Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project is a living proof of indigenous people bringing back their almost lost languages by any means and the resistance of linguistic domination.

El Mosquito, panhandler by day, superhero by night, speaker of over 370 lost indigenous languages and protector of all indigenous and poor peoples across Pachamama kills the drone that killed thousands of poor mothers, babies, and elders from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Palestine.

This drone is the same drone that is well-known for allegedly killing the multi-billionaire known as Osama Bin Laden, son of a family who had ties to the Bush and Cheney Dynasty, and became the corporate rationale for the launching of hundreds of illegal and unjust wars across the globe and billion dollar contracts with private military corporations such as Blackwater and Halliburton

Before El Mosquito intervened "The Drone" (known as "the beast of Kandahar") was poised to launch yet another murderous air-strike on a small village in Pakistan which would have resulted in the death of hundreds of indigenous Pakistani farmers labeled and profiled by Corporate and Independent media as “terrorist insurgents”

El Mosquito is available for personal appearances and emergency response actions at pending evictions, foreclosure sales, gang injunction proceedings, budget genocide proposals and school closures in a poor community of color near you

El Mosquito is a revolutionary PeoplesHero created for TEAM POOR of POOR Magazine in 1998 by Eddie Camacho and Tiny (Lisa Gray-Garcia). We are currently searching  for a conscious game designer to turn TEAM POOR into an interactive game

The story of Dee and tiny, the previously homeless, currently at-risk mother daughter art duo, and co-editors of POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork is a many layered, multi-colored panopoly of poverty, struggle and myth...

Once upon a time dee and tiny, mom and dad and their eleven brothers and sisters were traveling on a slightly used yaught in the Bremuda Triangle and then suddenly the yacht capsized, killing everyone but Dee and Tiny who were rescued by a Hindu Tamal Coast Guard Cutter and brought to Berkeley - where they painted shirts and sold them on the streets for 17 years and saved $780.00....

Several quixotic miracles and multiple evictions later we find Dee and Tiny somewhere in The Greater Bay Area after founding the non-profit, grassroots, arts organization POOR Magazine and the on-line magazine from virtually nothing and now because of deep and dark funding cuts in social services and foundation budgets (Post 911) they are now struggling just to keep the organization open so they can do all the amazin' education, media and art programs for poor and houseless youth and adults locally and globally ...

Scroll thru Po' Poets to view the rest of the story, parts 1-7!

1) Krip-Hop Nation (KHP) – Tell us the underground Hip-Hop in Vancouver 

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu- to be quite honest, I do not know of many underground Hip Hop artists in Vancouver besides the artists that are in my group/label Virus Tower Entertainment. We as a group are trying to make underground Hip Hop a place to express true emotion and as other rappers say “keep it real.” Elias Sade, a member of Virus Tower Entertainment is a great rapper, and in my opinion, better than me you can check him out at www.youtube.com/eliassademusic. I’ve honestly pay more attention to the mainstream hip hop artists, studying their strategies and techniques for success which is a good thing to do as an underground artist to get where you need to be. 

2) KHN- You and Chin Injet both have Cerebral Palsy and doing Hip-Hop.  Tell us the time you met Chin Injeti

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu:  Chin Injeti is a wonderful man and truly an amazing talent in the hip hop world. For me, seeing a man with the same disability as me working with artists such as Eminem and Drake is just mind blowing and he showed me that if you have a dream then you have to go for it, there is no such thing as impossible. When I met him, I was just in shock that I was in an actual recording studio where all the magic happens. I record with my laptop and a studio microphone in my bedroom so to be in an actual studio was definitely a memorable experience. I know he’s real busy, but I do hope I can come visit him again like he told me I could when I met him, haha.  He is so down to earth and normal and showed me that a disability doesn’t have to hold you back from achieving success.

