‘Obama Phones,’ ‘Obama Meals,’ and Other Objects
According to Elspeth Reeve of The Atlantic, it is calculated to show that Obama’s supporters are worthless grifters:
Let’s start by saying it’s racial. The Obama Phone video belongs to a genre popular on conservative blogs in which poor people, usually black, confirm conservatives’ worst 47-percent fears by saying they can get something for nothing because Obama’s in office. The message is, “Here’s what Obama’s supporters really look like.”
The standout in the category is “Obama money”: Back in October 2009, big lines formed formed for Detroit housing assistance applications after the city underestimated how many people would show up to apply. The scene was chaotic, and local TV reported there were rumors that $3,000 checks would be handed out.
The meme on rightwing blogs became that it was an angry mob in search of “Obama money.” A Detroit radio station interviewed people in line for “Obama money.” One woman says, “I don’t know where he got it from but he’s giving it to us. … O-BA-MA O-BA-MA!” Rush Limbaugh excerpted the audio, saying, “This is the model citizen in Barack Obama’s vision.”
The problem with ascribing this trope to the video is that as early as June 2010 the phrase had apparently gained so much currency that a government-approved provider gave out the following clarificatory press release. Long before the video, people were looking for “Obama Phones”:
June 24, 2010 — The World Wide Web is full of rumors and wrong information about the term “Obama Phones.” First off and to clear things up once and for all — there is no such thing as an “Obama Phone.” The only thing similar between the term “Obama Phone ” and the current American president is the first name, and the origin of this misconception is still unknown.
What is true is the fact that the Lifeline Assistance and Link-Up America programs have been around since 1984 when the “Universal Service Fund” was created under the Reagan administration. Also the Lifeline Assistance and Link-Up America programs (part of the “Universal Service Fund”) has nothing to do with the “Stimulus Program” of 2009.
Another misconception is that the Universal Service Fund program is a tax paid by U.S. taxpayers. It is not. The Universal Service Fund program is funded from contributions by telecommunications carriers collected in part from the Universal Service Charge applicable to all forms of interstate telecommunication services. The concept of “Universal Service” as it applies to telecommunication services was actually started way back in 1934 by President Franklin Roosevelt way before World War II.
The information about the program is somewhat different; it is still not President Obama’s invention. But in these descriptions it is a non-taxpayer funded program started by Roosevelt and continued by Reagan! But it was never associated decisively with these past presidents. How did it come to be linked to Obama? Why had it become an eponym, like Xerox or Scotch Tape or Frigidaire?
It doesn’t matter who started the phone freebie. What matters is who the moron vote thinks is providing the phone freebie today. And we know the answer to that.
What is an Obama Meal? It is the opposite of a Happy Meal.
I pay $25 a month for a pre-paid phone and just barely manage to not bitch about that. The Obama-Phone? I wonder what that costs the government. Well nothing I suppose, that is coming out of my paycheck.
…before the unsatisfying and politically correct school lunches are known…
One thought missing here is many low income folks use pre-paid phones. I can purchase 500 phones (stolen or cheap deals or whatever) and give someone the phone and a prepaid SIMMS card for say $50 of air time and they have a free phone. Free market and no government and all legal. Phones are almost legal tender in many urban settings.
Obama operatives are reciting the mantra “Osama is dead and GM is alive”
In fact
1-AQ is alive and well and killed our US ambassador to Libya and 3 other brave Americans
2-GM is on life support and will ask for more US taxpayers money
The Obama domestic and foreign policy is incompetent.
A Obama fan-boy fools is suggesting we give the money we give to Egypt to Libya instead-
-that is nonsense from a naive metro-sexual travel fiction writer-m j totten.
Libya has huge oil wealth
-it is also haven for AQ in MENA-it is tribal society like AfPak with huge sweet crude oil wealth oil.
The only “aid” Libya needs is Fear-of NATOs military
The US current Domestic and Foreign Policy failure should be a focus of the debates
Trying to bribe voters with free phones is a distraction-who is going to pay the monthly fees?
I think I’m going to Baraaaaack my Obamameal all over my Obamaphone.
OT
another great endorsement from a very
reputable gentleman :
a … new pro-Obama ad ‘Wake the F*** Up’
http://tinyurl.com/cln8lfy
enjoy
SF
It’s hilarious to see the progs screaming “raycissss!” about conservatives noticing the most ardent defenders of Obama Money and Obama Phone. In the last couple of months, I’ve been seeing a barrage of TV ads for “Assurance Wireless” (no coincidence that it’s right near the election, surely) proudly boasting that if you’re on SNAP (food stamps) or Medicare, you can get your FREE PHONE!!1!. And almost all of the happy “customers” featured in the ad are non-white. But that’s OK, apparently.
And don’t even get me started on the food thing. I think Taubes is on the right track. The whole USDA food pyramid is completely inverted from what it should be. The whole grains craze is a joke. And don’t even get me started on the insanity of caloric restriction for growing children. If I were in a more conspiratorial mood, I might comment that it was a conditioning method, but I’m sure it’s all just good intentions gone awry.
