Per FoxNews:
-snip-" As the U.S. Postal Service considers cutting delivery service in the face of dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the postmaster general received a big pay raise and a performance bonus last year, all authorized by Congress.Postmaster General John Potter's base salary climbed to $265,000 last year from $186,000 in 2007. He also received a performance bonus of $135,000. In all his total compensation -- salary, bonuses, retirement benefits and other perks -- topped $850,000, a spokesman with the U.S. Postal Service told FOXNews.com on Wednesday.
At the same time, the Postal Service, an independent federal agency, is crumbling alongside the economy and as online communications increase competition. The Postal Service lost $2.8 billion last year when total mail volume recorded 202 billion pieces of mail, its largest single drop in history -- down more than 9 billion pieces from a year earlier."
Kinda makes you wonder how a failed Postmaster gets to keep his job and his bonus when Obama is forcing resignations and taking back bonuses in the private sector.
The verses of the poem "First They Came" frequently come to my mind as I watch the mess that is happening in our country. IMHO, one of the unfortunate occurances over the last decade is how a few zealots have managed to hijack such a meaningful and poignant poem, reducing it to an overused cliche.
Martin Niemoeller's poem is inscribed on a stone in the New England Holocaust Memorial First they came.... When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. Then they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. Then they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."First they came…" is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Martin Niemoller was a German pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemoller was an anti-Communist and, for that reason, supported Hitler's rise to power – at first. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemoller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. Unlike Niemoller, they gave in to the Nazis' threats. Hitler personally detested Niemoller and had him arrested and eventually confined in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Niemoller was released in 1945 by the Allies. He continued his career in Germany as a clergyman and as a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II. His poem is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.