Free Republic

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, aka BART, has been shut down by a workers' strike that started at midnight. That means that the system's 400,000 daily riders have to find alternate ways to get to work. Naturally, a lot of them are driving. San Francisco already has some of the worst traffic in the country, and now things have gotten a lot worse. Here's what the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge looked like early this morning: [CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE PHOTO]

AN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Bay Area Rapid Transit workers walked off the job early Monday morning after last-minute negotiations failed to produce a new contract agreement. The strike ensured a nightmarish commute to start the week, leaving about 400,000 BART riders to find another way to get work. The unions were seeking a 5 percent annual raise over the next three years. BART spokesman Rick Rice said the transit agency had rolled out several offers over the course of negotiations, including an 8 percent salary raise over the next four years. But the unions dismissed the proposals as “surface...

An IRS agent in the embattled Cincinnati office is lashing out at the agency's managers for pinning the blame on them for the targeting of conservative groups, describing one official's attempt to pass the blame as a "nuclear strike on us." According to transcripts of interviews that House investigators conducted with two Cincinnati office employees and which Fox News reviewed, agent Elizabeth Hofacre claimed that the idea this program was the work of two rogue agents is "absurd." She said that when Lois Lerner, the high-level official who oversaw the Cincinnati unit and is now on leave over the scandal,...

The Louvre was closed Wednesday after its workers walked off their jobs to protest what is said to be a rising problem of pickpockets haunting the famed Paris museum’s vast galleries. Louvre spokeswoman Sophie Grange was unable to say when the museum, which normally attracts up to 30,000 visitors a day at this time of year, would reopen. Museum staff organized the protest to draw attention to the problem, which they say is hindering their ability to welcome visitors and protect the Louvre’s collections. …

The San Francisco Symphony said on Sunday that it has canceled its upcoming East Coast tour as its musicians continue to strike over compensation. **SNIP** Orchestra management said in a statement that musicians rejected a "cooling off" period that would have allowed concerts to resume. Musicians went on strike on Wednesday after contract negotiations fell through. The orchestra said on Sunday that musicians have rejected a number of proposals, including one that offered increases in musician compensation to achieve a new annual minimum salary of $145,979 with annual increases of 1% and 2%.

I was deeply troubled when video surfaced last week of striking Strongsville, Ohio teachers heckling substitute teachers who were applying to be their temporary replacements. Over 300 teachers are on strike because the school board is refusing to give them automatic raises, and the school board undercut their mass temper tantrum by hiring substitutes to keep schools open. The substitutes, complete with police escorts, had to endure heckling and jeering by the strikers. The unionists often followed alongside the substitutes, berating them and yelling in their faces as they headed to the local police department for mandatory background checks. The...

We here at SooperMexy Headquarters were afeared for our lives when it was leaked that Obama had approved the unconstitutional drone strike program for Americans!! Especially after Robert ChubbyCheeks Gibbs admitted that he lied to the White House press corps about the entire program! However, we, at the SooperMexy Headquarters are completely reassured by the video posted by the White House to give Americans guidelines on how not to become a target for drone bombing!! We think you will too!

Hassan Shateri, the Iranian general whose killing was reported last week, was actually slain last month in an alleged IAF airstrike that was said to have targeted a weapons convoy heading from Syria to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Britain’s Sunday Times reported. Iran was quick last week to blame “mercenaries and supporters” of Israel for Shateri’s death, although it made no indication that he had been killed in the January airstrike. Tehran “will take revenge on Israel for the killing of a Quds Force general in Syria,” said Ali Shirazi, liaison for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Revolutionary...

Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid was buried as a martyr for freedom and democracy in a country that is threatened with the loss of both, as an uprising against the ruling Islamist party gained momentum. Mr. Belaid’s assassination triggered a ferocious backlash against the main Islamist party, Ennahda, one that continued during the funeral Friday, attended by as many as 100,000 people. The midafternoon funeral on Friday was a largely peaceful event marred by bouts of violence – and brief periods of panic – as crowds tried to outrun billowing clouds of tear gas aimed at demonstrators and looters on...

