I had a topic I was going to write about, but got sidetracked on something else, so I'll save my "End of the world" for another time. This is just too damn important.

I've been reading about the Genocide that is going on in Sudans Darfur region, and its sickening me. It's no like no one knows what is going on there, hell the whole world knows. So why isn't anyone doing something about it? The Sundaese gov't is stopping the U.N. from going in there, but current estimates are that approximately 10,000 people per month are dying.

So what is the United Nations, the great world governing body that expects the USA to listen to its demands, doing about this tragedy? Absolutely friggin NOTHING. They are currently considering imposing sanctions on them.. BIG FREAKING DEAL. While they are busy "considering", thousands of people are being systematically murdered. The Darfur Consortium is trying to get the U.N. off their asses to do something about this situation, we'll see how that goes. If there ever was a need for a U.N. peace keeping force, this is it. How can the world turn a blind eye to a situation like this?

Factor in the AIDS epidemic in Africa, where in 7 countries 1 out of every 5 person is living with HIV, with AIDS being the #1 leading cause of death, and we are looking at a problem of epic proportions. Generations of people dying, and children growing up with no parental guidance, left to fend for themselves to survive day to day. What we (the world) have here is a problem that will come back to haunt us for generations if something isn't done about it. And what really gets under my craw is that (I can't believe I'm writing this) someone like Oprah is doing something about it while the U.N. and world governments drag their feet to address these problems.

I spent the last couple weeks debating about either buying a new truck, or spending the money fixing up the problems with the 98 Dakota I own. It's been a good vehicle for me, but needed some overdue maintenance, and it was overdue to have the transmission fixed/replaced. I ballparked it around $2k to do the things I needed done.

Kim and I went to a Dodge dealer in Cedarburg checking out their inventory of 2005 Dakota's, we made that one of our first stops since that is where I bought my 98. Oddly enough, even though I couldn't remember the original salesman's name, we ended up with the same guy. We spent some time looking at inventory, and then we started talking numbers. He was doing his best sales job at trying to get me to buy a fully loaded Dakota, even though I had told him I didn't need all the bells and whistles - I'm a pretty simple sort of guy. Don't need the $1k 6 CD changer, 6 speaker Infinity stero system, don't need the 17" chrome wheels or the heated leather seats. Even so, he was trying to get me to buy it. When we started talking numbers, the couple times I talked about the MSRP price, he was adamant that he had no room to move on the MSRP. I have to admit I was tempted, but the price was just too much more than I wanted to spend.

Jump forward a couple days.. I spent some time researching at Edumunds.com, Kelly's Blue Book, Carprices.com and other sites. I found out what the invoice price was for the Dakota, plus each of the accessories I wanted, and made some detailed notes about everything. Then I started my real search for a new truck. First step was to go to Dodge.com and spec out the exact vehicle I wanted. Then I used their search feature to find dealers nearby that had exactly what I was looking for. Once I decided on a couple that I was seriously interested in, I used the feature on Dodge.com to submit a request to the Dealers internet sales rep, and get a best price from them. I was shooting for around invoice price (around $1800 under MSRP), so imagine my suprise when each of the dealers I contacted came in with prices $500-$1k under the invoice price. From a dealer in Burlington I was able to get exactly the setup that I wanted on a new Dakota, $1k more on tradein for my 1998 than Kellys & Edmund's said it was worth, got a $2k loyalty discount from Dodge for trading in my 98, and 3.9% financing from Chrysler financing. Oh ya, you know I had to pull the trigger on that deal. So, now I'm driving a gray 2005 Dodge Dakota, SLT Quad Cab 4x4, with the 4.7L v8 Magnum and 5 spd Automatic transmission.

So the nugget of advice from this whole thing - if you're looking to buy a vehicle, do your online research, it definitely can pay off. And it's a hell of a good feeling to go into the dealer knowing exactly what everything costs, what its worth, and get the deal you wanted to get. It's great feeling like you're in charge of the deal, instead of at the mercy of the dealer.