Controversial agitator goes after the Lifeline program. The so-called OBAMA Phone. |
Again in a country where cell phones outnumber landline phones, the Lifeline Phone program is needed to help the poor, the rural and the elderly obtain phones for emergencies. Unfortunately, there are some who take advantage of a great program to help the needy.
That's where the serial agitators in the junk food media come into play. Hence forth, James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas and Breitbart contributor.
The famous "ACORN pimp" is running around with the camera again trying to create a scandal where there's none. He's now tackling the "OBAMA" phone program.
Again he's looking to find an unwilling sucker. He'll send an undercover "reporter" to a business or an event.
The person is asking unsuitable questions to the unwilling sucker. Then the questions are doctored and edited heavily to make it seem like the person said something totally outrageous and it draws the attention of That Guy Who Throws Shit On The Wall and the other one, That Guy Who Helped Obama Win.
The conservative agitator is dubbing himself "Ashton Kutcher of the Conservative movement".
After getting off federal probation and shelving out some heavy stacks to those he gotten fired, the ACORN pimp is now looking forward to exposing more waste in government. He is now ready to pick up where he left off in his crusade to expose corruption in the halls of power, beginning with footage that shows shady practices in the government-subsidized cellphone program.
Asshole legislator Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana). |
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.
Lifeline was a $2.19 billion program in 2012.
Recipients most commonly demonstrate their need by flashing an Electronic Benefits Transfer card to verify their eligibility for welfare payments, or by bringing tax statements to a phone provider.
The phones' legitimate purposes include poverty-level job applicants' use as contact numbers for job interviews and emergency contacts for children of single parents.
But when James O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas is a perennial thorn in the side of progressive policymakers, sent an undercover actor into a Stand Up Wireless location in Philadelphia, the man's stated purpose was to buy drugs.
"Once you guys give me this phone, it's my phone?" he asked an employee inside a Philadelphia brick-and-mortal Stand Up Wireless location. "I can, like, sell it and stuff?"
"Whatever you want to do with it," the worker replied.
"So I'm [going to] get some money for heroin," he offered.
The employee coolly responded, "Hey, I don't judge."
Salespeople working for Stand Up Wireless and TerraCom Wireless - the two companies featured in the video footage - were willing to assign phones to applicants who said they would immediately sell them instead of using them according to the program's guidelines.
O'Keefe published a five-minute compilation of his video investigation Tuesday morning, along with a longer reel of raw footage. MailOnline has reviewed both. His book, 'Breakthrough: Our Guerrilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy,' went on sale Tuesday.
The conservative agitator's antics usually reach members of Congress. Arkansas Republican congressman Tim Griffin is trying to cut the "OBAMA" phone off.
Griffin is most concerned with what he sees as corporate welfare in the phone program.
"It's not fair that people who work, save and pay for their cell phones are forced to fund the Lifeline program that pads the pockets of people like Carlos Slim, the foreign billionaire who has repeatedly been named the World’s Richest Man," Griffin said.
"The tactics used by many of these companies demonstrate that their focus is on maximizing profits, not helping low-income individuals or saving taxpayers money."
Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) is another one who wants to kill off the cell phone program.
The controversial senator have pushed to eliminate cell phones from the program, leaving the land line portion intact for emergencies and career-building uses.
"The free government cell phones issue just keeps getting more outrageous," Vitter told MailOnline.
"This phone program has expanded far beyond its original intent, and having Washington force people to pay for free cell phones for others is offensive enough, but the waste, fraud and abuse is beyond words."
Vitter attempted to attach his legislation to the Farm Bill this month, but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) blocked a vote. For his recent efforts, Vitter has attracted attack ads in his own district from TracFone.
The Lifeline program began in 1984, before cell phones were commercially widespread. Since mobile phones were added to the program in 2008, a Vitter spokesman told MailOnline, costs related to non-land line phones have increased twelve-fold.
Congressman Tim Griffin (R-Akansas) is another politicians who wants to meddle in the business of the poor and needy. |
Changes included a requirement for marketers to 'recertify' every phone recipient on an annual basis and to obtain proof of income eligibility from every new enrolled, steps that weren't taken previously.
The FCC also found 1.1 million 'duplicate' subscriptions that exceeded the one-per-household limit. That number amounted to more than 9 per cent of the program's enrollments, according to an agency press release.
Still, the FCC insists that Lifeline's mobile component, the so-called 'Obama phone,' is worth saving.
Again, this is what the conservative/white supremacist bubble worries their pathetic asses off. This kind of stuff is probably less than 5% of the nation's economic turmoils. We spend over billions in Afghanistan and Iraq and lost thousands of lives.
Yet, one severely poor person can't use a "OBAMA" phone to a call for a job interview. A 911 call isn't worth it if they've remove the pay phones. An older American can't get a phone.
The ACORN Pimp is usually deceiving people with these videos. But if you're interested in viewing it. Go ahead, it's not worth my time to watch a bunch of idiots fall victim to the character actor.