I DON"T GET IT!!!

Every time I think I understand Maya, I get smacked down. I thought I had it working, but when I switched my multi-colored bitmep to black (which is what I need), it no longer renders. Is black illegal in Maya? It can't be, so what the hell do I do?

Anyone who understands alphas in Maya, please take a look at this file and tell me how on this green earth I can make the bitmap text appear as black on the blue plane.

Please don't tell me to paint blue into my texture map because this in only a test file that will lead up to the real file which needs to use an alpha as a decal.

Please help me! I've been trying to map this for about 10-12 hours!!! I'm on the verge of tears here.

Thanks,
-dann