[allmost]

They have their hands tied. The USPS needs a retirement ‘cushion’ that is, to my knowledge, more stringent than any other on the planet.

[cripplecreek]

They have their hands tied. The USPS needs a retirement ‘cushion’ that is, to my knowledge, more stringent than any other on the planet.

Wow, a FReeper who actually knows what they're talking about. That's gotta be a first.

Seems to me that few FReepers realize how much an an essential part of the community these rural post offices are. Closing them is one more blow to rural America. Maybe Obama's "rural Council" will come up with an effective method of distributing the mail that prevents us from talking among ourselves and replace it with some Obama approved gossip.

Seems kind of odd to me that so many FReepers are willing to blame the rural offices that might have 1 or 2 (conservative leaning) employees while ignoring the wildly overstaffed urban offices full of your typical urban union liberals.

Back in 08 I was at a friend's house in town when his Obama button wearing mail carrier pulled up in the Jeep. The second mail carrier sat in the Jeep while the first mail carrier walked around the block. He got back to the Jeep drove another hundred yards to the next block where the other carrier got out and walked around his block.

Personally I would ditch the big sorting centers and hand that duty off to UPS and FedEx which already have their own terminals and let them deliver to the local post offices.

Lets not forget that the postal service hires vets first, every time.