Gag Order

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Post Office Bait and Switch

A new initiative by the U.S Postal Service that appears on the surface to be a good deal for customers is in fact setting the stage for bankruptcy and a future bailout of the Post Office with taxpayer money.

This week, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue plans to announce that all future stamps sales will be so-called “forever stamps,” which can still be used even if postage rates go up.

Anyone who has had to hunt around for 1 or 2 cent stamps to add to their old stamps after an increase may consider this good news.

However, consider the implications of this action. The Post Office is currently experiencing a severe budget deficit and has been unable to gain approval for a postal rate increase. In addition, they are threatening to stop delivering mail on Saturdays as a way to cut costs. As Peter Schiff astutely points out in this interview with The Daily Bell, the Post Office is trying to solve their short term revenue problems at the cost of even bigger problems down the road.

The Post Office will try to use any short term increase in sales from these forever stamps to solve their immediate fiscal problems. But if the Post Office is already having trouble operating at full capacity with current prices, imagine how difficult it will be to do so in five or ten years after inflation has pushed their costs up AND they are selling even fewer stamps because so many people already purchased them in the past.

In fact, this move is setting the stage for a future taxpayer bailout of the Post Office because it virtually guarantees its future bankruptcy.

The low price of stamps is not the reason why the Post Office is facing such huge deficits. The Post Office is seeking a 5.6% increase in the price of stamps despite an inflation rate of just 0.6%.

Instead, the Post Office is facing budget shortfalls because it is unwilling to engage in the necessary reform of its operations necessary in the modern economy.

As I discussed in To Save America, which is now out in an updated paperback version, the Post Office’s union work rules require it to pay a large group of employees more than a million dollars a week to do nothing. Instead of being able to lay off redundant workers, the Post Office (and by extension, every American who uses the mail) keeps them on salary through a program called “standby time.”

If the Post Office really wants to solve its fiscal challenges, it needs to engage in the difficult work of reforming its operating procedures, including its suffocating and costly union work rules like “standby time.”

Congress should block the Post Office from implementing this genuinely dumb move and force it to confront the true cause of its budget woes and implement real reform.

via Forever Stamp Folly – HUMAN EVENTS.

During a November 18 House debate, North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-5th) engaged in an anti-union screed that lasted several minutes.

After attacking the pay and benefits of federal workers, she said that they also have too much job security. “Short of shooting up a post office,” Foxx said, “government workers rarely get fired or laid off.”

“Foxx’s statements about unions are factually wrong and her reference to workplace shootings in post offices was tasteless and demeaning to hard-working postal employees,” National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric V. Rolando said. “Her comments were morbidly disrespectful to those postal employees and their families who have been the victims of shootings.

“Also, it is a myth that poorly performing federal workers—much less those that commit crimes—never get fired,” he added. “But workers facing dismissal or discipline have every right to union representation. The unions that represent federal workers make no apologies for providing this representation and ensuring fairness in the workplace.

“I have written Representative Foxx and demanded an apology, and the NALC will engage the media in her congressional district to expose her outrageous comments,” Rolando said.

The president also encourages members who live in Rep. Foxx’s district to write and/or call her district office to express your concerns over the negative and inaccurate image of federal workers that she tried to project.

The Honorable Virginia Foxx
6000 Meadowbrook Mall, Suite 3
Clemmons, NC 27012
Toll-free (866) 677-8968

via Latest News | Tasteless comments from Rep. Foxx.

Henry Lee Monday appeals his conviction by a jury of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1709, which, in pertinent part, provides felony penalties for a United States Postal Service employee entrusted with mail who “steals, abstracts, or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein . . . .” Monday does not dispute the essential facts of the case, which establish that, while delivering mail as a Postal Service letter carrier, he opened a letter containing a birthday card, removed $40 in cash from the card, and used a portion of those funds to purchase snack food from a liquor store. Monday’s sole contention is that the district court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that, to convict, the government was required to prove that Monday had the specific intent permanently to deprive the owner of the money that he removed.

We conclude that the statute, in prohibiting Postal Employees from removing contents from mailed items, contains no such specific intent requirement. We therefore affirm Monday’s conviction.

BACKGROUND

A factual twist in this case is that the incriminating letter was a “test letter” placed in the mail by postal inspectors who were conducting an investigation of Monday for mail theft. At trial, Monday attempted to turn this fact to his advantage by testifying that he “knew the letter was a ‘plant’ ” but opened it “because [he] had a lot of things on [his] mind that [he] had wanted to discuss with the postal inspectors, and [he] figured at that time that they would come and arrest [him] or do what they had to do so [he] could talk to them.” He stated that he did not intend to steal the money. Had the district court instructed the jury that conviction required proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Monday “intended to permanently deprive” the Government of its money, as Monday proposed, this rather novel defense might at least have made theoretical sense. Under the instruction actually given by the court, however, the only mental element that the Government had to prove was that Monday took the money “knowing that it belonged to someone else,” a fact to which Monday had already attested.

Read the full decision.

