Finished goal of running the distance of 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C and back!!!...plus 339.1 miles


0.0 miles run this week.
Daily running average for the week is 0.00 miles per day.
Total amount run in the past 800 days is 2,419.1 miles.
Daily running average overall is 3.02 miles per day.

Day124 Friday 12/31/10

ran 3.3 miles
  • Iowa was the twenty-ninth state to join the union on December 28, 1846, two years before Wisconsin and one year after Texas.
  • Population, as of 2009, is 3,007,856.
  • Senators are Chuck Grassley (R) and Tom Harkin (D).
  • Representatives are Leonard Boswell (D), Bruce Braley (D), Steve King (R), Tom Latham (R), and David Loebsack (D).
  • Iowa has six electoral votes. It lost one of its votes in the 2010 Census Reapportionment, leaving six total electoral votes through the 2020 presidential election. Historically, the state has voted red from the Civil War through 1988, barring five Democratic exceptions. Currently, Iowa leans blue. Barack Obama beat John McCain by a popular vote of 54% to 44% in 2008.
The year 2010 hangs by a final thread shadowed by the opportunities, chances and risks of the impending year 2011. Mere hours are left to take inventory of the past year and to gain perspective on the details that defined the year. It will not be long before baby-kissing, mudslinging, and scandalous campaigning for the 2012 presidential election will fill the ears and eyes of Americans everywhere, sensationalizing political fodder through every available media source. It’s all highly entertaining to watch these politicians posturing and making promises they cannot keep, feeding their insurmountable egos with camera time and interviews, until someone like Barack Obama actually somehow gets elected. It’s like when your mom used to say it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. America is hurting. Our president and our Congress are standing over America poking and prodding her bruises and wounds with the genuine belief that this will comfort her pain.

Be careful tonight while celebrating New Year’s Eve and have a great night. And when you wake up in the morning, recovering from your hangover, buckle your political seatbelt because these next two years are going to be the most defining in American politics in a very long time. The new Congress will be sworn in, presidential campaigning will begin, and November 6, 2012, though far away, will be the last opportunity to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

1,772.0 miles to go.

Day123 Thursday 12/30/10

ran 2.6 miles
Today marks four months of running against Barack Obama. Here’s a look back on the first day.

Day1 Monday 08/30/10
I just made my first run in my hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. As you read further you will begin to understand that this is the first of many important runs I will have coming my way until November 6, 2012. This day will be a Tuesday and more importantly it will be Election Day for the next president of the United States of America. It will either be Barack Obama or someone else. To get right to the point of what this blog is about I am determined to help someone else win by personally running against Barack Obama for the next two years. I am going to run every single day regardless of what state or city I am in or what street I am running on. Weather will not stop me and illness will not deter me in any way from accomplishing this goal that I have.

I am running against Barack Obama because I am not a politician. I am running against him because I have an average job and no money to campaign with. I am running against him because this is the only thing I can think of to do to try to strengthen the point that there are millions upon millions of other people in this country that feel the way I do and that our united voice is constantly ignored on extremely important issues that our government keeps locked away in a suggestion box our leaders and representatives refuse to open.

Running and blogging are the tools I am going to use for this campaign and my platform is to get Obama out. I will attend no caucuses and my pundits will be few. Mudslinging will be self-inflicted from the heels of my shoes. The only primary I will participate in will be running myself into exhaustion everyday for the next two years and blogging about it.

It is out of belief and admiration in this country and all of the brave history I have read about it since its conception that I feel drawn to do this. It is from two years of talking with family and friends, eavesdropping on others at coffee shops and malls, listening to their discontentment in American politics, and generally feeling that so many others simply must feel the way I do…that so many things just seem wrong. Yet, what can you do to really make a difference? It is a helpless and desolate feeling, especially at this point in time with so much at stake. That is why I am doing this. If only a handful of people ever trip over this blog then I will be happy. I am tired of saying the same things over and over, hearing other people complain about the same stuff over and over, and nothing being done. There is one simple fact that our government cares as little about as the masses of people in this country fail to consider. We have numbers. We have an astronomical amount of numbers compared to what any government can successfully deceive or manipulate. But, like ants in a kicked over anthill, we all seem to run outside and make a fuss only to scurry right back into our homes and forget. This trait is one of our weakest contemporary shortcomings. We have grown to accept that politics are politics and that things are what they are. That is not how this country was founded and it is certainly not why you are so happy to be a citizen of it. We are different here compared to the rest of the world and things are not what they are.

