For reasons unknown, former marine, Iraq-war veteran, current police officer, James Crooker went to the Red and Black worker-owned cafe in south east Portland and ordered coffee. He was given his coffee in a to-go cup and asked to leave due to the fact that cops make many people uncomfortable. This entirely reasonable act done out of concern for the well-being of other patrons has wrinkled the noses of Portland's cop-supporter community.

The corporate media has jumped all over this not-very-exciting incident and loonies have been making anonymous threatening comments on blogs and what-not. Now is the time for all of us who have been supported by the Red and Black to show our support and solidarity as our friends and comrades come under attack.

Now's the time to get our side of the story out! Folks we must begin printing thousands of our communiqués getting the word out about this past week of amazing community resistance to the brutal police force. Anyone can write a communiqué about their experience, thoughts and perspectives. Its easy!It doesn't have to be the most beautiful or length piece either. It can be a simple note that takes two minutes to write. The important thing is that you get your thoughts on paper and personally hand them out to another human being.

Is the traditional media too obsessed with Tiger Woods' romantic difficulties? Is the media paying so much attention to Woods that they're letting other priorities slide?

Krauthammer laments the loss of the "War on Terror." It's hard to see why there's anything to really miss about it.

"Throughout the... litany of news coverage on the IOC’s decision [to award the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro rather than Chicago], little attention has been given to what is arguably the majority sentiment in Chicago. When citizen opposition, polls and community organizing is taken into consideration, today’s decision is not appropriately characterized by “deep sadness.” Community leaders and organizers, as well as citizens, registered far different reactions than what was expressed by politicians and prominently echoed by U.S.-based mainstream media outlets." Read More | Previous Feature: Chicago Rallies Against 2016 Olympics with IOC Vote Looming | Related: South Africa’s Poor Targeted by Evictions, Attacks in Advance of 2010 World Cup

The Philadelphia Inquirer was put to the quality and integrity test by the recent release of the Libyan Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 in the Lockerbie Pan Am 103 shootdown case. And the paper failed this test abysmally. The case was easy to flunk because there was an establishment consensus on this subject, based in good part on a long-standing demonization of Kadaffi and strenuous government propaganda claiming Libyan guilt.

In the modern era of civilization, we are subject to laughing lies that mock the struggle to stand for Life. After the slaughter of thousands of Iraqis, mostly women and children, after activists for Life stood up and said no to war - Bush confessed that “the weapons of mass destruction never existed.” But says Galeano, “‘the most lethal weapons ever devised’ were his own speeches.”

RELATED: "America’s Best Idea" - Global Destruction of the Earth and the Displacement of Indigenous Peoples

It's hard to know where to begin responding to an article as unethical and error-ridden as James Pitkin's recent Willamette Week story, "Anti-Fascist Front." As an organization committed to opposing racism and organized bigotry, Rose City Antifa's biggest concern is Pitkin's use of his position in the press to silence and trivialize the struggle of people of color, sexual minorities, Jewish communities, and others who are frequent targets of oppressive ideologies. Pitkin defends white supremacists and militant Jew-haters in his story. This article is a result of Willamette Week's willful ignorance of the far Right, and its inability to recognize fascists and anti-Semites unless they come dressed in swastika armbands or Klan robes.

Pitkin contributes to a culture of silence around issues of oppression and racial intimidation in our city, indicating that anti-racists are the bigger problem. To support this idea, he mischaracterizes our organization from the article's start to its finish, going so far as to claim that we refused to grant an interview. What he neglects to mention is that while in dialogue with Willamette Week editor Mark Zusman, we consented to do an interview on the condition that the Willamette Week correct factual errors on their website relating to Rose City Antifa, which they failed to do before our scheduled interview, therefore forcing us to cancel.

We have never had confidence in Pitkin's journalistic skills or professional ethics. It was clear by his earlier authorship of an opinion piece against Rose City Antifa ("Rogue of the Week" article of July 15) that Pitkin had compromised his ability to report news accurately and without bias. Our organization has talked with ethical journalists in the past, and is willing to do so in the future.

homepage:  http://antiracistaction.org

from the open publishing newswire: I came to Honduras as part of a delegation of concerned activists who went to witness and accompany the daily protests, monitor human rights violations, and report back to the international community on conditions since the June 28th military coup. On that day, democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly removed from office by the Honduran military and expelled from the country.  In the aftermath there has been an immediate popular uprising in his support, with many instances of severe police and military repression which continue today.  The following is a reflection on time spent in and around Tegucigalpa during two critical weeks in August.