The main purpose of US President Barack Obama's visit to Israel in the spring is to warn Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against attacking Iran, unnamed officials told Army Radio on Sunday. According to the officials, the urgency of the trip is because in his speech to the United Nations in September, Netanyahu had flagged the spring of 2013 as a significant time in the context of the Iranian nuclear threat.

Israel explained on Friday, unofficially, what happened on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, when its planes allegedly attacked a target in Syria. It also explained why Syria gave a false version of what had happened. Video According to this unofficial Israeli version, the target was a convoy of SA-17 missiles that was preparing to leave a base at Jamraya, near Damascus, in order to deliver the missiles to Lebanon's Hizbullah. .....

Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike to stop Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah or al Qaeda inspired groups, officials said Sunday. The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to a main northern city, and Israel's premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran.

Barksdale Air Force Base, La. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 83rd birthday was Jan. 15. . . His courageous crusade for equality was first nationally recognized on Jan. 20, 1986, when President Reagan established the third Monday in January as an official federal government holiday. Our country, our Air Force and Air Force Global Strike Command can learn much from Dr. King's drive for America to be a nation of equals. . . During his "I Have a Dream" speech given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963, King told a gathering of more than 200,000...

As if Superstorm Sandy and the looming fiscal crisis weren't enough, a potential strike by thousands of dock workers from Boston to Houston threatens to shock the economy as early as this weekend. Business groups and state officials in recent days have called on President Obama to intervene, and use emergency powers to "avoid a coast wide port shutdown." They warn it could cost billions, citing estimates that a 10-day port lockout in 2002 cost $1 billion a day -- and caused a major backlog in shipments. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is the latest to enter the fray and call...

Despite most of Congress leaving town for the holidays, postal workers are continuing a hunger strike protesting legislation to save the United States Postal Service (USPS) through budget cuts. The hunger strike began Tuesday and is expected to end late Saturday, according to The Washington Post. Six former and current postal workers, part of a group called Communities and Postal Workers United, are calling the strike “six days starving to save six-day delivery.” Their goal is to stop Congress from reducing postal delivery to five days a week. “We have to be on guard, to raise awareness and pressure the...

The container carriers and port operators, represented by the U.S. Marine Alliance, want to cap the royalties at 2011 levels, saying they've morphed into a huge expense, totally unrelated to their original purpose, which hurts the industry's competitiveness as it tries to keep up with new technology. The alliance says the royalty payments now amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 annually for East Coast workers who already earn more than $50 per hour.

It's not about jobs. It's not about safety. It's not about improving dockworkers' living standards. The looming, long-planned East and Gulf Coast port strikes are about protecting Big Labor's archaic work practices and corrupt waterfront rackets. Are you ready for a fiscal cliff? The union bosses of an estimated 14,500 workers at 15 ports are preparing to send the economy plunging back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. You read that right. Much more on that in a moment. But first, here's what's at stake. The International Longshoremen's Association's (ILA) grip extends from Boston to Texas to Florida...

Among the nation’s shrinking union population, the unionized office workers at Southern California’s ports make more than most actors in the Screen Actors Guild. They make more than union construction workers, truck drivers, school teachers, cops, fire fighters, and just about any other unionized profession you can think of (with the possible exception of sports players). In fact, other than union bosses themselves, it can be easily argued that the office workers at SoCal ports are the union movement’s crème de la crème. As the office workers’ union has, so far, rejected an offer bringing their total compensation to nearly...

FARGO, N.D. — Their ranks thinned by a 16-month lockout, American Crystal Sugar Co. workers on Saturday rejected a contract for the fourth time. Contract opponents say the sugar beet processor’s five-year contract offer would cut health care benefits and weaken job security and seniority protections. The company says the offer would raise worker pay by 17 percent over five years when a $2,000 signing bonus is taken into account. Leaders of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union said in a news release that the workers voted 55 percent to reject management’s contract offer. “By now...

In spite of the embarrassing antics on full display during his first term in Congress, the voters in Florida’s CD09 saw fit to send Alan Grayson back to Washington, D.C. Naturally, the extreme elements of the far left supported Grayson’s return to office, but so too did many of our friends and neighbors. Perhaps even family members. He was also a recipient of overwhelming support from the Hispanic community, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent. And labor unions. There’s no doubt he also received a fair share of votes from the disaffected and disengaged for the sheer entertainment value such...