Each day from this day forward I am going to run whatever formidable amount of mileage I can endure, regardless of weather or illness, until I reach or break my goal of 2,080 miles. I chose that number because it is the distance from my home in Lafayette, Louisiana to Washington, DC and back. Just to give you an idea of my daily quota for running, it will be a rough average of 2.62 miles a day everyday for over two years. And everyday that I run I am going to post on this blog. My reward is good health and a creative outlet in exchange for the frustrating and senseless governing our government has shut its people up with over the past two years. And as time will tell, it is not only Obama, or either of the two parties as a whole, that consume the political arena of senselessness. The emergence of tea parties across the American landscape was a huge message not only to our current president but also to the American Government in general. And this was a long inevitable process over the last few decades in American history, seeing what the American peoples’ breaking point was. Barack Obama just happens to be the proverbial straw that could possibly break America’s back. His ideas and motives are so radically life-changing in America for me as I interpret his direction, that another term would give him the opportunity to do what he really wants to do, without the consequence of having to earn another term by being only mildly as extreme as he is now.

It is our constitutional right to weigh our government on a scale and to write that weight down. And it is our government’s obligation to eat more, trim some fat or to continue its diet based on that number.

I ran 1.3 miles today. It was hot, humid and awesome to get this blog started. The idea of doing this occurred to me in July of 2010. Just as I was about to start stomping the pavement some unexpected travel came up with my job. Then my wife, Lindsey, and I took a small vacation when I got back. After a brief postponement of getting this thing started, the idea was ready to be taken out of the back of my mind and polished up. I discussed it with my wife and she agreed that someone else would indeed be the better candidate and that I should do this. After all, in order for someone else to win he or she will have to contradict most of the ideals that Obama believes in, so for the short term that has to be the indisputable option, at least for now.

2,078.7 miles to go.
(Four months later, 1,775.3 miles to go.)

Day122 Wednesday 12/29/10

ran 2.6 miles
Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie has announced recently that he would like to release more information about President Barack Obama’s birth records to prove all the skeptics who believe he may have been born elsewhere wrong. At this point, I could care less where Barack Hussein Obama was born. He is obviously not in jeopardy of forfeiting his presidency due to the small matter of whether he was born in the United States are not.

The dye has been cast in his refusal to show his birth certificate to those who had asked to see it two years ago. He refused to make the simple gesture of presenting a simple piece of paper when asked to prove his birthplace. Who does that? Who feels they are so above common courtesy and protocol that they actually refuse to show their birth certificate when asked by lawyers, fellow politicians, and millions of Americans? Furthermore, why did he exhaust so much money in attorney’s fees to protect the information surrounding the documentation of his birth? It makes no sense. And what makes even less sense is Hawaii’s governor resurrecting this conspiracy theory right when people were just beginning to accept that America lost its standards, principles and rules, pertaining to the honor and respect of what is becoming less and less the most honorable seat in our nation.

The dialogue between Barack Obama’s people and this governor’s people must have been the boardroom meeting to end all boardroom meetings. I think I am right to assume Governor Abercrombie did not just take it upon himself to raise this phoenix from its ashes after two years of smoldering. I have to think that he discussed the possibility, the potential, and the ultimate outcome of putting this goal forward with Barack Obama. If nothing else, either Abercrombie is deliberately making more problems for his president or the gears that make the American machine move thought this was a good idea and they obviously need to be tightened up or replaced.

I find it very difficult to put into words how ridiculous it is that the governor of Hawaii, after two years of an extremely heated controversy concerning Barack Obama’s birth certificate, deems now to be the appropriate time to end the debate. Did it just occur to him after two years of Barack Obama’s presidency that proving his origin might be an important matter?

If I were to apply for a job, in this current turbulent economy, and I was fortunate enough to be hired, and my new boss asked me to take a drug test, would it be odd if I hired attorneys and paid them truckloads of money to conceal the results of my drug test from my employer after I peed in the cup? I do not take it personally when an employer looks at me and tells me I need to take a drug test because it is a standard. It is protocol. It is an uncompromised method to filter people out of workplaces, who may otherwise create nothing but problems. Requesting a president to show his birth certificate is no different. It is not personal when I get a random drug test and it is nothing personal when America asks the president we hired to simply show his birth certificate.

It's been two years. Governor Abercrombie can dig up a certified letter from “Honest” Abe Lincoln for all I care. Barack Obama made his statement and defined his character the instant he refused to show his birth certificate two years ago.

1,777.9 miles to go.

Day121 Tuesday 12/28/10

ran 3.5 miles
Someone Else. This is a man or woman most of us can relate to and he or she is running for president in 2012. Someone Else. He or she has no desire to achieve mediocrity as an ultimate goal or to compromise American principles for the mess we have collectively allowed our nation to become over a time too long to recognize until now. Someone Else will not capitalize on how weak and un-American this nation has become or attempt to make it something it is not amidst its vulnerability.


The problems we now face are the consequence of a slow, almost unnoticeable demise, decade by decade, of not addressing important issues when they initially present themselves. It is like staring at a clock; you never actually see the hour hand or the minute hand move no matter how long you stare at the arms they are attached to. Impatient and obligated by more important things to do, we all avert our eyes and get on with our lives, ignoring the recurring seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.


