"Why do ****** push pounds of powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Long before the Chik-fil-A protests, the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at funerals of fallen US Soldiers, even before Cindy Sheehan camping out near former President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch, a man from New York was attacked for his "free speech."

His name was Jadakiss.

In 2004, he released the song "Why?" which features the now infamous lyrics "Why do n---- push pounds of powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Since I don't believe in censoring words, I am giving it out here. However, back then, half of US radio stations banned the song and/or bleeped out the word Bush.

On the Bill O'Reilly show back then, Jadakiss was ridiculed and slammed for those words and no one defended his free speech rights as they did during this year's Chik-fil-A outcry.

O'Reilly said back then that the Bush administration should sue him for the words, accusing him as a “smear merchant” and saying the Bush had a right to file a lawsuit for slander.

In a small way, O'Reilly was right and emotional, too. Regardless of what he said, if Jadakiss had NO PROOF, then he could have been sued for slander. To this day, a law suit was never filed.

There are reasons for this. 

Yet, thinking of both the METAPHORICAL AND LITERAL interpretations that exist IN ART, I would give Jadakiss the benefit of the doubt for what he said in a metaphorical way.

And that is how it was.

I do not, again do not believe that Bush or any member of his administration planned to "knock down the towers."

But neither did Jadakiss.

This is what a USA Today article quoted him in July of 2004.USA TODAY-JADAKISS

“Jadakiss doesn’t really believe Bush ordered the towers destroyed-he says the line is a metaphor and that Bush should take the blame for the terrorist attacks because his administration didn’t do enough to stop it.

'They didn’t follow up on a lot of things properly,' says Jadakiss. 'It’s the President of the United States. The buck stops with him.”

In a note, Jadakiss also told USA Today back in 2004 that he registered to vote for the first time, supported John Kerry and wanted the mininum wage raised and more jobs created.

He is an American in every sense of the word.

Yet, when O’Reilly brought him up, Jadakiss was the one smeared and treated like garbage.

This is straight from the horse’s mouth. Would O’Reilly be offended if he understood that I may have called him a horse? I don’t know.

This is what he said back then. Fox News

“Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

The smearing of America continues. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." While the federal government is punishing lewd behavior on the public airwaves, something far worse is going unchallenged by the Feds. Slander, libel, and defamation have now become profit centers with weasels putting out vicious falsehoods and running to the banks with their blood money.

The latest atrocity is a rap song by a guy named Jadakiss, who is just a pitiful pawn being run by the huge Vivendi

Corporation, a French company that's distributing some of the most vile entertainment "Talking Points" has ever seen.

Here's Jadakiss's contribution to the Arts:

JADAKISS, RAPPER: Why would n***** push pounds and powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers? Why you around them cowards? Why Aaliyah have to take that flight? Why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get a Oscar? Why Denzel have to be crooked before he took it? Why they didn't make the CL6 with a clutch? And if you don't smoke, why the hell you reachin' for my dutch?

So, according to this smear merchant, President Bush is responsible for murdering 3,000 people and actress Halle Berry won an Academy Award because she had sex with a white man. This is freedom of speech?

So, it's impossible for famous people to sue and win defamation judgments, and the Vivendi Corporation knows it. Thus, slanderers are running wild, saying anything they want, no matter how despicable and getting paid for doing it.

The laws need to be changed. Somebody defames a public figure, that somebody in the corporation behind the smear should be held liable.

Both President Bush and Halle Berry should be able to sue Vivendi and Jadakiss for millions. Enough's enough. You have a movie grossing millions of dollars. It's filled with provable lies. You have best-selling books that defame and injure for no purpose other than profit. You have so-called music that spews hate and encourages criminal activity. And you thought Howard Stern was bad?

The Factor, of course, is boycotting everything Vivendi produces because it's a French corporation, but I urge every responsible American to make sure you're not holding its stock, symbol "V" victor on the New York exchange.

I also urge congress people and senators to draft legislation that would impose fines on companies that distribute provable defamation. That's the only way to bring the smear merchants down because business is good in their evil world, and they'll justify anything and everything.

There's no talking to these people. You got to hit them where it hurts — in the wallet.

And that's "The Memo."

O’Reilly has every right to get pissed off and call him out on his show, just how Jada kiss had every right to throw his own punch and call out Bush.

If anything, this was democracy at its finest, but to attack another in favor or against his speech rights is child’s play.

 How does that transform to today?

Many people want to call on the president of Chik-fil-A’s words as freedom of speech.

 Yet, in this regard, many do not see that this is a speech that a certain group of Americans believe in.

However, when there is speech that goes AGAINST yours, people get attacked.

Where were these same people so emotional on Cathy’s free speech rights when Jadakiss said his words?

 WHERE?

 Or in the tradition of Jadakisss, WHY didn’t they protect my free speechrights back then?

