From last week’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

SEN. SPECTER: As you know, this committee was hard at work with legislation which I had proposed and others had co-sponsored and four hearings. And I think we could have been of assistance to you if we had been consulted.

The issue of the signing statements, Mr. Attorney General, continues to be a matter of major concern. Read the rest of this entry »

The first victim of the 2001 anthrax mailings was Robert Stevens, 63, a photo editor with the tabloid The Sun. Five years later, his widow is still fighting to get the government to find out why he and the other victims died.

Answers elude anthrax inquiry: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Here’s a piece I wish I had seen yesterday from the Stamp Collecting Round-Up blog. The  National Postal Museum’s online exhibit, mentioned in the story, is a surprisingly moving experience- especially seeing the bullseye canceller with the date “SEP 11 2001″, followed by the “UNKNOWN: RETURN TO SENDER” stamp from “NEW YORK, NY 10048″.

The Stamp Collecting Round-Up: Church Street station

With all the hysteria that followed the alleged terrorist plot to blow up airliners a few weeks ago, it was probably inevitable that someone would suggest doing away with luggage altogether. A piece in Ground Support magazine does just that. So how would you get your stuff to your destination?

Allow the United States Postal Service along with 4,000 parcel carriers to handle baggage that is currently carried by the airline industry and directed by a leader of the luggage movement industry.

Fractured syntax aside, who do you suppose the “leader of the luggage movement industry” might be who would direct this? Well, the author of the piece, Richard Altomare, is CEO of Universal Express, which says its business is to “facilitate and manage the movement of baggage door to door for leisure and business travelers”. And if the phrase “luggage movement industry” is new to you- don’t feel bad. A google search produced only three hits, all of them to pieces written by Mr. Altomare.

I guess turnabout is fair play- if George Bush and the Republicans can demagogue the so-called war on terror every chance they get, why can’t a labor leader use it every now and then? That must have been Bill Young’s reasoning when he decided to tell NALC delegates at the union’s convention that “In the midst of a global war on terror, now is not the time to open a hole in the nation’s defenses by giving unscreened, contingent workers access to the mail stream.”

Come on, Bill- you’re about as worried about terrorism as Bill Burrus is about service standards. Contracting out delivery is bad for your members because it will cost them their jobs, and it’s bad for the country because it furthers the right wing agenda that seeks to deprive American workers of their rights and benefits. It’s got nothing to do with terrorism.

Young Warns That Contracting Out Mail Delivery Could Weaken Nation’s Defense Against Terrorism