Zombie: The first five Presidential Emergency Text Messages
Our buddy, Zombie posts “The first five Presidential Emergency Text Messages“. of course it’s in reference to the new alert system the Administration put in place that’s going to warn us about potential disasters and terrorist attacks. it sounds like a fairly good idea, but the people who call themselves “pro-choice” aren’t giving you a choice, in this case;
“Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones equipped with special chips and software.”
The nation’s top cell phone carriers (Verizon and AT&T) are already signed on for the system, but users can opt out of receiving the local alerts and Amber alerts. However, no one will be able to out of the Presidential Alerts, which as a result will eventually become compulsory for all cell phone users nationwide:
Consumers would be able to opt out of all but those presidential messages.
My concern is that this is a gateway for the “right” to have a cellphone like all of those other “rights” that have been discovered recently – the right to privacy, patient rights, passenger rights – well, you know.
Of course, the only people who don’t have cellphones can’t afford them (or want one), so the government will have to mandate someone to give them a phone so they can be warned along with the rest of us of late buses and Republicans coming to make us worship their God or whatever other tragedy we’re going to learn about through this system.
But someone is going to have to pay for the poor people’s phones and it’s probably going to be me…and, oh, yeah, you, too. And then you’ll have to pay for those text messages, too. And the taxes on those text charges. Either that or the government will make cellphone companies give them phones and then our rates will go up to pay for them.
Anyway, go read the rest of Zombie’s post.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Taxes
It is already happening. No, not the so-called Obama phone with 70 minutes a month, but the “assurance wireless” program. This one is because through some sort of gummint coercion, (Why else would a capitalist company “give” phones and minutes away?), Virgin Mobile will give those who are “needy”, (very easily and broadly defined), a phone as well as 240 minutes a month, and offer a plan that for $5 will give additional blocks of 240 minutes. How easy to qualify? I am on Social Security, no other reason, and I qualify.
When this notification system goes operational, or soon after, we will be required to respond as directed to messages sent to us? I am not a conspiracy nut, not a birther, deather or truther, but this is quite a reach on my liberty, is it not?
Jonn, It’s already a “right” to have a cell phone. — ok, Frankly Opinionated beat me, Read Above.
Time to get serious about buying that island. F’em and let’em eat fishheads.
Dang FO: My current cell phone/system just barely covers my patch.
Jonn’s tax dollars at work indeed. Thanks Jonn, Do ya reckon someone will also show up to demonstrate how to respond to text messages?
BTW, Jonn wins teh silly award for today from MY seat.
This is a terrorists dream come true. Bear in mind any phone you buy will automatically be set up to receive these alerts, you have to opt out. Now being the diabolical person that I am it took me all of 3 seconds to realize that if I really wanted to have some jihadi fun all I need to do is build say a dozen bombs, wander down to the local homeless hangout and steal about dozen no doubt government funded cell phones and attach them to said bombs. Plant the bombs around the city, turn on the phone and wait for Janet Nincompoop to send me a message telling me how she has everything under control.
Can you imagine being a member of a bomb squad carefully approaching a bomb rigged with a cell phone and praying that PrezBo didn’t choose that moment to tell you what he scored on his latest round of golf.
Gotcha Zero: I use an AT&T plan, (Cell/Air Card), and while it is high, it is what I need in this particular part of the boonies to get adequate computer service. (Satellite is not fast enough on the upload side for my art work.) This Gummint phone is laying in its box, unopened, and I may give it as a gift someday, service and all.
Text number six:
“Aw, shit! Michelle just took the last tamale!”
But yeah, today “rights” to cell phones on the taxpayer dime. Tomorrow, “rights” to laptops and Wi-Fi on our dime as well. Oh wait–they’re already getting that too.
Someone needs to have the idiots who want this system have a sit-down with the Australians and ask them how well it works. During the recent catastrophic floods, the Aussies, who have this same system, managed to overwhelm their cell system and shut it down for hours due to these government “warnings”. As a result, 1st responders who needed to use these systems were unable to do so, and those who needed to contact emergency numbers for help were likewise left to themselves with no means to contact emergency services.
Does no one else remember what happened on 9/11 when everyone in the country tried to call NYC at the same time?
This is a stupid idea that will get people killed. No surprise that nanny-staters thought this one up.
That was my first thought, Tim. The first message that Incopetano sends out will, in all probability, shut down the Sprint and Verizon systems totally.
Not to mention, all the folks who’ll be sending those “essential” texts, like who to vote for on Idol.
But, who knew you could get on this plan and pay less than $20 bucks a month for unlimited texts?
Not to worry. Hacking a stop for this kind of nonsense would take one of the Droid Hackers (Cyanogenmod comes to mind) about 10 minutes and a cheeseburger.
OldCavLt: It’s nice to see that these United States can still produce something of value,. eh?
I’d have thought our military would be “reaching out” and trying to scarf up a bunch of these hackers for our own nefarious purposes. 🙂
It sounds as if this would be a seperate chip in the phone. If it isn’t integrated into the rest of the sytem, I would simply pop the government chip out off the phone.