The truth is that in America, people will always defend the speech that they agree with and attack the free speech they disagree with.

I find it ridiculous as an American that in 2012 people have not moved on.

In America there are two types of speeches: free speech and hate speech and under the constitution both are protected. As Americans, we have to accept that.

Speech is only criminalized when it incites violence or causes public danger. Such as speeches given to hate groups that later create DOMESTIC TERRORISM, as in the Sikh Temple attack in early August of 2012.

All speech is not good speech,just ask the Southern Poverty Law Center and they will tell you who are the groups that should be watched on so that they do not harm other people.

Is hate speech right.correct? No, but it is the devil we have to live with if we want to be a full democracy and not a partisan one.

However, if it is used to cause harm those need to be held accountable and given a trial for endangering the public-if it gets to that point.

 Can we criticize hate speech condone it and do our best to educate others to not fall in the same line of bigotry?

 Yes we can.

I personally disagree with what Mr. Cathy said and I am no longer supporting his Chik fil A restaurants because of its views and the money it spends to continue bigotry and fuel hate in this country, niot to mention turn back the clock.

But I do believe that we can move on and educate others to teach the difference between bigotry and speech.

Let us reflect today on the errors we have commited as Americans and begin a new era where we can prevent hate speech so that there can be less Americans dead and free of prejudice.

Courtesy of Latina Lista

Latino middle-schooler creates website to share passion for space

Marisa Treviño | May 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista

Joseph Ruiz sees the world as a big ball of mystery that still needs to be explored. Once he discovers its secrets, he wants to lead and be its hero.

“There are so many things we don’t know yet…people are trying to figure out the mysteries of the world,” said Joseph, 12. “I want to be one of these people that finds out these mysteries.”
  

Together brothers Ray and Joseph Ruiz built PhotonKids.com.

Joseph, who attends KIPP Liberation College Preparatory, a charter school in the Houston, Texas area, is passionate about space. He loves space so much that he already knows what he wants to be when he gets older — an astrophysicist.

In fact at KIPP Liberation, a school for at-risk and low-income students, Joseph is already on his way to achieving his career goals. Joseph has created a couple of projects that bring his interest in space closer to home.

For starters, Joseph built a seismograph, with the help of his dad, for a school project. The instrument demonstrated how quakes could be measured on other planets.

“I want to find out the mysteries of space,” he said, and shared that he is currently exploring the location of other Earth-like planets in the galaxy.

Yet, Joseph wants to share his passion with others and make a difference within his community at the same time.

He and his brother, Raymond Ruiz, 31, a graduate education student at the University of Houston, worked together and created a kid-friendly website called Photon Kids.

Joseph is currently its webmaster.

“After learning that many minority kids don’t do well in math and science, he set out to help others share in his passion,”
said the elder Ruiz.

Joseph started to grow his website after it was well-received at KIPP Liberation.

After presenting his website for his school’s community service project, his teachers and peers became more interested.

“Joseph’s website is excellent. It is very appealing to both adults and youth,” said Ashley Warren, his current math teacher at KIPP. “His website is very easy to navigate, even for a novice.”

Since January, Photon Kids has attracted 1,800 visitors.

On the website, which Joseph updates daily, visitors find a range of interesting news and activities. Visitors can read the latest updates on the Mars Rover, look up definitions of space vocabulary in the “Space Dictionary” section, watch videos on cool science experiments, such as dropping an iPod from space, and even play space-related games such as Martian Mayhem.

There is also a “Cosmo Basics” section, where visitors can learn how old is planet Earth.

His website will be entered in a school district competition, but Joseph says sharing his website is the key to its future
success.

“I think spreading it is more important [than awards] because at-risk students can have access to it and they get involved and can get better grades,” he said.

Joseph’s brother noted that the website can benefit the 12-year-old’s peers and teachers in a lot of ways too.

“Joseph plans to collaborate with his teachers and get more kids involved with the website. That way, they not only learn about science, but they can build their technology skills as well,” Ruiz said.

It also can serve as a way for Joseph’s leadership and collaborative skills to grow, added Ruiz.

Joseph wants to make sure each KIPP charter school in the country uses the website and hopes to enlist students from each of these schools to help maintain it.

“I think that it’s very mature and forward-thinking (of him), said Ruiz proudly of his younger brother. “I’m really surprised that he’s becoming a community-oriented person. He’s always thinking of the other students.”

Joseph likely learned this calling to serve the community from his older brother, a former Big Brother/Big Sister mentor. Ruiz’s influence can be heard in his younger brother’s view of education who describes it as something that is “really
important because it provides a better quality of life, stability and opportunity.”

Ruiz says that since the start of his seventh grade year, Joseph has been more focused in school and that has helped him earn better grades. It also helped Joseph discover his own passion and creativity, which lead to creating the website.