Time is captured in untimely glimpses and unpredictable moments you don’t ask for. Sometimes they are blessings and other times they are slaps in the face that demand attention. Now is one of those latter times. There is a cold gust picking up velocity in America that is chapping the lips and chafing the faces of citizens across our nation’s landscape.

Someone Else…

1,780.5 miles to go.

Day120 Monday 12/27/10

ran 3.2 miles
It requires little effort to find skewed and unreliable news, statistics and polls in this ever-shrinking world we live in. Stories, stats and polls fill every seam and crevice they can creep into, contradicting one another with numerously blatant reasons to believe that one side or the other is obviously lying. It is all the more reason to take a firm hold of what you hold dear about America and to make yourself heard. America is changing seasons and this new season is a fifth one, the likes of which this country has never seen.

I came across an article today, much like any other given day, in which…well, the article speaks for itself: “Barack Obama 2010 Most Admired Man”. This is the article.

In the first paragraph they proclaim, “Obama is the person Americans most admired in 2010, ahead of business, religious and other political leaders, a poll indicates.”

“A poll indicates?” What poll? Did the people who conducted this poll or answered the questions consider the shellacking our president received and the intolerance of Barack Obama's ideas as perceived by a very direct message in the election of November 2, 2010?

If you read further, the article suggests that Richard Slotkin, professor emeritus of American studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, conducted the study or poll or somehow produced the numbers. It is not explained how the list was arranged, aside from a general assumption that it is one University's representation of international power across the entire spectrum of politicians, athletes, religious leaders and CEOs.

What I find most curious about Wesleyan University in Connecticut is the fact that Forbes, an extremely reliable source, rated Barack Obama as number two, under Chinese president Hu Jintao, on their list of “Most important people in the world”. Wesleyan University does not even mention Hu Jintao in their top ten.

While Forbes may have taken a more direct approach to the reality of what men or women are really in charge, Wesleyan University may have taken a poll but the only thing it reflected is how out of touch the people they polled are, or how biased the people who comprised this list were on a very particular agenda.

The point is, we all know what we want America to be, and in November of 2012 this country will be on the precipice of two possible national and monumental changes. One will be Barack Obama’s change and the other will be someone else’s. I vote for Someone Else; he or she is a great candidate because if they are running against Barack Obama then their platform will have to completely contradict his ideas and decisions. Someone Else in 2012!

1,784.0 miles to go.

Day119 Sunday 12/26/10

ran 3.5 miles
Week seventeen of running against Obama comes to a close today. I ran 18.7 miles this week equaling a grand total of 292.8 miles. My daily average is 2.46 miles per day. I still have some catching up to do. The daily average I need to sustain to achieve my goal of running 2080 miles by November 6, 2012 is 2.62 miles per day.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and enjoyed their holiday time with friends and family. As wonderful as Christmas is it always seems to end with a quiet, internal sigh of relief. Children want to abandon their aunts and uncles for the excitement of the new toys they unwrapped, teenagers want to rush to the mall and various stores they received gift cards from, adults embrace the happiness of their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews, and reflect back to when they were that age, and grandparents sit back and watch it all, appreciating that everyone sitting around the tree and every moment that is happening began with them; it is the same feeling of pride and honor their grandparents had when they were only small children.

I hate to dabble into politics on the day after Christmas, when we are all trying to relax, fit in some leftovers, and not face adding up credit card bills or balancing the checkbook, but I just wanted to point out one small thing. Christmas, from the standpoint of an American tradition, is an absolutely beautiful and wonderful annual event from so many different points of view. Christmas is as American as apple pie, as are hundreds of other national traditions. The parallel I’m trying lay side by side is that, by some definition, conservatism is a desire to maintain tradition and liberalism is a desire to change tradition. I am not suggesting that American politics are ultimately a struggle to preserve Christmas as it stands in America, but this contrast is a simple, important fact that can be applied to our nation in various formats.

I challenge anyone who reads this post to really examine what it is you are after concerning your interpretation of America. What do you like or dislike about the state of our nation? And perhaps as a New Year’s resolution find some way to fight for something in this country that you feel is threatened or to strive to change something about this country that you feel is wrong.

1,787.2 miles to go.

Day118 Saturday 12/25/10

ran 1.1 miles
Merry Christmas!!! No politics today. Christmas gifts are under the tree, family and friends are in town, and the smell of turkey and roast, and green bean casserole, among a dozen other dishes and desserts, are in the air. Merry Christmas!

1,790.7 miles to go.

