I was watching Bill Maher’s “Real Time” this past weekend that I had Tivo’d. He has a segment where he goes to an area and interviews them on who they are going to vote for and teases them on their reasoning. This episode he was interviewing Hispanics in a “Mexican area” I believe in California. Everyone Maher interviewed was going to vote for Clinton except for one person.

Here is a segment from the transcript from the show.

MAHER: Do you think there’s a problem between the Latino community and the black community? A lot of people say that they don’t vote for Barack Obama because they just wouldn’t vote for a black guy.

WOMAN #1: Yes, but that does knock into racism.

MAHER: I mean, if you brought home a black guy, what would your parents say?

WOMAN #1: I mean, they’d be okay with it. But my grandparents would be a little…you know.

MAHER: Right. What if it was Barack Obama himself?

WOMAN #1: [she laughs]

MAHER: He’s so successful. Nice looking.

WOMAN #1: “Okay, go ahead. Have a good one.”

MAHER: You could be First Lady. Or you could marry Bill Clinton, you’d be Third Lady. [laughter] Whenever there’s a boxing match, like between a Latino guy and a black guy, there just seems to be an extra-

MAN #1: [overlapping] That’s a whole different - that’s a whole different thing.

MAHER: [overlapping]-amount of hatred going on there. When it’s Sugar Shane Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya, it’s a blood match.

MAN #1: Well, you know what? You’ve got to go with your own. I’ve got to go with my own on that.

MAHER: [overlapping] I always vote for the Irish guy. I do.

MAN #1: Oh, well.

MAHER: The Hispanics just don’t like the black guy. Come on, why can’t someone admit it?

WOMAN #2: [overlapping] I do. I-

MAHER: [overlapping] I’ve been here all day. No one will admit it.

WOMAN #2: [overlapping] No, I like him. It’s just-

MAHER: [overlapping] What is it with the Latinos and the blacks? What is this blood feud? Why can’t we just get along?

WOMAN #2: No blood feud. It’s just-

MAHER: Come on, little “Juno.” [laughter]

WOMAN #1: Who are you voting for?

MAHER: I’m going to vote for the black guy.

WOMAN #1: Really? And why is that?

MAHER: He’s cute. [laughter] [applause] [cheers]

Maher brings up an interesting point that I see all around me in Puerto Rico.

Latinos in general have an untold racism with blacks. When it comes to politics, the reactions I get while talking politics here are -

Prefer McCain “Because he is a Man.”

Prefer Clinton “Because I don’t think (then they stop talking)” then say “I don’t know.”

“I don’t care.” “I don’t get to vote anyway.”

Here is a quick and dirty explanation on what taxes Puerto Rico residents have to pay.

Since Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States, tax laws are different. Residents of Puerto Rico don’t pay federal income taxes on Puerto Rican source income. Any income from US sources, including stocks, those who work for the Federal Government, etc. must pay federal income. PR residents also pay Social Security, federal payroll, registration, communication, and Puerto Rico state tax.

If you are earning a US Government earned income. You won’t have to pay too much. You have to fill out the IRS form 1116 for the credit.

I have tried to get the usual TurboTax and Taxcut to work with the federal taxes for PR residents, I couldn’t figure them out to well. If anyone has any tricks let me know

I am of course am not a CPA or even good at math :-P So don’t take my word on taxes. Hire a pro!

Unfortunately when importing a car to Puerto Rico it can be pretty expensive. Import taxes vary on the car. I am not sure the percentage that is used, and it is my understanding that there is a minimum of $750. I did find a great page from the Departamento de Haceienda (which is the Puerto Rican IRS) that will give you an estimate on the taxes for importing vehicles to Puerto Rico. The site is in Spanish, but easy to figure out. You just have to enter the VIN or enter the make, model, and year.

I have no experience shipping a car to Puerto Rico. When I decided I was moving to PR, after adding everything up, I decided my car was too expensive and not worth shipping, so I sold it.

If you do decide to ship your car, it will most likely be shipped through Jacksonville Florida. So you will either have to drive to Florida to drop the car off or have it shipped there. You will also need the title to your car or have a letter from the bank authorizing the car to leave the country.

There are a few companies that ship here just search the web. These should get you started though. Ship my Vehicle, Crowley, and Trailerbridge.

Sorry for the site being so slow lately.  I am already having problems with my host.  It looks like the rest of the world who can’t afford a good host is as well.

Anyway they are supposed to be working on the issue.  If you want to keep up with whats happening, here is the post about the crappy service.

Those of you that are Federal Employees working in Puerto Rico might be happy to know that COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) should be going up very soon! On January 3rd 2008, OPM (Office of Personnel Management) proposed that the COLA be raised from 10.5% to 13%. So the ball is currently in motion. There is a regulatory process that has to be followed to process the rate change, and those changes have been submitted to OMB (Office of Management and Budget). Federal Employees in PR should start seeing the increase by the end of June 2008.

So, since every other blogger in the world is doing it, I figure I will give twitter a shot as well.  If you don’t know what twitter is or “get it”, here is the best explanation I can find (it’s a quick video)…

So if your interested in whatever it is that I do… Check it out (give me a break to get used to updating it).