Watchhttp://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/28/obamaphone-humor
In case you haven't heard about the federal government's free cell phone program, "Lifeline", derisively called the ObamaPhone by critics (including me), it's not a joke, even though it seems like it should be:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/where-do-obama-phones-come-from/article/2509203#.UGXHNlHZ27x
The clever people over at ThePeoplesCube.com have a new article about the ObamaPhone including some of its most important features as submitted by Twitter users.
Here then are the key features of the ObamaPhone:
It automatically rejects calls from people with a different opinion.
Every time you take a picture, it produces a grimmer image of America.
It doesn't have a plan; it just keeps telling you how bad the other guy's plan is.
When it crashes, it blames your previous phone.
All 3 AM calls go directly to voicemail.
It has a really useless app called "Biden."
Pairing it with another device sucks all the energy out of the other unit.
Type in "job search" and it gives you directions to the welfare office.
The default ringtone for international calls is "I'm sorry, so sorry, please accept my apology."
The healthcare app downloads and installs itself without your permission.
When you make a call, a teleprompter pops up to help you speak.
Restaurant reviews are all written by Michelle Obama.
There are never any winners on Angry Birds.
Instagram takes two months to process a photo and you have to fill out 3 PDFs to do so.
Paypal app is replaced with ReceivePal app.
You can't find "Jerusalem" on Google maps.
Don't want to work? There's an app for that, too.
It automatically bows down to phones made by foreign companies.
When you watch a YouTube video, a US ambassador gets killed.
When you dial "home", it calls Kenya.
As opposed to the iPhone, it's called the mePhone.
Good for you Ross, you are catching up! ThePeoplesCube.com has been my favorite site for years. A lot of the contributors of this site are former refugees from the Soviet Union and their (now grown) children. Nothing cures you off communism disease like the life in Worker Paradise. We are inoculated, but natives are having a bad case of socialist fewer. No Obama-care can treat that.
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Politicofact says
Self? Silly HRHMedia I didn't build that, Obama did.
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Captain'Troll, build it, you mean FILIBUSTER IT.
Your party couldn't hold a piss up in a brewery.
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CaptainShuddup says
Define socialism for me.
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Silly Captain'Troll, Bush DESTROYED IT. Now grow a pair and admit it.
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iwog says
Bailouts.
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freak80 says
Oh you mean like TARP!?
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008. It was a component of the government's measures in 2008 to address the subprime mortgage crisis.
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It so simple. Republicans , think about it.
The GOP say do as I say but do not do as I do.
Then when the dem's do the same, they cry wolf.
How many times can one party cry wolf?
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freak80 says
Bailouts do not equal socialism. A true socialist government would never use bailouts under any circumstances.
Anyone else?
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These idiots would rather have seen the the US economy ending in Sept 2008.
Would you be better of today 4 years later with no intervention from the government.
Exactly, stop your moaning.
There was ZERO PRIVATE FUNDS AVAILABLE TO BORROW FROM.
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It was a cheeky jab at far-right folks who complain about "welfare" but not "corporate welfare." Nothing more.
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iwog says
I don't think this is exactly correct. Under socialism do you not reward your friends and punish your enemies. So if some one towed the political agenda, they would be rewarded with other people's money. And if they did not, they would be punished or jailed. So it appears socialism would provide a bailout for their friends.
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iwog says
Iwog, thanks for the push to validate my understanding. From
"The World Socialist Movement" site
http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/what_is_socialism.php
"Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population.
In socialism, everybody would have free access to the goods and services designed to directly meet their needs and there need be no system of payment for the work that each individual contributes to producing them. All work would be on a voluntary basis. Producing for needs means that people would engage in work that has a direct usefulness. The satisfaction that this would provide, along with the increased opportunity to shape working patterns and conditions, would bring about new attitudes to work."
I work hard, take risks and am rewarded for those efforts. The description above sounds like where we're currently heading and is exactly why I oppose that direction.
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Seymour says
I find that most people who become wealthy in American society are ignorant as to where their wealth came from. They live in a fantasy land where they do it all themselves and don't owe society anything.
I worked hard and made money. Pat me on the back. Now I'm on the verge of being a 100% investor and someday maybe I'll count myself in the 1%.
To get here, I exploited workers, I exploited the leverage I had with ample capital, and I exploited the ignorance and fear of my competitors. I did not wake up every morning and pick up a pick and shovel and sweat cash out of some mine or farm. Certainly I worked, but I could have also put in the same effort and sincerity digging ditches and would have wound up with nothing.