On a final OT note, Mr. “Nakoula” has not only been dragged in to the hoosegow, but has been completely denied bail because he “poses a danger to society”. Good thing we don’t have blasphemy laws in this free country, eh?
The Child Protective Services ought to remove that little girl in the Jackson video from her family. She is obviously a victim of serious brainwashing.
Dworkin, the SNAPS program has got to be an inside joke from some government bureaucrat, Snaps are “yo momma” jokes. Maybe they give out the free phones at the food stamp office and barrage the recipient with a few “yo momma” jokes before they give it to her. “Yo mommma’s so fat she lives in three area codes”
“yo momma’s so fat when she shifts the phone from her right hand to the left ,she gets outside the coverage area”
I think my comment disappeared. (it’s probably God’s judgment for mocking poor people)
oops there it is
Parasite
“I think my comment disappeared.”
Mine did too but I don’t think anybody would be missin’ anything.
The Universal Service Fund was setup to subside rural telephones since they cost more to install than phones in cities. The idea was to have “Universal Service” across the county. The fund didn’t go to people at all but to the companies providing rural telephone service.
Poverty creates attitudes which those with disposable money can’t easily conceive. You count up the coins in your pocket. You fill your house with redemption coupons. You follow the lottery with the seriousness of international affairs. You actually open the Reader’s Digest announcements saying you’ve won something. It is frankly, a demeaning condition and I don’t think one should revile the woman in the Obama phone video for so avidly awaiting a phone. It’s a big deal to her.
The question is really do you want this future? It reminds me, horribly enough, of how politicians in Philippines buy votes for a bag of peanuts and bottle of Marca Demonyo Gin plus maybe the equivalent of a $5 bill.
And don’t imagine people don’t understand they are being bought. They do and that is the worst of it. To see in their eyes the awareness that they’ve fallen so low they’ll follow orders for chump change. The more intelligent of them hate themselves for it. But then … they haven’t been able to afford a bag of peanuts or a bottle of gin for a while … and maybe this chance won’t come again. You can watch the struggle until the hand goes out and grabs the gin.
This to me is the most terrible sight you can see. I don’t feel any superiority over the woman in the Obama Phone video. Just horror. Horror. And the worst of it is that I know that I fell so low I’d be in the same state. Just drooling over that cheap-ass phone. How terrible. How absolutely terrible.
“What is an Obama Meal? It is the opposite of a Happy Meal.”
What has the Obama presidency meant to me? Well, the opposite of happiness.
Richard: I can understand your empathy for this woman but you’re wrong on this one. This actually took place in Cleveland the other day (I am in Cleveland) She is a paid SEIU thug who was bused around to the three Rommney events to hassle Mitt and his followers. She knew exactly what she was doing. She has a job but she wanted everyone in Cleveland to know the difference between Rommney and Obama. She wanted to excite the base. Direct hit, mission accomplished. Unfortunately for her, the Ohio base she got going on it was the the 53ers!!! The best media people money can buy could not have helped Mitt any better!!
“…it is calculated to show that Obama’s supporters are worthless grifters.”
Well yeah, if the shoe fits. The only way to handle that is to do a Gingrich or a Rudy, interrupt the ass attempting to pull a Charlie Gibson and say, “Yes these people are Grifters and if you say that black people are not capable of better, if you insist that they must be dependent slaves of the Democrat Party that has worked for 50 years to destroy their families and schools and churches, then you are a racist and you are nothing but a garden variety bigot.”
Remember the Clinton slogan, “Vote for one and get two.” Hillarycare set the stage for the Gingrich revolution that perversely saved Bill’s reputation and sent Hillary into cookie seclusion until she emerged to grace New York with her presence. Mooch is Obama’s Monster from the Id. She makes Hillary look warm sane productive modest patriotic and competent by comparison. They say that beauty is skin deep but ugly goes to the bone. The cringe worthy tributes to her should be exhumed and played up in tandem with similar encomiums to Assad’s wife or Imelda and other low rent would be royalty, and linked to her ugly pretentious bullying. The Gatekeepers count above all on their power to decide ex cathedra on what is fashionable. People should be embarrassed to be associated with Mooch’s tastes.
There are ads for Obama Phones and Obama Mortgages and a host of other government supported programs. They all flow money to private enablers, like the three companies with the contracts to manage the phone programs. Just the names of the firms involved as well as the advertising scream “Audit Me.” How much money flows from the taxpayer to these private agents? How much money flows from those firms to the Democratic Party?
Access to a telephone for the indigent elderly is important. Declare it a deductible charity and private charities, that is really private low overhead charities as opposed to tax recycler high overhead for profit crony firms, will get the job done at a fraction of the cost. As far as the need for shiftless yoots and the unemployable to stay in touch with their bookies and connections, that is what the corner bar and pool hall were for.
