Story Archives 2005

F.C.C., Public On Media. Controlled, Frenzied, Pandomium in Scenic Monterey.

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Great place to visit where
citizens are as informed as anyone.

Isolated,Staid folks My Ass.

Its Not San Francisco...

Monterey is way more safer and friendlier

by Joe B.

F.C.C. Hearing/Public Access’s Future

F.C.C. Federeal Communications Commission roams about the country gathering evidence on how big business mass radio/TV impacts on local community radio,public access.

This highly important event happening on day off-Wednesday,21st of July 2004.

Basic job instructions: Have info sheet (paper(s)) showing time,place,where, and if its one-way (You get there free,get back best way you can) or free trip to and from event.

This event is a go-free/back free trip-whew good for all of who is going.

Early to Muddy’s Coffee on Valencia Street, near a bus stop and there I sat waiting for co worker’s.

Ace,and Dharma weren’t able to make it to our rendezvous only T.J. and few other’s standing on the corner waiting just as I’m doing.

We chat a bit before one or two women have cell phones calling people.

Team Media Alliance offers Poor Magazine to-from rides in one of their cars a Volvo, a sturdy looking vehicle driven by Ana,Director of Media Alliance.

With seats firmly buckled front and back, Ana’s map our trip begins. Long,hot,sparse,country,a pit stop,we make it Monterey then passed it after going through a tunnel.
"acidental" topless color photo'n phone,address(Women only) also M.O.'s (hey,I work at P-M-I that's it.

Snail or Email

Joe at:
1230
PO Box #204

S.F.,Ca. 94102

Asking for directions at a gas station,we retrace drive path finding the Convention Center,parking area which T.J. gave Ana $5 for all day parking after T.J. and Ana exchange addresses we all look for where tickets are given out.

Arriving 11:45 or noon we’re able to get our free tickets.

Yellow or blue yellow is overflow room,blue is John Steinbeck room,reserved for news media people if some people are unable to show up.

The Colin?

Room will be invited in the larger though formally limited seated Stienbeck area.

Outside Media Alliance have signs written up and more being created,usually there is buffet or a free food of some kind.

Not this time it was being catered the cash register tips me off of pay-for-food deal it will be a long day only water is free.

Luckily,a Media Alliance member has two black laundry bags of fresh bread.

John, and I have raisin bread washed down with water then both of us get on a free trolley showing famous sights in Monterey’s history.

I’m feeling tired so I’m on the 2nd or 3rd floors siting in a chair drinking clean,clear,catered water resting its gonna to be a long day.

In five more hours the public and some F.C.C. members will converse on the public airways.

I go up and down the escalators and outside to keep me from falling asleep.

Yes,water inside bread outside I am being reintroduced to the concept of the brown bag lunch.

There are reasons while the brown bad lunch still persists.

1) Its inexpensive homemade fare.
2) Children. mothers, fathers, older siblings know what I mean.
3) Every once in a while, you don’t want to spend your money, you just want to be creative with your food by making it yourself.
4)You do it yourself, the way you want it, and you don’t pay four bucks for a sandwich.

I have exactly $1.75.

The 26 Valencia bus takes me to 24th and Valencia next to Muddies Coffee Shop.

The other 50 cents given by one of my bosses for an emergency phone call in case I’m late,get lost, or miss the connecting ride.

Didn’t do either,but with 50 cents in my pocket theirs little I can by so like an old friend of my mom’s I’ll try what he did.

The guy goes all the way to Reno, Nevada with a dime, did some gambling, came back Oakland, or Berkeley with the same dime!

Lets skip some hours as police gather, placing, orange painted traffic blocking equipment outside the convention center.

Mr. Bill Sneckner,of Channel 5 interviewed me he is one of 3 or 4 interviews I gave to other media outlets.

Spooky, I’d say because being part of media I don’t expect to be the interviewer not interviewee.

In line for tickets and more camera’s, mikes and lovely women on both sides of the mike.

To me it looks like Network,Cable, mainstream, and Alternative Media are devouring each other like a dragons eating their own tails.

I believe after standing in line seeing elderly men, women, some younger with children in arms patiently standing, sitting,waiting to be let in then ushered into the overflow room to sit, listen to jazz,with two large TV screens one with F.C.C. on it the other with words "We want to here from you."

Yes, tired, fuming, thinking of other people waiting and waiting.

When a gray haired, wiry man ask for anyone to express their view on public access television I’m angry enough to go.

I was mad at the F.C.C. for the delays and said so. I’m wondering if I did the right thing but at the time my brain wasn’t functioning on all it cells at the time.

On a comment page along with two F.C.C. folder full of information about it and how as citizens we can be part of the solution.

I had enough bread and water to feel full.

All of us from the overflow room are now in the Stienbeck room while seated below highlighted are FCC Panelists, Davy D., and Ms. Belva Davis to name a few.

End of Part 1.


1095 7th & Market Street,

S.F. Ca.94103

For the odd

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Democrats/New Org. Out With What Has Not Worked In With What Can.

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

All I'm saying is get out there-VOTE!

Want a rerun of the last four years...?

Save your friends,loved ones,and yourself
a chance for change has come again,grab it folks.

by Joe B.

Democrat Convention /New Org.

Usually,I’d be with Dee, Lisa,sometimes Mr. Leroy Moore,or other guests on PNN(Poor News Network) on KPFA’s FM 94.1 Morning show in Berkeley.

A serious health emergency involving Tiny’s child who’s high fever worried them combined with KPFA’s own internal problems caused the PNN segment to off the air at least temporarily.

