U. S. Postal Service Considers Branch Closings:

It's not secret that the Postal Service is a failure as a business, which is why it's called a service. In an attempt to stem the tide of red ink, branch closures are being considered.

Curious about which ones might be on the chopping block? Here's a list of the potential closures.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Today marks the 55th anniversary of Army counsel Joseph N. Welch's reply to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during the latter's notorious witch hunt that was part of a terrorism program meant to emasculate the labor movement in America.

In the more than a half century since that time, it is almost impossible to believe that anyone in Washington or your state capitol or, for that matter, in your county seat has much sense of decency.

ABORTION: What would the argument be if MEN as well as women could become pregnant?

The murder of Dr. George Tiller, in the lobby of his church, has brought the right-wing's favorite political issue back into the forefront, just when most of us had hoped the recent election had finally marginalized it.

Abortion has been practiced for thousands of years. Only in recent years has it been relatively safe—no medical procedure is completely safe.

We live in a grossly overcrowded world, with a population that continues to explode. The next important issue looming before us is how we can possibly feed the world's population, provided we don't choke ourselves to death through global warming first.

The answer to the question is that if men became pregnant abortion would have always been legal, with no restrictions. But you already knew that, didn't you.

It Ain't Gonna Happen:

Many of us want to see Bush administration people go to jail for the mess they've made and the crimes committed during the past eight years, but this just ain't going to happen. Following the vote to impeach Nixon three decades ago, many of us then hoped that he would be tried for his many crimes, but Gerald Ford rushed in to pardon him, arguing that putting the former president on trial would distract the government and divide the country.

The real reason Nixon wasn't tried and Bush will not be tried is that everyone who anticipates holding the office of president is fearful that should one x-president be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors every president will face the same action once he or, someday, she will face the same action. (See Jeffrey Smith's Washington Post article.)

The Characters Who Govern Us:

The New York Times' Adam Liptak portrays Supreme Court Justice Clarence Tomas in today's paper. According to Liptak, Thomas hasn't asked a question in any session of the court since February 22, 2006. That's more than three years.

The occasion of Liptak's article was Thomas's appearance at a dinner sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute. If Liptak is accurate in his reporting, Thomas, widely considered the second most conservative member of the court, comes accross as nearly inarticulate and hardly thinking in a logical manner.

Apparently, Judge Thomas was trapped in some sort of SciFi channel time loop that caused him to wax nostalgic about the time he spent in grade school reciting the pledge of allegiance and seeing crucifixes in every classroom.

Compare the Thomas' characterization with that of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as delivered by Washington Post staff writer Robert Barnes in Sunday's paper. Keep in mind that Ginsburg has just come off major cancer treatment.

And consider the Emporor and his new close: George W. Bush is still living in a closed community, hiding from any critical examination of his behavior over the previous eight years, insisting that in some distant time, in a galaxy yet to be discovered, his behavior will at last be vindicated. (See Eli Saslow's depiction in The Washington Post.)

Double Take:

On the one hand, the Bush administration has claimed it has the right to arrest and spirit away anyone on the planet and do with them what they will without so much as a "thank you, ma'am" to anyone, simply by declaring them (us) "enemy combatants." (Have you read The Count of Monte Christo ?).

On the other hand, yesterday's New York Times reports that

State Department investigators offered Blackwater USA security guards immunity during an inquiry into last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad — a potentially serious investigative misstep that could complicate efforts to prosecute the company’s employees involved in the episode.

Keep in mind that Blackwater USA is a government contractor employed by the State Department. In other words, the Bush administration has rigged the outcome of any investigation against its private (Praetorian Guard) security firm.


Death Penalty Status:

The death penalty—a central ingredient of politicians' attempts to demonstrate they have the proper level of testosterone to intimidate the weak minded—has been placed on hold by the Supreme Court, that bastion of conservative ideology, of all places.

Linda Greenhouse reports on the issue in today's New York Times. The issue focuses on the chemicals used by prisons to kill people for the sake of garnering votes for prosecutors who either are or represent elected officials.


Throw More Money at It:

The Republican party has claimed throughout most of its history that "you can't fix problems by throwing more money at them." Mostly they've practiced this ideology when the problems were the sort that affected predominantly Democratic voters. When it comes to the military, for instance, the last Republican to show any restraint was Eisenhower. He was a guy, you might remember, who thought you could replace much of the traditional military with lots of cheap nuclear bombs. (That worked out well!)

Today's New York Times reports on the cost of spying in an article by Mark Mazzetti, who states that congress has authorized "spending $43.5 bilion over the past year to operate spy satellites, remote surveillance stations and C.I.A. outposts overseas."

The White House will tell you that the money has been well spent, that they have thwarted (fill in any number you choose here) terrorist attacks. Naturally, they won't be able to tell you anything about those alleged attacks. They were, after all, thwarted. (Did I tell you about the rain dance I did in my back yard before the last rain storm?)

The Voluntary Tax:

Today's New York Times reports on the state of state lotteries and the lies politicians tell us about just what they're good for. It's always amazed me that folks who claim to hate taxes and will vote down any increase will flock to their local lottery outlet and happily fritter away their meager weekly budgets on scams like these, but they do. Well, not all of them do. Rich folks almost never buy lottery tickets. The lottery is a government scam to exploit the poorest and least educated among us.

Most of the 42 states that have lotteries claim that some percentage of the money gambled will become part of the state educational budget. But it turns out that very little of the money is used for these purposes. The vendors get a big chunk of it, and the media which serves as the the advertising outlet also get a large share. Some of it is paid out to a tiny fraction of people who "play" it. (Your chances of winning are better in Vegas or Atlantic City.)

Big Brother:

Today's Washington Post addresses the current state of government surveillance of private citizens by looking at how the Department of Homeland Security is spying on and retaining travelers' personal information, including inaccurate or flawed information, which the department's critics claim cannot be corrected. In other words, the department might mistakenly identify you as a terrorist or even a common criminal, and once that information has been placed in its data base, you will be so identified forever. 1984 appears to have arrived at this party a bit late, but nevertheless it's here and thriving. (Read the article, "Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented.")