Portside

To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 — waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known.

How is it that American corporations are paying a smaller share of federal income taxes when the rates paid by individuals dropped much further? It’s simple: ordinary American families don’t have teams of lobbyists to win them loopholes or armies of tax accountants and attorneys to exploit them.

One of the most important parts of the Senate's bill, and of all the "comprehensive immigration reform" proposals, is a big increase in guestworker programs. Employers demand them as a price for supporting legalization of the undocumented. But our history tells us that this is a very high price. Especially for farmworkers, guestworker programs have been a terrible idea.

A spoof paper concocted by Science reveals little or no scrutiny at many open-access journals.

New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority refused to change its plans to spend $34 million on Chinese steel to repair the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

'... a little breathing room to just be human and deal with human needs.'

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

"We will vote against any and every cut to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."