Day117 Friday 12/24/10

ran 2.6 miles
  • Indiana was the nineteenth state to join the union on December 11, 1816, one year before Mississippi and four years after Louisiana.
  • Population, as of 2009, is 6,423,113.
  • Senators are Evan Bayh (D) and Richard Lugar (R).
  • Representatives are Dan Burton (R), Steve Buyer (R), Andre Carson (D), Joe Donnelly (D), Brad Ellsworth (D), Baron Hill (D), Mike Pence (R), Mark Souder (R), and Peter Viclosky (D).
  • Indiana has eleven electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted red throughout its history, and in modern times Indiana is the most Republican state in the Midwest. Since 1940, the sate has only voted blue in 1964 (Lyndon Johnson winning by a landslide over Barry Goldwater) and in 2008 (Barack Obama won over McCain 50% to 49%, the third closest race of the election next to Missouri and North Carolina). An interesting fact is that in 1992 and 1996, Indiana stood as an island of red with its borders not touching one single Republican-voting state.
I’m going to cut this post short for the holiday season and I wish you a very merry Christmas Eve spent with friends and family. Hopefully the Christmas shopping is done and you can relax. Have a wonderful, blessed and merry Christmas!!!

1,791.8 miles to go.

Day116 Thursday 12/23/10

ran 2.6 miles
  • Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating shows that 26% of American voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president while 39% strongly disapprove, giving Barack Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –13, compared to –17 on this day last week.
  • Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance and 51% disapprove.
  • Only 23% of American voters generally believe the country is heading in the right direction. Regarding the official halt of the $1.2 trillion Omnibus spending bill, Howard Rich said, “It has been said that mindless growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Now that America has been ‘fiscally diagnosed’, let’s hope a new crop of leaders has the courage to pursue a cure---not merely treat the symptoms of the disease.”
  • Fifty-nine percent of American voters believe the most important objective of government is to protect individual rights and freedom. Twenty-four percent feel government’s priority is to ensure fairness and social justice. Ten percent believe government’s purpose is to manage the economy.
The first week in January will begin a new Congress. Those elected on November 2, 2010 will be sworn in and hopefully legislate on the ideas they campaigned on, which were ideas we voted them into office for to stop, or at least slow down, the liberal ideas that have awoken unmeasurable levels of frustration among American people.

This Lame Duck session has been a circus of seeing how many acts could be crammed into the ring before the new Congress began. The Lame Duck session is also known as “Zombie Congress” and it is called that for a reason. There were more deals struck and important bills signed and rejected, it seems, in the last month than the last two years…during a time period known as the “Zombie Congress”. All of the politicians who were voted out have nearly two months to perform a political kamikaze before cleaning their desks out because they have no consequence to their actions. While those who will be replacing them have to sit with their hands tied behind their backs for two months as they are forced to accept legislation they had no say in, even though they were elected before all of these current bills were passed. The Lame Duck Zombie Congress could use some serious revision regarding the excessive amount of time it takes for those elected to get into office and those voted out to pack their things.

1,794.4 miles to go.

Day115 Wednesday 12/22/10

ran 2.6 miles
Communism, by definition, is a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state; a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

“One of the striking differences between Fascism and Communism is this: Fascism has inspired no great work of art.... No doubt, Fascism is too vile and scurrilous an ideology to produce those charities of the imagination, which are essential to literate art. Communism, even when it has gone venomous, is a mythology of the human future, a vision of human possibility rich in moral demand. Fascism is the ultimate code of the hoodlum; Communism fails because it would seek to impose upon the fragile plurality of human nature and conduct an artificial ideal of self-denial and human purpose. Fascism tyrannizes through contempt of man; Communism tyrannizes by exalting man above that sphere of private error, private ambition, and private love, which we call freedom.”

George Steiner

My mind is no calibrated political instrument and I have no qualifications or accolades to claim a right to credibility when I voice my opinions, but I do firmly believe there are many others like me, who feel the same way I do, that something good in America is gone or that something bad is coming. But we can’t seem to put our collective finger on it exactly.

With that being said, I’d like to explain one of the primary reasons I am running all of these miles and writing all of these words. There are many who argue that America is on a path towards Socialism. Socialism is communism and communism is progressivism. Communism and Socialism are easy to begin to understand just by looking at either of the two words as they stand. But now that “Progressive” has become the new acceptable nomenclature for Communistic ideas, it is easy to overlook and dismiss the tenets of Progressives.

No thriving country would ever deliberately choose to eliminate their functioning political and economic system only to replace it with Communism. Communism is an absolute last resort used by a political party when they give up because too much money has been spent and too much disorder has been left to its own devices and, finally, there are simply no more ideas to keep afloat the good and genuine system that once worked because it has become far too corrupted.

I believe America is nearing the edge of a tall cliff and it is being backed to its end by a combination of politicians run-a-muck and people who sit idly by watching it happen. This country was founded on the blood and lives of a Revolution by people who were smothered by the gravity of their government. All they wanted was to be left alone and to live their lives. The government is presently interfering with our lives more and more to a point that simply complaining about the problems in our country behind the closed doors of family and friends will no longer cut it.

Being politically correct was a pleasant, respectful measure at one time. Though I would have simply named the act of treating others respectfully with human dignity and kindness, without injury to their beliefs, ways or race, something more like “Inherent human sensitivity”, political correctness has become a tool to pin down anyone who gives even the slightest hint of offending any other person, entity, race, or a thousand other things.

