Congress Evacuates & Gets Tested; Postal Workers Must Keep Working

Great Debates
1

While I hesitate to label myself politically, I don’t think it’s any secret that I often come down on the right-wing side of things - certainly my posts here, while not rabidly right wing, certainly wouldn’t ever be characterized as leftist.

So this may sound a bit surprising coming from me…

But there’s something disturbingly classist about the scenario where the House shuts down, and the offices are thoroughly tested for anthrax, and immediate preventative antibiotics are on tap as needed… when the Brentwood Post Office employees are told in no uncertain terms that they don’t need to be tested - keep working.

Today, of course, everyone is falling all over themselves to say how they just didn’t know that contamination of a post office was possible, and that they were following the CDC’s advice, and acting in the most reasonable way they knew, when they ordered postal workers to keep working and told them it wasn’t necessary to test them.

And I don’t think they’re exactly lying about that.

But the evidence for contamination on the House side was much less than existed for the post office. The idea that the House of Representatives gets a different standard for lifesaving medical tests than mere postal workers really doesn’t sit well with me.

Now, of course, two postal workers from that facility are dead, with confirmed cases of inhalation anthrax, and two others in serious condition, hospitalized, with inhalation anthrax.

The House, and its staff, seem to be fine.

Whew.

  • Rick
2

The US Postal Service is a private company, not a government agency.

3

The U.S. is a high-tech feudalistic society in many respects. If you lack money or political influence, you are a serf, i.e., a speck of dust barely visible on the horizon. I think your example of the treatment of U.S. Postal Workers illustrates unconscionable behavior on the part of government agencies. I applaud your courage for point out a wrong, even though it makes you feel awkward to do so.

4

The United States Postal Service is “an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.”

5

The Postmaster General claimed on Nightline (ABC) that the justice department, or FBI, retained possession of the tainted envelopes and informed him that there was no risk to postal employees. It would be interesting to know just how long the lawmen delayed before getting an evaluation of the hazard from a qualified CDC epidemiologist. Of course the Postmaster General may simply have been repeating rumors tonight as well. It doesn’t matter much at this point, just long as they find and fix whatever it is that went wrong.

6

And ???

Your point is ???

They are US citizens and, as such, they deserve the most speedy and effective medical treatment that anybody else would. Obviously, in practice, it’s a different story.

O.K. now I have released my anger at that post, I will go on to say that a quick response is to be expected when anything occurs that may affect the country’s government, especially in a time of “war” (oops, that’s another thread !)

:smiley:

7

Left-wing, right-wing or Very Silly Party, I think it stinks! Somebody either screwed up Big Time or screwed over. It calls for the full thunderous force of a Congressional Investigation…

Ohhh, what am I thinking. All I know for sure is that somebody is (a) lying through thier teeth or (b) just about to. I wont totally lose it unless somebody says they can’t talk about it 'cause of “national security reasons”. Then I wont know whether to shit or go bowling.

8

The Congressional Bug-Out was a REALLY bad idea. I can’t think of many things more divisive than to tell Americans to go on with their lives, take risks and fly, and keep working in mail outlets which are the front-line for Anthrax attacks…And then to run yourself at the first whiff of trouble.

This is a war. It’s time for these politicians to earn their pay and perks that they normally get for sliding a perk to some financial supporter. Their job in a war is SUPPOSED to carry some risk. The British Parliament stayed in session through the Blitz, for Christ’s sake. Rudy Guliani went to ground zero of the WTC even though he was warned that the buildings could fall (and he was almost killed). And the Israeli government has been under constant attack for 50 years, and one of them was assassinated just last week. Guess what? They are still going about their business.

And while these clowns were heading for the hills, the pregnant wife of Todd Beamer, one of the heroes of flight 93, flew the same flight her husband took on Sept 11, as a show of strength and as a symbol of American courage. That young women made 435 of the most powerful men in the United States look like selfish cowards.

