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And Before I Be A Slave, I`ll Be Buried In My Grave.

THE EBONY POET







 

To cut through the rhetoric coming out of St. Paul, here is a by-the-numbers examination of how Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin are proposing a third term of failed conservative policies.

The McCain-Palin Agenda for Our Economy:

* Zero tax relief for 100 million middle-class Americans, but trillions in tax cuts for big corporations and the very wealthy.

* $175 billion per year in tax cuts for corporations.

* $45 billion per year in tax cuts for the top 200 corporations alone.

* The top 1 percent will receive nearly 50 percent of the benefits of McCain's tax plan.

* People making $5 million a year (McCain's definition of "middle class") will get a nearly $1 million tax cut.

* Women will continue to make 78 cents to every dollar a man earns because McCain opposes legislation to close the pay gap.

The McCain-Palin Agenda for Health Care:

* 158 million Americans will be at risk of losing their employer-sponsored health care coverage.

* 56 million Americans with chronic illnesses will be at risk of losing their coverage.

* More than 59 million women who receive their health insurance through their job or their spouse's job will be at risk of losing that insurance.

* More than 30 million women who suffer from a chronic condition could lose their coverage, find it harder to obtain coverage, or have to purchase supplemental insurance to cover their chronic condition.

* Millions of middle class Americans will see their taxes go up, because McCain's health care tax credit is not indexed to keep up with costs. (For instance, a family making $60,000 a year will see their taxes go up by $1,100 by 2013.)

* McCain's one-size-fits-all health care tax credit will fall far short of covering many Americans' health care costs. For instance, it will cover less than one-third of the average health care costs for older, sicker Americans.

The McCain-Palin Agenda for Energy:

* $4 billion in tax cuts for the top 5 oil companies in the U.S. ($1.2 trillion a year for ExxonMobil alone).

* $39 billion in taxpayer subsidies for big oil and gas companies over the next five years.

* More than 30 years before gas prices go down, because it will take at least that long for McCain's drilling proposal to affect prices.

* $0 in gas price relief from drilling, instead of up to $500 in relief from a proposed gas rebate that McCain opposes.

The McCain-Palin Agenda for Four More Years of the Same Failed Conservative Agenda:

* 159 lobbyists working for the McCain-Palin campaign.

* 0 new ideas to get our economy working again and restore our leadership around the world.

* 4 more years of President Bush's policy agenda. _________________thinkprogress .org/wonkroom

"Morning Fires"-About Africa and Slavery

"Surrender"-sensual and romantic erotica

"The Red Ribbon"-poetic saga about the poor and homeless

The pastor in a major Black congregation discussed the plight of Black America with some revealing statistics. While we decreased our spending on books from $353million to $303 million, we spent $46.7B on cars parked outside of homes we did not own. In fact, while 70% of White America owned their own homes, less that 50% of Black America owned their own home. But our largesse goes unabated. We spend $11.6B decorating homes, most of which we do not own.

While we are 12% of the population we consume 30% of Scotch drunk nationwide. Even more shocking is that Detroit is responsible for 80% of the national consumption of Cognac. (There must be a lot of sexually unfulfilled women in Detroit if the brothers are drinking that much Cognac). Furthermore, we spend $22.2B on clothing to put on bodies that we won`t even take the time to exercise and we spend $3.2B on electronics.

That is compounded by a couple things I picked up from Tavis Smiley. We are the nation`s premier consumer of Fish That is a good and healthy thing. But I have a question? How many black fish stores do you know and support? Also, with the number of black men in jail, why are there not a number of half way houses owned by us?

Had enough!!!! Are you as amazed as I am? Here is the shocker.............For blacks with salaries of $100K or greater, a majority has less than $5K in savings. That is a stunning bit of data.

I have no answers. Do you?????? But I do know there is a role for each and every black church. It is not about getting our hands on faith-based $$$$$, it is about what we do with our disposable $$$$. That is a challenge that should be addressed each and every Sunday until we get it. We are FAILING ourselves and our generation...................A men!!!!!!