This is a politically correct statement: America should meet the needs of every one of its inhabitants, whether long time citizens or illegal aliens, whether great contributors to society or disadvantaged or unfortunate members of society who cannot contribute, regardless of what it costs it is the governments obligation to provide everyone with equal means.

This is a similar statement, said practically, un-politically correct and with real honesty, with inherent human sensitivity, so to speak, which is often tough but effective: America is a nation that was built with hard work, dedication and unity. The government is here to help you as much as possible without having you gain ultimate dependence upon it. You get out of America exactly what you put into it, and if you choose to put little or nothing into it then your government will give you little or nothing, contingent on your good or bad circumstances and abilities and disabilities.

1,797.0 miles to go.

Day114 Tuesday 12/21/10

ran 3.7 miles
On this day in history, American patriot Robert Barnwell was born in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1761. Barnwell resiliently and boldly served in each step of America’s revolution and it’s success.

At age sixteen, he joined the Patriot militia as a private. During the Battle of Matthew’s Plantation on St. John’s Island in June of 1779, his supplies were taken and he was left for dead on the battlefield. Discovered and brought back to health by a stranger and his family, Barnwell rejoined the militia as a lieutenant the following spring. He was soon taken prisoner by the British during the siege of Charleston in May of 1780. Barnwell spent the next thirteen months imprisoned on the ship “Pack Horse”. Relentless, after his release he once again rejoined the Patriot militia, eventually reaching the rank of a lieutenant colonel by the end of America’s war for independence.

Barnwell’s great bravery and resilience paved his path to becoming a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1787, and then a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1788 to 1789. In 1788, he also served as a member of the South Carolina convention that ratified the United States Constitution. He served in the second U.S. Congress as a member of the House of Representatives from 1791 to 1793. Robert Barnwell continued to serve America in various political seats until 1806. He died at the young age of fifty-two on October 24, 1814.

Robert Barnwell was one of the old iron links forged from the original American spirit, which many citizens of this great nation have lost sight of and appreciation for. What he risked his life to fight for, like so many others of that time, was the simple opportunity to reach his own full potential, free from the tyranny of a government who wanted nothing more of him than to pay exorbitant taxes and to remain silent.

That sounds very familiar, 234 years later. Somewhere along the way America, like a young man seduced by temptation, greed and vice, lost sight of what was truly important and assumed a role all but familiar to what it was intended to be. It is time for the prodigal son to come home to Washington and make things right.

1,799.6 miles to go.

Day113 Monday 12/20/10

ran 2.6 miles
Barack Obama has had a turbulent and accordingly speculative year of criticism from an American public majority that does not want his “Change”. While much news media has proven they support his sensationalized ideas of arguable progress, American voters feel otherwise and have shown it. Between the deafening volumes of Tea party organizations across the country who long for the wisdom of their American Constitution and the clear risk that this great nation may be on the precipice of detrimental change and decades of reconstruction towards cleaning up the proverbial oil spill of crippling legislation seeped across America’s landscape in the form of liberal ideas and an unaccepted Congressional body, in general, it requires little common sense to see how dire it is right now to return to our Constitution and to embrace the original principles that got us to where we are.

“This is what change looks like,” Barack Obama proudly said upon the signing of his health care bill not so long ago. Numerous states are rushing to the courts arguing it is unconstitutional to force American citizens to pay for nationalized health care. I’m no Judge so it is not necessarily my place to judge, but I am an American citizen and our nation has been fighting communism, or progressive ideas, as they now call it, for a very long time, yet our government is socializing health care.

That is what “Change” looks like. Change. It is such an arbitrary word. It is as unoriginal, uncreative, and just arbitrary enough that I would be willing to bet that the Republican candidate that finally emerges, running against Barack Obama, will also run on the same campaign slogan, further rendering the progress of this country to the mentality of a schoolyard fight. Be that as it may, here are some of Barack Obama’s achievements, depending upon which side of the aisle you are on, for the past year:

January---Ted Kennedy, a long time Senator of Massachusetts passes away, leaving a vacated seat procured by one Scott Brown, a republican.
February---Unemployment at 9.7%.
March---Congress approval rating is at 22%.
April---Unemployment at 9.9%.
May---The ramifications of the failed blowout preventer on the Horizon wreak havoc on oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. An indefinite moratorium on drilling is established, leading to layoffs and furloughs across the southern coastal states.
June--- Barack Obam’s handling of the oil spill is polled and compared to George Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina.
July---The Obama administration deemed this time period the “Recovery Summer”.
August---Unemployment at 9.6%. Congress approval rating is at 24%.
September---In one of the year’s biggest upsets, Joe Miller, backed by Sarah Palin and the Tea party, defeated GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, adding her to a handful of incumbents that Americans were fed up with.
October---Campaigning for reelection, any senators or representatives who campaigned on health care reform were doing so by disassociating themselves from its being passed.
November---Unemployment at 9.8%. Conservatives reclaimed the majority in the House, diminished the majority in the Senate, and claimed an overwhelming amount of Governorships.
December---Obama likens Republicans to hostage-takers in a weak effort to save face for the bed he has made for himself and now has to sleep in.

