The "Obama phone" explained.

The "Obama phone" is simply a name put on a phone giveaway project that began years ago in the times of Clinton. Basically it started off as a way to compensate the poor, and lower income class, with landlines. It then adapted into giving them cell phones - not just landlines.

However, it has been classed as the "Obama phone". This is particularly true through the way that recipients of these phones see them.
Recently, a poorer woman is on Youtube yelling about how Obama gave her a free phone and how he is so amazing. What it actually does is hurt Obama's image. the sad thing is is that Obama lets the poor class believe he is giving them phones - through not saying he doesn't, or simply by not saying anything at all.

They are receiving these phones because of the Clinton times, and the continuation of the project by Bush and Obama. It is not Obama's good deeds at all.
I, at first, thought that Obama was giving away phones to buy votes. He is not. What he is doing is letting people think that he is giving them their phone! And through letting them believe that, he is technically gaining their votes.

The point of this thread is to clarify that no, Obama is not the one responsible for this specific 'giveaway project'. It is also bringing out the fact that Obama, and many others, will let people credit them (or they credit theirselves) for the good things in the world/country, but not the bad things. When people start saying that Obama is responsible for giving away phones and misusing taxes, he will most likely say something.

Anyways; thoughts on this?

Either way it's a good cause and should be supported.. I'm sure that if Romney wins the election people will view it was the Romney phone or rPhone =) ..

I'm sure the executive branch ( regardless who they are or will be) is dealing with more serious issues than trying to clarify the phone issue.. I doubt they gave it to her and said "Here's your Obama phone" ..

I get what you're saying though, I just don't view it as any kind of issue one way or the other since it's been going on this long.. how many people think they got a Bush phone? .. probably quite a few.. so to me it's a non-issue.

reply to post by Ghostx


When things go well, Obama ALWAYS takes the credit......

When things go badly, Obama ALWAYS blames GW........................

Originally posted by miniatus
Either way it's a good cause and should be supported.. I'm sure that if Romney wins the election people will view it was the Romney phone or rPhone =) ..

I'm sure the executive branch ( regardless who they are or will be) is dealing with more serious issues than trying to clarify the phone issue.. I doubt they gave it to her and said "Here's your Obama phone" ..

I get what you're saying though, I just don't view it as any kind of issue one way or the other since it's been going on this long.. how many people think they got a Bush phone? .. probably quite a few.. so to me it's a non-issue.

edit on 10/2/2012 by miniatus because: (no reason given)

A Bush phone? Give me a break. Find me ANYTHING that makes such a claim. It's a non-issue to you because you're fine with big government and the welfare state.

still voting for Romney

hopefully the obama phone will make more people outraged and will want to vote Obama out

workin' so far!

Originally posted by PvtHudson

Originally posted by miniatus
Either way it's a good cause and should be supported.. I'm sure that if Romney wins the election people will view it was the Romney phone or rPhone =) ..

I'm sure the executive branch ( regardless who they are or will be) is dealing with more serious issues than trying to clarify the phone issue.. I doubt they gave it to her and said "Here's your Obama phone" ..

I get what you're saying though, I just don't view it as any kind of issue one way or the other since it's been going on this long.. how many people think they got a Bush phone? .. probably quite a few.. so to me it's a non-issue.

edit on 10/2/2012 by miniatus because: (no reason given)

A Bush phone? Give me a break. Find me ANYTHING that makes such a claim. It's a non-issue to you because you're fine with big government and the welfare state.

You making a pretty ridiculous claim my friend.. You're putting a broad sweeping assumption on me.. Why is it a non-issue to me? because it's not new.. the phone give-away has been around for quite a while.. so why make it a political issue now, that's my point..

You shouldn't make such bold claims about a person .. I don't claim to know you or your views, but coming across as harsh as that really gives an idea.

The fact is that it started under Clinton and was expanded under the 'conservative' Bush to include cell phones.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by Ghostx

 

When things go well, Obama ALWAYS takes the credit......

When things go badly, Obama ALWAYS blames GW........................

That is typical of politics in general though.. you can't trust either side at this point.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by Ghostx

 

When things go well, Obama ALWAYS takes the credit......