I do enjoy the whole day off usually when time permits I write a script from an old or current column for radio production.

My very first script written work is about economics from the start of the great depression to the 1980’s.

It had introduction bumper music,which I had learned after a few weeks to time to begin, fade in, and fade out,talking under, over,and through it making fewer mistakes as I learned.

A mini tape-recorder, radio,and extra batteries helped a lot until it all went together seamlessly.

My voice would go dry, too high,low,it was difficult but after a few month its second nature I even wanted to try faking three voices in one paragraph for a column- turned-radio segment but it is nixed by tiny.

A year or two past I had story of going to a nude beach that went wrong though the most exciting part is cut out that I wanted but again told not to use even though I’m able to cut out other words to keep them in.

After that I rarely place anything of my own on the show only announcing the Berkeley radio stations call letters and PNN’s mission statement.

So,I’ve learned how to speak on the radio though sometimes still nervous its no longer alien and when given a script to read on a day (more often hours notice) I do a job learning professionalism in the process.

Listening to the Democratic Convention after work,on my days off is rare for me though this time its really important to get the current white house residents out and gone somewhere else.

I won’t name drop but all our votes counting, founding father’s and mother’s wisdom,working poor,houseless issues, and stem cells by one of the son’s of a 1980’s President made me really listen and look at what will change if a new administration is voted in.

All I’ll do is vote for the candidates and avoid certain political debates with a dear friend on hiatus this summer.

Lunchtime on my day off I’m standing in a food line
(formally houseless, steady job,in transitional housing) there are still thin times when going to the dollar stores in the Mission District off Valencia,frequenting inexpensive stores is a must to stretch non profit dollar salary I work for.

Anyway,at a food line at Glide Memorial Church near 12 noon I see young and older adults in new what t shirts with black lettering on them which reads "Project Connected"

I didn’t think about it my stomach growling, churning a bit. What The Fuck Is Project Connect?
some loud mouth says.

Following the line I go into the church,downstairs like everyone else and soon eating a hot nutritious meal of potato’s,loose corn,turkey,light dressing over lettuce and tomatoes, also cranberry sauce and water.

I would’ve gone for a second helping but the line is too long.

While hurrying to St. Anthony's for a possible first serving and a second helping of lunch I see a group of t shirted young folks walking in my direction.

I asked "How old is Project Connect?"

One of them said it’s a new organization finding out what people need in the communities of San Francisco."

Then a young woman hands me a blue piece of paper.
PROJECT CONNECT TENDERLOIN Its from the Mayor’s Office of Community Development.

Well,fresh new troops on the ongoing war to help feed,protect,and house whomever wants and needs the help.

I do wish them all the best,maybe from some of these folks the next Youth Commissioner’s and politically savvy political career minded adults will come from.

Food is on my brain along with Stem Cells, Therapeutic Cloning, automated robot technology, rejuvenation,regeneration, and ways to trick,slow, reverse,retard,and stop the aging process.

Just because I’m on the lower economic scale for not does mean I’ll be here forever.

That is if I figure out ways to finagle myself into a prolonged, extended life span.

People have their plans for life and I have mines, I just hope my plans last longer.

To everyone who has rarely or never voted, whether your young,old,its time to do your civic duty and vote for better times, years ahead – We’ve have a chance lets not blow it.


Please send what you can be they Palm Pilots, or working laptops minus full hard drives,and digital or web camera’s if you can (need both money-MOs,tech help bad!)
To

Poor Magazine

1095 7th & Market Street,

S.F. Ca.94103


Snail or Email Joe at:

PO Box #204

1230 S.F. 94102

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Watching Helplessly

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Young men perpetrate series of physical attacks on homeless residents of Oakland

by Harry Harris and William Brand, OAKLAND TRIBUNE

A group of young men viciously beat a homeless man to death
in his makeshift living quarters along a West Oakland railroad siding
early Saturday in what police said was the latest in a similar series of
attacks.

The victim was identified as Dalrus Joseph Brown, 52. He was known on
the street as "DJ." Police said robbery was not a motive.
Homicide Sgt. Bruce Brock said the suspects -- three to five young men
ranging in age from 16 to 20 -- not only beat the man for several
minutes while other homeless people watched helplessly -- "they also
ripped apart his shelter."
Brock said, "It is pretty cowardly for a group of people to viciously
attack an obviously defenseless person. He was a completely innocent
victim."

The attack -- which may have started while the man was sleeping --
happened about
5 a.m. on a railroad siding that runs behind the old Nabisco plant near
14th and Poplar streets, police said.
The Alameda County Coroner's office said death apparently was caused by
a blunt object.
Brock said after the attack the suspects were seen walking possibly
toward a nearby public housing project.
He said the suspects in the beating did not live at the encampment.

The deadly attack was the most recent in a series of severe beatings of
homeless men living in West Oakland encampments
by the same or a similar group of suspects, police said.
At least two other victims required hospitalization. One man was
attacked on Kirkham Street and the other in the area of 32nd and Helen
streets.

Hours later, Ron Gibbs, the homeless man who saw the body and called
police, sat on a bench near the murder scene watching detectives examine
the debris-strewn crime scene.
"I saw the guy around for a six or seven years and we got to talking to
each other," he said. "I've been jumped a few times and hurt. Other
times these guys show up and throw bottles at us. I don't sleep there
anymore."

The man, who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, was
sprawled on blankets with what appeared to be personal items strewn
about. His face and clothing were bloodied.

