Previous presidential candidate Al Gore is giving advice to John Kerry for tonight’s presidential debate. Why would John Kerry listen to a guy that lost the last presidential election? Al Gore and John Kerry have very similar traits. They both are willing to fudge the truth and create an image just to get votes. Personally, I do not like Al Gore. Watching the presidential election back in 2000, I literally seen Al Gore flat out lie. A big fat white one. I was watching him talk on MTV to a group of teens. One teen asked Al Gore what do he think or is he for gay marriages. Al Gore answered him and said that he believes that this county should move forward and its time to accept gay marriages (something to that extent). Then on the presidential debate, the same question was asked. Al Gore then said he was not for gay marriages. WOW, what a liar.

Al Gore had a discussion at Southern Methodist University and answered some students questions. One of the students asked the following:

“Did John Kerry teach you how to flip-flop, or did you learn that yourself?” one student asked Gore, seeking an explanation for Gore’s agreeing that Saddam Hussein was a threat, but saying that the war in Iraq was a mistake.

And friend and I were taking yesterday via yahoo IM, and he mentioned that he is getting sick of majority rule. That immediately turned a light on in my head. Does democracy really works? I know you are asking yourself, what the heck are you talking about?

Well, let me explain what is going through my head. Supposedly, democracy is government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives or just simply, majority rules. So, now we have the people who are the voters and we have our elected representatives. First, let us look at the people. There are very few people that even bother to participate in the political area and less then 50 percent of citizens are registered to vote. But the worse problem of all is that many of the registered voters don’t even bother to educate themselves on political issues. They would rather use the he say she say information they get from their friends and families or take bits and pieces from the news channel. Also, they do not even bother to challenge the information that they get from their friends and families. So, how is the majority rule thing working again? It seems to be working with the majority uneducated. I find this to be very scary and dangerous.

Next, lets look at the politicians who represent the people or the voters. Now, many of these politicians are very educated in more then just politics. They are educated in being persuasive and manipulative. Now, what do we get when we have the majority of uneducated voters and have very persuasive and manipulative representatives? We get a political system were the top political party controls the uneducated voter by persuasion to get what the political party wants. And this is what seems like going on with the John Kerry administration, although they are not representatives. This administration is persuading the uneducated to make it sound like they are for them by lying and saying stuff like, “two Americas…one privileged, the other burdened…one America that does the work, another that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks.” This sounds persuasive, but it’s completely wrong. I have already proved it with my post Income Tax.

My solution: I know this is going to sound bizarre, but I honestly think that before someone is completely eligible to vote, they must take a test that shows that you are knowledgeable on political topics. You might argue that this will for sure take more voters away from voting. True, but I would rather for someone not to vote then to vote for something they have no idea or clue about. Voting for something you do not know about is very dangerous. It can hurt yourself, friends, family, and others. Besides, people have to take a driving test before they drive in public. Students have to takes state tests in high school. So why not take a test for voting? Taking a test to vote will be the liberals nightmare!

Yours truly,
Black Pundit

Militia in Nigeria is threatening foreign oil companies to cease oil production. Nigeria is he seventh largest oil exporter, but 70 percent of the population live in poverity.

The militia said foreign oil companies must cease production or face “all-out war” in the Niger Delta from 1 October.

Nigeria is the world’s seventh largest exporter of oil, but 70% of the population live in poverty.

Human rights group Amnesty International has said that the army already had orders to use “maximum force” in the area, leading to the deaths of up to 500 people in the past six weeks.

Fears of the Nigeria unrest spreading were one reason why oil prices have reached a record high of more than $50 a barrel, traders say.

On Thursday Shell pulled out more than 200 of its non-essential staff from two gas and oil fields because of heightened tensions.

This week, the largest asteroid ever know to pass close to Earth will be traveling 1 millions miles away from Earth. That is four times the distance from the moon. Toutatis, the space rock, will not hit Earth. The size of this asteroid is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. An asteroid this size could case global devastation.

Scientists say that there will be no space rock this big that will pass so close in the next century. So we are safe.

Thomas Sowell have a good article on Privatizing Social Security. He goes to mention on how a person would not sign a contract that enabled the other party to change the contract at will while you cannot even stop them. Also, what ever that was promised to you or the age that you suppose to get social security can be changed by laws, but yet you HAVE to still pay into it. That is completely unfair. But if you put your money into a insurance company, it is the law that they give you what they promised. But yet, presidential candidate John Kerry do not want to privatize social security.

