Check in with us tomorrow. We will conclude item 4 of today.


1 --- Hold the presses, Barack will give us another policy speech. That speech and a dollar bill will get you a cup of coffee. Food stamps anyone.

2 --- I thought he was acting funny.

3 --- Lest we not forget.

4 --- Talk about a dilemma: What do we do with the Postal Service. If we're not careful we could lose it. Then again, we must decide exactly what we expect from the Post Office.

My conservative/libertarian side says get rid of it. After all if it can't survive on its own maybe it should go under. After all, in this cyber world where even little kids communicate electronically who needs the post office. The argument favoring the selling of Post Office assets is very compelling, especially during a near depression.

The United States Postal Service first began delivering the mail on July 26, 1775, when the Second Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin as the nation's first Postmaster General. Yeah, that Ben Franklin. In accepting the position he dedicated his efforts to fulfilling George Washington's ideas. Washington supported a free flow of information between citizens and the government as a linchpin of freedom. He often spoke of a nation bound together by a system of postal roads and post offices. (We still have what is known as the "Old Post Road.")

Publisher William Goddard first suggested the idea of an organized U.S. postal service in 1774 as a way to disiminate the news past the prying eyes of British colonial postal inspectors. The Post Office was an early and necessary element in casting off the British yoke.

Goddard proposed a postal service to Congress nearly two years before we declared our independence from the Brits. Congress took no action on Goddard's plan until after the battles of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775. Finally on July 16, 1775, the revolution was brewing, Congress enacted the "Constitutional Post" as a way to ensure communication between the general public and the patriots preparing to fight for America's independence. Goddard was reported to have been deeply disappointed when Congress chose Franklin as Postmaster General.

In 1792 the Postal Act clarified the role of the Postal Service. Under the act, newspapers were allowed to use the mails at low rates to promote the spread of information across the states. To ensure the sanctity and privacy of the mails, postal officials were forbidden to open any letters unless they were undeliverable.

Until the adoption of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Postal Service functioned as a regular, tax-supported, agency of the federal government. It may well be the time to consider returning to that.

When I began this monologue on ther post office it was with the intent of recommending its closure and an end to its role as we have known it. I do not believe there is any way to continue with the Post Office as we know it. However it is still a necessary element in the country. We will make our recommendations tomorrow.

If you have comments on the issue please email us at mvl270@yahoo.com . I should be up early Saturnday morning and would be please add you thoughst along with mine.

Ciao.......Moe