Three teenagers, 14 to 15, were arrested two weeks ago after savagely
beating a homeless man with a board near 30th and Myrtle streets. Police
believe there may have been other attacks not reported.
Police are trying to notify homeless people in the area about the
potential danger as well as trying to find them living quarters, said
Lt. Paul Berlin, who supervises West Oakland.

He said trying to locate the homeless during the day is somewhat
difficult because they are usually away from their encampments. So he is
having officers working the overnight shift to contact the homeless.
The murder scene is less than 100 feet from National Recycling Center, a
major destination for homeless and street people selling cans they have
collected. A note on the entrance states the premises are covered by a
surveillance camera.

But Rose Wang, who works at the recycling center, said the camera only
transmits live images. "But now we're definitely going to upgrade our
system," Wang said.

At the campsite, the ground was covered with garbage, parts of bicycles,
discarded bedding and plastic tarps.
Henry Singleton of the East Oakland Community Project said while no one
has come into the project complaining about an assault, the homelessness
situation is bad; it seems to be an ongoing thing.

The killing was Oakland's 44th homicide of 2004. Last year at this time
there were 60 homicides.
Crime Stoppers of Oakland is offering up to $10,000 reward for
information leading to the arrest of the suspects. Anyone with
information can call police at 238-3821 or Crime Stoppers at 238-6946.

Tags

Hip Hop Double Talk

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Leroy Moore Breakin down the walls of HIp Hop Industry Lies

by Leroy Moore/Illin n chillin

In my recent article, "Can You Feel Our Rhythm" (on
Illin-N-Chillin) on the talents of Black disabled musicians in Hip-Hop, Gospel, Soul and
World Jazz, I discussed the discrimination and lack of recognition
of these musicians. Now I’ve realized that especially in Hip-Hop there
is this double talk when it comes to disability. Like Hollywood,
the Hip-Hop industry has this perfect picture image to displayed
to the world. Remember the days of white people in Black faces and
the other racist stereotypes of Black people in Hollywood? Well,
is Hip-Hop doing the same with the images of disability and the
discrimination against disabled artists in Hip-Hop?

Today there are many Hip-Hop one-person-plays that I
like which brings reality of Black youth and young adults living in
our society to the stage some are very harsh and some are funny
but all have an underline theme of race in our society. Many of these
one-person-plays have disabled characters in them from my girl,
Aya de Leon’s, "Thieves in the Temple: The Reclaiming of Hip-Hop"
that has a character who gets the ticks and stutters every time he tries
to be a hard-core gangster Hip-Hop artist. Aya’s character is o.k. if
he continues to rap his pg lyrics. Also you have Danny Hoch, who is
a White Hip-Hop actor/performer/writer. He wrote the book and now
film entitled, "Some People and Jails, Hospitals, and Hip-Hop" that has
many disabled characters from a rapper who stutters to a Puerto-Rican
wheelchair user who gets physically and verbally brutalize by New York police.
These are wonderful plays and brings up many real concerns facing youth of
color but is it time for the real disabled Hip-Hop artist\actor\actress to stand,
limp or wheel up to the mike? I’m ready to take one of my poems or stories
to the stage like "I’m The Black Cripple" or my famous skit, "Superman vs. Handyman!" Somebody show me the spotlight!

Many groups of people have express their views about
the lyrics in Hip-Hop from Eminem to Two-Live- Crew. Women, some Black organizations and leaders, gays and lesbians all had their say about insulting
lyrics that some Hip-Hop artists have spit on the mike and these groups have
also pleasured the industry for more diversity. Today we have seen the increase
of women Hip-Hop artists and we even have seen the beginning of gays and lesbians artists entering the gates of Hip-Hop to set the record straight on their issues.
For example in 2003, Phat Family Records, an organization of LGBT hip-hop artists
and fans, released Phat Family Volume 2: Down 4 the Swerve. We can’t forget, Deep Dickollective and Tim’m both have phat new smoking albums. However I always hear this common statement when I or other disabled Hip-Hop artists try to approach the gates of Hip-Hop, "the industry is not ready for a disabled or wheelchair Hip-Hop artists!" Fezo da Madone of Boston is working on his second Hip-Hop cd entitled, Here I AM Fezo, a Black disabled hot Hip-Hop artist has bumped up against the statement,
"the hip-hop industry is not ready for an artist in a wheelchair" over and over
again. This statement was and still is limiting gays and lesbians artists but as
we have seen gays and lesbians artists are not waiting for the gates of
Hip-Hop to open they are bulldozing through the gate.

The Hip-Hop industry is double talking like a politician on the
campaign road. Although Fezo da Madone, Paraplegic MC,
Rob Da Noize Temple, Michael Manning, Bird and many more disabled
artists including myself can’t get into the gates of Hip-Hop, well known
Hip-Hop artists and groups can use disability lingo in their songs. For
example the latest album by Black eyed Peas has a hit song, "Lets Get Retarded"
and many others have used and verbally abused us on their cds. After the hoopla
around this titled, Black Eyed Peas changed it to ‘Lets Get it Started’. If Hip-Hop
wants to be real why not promote one of the artists who really has a disability and are banging at the gates of Hip-Hop like the artists I mentioned above. In June of 2004 the Hip-Hop Summit was held in Newark, NJ. The New Jersey Minorities with Disabilities Coalition attended the summit and asked one of the organizers from California, where were their disabled brothers and sisters. The organizer felt bad because the summit lacked the voice of people with disabilities. No more double talk! No more excuses!

