Fiddling While The Post Office Burns

The Article: Congress Fiddles While Post Office Burns by John Nichols in The Nation.

The Text: Americans have heard a lot in recent days about the “default” by the United States Postal Service. And the way that much of the media covered the story would lead those who have not followed the wrangling over the USPS’s future to imagine there’s a problem with the post office.

After all, the financial circumstance of the USPS sounds nightmarish.

“The Postal Service, on the verge of its first default on Wednesday, faces a cash shortage of $100 million this October stemming from declining mail volume that could balloon to $1.2 billion next year, “ declared the New York Times. “Confronting $11.1 billion in payments over the next two months for future benefits, the service said it would fail to pay about half that amount, which is due Wednesday, and does not foresee making the other half, which is due in September. An additional $5.6 billion payment due next year is also in question.”

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Ron Paul On ‘Threat’ Of Iran

The man has a point.

What A Drought

Maybe this is a good opportunity to re-evaluate or dependency on corn? Lol just kidding.

The GOP’s Scorched Earth Obstructionism

The Article: The GOP Economy and Scorched-Earth Obstructionism by Paul Krugman in Common Dreams.

The Text: There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.

And this week’s shocking refusal to implement debt relief by the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a Bush-era holdover the president hasn’t been able to replace — illustrates perfectly what’s going on.

Some background: many economists believe that the overhang of excess household debt, a legacy of the bubble years, is the biggest factor holding back economic recovery. Loosely speaking, excess debt has created a situation in which everyone is trying to spend less than their income. Since this is collectively impossible — my spending is your income, and your spending is my income — the result is a persistently depressed economy.

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Chomsky Slams Anti-Abortion Arguments

His arguments are rational and sound, yet they are still no match against the Bible.