1,803.3 miles to go.

Day112 Sunday 12/19/10

ran 3.2 miles
Today ends week sixteen of running against Obama. I am back in the streets running every single day again and the discomfort in my leg is hardly noticeable. I now face a deficit of miles, which will take a while to balance, but I am off to a good start. I ran 23.4 miles this week making a grand total of 274.1 miles run since August 30, 2010. My daily average is 2.45 miles run each day.

It is a long way to go until November 6, 2012, the day the forty-fifth president of the United States of America will be elected, or the day Barack Obama might be reelected, and I have many miles to go to contribute in doing the little I can to stop Barack Obama from being reelected, but I can honestly say I have never been more focused and determined in my entire life to protest, peacefully and intellectually, the principles and ideas of any one man or woman more relentlessly than the president of our nation, Barack Hussein Obama.

1,805.9 miles to go.

Day111 Saturday 12/18/10

ran 2.5 miles
President Barack Obama was quoted as being “Incredibly disappointed” today when Senate Republicans blocked a bill to grant certain illegal immigrants a chance to clench legal status.

The Dream Act failed to pass this morning. The measure was five votes short of the sixty needed to pass. It is actually quite amazing that this piece of legislation was not enacted, considering our Congress is in its advantageous Lame duck session, in which numbers are significantly more favorable now for liberal ideas than they will be in January when our newly elected officials are sworn in.

The Dream Act, in simple terms, is an opportunity for illegal aliens between the ages of twelve and thirty-five to earn amnesty and citizenship by enrolling in college or joining the military. This will give you all of the details of the proposed bill, but here is what I read between the lines:

First, this is a step, one of many to come in the next two years, towards legalizing and making voters out of the millions upon millions of illegal immigrants that we tolerate in America, fortifying an immense, untapped voting base for Democrats and their ideas. The second thought that comes to mind is this---once the illegal alien, between the age of twelve and thirty-five, files his paperwork, can we deport his parents back to the country they came from, or maybe naturalize them with the incredibly obvious contingency that they become classified and proud citizens of the United States of America? Third, in order to pull this off, it will require money…taxpayer money, which illegal immigrants do not pay. It is not naïve to assume that the majority of illegal aliens in this country more than likely do not have a college fund for their children or a nest egg for their futures. This legislation would fund, in the form of scholarships, educations for people in this country who are flagrantly breaking the law by simply being here. And our government wants to pay for these people to succeed when so many of us legally and proudly live in this country and work as hard as we can every day to succeed and provide for our families. I’m still paying off student loans and our president is proposing to fund illegal aliens to get a free ride?

For the amount of common sense that resonates in not passing this bill, it is still surprising that our liberally favored Senate ultimately said “No”. His counterparts did not even back this bill, at least enough of them to stop it. It is a sign of the times and the power of the people. Obama’s presidency has been the catalyst for the biggest awakening of concern in American voters in a long time.

1,809.1 miles to go.

Day110 Friday 12/17/10

ran 3.0 miles
  • Illinois was the twenty-first state to join the union on December 3, 1818, one year before Alabama and one year after Mississippi.
  • Population, as of 2009, is 12,910,409.
  • Senators are Richard Durbin (D) and Mark Kirk (R).
  • Representatives are Bobby Rush (D), Jesse Jackson (D), Daniel Lipinski (D), Luis Gutierrez (D), Mike Quigley (D), Peter Roskam (R), Danny Davis (D), Melissa Bean (D), Janice Schakowsky (D), Deborah Halvorson (D), Jerry Costello (D), Judy Biggert (R), Bill Foster (D), Timothy Johnson (R), Donald Manzullo (R), Phil Hare (D), Aaron Schock (R), and John Shimkus (R).
  • Illinois has 21 electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted largely Republican from the Civil War through the 1920s. Through the Great Depression and World War II, Illinois voted blue. Between 1952 and 1988 the state voted red for eight out of ten presidential elections. And all the way up to Barack Obama’s presidential election, Illinois has voted for a Democrat in the last five elections.
Since Illinois is the topic of today’s post it is fitting to cover some information on our current president who came from Illinois. We are all aware of the controversies surrounding Barack Obama’s birth certificate and the millions of dollars he has exhausted in legal fees to maintain as much privacy as possible pertaining to his past, and how under-qualified he is to be a president of the United States of America, and how underwhelming of a job he is doing, but, just once more, lets take a look at the gristle on the bone of what Barack Obama’s achievements are.