And another young woman, who actually CONTRACTED Anthrax, is back at her job, and happily posed for a front-page picture in the NY POST, extending her bandaged middle finger to the camera under the caption “ANTHRAX THIS”. Even though it makes her a further target.

A couple of brave, American women apparently have more courage in their middle fingers than the entire U.S. Congress and their bloated salaries can muster.

Upon reading this, it sounds a little too harsh - but what the hell.

9

Sam Stone,

I think your post is right-on-the-mark. One cannot be too harsh regarding chicken-shit, elitist politicians. I might add to your statements that Bush and Cheny have been bed-hopping every night to stay out of harm’s way, in spite of having a mind-boggling array of security personnel protecting their sorry little asses.

10

I was incorrect in calling the USPS a private company, when I should have said they operate like one in many ways. They are an independent agency and self supporting. And my point was that it is not as simple to shut down an independent agency as it is to shut down a branch of government. Nothing more, nothing less, but hey, I was tired when I posted.

11

Neither rain, nor snow, nor Anthrax, and all that…

12

I think Sam Stone said it all.

13

Okay, I just wanna point out that there was a perfectly good reason for the delay, that had nothing to do with “class differences”–it was believed anthrax spores couldn’t escape a sealed envelope. Okay, so now we know. [shrug]

It’s typical of Americans, though, when the farmer’s pigeons are stolen off the barn roof, to complain that the government failed to prevent it. And the Gummint is standing there going, like, “What? What? Who woulda thunk somebody woulda climbed up there with a ladder and took them pigeons?” and Americans are shaking their fingers angrily and saying, “You’re the Gummint, dadgum it, you’re supposed to know about these things, what do we pay you for?”

http://chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0110240284oct24.story?coll=chi-printnews-hed

14

Duck Duck Goose, I don’t agree it’s that simple.

I am not, in general, someone who looks to the government to solve problems.

There are two points here. The first is that nobody apparently knew that spores could escape a sealed envelope. Frankly, while this may be true, it’s not indicative of deep thinking on the part of those responsible for analyzing this. Even if spores could not escape a normal sealed envelope, if I were a wily terrorist, I might consider using envelopes with tiny holes in them, just to spread the terror along the path my little packet of death travels. The fact that this baleful possibility was never considered by the folks in charge - which I’ll provisionally accept as true - leads me to the conclusion that the terrorists are smarter than they.

Frankly, your dismissal of this oversight with a “shrug” - hey, now we know… sorry about that, two dead postal workers… is irritating.

But the House had even less reason to shut down than the post office did. Even if we don’t believe that anthrax spores can penetrate a sealed envelope, we might believe that the outside of the envelope had some contamination - a thin reason, to be sure, to order a facility closed, but certainly sufficient reason to test, especially in view of workers’ voiced concerns.

On the other hand, no anthrax mail is alleged to have come to the House side. Senator Daschle’s office was the only recipient of an infected piece of mail. Based on this, the House offices – not the Senate offices - close and decontamination and test crews move in, and precautionary antibiotics are distributed.

Perhaps, as you say, it’s not a class thing. After all, the Senate did not close, and if it were a class issue, they, too, would have closed down. Perhaps it’s simply that the House leadership was more serious (or more paranoid, depending on your point of view) than either the Senate or the postal management.

But as soon as I heard that CBS was hit, days before this happened, I told my wife, “If I were in charge, I’d be testing the post offices that the envelopes went through… the bastards may have punched tiny holes in the envelopes.”

If I, Joe Average, could think of this… it’s not unreasonable to expect people who are paid to consider these things also think of it.

That’s not a case of blindly whining to the government to solve a problem. That is a case of looking to the government to perform the functions it is charged with doing.

  • Rick
15

Not only punching holes, but I think most of us have seen film of what the mail processing equipment used at the USPS does. It is completely believable that a powder could spurt through the openings in an envelope while it was being run through the equipment.