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| Chronicle · December 7, 2011 The Foundation"Remember, that Time is Money." --Benjamin Franklin Editorial Exegesis"On Monday, the Postal Service said it will shut almost half its mail processing centers and largely eliminate next-day delivery for first-class mail. That's on top of a 1-cent postage stamp hike that goes into effect next month. It's all part of an effort to cut $20 billion in annual costs, staunch the flood of red ink and avoid bankruptcy. Still, it's hard to see how charging more for worse service is a credible plan for success. Even if it were, the postal service has been down this road many times in the past. ... On the one hand, it's weighed down by unions that control 85% of its workforce, impeding reasonable efficiency improvements. Example: In just the first six months of this year, the Postal Service spent $4.3 million paying postal workers to do literally nothing, thanks to labor agreements that require the service to keep workers on the payroll even when mail volume is low or machinery breaks down. At the same time, lawmakers often scuttle cost-saving plans that might affect their districts. After congressmen screamed, for example, the USPS cut the list of post offices it planned to close from 3,200 to a mere 162. The postmaster general had it right this week when he said that the USPS is in dire straits because 'we are expected to operate like a business but don't have the flexibility to do so.' But the solution isn't to mindlessly cut costs or trot out more piecemeal reforms like the one working through the Senate, which will only prolong the agony. Instead, we should follow the lead of many other countries and privatize the Postal Service. A Cato Institute report finds the consistent result abroad has been improved productivity and lower costs, without a decline in quality. Selling anything less than privatization as the solution to the Postal Service's problems would constitute mail fraud." --Investor's Business Daily Should the Post Office be privatized? Pearl HarborOn the fateful "Day of Infamy," 70 years ago today, 353 Japanese planes attacked a military target at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,390 American servicemen and civilians and wounding 1,282. The attack sank or damaged eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and one minelayer and destroyed 188 aircraft. It took four years and the full military-industrial capability of the United States to defeat Japan. Read more and share your thoughts here. Upright"Only in a world of low expectations could an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent be considered good news. ... In November, the ranks of the unemployed fell by 594,000 but not because everyone landed a new job. ... [A]s many as 300,000 simply left the workforce, and not all did so voluntarily. A good portion of the 120,000 new jobs reported last month appear to be driven by the needs of the holiday season. ... A bump in seasonal employment is certainly better than no jobs at all, but what's needed is a solid improvement in long-term employment. ... For now, under Mr. Obama's watch, there's more interest in seeing the federal government prosper and grow. So long as that remains the case, millions of Americans will continue looking for jobs and won't find them." --The Washington Times "How's this for a waste of taxpayer money? According to Energy & Environment News, the Department of Energy is paying $230,000 for a website to promote career paths in the green energy sector -- and it has, ironically, prohibited the listing of actual jobs in the industry. ... Maybe the Obama Administration is operating under 'The Field of Dreams' theory -- if they build a website, the jobs will come. A better strategy would be to get the federal government out of the way and let the free market thrive instead of spending taxpayer money on quarter-million-dollar PR projects." --Heritage Foundation's Mike Brownfield "The Fed signals that it intends to hitch our national wagon to Europe just as Europe is going over the edge, and the Dow jumps 4 percent. Maybe I'm missing something. All that Bernanke & Co. did ... was to lower the dollar-financing cost for banks in Europe, where inter-bank lending is locking up -- for good reason. But Europe's problem is not its banks and their access to dollars. Europe's banks are in trouble because European government bonds are in trouble, and European government bonds are in trouble because European governments are in trouble. European governments are in trouble because they spend too much money. ... The question is: What is the Fed thinking? Is it looking out for the United States, or is it looking out for the banks?" --National Review's Kevin D. Williamson "For the last three years, the Obama administration, the Feds, and a host of the usual suspects in Congress have told Americans that what is now known to be a $7.7 trillion bank bailout program 'saved' the world's financial institutions from 'systemic failure.' Really? Then why are we right back in the same soup -- or worse? And where is Congress, who ought to be making it crystal clear that the United States Federal Reserve has no business bailing out an EU that steadfastly refuses to put its own house in order? You won't see too much about any of this in the news. But you can bet your life this is the essence of what the 2012 election is all about." --columnist Arnold Ahlert The News You NeedNot only does The Patriot Post provide both the most outstanding and outrageous quotes of the week in each Wednesday Chronicle, but we post each day's most relevant headlines on our website. And the best part is, unlike other sites, we do it with NO obnoxious advertising and without all the celebrity stories that aren't worth your time. This great resource and so much more is made possible by the generous support of our readers. Help us keep it coming by making a secure online donation to The Patriot Post's 2011 Year-End Campaign. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form. We still must raise $144,000 before year's end. Thank you! Nate Jackson
