Get up and get - get - get down, the MTA is a joke in my town

[jlh]

The transit strike started at 5am today. Given that:

1. The governor was in New Hampshire raising money for an eventual presidential bid while people were negotiating last week
   
2. The head of the MTA didn't see fit to get sit his fat ass at the table until what, Thursday night?
   
3. The MTA didn't even start negotiations until a few weeks before contracts were set to expire
   
4. The MTA has already gotten in trouble for keeping two sets of books, and has a surplus that they are unwilling to share with the union except through a payment against the pension fund deficit which they created and therefore already owe but are willing to share with riders through an illegal fare break for Christmas
   
5. The TWU is the most radical union that represents city workers, so they have a lot of pressure from the cops, firemen, etc to push as hard as they can
   
6. Striking against the city is actually illegal, so now the MTA and the governor get to act all tough and fine the union while they're striking

I'm not surprised that we are where we are. The head of the TWU, Toussant, feels dissed and understandably so. The MTA doesn't even know how much money they have so I'm not sure how seriously anyone can take anything they say. It's a big fat insane mess and if it's over by Christmas I will be happily surprised.

Meanwhile, in the last post, forgot to give you the actual link to ziggy1278's brilliant thoughts on King Kong.

Clearly I need a NYC icon. Any suggestions?