At first blush, this idea of Gov. Perry’s sounds a damned sight better than the abysmal Trans Texas Corridor that got shoved down our throats during a 2AM session of the Texas Legislature.
I’m still not going to vote for you, Ricky.
For those of you who don’t feel like clicking on the embedded link, Governor Perry has announced a plan to place several hundred night-vision-enhanced Internet camera s along the Texas/Mexico border, accessible by anyone with an Internet connection. The feed from these webcams is supposed to be real-time, and there will be toll-free numbers to call, so that watchers may report suspicious activity.
So, in the comfort of my own home, I will be able to access any one of several hundred “real-time” web cameras placed at what Gov. Perry states are “criminal hotspots and common routes used to enter this country”.
Call me cynical, but I foresee the following things happening:
1) Folks being so happy that the State of Texas is Doing Something About Illegal Immigration that they over-look other things that the State of Texas is doing. Like the afore-mentioned Trans-Texas Corridor; and
2) That in most instances the first, last, and only thing showing on the Internet will probably be a Mexican Army sergeant drug smuggler sighting through a Mexican Army-issue stolen HK G36, just before the camera goes offline; and, last, but certainly not least:
3) That the most internet activity will be from .mx and .gov addresses pin-pointing the locations of cameras so that immigrants can avoid them as an oversight effort to ensure the cameras aren’t abused.
*sigh*
Maybe I’m just cynical. We’ll see what happens.
LawDog
7 thoughts on “The (Web) Eyes of Texas (Bloggers) Are Upon You…”
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Probably what will happen is the “immigrants” will just steal them on their way over; they have to be worth something on the black market.
don’t forget the royal cluster f*ck the dispatchers will have on their hands when 4000 people call in to report the same sheepherder’s kid.
I bit on “Trans-Texas Corridor” and immediately saw that it goes to something titled http://www.keeptexasmoving.com.
Condition Orange!
In my experience, any organization titled “Keep Foo Moving” should in fact be called “Waste Gigabucks of Taxpayer Money and Wreck Nice Little Towns So Everyone in Foo Can Save Two Minutes Getting From East Nowhere To West Nowhere By Taking a Shortcut Down Your Driveway.”
Is that the scenario here?
Oh, but you missed the big one: the tens of thousands of false-positives orchestrated by MeCHA, ACLU, Vincente Fox and Friends, etc., to overwhelm our limited response resources. I give the program two weeks, tops.
We had a local news website post the picture of an armed robber that was caught on a surveilance camara. It was a good picture. Good facial details and contrast. Probably a local. He’s still at large three months later.
Hmmm. Imagine a portable satellite Internet system. Drive along Hwy 170, the River Road. It all could give a whole new meaning to “varmint hunting”!
:), Art
A wise man once told me “Anyone over 25 who isn’t cynical has NOT been paying attention”
Mel