Joseph plans to continue growing his website and inviting more kids to get involved. But more importantly, he hopes to share with his peers what he’s already learned.

“I learned leadership and how to sacrifice and make my confidence bigger,” Joseph said. “This helps me want to help my community.”

SAME WORK, LESS PAY

Courtesy of Latina Lista.

Latino day laborers — doing the same amount of work for less pay

Marisa Treviño | July 25, 2012 | 0 Comments

By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista
DALLAS — On a sunny Saturday morning, a couple of drivers from commercial moving companies stop their white rental vans near two gas stations in northwest Dallas, Texas.

One driver, a blonde, spiky-haired Caucasian-American, steps out of the truck and walks towards some day laborers waiting in the back lot.

“Who speaks English?” he yells. The driver chooses two men who raise their hands.

The workers follow the man and hop into the front driver’s seat. The truck rolls out of the lot. A few moments later, the other rental truck pulls up near the bus stop next to the gas stations. The driver signals two men to join him. Like the men in the first truck, the trio disappears down a street known for its busy 7-day-a-week traffic.

It’s a scene that continually repeats itself on a daily basis on this corner and thousands like it where day laborers wait for that next job.

These particular day laborers — all men — begin their day as early as 6 a.m. and end it as late as 5 p.m., if they’re lucky enough to be chosen for jobs ranging from roofing, fencing, landscaping, painting apartments and furniture moving to helping build swimming pools, garages or restaurants.

But to these men, who must rely daily on total strangers for their livelihood, it’s all just business. A business that is as unpredictable as the jobs offered.

Same work, less pay

Some of the day laborers are undocumented immigrants who arrived from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Cuba.

Others show up at this corner just to make some extra cash — when they can.

One man, who became a US citizen three years ago and chose to remain anonymous, said some workers are lucky to have two days of work during the week.

Long-time day laborer Jose Alfredo Romero Rodriguez agrees and says that though the types of work have remained the same, the pay is getting lower.

“Sometimes we are getting paid $7 for helping people move,” he said, while a truck filled with lawn mowers and weed whackers pulled in and picked up another day laborer.

Rodriguez, who came from Monterrey, Mexico in 1999, said he recently helped construct a Family Dollar store in Oklahoma, where he spent nine days working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For that, he claims he only received $500, or an average of $56 per day.

He said that he received a call from the same company and they wanted him to help build another Family Dollar store in Corpus Christi, Texas, but he turned down the offer.

“How am I going to go there if I can only expect $500?” he asks.

These days, it’s the small moving jobs that continue to be the most popular ones that need workers, Rodriguez said.

Different ethnicities, different expectations
However, experience teaches day laborers not only what is fair pay for certain jobs but what kind of payment to expect from some prospective employers — based solely on their ethnicity.

In some corners, it’s called racial stereotyping or considered politically incorrect. For these men, it’s a way to temper their expectations.

According to Rodriguez, the men chosen by the white moving company driver will more likely receive higher pay, breaks, food and water because, at the moment, most white American “employers” give the most benefits in this business.

“The white Americans pay us $10, while the Indians (Indian-Americans) pay us $8 and Koreans $7,” said Rodriguez.
“White Americans give us food and water, while others don’t give us breaks, food or even water on a hot day,” Rodriguez complained.

According to “El Morro,” a day laborer whose traveled from nearby Irving, Texas and chose to give only a nickname for this report, said that white Americans and some Hispanics pay them $10 and up.

“We can make up to $120 for a 10-hour shift,” he said.

However, he says not all Americans or Hispanics treat them well and it can cause for a stressful day.

“They tell us what to do next without letting us finish the first task,” El Morro says.

El Morro also has had different experiences working with various ethnic employers. He said while Chinese Americans treat them to eating out at restaurants, they can deduct around $400 from a monthly pay of $1200.

He says that he’s also worked with other ethnicities such as Israeli Americans and Russian Americans and said he receives decent pay, but the latter gives them no time for water breaks.

Fear, cheating employers part of the risks of the job

While the amount of pay can be a sticking point, Rodriguez and El Morro claim to be more bothered and afraid by what some employers choose to do to workers — not return them to their original location.

“At times, some will pick you up and later drop you off at a far-away place and not pay you,” Rodriguez revealed.
Given the amount of fear some undocumented immigrants feel about reporting emergencies or crimes to the police, many won’t report that they’ve been cheated out of their wages. In fact, Rodriguez and others say that they do not feel safe when local police show up.

“I feel intimidated by the police presence in my area,” Rodriguez said.

Yet, even with all of their uneasiness, whether from the police or people wanting to hire them, these men and others continue waiting on street corners and back lots seeking employment.

The reason is simple. In these economic times, everybody is after the same job — survival.

Latina Lista contributor Alain Castillo is based in Dallas, Texas.