One reason why liberals do not want to privatize social security is because of risk. Well, let me ask the public this: What is more risky from a for sure deficit in 2016 with the current social security plan or putting your money into some privatize organize IRA/401K plan which people have been doing for years and have been successful? This is a no brainier question to me. I honestly believe that liberals use this excuse to keep the money in congress so that they can spend it. Thomas Sowell agrees with my theory as well:

Another reason for liberal opposition to private investment of Social Security payments is that it deprives them of control of billions of dollars that they have been spending from the Social Security trust fund for years. They can buy a lot of votes with all sorts of giveaway programs, financed by money taken from Social Security.

This goes to show how liberals want a bigger government. To me, bigger government is equivalent to communism.

Thomas Sowell then goes to explain how long term stocks are not that risky and that it is hard to find any 40-year period in which the stock market has not paid a higher rate of return than you would get from social security.

Thomas Sowell finalize by saying the following:

Nothing is more risky than depending on politicians.

In the 21 years of trading, a barrel of oil have reached a record high of $50 a barrel. The Bush administration is closely watching the crude prices but will not use reserves to ease prices. Also, investment bank Morgan Stanley said it believes that prices can rise up to $61 a barrel.

Many middle/lower class blacks and other middle/lower class democrats believe that republicans are only for the rich. Well, not according to this article that shows presidential candidate John Kerry opposing President George Bush’s middle class tax burden reduction.

Recent studies from Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health shows teens that take a virginity pledge have substantially lower levels of sexual activity and better life outcome compared to those who lose their virginity at a young age.

• Are less likely to experience teen pregnancy;
• Are less likely to be sexually active while in high school and as young adults;
• Are less likely to give birth as teens or young adults;
• Are less likely to give birth out of wedlock;
• Are less likely to engage in risky unprotected sex; and
• Will have fewer sexual partners.

This article also mentions:

ginity pledge is strongly associated with a wide array of positive behaviors and outcomes while having no negative effects.[2] The findings presented in this study strongly suggest that virginity pledge and similar abstinence education programs have the potential to substantially reduce teen sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and out-of-wedlock childbearing.

But yet, my post on Morals and Aids mention how other countries put down the US because they say we put religious morals into our abstinence programs.

I would also like to add to this that taking the virginity pledge helps students stay more focus on high school. Although many people do not realize, sex can become an addiction. Beside the addiction point, sex also ties to stronger emotions. The combination of the tow in high school is very harmful. Instead of focusing on school and studies, high school students then focus on their girl/boy friend and focus on if mommy or daddy will be home when they get out of class for the day.

Whelp, I got GOT for $10.7K Out The Door (OTD) for a new 2003 Suzuki GSXR1000. The 2003 are actually better then the 2004 because the brakes are better on the 2003. Also, the 2004 was going for $11.7K OTD and they were not buding. The most basic rule of economics, supply and demand, got me. If it was a year and a half ago when these bikes were plenty, I could of got it for around $9.6K OTD. These bikes are so in demand now with very little of them left. After these bikes sale out, they are not expecting anymore til the beginning of next year. If I wanted to settle for the Honda CBR1000, I could of probably got it for a better price, but I think that bike is uuggglllyyyy. Well at least I can finally save some money on gas now, cause filling up the Nissan Titan ain’t no joke….

Another hurricane developing of the coast of Florida. This time, her name is Jeanne.

GONAIVES, Haiti (CNN) — Hurricane Jeanne continued its westward crawl toward the northern Bahamas Friday after killing more than 1,100 people in Haiti, which it hit with devastating flooding rain.

Jeanne’s top winds held at 100 mph. It was moving west at near 8 mph, with some increase in forward speed expected during the next 24 hours, the NHC said.

Here is an article comparing Bush’s and Kerry’s tax plan.

A good friend of mines at HispanicPundit has a couple of posts on Fox News not being biased. Honestly thinking about this, I think Fox News “can” be considered biased. When people say Fox News, I think they are referring to the Fox News channel and not the actual news itself. Therefore, biased shows like Hannity, O’Reilly etc… are part of the Fox News channel making “Fox News” biased. Now, I do agree the actual news itself is not biased. News is information about recent events or happenings. You cannot be biased on events. They are what they are.

But, with my theory here, this will make all news channels biased. I honestly don’t see anything wrong with news channels being biased. People should be educated enough to see through the biasness. Just my two cents…

Check this article out. This article mentioned that AOL might offer free blogging services. Don’t do that AOL. That will saturate the blogging world!!!