I got in my Obama car
A GM make and model
Ignition spark, let out the clutch
Ease out a little throttle
Then pull into the station pump
Obama Gas a fill up
A gallon at six bucks a shot
How quick it runs the bill up
A trip downtown to local school
Obama’s Union teachers
Were showing movies to the kids
Obama double features
The school lunch stood there on display
Obama Meals they called them
The kids just let them lay and rot
Until to dump they hauled them
My doctor’s office took my call
Obama Phone’s sure handy
A perfect way to get your vote
They gave them out like candy
The doctor’s office filled to brim
ObamaCare in force now
Obama takes good care of us
And all is free of course now
And so to home a day’s work done
To get my worn night gown out
Obama Energy full green
Not long until the brown out
We love Barack, who gives us things
All free so who’s complaining
And life is good and will be so
As long as he is reigning
Of course, the people who use them do call them Obama Phones. So if you are going to refer to them you would best use the name the users have bestowed on them.
On a recent trip to get my Mom’s hearing aid fixed, the people there said they would be happy to assist her in getting a new phone designed for hearing impaired people. It has a good sized screen that prints out what people are saying, and I guess that it has an extra loud audio output as well. Looks cooler than the STU-III I had on my desk in the Pentagon. And it will not cost her anything.
These phones are paid for by the extra little charge you see on your monthly landline bill. I have seen it for years and never gave it any thought.
So I am wondering if we should apply for one. My Mom alone probably has paid for one many times over on phone bills over the last 50 years.
I believe it’s possible they will try giving away free Obama money. Here’s the latest oped which i saw tweeted from Steve Keen who is getting pretty influential in the media: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-09-25/ben-bernake-inflation-money/57840674/1
The low to non fat milk thing is crap too…it’s one reason kids or more allergic. We were meant to develop gut health through exposure to probiotics not just antibiotics, to which all manner of communicable critters are now immune.
And guess which presidential candidate was the only one to stand up for Americans right to drink raw milk? That’s right, the (PJM) hated Ron Paul. Americans problem isn’t too much fat in some cases it’s the wrong sort of fats and GMO food poisoning us.
Only a matter of time until the Fluke Freebie is called the Obama Pill.
SF 7,
“The three-minute, 30-second ad, sponsored by the Jewish Council for Education and Research”
There is a kick in the teeth, “Wake the F**K Up” the day after Yom Kippur. The misuse of a religious label for this purpose should get traction. The Democrats should get hell for it. The creative weasel’s smug assertion that there is “blowback to blowback” sounds like a “bring it on” by someone convinced that their actions will have no personal consequences. This is from the people whose contribution to every debate devolves down to “Shut the f**k up.”
trangbang68 9,
Correct. Calling it a theatrical employment should not be a defense against child abuse charges, not just for the parents but for the producers and director of the video. If this was a matter of serious artistic expression like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, then it would be harder to condemn but this is in a different category. Political speech is protected and commercial speech is protected but the use of a child for commercial political speech that involves degrading expressions should face a stricter standard.
how is someone who is morbidly obese (the lady in the video) also a person “living in poverty”? she is a grotesque parasite made of pure evil.
“Another misconception is that the Universal Service Fund program is a tax paid by U.S. taxpayers. It is not. The Universal Service Fund program is funded from contributions by telecommunications carriers collected in part from the Universal Service Charge applicable to all forms of interstate telecommunication services.”
Pure 100% US Grade Bovine Excrement. The Universal Service Charge is an excise tax that the phone carriers pass through and charge to their customers, i.e. the US taxpayers.
Just look at your phone bills folks. It is a line item on each of them.
Wretchard says: Wherever Elspeth Reeve thinks the phrase “Obama Phone” comes from, it bids fair to stay.
Heh. Lest we forget, Reeve is married to one Scott Beauchamp of New Republic fame:
In a follow-up posting on The New Republic, Beauchamp objected to charges of falsification: “It’s been maddening…to see the plausibility of events that I witnessed questioned by people who have never served in Iraq. I was initially reluctant to take the time out of my already insane schedule fighting an actual war in order to play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join.”
New Republic editor Franklin Foer disclosed that Beauchamp is married to Elspeth Reeve, a former New Republic reporter and fact checker, and that his relationship with Reeve was “part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer.” Accused of insufficient fact-checking, the magazine had, according to Foer, planned to “re-report every detail”, but the magazine later stated that their investigation was “short circuited” after the Army severed Beauchamp’s communications with anyone overseas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Beauchamp
wretchard said: “This to me is the most terrible sight you can see. I don’t feel any superiority over the woman in the Obama Phone video. Just horror. Horror. And the worst of it is that I know that I fell so low I’d be in the same state. Just drooling over that cheap-ass phone. How terrible. How absolutely terrible.”
Channeling Col. Kurtz?
The horror, the horror. Horror can be mundane things perverted. And we have a surfeit these days in the good old USA.
Richard, I’ve never been above working class income status in my childhood or adulthood (with a few years of abject poverty thrown in for good measure) I don’t mock or disdain homegirl for being poor. I’ve seen folks in Asia and Africa that live on a couple hundred dollars a year, but were dignified and had excellent spirits. The woman in the video was a bottom feeder who wouldn’t know the meaning of dreams and aspiration if it hit her over the head with a 2×4. She’s to be pitied but let things get out of control in her neck of the Mistake by the Lake and she’ll be looting and burning in minutes.
sh @ 14: The Universal Service Fund was setup to subside rural telephones…
nope that was already a diversion. it was so that any phone on one network/vendor could reach anyone on another network/vendor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_service#Origins_of_concept_and_term
now apparently it guarantees that you can even reach people with no phone and no vendor.
