The American Postal Worker Union is launching a national ad buy that will appear on NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, designed to raise awareness about the easy solution to the current funding problems that the United States Postal Service is facing. As previously reported, there is literally no legitimate reason for the funding shortfall. Conservatives in Congress and elsewhere are purposefully trying to hurt the Postal Service so they can privatize it:

The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade, an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.

APWU is not taking the assault on their livelihood lightly, they are going on the offensive to let the American public know the reality behind what is being done to undercut the USPS.

Says APWU President Cliff Guffey:

"The ads are intended to build public awareness and support for congressional efforts to resolve the Postal Service’s financial crisis without cutting pay, reducing benefits, eliminating collective bargaining rights or slashing service."

On the congressional front, APWU supports a package of amendments to the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) that would prevent the closures and other service cutbacks. The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate soon.

AWPU members can take action to support the campaign. Others can call 202-224-3121 and tell their senators to support the amendments that would stop layoffs and office closures.

CREDO Mobile is calling on activists to contact Congress in order to save rural post offices, many of which are slated to be closed as part of a conservative effort to, it seems, privatize the United States Postal Services, a vital and successful program. The Postmaster General has announced the closing of 3,000 mostly rural post offices, which also will lead to the laying off of more than 200,000 workers. The supposed reason for the layoffs and closings is the false idea that the postal service is in financial trouble, something we previously reported on. The real problem is something else:

It's true the post office faces financial challenges. But the financial problems are in large part a direct result of an onerous and ill-considered 2006 law that mandates that the postal service pre-fund its retiree health care and pension benefits for 75 years -- something that no other government agency or private company is forced to do.

Eighty-five percent of the red ink comes from this pre-funding mandate despite the fact that, according to the Post Office Inspector General, the pension is over-funded and reserves for retiree health care are far higher than the federal government as a whole, the military and almost all Fortune 1000 companies.

Simply modifying the 2006 pre-funding mandate would provide considerable breathing room for the post office. And while some changes to the post office are certainly necessary to preserve and improve it in the 21st Century, now's not the time to close post offices and cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The money "saved" by these closings and layoffs wouldn't even affect the overall financial situation of the post office, but they could devastate the local communities and the poorer citizens that rely on the postal service. Take action now to stop this assault.

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To give our beloved staff a chance to celebrate the holidays, we are going to revisit the most popular videos of 2011. Some of them are golden oldies that you, our C&L readers, keep going back to, some are highlights from this year. What's clear is that there is little worry that C&L will suffer from content as we head full force into an election year.

We hope that you have a lovely holiday weekend, full of comfort and joy. And we'll start our recap with the 50th most popular video on the C&L archives.

This is fantastic entry from Heather, whom Amato fondly refers to as "The Machine" for her ability to stomach so many hours of broadcasts and make so many of the clips you'll see on this list.

Here's the thing all these tea party Republicans need to remember, we liberals know our stuff. You can yell and spout off your talking points, but we're gonna get you on the facts every time. Rep. Joe Walsh is a particularly disgusting Republican--a big bully, deadbeat dad and petulant drama queen--but he picked the wrong letter carrier to abuse at a town hall meeting. In a nice bit of comeuppance, Ed Schultz talked to that letter carrier, Melissa Rakestraw and she proved that we average Joes and Janes are far better than what passes for progressive pundits these days.