I came across a good article that mentioned genetically modified (GM) foods would be a good solution to Africa’s hunger problem. The main issue with this solution is that there are many ant-GM activists who rely on the doctrine of the “precautionary principle.” This article makes some good points about how these anti-GM are doing fine while Africa staves, and mention that they probably have not missed a meal lately and they never buried a friend, family member or child that died from starvation.

If this GM food could nourish the people in Africa making them well and healthy, this can lead to economic growth, better education and help human social capital. Starving people are in surviving mode. When you are starving, you are not thinking investment, education or economical growth. Your number one priority is to live. Besides starving, many of the people in Africa are ill.

The first conscious effort of GM food was in the 19th century, which tried to crossbreed sweet peas. This article goes in little details on how GM works:

Genetic modification helps transfer desired traits between plants more quickly and accurately than is possible in conventional breeding. Modifications usually involve changing one gene of the 30,000 to 50,000 odd genes that make up an organism.

Africa has many issues with growing crops on land due to land degradation, low farming yield, and crop diseases. GM food technology would help solve these issues. There are many promises using GM food technology and it is a way to speed up the development and deployment of crops and animals.

The World Health Organization also mentions that there are no negative effects on human health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has asserted that GM foods currently available on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, the WHO has detected no negative effects on human health as a result of consumption of such foods. In fact, GM has been subjected to more rigorous testing and trial than conventionally bred counterparts, and is safe for consumers.

The evidence from WHO has failed to assuage anti-biotech activists. Even when farmers use biotech to produce products merely to feed their families, anti-biotech activists would condemn that. Green activists have been spending a lot to deny people the benefits of bio-tech. The anti-GM movement spent $500 million between 1996 and 2001. Half a billion dollars would have gone a long way toward feeding the malnourished men, women and children in Africa. Instead, the money was wasted on activities that have no economic benefit to Africans.

Presidential candidate John Kerry claims the he would cut the deficit in half by 2008 if he was elected president. The current deficit is about $422 billion, which means he will cut $211 billion. It seems to me that he will increase the budget deficit just by leaving the Social Security left unreformed and not going towards privatizing it.

Third party estimates shows that John Kerry tax proposals would raise the deficit to about $525 billion by 2008.

Here are some of Senator John Kerry’s tax proposals:

Taxes. Senator Kerry has proposed repealing the Bush tax cuts for households earning over $200,000 annually while making permanent the recent middle-class tax cuts. In addition, Senator Kerry has called for new tax credits for health insurance and higher education, a series of business tax changes, and a fix to prevent the alternative minimum tax (AMT) from steeply raising taxes for millions of middle-class families.

Spending. Senator Kerry has proposed a new comprehensive health care plan that aims for 95 percent overall health coverage and 100 percent coverage for children. He has also called for sharp spending increases in areas such as education, aid to states, homeland security, defense, Head Start, veterans’ benefits and health care, and combating global AIDS.

Budget Deficit. Senator Kerry recently pledged to halve the budget deficit by 2008. Given the current Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of a 2004 budget deficit of $422 billion, his pledge translates into a $211 billion budget deficit in 2008.

The American Enterprise Institute summed up all of Kerry’s spending proposals and concluded that he would spend $1.116 trillion over the next decade. Also, in order to fulfill Kerry’s deficit reduction plan, he has to raise taxes by $232 billion, which equates to $2,090 per household.

Since raising taxes reduces incentive to work and invest, this leaves an economic slow down. Therefore, leaving John Kerry with less revenue then projected.

This past couple of days, I have been doing some extensive research to purchase a new sportbike. I am looking at getting either the Suzuki GSXR1000 or the Kawasaki ZX10R. I went to a cool ZX10R forum to try to find the invoice for this bike. First, let me give you a little history on how smart people purchase these sportbikes. Typically, a dealer wants to charge you MSRP (Manufacture Suggested Retail Price) + sales tax + licenses + freight charges + document fees + putting the bike together and some other non-sense cost. Sales tax and licenses are mandatory, but the other charges, especially MSRP, are a bunch of crap. Since this is a free market, what a smart person does is get the invoice price of the bike (what the dealer actually pays for) and pay around $300 to about $500 above the invoice price and then only pay tax and licenses. This is a big difference between paying this way and paying for all the other crap the dealer like to tack on for profit. You can save $2,000 to $5,000 by doing this. You might ask yourself, why don’t every one do it this way? Well, two things. First, many people don’t know that they can bargain on bikes and second, you have to be very aggressive with the motorcycle dealers to accomplish this (cash works very well). Now, since I broke all this down, lets get back to the invoice price on the ZX10R forum. On this forum, I asked do anyone know the invoice price for this ZX10R. This question lead to a battle between the motorcycle dealers (sellers) and motorcycles buyers. I will take some excerpts from the forum to show the battle between the two.

