"We The People" United States citizens who reside in the state of Texas, make a plea to the Honorable Barack Obama President to declare a State of Emergency and remove Texas Governor Rick Perry from office based on Insanity and/or Mental Incompetency.
Sign We The People Petition: http://wh.gov/4C1
The Governor is so far removed by distance, suffers from an Elite Class Delusional Cyber- Universe, and grandiose dreams of becoming the next President of the United States of America; he has attacked his own people with federal funding and Military Aircraft while ignoring a State of emergency concerning brutal killings and torture in the bordering Districts of Texas.
The Texas Governor is internationally known as the "Backbone of Anti-American Human Rights Resentment” created by his dangerous rhetoric and total disregard of executive orders of both President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, and the International Community.
President Bush Instructed the Governor of Texas State Courts to give 51 Mexican Nationals facing the Death Penalty new hearings that never happened! Governor Rick Perry formed the backbone of Anti-American Resentment within months of becoming Governor of Texas replacing George Bush after his election to the President of The United States in the year 2000.
Blame is now unduly placed on Internet postings by brave concerned citizens of Mexico and Texas residents of bordering districts of the Republic of Mexico, begging for aid and assistance by blog postings which have become the only means of contemporary communications to report the brutal atrocities of innocent people of both nations. The FBI office is swamped with telephone calls and the Internet has become the only way to protect ourselves. Now is a good time to test FEMA! Is the 911 Act "Keeping Us Safer?"
He has forced legislation to defend his own right “to keep and bear arms” with bizarre rodeo media ads, that have in fact forced the people of Texas to disarm themselves for fear of a Perry Police State unwarranted wiretapping [Hacking] that have been known to trigger a search and sizer of weapons legally registered by Texas residents to protect their families, themselves, and property [Reported to Congressman Henry Cuellar District 28th].
We request the State of Texas to arm its own citizens at the states expense and provide training for self-defense just as the President of Mexico has instructed his defense department. Time line of Governor Rick Perry Destructive Behavior [which is not all inclusive or does this list include the illegal use of Private Security Firms "Hackers" in years prior to April 2009]
Mexicans on Death Row to Get Hearings: Bush Tells Texas Courts to Review Cases of 51 Denied Consular Aid By Charles Lane Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 8, 2005 "The Bush administration has announced that it will attempt to defuse a long- simmering international dispute over the death penalty by instructing Texas state courts to give 51 Mexicans facing the death penalty new hearings on their claims that they were denied meetings with diplomats from their nation, in violation of international law." Citation http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-news-and-developments-previous-years-mark-warren-human-rights-watch
Texas 2002 Governor Richard James Perry
Death Penalty Information Center Foreign Nationals News and Developments - Previous Years (by Mark Warren of Human Rights Watch) Mexico Mobilizes to Oppose Texas Execution (July, 2002) "The ministry's chief legal adviser, Juan Manuel Gomez, said that all ordinary legal means to halt the execution of Suarez, now 33, were exhausted at the end of June. That leaves the possibility of persuading Texas Gov. Rick Perry to grant clemency, something Gomez admitted was unlikely. But he said Mexico would try to find ways to reopen the case under the argument that Texas authorities violated international law by failing to inform Suarez of his right to get help from the Mexican consulate when he was detained. Suarez is set to die Aug. 14. This argument, the official said, was the basis of a recent ruling in Oklahoma in favor of Gerardo Valdez, another Mexican sentenced to death. It would also form the backbone of a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights." Citation http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-news-and-developments-previous-years-mark-warren-human-rights-watch
Texas 2004 Governor Richard James Perry
US told to review 51 death row cases Associated Press April 01, 2004 "The State Department has not responded to the ruling, and officials in Oklahoma and Texas, where three of the Mexican inmates are on death row, said no immediate action was being taken in those cases." "It was the second time that the highest United Nations court has ruled that the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which protects foreigners accused of serious crimes. In 2001, Arizona ignored a court order to stay the execution of a German citizen." "Although the court dealt specifically with the cases of 52 Mexicans, it cautioned the principle should apply to all foreigners imprisoned for serious crimes. There are 121 foreign citizens on death row in the United States, 55 of whom are Mexican, according to the Death Penalty Information Center."
