NOW THAT THE UTTERLY SHAMELESS CONGRESSIONAL ERRAND BOYS FOR THE OLIGARCHY ARE WORKING HARD TO SHUT DOWN OR PRIVATIZE THE UNITES STATES POSTAL SERVICE, ONE OF THE MOST NECESSARY AND APPRECIATED PUBLIC AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES (and one that is self-funded, mind you), and a major employer, to boot, with little or no opposition from Obama or the Dems (as usual), it HAS fallen on a mobilized public and occasional media figures like Ed Schultz to speak out on its behalf.
ON 9.29.11 MSNBC’S ED SCHULTZ, HOST OF THE ED SHOW, delivered an impassioned plea against such policy, which would essentially cancel a vital service to rural communities, the elderly, and small businesses all over the nation. And it would also reduce the voting ability of people in states such as Washington and Oregon, where voting by mail is official.
The charge against the USPS has been led by Darrell Issa, a cynical California Republican with a checkered past who manages to stand out among that party’s ubiquitous scum. So at this time the fate of the U.S. Postal Service, now $9.2 billion in debt, lies with a handful of lawmakers its workers’ unions hope will enact the serious reform needed to save the federal agency. Rep. Issa, of Lebanese descent but who prefers not to be identified as an Arab, and chairman of the committee that oversees the Postal Service, was once one of those lawmakers. But now, after pushing his Postal Reform Act through a House subcommittee, postal unions consider Issa their greatest foe. Back during the 2010 election cycle, Issa was the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and he promised postal unions that he would work on their behalf. Postal unions responded by contributing $41,000 to his re-election campaign, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. (Incidentally, will someone tell Obama that he should forthrightly declare he will veto such a bill? That’s the least he can do now that, confronted with a shaky base, he’s been trumpeting to the four winds that he’s a “Class Warrior”. )
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OK, so Schultz deserves credit for standing up for the postal service and its employes, who often discharge their duties under tough conditions. But the problem with figures like Schultz is that, for all the lambasting he does of the Republicans and assorted rightwingers, he does too much yakking in defense of the Democratic party and its main players, from Obama on down, and in that manner he blocks liberals and Obamabots from realizing that this utterly corporatized party is a graveyard for authentic popular aspirations, and should not be trusted.
Still, we live in such squalid times that Schultz’s contradictions and blinders toward the Dems (no doubt encouraged by the suits at MSNBC, a filthy lot even by the standards of the corporate media) will have to be forgiven and his vocal denunciation of those who would scuttle such a vital service acknowledged with due gratitude.—PG
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