“Obama meals”? Starting to sound like something you stepped in that the dog is guilty of.
Obama? Nice guy but not a President
Of all the crappy policies Obama is guilty of, we focus on Michele’s lousy meals. We deserve Obama.
Dworkin Barimen 8. “On a final OT note, Mr. “Nakoula” has not only been dragged in to the hoosegow, but has been completely denied bail because he “poses a danger to society”. Good thing we don’t have blasphemy laws in this free country, eh?” Or due process.
PA Cat 23.
“Only a matter of time until the Fluke Freebie is called the Obama Pill.”
Or the Obama F*uck. Which might work both ways, so be careful.
31. dla
“Obama meals”? Starting to sound like something you stepped in that the dog is guilty of.
Or possibly a meal made from the guilty dog.
ObamaMeals, Obamacare, Obamapill, Obamaf*ck, Obamamoney, Obamaprint…………..
Well we must be living in “Obamastan” or will be soon. Praise be Obama, the all merciful, all righteous, all brilliant, and all powerful.
Obamastan- stolen from a commenter at Ace.
“… new federal guidelines funded by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, dictating what is served in school cafeterias during lunch hour. The legislation was promoted by Michelle Obama …”
People, it is time to evict Obumble & his annoying wife from your brain space. You are allowing that malware to take up far too much of the CPU.
Key word in the above quote from our host’s post — “LEGISLATION”. Mrs. Obama can say anything she wants (provided it is not critical of Islam, of course. This is America, after all). However, she has no vote on LEGISLATION.
There are 535 Federal politicans who do have a vote, and did vote to use printed money to bribe tens of thousands of State & Local politicians. Those lesser members of the Political Class voted to take the bribe. And we, dear readers, collectively voted for all of those scum in the Political Class — or stood aside while others voted for the scum.
That is why there are hard days ahead. That is why defenestrating the Big Zero, while a good start, will not avoid those coming Tough Times. Obama is the symptom, not the problem; we are the problem!
First time commenter, long time reader. For what it is worth, I am a fiscal conservative, ex-military, and spent several years working with non-profits that focused on serving the mentally ill and disabled. Link-up and Lifeline saved countless client lives and kept them in touch with us. This meant we always had a line to them, even if the psychosis or paranoia flared up. Also, I had several poor/medicaid/mentally disabled rely on this system to call for help when they fell or when someone broke in & assaulted them.
There is so much fraud and waste in this system, yes! However, please remember that targeting the abuse of the system must not come at the expense of the truly deserving. On the other hand, I had one or two clients perish because we lost out phone contact with them (re:turned off or disabled due to nonpayment) & were unable to get to them in their time of need. Burying a victim was the worst day of my life.
Yes, get rid of the fraud! Get rid of the free riders! Do all of that so that those that are actually disabled can get the services that I pay taxes for…
My apologies for being emotional. Thank you.
#26 – so true. It amazing that someone in the government actually believes that phone companies don’t simply pass this involuntary contribution on to their customers in the form of a tax.
37# – I feel your pain. I just wish only the truely needed would benefit. Unfortunately in their zeal to not offend everyone the government has allowed this, along with other social programs, to become a “sign up and get the benefits and let’s all hope the auditor doesn’t catch you”.
When I was out of work last year I actually got a letter stating that I was eligible for this program. I had plenty of money in the bank but because I was collecting unemployment, I qualified. There was no real background check. Just me acknowledging that I was unemployed, looking for work and I qualified. I almost got one…
The ‘universal service charge’ is a good example of how any government expansion becomes permanent. It was supposed to be a tax on the ‘rich’ (phones were not common in 1934) in order to pay for the various phone companies to be able to switch between them. It was to compensate the phone companies to cooperate. Once ATT won the monopoly, it was unnecessary. But rather than do away with the tax, they found another use for the money, connect more expensive rural customers. Now everyone is connected, and they have no intention of letting the tax lapse, so now it is giving out free cell phones. They will not cut the excise tax, no matter how much money they have to waste to keep it.
While the program is longstanding, it may have been Obama (not sure, anyone know?) who extended the subsidy from landlines (not very useful in illicit activity) to burner cell phones. It is the switch to cell phones, and the deliberately loose standards of qualifying for them, that makes them Obamaphones.
“Let’s start by saying it’s racial.”
It’s raaaacist! I can’t help it if it was a colorful woman screeching into the poor reporter’s microphone.
