Portside

Amiri Baraka is one of the most respected and widely published African-American writers. We are happy to publish the poem he sent Portside, placing the recent shutdown events in the context of U.S. history, and the on-going struggle for equality and justice. We get clear enough to elect Obama the terrorists take off they Klan clothes put on some suits , they the t party, now. TEA The Evil Assholes

Reader Comments- Teachers Protests in Brazil and Mexico; Shutdown and Social Security; , GOP Playbook; Two Countries in 2014; Koch Bros. Monster Out of Control; Ghost of McCarthy; Lessons from Germany; Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap; Mission Accomplished? More Responses; Annnouncements- Trans-Pacific Partnership Forum - New York-Oct 25; Concert Celebration for Jon Fromer - New York-Oct 26 Social Cost of America's Race to Incarcerate - Chicago-Nov 7; Shorts, Job Announcement

The Kristol memo; We! Are! The 1%!; 7 Craziest Obamacare Conspiracy Theories; Climate, chemtrails and conspiracy; Liberalism in the (think) tank

The right-wing billionaire Koch Bros. raised and spent $250 million in 2012 to shape political and policy debate nationwide. Freedom Partners, the front for the mysterious Koch brothers, cut checks as large as $63 million to groups promoting conservative causes, according to an IRS document to be filed shortly.

Reader Comments - Syria, chemical weapons, Israel; American Jews Speakout Against AIPAC; Organized Labor's Decline; Pensions; Mexican unions; Announcements - Sept. 16 in New York - Iraqi Workers in Turbulent Middle East - Pres of Iraqi Oil Workers Union speaks; Protest Alexandria Center for Life Science; FAIR celebrates release of new book Dollarocracy; Demand a Robin Hood Tax - New York - Sept. 17 - Restore and Expand Vital Public Services for the 99%

Discussions between the United Auto Workers union and a Tennessee Volkswagen plant have raised fears among Southern politicians that union representation would deter businesses - and badly needed jobs - from coming to their respective states.

Bert and Ernie Outed; Commie Camp Profiled; The Blind Will Get Their Books; Chipotle Rejects GMO Ingredients; Race and Class in Evidence At the Zimmerman Trial; Kansas Takes a Sharp Turn to the Right

What was most striking about the 2012 election, then, was that in the face of this attack on our right to vote, there was something akin to a popular revolt by the African American and Latino electorate. Latinos voted over 70% for Obama and African Americans over 93%. What happened in the 2012 election was very much about demographics. African Americans, Latinos and Asians turned out in significant numbers, voting overwhelmingly for the Democrats.