post office

Hey gang,

Our pals over at the Free Press and The Nation have posted a campaign urging the Postal Regulatory Commission to repeal their dumb July 15 rate hike, but I don't think it quite goes far enough to try to preserve the Post Office's radical mandate to support all media. Please visit: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/postalnation/forward and consider inserting the below text in the "send letter" part instead. Or better yet: write your own!

heart,
aem

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On July 15, the postal rates for many of this nation's most important political magazines increased by 20 to 30 percent due to a decision made by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) that turns against more than 200 years of postal policy at the same time that it allows an entire branch of the government to do marketing work on behalf of one media company, with the egregious and ongoing Star Wars promotional campaign.

I got a booklet today. I’m probably not going to use them. I’ll add them to my extremely small stamp collection. You know, the collection I’m going to hand down to my kids, so in 2055 they can sell them for digital hash (iHash?) ...or whatever the kids of the future will be raving about at the time. Damn punk unborn kids.

From The Nation: America's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas." Thomas Jefferson called for a postal service that allowed ideas to "penetrate the whole mass of the people." Along with James Madison, he paved the way for a system that gave low-cost mailing incentives to small publications.