It is time for action! Look out for the latest works from Fezo da Madone,
Rob Da Noize Temple and Paraplegic MC and myself and our collaboration on
a cd in the near future. Or you can listen to Pushing Limits on KPFA 94.1 FM the first and third Sundays at 6:30 where we will showcase disabled musicians including hip-hop artists with disabilities or read Illin-n-Chillin at www.poormagazine.org or my website
www.leroymoore.com.. Hip-Hop industry you have been warned!

Tags

Crip Hip Hop

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

by Leroy Moore/The Black Cripple a.k.a. NWD

Limping & rolling to the mike

Slurring our lyrics

The concert hall goes silent

The Black Cripple

Paraplegic MC

Bird Man

Drooling our rhythms

Hip-Hop you are under arrest

Tony Touch & Fezo da MadOne

On the turntables

The Blind leading the Cripple

Spoken word from Ayisha Knight

Fingers dancing in the air

Sign language arms up high

An ocean of brown & white hands waving back & forth

Like Horace Pippin, Rob Noize Temple

Creating art at the keyboards with one arm

House, Funk, Pop, and Hip-Hop beats

Getting people up from their wheelchairs, rocking-chairs & the electric chair

Music therapy

Healing our disabled brothers & sisters

From assaulting raps by artists

Holding the Hip-Hop industry captive


Demanding an apology

From Eminem to the Black Eyed Peas

"Lets Get Retarded"

No, "Lets Get Some Disability Education"

Or should we aim higher

At record companies

Or executive producers

Sadly Hip-Hop artists are only puppets on a corporate string

Verbal masturbation

What a waste of space

Crip Hip-Hop all in your face

Putting you in your place

Canes, wheelchairs & crutches

Setting off metal detectors

While we roll, limp and hop to the stage

Continuing in the shoes of NWA

Nigger with Disability, NWD that�s me

Fists in the air like PE

Cause Crip Hip-Hop respects the old school

They were no fools they knew the real enemy

Today we are divided and being conquered

Spitting at each other

While Sony, RCA and Columbia pimps our talent

No wonder Jay Z is retiring

Crip Hip-Hop turning the mirror inwards

Cleaning out the closet

And what we found was

local artists suffocating under a layer of dirty isms

Where is Paris and other independent labels

Crip Hip-Hop is ready to sign up

No contract between family

The community is the studio

Calling all my crips

Invading the American Idol and MTV

Sick of seeing white perfect bodies

And hearing the same ABC stamp approve voices

Hey Russell Simmons

How about some crip spoken word

Or some real deaf poetry

Or should we follow in the steps of Jessica Care Moore at Apollo

Anyway we go

Crip Hip-Hop mixing up the flow

Straight & narrow, hell no

More like crooked & wide

Watch out for Cripple Connection Productions, CCP

Videos, Books, clothing and CDs

No fuck that we are more than consumers

So step off, listen and get politicized by Crip Hip-Hop

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

The Black Cripple a.k.a. NWD

Tags

CORPORATE GREED FUELS U.S. WILDFIRES

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

PNN investigates the arson of millions of acres of US forests for corporate and/or political gain

by DEE and Joshua McVeigh-Schultz/PNN

In October of 2003, wildfires raged across Southern California. Nearly 800,000 acres were destroyed causing upwards of $2 billion in damage. As winter approached, things seemed to be reaching apocalyptic proportions. Things got so bad in San Diego County that rats were eating cars.

That’s right. In February rats were running rampant through Rancho Bernardo—a community that lay just beyond the raging flames of the Cedar fire. The Union-Tribune reported that residents were complaining of rodents invading their homes and vehicles. Faith Halterman reported $1,500 in damage to her Honda Civic.

"It sounds comical, but it’s not, really. We were astonished at how much damage they could do," Halterman said.

No, nothing was comical about those rats in Rancho Bernardo, and nothing was comical about the devastation of Scripps Ranch some five miles away where hundreds of houses burned last October.

And nothing was comical about the 3,000-plus houses that were destroyed as the wildfires raged across five counties. A total of 20 people lost their lives and more than 100,000 people were displaced from their houses. Humans and animals alike were forced to relocate as their homes ignited.

One can hardly blame the rats for trying to escape incineration. But then… who is to blame for all that destruction?

Not Gray Davis, who begged Bush to declare a federal emergency in the dying forests of Southern California six months before the fires started. According to indymedia’s Mike Davis, "the diseased dead trees of the San Bernardinos have virtually no commercial value, and no wood products corporation was interested in removing them." So the White House delayed allocating any fuels reduction money where it was actually needed, because, according to M. Davis: "in reality it only wants to provide reactionary and politically powerful lumber companies with access to old-growth forests and millions of healthy trees"—trees which are few and far between in the Southern Californian landscape.

George Bush likes to blame the Southern California wildfires on environmentalists. According to Lisa Dix of the American Lands Alliance, republicans "blamed the fires on environmental appeals and litigation, which they claimed had caused ‘analysis paralysis.’ The corporate media fed public and political hysteria by showing dramatic footage of burning homes and calling for something to be done."

However, Dix explains that "in reality, no fuels reduction projects in southern California’s national forests had been held up by environmental appeals or litigation in the past three years. Fuel reduction projects had only been the subject of one administrative appeal in the last six years."

