public service

The Federal Records Act, FOIA, and those pesky Email "Records"

Perhaps one of the harshest critiques hurled at presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, by the current State Dept Inspector General, was this:

"At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."

Any Government Employee knows (should know) that everything you do as a Government Employee IS, and one day will (presumptive) become 'a permanent' Public Record. That is what the National Archives is all about. This is because you are working on the public's dime, so the public "has a right to know" what you are actually doing. In theory anyways ... that is what the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is supposed to be all about -- the public's "right to know" ... holding our Government "accountable", ... Sunshine is the best disinfectant, etc. etc.

Resilience: How To Revitalize Local Post Offices From The Ground Up

Resilience1.jpg
Martha published an intriguing essay on how our local Post offices could help lead the way into resiliency for our local communities.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-let-post-offices-lead-way
She challenged us to a thought experiment on how to make this vision practical. So last night I did a back-of-the-napkin sketch of a plan for making the vision practical. As usual, I babbled on endlessly :=) I post it here as a departure point for a c99 brainstorming session on transforming our Post Offices from the ground up.
See, what little public thinking there is about revitalizing our Post Offices after decades of corporatist kneecapping, is all about the national vision. We all know that top-down revitalization is nevah gonna happen. Unless, unless, we the people begin to transform our local PO branches from the ground up, beginning in our local communities - neighbourhoods, suburbs, villages, rural towns, small towns. So how would we do it? Where would we start? Let me show you below.