Now that we are officially in spring, a good portion of the US is cold, it is still snowing, and feeling a lot like winter. But, Punxsutawney Phil suggested that spring will be here early. I say, shoot the messenger! From AL.com in Atlanta comes the recap:
"The weather too cold for you? Blame Punxsutawney Phil. Everyone else is.It's so bad that Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor Mike Gmoser "light-heartedly filed" a criminal indictment against Phil for fraudulently predicting an early spring."Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser's indictment said. The penalty? Death, Gmoser said, tongue firmly in cheek, according to The Associated Press". But the real guy to blame, apparently, is Bill Deeley, president of the Groundhog Club and Phil's handler. He admits it isn't an exact science. "A year ago I predicted six more weeks of winter," . "Last year at this time, we were cutting our grass, starting to plant, playing golf"!
And, despite the fact that Groundhog day has been celebrated since 1841, it has always been sort of a tongue in cheek event. Records show that the little fur ball has at best a 37% accuracy.
Unfortunately, the joke is lost on many people and they have a tendency to believe that this critter really reflects the fact that he can be a good source of information. The trend? Phil and his offspring will continue to be an interesting urban myth even when he fails to tell the truth. I have a bias regarding the value of groundhogs as can be seen in a post from this past summer here. So, while killing the messenger may be wrong, there has to be a consequence for misleading us! But, I did like the movie...

In February, the US Postal Service announced that it would be selling clothing and apparel called “Rain, Heat, & Snow”. It will be licensed to Cleveland based Wahconah Group, a fashion apparel company. According to what I have read so far, the new line will be all-weather all-season outerwear slated to debut for men in 2014, and later for women. But, this announcement raised a lot of red flags as far as I can see.
The USPS is mandated by law under the executive branch of the government to deliver the mail. That is the only purpose that the agency was designed to carry out. And, they have managed to create a 16 Billion dollar loss so far and the red ink is just getting started. Congress is in control of the stamp prices and every service that the USPS offers. And, although the Post Office does not use taxpayer money for operation, the Congress mandated that they pre-fund healthcare for future retirees. The USPS did not have the money to do that and they have had to borrow 15 Billion dollars from the Treasury, (taxpayer money). And, we have been down this road before.
In the 1980’s, the PO had a line of branded goods, from neckties, coffee mugs, posters, to T shirts. And, at least, they didn’t lose money on the enterprise. But, lobbyists from competing products went to Congress and pressured them to stop selling these items.
It seems that whenever politicians get involved, things go wrong! Which bring up the question; will Congress put a halt to this venture as well? It seems to me that the overall problem is in the relationship between politicians and management skills at the USPS. Fifteen years ago when the fact that email was going to be the primary method of communication, the PO should have been cutting back on its “modernization” efforts by not spending more money on new sorting equipment and data handling tasks. They should have begun closing some of the far-flung outposts that support postmasters/postmistresses making $60 and 70K a year, rather than stopping Saturday deliveries.  And despite the fact that it is a Civil Service, employees that are making twice and three times the federal minimum wage is wrong. And, I am not saying that being a mail carrier is easy, but there are a lot of people working as hard or harder for a lot less.
So, here are the red flags that I alluded to:
Will there really be an upscale market for shorts with a pin stripe and pith helmets? Will the Wahconah group, (described as a global fabric entity importing fabrics from around the world), produce products here or will they outsource? Will this simply be another Lance Armstrong moment where the money goes to a drugged horse?
Although I would like to see a trend to privatization, I suspect that it will continue to be a mess of management problems, political meddling, and continued losses, eventually to the loss of tax dollars.
I suspect that if the Post Office wants to send something important across the country, they will use UPS or FedEx. Just a thought…