But the wildfires became an extremely useful political weapon for Republicans who wanted to rid themselves of those pesky environmentalists. On December 4th, 2003, President Bush signed the "Healthy Forest Restoration Act." He spoke after the ceremony, joined by firefighters who fought the Southern California blazes. Railing against "misguided forest policy," Bush argued that "a lot of people have been well intentioned. They saved the trees. But they lost the forest. We want to save the forest."

According to CNN "For three years, a deadlock in the Senate had prevented the passage of legislation [similar to the Healthy Forest Initiative]. But 15 raging fires driven by Santa Ana winds through Southern California prompted Democrats to compromise on the bill."

Perhaps the more useful question, then, is not "who is to blame?"… but rather, who has benefited?

In retrospect, last years wildfires triggered a breakthrough for Republicans trying to pass the Healthy Forest Initiative.

The Healthy Forest Initiative (HFI) was the first major stand-alone forest management legislation passed by congress since 1976. But it passed only after a heated and controversial debate with environmentalists staunchly opposed to its language.

According to Lisa Dix of the American Lands Alliance, "The Bush logging law undermines the bedrock environmental laws and changes the standards in which the federal judiciary reviews logging cases, tilting the balance to favor timber interests."

Dix argues that the new law is really a huge gift to the timber industry:

The new law allows projects up to 1,000 acres to be categorically excluded from all environmental review if the agencies claim that insects (including native insects) pose a threat to these forests. This has long been an excuse for inappropriate and illegal logging.

Since the commercial timber sales are a money loser for the federal treasury, the administration plans to pay logging companies in large commercially valuable trees instead of cash for their "services". The timber industry will now receive timber as their payment for building roads to cut down forests and if roads can’t be built, logging companies will be given a subsidy to cover the cost of removing trees by helicopter.

HFI’s purported rationale is to protect communities from forest fires by encouraging thinning. The official line is that public forests have become so dense that they are more or less catastrophes in waiting.

But Dix argues that the logic of the bill is deceptive. "While more than 85 percent of the communities that need fire-work done directly around them are on private, not public land, the bill focuses funds on remote public lands…. It is highly likely that homes will continue to burn due to the fact that agencies have no incentive to spend money to protect communities or even to prioritize this needed community protection work…. In fact, commercial logging and associated road building, activities known to increase the risk and severity of fire, [will] increase dramatically under the legislation thanks to the new powers granted to the USFS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)."

Like many other current Bush administration bills, HFI utilizes a bizarre form of Orwellian doublespeak. As Dix puts it, HFI has no "substantive measures to protect forests and make them ‘healthy.’"

But if the bill was so obviously flawed, why did it pass so resoundingly through both the House and the Senate?

During initial stages of debate, with many Senators opposed the bill, and for months republicans were not able to overcome a filibuster. However, after backdoor deals with republican Senators, Tom Daschle (D-SD) urged the Senate to act on the legislation, thereby challenging the filibuster and offering a tremendous gift to the Bush administration.

But despite these moves, the bill continued to meet with opposition. As Dix puts it: "due to sustained public pressure, it appeared that the deal still would not get enough votes to break the filibuster in the Senate, and it remained stalled. In fact, it was highly likely that the deal would not have gained enough political support to pass the Senate—that is until Southern California started burning."

One of the ways that republicans were able to challenge opposition to HFI was by pitting environmentalists as scapegoats for the forest fires. The effect on the democratic Senators was dramatic. Daschle’s deal passed the Senate on October 30—two days after the fires began. The conference bill on HR.1904, which contained even fewer protections for old growth trees, passed on November 21. Then on December 3, Bush signed the HFI into law.

And with that, Bush finally made good on the $3.4 million the timber industry gave to his 2000 campaign.

The new law will affect forest policy in areas far beyond the wildfires of Southern California. Mark Rey, Bush’s chief architect for forest policy, has long wanted to go after the coveted forest reserves in Alaska. Rey’s connections to the timber industry are well documented. In a recent Rolling Stone article, Osha Gray describes his career before he became the undersecretary for national resources and the environment:

Before joining the Bush administration, Rey worked for two decades as a lobbyist for the timber industry, making it easier for his clients to cut down national forests. In the past four years, Rey’s old employers have given more than $11 million to Bush and other Republican candidates. International Paper contributed $2.1 million, Georgia-Pacific kicked in $863,000, Weyerhaeuser gave $666,000 and the American Forest and Paper Association donated $365,000.

Rey has done his best to repay the favor. In December 2001, only two months after taking office, he personally authorized a massive "salvage" timber sale in Bitterroot National Forest in Montana following a fire—sidestepping the normal process, which requires approval by a local forest supervisor and provides the public forty-five days to appeal the decision. A District Court judge halted the sale and chastised Rey for his "extralegal effort to circumvent the law."

But with the passage of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, such "extralegal efforts" will be effectively legal.

Editors note; Why is it said in every Corporate news broadcast, "heat wave expected to
Increase fire danger"?? And why is it Mexico which has a similar climate to California,
In many places, has very few large forest fires?
Could it be that Mexico has no money to pay the fire industry like we do in the United States?

Tags

The Mis-Education of the Green Party

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

PNN editors receive letter from The Green Party Vice-Presidential Candidate and try to Give her some Skolarship

by Staff Writer

Letter to PNN;

Hi, I am Pat LaMarche, Vice Presidential Candidate for the Greens

I was given your names by one of our supporters. I am
running for vice President of the US on the Green
Party ticket and I, (quite frankly) won't win. So we
have defined a new way of winning. For most of us,
the Green Party growing and ousting George Bush would
be enough... Frankly, I am quite happy with those two
outcomes...