3) KHN – You had a chance to perform at the Olympics tell us about that experience

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: The Olympic performance is by far the greatest memory in my career as an underground hip-hop artist. I started rapping by writing rhymes in a journal and recording them on a tape recorder and then to end up on stage in front of 12 000 people, words can’t even describe how I felt. It was like a fantasy and I couldn’t believe I can actually say I have performed my own music for the 2010 Olympics. I was so nervous before the show, I couldn’t even speak but as soon as I got on stage I knew I had to put on a great performance for this is the OLYMPICS! I will never forget that experience, and when the crowd started to chant my group’s name I felt like such a superstar and I will be thinking back to that exact moment time and time again.

4) KHN -You are Philipino have you rap about both your race & disability?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: Yes my parents are both from the Philippines so even though I was born here in Vancouver, British Columbia I am very much a Filipino. I am unable to speak Tagalog, which is what my parents speak at home, but I can understand it and reply to what my parents say in English. I did a mixtape back in 2007 called “The Kalvonix Take Over” which featured many Filipino Hip Hop artists from Vancouver and California. It was a great experience working with those artists for that was my first album using the studio microphone. As for my disability, I have many songs that surround my disability. Going through school I had to deal with many bullies who always tried to bring me down which is why I started rapping in the first place. I figured that maybe if people saw that I made music, they would accept me more for not only the music I make but for who I am as a person. I was right; through music I have made many friends, some of them who I know will be with me for a very long time.

5) KHN – tell us about Access Denied

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: Access Denied is a school rap group put together by High School English teacher Shane Begg. When I first got Mr.Begg as a teacher he let the class know that he used to have a rap group and if we wanted to know more about it to ask him. After class, I went up to him and told him that I make rap music myself, he then asked me right then and there to freestyle for him. I did exactly that and after spitting rhymes off the top of my head for a good 2 minutes he told me to stop and asked me if I was interested in being the new face of his group Access Denied. Prior to working with me, Access Denied has had 2 albums and then I asked my group to drop the name Virus Tower Entertainment for a while and make music under Access Denied. Access Denied is a rap group that caters to the students going through High School. We have done songs about bullying, homework, video game addiction, war, marriage, love, languages, music and more. Once I graduated high school though, it was time to hang up Access Denied for me and so did my group. Now we are back doing our own thing under my label Virus Tower Entertainment. I do thank Shane Begg for including my crew and I in Access Denied and also giving us the interview with Shaw TV and recognition from the Surrey School Board. You can check out Access Denied at www.accessdenied.me

6:  KHN - You have many mixtapes out tell us the themes of your mixtapes and how can we download them?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: To this day, I have recorded over 1000 songs. I have been making music for 6 years now and I can’t go a week without recording at least 2 songs. Because of this, I have managed to create countless mixtapes and albums. The difference between a mixtape and an album to me is, on a mixtape you can just have fun and do remixes, this then can allow to create the direction you want to go for an album. When it comes down to working on an album, there are no remixes all original beats and it basically the sounds that you want and intend to be known for. For me, because I have not yet learned to professionally create my own beats, I do use beats that my fellow crew members create and I also use beats from www.shadowville.com for no profit. Due to the fact that I have so much material on CDs, I do not put many of them online for download, I usually give my CDs on disc to friends or when I am at the mall I go around selling them. I do put a lot of my material on Facebook and You Tube for people to listen there. I also do have some albums up for download at www.mediafire.com. Check out my youtube page for songs and videos at www.youtube.com/kalvonixoftrapboyz

7) KHN - Tell us about your group and you told me that you did a Rock album tells us about that.

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: My group “The Vonix Virus” aka “Virus Tower Entertainment” is basically my own little label I put together for my friends and I to create our music and have fun while we all put our ideas and creativity together. Musically, we all sound different so that is why it’s so interesting and fun to create songs with all of us adding our own individual flavor. I don’t like to consider us just a rap group, yes that is our main musical style but we like to break boundaries ad go further than just a rap verse and a chorus. This is why I created a rock album called “Redemption” and an R&B album called “A Simple Melody.” It was a fun process to quit writing rap for awhile and focus more on actual song writing, with bridges in between choruses and things like that, my crew members were all for it and we all respect all genres of music. We have many members involved in “Virus Tower Entertainment” but the main members who also were the ones involved in “Access Denied” are Kalvonix (Me), Ohwell (cousin Rowell Torres), Tiffany Santiaguel (cousin), Elias Sade (close friend), and Eesa (Teresa Icasiano, close friend, singer). 