I got here because the American system helped me get here. That system includes the government, the citizens, and the resources that are common to all of us.
It would be a vile treachery against this country to insist that I shouldn't pay taxes, or that I should pay the same taxes as the lowest paid cashier at McDonald's. It would be a violation of my code of ethics, and in the long term it would wreck capitalism for everyone since the end game of laisse faire is a communist revolution.......NOT FREEDOM!
If you made it, you didn't get there yourself. You had help. If you don't understand this, don't vote. You are far too dangerous to be trusted with picking political leaders and you're just going to fuck it up for those of us who actually like capitalism.
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Anyway, the FCC program that spawned George W Bush's "Obamaphone" program started in 1985 under socialist President Ronald Reagan and was only expanded in 2008 to include cell phones. Sorry you spent so much time coming up with all those hilarious features for nothing.
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Printing a billion + for this program is no harder than printing for any other program.
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Is it not odd when a countries currency is dependent on the velocity of the printing press's.
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iwog says
Interesting perspective, Iwog. Unlike your self-description, I'm solidly in the middle class with goals of providing for my family and keeping my 8 year old Sentra on the road. I agree that the tax code needs an overhaul and agree that completely eliminating capital gains tax is not the best method. However, there's a balance between the "Starve the Beast" and "Socialize the World" and I believe that the current president has clearly shown that he is not willing to strike propose that balance. If he was, he'd take the recommendations of his own Simpson-Bowles committe and attempt to move forward.
I answered your question on "What is Socialism" and I see our country is currently headed in that direction. You see it headed towards a "communist revolution". We both love capitalism. ...but because my opinion on the best candidate to preserve our capitalist society is different than yours, I'm 'dangerous'. So everyone who disagrees with your opinion shouldn't vote? Gee, that doesn't sound like capitalism OR socialism. Elitist attitude maybe?
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Seymour says
It isn't you. It is anyone who challenges their delusional fantasy island notion, their utter insane agenda they are so sadly trying to push down the throats of those who don't agree with them. Too many people are on to such pathetic manipulation and games. It scares them.
They cannot defend anything other than by using their didactic spin and disinformation or outright manipulation. It is both dry and old already.
Let it ride out. The USA will NEVER be Communist/Marxist and they cannot swallow that fact. Let them chatter on like fools they are just exposing themselves the more they repeat slam. It is their sad obvious technique that often includes when losing the argument just yell RACIST.
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Politicofact says
I'd say that if you watch TV, you have seen ads for them by various companies. Safelink comes to mind,
Politicofact says
As previously discussed in this thread, it goes back to Bush or even farther back if you include land lines. I already said that this is one of those cases where perception beats reality.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama_phone_free_cell_phones.htm
Q: Was this program instituted by the Obama administration?
A: No. Nor was it just instituted "earlier this year," as the email claims. The program as it exists today was created over a decade ago by an act of Congress, the Telecommunications Act of 1996. A version of the Lifeline program was already in operation as far back as the early 1980s
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iwog says
Yikes. I hope I never encounter you alone & unarmed in a dark alley.
The same goes for Dan8267 and BellinghamBill.
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freak80 says
Ha ha... so true.... but you missed a few others....
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CaptainShuddup says
So you like the underdog.
I suppose based on your reasoning, the more popular a view is among intelligent people, the bigger problem you have with it ?
Humorous indeed.
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Does it matter who started the free phones paid for by other peoples money. The horse is dead, let it go. The question, now is this," Do we want this program to continue and if not, who has the power to stop it. If we want the program to continue or expand, who has the power to make it happen.
When half of the money the government spends is either borrowed from the Fed, "printed" or borrowed from other countries where do we have the resources to pay for this?
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This site of all sites knows the havoc of economic and human suffering caused by the housing bubble. What havoc will happen when everyone realizes our money has little value and it appears, no one in power (in the position to make a change) wishes to do anything other than give more than the next guy to get elected?
To get out of a hole the first thing you do is stop digging.
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Seymour says
We are headed in the opposite direction, that's how absurd this discussion is. If Obama gets everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING he wants regarding new taxes, it's not even going to be as progressive as the taxes passed by Reagan.
For decades we had a top marginal tax rate of 80-90%. The country worked just fine and rich people didn't complain that they couldn't invest or create jobs.