Out of all this chaos, this was the answer I was looking for.

Invoice on the 10r is $9213 the dealer still has holdback usually 3-4% of base invoice. hope this helps.

Here is where the debating starts.

So what do you plan on doing with this new found knowledge of what dealer invoice is? I wonder if there are any dealers out there that would sell one at that price. It’s funny. I get customers in my shop from time to time that are all empowered. They point to an R6 and say, I know what you paid for this bike and this is what I’ll pay. Usually they add like $300 and think that’s a deal. Hell yeah that’s a deal. But I don’t think so. Then they ask what my best number is and I say list plus all fees. They ask if there is any discount, usually angry at that point. Nope, no discount. Then they say, well so and so in LA said he’s sell me one for $500 over cost. I fire right back, why don’t you go buy it? I’d go down there right now before he changes his mind. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for people getting a good deal, but mind you, this is how I make my living, pay my bills, eat. I only ask that when you purchase a bike, if the salesman has been helpful, show him a little consideration

Now this guy is crazy. He is willing to pay all that extra BS for a good relationship.

I gladly paid $10,300 (MSRP when locked in before 1/1/04). That was not including sales tax, license, shipping, or dealer prep. It also did not include any of the OEM accessories I got tied into the purchase, like rear seat cowl, service manual, Euro f&r turn signals and a 4 year extenion of the factory warranty. I didn’t just glady pay MSRP on all of that, I DEMANDED IT! Sure, I might have been able to save as much as $2,000 if I “shopped around” or had haggled. Odds are, if I did, I might have realistically “saved” under $1,000 including all the “accessories”.

Why would someone be so stupid as pay MSRP? Easy. It’s the “after purchase bennies”. It is all the perks and benefits I enjoy with my dealer and our almost 13 year relationship. First, they waived the shipping and prep charges and I just did the prep myself (we just loaded the crate in the trailer at took it home).

I like this guy comment.

There is a sucker born everyday because some people choose not to be suckers shouldn’t make any sales people angry. When I was in sales I would glady take small deals as long as I didn’t spend alot of time on them….

another comment…

It has nothing to do with being a sucker. Sometimes people forget that business transactions by definition are “mutually beneficial”. Everyone wants to shop around for the lowest rock bottom price, nothing wrong with that. But how do you expect the dealership to keep it’s doors open when you won’t let them make any money? Plus I need to eat too. How would you feel if your boss told you that day that he wanted you to work all day, but only pay you for 4 hours? Sucks. I am not in the business of ripping people off and it’s sad that people use the internet as a venue for making people feel like they got ripped off because they paid more than the next guy. People forget what a “good deal” is. If you measure things by dollar amount, sure you can always find that good deal. But if you care about having a local dealer that will take care of you in the long run, why not pay a little more? I know there are alot of shady dealers out there, but that’s life. But when you do find a shop you like, you should support that shop, otherwise it won’t be around very long. Just my .02

Here is a guy speaking the truth. He works at a motorcycle dealer.

Well the only person that must be raking it in is the boss. I make 15% of gross profit, so for example… If I sell a ZX10R at list plus fees, GP is usually about $2k. I take home $300. I probably shouldn’t share that info, but I feel that I can here. Luckily in my area, the way the market is, I can hold alot of gross. In Vegas, There was so much competition, I was taking much smaller commissions…

Finally, my comment to all this madness…

Let’s talk some basic economics 101 here. The US is a capitalist / free market country. Therefore, supply/demand controls the prices on products and services. So, if someone can get a bike for invoice + 300, evidently it is ok from supply/demand point of view. If you are arguing because someone is trying to save money by willing and dealing on a bike, then you are tying to get over them. Evidently, invoice + 300 works since bike shops are still in business and many people are getting bikes close to invoice price. Besides, I think since there are people who purchase a bike for MSRP + tax/lic/shipping and for people who bargain on bikes average out for a dealer to make decent profit to stay into business. I seriously doubt that there will ever be point in life were everyone will only pay invoice + 300 for these bikes.

Oh, and for those who claims that they have to eat too from selling these bikes way beyond invoice, well the buyer have to eat too. And they eat by saving money… Just my two cents…

This guy agrees with me…

I agree with that!

