Friday, December 27, 2013

Well. I am surprised.

Watching the national news this morning, hoping for inspiration (or at least people getting eaten by fish) I heard the announcer say that a United States Senator was demanding that the federal government stick its fat, unconstitutional nose into the UPS delivery delay mess.

"G_______t, Schumer! Can anything happen that you won't turn into a grandstanding vote-begging photo op?" I yelled at the TV. How in the name of James Madison anybody can think this is a matter for the United States Senate is beyond me, but once Senators start scrutinizing jock urine, I guess anything's fair game.

Turns out it wasn't Schumer, but the junior toolbag from the Nutmeg State, Richard Blumenthal (Douche-CT).

He's a newbie in DC, so maybe he doesn't know how dangerous it is to get between Schumer and a camera? As soon as Chuck is done demanding that the victim get prosecuted in the Target affair, he'll be on this with a co-sponsorin', speechifyin' vengeance, no doubt.

29 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I'm really curious under exactly what part of the Constitution this douchebag thinks the Federal Gummint has anything at all to say about this.

If it had happened on any other day of the year, he'd have kept his piehole shut, because there would have been nothing to talk about.

LCB said...

Saw a segment this morning where people were saying their Christmas was RUINED...RUINED I say...by UPS and FedEx.

Well...if that's all it took to ruin your Christmas, I'd suggest you just don't get it. Whether or not you subscribe to the religious meaning, Christmas should be about family and/or friends! Not some bauble in a brown box from FedEx!

And if the gift was for someone else, do what my family does: print a picture of the doodad and put it in a box. Tell them the shipping was delayed. Believe me...they'll get over it...

perlhaqr said...

(I know, I know, it's totally redundant, but I'm going to say it anyway.)

That's fucking stupid.

UPS, at least (I've never had to deal with FedEx on the issue) is likely to give refunds anyway, with or without Senator Assclown sticking his nose in it.

Of course, maybe the Senator knew that and figured he could earn some free brownie points for making it look like he could command the tide to rise, at low tide.

Jennifer said...

Like the federal government knows anything about running a shipping company. Geez

TM said...

@Fuzzy Curmudgeon

That one is easy, Interstate Commerce.

Bob said...

It ain't fish, but did you see where the rent-a-cop in Bali got killed by a python?

Divemedic said...

Also ignoring the fact that the reason people use UPS in the first place is that the USPS won't promise a delivery date. When you ship overnight or two day with USPS, they won't guarantee that the package get there on time.

Tam said...

"That one is easy, Interstate Commerce."

Congress's Bigger Hammer: The Clause for the Cause of Unlimited Government!

staghounds said...

Um, Article 1?

(8) The Congress shall have power...

(7)To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

RevGreg said...

Uhm...it is standard policy for both UPS and FedEx to refund expedited shipping charges if they don't meet the date promised. You'd think a guy who is supposed to be smart enough to make decisions for an entire country and who has a legion of aides would have done a little research first.

If DICK wants to champion a cause, how about fighting for citizens to get their taxes returned if they are disappointed with the performance of their government. Unlike the FedUPS debacle, FedGov disappoints me more than once a year...

Tam said...

staghounds,

If Congress's established Post Office had problems, the Senator should look into them and let UPS and FedEx follow their established refund obligations, rather than use some Christmas Loophole to suck up tax dollars on his vote-grubbing witch hunt.

Library-Gryffon said...

Actually, he's not the junior Senator for CT anymore. God help us all.

Now, if the GOP can find someone a little more electable than Linda McMahon to run against him in '16.... (Wishful thinking, I know; I was at both the '10 and the '12 state conventions.)

Anonymous said...

If these PRIVATE enterprises were run anything like the goobermint's parcel delivery service, you'd hear tales like, "I dropped off 5 Priority Mail packages on 12/9. Not only has the USPS sustained a 0% delivery rate, they cannot seem to track said packages (supposedly a feature of Priority Mail)." True story.

Anonymous said...

Those who can't - legislate.

- Drifter

staghounds said...

I entirely agree.

Even so, the post clause is a lot more related to actual package delivery than most of the Gonstitution is to the usual grandstanding stuff.

Anonymous said...

Library-Gryffon,
What I can never figure out is who votes for him. There is a florist near me with a delightful sign propped up in a window (where a political sign might go): 'Blumen-Laden' the number of people who believe it is a play on Blumenthal and Bin Laden and think it funny is rather high.
(The store's sign predates both individuals, but it isn't read that way)

Geodkyt said...

Um, Staghounds, IANAL and all, but I don't see the Post Office authorization as having anything to do with empowering Congress to act in teh case of a private courier service, unless Congress chose "private market" as the way to carry out their duties in this regard. Since we have the USPS, no dice there.

I will grant this as a legitimate (although stupid) example for "Interstate Commerce", as in all but a tiny sliver of cases, these transactions do involve actual interstate commerce. (Not sure about UPS, but I know for certain that unless your FedEx package is going FROM Georgia TO Georgia, it ends up being "interstate", because 100% of FedEx packages get routed through Atlanta. . . I'm guessing UPS has a similar system for the same reasons of efficiency.)

I still think ANY federal action on this matter is stupid beyond belief, but then, we are talking about politicians. . .

Anonymous said...

"If you like your package delivery service, you can keep your package delivery service."

BHO Jan 31, 2015 on the Affordable Delivery Act being signed into law.

Gerry

Don said...

In my family, it's traditional to give at least one IOU for a gift which one has hidden too well and thus misplaced. They usually turn up eventually.

staghounds said...

I wasn't clear.

"Post Office" is more like "UPS" than "Everything In The Constitution" is like "Steroids In Baseball".

Jay G said...

My understanding is that the packages that didn't arrive were ONLY the ones sent via Ground delivery.

You know, the cheapest UPS service? The one that doesn't guarantee delivery by a certain date...

TL/DR: This is even LESS of an issue that it even seems...

Ken O said...

Blumenthal is just courting the Goy vote. Of course given the lefties tendencies, if this Charlie Foxtrot had occurred a few weeks earlier, and little Mordecai had not received his dreidel, it would no doubt be investigated as a corporate hate crime.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

@TM: Wrong. This kind of thing happens all the time (if not to this extent) and the FedGov never gets involved. So don't throw your reflexive "Commerce Clause" response out at me.

Michael in CT said...

Blumenthal is the senior senator from CT. The junior Senator from CT is even stupider (not an exaggeration) and both are an embarrassment. I can only hope that neither are ever taken seriously about anything.

Kevin R.C. O'Brien said...

I can't let any mention of Blumenthal take place without pointing out that one of the building blocks of his career was his heroism in Vietnam, to which he frequently and reverently referred.

Until opposition researchers found out that he never was anywhere near Vietnam. He rode deferments as long as they existed, and then when Nixon eliminated them, Blumenthal, then a Nixon aide(!), got past the waitlist on a "special" USMC Reserve unit full of Washington nomenklatura types. Don't believe he even went to Marine basic, but maybe he did.

And for years he billed himself as a Marine war hero. And the press never looked into it, because, well, we know why.

Gary Griffin said...

In answer to the original question of the post, Nope. Gary

Brad K. said...

Al Franken leaves such . . odd . . shoes to fill.

Anonymous said...

And toolbags everywhere rise up in indignation at being compared to a United States Senator...

Anonymous said...

Blumenthal and Schumer. Hmmm, what do these busybody Big Gubmint leftards have in common?