In the mean time I want to do things to promote the
plight of the poor. I want to live in a different
shelter each night for 14 nights.... different states,
different kinds of shelters. i need help planning the
logistics. please write or call me to help me.

Signed, Pat LaMarche

Response from PNN co-editors;

Dear pat - thanks for contacting us - but you must know that as "poverty scholars" at POOR MAgazine/PNN we have some issues with that kind of "research"(i.e., living in shelters when you are not really homeless) as it smacks of ethnography and appropriated poverty, not to mention taking a bed away from someone who really needs it. We at POOR are all folks who have been homeless and /or are currently homeless - and our suggestion is, maybe you could use your "name" and press attention to actually support some of the existing non-profits and folks like POOR Magazine and The Coalition on Homelessness who are fighting to stay alive due to the Bush/Cheny corporation.. budget cuts, and their policies' affect on private foundations and lets not forget Schwarznegger et al. As well there are tons of folks on the brink of homelessness cause of the sec 8 program being slaughtered since 2000 ( and previous HUD policies )while all the money is stolen and funneled into the homeland (in)security program. Finally, we appreciate that you are even talking about homelessness at all but perhaps try a different road - i am attaching some links of our recent articles and our Poverty texts to give you some knowledge and further poverty scholarship

In solidarity - tiny@POOR

Response from staff writer Joseph Bolden (POOR/PNN)

Dear Ms. P. LaMarche,Vice Presidential Candidate,Green Party.

As for your idea of staying in 14 Shelter's in 14 weeks... 'um I don't think so.
As a previous shelter resident I believe it is Better to talk to those you know in your or nearby neighborhood(s)
Invite them into your house (a lot of us are decently dressed though others because they've been beaten down,sick,sleep outside and are more shabby looking. We all have stories to tell.

Joseph,Bolden

Poor Magazine Staff Writer

Final Response by Pat LaMarche

Thank you for responding to my requests. I apologize
for not being very clear. I don't want to visit and
stay at shelters as 'research'. I have volunteered
for more than 8 years at one here in Maine. I want to
stay there so the press will follow me and get the
issue additional publicity. We are also going to ask
for donations for the shelters during the tour.

Thank you for sending me the list of articles. I
appreciate you getting back to me.

Best of luck to you all.
Pat

Final Response from PNN co-editors

Dear pat - so i am thrilled that you work at a shelter and i am sure that you have dealt with budget woes in respect to that shelter- but in this area and in many cities including NYC, the shelter system is run like a jail and in fact because housing budgets have been gutted by budget cuts and poverty pimps making huge grants to build jails and shelters- it becomes the only way poor people are housed at all - the whole mess began with guiliani and then locally in SF with Newsom who based his mayoral campaign on the backs of homeless folks - So perhaps, instead of just trying to get funding for jail-like housing, i.e., shelters and perpetuating those lies - perhaps you could spend some of the time at the agencies like Coalition on Homelessness and POOR who have lost all their funding and/or protest the offices of HUD who have gutted their budgets and continue to threaten more families with homelessness- Finally, below is some info re
gavin newsome campaign and the shelter system in SF-

tiny

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FCC, Public Access Pt. 2. Maybe Mikey Collin Jr. will think PUBLIC NOT 24 HR. Market Driven Concept!

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

To tired,though its important.

Next time bring bag lunches.

Public must stay alert...

Don't pay 'em if they don't do right.

That's Playing Their B-L Market?

by FCC, Public Access Pt. 2

Public Access’s Future P2.

Ms. Ana,Realini, Membership Coordinator, T.J.,Mr.
[my apologies to Ms. Realini of Media Alliance, and readers for errors in reporting.]

Williams and myself along with other people of the overflow crowd.

Three members of the FCC,owners of mainstream, alternative,independent media,and well know radio personalities are on the panel looking a diverse group of folks.

My mini-recorder works but not from where I was sitting.

First many owner/ operators spoke of localism losing ground being bought out or by Clear Channel, Disney (which owns Warner Brother’s as an example).

It is decided the discussion is so lively, important,that frequent breaks are out.

Thundering Applause for two FCC members and Radio DJ personality Mr. Davy D.

"I’ve worked in radio close to 15 years… [Pieces of Mr. Davy D’s introduction missing] and probably one of the most influential radio stations in the country,which is KMEL,which is a Clear Channel Affiliate.

With that being said a few things I want you to keep in mind-Radio, generally speaking is very apt at doing what we call smoke and mirrors in the business.

That means that the images we present and image,make it sound good at selling things,crunching numbers,and painting this picture that really achieves our end.

The thing that we depend upon collectively speaking is the fact that the average person doesn’t really know what goes on behind the scenes.

The type of manipulation that takes place,all the types of games that’s played,to really paint this picture – that being said, what happens is… You have few DJ’s like myself speaking out…" There’s this whole question about localism is motivated by an economic agenda,or is it really a sincere,genuine concern what the local community needs?"

Even if they as owners disagree with that and that’s where the real question comes in.

So we have to keep that in mind-the other thing that happens is when we forget to do all the smoke and mirrors – that all these changes that we’re talking about even if you can find radio stations that can show these examples their not institutionalized.

So you know you can point to all across the country and say "good DJ’s at this station,he showed all the public love for us, oh that radio station,they did a nice thing for us, they did a concert and all that,but it isn’t institutionalized."

What happens if that local DJ who doing the favor you all doesn’t like you?

What happens if the radio station that owns 12th and Marked decides that they don’t feel your organization cause you were organizing and doing all the activism work resulted in these types of hearings?