39. “Now everyone is connected”
No they’re not. A large swath of Northwestern New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona, commonly referred to as the Navajo Nation, lacks this basic late 20th Century appliance. It’s not cost effective for commercial investment in infrastructure in such an extensive geographical area with such low population and low per capita income. This is what the tax was originally about. However, once again its the urban voting centers that are the target of the bounty justified upon the needs of those in flyover rural America. It’s just like another pillaging of the Treasury -
http://www.usda.gov/documents/8907Manhattanmap.pdf
It’s the context. There would be little hue and cry about a program to facilitate communication among all Americans, including those who are in most need of help. We are predominantly good and caring, and almost all of us want to take care of the most needy among us.
But this is a good example of how evil travels. The idea of caring for others gets turned on its ear and becomes a mandate to reinforce the immature, entitled impulses of the downtrodden and self-proclaimed victims, breeding selfishness and anger on both sides of the issue.
That’s what Obamathink is doing to us, attacking our humanity so that we sink lower than the animals, a feat only a human being can accomplish.
“The meme on rightwing blogs became that it was an angry mob in search of ‘Obama money’.”
As Blast says, if the shoe fits….
But that “angry mob” bit is the invention of a typically dishonest Atlantic Magazine hack. I saw *lots* of conservative commentary on that “Obama money” video, and “angry” was not the theme, just “greedy” and “entitled” and “never heard of the concept of self-reliance”. I dropped my subscription to the Atlantic many years ago, and never regretted it.
“Another misconception is that the Universal Service Fund program is a tax paid by U.S. taxpayers. It is not. The Universal Service Fund program is funded from contributions by telecommunications carriers collected in part from the Universal Service Charge applicable to all forms of interstate telecommunication services.”
It’s so cute when they act like fees on companies aren’t paid by consumers.
(In fact, didn’t the government forbid telecomm companies from breaking out the “Universal Service Charge” on bills?)
“Poverty creates attitudes which those with disposable money can’t easily conceive. You count up the coins in your pocket. You fill your house with redemption coupons. You follow the lottery with the seriousness of international affairs. You actually open the Reader’s Digest announcements saying you’ve won something. It is frankly, a demeaning condition and I don’t think one should revile the woman in the Obama phone video for so avidly awaiting a phone. It’s a big deal to her.”
Except she’s not actually poor. She has no doubt that she’ll go to sleep in a warm, dry place. She has no doubt about her next meal, or those of her children.
And what she’s cackling over isn’t a necessity, but a luxury that was unattainable for 99.999999% of human history.
And, trumping all of it, the labor to provide her with that luxury is someone else’s.
“A large swath of Northwestern New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona, commonly referred to as the Navajo Nation, lacks this basic late 20th Century appliance.”
Aren’t they their own sovereign nation?
The current behavior by the 0bama Administration and the Demoncrat Party are the same as they behaved during the 2010 Election Cycle, Prayerfully we will have the same outcome, large Tea Party victory and a RINO President! It really matters little, the Federal Government is so big and has so many suckling’s that it will never shrink in size and scope, never! Does anyone really think Romney will cut the TSA, or Department of Education, maybe HUD… None! That’s right I predict NONE of these will disappear, I am betting they won’t even cut the jobs by more than 2% in any anyone of these departments… They will gladly cut the Military by that much, which we need more of than any of those three departments.
The aptness comes from eating the seed corn as economic policy.
Ron Crawford wrote:
Except she’s not actually poor. She has no doubt that she’ll go to sleep in a warm, dry place. She has no doubt about her next meal, or those of her children.
Very good sir. We must never acquiesce, as the left has, to the flavor of envy known as relative deprivation.
Anybody who is truly educated in the history of our species knows that pretty much everyone on public assistance in this country – and even the “working poor” – have access to clean and healthy food, adequate shelter, and health care the likes of which did not exist even for elites until the past hundred or so years. I cringe every time I hear a suburban wealthy leftist claim that being on welfare is its own deterrent because it is “so awful”. Compared to what? The brainstem functions know what our ancestors did and that the wealthy leftists have forgotten – a fully belly and a dry place to sleep mean you are doing alright, not that you are oppressed. This will not serve, however, to inflame the masses. The technique is simple; push the meme that no matter how much stuff you already have, if your neighbor has more, it’s “unfair”.
One of the reasons the left is always so eager to declare year zero is that by doing so one gives oneself the permission to ignore history. Including the fact that it was free enterprise, limited government societies that allowed the opportunity for people to avoid spending their whole lives worrying about their next meal. No, far better to pretend that people in ancient Egypt and in the 1500′s had cell phones and flat screens and that the only way we can keep them now is to reelect Obama.
Just the sound of Samuel L. Jackson’s voice (or Whoopi’s or Wanda Sykes) has had a cringe effect on me for that past few years. I can’t quite put my finger on it but he has taken on a persona that has frozen into the proverbial typecast. Like his colleagues, they have become pissed off blowhard racialists who denigrate other races while saying only they can do it because only they are authentically human beings and in a position to comment about it.
Samuel L. Jackson has become his character, perhaps the one crafted by Quentin Tarantino, just oozing with self -importance. I did like him in the Tarantino movies mind you, I just think I enjoyed his performance more in Good Fellas.