We are in some twisted twilight zone where Republicans are claiming that we're headed toward socialism when we are actually plunging headlong in the opposite direction. I don't understand it because I can so clearly destroy this delusion.
Obama wants to raise capital gains taxes from 15% to 20%. Under Reagan they were either 28% or treated as regular income. More socialist eh?
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elliemae's website
From the article:
"The program is called Lifeline, established in 1984, originally created to subsidize landline phone service for low income Americans, funded by government-collected telecommunication fees, paid by consumers.
In 2008, the program was expanded to support cell phones which quickly escalated the cost of the program. In 2008 the program cost $772 million, but by 2011 it cost $1.6 billion."
-----------------
Since you choose to incorrectly attribute this program to our current administration, might I point out that this program is funded by telecommunication fees that have been collected since 1984? That it was expanded in 2008 to include cell phones? How about mentioning that the growth of cell phone usage has far surpassed that of landlines - so it only follows that more $ would be collected and more would be paid out?
This program wasn't started by our current president, nor was it expanded under our current president. But, when looking for anything to blame on our president, it's a lot easier to make shit up than it is to find something that is actually his fault.
The message from the conservatives on this board is consistently the same thing - they don't like President Obama. It's quite humorous, actually.
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Who can stop it?
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You gonna concede this point?
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iwog says
The the big question is "why?"
What changed between the 1950s and now?
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iwog says
Iwog, if you are voting soley on the point of capital gains, I have two questions for you:
Obama created the Simpson-Bowles bipartisan commission and could have easily embraced its recommendations (or lead the Democrats on the commission to vote FOR it). The recommendations would have raised capital gains taxes on the top earners to 23% because all dividends and capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income.
My Opinion: Obama could not stomach the provision that stated any increased revenue would go to deficit reduction (as opposed to new spending). Yes, more socialist. ...and partisan. ...and divisive.
Iwog, why do you think the president didn't follow through with Simpson-Bowles? Why didn't he lead the country to unite under a bipartisan proposal and squash this constant squabbling?
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Seymour says
Do you base this on anything?
Seymour says
Because it's a fucking joke to insist that Republicans would have allowed any tax increases under any circumstances when most of them have signed a pledge saying they will never do so. It was a non-starter and therefore a waste of time.
You're being disingenuous.
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I'm not sure what the "outrage" of the original article is exactly.
Take this:
"In 2008 the program cost $772 million, but by 2011 it cost $1.6 billion."
Food stamps have also expanded quite a bit. So are we supposed to chop food stamps back to pre-crash levels and watch the soup lines form and take bets on who'll win when homeless fight over dumpster scraps?
Should we take the "Bush" Medicaid Part D and chop it in half because it's "exploding" too? This "ObamaPhone" nonsense is another transparent attempt to pin everything on Obama. Who funds programs like this? Congress. Dealing with real problem like adults is too hard it seems.
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Do food stamps cost $100 Billion a year?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/willis-report/blog/2012/07/30/corporate-welfare-costing-taxpayers-100b-year
NO
But it's ok for Corporates to receive $100Billion & no one says a word!
Let's start with the cream and work our way down.
You don't remove the safety net, which is what the Ryan Plan would do.
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Tecumcari says
Are the PatCons a mindless collective that takes its orders from Rush?
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iwog says
Yes, based on the fact that he later whole-heartedly embraced the similar 'Gang of Six' proposal that did not include the spending provision. Obama continues to spend the country into debt like a kid on a grocery cart retriever budget buying a coastal McMansion.
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Hahahahah!
CL got the facts on this one, in another thread. The real story on the "ObamaPhone"? It's not coming out of Federal tax coffers and it's a "BushPhone" or maybe "WilsonPhone"!
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/27/924011/the-truth-about-the-obama-phone/?mobile=nc
I'm expecting zzyzzx and the other duped parties on this thread, to issue mea culpas and apologies any minute....
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freak80 says
Technically, that is lemon socialism.
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Vicente says
Thinkprogress.org..... Really...... you have to come up with better sources..... trying to prove your point with a lefty blog doesn't cut it....
...."ThinkProgress was voted “Best Liberal Blog” in the 2006 Weblog Awards and chosen as an Official Honoree in the 2009 and 2012 Webby awards."
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Seymour says
I think you may have the duck on the run! Skip to 0:45!