The Demo-goguesYou know what this means: "We still have a health care system that has to get more efficient and that has to improve its quality. And so we're going to have to implement the Affordable Care Act in 2014, and that means I've got to win in 2012." --Barack Obama Tax cutter in chief? "I know you hear a lot of folks on cable TV claiming that I am this 'big tax and spend liberal.' Next time you hear that, you just remind the people who are saying it that since I've taken office I've cut your taxes. ... We have cut taxes for small businesses, not once, not twice, but 17 times." --Barack Obama Certainly not with his "help": "This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement." --Barack Obama Finding religion: "[I]t's important for us to keep in mind the central message of this season, and keep Christ's words not only in our thoughts, but also in our deeds." --Barack Obama Victory isn't in their vocabulary: "We're not claiming victory [in Iraq]. What we're claiming here is we've done the job the administration said it would do." --Joe Biden Projection: "[Republicans have] a collection of candidates who are desperate to do anything, say anything to woo their electorate, their voters to support them, rather than stick to principles and embrace the notion that when you're running for office or when you're serving in office, you have to stand up for the courage of your convictions and be measured on those convictions, not stick your finger in the wind and choose a conviction on any given day that works for you politically." --DNC head Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) Insight"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves!" --British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) DezinformatsiaIncoherent blather: "This [Tea Party] crowd doesn't want to deal because they believe the word 'deal' is bad. Think about that -- they come to Washington with the idea that deals are bad. Compromise is bad. That is un-American. ... You come here, meet the other side, listen to their arguments and try to find common ground. That's why we have a Congress, coming together. That's what it's called a Congress -- it comes together. And they don't want to do that, so the American people have to decide if they want this crowd to run the country because they're running it right now. The Tea Party is basically enforcing George W. Bush economic policies, or worse." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews Speaking truth to power: "I would imagine that you guys are feeling fairly chipper, aren't you? I mean you had an extraordinarily successful week in many ways. Unemployment dropping below 9 percent for the first time in the president's reign at the White House, and coming at the same time as a resurgent stock market saw its highest week's performance since 2009. ... In a sense, [Barack Obama's] personable, he's handsome, he can be funny. You know, abroad he has this great image for America. A lot of things are just perfect about Barack Obama." --CNN's Piers Morgan to Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod Newspulper Headlines:Breaking News From 1995: "Gingrich's Unpredictability Raises Concerns" --Associated Press Shortest Books Ever Written: "The Ethics of Eric Holder" --AmericanThinker.com We Blame Global Warming: "Why Doesn't My Christmas Cactus Bloom on Time?" --Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA) The Lonely Lives of Scientists: "Scientists Cope as Climate Debate Gets Personal" --CBSNews.com Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Babies Are Vindictive, Study Reveals" --Globe and Mail website (Toronto) Bottom Story of the Day: "The End of the World Not Happening -- for Now Says Expert" --Daily Telegraph(London) (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)
Village IdiotsFrom the government and here to help: "If you want to have the broadest reach and do the most good, for the most people, the federal government is one of the places you should think about. You need to think about it because the scale of your impact is greater than anywhere else you can be engaged and involved." --John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), addressing graduate students in Chantilly, Virginia Redistribution: "Extending unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million Americans out of poverty last year alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A year ago President Barack Obama reached a bi-partisan compromise that kept seven million Americans from losing these very important benefits. ... I'm here to tell you that we need to do everything we can to convince members of both houses -- and the Senate -- to do the right thing. It's the American thing to do." --U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Blame the Jews for anti-Semitism: "There is significant anger and resentment and, yes, perhaps sometimes hatred and indeed sometimes an all too growing intimidation and violence directed at Jews generally as a result of the continuing tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories and other Arab neighbors in the Middle East." --Howard Gutman, U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Blame America for ... everything: "The United States is becoming rapidly one of the most unjust societies in the world. And that is raising basic questions about the relevance of the West to a world that is now universally awakened, stirring, restless, conflicted." --Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to Jimmy Carter Short Cuts"Iranian mobs stormed the British Embassy in Teheran Monday and took five hostages, sparking an international stand-off. Right now unemployment is high, prices are high, morale is low, and Iran just took hostages. If Barack Obama were any more like Jimmy Carter he'd have a farm with peanuts on it instead of an economic plan with peanuts in it." --comedian Argus Hamilton "An upcoming Republican debate will be moderated by Donald Trump. It will take place in the Trump Forum for the Future of Democracy and Casino." --comedian Conan O'Brien "To save money, the U.S. Postal Service announced the end of next-day service. That's a good way to get people to come back, isn't it? Make your service even slower than it already is." --comedian Jay Leno
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