8) KHN - You r still in schools what r u studying?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: I was a high school graduate in 2010 and now I am in my first year university. I am an English major in the aim of becoming an English teacher in the future. That is of course, if the whole rap star thing does not work out. My parents always told me, music is a competitive game and because of that you must have a back up plan. An English teacher is Kalvonix’s back up plan baby! Remember kids, school comes first! 

9) KHN -  Do you think the Hip-Hop industry is ready for Krip-Hop Nation/ Disabled Hip-Hop artists like yourself?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: I believe that in the age of Youtube and the ability to put so much of your own material online, the world should be prepared for many new artists that are going to try and take over the world. The beauty with Hip Hop is I believe that it’s an art that can be practiced by anyone, yes,  some will be stronger than others but everyone can do it. The part that separates one hip hop artist from another is the ability to flow on a track, and the ability to create punchlines and story telling throughout songs. Also, freestyling in my opinion is a major skill a hip hop artist must have to be classified as a true emcee. It’s about damn time that people with disabilities start to display the musical talent we have! Hip Hop is just the beginning.

10)  KHN – I really love the song and video, This Is Me.  Please explain this song for us?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: This Is Me is an R&B song I did about my personal struggle with Cerebral Palsy. When my parents first heard the song, they both were crying so much and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. To this day, it has become one of my most popular and most preformed songs because of the intense emotion in the song and the song’s lyrics. I mention in the song the bad days where sometimes I feel like no one cares about me, and how sometimes I want to die. I do not have many of those days anymore because I have learned to be thankful for everything that I am. I have such a wonderful family and loyal friends that are around me all the time who make me feel unstoppable. Music is just my way of proving that.

11) KHN- What is you next move in the music field?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: My next movie would be to just keep on doing what I am doing. Record as much material as possible and not forget that this has to be fun if this is the profession that I want to go into. Also, Elias and I are planning to send some of our CD’s to radio stations to hopefully get some air play. As well I am hoping to keep in touch with Chin Injeti and keep on doing shows and praying to God to hopefully catch my break one day.

12)  KHN – If u had a chance to talk to Russell Simmons or other Hip-Hop agents/artists what would you say?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: I would ask them for advice and what I should do to get where I need to be. Then, knowing me I would probably show off and start rapping on the spot for them and hand them a CD to see what they think of me.  Just like how Justin Bieber ran up to Usher to sing for him, I would probably do the same thing, we all got to start somewhere.

13)  KHN-How do you give back to your community and people with disabilities?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: I give back to my community by respecting everyone for their individual talents and trying my best to understand the world for what it really is. If you understand the world, the better chance you are to find success. As for people with disabilities, I believe that I can stand as an individual to show others who are disabled like me that you should follow your dreams and do not let a disability hold you back and get the better of you. I do realize that I am lucky and I have so much, but to everyone out there, please do not lose hope! Anyone can find success if effort is put into it. 

14)  KHN -How can people reach u?

Calvin “Kalvonix” Tiu: You can reach me through email at kalvonix_booboo@live.ca or email me through youtube at www.youtube.com/kalvonixoftrapboyz

15)  KHN -Any last words?

Calvin :Kalvonix” Tiu: Please check out my You tube page and subscribe!!! Support Krip Hop Nation and people with disabilities we gonna take over the world baby!! I guess the only thing left to say is, follow your dreams! KKKKKKK KALV-V-V-ONIX!

Greetings, I am writing in representation of those who are being held in the buildings of California's biggest money machine. Better known as prison. I must contend, I sure don't see any of that money my confinement is generating, especially not in reforming me with education.

Here behind the wall being low income people it is very rough and tumble. A majority of the convicts really do try to seek something better in their lives. The system though does not allow them to because the many cut backs in funding for prisoner reform and education has made rehabilitation obsolete. The majority gets back out into society on the same level they entered prison, only a bit more angry.