Straight out of the “Biographical Directory of the United States Congress”, Barack Obama is a Senator from Illinois and 44th President of the United States; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; received a B.A. in 1983 from Columbia University, New York City; worked as a community organizer in Chicago, Ill.; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1991; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and served from January 3, 2005, to November 16, 2008, when he resigned from office, having been elected president; elected as the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

He has some impressive credentials and rare achievements few others will experience in their lives, but in terms of being the President of the United States of America, the greatest country on Earth, he falls short. First, the birth certificate fiasco was absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know anyone who would not simply show another person their birth certificate if they were asked to present it. Regardless of where our president was born, the simple fact that he was so reluctant to prove his origin speaks for itself. People do not behave the way he did when they have nothing to hide. Second, Barack Obama was not the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and nor is he the first African-American to reside as the President of the United States of America. I hope that within my lifetime I do get to witness a black man or woman sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office. I also hope that man or woman will have enough sense and integrity to not refer to his or herself as an “African-American” because an American is simply an American. I’d also like to see a woman elected as president in my lifetime because these are things that have never happened before and they would be signs of progress. If Barack Obama was conceived by a red man and a blue woman and he was born purple, why would he refer to himself as the first Red-American president when he is clearly as purple as an eggplant? It makes no sense. And, finally, a Community Planner and three years as a Senator? If I were a Community Planner with three years of experience in the army would I campaign for General? No!

America voted him in and America can vote him out.

1,811.6 miles to go.

Day109 Thursday 12/16/10

ran 3.4 miles
  • Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 41% strongly disapprove, making an Approval Index rating of –17, compared to –14 on this day last week.
  • Overall, 47% of voters at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president and 53% disapprove.
  • Just 23% of American voters believe the country is heading in the right direction, the lowest total since Barack Obama took office.
  • American voters, when asked if they would reelect someone who voted for the health care law, reflected poll results of 43% who felt they deserved reelection and 50% felt they did not. When asked about the reelections of those who voted for the taxpayer bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, 36% believed that decision deserved reelection and 53% did not. Along the same trend, 41% of American voters feel their congressional representatives should be reelected if he or she voted for the stimulus plan, while 50% feel they should not be reelected.
It’s as though November 2 was completely ignored by our lawmakers. They did not perceive the statement we voters made, or they just ignored it. I posted a quote yesterday from one of the world’s most significant figures and greatest philosophers, Plato, and in four small words he spoke a voluminous truth that applies now to us just as it did to him and his society nearly 2,500 years ago.

“Your silence gives consent.”

Our politicians walk all over us and our president is not leading by example to change the corrupted protocol of Washington. His philosophy appears to be rooted in the idea that words, which are spoken at one time, mean nothing at another time. I agree, enthusiastically, with extending the Bush tax cuts, but some of the legislation attached to this bill contradicts progress. These decisions are all being crammed into a Senate and House that are about to undergo a significant shift in power once the candidates we voted for are sworn in and the incumbents we fired clean out their offices. The interim between those leaving Washington and those voted in is obviously too long and could use some revising.

Obama swore to let Bush tax cuts expire on every family earning more than $250,000. He lied to the people who voted for him and he appeased the populous that did not vote for him. Now, the Omnibus Appropriations plan, the next tarred feather in Barack Obama’s cap, will cost $8.3 billion and it includes 6,714 earmarks. Another thing Obama swore to end during his campaign was earmarks. But it’s not only Barack Obama; it is all of Washington. We just held a mid-term election that sent a pretty clear message that we did not want to spend any more tax-payer’s money on unnecessary enterprises such as earmarks. Completely ignoring this message, a month and a half later Washington acts as though the election and our message meant nothing.

“Your silence gives consent.”

1,814.6 miles to go.

Day108 Wednesday 12/15/10

ran 4.6 miles
  • “What country is suffering from too much freedom of speech? Name it, is there one?”
Julian Assange

Assange makes a valid point and argues a debatable message, but he overlooks the unspoken understanding we all have as human beings that sometimes certain things are better left unmentioned, whether in the full scope of international political relations or within the walls of any given one single household. I would feel somewhat presumptuous to assert that the freedom of speech may have some understood boundaries and rules of etiquette, and I would not be surprised by the fact that you would probably agree with me, although neither one of us would want to have the responsibility of defining what exactly “Freedom of speech” allows or may be limited to. What Julian Assange did was completely disregard the human lack of desire for unwavering, honest confrontation, which many of us tend to shy away from.
  • “George Bush’s economic policies still offend my conscience and they still offend yours.”
Barack Obama

I cannot say it enough, that Obama’s legislation on continuing the Bush tax cuts to everyone, including the highest earners in America, is a complete contradiction of what he campaigned on. This is an action that needs to be remembered in 2012 when another candidate is running against him. Halting the tax cuts at $250,000 was a tenet of his proverbial coronation into the White House. So, at least one more time, I find it necessary to point out that he reneged on a huge promise to the people who voted for him, he succumbed to the voice of the people who did not vote for him, and many that had, on November 2, and he has proven that his audacious promises are only as good as his word, which has just been officially compromised.

“Your silence gives consent.”
Plato

1,818.0 miles to go.

