why the unions out here....would choose now to throw this monkey wrench into the economy.

Uhh, Tom, it's a lockout, not a strike. Pacific Maritime Association, the shipper's cartel, chose to shut down after dockworkers engaged in a "work-to-rule" action, which, I'm sure you know, means following job-site and contract rules to the letter and not doing anything extra. That's legal and relatively non-disruptive...whereas the PMA lockout, it's estimated, will soon be costing the economy $billions and hammering it further into the ground.

If the unions were responsible, don't you think Dubya would do a PATCO and end the strike (if there were a strike) immediately by force? He ain't gonna do anything to upset those nice respectable Republican businessmen/contributors, and so our corkscrew spiral into the ground is accelerated.

Your devoted fact-checker,

--Robert