Don't Text Me, Bro

by Karen De Coster, LRC Blog
Jun. 13, 2011

Yep. As is usual with the news that comes my way nowadays, I thought this was a joke. The Texter-in-Chief, Herr Obama, has expanded the Federal Communications Commission's emergency alert system to allow the government to terrorize you with its fear mongering propaganda via text messages to your wireless device. And you can't completely opt out. This racket is named PLAN for Personal Localized Alerting Network. Here is the FCC's description of this Orwellian dog and pony show.

The text-message warnings will be able to be sent out to phones and other mobile devices based on their geographic location, across different mobile carriers, officials said.

PLAN is being rolled out by the FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the cooperation of cellular service providers, according to a FEMA statement.

In case you were worried about not getting your daily dose of propaganda, don't lose any sleep.

Consumers do not need to sign up for the service; their carrier will automatically sign them up, and they won't be charged for receiving any PLAN text alerts, the agencies said.

Only three types of alerts will be sent out on PLAN: messages issued by the president, alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life, and Amber alerts.

Perhaps some crafty entrepreneur will come up with an App that will send me a text message whenever the UDSA conducts an armed raid, when a TSA ape conducts another publicized sexual molestation, when a peaceful citizen is tasered by the coppers, when the FTC blocks another private business transaction, when gold/silver prices go up, or when the Federal Reserve initiates another quantitative easing to stimulate Wall Street. Now that's an emergency alert system I would sign up for.