W quoting the gummint:
Another misconception is that the Universal Service Fund program is a tax paid by U.S. taxpayers. It is not. The Universal Service Fund program is funded from contributions by telecommunications carriers collected in part from the Universal Service Charge applicable to all forms of interstate telecommunication services.
Could someone ‘splain to my dumb self how a govt required fee is not a tax?
#46 – “Aren’t they their own sovereign nation?”
Only as much as Congress grants them. See –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_sovereignty_in_the_United_States
A customer at the cable company asked about this two years ago. No one there had any idea what she was talking about. I just made the connection.
I’m on The Food Stamps, and last year whilst looking for a job I happened upon an ad for the free phone, I knew about Universal access, and this was the “new” way to use it, so I had my Wife get on,(I use a prepaid for my job search, no Friends here I’m a BCer).
She pays a penny a minute,pretty cheap and no 3g or anything like that, So is it free? I paid the stupid tax for the past 30 years,so Yes I’m getting my money back that was STOLEN from me.
Bob
Wake the F*** Up’
Can’t we just let him sleep? He does less damage to the country when he’s asleep. Or playing golf instead of playing president.
Re: Herb @51: If somebody can ‘splain it to you, then they will also need to explain it to the Supreme Court regarding the Obamacare “penalty” to be “collected” by IRS.
Not to open the first of a long set of nesting Russian dolls…are the free accounts of the Obamaphone users charged the Universal Service Charge, and if so are we paying that tax too?
Fonman
The numbers for 2011: Program Cost – $1.6B to serve 269,000 ‘clients’ – that’s $6000/year, or $500/month – my AT&T Wireless runs me $100/month, and they make a profit. I would like to see the management profiles for these 3 ‘public service’ wireless companies, I can imagine where that $400/month in fat goes to…
jc @ 57: I would like to see the management profiles for these 3 ‘public service’ wireless companies, I can imagine where that $400/month in fat goes to
You betcha, and a fair lot of it ends up in campaign contributions.
BTW, where did you get those numbers?
–
Kalifornistan also has a freebie phone program for the hard of hearing – outgrowth of the little text-phone dingies they started providing in the 1970s. a note from your doctor, and free landline instrument with a volume control that goes to 12, not sure if it includes cell phones … yet.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/where-do-obama-phones-come-from/article/2509203#.UGXUk1LYGO0
Wake The F**k up is really kinda lame – I was at least hoping it was entertaining. What a snoozer. this won;t energize anyone.
So much hype for it and so little delivery. Kinda like the man it supports.
The greatest achievement of the Israeli Mossad has been it’s carefully cultivated image as a spy agency of mythical stature. The Mossad can walk through walls, it is cold, ruthless and efficient. It is capable of feats and grand deceptions without parallel. It commands the sharks, birds, and can walk right up to the gates of Iran’s most gaurded secret facilities.
Obama has somehow done the same thing. He has created a legend that cannot be shaken. He had nothing to do with the phones which have quietly around for decades. So elevated is his stature among parts of the population that when hearing of it he gets credit. The image is so pervasive that he is given a Nobel prize literally for nothing. Sure, some of the fake gold paint is chipping off the halo but the legend is fixed.
I suppose all Romney can do is to be himself and hope the voters can tell the difference between a horse and horse manure.
Given recent trends, Obama Phones will be (are being) used to connect Obama Voters to biased pollsters and ultimately, to the election polls. I’m sure the phone numbers are public information somewhere.
It would be interesting to cut off Obama Phones, and see by what percentage flash mobs of “youths” cease plying their trade.
No intel, no comms, no flash mobs.
Your taxes on your land line or cell phone pays for these free phones. Fernandez is splitting hairs. Obama is black and he wants to make the black community think he cares! Get real Fernandez and speak in plain language. We are not being R.A.C.I.S.T. when we point these useful idiots out on video.
Jay Leno takes a crack at Obama:
“We’ve wasted four years . . .”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/09/28/leno-we-wasted-four-years-waiting-obama-do-something-about-economy#ixzz27mFlQpHQ
jc @ 59: thanks. sounds like the total cost for universal is given and then the count just of cell phones, might be a couple of million landlines to count, too. heck those might the only landlines left, plus mine.
I seem to remember sitting in my grandmother’s home, reading through the phonebook (I was very bored), and reading about Lifeline phone service in the mid-70′s (local exchange and emergency services only for a few dollars a month). Of course this was in California, which leads the nation in all things progressive. The local SoCal KFI radio muckrackers, John and Ken, were covering the first efforts by “advocates” to give subsidized cell phones to the homeless using the universal access fee as a funding source in the late 1990′s. I’m sure that the “positive right” to be connected to the voice network will soon apply to us all. I’m afraid to google it, because I am sure that some group in the U.S. or government in Europe has already made it a talking point…
This proves Obama is a phony!
There is also some sort of federal fund for reducing electricity charges. Anything Federal uses taxpayer funds.
If they want to know where the money is being handed out – Look into Pigford and all the money democrats are ahndign to their two most loyal constituancies blacks and lawyers.
I am coming to wonder if politicians ought to give out free condoms as campaign materials. The condom packaging might even have the politician’s picture on it!