I see people come and go and come again. I have come to realize these last six years that 99 out of 100 men I come across are generally from a low income background, living in low income neighborhoods. Now they're caught up in a vicious cycle, with no end in sight. And the judge at sentencing had the audacity to call this the Department of "Corrections". I see no correction here only oppression and demoralization. This is my fourth term and I'm serving 22 years 8 months to life. I received all that time to be "corrected" and pay back my debt to society. And yet, they do not offer any "correction" courses so I can learn to better myself. They will though provide a senseless novel to read. They do not offer any job training skills so that convicts can pick up a trade and return to society as an asset, but they will give me a deck of cards to keep me busy.
 

It's pretty amazing when I hear of a convict that got out and made something of himself. So amazing, in fact, that in six years I still have not heard of it. What I do hear of is the constant battle with the establishment. Many who are released from behind these walls end up back in because they were in the wrong area and it does not matter if they're clean and working now. They still lose their freedom just because they were walking through a known drug area. What I also hear is men and women being released only to end up on street corners or dead. People come behind the wall everyday and go nowhere. Some sell their soul for protection, others sell their bodies just to survive. After months or years, it just creates a madness in these individuals. I've had three neighbors hang themselves, only one lived. I've heard the cries of rape and bitter hatred. I've seen people stabbed, shot and pummeled to the ground. There are nights where I myself have layed awake with tear filled eyes, remeniscing about my family and the child I left behind. I wonder if I will live to see another day. I see, it is vital that people find education before it is too late. Otherwise, you end up like me; without a job, without a family and without a name, only a number. Just because we are homeless, doesn't mean we are hopeless and just because we are convicts doesn't mean we can't create a more positive future for ourselves. The key is education and without it we go nowhere.

Noel Sambrana, #K-53140
P.O. Box 3476 C.S.P. SHU 4A2R-37
Corcoran, CA 93212-8310

It is no secret ex-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a (distinctly low-brow) sense of humor, but who knew he'd like his it's-a'good-and-a-bad-thing "Governator" nickname so much?

A television cartoon of the same name is to be made (with scripts written by Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee...tell me it ain't so Stan!), to focus on Schwarzenegger's real political life history and to make his post-politics life a superhero fantasy.  Conan the Batman anyone?

There is precedent for this, after all "professional wrestler" Hulk Hogan had a cartoon on tv for two seasons plus a re-run season.  But when you think about such things, what stands out?  Batman, Batman Beyond, Spiderman, Superman, The Fantastic Four, the X-Men (several versions, including a Japanese manga-style tv cartoon), for starters. Then there are the full-movie-length animes like AKIRA, PRINCESS MONONOKE, and others (some that I've seen, like the latter two named...) that get a lot more respect than Hulk Hogan or The Governator ever will.

Superhero comic books, cartoons, movies and series do the same thing tv cop shows do--reinforce the status quo and provide an attractive fantasy of evil beaten, justice triumphant night after night, week after week (or month after month if we're talking 48 pages of four-color goodness...).

It's a good thing super powers are fantasy--I wouldn't be helping out the Avengers or Fantastic Four.

Mass market comic and tv cartoon outfits have never allowed their heroes or villains to change the world permanently.  If you thought the 50's (and beyond) anti-comic book campaigns, and the even harsher criticisms of video games were bad, you ain't seen bad!  Comic books haven't changed much--cellphones, the internet, and video games did generate significant alterations in how many people live their lives and interact with other folks.

Comic book big boys, like Stan Lee, HAVE done messaging about social causes.  That is likely the most powerful impulse driving "The Governator" project.  The belief that there's a Vast Liberal-Bias Conspiracy to corrupt adults and children alike is a favorite screed of conservatives--and we have our own take on who is doing the corrupting and who is the target.

Apparently European television entertainment marketers want "The Governator" (Amerikkkan rights to it haven't been sold yet), though at least one media expert across the pond opined that "the market" would rather see Schwarzenegger do a tv series or action movie. 

For some "The Governator" may be fun to watch.  For me, it would be a big WTF!  The guy who attacked poor single mamaz on welfare over and over gets a cartoon celebrating that?  No thank you.  I'd rather read a "Wild Cards" novel.  SUICIDE KINGS is about super-human child soldiers in Africa.  Message?  Yes.  Obnoxious?  No.  Powerful? Yes.  Beat that Governator!

Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game's over. I'm outta here.

What I Learned at Folsom State

How does one keep his sanity?
In a world totally insane
Why should one have humanity ?
When the world is so inhumane

Once upon a time we forgot
What we did not know, we knew
The victims of a fiendish plot
And the evil things that men do

Men dwell in darkness til they die
With numbers instead of their names
Unaware, they were sold a lie
That smothered their collective flames

They must endure a masquerade
In order to keep hope alive
Imagined friendships often fade
As better deceptions arrive

Living our days enclosed in tombs
Eats away at ones' self-respect
Each d a y, as the madness resumes
Self-esteem suffers ill effects

Old vultures have no tears to wipe
Hyenas, no laughter to hide
Old men bite fruit thats not yet ripe
But cry if its rotten inside

Ravenous wolves seek to devour
Innocence like newly killed meat
Then leave uneaten parts to sour
And stink with the smell of defeat

All these things I see everyday
Behind these walls of steel and stone
Yet, I refuse to give my soul away
To be buried like a dog's bone

Am I all that you think that I am ?
A villian on the late night news?
No, my soul will never be damned
Because of the image you choose
 

Prison is about loss . It is about loss of freedom, loss of control, loss of family and friends, of any and all conditions of life. Prison is about punishment, loss of freedom is the punishment. But, that is and of itself is no longer enough. Now prisons are slave camps and warhouses for human consumption.

Big Business has moved in to combine with the California Department of Corrections and has set in place work forces nick named P.I.A (Prison Industry Authority). This has become a thriving business where the inmate is forced to work for pennies, in often unsafe conditions while the prison system grows and prospers. Politicians have come up with fancy names like; "war on crime", "war on drugs", "three strikes your out", "the crisis of public order". At the same time words like; high infant mortality, horrible housing, lack of food, poor education, lack of jobs are forgotten. Our court system is rushing those who are unable to retain private legal representation through the "proper channels" on into the prision system and into big business' hands and calling it procedure.

We must pull together as a people because it affects out communities. It affects us all.

Anthony Cozart, #C-01398
P.O. Box 3466 C.S.P./3B 04 143
Corcoan, CA 93212
 

The music market has changed drastically in what seems like over night. Many of the mom and pop record stores have closed. Even many of the chains such as the The Wherehouse, Tower Records and FYE's have closed. Many of the chains allowed independent artists to sell their Cd’s on consignment in these chains along side the mainstream artists and mainstream labels. Even many of the events that were happening on the Navajo and Hopi rez's are not happening as frequently as they were a few years ago and so the ability to move volumes of Cd’s is no longer there outside of the swap meets and flea markets.

Being a fairly successful independent record label owner and artist, I have seen and felt the affects of these happening first hand. My name is Gabriel Yaiva but known simply as Yaiva in music circles. I'm a hip-hop artist (rapper) and a traditional hand drum singer, but foremost a father and a active participant in my community for positive change.

I'm an activist and have instrumental in many successful campaigns to protect mother Earth and the five fingered who walk upon her. My background is one of harsh beginnings at the hands of my own decisions as a young man and have since pulled myself up by my boot straps. I've graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2006 with a B.S. In Applied Indigenous Studies and have a minor in Economic Development. I run a non-profit program called Peace and Balance in which we address issues of violence and substance abuse in communities of color and work toward gaining self determination in the media and arts.

As an artist I’ve fortunate to live a life that all artists' dream of, that which is to live humbly from the gifts the Creator has blessed me with. In doing so I’ve travel the United States and Canada several times over, toured with artists I grew up listening to and admire, done over 500 shows, released over 10 albums, received several awards and gained support and recognition from my peers and counterparts and am considered a professional in my line of work as an artist and as a manager, promoter, graphic artist, marketer, advertising specialist and record industry knowledgeable label owner.

