Portside

Race plays an unmistakable part in the Democratic challenge in conservative states and districts. And it's deeper than just antipathy to Obama; in fact, it goes back half a century.

In a dangerously provocative decision, the heads of state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decided last week to deploy a "rapid response force" for Eastern Europe. Citing what it termed "Russian aggression," NATO will develop a "spearhead" of some 5,000 elite troops to deploy against Russia. Russian leaders have long warned against NATO's eastern expansion as a threat to its security and a violation of agreements made to end the the Cold War.

On September 10th advocates for "net neutrality" will launch a global day of protest, the Battle for the Net's Internet Slowdown, simulating what the world wide web may soon look like without concerted action. The action is part of the campaign to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from bowing to the giant cable companies' demand for a two-tier internet system, with arbitrary fees and slow and fast lanes for internet traffic.

The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) reports the long-term unemployed in the world's major economies has increased by 85% since the financial crash of 2008, and the "structural reforms" and austerity measures imposed in its wake. The OECD, which supported many of these measures, now warns cyclical unemployment has become structural, and any further cuts in wages or jobs would be "counterproductive" and threaten social cohesion.

The country's largest private prison firms are experiencing strong increases in the price of their shares as a result of the incarceration of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children in recent months. While these firms have no experience in child welfare, investors nonetheless "see this as an opportunity." For private firms with existing federal contracts to detain immigrants, the increased jailing of unaccompanied minors is "a potentially untapped market."

Last Sunday the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confiscated nearly 1,000 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank, a move the Israeli organization Peace Now termed "unprecedented in its scope since the 1980s." Peace Now said this recent seizure of 990 acres of Palestinian land places yet another "obstacle" in the road to a two-state solution. Israel confiscated 243 acres in the same area in April.

Unless you have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance – estimated to be about 1% of the population – or if you suspect that you do, do yourself a favor and avoid gluten-free products.

How many times was Justice Antonin Scalia wrong about Henry Lee McCollum and the death penalty?

The national media have tended to focus on which potential candidate Perry's indictment might help or hurt. But Texas reporters know Perry has a history of hardball politics, forcing people out of office, and say that we should take the charge of criminal abuse of office seriously.

'The most fundamental principle of American foreign policy.'