Such a campaign idea would be considerably more honest than Obamacare. The Obama administration is promising “free” contraception paid for by the Catholic Church – and attempting to force the Catholic Church to fund something that is theologically abhorrent to it. In contrast, giving out free contraception as a political campaign promotion would at least be paid for by the political campaign, not out of the pockets of taxpayers.
And it would be honest. Giving out free contraception would be an effective way for politicians to get people to think of them the next time they get screwed.
“…serving more whole grains and less sugar”
Ah, the stupidity. Wheat starch is *worse* than sugar. It starts turning into glucose as soon as you put it in your mouth (amylase in saliva).
Two slices of whole wheat bread raise your blood sugar as much as 6 teaspoons of table sugar.
The logic behind a Universal Service Fee is that you pay the fee so that, maybe, someday, you’ll have a need to call that SEIU protester at that Ohio Romney appearance and you’ll be able to reach her on her Obama Phone!
Telephony service is indeed better the more people one can connect too – duh – but like so many noble and rationally sounding ideas, it quickly becomes corrupted and twisted into purposes not justified by the original argument.
That really is the story of the Democratic Party. Take a high-minded notion that makes a touch of sense, sell it to the population, then exploit it for your own purposes. Pollution control, energy efficiency, renewable energy commercialization, electric cares – all hopeful notions enacted and abused and exploited by those in power.
On the Obama Meals:
I can’t say this definitively because I don’t know enough about the content and size of these new “healthy” meals, but form what I have been able to find out it seems that they are coming close to stunting the growth of many of these kids. I say this because the food group choices coupled with the modest portions and calorie restrictions mimic the late neolithic diets that stunted the stature of village-dwellers as compared to their hunter/gatherer ancestors and cousins. Now a school lunch is not the only meal for these kids, typically, and they can make up the difference elsewhere, but growing, active teenagers are most likely to get their greatest energy and nutritional boost from a mid-day meal, which tends to conform with what is considered natural for humans. Also, because of arbitrary scheduling, some kids end up having their lunch period in late morning. By American standards it almost seems that what these new guidelines are creating is a privation diet — at least within the confines of the school day. This is a common practice among cults. I am not saying that that officialdom is consciously using cult strategies, but the underlying need to exert control is the same with both a cult and an overbearing government.
Note that no special provisions are made for school athletes, who typically work on their sport after regular school hours. What I can see happening is that once school systems complain that this is wreaking havoc with their sports programs, that guidelines will be modified to waive the nutritional restrictions for those students involved in the sport programs. That will go over well, won’t it? A special line in the cafeteria where everyone else can watch the athletes get bigger, tastier meals and chow down. The resulting morale problems will cause the schools to 1) put up a screen for the “jock line,” and 2) establish a separate eating room for those athletes. Such modifications will only exacerbate the whole problem.
It’s raaaacist to play a video of a grown woman speaking her own words, but it is A-okay for TLC to exploit a little girl to mock and make fun of fat ugly white trash. That poor little girl has no hope for overcoming her upbring to live a dignified life. She will always be the fat trashy little girl. TLC should be ashamed of themselves for expoiting this child. They would never in a million years be exploitng a black child the same way. Its just so cool to make fun of little girls, just knee slapping hilarious, well only if they are “what you may find if you drag a dollar bill through a (white) trailer park”.
I read a Libertarian blurb a bit ago that reminded me that “compassion” is not taking other folk’s money at gunpoint, (Government tax collections), and giving it to those in need. I don’t think Obama understands that.
Regarding school lunches, it is true that Michele’s idea of food is out of step with the majority of Obama’s constituency. The fact is that the processed foods that Michele hates are more efficient than the “healthy” stuff she is pushing. So just as her husband keeps funding Solyndras because he doesn’t understand economics, Michele keeps pushing dietary concepts that don’t mesh with reality.
My point? Both of them are disconnected from the reality of the “middle class” family. They are seriously naive.
Wretchard, do not feel sorry for such people. When faced with the quandary, they surrender principle to greed.
I get SSDI. I am eligible for all kinds of things. I take the SSDI as an absolute necessity, and also because I paid into it. Were it not for that tax, I would not have had to work two jobs. So, I am eligible for all kinds of free stuff, but I eschew them. I am not even tempted. Morality comes first, even though inflation is slowly wiping me out.
You see, I know that there is no such thing as free, just a question of who pays. It is wrong to take freebies you can live without. It is wrong to sell your vote for some temporary luxury. It is wrong to vote for some goody at someone else’s expense.
I grew up desperately poor. I mean going-hungry, ragged-clothes poor. I knew lots of poor. Most of them had no qualms about milking the system as much as they could. They would grab a freebie just because it was free, even if they had no use for it. Governmental largess simply made them comfortable in their poverty. They had little, but they had all their time free. And they did not have to work! They all hated work! Everyone of my Dad’s welfare friends hated work! And they were all fat, unless it was all spent on booze or drugs. I never found any redeeming qualities in any of those people. Just none. They were repellent to me in every way.