Texas 2005 Governor Richard James Perry
Mexicans on Death Row to Get Hearings: Bush Tells Texas Courts to Review Cases of 51 Denied Consular Aid By Charles Lane Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Texas 2009 Governor Richard James Perry
International Death Penalty Debate February 11, 2009 7:43 PM By Bootie Cosgrove-Mather "About 6,000 Americans are arrested or detained each year in other countries and need consular help to navigate and understand an unfamiliar, and perhaps hostile, legal system," justices were told by a coalition of former diplomatic leaders and nonpartisan groups. They said Americans would suffer if the United States does not set a good example." Citation: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/10/supremecourt/main660414.shtml
Texas 2011 Governor Richard James Perry
The U.N.'s top human rights official says the U.S. breached international law when it executed a Mexican citizen. GENEVA (AP)July 8, 2011 Associated Press "U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday the Texas execution of Humberto Leal "raises particular legal concerns," including whether he had access to consular services and a fair trial." "Pillay also cited a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling saying the U.S. must review and reconsider the cases of 51 Mexican nationals sentenced to death, including Leal's — But, she said, that never happened." Citation: http://news.yahoo.com/un-official-us-execution-leal-broke-intl-law-160400028.html
Ed. note: Ideas that are not original are appropriately cited throughout the piece. I never contacted Bill White's campaign about this story -- my observations about his campaign are just that, observations. They do not constitute any endorsement of his campaign -- by myself or BOR -- but they do reveal how, at least in my opinion, he and his campaign are prepared to win a statewide election.Also, you can follow me on Twitter here: @PhillipMartin
"Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century"
With a single press of a key, either a staffer or a volunteer for the Bill White for Texas campaign ushered Texas Democrats into the new era of internet organization. His campaign has walked across the bridge that so many people spent so many years building. I'm not sure who pressed that key, and I can't guarantee why they did it. But I can say two things for certain:
(1) I'm glad it finally happened, and (2) Not knowing who finally crossed the bridge is what makes it so wonderful.
I will get to the story of what specifically this person on the Bill White for Texas campaign did towards the end of this post. The short version of what they've done, however, may (if I'm right) be quite a story:
A Democrat running a statewide campaign in Texas has, for the first time, fully adapted to the tools and principles of online organization, therefore making it possible to run Texas Democrats' first truly statewide campaign of the 21st century.
I need to unpack that a lot more to back up such a claim, I know. That's why this post is as long (~4,400 words) as it is.
I started writing this as just a short couple of paragraphs on a simple change in the campaign's Twitter usage. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think it was the sign of something bigger -- that it was the sign of Texas Democrats' finally catching up, after years and years of playing from behind. But to take you from here to there, it is going to take more than just a few paragraphs.
There are many driving forces that explain the "why" of Burnt Orange Report, and one of them is our love for technology. Matt was one of only twenty-five Social Media Award winners in Texas for a reason. KT is sought out -- from people in Austin, in Texas, and around the country -- for his technological expertise because he was one of the first to crash the gates after the first starting gun of the Netroots political movement was sounded many years ago.
I wasn't like that. I grew up as an English major at UT who loved to read and loved to write. I don't use Tivo. I only started using Twitter a couple months ago when it hit its mini-critical mass awareness. I'm still learning all the functions of Facebook, Google Reader, Delicious, et. all. I came to write for BOR at the urging of a friend because of my interest and passion for politics, not for my interest or passion in this new technological tidal wave -- a force so strong I often feel like I'm struggling just to keep my head above water.
It was only recently that I've stopped struggling and begun to learn how to truly surf the web.
Over the past year or so, I've learned to embrace the unfathomable largeness of the online world and treat it with a spirit of exploration and hope, instead of a lethargy of trepidation and fear. Though I don't think I'll ever quite match KT or Matt's impressive aptitude with the subject matter -- at times I think that they breathe binary -- I have found a way to turn my eagerness and curiousity into productive learning and practical application.
Yes, as has been the case with every adaptation throughout history, education has empowered better understanding of the internet and an ability to work within its existing power -- or, as I said before, to truly surf the web. Education continues to be the silver bullet -- a true instrument of progress that is immensely profitable to those who have the opportunity and the desire to harness its limitless power.
A lot of my education comes from working so closely with KT, Matt, and the entire BOR crew. A couple of the classes I've taken at school -- including Nicco Mele's course on digitial media, politics, and power -- have gone a long way towards enhancing my entry to the online world. But I've also found a number of terrific websites that have given me an opportunity to think and explore new ideas about technology in ways I'd never considered before.
Therefore, in the interest of paying it forward, today's links -- or "clearing the cache" as the excellent website techPresident puts it -- are focused on stories gathered from various sources on new innovations and technology. Please add your stories in the comments, too, and pay attention to our new "BOR Reader" on the top-right of our page as KT, Matt and I share technology stories -- as well as political stories -- with everyone.
Happy surfing -- and if you like the sites, you should sign up for the RSS feeds to follow them regularly:
Legislation 2.0.2 (techPresident): An excellent story about how some legislators aren't just goofing off with new technology like Twitter, but actually using the internet to solict input on how they can do their jobs better (for example -- Senator Claire McCaskill asks how to better do government contracting oversight and is taking cues from the responses).