With the closing of these outlets, another resource for independent artists has been taken too. But in this happening so has the reigns been given to the independent and do-it-yourself artists. This is in the form of online marketing and distribution. I get asked all the time how I've been able to get my music on i-Tunes, Rhapsody, Amazon Music, Napster etc... it is actually easier than you would think. Here are a couple services that I utilize and hopefully this info will be helpful to you.

I use CDBaby.com. They have a couple options. You can send them hard copies of your release or hi-def wave files. I've done both options but for radio singles I generally only release the hi-def files.

Artists; when sending your music be sure to send in hi-def at the sites recommended settings because the file will be compressed to an mp3 and the compression of mp3's is a whole topic in itself because of the loss of full sound and artifacts in the compression.

With CDBaby you can choose what other music download sites you can have your music provided to. The set up cost is $55 for full albums and $9.95 for single songs. For digital distribution you will need a bar code and ISRC code for each song. If you don’t have a bar code, don't worry you can buy one directly from the site for $20 and they will assign you a ISRC code.

If you're planning on selling your music through digital retailers (i.e. iTunes, Napster, Sony Connect), then having the ability to assign ISRC codes is absolutely necessary. The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a unique international identifier for tracks on sound and music-video recordings. Comprised of a 12 character alpha-numeric code, the ISRC functions as a digital "fingerprint" for each track. Unlike a UPC code (a.k.a. bar code) the ISRC is assigned to individual tracks and not the carrier of the tracks (CD, cassette). In addition, the ISRC remains allocated to a track regardless of changes in ownership. It is an extremely powerful tool for royalty collection, administration, and anti-piracy safeguards in the digital arena. Info from http://www.recordlabelresource.com

I recently also started using tunecore.com their prices are roughly the same for singles and about a $10 difference for full albums. They also do ring-tones. The one thing that is unique about tunecore.com is you can create general CD covers/inserts right there on the site which is good for single songs but I wouldn't recommend for full releases.

The one downside I've found with CDBaby is that is generally takes them about 4 to 6 weeks to get your music to all the other download sites. Tunecore had my new single up on i-Tunes and the other sites within three days. But CDBaby was initially intended to distribute hard-copy Cd’s of independent artists which they are very good at and this is what I utilize their services for also.

The one downside of tunecore.com however is that you've got to pay yearly for the service whereas CDBaby I've paid once for each album/single for nearly three years of service.

As for payments CDBaby has been great about depositing funds directly into my Paypal account every two weeks for music and Cd’s sold and I've been using their services for about 3 years to this point. Like I mentioned I recently started using tunecore.com and have yet to receive a pay out so we will see how they work out but seem to be a good service to this point.

Both sites do take a percentage of your sales which I feel is more than a reasonable amount for the services they offer.

Both sites offer replication and duplication services.

Replication is the process of making professional grade Cd’s that are produced from an actual glass master and the info is press into the disc not burnt. This is the preferred way of producing Cd’s for the sound quality to match the closest to what was recorded in the studios.

Duplication is the process that most of us are familiar with which is the ability to burn music using computer software for your desktop or laptop.

An easy way to know weather the disc your listening to is duplicated or replicated is to flip the disc over and if you can see circles of where the info was burnt into the CD than most likely it is duplicated.

I figure I’d write this to answer the many inquiries I've gotten in bulk and so to hopefully try and help all you up and coming artists and even established artists who may not be computer and technically savvy.

I  hope it is helpful. Yaiva

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), aka "DiFi", wants California Demowhatzitz to do battle with Republicans and Tea Baggers to "defend the American Dream", the poor, et al. California Attorney General Kamala Harris jumped up and down at the same state party event where DiFi spoke, all happy that Demowhatzitz dominate California's important state offices. She really likes Governor Jerry Brown.

My article about San Francisco and Vallejo ("Government Indifference") left out a recent report in the local news media that the Black and White populations of Oakland are roughly equal after a decade of Black citizenry shrinkage. Why the shrinkage? Government is not a Black person's best friend!

Incompetence, indifference, both, whatever you want to call it, nobody in Oakland did anything substantial to make people feel welcome. Add to that Oscar Grant, other high profile Po'Lice murders, the Po'Lice themselves acting as fear mongers--worried that there aren't enough of them to "protect and serve", when the only people they are meant to protect live in the Oakland Hills.