You might not be on the airways;you won’t have access to the public.

So you have to have these things institutionalized – it might not be a radio station doing you a favor.

Mr. D. spoke at length on how many DJ’s are intimidated, and many lesser know were fired from their jobs or otherwise punished for views that are politically volatile at the time.

My eyelids feel heavy each fold its weight is felt.

Davy D. continues "All the time radio plays this winner take all mentality…"

Many parts of his speech are missed.

Before he has to leave I did a quick interview (finally,I’m interviewing not being the interviewee).

Before the interview there’s a bathroom break, orange cards with numbers for those want part public comment. Part of this open forum.

Many more voices from small,large,radio station owners,DJ’s,and average citizens too much for me transcribe all voices so Mr. Davy D’s the one I hoped to speak if only for 2 minutes.

Outside the conference, still inside the building, on the mainly blue carpet press and regular folks surround Mr. D. I had to swoop in fast,get some words from him and vanish before he vanished.

There's a personal motive,a question I must ask.

"Name is Joseph Bolden, Poor Magazine,I’m trying to break into voice over work.

Do I have to go through the same kind of crap that everybody’s going through just to…"

Davy D.-"I don’t know what you have to with voice over,I mean people that I’ve worked with that do ‘em, they do they’re own, and then they create a whole package find out a way to present their wares and tares to other people.

I think in this stage of the game;unless you have something about you and people know you its very doubtful…"
J.B.- "Its very not what you know but who you know all through the game."

Thank you very much."
Oh well,I’ve done it before tried new things some worked some didn’t.

Ms. Ana,still in her white angel gown and aluminum foil halo tells me "you have a ride to San Francisco if I go now."

I want to drive back with the group I came with but after finding T.J., knowing Ana of Media Alliance would be a the conference until it closed.

I catch my ride home hoping T.J. rode back with Ana and Mr. Williams.

I couldn’t keep eyes open in the back seat as the three friends talked of FCC,the upcoming election, though we did speak of flying cars,some economics.

Its 1:45, my phone is blinking,answer machine showing numbers of calls, didn’t know if was a girlfriend singular or plural,parent,job,or anyone else didn’t care.

I strip, pray, thinking it was a really long day, then sleep.


1095 7th & Market Street,

S.F. Ca.94103

also M.O.'s (hey, I work at P-M-I that's it.

Snail or Email

Joe at:
1230
PO Box #204

S.F.,Ca. 94102

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Infanticide or insurmountable economic injustice

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

PNN looks at recent cases of Bay Area infanticide by very low-income mothers

by tiny/PNN

My three pound eyelids crashed down into their exhausted eye beds…"Whoo whooooo" My baby's fever-filled scream of need shatter them open……and then they drop once again for a sweet, guilt-inducing second of pseudo-sleep

"Whoo whooo" … only to be ripped from their just-about-but-not-quite sleep state once again by his desperate cry.

And that’s how it went last week… minute after dreadful minute. Me, unable to afford child care as a working poor mother and unable to get much work done with a sick child, I continued to try to get a very difficult data entry job completed that was one of many low wage jobs I struggle to complete each week just to get enough money together to feed my child, pay utilities and buy diapers in 21st century Amerikka. Crazy things like rent and gas a distant luxury. Mothering While Poor -MWP - an impossible state of being, a frightening state of being, an insurmountable economic injustice….

I reflected on this economic injustice as I heard about the recent case of Ophelia Vanider Hill, a 31 year old immigrant from South Africa who was charged two weeks ago with manslaughter and cruelty to a child for allegedly abandoning her infant in her Palo Alto apartment which she was evicted from in April for non-payment of rent.

Ms. Hill worked over time in Bay Area hotels as a concierge still not making enough to cover the rent before there was a child. As a poor immigrant woman with no resources, family or support systems, life with a child would be almost impossible.

"Where is the family support system? If someone is pregnant, most families come together to help the new mom. When someone is isolated, they don't have any of that." said Ken Borelli of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency.

But Ms. Hill is not alone. In just the last four weeks 3 more poor immigrant women in the Bay Area have abandoned their infants, in shopping carts, in Porta Potties in a strawberry field, in a trash bag behind a Days Inn. Aside from being very low-income immigrant women, they are all low-wage workers; maids, hotel workers, and strawberry pickers or as Okwe, the African immigrant protaginist in the shocking 2003 anti-globalization movie DirtyPrettyThings said; "We are the people you don’t see.. the ones who clean your rooms, drive your cabs and suck your (cocks)

Although the numbers of American women abandoning their children have gone down nationally since 'don't ask don't tell laws' have been instituted, like they have in California which allow women to drop their infants at emergency rooms with no questions asked, the numbers of immigrant women abandoning their children has risen.

But this really doesn’t surprise me and no I do not blame these women , I blame an increasingly impossible Apartheid-like Amerikkan economy which does NOT support poor parents, promotes low wage corporate slave work and in fact, criminalizes the marginal parent for everything they do. Unlike economies like Canada which subsidizes child care for all parents for the first two years of the childs' life.

"Whooo Whoooo.. " My tired eyes are finally permanently open.I stagger over to the crib to comfort my sick child. I love my son and I love his screams, I am overwhelmed, I am exhausted and as I give him his nose drops, I pray for all the other poor mothers out there making frightening choices that will haunt them forever based on more insurmountable injustices.

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There is history here, Black History!

