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December 10, 2008December 10, 2008 - 7 Comments

Is The USPS Ripping Us Off?

With the run-up to Christmas one would expect the US Post Office to be busy. For sometime now their website, though never brilliant, has helped to cut queuing times at the counter by providing basic services, including the ability to print postage labels and arrange shipment pick-up. For those of us with schedules to keep it can be a boon.

This week I needed to send a parcel to my father in the UK. Having already ordered and received the necessary USPS ‘Flat Rate Mailing Envelope’, I completed the packaging and began preparing to print out the shipping label/postage, only to be presented with a USPS webpage informing me my ability to print labels had been temporarily curtailed – that the ‘service was temporarily unavailable’.

The service has proved to be ‘temporarily unavailable’ for the last three days, with still no indication when it will be restored. My guess is it won’t be back until sometime in January, if at all.

Under the ‘service is temporarily unavailable’ notice is further information suggesting that those in need of this ‘temporarily unavailable service’ should avail themselves of the services of ‘one of our approved vendors’. It provides links to two private companies, Endicia.com and Stamps.com..

Both these companies will happily provide the software that will enable USPS consumers to print out their required shipping labels, complete with postage. The one drawback is that both will charge a monthly fee for this service. Endicia imposes $10 per month for their ‘basic’ service and requires that its customers purchase one of their printers for the purpose. Their software (surprise, surprise!) doesn’t function on a normal home printer.

Stamps.com will allow use of a home printer, but will charge $15 per month for their ‘basic’ service.

Suddenly, a free service provided by USPS is no longer available, at the busiest time of year, and the only option apart from a long trudge to the town post office is to sign up for one of two grossly overpriced alternatives.

The questions that spring nimbly to the forefront of the mind are:

1) How many board members of USPS are sitting on the boards of Endicia and Stamps.com, and

2) Is the federally-owned United States Postal Service complicit with two private companies in ripping off the American people?

Filed under: USPS business practices

December 9, 2008 - 2 Comments

Stop Press: Illinois Governor and Associate Arrested.

Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested earlier today by the FBI on federal corruption charges.

Patrick J Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District 2 of Illinois, stated:

The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering. They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism. The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions.”

Are we, the residents of Illinois, surprised by this occurrence?

Not at all. The corruption of Illinois officialdom is rife.

All For The Want Of A Child’s Handkerchief

Regular readers of Sparrow Chat may have been perplexed of late by the lack of posts. It’s the holiday season in America, and that means it’s also the season of viruses. When Sparrow Chat’s files succumbed recently to a digitized type of germ, so did its only contributor – though, to the more conventional form of the microbe.

One major drawback to School Bus 13 is that it’s packed with little germbags. At this time of year, most of the kids are sniffing. Moms today seem disinclined to provide their offspring with any means to wipe their noses, so the early morning bus stop reveals a vista of small urchins, hands a’pocket, and snotty green growths hanging precariously from their nostrils.

The family Roberts is no exception. Excluding, possibly Cordell Roberts, the older boys are not terribly interested in Oakley Canton or any other female student riding the bus, but they still make an effort with their appearance, presumably hoping a real dazzler may one day board and provide them with another interest in life besides beating each other up. Consequently, though sleeve cuffs bear witness to the method of cleansing, older noses are relatively snot free.

The younger family Roberts’ boys, Azariah and Izaiah, are not so particular. Azariah is prone to temper tantrums and anger management problems, both of which can prove particularly infecting of the rest of us whenever he has a cold virus – a permanent affliction, it seems, at this time of year.

Only a couple of weeks back, Cordell Roberts stole a piece of candy from Azariah, whereupon, unable to control his rage at such brotherly intrusion, the first-grader leapt from his seat and rushed up the aisle, red-faced, spouting tears and green pus from every facial orifice – or, so it seemed.

Finally, arriving alongside the driver’s chair and finding himself with nowhere else to go, he bent low at the knees before launching himself upright and emitting a roar of fury that would have done credit to an African lion who’d just discovered a hyena had run off with his antelope sandwiches. The effect of this vocal contortion was to spray enormous quantities of Azariah’s bodily excretions all over the bus dashboard and control knobs.

It all resulted in Azariah being ‘written up’ for leaving his seat, Cordell – for pinching candy, the driver coughing and sneezing for the next fortnight, and, as a consequence, a serious lack of posts on Sparrow Chat.

Filed under: School bus