And what evil agency is going to stop Grandma? You guessed it:

“It seems that the U.S. Postal Service raises the cost of a postage stamp every few weeks.”

Now I realize that as we age time seems to go by faster and faster, but is Ms. McFeatters so old that a year and a half seems like a few weeks? The USPS last raised first class postage rates in May of 2009. The proposed two cent increase would go into effect in January 2011, 19 months later. I can’t really think of too many services that go that long between price adjustments.

Ms. McFeatters can, though! She says “Competitors such as FedEx and UPS seem to be able to stay in business quite profitably without constantly raising rates. Why can’t the huge Postal Service?”

Ann apparently doesn’t actually use either FedEx or UPS, or she might be aware of the fact that both companies raise their rates every year, in January. You might think that McFeatters would have checked her facts, but apparently Scripps Howard doesn’t feel the need for columns to be factual. After all, if she had bothered to actually verify what she was writing, she wouldn’t have had much of a column left!

The ignorance of postal and private rate history almost distracts you from the underlying premise of the column- that poor Grandmas across the country who can afford to send out $20 bills as gifts will somehow be unable to come up with 2 cents more to do so. I may be going out on a limb here, but let me just toss out a thought: maybe send a check for $19.98?

Fortunately, the readers of poor Anne’s column have been helpfully pointing out her errors- here are some samples:

We have the right to freedom of speak in America but please ….. do your research before you print such nonsense. The total impact per person with a 2 cent increase is less than 5 dollars per year. How much has everything else gone up?

If a few cents will keep someone from sending a greeting card or gift cross country, I would have to question the sincerity of the sentiment anyway….Please, by any reckoning the Postal Service is a bargain. I can’t believe howmany people say the have stopped sending holiday cards because it is too expensive…Right, it is the least expensive way to tangibly say, “I’m thinking of you at this time” around. Get real!

Ms. McFeatters obviously does not reseach before she writes. 50 cent stamps someday? Of course. Eventually they will be a dollar. Please name me an item of something that has went down in price. Our local newspaper was 25 cents 10 years ago…today it is 75 cents. Milk, bread, gasoline…pick anything…all have increased. Postage increases have been well below the rate of inflation since 1970. An increase every few weeks? The last was 15 months ago. Please check FedEx and UPS, as they have raised their rates more often. Yes, look at their profits. USPS is not allowed to make a profit. Please, go online and visit UPS, FedEx, USPS…research how much it costs to mail something overnight, 2 days, whatever…do your research

Just so you know Fedex and UPS are raising rates in January just like every year. Did you research at all.

via Watch: The 50-cent postage stamp can’t be far off | ScrippsNews.

“I could tell he was okay,” said Keith. “It was pretty clear he was sleeping.”Turns out it wasn’t a short nap either because, a few minutes later on his way to the dentist, Gould saw him still counting sheep. This time he brought out his camera.“He was out cold,” said Keith. “It was pretty funny.”

Good to know that Keith was able to diagnose the carrier’s condition and see the humor in what most people would consider a possibly life-threatening situation.

To its credit, Canada Post refused to play along with the columnist, and defended the carrier:

“Instead of waiting to get appropriate information that would have produced, at the very least, a balanced story, a 20-year employee with an exemplary record was singled out as a joke for all his colleagues, friends and family to see,” said a letter to the editor from Jon Hamilton, general manager of communications for Canada Post.“I am writing to convey our incredible disappointment.”

“Thank you for your questions, but we’re not interested in supporting a further story beyond confirming he completed his route on time despite the setback at the relay box,” wrote Hamilton. “I would respectfully ask you to let it go. I’m all for supporting/defending the actions of the corporation at any time. But this is about a guy who didn’t deserve this type of treatment and certainly doesn’t deserve more.”

In a telephone interview, Canada Post spokesman Anick Losier said the carrier is a very good employee who she would “go to bat for any time” and that there were “personal” reasons why he was asleep.

“You had your fun,” she said.

Many readers agreed with that sentiment and expressed frustration in numerous comments and emails.

By way of contrast, here’s another story about someone “napping” on the job: Keith Gould would have been rolling on the floor in tears if he’d been in USPS letter carrier Frances Byrne’s shoes last week. Byrne was delivering mail in the local courthouse on Friday when she noticed a man apparently napping at his desk. Instead of whipping out her camera, Byrne tried to determine if the guy was OK- he wasn’t.

Byrne said the Veterans officer called 911 to assist with the situation. Harrison County Deputy Auditor Carolyn Lowe arrived at work around 10 a.m.

“The ambulances were here at the courthouse and a police car was there,” Lowe said. “As I walked on to the courthouse, I see all the EMTs working on Tom in his office.”

Bube was initially taken to Harrison County Hospital, but was transferred to Floyd Memorial Hospital later in the afternoon. At last report, he is listed in critical but stable condition.

I bet Keith Gould and wacky columnist Joe Wormington would have died laughing!

via So, that’s why they call it snail mail | Joe Warmington | Columnists | News | Toronto Sun.