Well, hopefully I get the bike soon… I will post pictures if I do. Wish me luck on the best deal.

Both presidential candidates Pres. George Bush and Senator John Kerry both agree that embryonic stem cell research is the new frontier in science. The main difference between the two points of views is the limitation of embryonic stem research. Since there is an abortion issue, President George Bush meets both sides of this issue in the middle. He does this by allowing federal funding to explore its potential, but limits the number of strands in existence. Scientist says that only one third of the strands are available because the others were not useful. Also, scientists are saying the amount of strands are not enough and it is slowing down breakthroughs.

Kerry believes (and so do I) that scientists should be able to use embryonic stem cells from fertility clinics which are no longer wanted by parents, so longs the parents give their consent. The fate of these unwanted embryos are being destroyed anyway.

There was a Harris Interactive poll done that showed many people think that it is ok to use embryos for stem cell research if a parent gives their consent. These respondents consisted of Republicans, Democrats and independents. The polls showed that 72 percent of 2,242 people that was interviewed agreed with a +/-2 percent error.

This is about the only issue I agree with Senator John Kerry (that’s scary). When it comes to scientific research like stem cells, limitation will only prolong this research. There are still a lot of unknowns to this research and lifting these limitations will help solve these unknowns at a faster rate. I look at it like this, “if you are going to do something, do it right.” And I think using unwanted embryos from fertility clinics with a parent’s consent is doing it right and fair.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed two bills on Saturday. The first bill he vetoed was raising the California minimum wage to $7.75. I notice on a state average that the average minimum wage is about $5.00 to $6.00 per hour. There are many studies that show how hiking up minimum wages can have a negative effect on the economy. Here are a couple of reasons on how it has a negative effect:

• Higher wages requires a higher skill set. That leaves the lower skill set workers out of a job, which then reduces employment
• Higher wages creates higher cost for business. That gives them incentives to move to other states which have cheaper minimum wages
• Minimum wage hikes decreases the gap between lower skilled workers vs. workers that require higher education, which reduces the productivity, and incentive to work harder for those of the higher educated workforce.

Currently, many businesses are moving out of California because it cost so much to run a business. Raising California minimum wage will further decrease businesses in California.

The second bill Arnold vetoed was the bill that would have made it more difficult for retailers to construct superstores. Having superstores somewhat goes hand-to-hand with minimum wage. Many people argue that superstores pay low wages to their employees. Also, superstores create a lot of competition to other smaller stores. There was a lot of controversy some months back about building a Wal-Mart in Inglewood California. Many people were arguing about low wages and the competition Wal-Mart was going to give to small buisness owners. The unemployment rate in Inglewood is about 9 to 10 percent and there are many low skilled workers who lives in Inglewood. Building a Wal-Mart in Inglewood would help out the city.

I think Arnold has potential to help California get out of the hole it was digging and maybe more business would stay and maybe even come back to California.

Arnold’s words about California:

“In recent years, the high cost of doing business in California has driven away jobs, businesses, and opportunity. Now is not the time to create barriers to our economic recovery or reverse the momentum we have generated.”

Iran claims their uranium production is for a peaceful purpose, including power generation. Therefore, Iran rejects the UN nuclear demands. Iran says that the UN demand is illegal and does not put any obligation on their country.

Iran has defiantly rejected calls from the UN nuclear watchdog to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities.

“Iran will not accept any obligation regarding the suspension of uranium enrichment,” chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said.

Enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes.

“This demand is illegal and does not put any obligation on Iran. The IAEA board of governors has no right to make such a suspension obligatory for any country.”

Many people felt that Bernard Hopkins should of went into the ring Saturday night and bullied De La Hoya like a bully in elementary school. I give much respect and props to De La Hoya for coming into the ring and not being intimidated by Hopkins size and strength. De La Hoya is a true fighter. I would also like to give much respect and props to Bernard Hopkins. Although Hopkins knew he had the advantage over De La Hoya, Hopkins still went into the ring with caution and not stupidity. As the rounds went on, Hopkins figured out De La Hoya, got comfortable and then went for the kill. At the end of the fight is where I give De La Hoya and Hopkins mucho props and respect. Although Hopkins won the fight, he gave De La Hoya much respect by commenting with sincerity on how good of a fighter De La Hoya was. Also, De La Hoya took his lost like a man and admitted that he could not get up after the punch and had nothing else more to say. Good fight guys!