09/24/2021 - 11:07 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Life long African Descendent residents of West Oakland resist massive Gentrification project.

by tiny/PNN

The new Diaspora

Africans Arriving in The cities by the Bay

450,000 strong

willing, ready

and able to get down

for ones daily bread

Sat Nan (truth and identity)

But now, again I must ask

Where's my forty acres and a mule?

Excerpt of Diaspora by Dharma, from the Houzin Project, Words, Art and Resources on Eviction, Gentrification, Displacement and Homelessness by POOR Magazine

"I have lived here for 60 years and as community residents we have the right to give input into what's gonna happen to this train station," Evonne Smith, life long resident of West Oakland who came to the Bay Area from Chicago with her family as part of a mass migration of thousands of African Descendent folks in search of jobs and economic opportunities in the 1940's, spoke to me over the soft sounds of children, elders and adults gathered at the corner of 16th and Wood streets in the heart of West Oakland. As she spoke I eyed the ancient elegance of the now faded Wood Street Train Station standing forlornly behind a high barb wire fence in the background. Ms. Smith concluded, "We are here to make sure that this place won't just be turned into more housing for the very rich" Ms. Smith was one of several hundred community residents and housing activists opposing a huge "market-rate" housing development planned for the Train station.

The planned development dubbed "Central Station" would produce up to 1,500 new housing units mostly for sale starting at $300,000 per unit. As PNN/Bayview readers will note this kind of Gentrification is in keeping with what POOR Magazine dubbed "Gerrification" in its 1999 Media Action on Oakland City Hall Plaza ,i.e., the master plan by the so-called" Strong" Mayor Jerry Brown to bring rich folks by the hundreds of thousands into Oakland as the answer to Oakland's "blight" which is another euphemism for poor folks, mostly of color, who supposedly people Oakland now. Of course the thing that is never talked about by the corporate media and the policy makers is that rather than "cleaning-up" an area, those kind of massive redevelopments of very poor areas that aren't rooted in the communities themselves lead to more homelessness or like Po' Poet Laureate A. Faye Hicks said in her piece on the Kkkolinization of San Francisco's Fillmore District, "when we (poor folks) are evicted and gentrified out of our homes and neighborhoods we don't leave we just go live in the sidewalk hotels."

"I started in West Oakland when I was nine years old, my family migrated here from Louisiana, during the time I was coming up, West Oakland was beautiful," Linnie Cobb, another OG resident of West Oakland rooted in the community was touching on the real roots of gentrification/colonization, i.e., the descimation of healthy communities through redlining and zoning laws, which in West Oakland happened when zoning laws were changed many years ago facilitating the plethora of liquor stores and bars, i.e., the ruin of a thriving Black community which now facilitated the current cheap land grabs by big developers like Central Stations Rick Holiday , also known for kick-starting loft development in San Francisco. After explaining her communities' interest in seeing a monument created to honor the Black folk who built up the area Linnie summed it up perfectly, "There is a history here, and its Black History.

"Its about this place becoming a Museum for the Pullman porters, they threw us on the army base, well we deserve a home here…,"After I spoke to Linnie I ran into the eloquent Monsa Nitoto, Economic justice activist from CWAR and West Oakland resident who was explaining the struggle to build a Museum for the Pullman Porters. " They are talking about building housing that most West Oakland residents will not be able to afford and they won't work with local developers like The Alliance of West Oakland Development that offered to buy 250 units that would go to affordable and subsidized housing, but they wouldn't sell it to them," Monsa went on to explain that one of the important things that need to happen to insure real local involvement is that the Board for the Central Station project needs to have community members that control it, rather than Rick Holidays'; yesmen

"I was a Pullman Porter for 46 years, my first trip to California was into this station"
After I spoke to Monsa, I had the honor of speaking to Herman Simmons, an African Descendent elder who was one of the original Pullman Porters who would be honored if there was a proper museum created for them in the Central Station project. The train station site has been seen for a long time by community members as the perfect location for a Pullman Porter Museum. The Porters West Coast Headquarters was in West Oakland and many West Oakland families, like Linnie Cobb, had family members who worked the trains coming through the Old Station. In fact most African Descendent families in Oakland originally arrived here via the 16th and Wood St Station. Ron Dellums Uncle C.L. Dellums was a local leader in the union which assisted in many other civil rights efforts.

"The train station was one of the original places that African -American folks came into and the developers are planning on building housing that noone in the neighborhood can afford" Adam Gold, one of the organizers from Just Cause spoke to the fight by the community and housing activists that is just beginning to insure that The train Station is community run, integrates 25%-30% affordable housing that is really affordable, and includes a community controlled Pullman Porter museum. So far their effort has gathered over 500 signatures calling for these demands to be met.

In some ways the life of developer Rick Holliday, reads like a horror story out of the pages of POOR Magazine's Houzin Project, a book released in 2003 on POOR Press focused on the root causes to homelessness and poverty. In the 80's he was a "good" developer, i.e., launching Bridge Housing in San Francisco, which originally created several hundred units of affordable housing. But in the 90's like so many of his yuppie forefathers, he took his privileged education and personal access and abandoned the non-profit development world to start his own development firm and in fact launched the entire gentrification effort on San Francisco's South of Market area. In the process almost single-handedly creating the notion of trendy lofts and forcing the eviction of hundreds of poor families from that previously low-income area of San Francisco. His rationale for not including affordable housing in the Central Station project is that West Oakland already has enough such housing.

To get involved in the effort to resist this massive gentrification project call Just Cause at (510)866-7105.

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