I've been a fan of the blog, Legal Insurrection for quite a while. I like the prof's take on things, his Saturday night card game, the way he called out RINO turncoat Scott Brown when he flipped on several important issues.
I've donated several times to his blog and sent a couple of e-mails as well. Though he didn't respond to the last request for some info, he did link to me, but it may have been a mocking as it was during his "All Weiner, all the time" phase, and my blog name, well . . . do the math.
But the prof has a shiney new website, and is looking for hits and comments, so he does what every desperate conservative blogger does when they want assured traffic -- he slams the Post Office.
Now it was couched in the thinly veiled "Oh look at this video I found" innocent look -- picture Jack Benny with his hand on his chin (sorry if you're too young for that imagery). At least the hypocritical Ed Morrisey and cowardly Allahpundit over at HotAir have the guts to put a picture of a raw steak on the post when they throw the red meat out to their dogs.
And, to be fair, it only generated 17 comments, but they are the usual lie-filled distortions I've come to see on all conservative blogs when they begin bashing a work force made up of honorably discharged military veterans and other hard working, tax paying citizens.
So let's see what we have tonight:
A guy called 49eerDweet, talks about SEIU members . . . okay, though we have several unions and are part of the AFL/CIO, we're not SEIU members. So don't lump us in with those thugs.
Another commentor, Milhouse, said that delivery to remote areas should cost more and people who choose to live out there should put up with the extra cost. Yeah, see Milhouse, there's this thing going on called ObamaCare, maybe you've heard of it? And one of the ways fiscal conservatives have pointed out that money could be saved, and I'm going to type really slow here so you can understand, when you pool large numbers of consumers together you can decrease everyone's costs. Amazing, huh? It works for postage too. Millions of people buy stamps, so some dude out in Old Overshoes, Nebraska, doesn't have to pay $50 to get a letter delivered. What a concept!
Another loser, jackee308 made the statement that the PO has lost money 26 of the last 40 years. Really? 'Cause I've worked there for 25 and we've only lost money the last 5 years, since the Fed demanded we pre-pay our disability retirement to the tune of $5.5 billion per year. Btw, no other company, public or private, has to do this. So basically, this dude is a flat out liar. Or just stupid. Probably both.
Oh this one is good, jimg says he never uses the Post Office so to his thinking no one else needs it either. This is sort of like when someone says, 1% of the population is Muslim, so we have to restructure our entire country to please that 1%, never mind what the other 99% want -- tyranny of the minority, I call it. I've got over 1000 customers on my route. In 25 years, I've never heard one of them tell me, they don't need mail service. Funny how all these commentors are so sure no one needs us. Where's all this mail coming from then, dumbass?
Another commentor suggested we reduce to 2 or 3 day delivery. While to the outside that may seem feasible, it is highly impractical. Here's why. Over the last three years, the PO has revised routes to increase their size to handle the lower volume. Some routes have been enlarged by almost 25 percent. This right-sizing of the routes leaves no room for huge volume increases. Two or three day delivery would mean handling double or triple the volume and would be impossible. We would have to decrease route sizes, which means adding routes, and carriers and increasing the workforce, which defeats the purpose of the downsizing in the first place.
The Post Office has reduced its workforce by nearly 20% in the last couple of years. Despite what you have heard, people are being fired or layed off. Anyone who says different is either a baldface liar or tragically uninformed. The PO is pushing hard to reform its work methodology and add services that would increase revenue. Again, despite what many ignorant bloggers would have you believe, we are trying to be competitive.
And speaking of competitive, another debunking -- as carriers, we make the same money as UPS and FedEx delivery persons as far as wage and benefits. Our retirement is a 401k plan like many others and our insurance costs us just like anyone else. No one is getting a free ride.
And not only that, what most complainers don't know is that there is no regional adjustment for pay. Which means that a clerk/carrier in New York City or Chicago or L.A. makes the same money as we do in Florida, despite their much much higher costs of living. Oops, there goes that whole "pay them salaries relative to private sector workers" argument out the window. UPS and FedEx workers get higher wages than us in those cities. Of course, you'd have to do some actual research to find that out, but why let a few facts get in the way of some unhinged ranting.
Another popular whine is that since the PO is in trouble, they should just cut wages and benefits to save money. Yeah, just like that. Don't worry about those pesky little contracts and stuff. All the various crafts in the PO function under legally arbitrated contracts. And since the prof's blog is a "legal" type blog, I wonder if some of these idiot commentors would like his opinion on the whole slippery slope argument about arbitrarily abrogating contracts. It's funny, when those bankers and investment types got their delayed bonuses from the bailout money, conservatives were totally okay with it . . . 'cause they were contractual payments due the employees. But when they look at government workers and payments due them, all of the sudden it's "Contract?! Who gives a sh*t! They're worthless goverment employees . . . screw em!"
It's not just liberals who are hypocritical asses, plenty of douchebags on this side of the aisle as well.
It's a pity that bloggers like Prof Jacobson cannot do the most minimal of homework before bashing a part of the federal gov't that consistantly ranks as the most trusted in poll after poll. But in the name of high traffic and to gin up comments, I guess we're fair game.
So this is me giving you the finger Prof. You've earned it.