Who could blame any non-White person for non-enthusiasm for Oakland?

Jerry Brown, the new Governor, earned my nickname "Jerry the Gentrifier of Oakland". Government incompetence, indifference, or unknown status of mentality--I mean, is he Moonbeam or is he a hole in the ozone layer puttin' a smackdown on poor people?

Don't get me wrong, I hope the Demowhatzitz DO SOMETHING, but I have news for DiFi: the so-called American Dream has been under attack at least since Ronnie Raygun Went To Washington. Reagan's War On Poverty had a different flavor altogether than the one L.B.J. dealt with in the 1960's. After Contracts With America, the Bill Clinton Welfare Whammy, and everything that has happened since, one wonders where DiFi has been?

What special rock has she been living under all these years?

When the Gilgamesh epic's clay tablets were drying in the sun, the first Egyptian pyramids were being built (4,500 years ago), and the first Ohlone (or Water People) buried the first generation of their ancestors on the west coast of Turtle Island (what was later labeled America), the Ohlone shell mounds were begun.   

When King Solomon's Temple was built the shell mounds were still in use, and the people of Mt. Shasta traded with the Ohlone, the Sacramento River connecting the communities.  When Caesar took the reins of power in the Roman Empire, and fought this poverty skolah's Celtic ancestors (and the son of a carpenter, known as Jesus, started getting famous), the shell mound had grown to two acres in diameter.   

When Constantine was Emperor in Rome, rewriting the Christian Bible, the Ohlone traded with everyone who called the Pacific Coast home.  When Rome fell to the Visigoths, Glen Cove/Sogorea Te was still going strong.  William the Conquerer forced my ancestors to learn some French.  The Vikings visited Turtle Island, unsuccessfully, getting on the bad side of the native people via lactose poisoning in their favorite alcoholic beverage.   

When Christopher Columbus was looking for a job, and got one with a little help from his friends (and Queen Isabella), and arrived in the "New World", the Ohlone's shell mound was much, much bigger.  This poverty skolah wouldn't be surprised if the Inca, the Maya, and the seven nations of the Iroquois knew of them.

As the barbarian Conquistadores were forcing Turtle Islanders to join the carpenter's religion, the peaceful Ohlone must have been working hard to broker some kind of settlement with them.   

By the time the ink was dry on the Declaration of Independence, the holy site of the Ohlone was doomed.  As my home country tries to figure out what it really is (Democracy?  Republic?  Empire?  Bankrupt, economically and spiritually?),

Vallejo, a city that is technically bankrupt, cutting their last public infrastructure (Fire and Po'Lice Departments) to pieces, wants to create a parking lot and an out-house, paving over all that spiritual and community history.

Editor's Note: See other PNN-TV and PNN- on-line indigenous peoples media rep-ports on the resistance to the desecration of Sogorea Te by clicking here:

A gang of crows woke me up, screaming the news that Osama bin Ladin is dead.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! The SEALS got that bad boy!"

I yelled out my window: "Shut Up! I'm tryin' to sleep!"

"Ah! Ah! Why such a grouch!?!" one of them shrieked on my window ledge. It cocked it's head left and right, looking like an anorexic Groucho Marx (and he was a thin dude too...) getting ready to put a verbal smack-down on and I was just the right doodyhead to take the medicine.

"Why should I care about some dead rich Arab 10,000 miles away?" I asked, "do I get some of his money? I'm still on Welfare. Lots of folks I know are too. I could use it..."

"Ah! Ah! Ask a question, get an answer!" the crow, you know, said it loud: "NO! YOU! DON'T!"

"That's what I thought", I muttered, sticking ear thingies in as deep as they would go. I started playing Paradise Jahfree Love's "I Love Everything About You...But You!"

I do want the truth to wake me up. It's better than coffee or energy drinks. I didn't get the crows' names. I knew they'd be back to tell me more.

My remake poem of ,Lil Wayne’s song  If I Die Today feat Rick Rose who was supposed to be Drake  (that got his break on TV as playing a student who uses a wheelchair.  Pimping people with disabilities!  Read my poem!)