When things go badly, Obama ALWAYS blames GW........................

Some of his speeches have been expunged from the web. One given on April 1 or 2 of the year of the BP oil spill had him saying he didn't see the earth splitting open.

Another speech he spoke of how experts assured him that Fukushima radiation would not make it to the US.

I have been unable to find the text of these two speeches or the live speech itself.

reply to post by miniatus


First off, Bush was no Conservative. Not by a long shot.
Second, the program is disgusting at best. People do not need a Cell Phone funded by tax dollars. Get off your butt, get a job and pay for your own phone.
Third, just because 0bama didn't create the program, does not mean he is guilt free. It is continuing under his watch and the Democrat 2/3 controlled Fed Govt.

The woman on the video personifies not only the people associated with the program but the likely voter of 0bama.

Originally posted by miniatus

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by Ghostx

 

When things go well, Obama ALWAYS takes the credit......

When things go badly, Obama ALWAYS blames GW........................

That is typical of politics in general though.. you can't trust either side at this point.

True statement. So are you voting third party or will you vote for one of the 2 candidates coming from parties that you cant trust?

Thanks for everyone's contributions, it definitely is the way I want this thread to go. Also, thanks for clarifications that people have given to people that are not familiar with the phone project's history.

I recently have been thinking about voting for Romney. Actually for a while. However, now my beliefs kind of make me think that I shouldn't vote at all. I know that's bad to say, but my beliefs go against voting. I mean, the government is screwed; there's always something wrong. There's just "worst" and "slightly better". Are politics what my focus should be? No. Personal growth is achievable no matter who the president is. So why vote?

Anyways, back on topic more. Candidates always claim to be the creator of 'good' and not associated with 'the bad'. That's unfortunately a given. Anyways, even though the history of the phone project is stated here, it does not matter whatsoever. The history is nothing if people do not know of it / believe it. It all comes down to what they think the history is.
Phone receivers thank Obama for it and that's a problem with society - taking things at face value and not researching things or actually looking into things! and Obama's benefiting from people's ignorance of life facts.

Actually, it even pre-dates Clinton. I work in the telecom industry and used to be deeply plugged in to FCC matters for years (I've personally met the past 2 FCC Chairmen and was on a first name basis with some of their senior people). This program has its roots in the 1934 Rural Electrification Program and the creation of the USF (universal service fund). The USF was created to fund telephone access to rural America where the cost/benefit was not there for private industry (aka Ma Bell) to run phone lines to rural homes. At the same time, the public and government decided that access to a phone was a critical part of American infrastructure, central to public safety, life safety, etc. So a little tariff was placed on EVERY American's phone bill called the USF charge. This fund was used to build out access. (By the way, this fund is in process of further debate and shift from phone service to Internet.)

During Clinton's time this was amended to account not just for rural, but also to urban poor who could not afford phone service, placing them at a significant disadvantage for many things, such as searching for work, accessing services, calling the police and fire services, etc.

It has NOTHING to do whatsoever with Obama any more than it has to do with GW Bush, except that Bush expanded it. NEITHER played ANY major role in this and Obama played none. But once again, leave it to the Right to both promote and celebrate its own ignorance and to lie. The Right is full of people with no knowledge of history so all their "understanding" of issues is about 1 inch deep. This is made worse by the Right's glorification of ignorance, rejection of educated people as "elitists" and a pathological and caveman'esque distrust of science. That's why they are so easy to defeat in debate. The people on the Right today are analogous to the early cavemen who saw fire being made and thought it magic.

This whole episode is just a further episode explaining why America is rejecting the Right. Two recent Republican focus groups set up by Halley Barbour's firm to test female independent voters (one in VA and one in, I think FL) reported to the pollsters that they were inclined to assume whatever the RNC or the Right was advertising in this election was in fact either a lie, something taken out of context or an intentional distortion. However, they also said they were will willing to accept what the Obama campaign and his aligned groups advertised as being factual and honest.

