‘Obamaphone’ Vendors Turn Blind Eye To Criminal Activity
Undercover video shot in May by a conservative activist shows two corporate distributors of free cell phones handing out the mobile devices to people who have promised to sell them for drug money, to buy shoes and handbags, to pay off their bills, or just for extra spending cash.
The ‘Obama phone,’ which made its ignominious YouTube debut outside a Cleveland, Ohio presidential campaign event last September, is a project of the Federal Communications Commission’s ‘Lifeline’ program, which makes land line and mobile phones available to Americans who meet low-income requirements.
-Bruce (@GayPatriot)
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So, which Mugabe bootlicker is going to declare that this is no big deal?
Comment by V the K — June 18, 2013 @ 4:10 pm - June 18, 2013
Obamaphones are making one non “US Person” in particular, Carlos Slim, a very rich man. Evil Big Business is reviled for capitalism and is absolutely crucified for off shoring jobs, yet government crony Capitalism is all good, and the fact it lines the pockets of the richest man in Mexico is just fine. Of course Carlos is the second largest shareholder of the NY Times, so there’s that too.
Comment by runningrn — June 18, 2013 @ 4:22 pm - June 18, 2013
Interesting, but you do realize that much of what transpires would be entrapment, are none of the employees are the ones who are telling the recipients of the phones to actually do the actions. They are turning a blind eye though, which isn’t great at all.
Now, If their are guidelines within the program that specifically say that the phones are not to be given to people who are known to be using them for anything other than their intended purpose, then someone will definitely be busted. But, I’m betting there are no such rules…..
The bigger scandal is that 2 billion dollars is being wasted in this fashion.
Comment by Sonicfrog — June 18, 2013 @ 5:17 pm - June 18, 2013
It is not like they are trying to buy votes./s
Comment by SC.Swampfox — June 18, 2013 @ 6:20 pm - June 18, 2013
I kind of doubting that anyone who would have gotten those phones would have ever voted for Romney, with or without the free phones.
Comment by Sonicfrog — June 18, 2013 @ 9:15 pm - June 18, 2013
Gives new meaning to the phrase, “Shovel Ready.”
Comment by Richard Bell — June 18, 2013 @ 10:09 pm - June 18, 2013
Actually, there is no such thing as an “obamaphone”. It is actually a Reaganphone or, in the case of cell phones, a Clintonphone. But it isn’t paid for by taxpayers from income taxes in any case.
Back when AT&T was “the phone company” for the entire US, long distance rates subsidized local calls. If you made no long distance calls, phone service was very cheap. With the AT&T breakup, the local service provider no longer got the benefit of long distance revenue, you got to pick your own long distance provider. As a result, the cost of basic telephone service went up. This hit old people and poor people hardest. Reagan created a “lifeline” program where qualifying people could get a cheap phone line so they could have basic local service that was subsidized by other rate payers. Clinton expanded this in his administration to include cellular service.
At some point the cost of providing cell service and the price of very cheap phones became low enough that wireless carriers could sign people up for this service and actually make money at it. They are guaranteed a certain monthly amount from the program. If they can get the cost of service delivery below that amount, they make money for every such subscriber they sign up.
It isn’t an “Obamaphone”. It could just as easily be a “Romneyphone” or a “Republicanphone”. Republicans could just as easily hand these out to poor and elderly who qualify. The program is owned by the telecom company. The Obama people are simply distributing them and have managed to brand the damned things Obamaphones.
Comment by crosspatch — June 19, 2013 @ 3:38 am - June 19, 2013
Ding-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling!
Boo-ba-doo-ba-doop!
Boo-ba-doo-ba-doop!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring
Obama phone
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring
Obama phone
I’ve got this feeling, so appealing,
for us to get together and sing. Sing!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Obama phone
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dobama phone
It grows in bunches, I’ve got my hunches,
It’s the best! Beats the rest!
Cellular, modular, interactivodular!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Obama phone
Boop-boo-ba-doo-ba-doop!
Ping pong ping pong ping pong ping pabama phone
It’s no baloney, it ain’t a p(h)ony
My cellular obamular phone!
Don’t need quarters, don’t need dimes,
to call a friend of mine!
Don’t need computer or TV,
to have a real good time!
I’ll call for pizza. I’ll call my cat.
I’ll call the white house, have a chat!
I’ll place a call around the world, operator get me Beijing-jing-jing-jing!
(Soprano Sax Solo)
Yeah!
Play that thing!
(Piano Solo)
Whooo Hooo!
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring
Obama phone
Boop-boo-ba-doo-ba-doop
Ying yang ying yang ying yang ying yobama phone
It’s a real live mama and papa phone,
a brother and sister and a dogaphone,
a grandpa phone and a grammophone too! Oh yeah!
My cellular, Obamular phone!
Obama phone, ring ring ring!