Lil Wayne has a lil brain

What did Rick Ross say

Both gave me a headache

Hip-Hop stuck in kindergarten

Playing on a playground

Can’t seem to get off your knees

Nothing but a baby

If I Die Today

The noise u call music

Would be buried with you quick

Did you kill Hip-Hop

Or sent it back to the 2^nd grade

ABC 123 lyrics

But your incomplete sentences

don’t make sense

You, dirty put u in a rinse

Around and around

"Big Black Nigger..." on the ground

No Nikes on your feet too big for a quickie

Rick Ross, take a stand

Krip-Hop ran u over with our pimp out electric wheelchairs

Leaving skid marks up & down your Big Black ass

Go back to jail

No one will pay your bail

Doing time so u can build up vocabulary

Maybe then you can finish writing a story

Did you sang “remember me like John Lennon”

Who are you, nothing but a dried up lemon

Your songs are sour please let this be your finally hour

Going back when Hip-Hop was saying something

“Got a chopper in the car..” what r you saying

I rather hear my nephew’s baby talk

Then seeing grown Black men beat their chest

Give em a banana swinging from trees cause they're hunch back can’t walk

Now they are on youtube and TV

Labels birthing Black male imagines

From Flavor Flav, Lil Jon to Lil Wayne

From Black Eye Peas to Hyphy

Naz is right Hip-Hop is dead

So If You Die Today apologize to 2pac

For what you did

Stripped the politics

Left us to scrape off your bubble gum

It's ok cause your flavor

Won’t last

Chew u up and spite you out

Like your record deal

If I Die Today

Please for once let your words be real

By Leroy F M.

PS.

If you want to see this useless video here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_454676&v=WKD3JIE4gE0

Osama bin Ladin is dead?

Osama bin Ladin is dead,
my next door neighbor
asks if I am red
(communist)

I am just telling it
like it is, I say,
suggesting he is too
easily led
(and, no, I am some
sort of anarchist, I
say, in the deep
privacy of my head)

Foreclosures, poverty,
hunger, slavery, war,
rape, oil theft, and
more, you see--
why should Osama
bin Ladin's death
mean much to me?

The San Francisco Examiner recently printed a story, from the African country of Zambia, about charges being dropped against two Chinese men, supervisors at a coal mine, who shot 13 miners during a 2010 protest over wages.  The managers fired shotguns into a crowd.  Nobody was killed.

The Zambian government paid off the workers so no charges would be pressed by them.  China spends over $1 billion annually to get what it wants from Zambia.  This is, as the headline said, "the daily outrage"--but the real crime is Amerikkkan newspapers and journalists failing to connect the dots:  Amerikkka does whatever it takes to get what it wants, just like China.

Amerikkkan corporations closed their domestic factories and used cheap Mexican labor to keep prices at home as low as possible until Chinese labor became a "better" cheaper means to greater profits.  When the Sub-Prime Mortgage scheme popped like the Dot-Com Bubble, Chinese workers felt the pain too. 

Chinese peasant-workers, moving by the millions from the country to cities where the jobs were, either became homeless on the spot or went back to their home provinces and villages.  Americans caught in the Sub-Prime Crosshairs lost houses and the Amerikkkan Illusion, and they still are as more houses are foreclosed and taken by banks.

Democrats and Republicans play Chicken with the Federal budget just like they did when Bill Clinton was President.  I know, I know, I can't expect a conservative rag to analyze anything the way I do, but willful blindness to reality and the part one plays in it is, indeed, a "Daily Outrage".

RYME- Revolutionary Youth Media Education for youth 12-19 years old.

The RYME program includes radio, video and on-line journalism (blog) production as well as poetry, performance and theatre, organizing and consciousness on poverty, racism, migration, police brutality and liberation

All classes are taught bi-lingually and include lunch

Full scholarship and stipends offerred to low-income youth.

Program begins June 7th-Space is limited. Registration deadline is May 15th.

Applications can be downloaded here

For more information contact us by email at deeandtny@poormagazine.org