Portside

The political calculation by House Speaker John Boehner and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that they would reap dividends from a speech to a joint session of Congress is getting an unprecedented rebuff from both representatives and senators.

A Friday Nite Videos special edition featuring Jon Stewart and Daily Show spin-offs, offspring and talents.

A powerful few benefit by dividing the Nigerian people along ethnic, religious and sectarian lines for political gain. Massive unemployment --particularly in Northern Nigeria -- has fed the insurgency; while Nigerian workers – bus and okada (motorcycle taxi) drivers, market stall holders, hawkers, teachers, commuters and others – are especially vulnerable to Boko Haram’s attacks.

Reader Comments - Black Future Month, Vanishing Black Professors, Black-Brown Unity, Lynching; Selma, Civil Rights, LBJ; Vietnam War; Immigration: ISIS, Charlie Hebdo; Labor's Bigger Tent, Adjunct Profs and Right-to-Work (for less); Science; Greece, Spain and the EU; Educational Testing; South African women against big coal; movie feedback; Announcements - Malcolm X; Spain; Cuba Embargo; Labor and the Police; Black Men Speak; Debra E. Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize

Today the U.S. government treats immigrants from Latin America the way liberated Jews were treated after World War II. Then a presidential aid reported: "we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them except that we do not exterminate them. They are in concentration camps in large numbers under our military guard instead of S.S. troops." Our nation of immigrants treats modern immigrants with arrest and detention; and modern immigrant (concentration) camps.

Jamal Zahalka, Chairman of the Balad party (and Knesset member) says that unification of Israel's Arab parties is nothing short of historic - both in Israel and the Arab world: `There has never been unity between the communists, nationalists and Islamists.' In an interview, Zahalka talks about his party's appeal to Jewish voters, why the Joint List won't join an Israeli government and what compromises he is willing to make to end the occupation.

The Department of Education is creating its own college ranking system based on access, affordability and performance. US News and World Report has long been aware that it uses a deeply flawed system for assessing colleges' educational quality. In 1997, the National Opinion Research Center. The NORC study found, '...the current approach is that the weights used to combine the various measures into an overall rating lack any defensible empirical or theoretical basis.'

The Greek election was a warning that, while wealth and political power may be related, they are not the same thing: Governments can be overturned. Europe needs answers. The Greek crisis is a crisis of the entire EU. To one extent or other, every country - even Germany, the EU's engine - is characterized by falling or anemic wage growth, increasing economic inequality, spreading deflation, and an overall decline in living standards.

Ann Wayt was fired in 2012, shortly after Affinity nurses voted to join National Nurses Organizing Committee-Ohio (NNOC-Ohio), a state affiliate of NNU. A lawsuit was filed and a jury awarded her more than $2 million in damages.