Laura Bush's former flak continues to embarrass LA Times
March 06, 2009 11:01 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Andrew Malcolm, who used to work for Laura Bush, blogs politics at the Times and types up inanities with numbing regularity. Today he mocks the homeless -- or at least the very poor of Washington, D.C. -- while taking a swipe at Michelle Obama's volunteer work.
The point of his pointless item was that Obama put in some time at a soup kitchen not far from the White House, but that one of the men in line pulled out a cell phone to snap a photo of the first lady.
Malcolm, suddenly on the beat as a poverty cop, demands:
If this unidentified meal recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cellphone? And if he is homeless, where do they send the cellphone bills?
Just pathetic.
And by the way, the soup kitchen Obama volunteered at is privately funded, which means it's nobody's business who it serves or doesn't serve. But media elite Malcolm, sitting in some comfortable office, demands answers about just how poor the poor people are who are lined up for free food in the nation's capital.
UPDATE: Right-wing bloggers think the item's funny: Ha-ha, poor people don't have phones!!
UPDATE: Writes Tbogg:
Later Malcolm will review older pictures from the last Republican Depression That FDR Was Responsible For and wonder why all the poor guys begging for bread were wearing such spiffy suits and nice hats.
I LOVE the way that a prez who spent time helping inner city families just p's off the right wing nuts!
At the same time, it makes me want to vomit when you link to crackpots like Malkin & ex-Bushies.
So the point here is that if you are poor, you are:
a) not allowed to have any devices like TVs or cellphones that conservatives do not approve of (good luck getting out of poverty without those things)
b) you are subject to being flaunted around as a loser by the rich-class on the right
Beautiful, Michelle & Andrew. I hope hell is not too hot for you!
First, go ahead and assume that someone is scamming the system; how does that diminish what Michelle Obama is doing? (Answer for the addled rightwingers among us: It doesn't)
But how about maybe, just maybe, the guy with the cellphone got it through one of the free cellphones programs for low income and/or homeless people, designed to allow them to have access to emergency calling, calls for employment, etc. SafeLink Wireless has such a program that covers Florida, Georgia, Massachussets, Michigan, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania... and oh yes, the District of Clumbia.
I remember them being incensed that someone had a story about a poor family on welfare, and they had of all things, a COLOR TV! You can't be poor and have a color TV they demanded, of course, this would be true, in like, 1965 when simple tube TVs were a lot of money. I think they were made one time as well when a poor family had an air conditioner in their squalid living arrangements.
You can buy cellphones at Goodwill nowdays. The technology's really not that new and fancy anymore. I found a phone on Craigslist for $20 once when mine was stolen a couple years ago. I still have it. It's a trusty little phone. There are also charitable programs that provide cell phones and minutes to poor and homeless people to help them seek employment and to provide them access to emergency services.
It is fascinating to see the way people think.
This guy assumes that a cell phone must cost a couple hundred dollars and have a billing system.
Would that be because he is too ignorant to know that you can buy a cell phone for twenty bucks and a phone card for fifteen? Or is this another Reagan dog whistle that assumes that homelessness is a life style choice that people are free to make without interference from the government.
Everyone knows that real true homeless people have no family, no money, and no hope, so if they were really truly homeless they wouldn't have a cell phone, or food, or shoes. Criminy!