Forget the pity. Do not sympathize with sloth, gluttony, greed, envy, and theft.
Me, I really miss working. I keep hoping the economy gets good enough, that someone will get desperate enough to be willing to hire me for a few hours for a couple days a week. I am very marginal, because of my health and blindness, and because my skills have atrophied. I have to take the leavings, and there are no leavings. If I get a chance though, I will work as much as I am able.
These others are not like me at all. It has always been so. I know them well, and they disgust me. No pity will be forthcoming from me for them.
It’s true that the Lifeline Assistance Program pre-dates Obama, but the fact is the program has exploded during his tenure as President. It grew from approximately $700 million annually in 2008 to over $1.6 billion annually in 2011. The money is collected by the carriers through a fee added to customers’ phone bills. And until the last few days, the Administration didn’t seem to have a problem with the term Obama Phone. As of this morning there was a website called http://www.obamaphone.net that explained the program, solicited participants and prominently displayed Obama’s image. The website was active until a few hours ago but now, mysteriously, only displays error messages when you try to access it.
41 MILLION TEA PARTY SUPPORTERS SET TO VOTE
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/28/41-Million-Tea-Party-Supporters-Set-to-Vote#comments
Admirable ‘Bama
(apologies to Sir Paul)
(Starving Students)
We’re so Sorry,
Ms. Obama.
We’re so Sorry but we haven’t learned a thing, all day.
We’re so sorry,
Ms. Obama,
There was more to eat at Dachau,
Next to nothing on my tray.
We’re so Sorry, Ms. Obama,
My friends smuggled in some chips and dip to feed…all day.
We’re so Sorry, Ms. Obama,
But your Veggie meals for students are so easily thrown away…
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah
Wooooooo.
Our dietician notified me,
I had to eat your menu if I wanna get a C.
I had another look and I nearly sprayed my tea.
Won’t Feed a butterfly…
(Butterfly?)
(“There isn’t any butter…would you like to eat a fly?”)
Hands across the table. (Table)
Starvin’ I could die-yi-yi-yi.
Heads down on the table. (Table)
Hand me down a pie!
(Dietician in falsetto)
Live a little, eat your veggies, get ‘em down. (Get em down)
Pick your self up off the ground, eat your meal and get it down.
sv @ 77: The website was active until a few hours ago but now, mysteriously, only displays error messages when you try to access it.
The site just worked for me. Whoopee.
Here’s the thing, I am firmly on both sides on these issues. We’re a rich country and can afford a lot of stuff in our “safety net”. Not to mention that with the economy the way it is, if we didn’t have most of that safety net we’d already have Hoovervilles and soup kitchens and other forms of depression despair and even death. We have FAR worse problems than a billion bucks a year on “free” phones. OTOH all such programs are subject to abuse as they are, they are always on a slippery slope of infinite expansion (talk about yer mixed metaphors), and each benefit sucks a few more people into giving up, into a bit more dependency, so the programs tend to spiral up and up in cost. This has a moral dimension, of course. And it is not infinitely sustainable.
And then you get chowderheads like Obambus *bragging* about how many people are on food stamps. That should be a listed, impeachable offense. Right now you don’t know if anyone who says such things is just (!) a cold-blooded political opportunist, or an idiot, or a communist, and sure why not all of the above.
76. Marc Malone
Marc: I don’t know your health situation but you’ve probably heard of the boom in N Dakota. Similarly, from Central Texas and especially down south of San Antonio there are jobs begging. If you an do simple physical labor you can get hired. If you can drive a truck, you can make very good money. And even more so for skills like welding, pipefitting, etc, even office work.
Obama’s supporters ARE worthless grifters OR unthinking useful idiots who no longer deserve the prividge of voting.
Look at this administrations track record of corruption, lawlessness and disgusting snivelling servile weakness that shits all over the people of the United States.
He is a disgrace and an insult to Americans everywhere.
‘serving more whole grains and less sugar’
Huh? How can they serve both more sugar and less sugar?
Obama’s truly the Representative President of America’s version of “The Strawberry Generation”. They are those born post 1981, who have been pampered by family and society all their life. EVERYTHING’s been done to make them SAFE, just like a strawberry farmer feeds, shields and protects the female-ish pulp of the strawberry fruit from all harms until plucking time. If they don’t own an actual Obama phone they own an Obama-like phone, one that redistributed to them from mom and dad, from their local school district, and at the ritzy posh (by say standards of 1960 and prior) and party-hardy colleges actually paid for by their futures-unknown-to-them.
Everything was given to them, gratis. No struggles, and every moment of their childhood was structured and helicoptered, with Guardian Parent Angels hovering to bash away any attempt by old-school training authority to hold their precious Strawberry to account.
Obama is King Strawberry, or maybe the Queeen Strawberry in a LBGT-way-ish. Yet besides Obama and those in the DC-centric Paradise of Redistribution …
Many of them are already plucked, way under in loans that were “gifted” to them by the supposedly caring sane and mature adults in Academia, Legislatures and Finance of generation prior to them. “Gifts” that are like the Ancient Mariner’s Albatross.
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It’s very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.