Essay 832

Spelling it out in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• President Bush will speak at the NAACP convention on Thursday, breaking a 5-year run of refusing to address the group. Aides are probably working around the clock, trying to teach Bush how to spell NAACP.

• The Brookings Institution presented a study showing the urban poor pay a “ghetto tax” on costs for everyday necessities — including higher car insurance rates, and prices for furniture and appliances from “rent to own” retailers. “There’s a large and for the most part overlooked opportunity here to help low-income families get ahead,” said a researcher who wrote the report. “That is to reduce their costs.” Sounds like a topic for Bush’s NAACP address: “Read my lips. No more ghetto taxes.”

• Congressional investigators discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars of waste and abuse in Homeland Security Department expenses. Officials allegedly bought iPods, beer and more. The iPods were needed for Secret Service “training and data storage.” There’s got to be an awesome iPod ad campaign idea here.