idea that is as dreadful as it is realistic, I guess. Score another one for the bad guys. What I’m waiting for is when those in power agree to let us put audio and video trackers on them at all times, so that we can constantly monitor them for illegal activity. Would we just end up getting bored

[via Banana Patch]

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4 Reader Responses

  1. Jennifer Emick Says:
    June 7th, 2006 at 10:20 pm

    At least it will keep the rednecks off the roads. ;-)

  2. Gnomely Says:
    June 8th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

    I would be embarassed to pee on the border out in the open. I hope people would have the decency not to look but taboo’s are meant to be broken. I think the rednecks who drive around with confederate flags and eat their fancy caviar need to develop some empathy. This song by the Boss might be appropriate to sing to them.

    Men walkin’ ‘long the railroad tracks
    Goin’ someplace there’s no goin’ back
    Highway patrol choppers comin’ up over the ridge
    Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
    Shelter line stretchin’ round the corner
    Welcome to the new world order
    Families sleepin’ in their cars in the southwest
    No home no job no peace no rest

    The highway is alive tonight
    But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
    I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
    Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom Joad

    He pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag
    Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
    Waitin’ for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
    In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass
    Got a one-way ticket to the promised land
    You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand
    Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
    Bathin’ in the city aqueduct

    The highway is alive tonight
    But where it’s headed everybody knows
    I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
    Waitin’ on the ghost of Tom Joad

    Now Tom said “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy
    Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
    Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air
    Look for me Mom I’ll be there
    Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand
    Or decent job or a helpin’ hand
    Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free
    Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.”

    The highway is alive tonight
    But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
    I’m sittin’ downhere in the campfire light
    With the Ghost of Tom Joad.

  3. SubstanceM Says:
    June 10th, 2006 at 11:06 am

    Great lyrics, I’m not a big Bruce fan but RATM does a cover of that song that I dig.

  4. Texas Border Watch Website - Pop Occulture Blog Says:
    November 5th, 2006 at 6:40 pm

    […] Via Yahoo News, we have an update on a story I reported about back in June: SAN ANTONIO - Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes. […]



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