(It’s a phone with a peel!)
Obama phone, ring ring ring!
(Now you can have your phone and eat it too!)
Obama phone, ring ring ring!
(This song drives me bananas!)
Obama phone, ring ring ring!
Boo-ba-doo-ba-doop-doop-doop!
Comment by crosspatch — June 19, 2013 @ 3:42 am - June 19, 2013
Ha ha ha
Want to know when someone is insular and their “facts” come from the Fringe Right Wing Blog-o-sphere?
When that person uses the term “Obamaphones”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/02/12/are-taxpayers-paying-for-free-cell-phones/
hee hee
Comment by mike — June 19, 2013 @ 3:45 am - June 19, 2013
Truth to Power: Party Switcher Elbert Guillory: “Why I Am a Republican”
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/06/truth-to-power-party-switcher-elbert.html
Comment by Steve — June 19, 2013 @ 6:35 am - June 19, 2013
No one heard of Obamaphones until this gentle lady showed up and went viral.
littlelettermike links a Forbes article that apparently he did not or could not read. It is a nothingburger of an article that micro-picks a distinction without a difference. The program is funded by a federal system of taxation which is not income tax based. Like the gasoline tax, it is consumption based. Big whoop. Who came strutting in saying it was income tax based in the first place? As if that little nerd level quibble is worthy of a Congressional inquiry.
And this whole Reagan started it theme is morally bankrupt. Sure, you can trace to behemoth program back to its beginnings and that was, indeed, the Reagan administration and had Reagan’s support. So, from its beginnings it morphed and expanded and grew from a two million dollar a year program under Reagan to the present two billion dollar a year program under Obama.
Somewhere in the process, Carlos Slim figured out a way to make $10 per phone and he got into the program big time. The merger of big donor money, big corporate profit and big government welfare is at the core of crony capitalism. This $2 Billion pot is way to big not to attract cockroaches.
Comment by heliotrope — June 19, 2013 @ 10:27 am - June 19, 2013
And this whole Reagan started it theme is morally bankrupt.
Fact Check traces the concept back to FDR. The first program to issue cell phone was started under GW. So maybe they are not “Obama Phones”.
I love history, but that is not what’s important here. What is important is that we’re spending 2 billion on what appears to be a completely unregulated and undisciplined wasteful program. Yes, there are cases where it might be good for some one to have a phone handy, say an elderly person who has no phone and might need a way to call for emergency services. But to just basically hand the things to anybody who says the deserve them…..
Comment by Sonicfrog — June 19, 2013 @ 11:39 am - June 19, 2013
Oops… That didn’t format right… my bad. try again:
And this whole Reagan started it theme is morally bankrupt.
Fact Check traces the concept back to FDR. The first program to issue cell phone was started under GW. So maybe they are not “Obama Phones”.
I love history, but that is not what’s important here. What is important is that we’re spending 2 billion on what appears to be a completely unregulated and undisciplined wasteful program. Yes, there are cases where it might be good for some one to have a phone handy, say an elderly person who has no phone and might need a way to call for emergency services. But to just basically hand the things to anybody who says the deserve them…..
Comment by Sonicfrog — June 19, 2013 @ 11:40 am - June 19, 2013
Everyone please remember the old saying, no government has every failed, it was only underfunded.
Comment by SC.Swampfox — June 19, 2013 @ 12:24 pm - June 19, 2013
Oops, edit #14 post: No government program has ever failed, it was only underfunded. Could someone research to when this saying came into vogue? My guess it came in with the mass of Federal programs started under FDR.
Comment by SC.Swampfox — June 19, 2013 @ 12:27 pm - June 19, 2013
Government programs rarely sunset. They may get tucked away to go on forever in the shadows. They may grow like kudzu. They may morph into something else. Only on rare occasions are they ended. No small part of the problem is that the unionized federal bureaucracy has no interest whatsoever in eliminating any aspect of itself.
When a government program is ended, the vulturous political class in both parties swoop down to reassign the money “saved” on some other government bullish*t that has sprung up out of nowhere. Remember the “peace” dividend that was spent ten times over after the Berlin Wall fell?
Comment by heliotrope — June 19, 2013 @ 1:07 pm - June 19, 2013
See how many Government Programs you quality for. I scored 86.
http://www.benefits.gov/
This is why the country is boned, by the way.
Comment by V the K — June 19, 2013 @ 1:11 pm - June 19, 2013
Interesting website. I scored 11, but of those 11, 4 were refi programs for real estate and 1 was for childcare. Odd, because I have no children and all my real estate is un-mortgaged, so that left me with 6 which all had to do with job assistance.
Comment by David in New Orleans — June 19, 2013 @ 2:59 pm - June 19, 2013
[...] Steve in the comments. While I don’t know anything about Senator Guillory, and I myself am still [...]
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