Homeless Man With Cell Phone

Searching for something (anything) to bitch about when it comes to the Obama's, Andrew Malcolm seizes on Michelle Obama serving food at a homeless shelter in order to point out that some filthy homeless person is taking a picture of the First Lady with a cellphone. Blissfully unaware of cheap disposable cellphones that can be purchased anywhere, Malcolm wonders where the disgusting parasitic poor have their phone bills delivered.

What homeless people have cell phones !?!?! Why don't they use fixed phones in their residences. Oh they don't have fixed residences.

But I mean why would a homeless person want a phone. Can't they just go get a job. You know when the guy says "Don't call us we'll call you" tell him to call a homeless shelter. Employers love to call homeless shelters to hire people.

It's very hard to live without a phone in the USA. Cell phones cost roughly nothing. Calling people with cell phones costs money, but, you know an SMS when one is late to an appointment, because the bus didn't come on time, costs very little. Receiving calls on a cell phone costs nothing.

All the poorish people I know (none of whom is homeless) save money by not having a fixed phone and relying on cell phones. They used to be a status symbol (really they were a status symbol once kids). Now they are, if anything, the opposite.

Of course *my* cell phone doesn't have a camera. A cell phone with a camera. Now that is tooo much.

Via atrios.

Update: I assumed that bit by TBogg about "phone bills delivered" was a joke, that is, I commented on Malcom's blog post without reading it (by bad). Now I find it ends as follows

And if he is homeless, where do they send the cellphone bills?

-- Andrew Malcolm

I am honestly dumfounded by Malcolm's ignorance. I have a cell phone. I don't get cell phone bills. it is a prepaid cell phone. I pay in advance (at an ATM or using, you guessed it, a cell phone). This means that Malcolm is not only ignorant about the homeless, he is also ignorant about anti-terrorism policy, FISA and NSA surveillance.

The geniuses who can identify an al Qaeda sleeper agent with only a tiny amount of data on known al Qaeda sleeper agents (as in less than 10 are known) tend to be secretive about their techniques (partly so al Qaeda doesn't know, partly because they were grossly illegal, and, probably, mostly because they were nonsensical). They do however, discuss pre-paid cell phones a lot. No bill, no address, no need to have a record of the customer's name for the system to work (although I'm sure the customer's name is supposed to be recorded somewhere).

I mean has he been hiding in a cave as long as Osama bin Laden. I *hate* cell phones and even I know that you don't need an address where they can send the bill to use a cell phone.