The Republican pollster lady running the VA focus group seemed to think this perception was "unfair" because she thought these voters should consider the content from either side having the same value. She simply cannot grasp that these people being focus grouped were reacting to reality, which is that the ENTIRE campaign on the side of the Right has been literally nothing but a nonstop attempt to distort, obfuscate and downright lie. Voters are not so dumb anymore -- especially independents -- that they cannot figure out who is routinely insulting their intelligence and lying to them. I can only assume the Right pollsters assume all Americans are as dumb and easily played for fools as the mindless FOX watchers on its side.

You reap what you sow. The mass tide turning to Obama in the swing states is, I believe, not so much a pro-Obama movement as it is a reflection of disgust and revulsion of the incessant lies coming from Romney all the way down. Independents are alarmed and do not want this level of literally crazy extremism to run the show, so will hold their noses and pull the lever for Obama knowing that at least the man is sane.

What will happen after the election will be even crazier though. The Right are SO whacked they will say they lost because they did not run a "true" conservative. At the same time, they will be aggressive to say the vote was fraudulent and stolen, to stoke it most crazy followers into violence. Truly, the Right is a great a domestic enemy as this country has EVER witnessed so I hope to see the sedition laws finally put to work.

reply to post by PvtHudson


It's not an "Obama Phone", nor is it a "Bush Phone". It's a "REAGAN Phone".

Ronald Reagan started the "Lifeline program" in 1984. Reagan's program was designed around the principle that "telephone service provides a vital link to emergency services, government services and surrounding communities." To that end the Lifeline program has been available to those meeting the poverty criteria ever since.

So there is your proof - the "Obama Phone" you have slandered was in fact created by the icon of the right, Ronald Reagan.

reply to post by pajoly

I've been saying the vote is rigged for months now. Since a company in Spain is "counting" the electronic "votes" and there will be no paper ballots to do a recount with.
Oh and btw, did you know the guy that owns the company in Spain is an Obama contributor $$$ ?

So yeah, Obama will get another four years and be ready because when the the free cell phones, food stamps, EBT cash and whatever other free crap they are getting runs out, they will be rioting and they will be coming for your stuff.
Many of us foresee this and this is why gun sales are going through the roof.

It all started under the Wilson administration actually. It has been revisited a few times.

reply to post by Thunderheart


I am not saying that your post is not true. Not at all. However, can you provide some factual information on the counts being done in Spain by an Obama contributor? That would be great. i'd like to research this further.

reply to post by Ghostx


OP, the darlings of the right-wing media, namely Rush Limbaugh and Drudge, have been making complete asses of themselves over this "Obama Phone", especially in rolling out the video of some young black woman and parading her around as a "typical Obama supporter". Limbaugh himself has taken the video and Lifeline program phones to a new low in quasi-journalism by spending a day attacking the woman as an ignorant, uneducated, and 'typical' Democrat supporter of Obama.

Ring-Wing Goes Crazy Over 'Obama Phones' Which Are Actually 'Reagan Phones'

The 'Obamaphone Lady'

It's the stereotype the right-wing loves to play up, and they've been making hay of this woman for weeks now.

The Obamaphone Lady, who as far as we know hasn't been otherwise identified, is a middle-aged black woman with a loud, gravelly voice. She exuberantly explains why she supports President Obama's re-election: "Everybody in Cleveland [unintelligible] minority got Obama phone! Keep Obama in president, you know? He gave us a phone!"

She turns out to be propagating an urban legend, one we'd previously heard from conservative friends. The "phone" part is true. There is a federally mandated, state-administered program known as Lifeline that subsidizes telephone service for low-income subscribers. But the "Obama" part is imagined. As Snopes.com explains, Lifeline dates back to the 1980s, and the Dayton Daily News reported in August that Ohio expanded it in 2008 to include cellphones.

"Just How Racist Is the 'Obama Phone' Video?" asked The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve in the title of a Thursday post. "It's totally and obviously racist according to some racists who rushed to a 'White Pride' Internet forum as soon as they heard about it on Rush Limbaugh's show," she answered, making an appeal to an extremely dubious authority.

Reeve made a more plausible argument that "it's racial," to wit: "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.' "

Just How Racist Is the 'Obama Phone' Video?

