When up is down.
I have to admit, I've never read the USPS Operation Manual. But I'm pretty sure there's nothing in it about massacring baby birds.
But that's what the title of a recommended diary here effectively says. "USPS Perpetrates Massacre".
Turns out it was a private contractor that did the massacring. I sincerely hope they get prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And if the USPS employee who hired the contractor was involved, I hope that employee gets it too.
But said diary doesn't condemn the actions of individuals. It uses this tragedy to smear the entire United States Postal Service. And that's something I've been seeing a lot lately - though I shouldn't expect to see it on a Democratic site.
But it's worse. The diarist even channels Ronald Reagan and blames this travesty on the evil "bureaucracy".
Hearing the Postal Service and "bureacrats" together again was like reliving Newt Gingrich's Contract on America. And it gave me the same nasty feeling.
Now, normally, I would let this slide. But there are two thing that piss me off about this.
1. The USPS is under attack right now by Wall Street whose agenda is to privatize everything in site and loot the Commonwealth which, for some of you younger readers, means your fucking property. As Americans, this is your shit. You own it. But, as far as I can see, you're letting the bankers (the same ones you just committed your great grandchildren to bail out) steal it - your roads, bridges, parking lots on PUBLIC property, the airwaves and digital bandwidth, your natural resources, you country.
2. And this one actually affects me more because it's personal, but I actually know my local postal workers. They're good people. They don't massacre things. And they do a great fucking job. Yes, the USPS is a bureaucracy. But it tgot its shit together back in the 90s. Now it's a lean mean machine and a great source of some of the last remaining stable, living wage jobs in this country.
Now I understand the desire, when something tragic and stupid like this occurs, to see heads roll. But be careful where you point the finger. If Wall Street gets its way, the price of shipping everything will skyrocket without our good old Postal Service there to keep prices down.
And on a side note, can Democrats actually, you know, defend the People's government for a change? Is that possible?