While Microsoft was busy rolling out a new version of Internet Explorer Thursday Google has been busy pushing the boundaries of not just the web browser, but what the web itself is capable of doing. [snip]
And Google Chrome is certainly not the only browser encouraging developers to experiment with both the browser and the web. Mozilla has an entire division of the company — Mozilla Labs — devoted to the very same sort of envelop pushing.
Follow that link and scroll down the page to watch a video showing what Google Chrome can do.
List of Web 2.0 Resources: This PDF has a great bibliography -- including a number of online white papers that it directly links to -- that serve as an archive to explain the theory of Web 2.0. A link you should bookmark and return to time and time again.
Twitalyzer: This amazing website measures your performance on Twitter. Almost scary.
What is Web 2.0? (Tim O'Reilly): Finally, I have to provide the link to the definitive article on Web 2.0 -- written three and a half years ago. If you only read one thing and really want to begin understanding the whole web/technology movement, read that piece.
That's probably enough for now. What else is out there that is good to share? Please provide context and leave links in the comments...
Citing newly revealed information that 90,000 registered offenders have profiles on the MySpace social networking site, Attorney General Greg Abbott today called for tougher laws to keep predators from using the Internet to find victims.
"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying.
The big issue, of course, is whether laws against cyberbullying violate free speech:
But states’ efforts to bring some clarity to the realm of new communications technologies like blogs, instant messages and e-mail have done little to resolve when threatening or unruly behavior trumps freedom of speech, said Jeffrey Shaman, a First Amendment scholar at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.
“Prohibiting the libelous speech, prohibiting (and) regulating true threats, regulating harassment under certain circumstances — these laws need to be more precisely defined,” he said.
Cyberbullying is the more pervasive internet crime than sexual predators; however, its also an issue that would require real leadership, attention, and focus. Those are things typically not under the realm of Republican elected officials' qualifications.
Again -- stopping online sexual predators is a terrific place to focus, and it's great to see it getting attention. But I worry that it got attention just because he saw a report; I worry that there was no real policy thought to this, but that instead someone just saw "sexual predator" and yelled out, "bad."
That's how this kind of public policy is made; and newspapers report on it because sexual predator stories get read by news consumers. And while all that is fine and good, along the lines we lose sight of the real challenges and the bigger problems because we focus so much on the technical ones.
There is a larger discussion: how do we regulate behavior on the public space of the internet that we can barely regulate in the public space of the real world?
This has very little to do with politics, and a whole lot to do with social behavior, how we think, and how humans are going to process data in the 21st century. I mean -- a rational argument that scientific theories are no longer necessary?
WOW. This was the most interesting thing I've read in months. Read about it below the fold.
The situation in Burma is tragic and the result of decades of horrific military rule that has reduced one of the most beautiful places on earth to a tragic ruin where monks in robes flee from soldiers with Chinese-made automatic weapons.
One of the tragedies of the situation is despite the efforts of groups who have been trying to expose the situation on the ground in Burma. Groups like WITNESS and US Campaign For Burma have been fighting against the apathy that is our current corporate media culture.
If Britney was driving a young monk without a seatbelt, there would be a chance to get some coverage but sadly, young monks are smarter than that.
If Anna Nicole Smith's baby's father was one of the generals, well, they would be building permanent tv stations.
This isn't a long post or an in-depth one, but it's just a reminder that the Internet and new ways of social organizing will matter for politicians and candidates.
MySpace has somehow become the most visited website in the US, Facebook now has 7.5 million college students on it and YouTube videos can be seen millions of times. One can quite clearly see that youth are getting quite plugged into the world in their own way. While turnout in elections this year has been down across the board, it has actually been up among youth.
And in the time it has taken me to type this entry, The Largest Facebook Group Ever has surpassed one quarter of a million students, now that the site has allowed groups to be formed globally outside of one university. It was at 75,000 not but 4 days ago and has actually broken the site a couple times (check out some public graphs here). Facebook as you may remember, is going to allow candidates to buy profiles starting September. Every Democrat should try to understand the power of websites like this, lest they be left behind.
This has nothing to do with Texas but everything to do with the Internet and how clueless you can get when you are
a) A Senator
b) Old
c) Republican &
d) from Alaska (do they even have Internets up thar?)
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is head of the Senate Commerce Committee, charged with overseeing the Internet among other important things. As shown below in a excert from a fuller transcript, he is quite simply, an idiot.
Read this- seriously, it's hilarious from start to finish (if incompetance at the highest levels of government is funny to you- then again, we are living under the Bush administration).
There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.
But this service is now going to go through the internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.
Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.
So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes.
We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people.
The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
It's a series of tubes.
Below the fold watch the Daily Show episode on this plus an excellent remix.