The Limbaugh talking points have at this point devolved to "racial inferiority on display" postings on your favorite "white pride" Web sites. Yet not one of them - from Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, etc., have made any attempt to acknowledge the programs true origin in 1984 - they prefer to propagate the myth that only Obama does this to satiate the 'moocher class'.

No, You're the Racist, or Blogging About Obama Phones

The "Obama Phone" video is not being used by the Romney campaign. So we can't say that it's a racist attempt to get votes in the election. Right now, it sits in the middle ground between "stuff on the Internet" and "serious political issue." But it took one big step toward becoming a serious issue when, on the same day, Rush Limbaugh played it repeatedly on his radio show and the Drudge Report posted it at the top of his page. They'd probably call it humor? Limbaugh finds a lot of things funny about Democrats, . And an Obama voter who seems to be dumb? That's comedy gold, , "That's not Saturday Night Live. That is a real Obama voter." Because a video of a black woman with bad teeth and poor grasp of the history of the Universal Service Fund proves that Democrats are stupid, lazy, and, oh, black. "That is a real Obama voter." We say, that's racist.

Last note, ask yourself "why is this video on Drudge or Limbaugh?" It's not because they disagree with the program (having been in existence since the 80's). It's not because it's an example of poverty. They are showing this video ad-nauseam because it's another chance to "portray poor black people as stupid, lazy, and dupes for Obama."

Originally posted by Thunderheart
reply to post by pajoly

 

I've been saying the vote is rigged for months now. Since a company in Spain is "counting" the electronic "votes" and there will be no paper ballots to do a recount with.
Oh and btw, did you know the guy that owns the company in Spain is an Obama contributor $$$ ?

So yeah, Obama will get another four years and be ready because when the the free cell phones, food stamps, EBT cash and whatever other free crap they are getting runs out, they will be rioting and they will be coming for your stuff.
Many of us foresee this and this is why gun sales are going through the roof.

Thank you for illustrating "crazy" for me. What's life like when every breath drawn is tainted with conspiracy and satanic undertones? Do you black out your windows? Change you driving routes regularly? Speak in code to your friends on the phone? Living inside a dungeons and dragons fantasy reality must be exhausting.

No, gun sales are through the roof because fools are being played by the NRA and gun manufacturers into thinking the end is nigh. The NRA LOVES the mythical Obama it has created (amazing, considering he's not made a single sentence or action to deter your gun stockpiling); it has made them fabulously rich at the hands of the millions of gullible fools it has played like a harp on the Right. You are soooo easy for the intelligent, but malicious corporatists, to manipulate. Someday, maybe you will wake up to realize the heroes you bow to are the one and the same who consider you a dolt to be sheared for its profit. Then you'll realize the people those liars taught you to blindly hate have been all along the ones working most on your behalf.

I am convinced this is why the Right wants to destroy public education. It knows the data -- the dumber the electorate, the more easily gamed they are. Just as the moderates and every to the left of them knows that the most educated people are, the more likely they are to NOT be Right wing (unless of course they are very rich and then they just pretend to be Right wing, because that's how they get much, much richer.)

www.setyoufreenews.com...reply to post by Ghostx

I've addressed this in other threads. It's the telecom companies raking in the dough on this one, not the poor. THEY are the ones exploiting the law ( whether it's a wise one or not ) - and it's not limited to subsidized cell phones. It also covers low cost home phones. But the cell phone carriers were the ones who figured out they could give away old, "refurb" phones, and a few free minutes ( I believe it's in the 250 range ) and that many of those "free" phone customers would then "up" their service by adding minutes - at the often high "prepaid minute" phone rates.

The actual government subsidy is a pittance.

Evil Corporations.

Hey, why stop here. Let's boycott EVERY SINGLE TELECOM THAT GIVES YOU A FREE PHONE WHEN YOU SIGN UP!

I demand that every single truly conservative person reading these words march directly to their local AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile - and any company I'm forgetting about - AND PICKET THEM AS SOCIALIST! Did you know those SOB's are giving away FREE PHONES when you sign a contract with them???

Doggone socialist corporations destroying America with their communist money making scams...

~sigh~

~Heff