God Wants Homeless People To Lobby The FCC To Help The Outcast & Downtrodden AT&T?
from the say-what-now? dept
For years we've talked about how various lobbyist organizations in DC have "special interest" front groups. These are groups who get attention from politicians but really have no interest in the policy matters at hand. However, because large companies have donated to those front groups, the lobbyists get to write up letters pretending to be from those groups, so they can pressure politicians who don't want to "upset" a certain special interest group."You go down the Latino people, the deaf people, the farmers, and choose them.... You say, 'I can't use this one--I already used them last time...' We had their letterhead. We'd just write the letter. We'd fax it to them and tell them, 'You're in favor of this.'"Sometimes they don't even bother getting permission, such as the time that a Burger King franchise wrote a letter complaining about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Except, when a reporter called the franchise execs, they had no idea what the CFTC was. There was some actual backlash earlier this year when AT&T got the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to come out in favor of its merger with T-Mobile, upsetting much of the membership, and leading a bunch of board members (including an AT&T lobbyist) to resign.
However, one small setback in such practices is no big deal when you have that big list of groups to go through. After "the Latino people, the deaf people, the farmers" apparently there are the religious homeless shelters. The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, proud recipients of a $50,000 donation from AT&T, has come out in favor of the merger with impeccably inscrutable logic:
The faith-based service provider offered what it acknowledged was “an out-of-place endorsement” of the AT&T merger with T-Mobile, with Rev. R. Henry Martin explaining that “People often call on God to help the outcasts and downtrodden that walk among us, [but] [s]ometimes, however, it is our responsibility to take matters into our own hands. Please support this merger.”I'm still trying to figure out what that means. First, it seems to be suggesting that homeless people need to step up their game to support the "outcasts and downtrodden" AT&T and T-Mobile that "walk among us." Because, um, otherwise, what does that refer to? The homeless people may be outcasts and downtrodden, but the shelter isn't asking for any help for them.. but rather for AT&T and T-Mobile. I guess it also implies that God supports the merger but apparently God alone can't convince the FCC, so apparently, if homeless folks could lobby and support one of the largest corporations around, that will be helpful.
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Filed Under: fcc, god, homeless, lobbying, merger
Companies: at&t, t-mobile
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Logic Escaped
I mean, I assume some off these people will use the shelter as their address, and some may be registered at the address of family, etc. But certainly, some of these people probably can't even read or write - probably a majority of them - so the threat of not getting a dozen votes here rings pretty hollow, no?
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Of course certain politicians would love to change that, there's been changes in voting law lately to make it harder and more inconvenient to vote if you're poor or don't have a driver's license.
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Re: Logic Escaped
Seriously?? There are many reasons why people become homeless and illiteracy is not the main reason. You probably didn't mean it that way, but your post comes off a little contemptuous of people down on their luck.
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Re: Logic Escaped
They do have an address: that of the homeless shelter. Many churches and civic groups also allow homeless people to use their address for this purpose.
This likely varies by region, but most homeless people are literate. Perhaps not college-level literate, but literate nonetheless. Also, a large percentage of homeless people are, in fact, educated (and a shocking number have college degrees). A large percentage of homeless people are not the stereotypical "bum" and are not unemployed. If you live in a reasonably populated area, you probably interact with at least one homeless person a day and don't even know they're homeless.
Also, the "homeless voting block" is larger than the homeless themselves, but would also include people who work with the home and are sympathetic with the homeless.
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You laugh, but the homeless do care about the merger
So you see, the homeless do have a stake in the merger.
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While I don't necessarily agree with the methods he employs I can understand the importance of the phone. Also, if it is a pay as you go phone, whose to say he actually has enough money to buy the food he took? I'm just curious why he didn't get his food at the shelter?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: You laugh, but the homeless do care about the merger
Maybe the hotel food was better?
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They may not have had any for him. Most shelters cannot actually feed or shelter everyone who comes to them.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: You laugh, but the homeless do care about the merger
all you need is an e-mail addy.
You don't even need your own computer since you can access your email from any public library computer.
2)"...why he didn't get his food at the shelter?"
The food at the hotel was better!
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par for the course...
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Isn't this how most of us survive?
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That's brilliant
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Do they just look at which social groups are 'in favour' of something and decide, solely on that information, whether to support something - "the blacks, the gays, the homeless are in favour of this, so I'd [better/better not] support this to prove my [liberal/conservative] credentials!"
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The list the politicians use shows how much gets "donated" by these lobbyists.
And the groups that send in support letters are meant to placate the public. I supported this because cause X you believe in gave them support! We want the easy fast answer even if it is untrue.
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If the homeless support the merger ..
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My image is of agony, my servants rape the land
Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain
Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name
Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law
My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore.
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It's especially hard when you agree with their plight. Personally I am in favor of the merger, and here's why you should be as well. Duetch Telecom, the parent company of T-Mobile, is not interested in investing in the business. That means no bandwidth acquisition, but with people demanding more from their phones (smart phones are the largest growing segment in the telecom industry), more and more bandwidth is required for each phone.
The merger would make sense for multiple reasons. one it would allow both T-Mobile and AT&T to merge their backhaul - this would provide more bandwidth for both at less expense per customer. Secondly, coverage expansion could happen because of the increased bandwidth provided by T Mobile's existing spectrum. Third, without this acquisition, T Mobile will simply whither on the vine as its parent company has no expansion plans.
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People might want more bandwidth than T-Mobile might want to provide, this means those people can look at the options from other carriers rather than be shunted into the AT&T fold and end up with fewer choices in a market dominated by few carriers who have no interest in getting more bandwidth, investing in expansion, or offering quality service.
Had it occurred that part of the reason T-Mobile has no expansion plans is because the major players have enough congress critter trading cards in their pockets to make sure that anyone outside of them has a hard time getting any headway? Because corporations getting "favors" that hurt competition in this country is not unheard of. That competition that should help provide options for the consumer is not actually happening because its bad for the corporations bottom line. And corporations with a smaller bottom line won;t have millions to pour into donations.
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Astroturfing
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God helps...
I think AT&T should be rather high on Gods list of whom to help by now.
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Christ reminds us...
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