Last night as I was packing my bags to go to Honduras, I heard that the military repression was getting worse.  One hundred and fifty arrested, many wounded.  I sit in the airport waiting room and scan CNN.  Not a mention on the world news.

Rochester Indymedia has resolved to witness Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearings and trial, first-hand, after observing an ongoing pattern of sloppy and inaccurate reporting of the case by the local corporate media. With the help of a journalist from Boston Indymedia, who was also present on July 1st in Judge Joseph Valentino's courtroom for his rulings, Rochester Indymedia began to notice other disturbingly oppressive patterns developing in Rivera's case, enacted both in the courtroom and in the ongoing corporate media coverage.

Additional Information: A Child in Chains: A reportback from Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearing | Media Review of Last Month's Pretrial Hearing | Digging for Truth in the Tyquan Rivera Case | Let’s Not Retreat into Cocoons of Expedient Simplicity and Pretentiousness

Audio: Eye-witness e-mail account of police brutality before Tyquan Rivera allegedly shot into police as read on WDKX on February 4th, 2009

Related: AARM Holds Second Event on the Media and Racism | Racism and the Media Community Discussion a Success | Facts about Juvenile Injustice | Activists Against Racism Movement

The Peoria Journal Star owes a long overdue public apology to the late Mark Clark, and especially to his remaining family members.

Peorian Mark Clark, then 22, was murdered by Chicago police authorities during the infamous predawn raid on December 4, 1969 at a West Side apartment where he and a group of fellow Black Panthers were sleeping. The renowned and charismatic Panther Fred Hampton, age 21, also was killed by police, shot point blank in the head while still on his mattress.

The incident became a landmark event in the urban civil rights movement with both Clark and Hampton considered martyrs to the causes of worldwide black liberation and the revolutionary human rights struggle. According to published newspaper reports, 14 police officers assigned to the office of then Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan (who died just last week, on June 9, at age 88) stormed the apartment at 2337 W. Monroe St. occupied by seven Black Panthers in a 4:40 a.m. raid.

A summary of four recent protests along with answers to two questions

Numerous protests have taken place locally in the past few weeks. The bad guys who provoke these protests are obviously working overtime to arouse such dissatisfaction in the American people.

As many are beginning to notice, the number of deaths attributed to the swine flu in Mexico has been greatly exaggerated. The first sign that something was amiss should have been the absence of information on the identities of the deceased. Missing were the normally present stories on the tragic lives of the victims. The second sign that something was amiss should have been the impressively small number of attributed deaths outside of Mexico. Despite all the hype, we are now finding out that this strain of swine flu is largely benign. How could such a small story have enveloped the world and caused global panic? The only real disaster has been memetic. The virus that threatens us is not a physical virus, but a memetic virus: the false rumor of a pandemic. Read More | Related: WHO RAISES PANDEMIC THREAT LEVEL

Publisher Brian Tierney claims that it is important that he and his group maintain control of the Inky because they represent a local interest. But he represents a local special interest, and certainly not local majority interest. Thus he has pushed the paper to the right on issues well beyond the local but impinging on the city in negative ways.

In the case of Ward Churchill vs. CU Boulder, the jury ruled in favor of American Indian scholar and activist Ward Churchill on all accounts. CU Boulder administration, right wing pundits and much of the mainstream press is fuming as a result.

You'll find many articles regretably conceding that yes indeed the firing of Ward Churchill was fueled not by academic misconduct, but by his controversial essay On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. The jury agreed to all three points of the prosecution: that CU used Churchill's opinions and words to terminate him, that the termination harmed Churchill, and that had it not been for the essay he had written (as opposed to the allegations of academic misconduct) that Churchill would still be teaching at the University of Colorado.

Still, quickly looking at the headlines from major news outlets and the story continues to be smearing Churchill, rather than recognizing that a university joined forces with conservative politicians to lead a witchhunt against a teacher for their political beliefs. read more | Ward Churchhill Solidarity Network