Obama phone

Lifeline To Our World | FCC.gov

The right seemed pretty worked up yesterday after Drudge pushed a video of a woman claiming she's voting for President Obama because he gave her a phone (thanks to James Carter for the tip). It wasn't long before Rush Limbaugh and others like him were excitedly asking over-the-top questions: is Obama getting votes through bribes?

And though I don't doubt that your Fox News-watching uncle will be emailing all-caps messages about this any minute now, the truth is far from scandalous.

The Federal Communications Commission has a program called Lifeline that provides low-cost or free phone service. The agency's website says this is because it and Congress "recognize that telephone service provides a vital link to emergency services, government services and surrounding communities." Who qualifies varies by state, but "in general," to qualify you must have an income that is no more than 135 percent of the federal poverty line, or be enrolled in assistance programs like Medicaid, public housing assistance, discounted school lunch, or yes, food stamps. [...]

Strictly speaking, it's not a government-funded program: the telephone companies make payments to a fund administered by a non-profit called the Universal Service Administrative Company, but anyone with a phone bill chips in through a surcharge on their service.

Though the origins of the universal service program date back at least to 1934, the Lifeline program in particular was instituted by a well-known redistributionist by the name of President Ronald Reagan in 1984. A related effort, expanding affordable access to cell phones for low-income Americans, was created by another radical liberal by the name of George W. Bush.


As for the larger context, Dave Weigel's point bears repeating: "Shockingly, despite the bipartisan origins of the service, the idea of an 'Obama Phone' for the undeserving has existed for a long time. You know what else has existed for a long time? The Drudge Report hyping up tabloid news that makes black people look like violent dopes who'll do anything for more goodies from Obama."

About that 'Obama phone'... - The Maddow Blog
 
Lifeline To Our World | FCC.gov

The right seemed pretty worked up yesterday after Drudge pushed a video of a woman claiming she's voting for President Obama because he gave her a phone (thanks to James Carter for the tip). It wasn't long before Rush Limbaugh and others like him were excitedly asking over-the-top questions: is Obama getting votes through bribes?

And though I don't doubt that your Fox News-watching uncle will be emailing all-caps messages about this any minute now, the truth is far from scandalous.

The Federal Communications Commission has a program called Lifeline that provides low-cost or free phone service. The agency's website says this is because it and Congress "recognize that telephone service provides a vital link to emergency services, government services and surrounding communities." Who qualifies varies by state, but "in general," to qualify you must have an income that is no more than 135 percent of the federal poverty line, or be enrolled in assistance programs like Medicaid, public housing assistance, discounted school lunch, or yes, food stamps. [...]

Strictly speaking, it's not a government-funded program: the telephone companies make payments to a fund administered by a non-profit called the Universal Service Administrative Company, but anyone with a phone bill chips in through a surcharge on their service.

Though the origins of the universal service program date back at least to 1934, the Lifeline program in particular was instituted by a well-known redistributionist by the name of President Ronald Reagan in 1984. A related effort, expanding affordable access to cell phones for low-income Americans, was created by another radical liberal by the name of George W. Bush.

As for the larger context, Dave Weigel's point bears repeating: "Shockingly, despite the bipartisan origins of the service, the idea of an 'Obama Phone' for the undeserving has existed for a long time. You know what else has existed for a long time? The Drudge Report hyping up tabloid news that makes black people look like violent dopes who'll do anything for more goodies from Obama."

About that 'Obama phone'... - The Maddow Blog

Not only does that play the race card its basically irrelevant.

Its about the mentality of people that think OBAMA gives us all we need, all the while getting paid for being there.
 
Not only does that play the race card its basically irrelevant.

Its about the mentality of people that think OBAMA gives us all we need, all the while getting paid for being there.

Interesting pov, the relevance is the title "Obama Phone" and the video that you posted, which the blog post was also referring to, I heard about it the other day while watching the news and I looked it up. The information provided is about the video and the actual program, I had not heard of it until the other day and I'm sure many others hadn't, so I posted info about it along with a FCC link to the program, not sure how much more relevant to the title of a post and a video posted on a message board you can get ???
 
Interesting pov, the relevance is the title "Obama Phone" and the video that you posted, which the blog post was also referring to, I heard about it the other day while watching the news and I looked it up. The information provided is about the video and the actual program, I had not heard of it until the other day and I'm sure many others hadn't, so I posted info about it along with a FCC link to the program, not sure how much more relevant to the title of a post and a video posted on a message board you can get ???

you missed the point
 
there are other videos linked from that one that are truly disturbing if taken at face value. The free phone bit has been around a long time but I think its the way its portrayed in the video that is pretty horrible. It's obviously edited together but the source is still there.

Now lets really pay more attention to way more important things shall we?

08_zx14_hayabusa.jpg
 
Like our bad economy tanking. Who would have thunk it could. Sad figures out today.
 
sometimes I wonder how bad the economy is really doing tho. with the DOW only 500 points off its all time high how bad is it really? just sayn....

the stock market isn't really the best gauge for how the economy is doing. Its open to most anyone to buy into. The unemployment numbers, housing sales, consumer index, etc are all better indicators. I think the stock market is just enjoying the normal run up to the elections and likely folks are trying to buy into what look like "deals" compared to years past. If the numbers hold after the election and the first of the year I'd be surprised
 
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