Day107 Tuesday 12/14/10

ran 3.5 miles
On this day in history, in 1799, George Washington, esteemed by fellow soldier and Virginian Henry Lee as “First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen” died at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Rising to eminence by his own means, his first job at age seventeen was as a surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1752, he joined the British army and served as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War. Once the war ended, Washington left the army and returned to his newly inherited estate, upon the death of his older brother, in Mount Vernon. He served in the colonial House of Burgesses and, like many of his peers, grew more and more frustrated with colonial rule by the British government. It was not long before he joined his co-revolutionaries in the Continental Congress.

In 1775, the Continental Congress unanimously chose Washington to command the new Continental Army. His successes in Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown were necessary victories for the emerging nation. In 1789, due to the leadership he displayed during the war, Washington was elected the first American president under the new United States Constitution.

After facing competing factions within his own administration and attempting to set unwritten rules of conduct for future presidents, leading by example, he chose to resign in 1797 after two terms. Washington did not want to appear monarchical and exhibited a precedent of transferring power peacefully and under a set limit of terms.

Washington contracted a severe respiratory infection on December 13 and died the next day. His last words were “Tis well”. The first president of the United States was eulogized by friends and political foes, alike, both at home and abroad. Even King George III of England referred to Washington as the “Greatest character of the age”. In his will, Washington referred to himself humbly as “George Washington, of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States”.

1,822.6 miles to go.

Day106 Monday 12/13/10

ran 3.2 miles
Today was a historic day in Barack Obama’s presidency and America’s future. Although our president will receive full credit for taking the initiative to extend the Bush tax cuts, it is important to realize that this decision would not have been made had American voters not shown up and spoken so loudly on November 2.

The Senate finally capitulated on the bill and here are some of the details about the compromise struck between apprehensive democrats and energized republicans:
  • The bill will cost $858 billion, but, unlike Obama’s stimulus package, most of this spent money is instantly retained in the pockets of every working American. It is not Monopoly money and it rewards working Americans with money they earned and deserve to keep.
  • The advancement of the bill required sixty votes and passed 83-15. Obviously, many Democrats who would rarely ever characteristically vote for a fiscal decision of this magnitude succumbed to its demands.
  • The legislation will extend all expiring income-tax reductions through 2012. Barack Obama swore during his campaign that tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or more would expire. While it is a good decision for him to change his mind, it is also a great example of how unrealistic and radical his principles are. If he had committed to what he had promised his voters then America would have further spiraled down into more economic devastation and immense voter discontentment.
  • The bill will cut payroll taxes by 2% during 2011 and extend unemployment benefits throughout 2011. Unemployment benefits are a sensitive issue surrounded by much debate. While many people take advantage of the system and grow accustomed to government handouts, losing all initiative to contribute to society, many others genuinely do need it for whatever amount of time it takes for them to get back on their feet.
  • Companies will be allowed to write off 100% of their capital investments and dozens of other business tax breaks, which had expired in 2009, will be revived.
The bill has yet to be enacted but if it passes it will be a huge victory for American voters and conservative ideals. There are only a little more than two weeks left in December and if action is not taken by the end of the month then the Bush tax cuts will automatically expire, and that is highly unlikely to happen. Put a point on the board for American voters!

1,826.1 miles to go.

Day105 Sunday 12/12/10

ran 0.0 miles
Today is my fifteenth week of running against Barack Obama. I could only muster a mere three miles this week, but my leg is slowly feeling better each day. In lieu of running this week I was able to visit a doctor and I also had my running gait analyzed, gaining some valuable insight on my form and what type of shoes I should be running in. For any avid runner, it is surprising how many minute details revolve around the dynamic relationship of bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons in the leg when they are all pummeling asphalt day after day.

I highly recommend Tri-Running, here in Lafayette, to any runner seeking solutions for pain in their legs or to anyone looking for shoes or accessories that conform to your personal build and needs. I purchased a new pair of shoes, which I am pretty excited about, and plan on hitting the streets again soon. I have almost forty miles of running I need to catch up on from the past two weeks and every day I don’t run from this day forward increases my deficit.

Officially, I ran 3.0 miles this week, bringing my total amount of miles run to 250.7, averaging 2.39 miles per day over the last 105 days.

I’ll be seeing a sports therapist this week and hopefully he can bend and tweak whatever it is that needs attention in my leg, then back to the streets. My budget has suffered a troubling deficit but I will, one day at a time, work towards rebalancing it and then creating a surplus as we move closer to November 6, 2012, the presidential election that has stoked every ember in my heart and mind to get Barack Obama voted out of office.

1,829.3 miles to go.

Day104 Saturday 12/11/10

ran 0.1 miles
At times, more often than not, scrolling through the news of a country the size America has to print and air on a daily basis, I feel a great tedium, a general lack, and an overall inability towards everything, to be specific. I think a lot of people have an intuitive feeling that either something good is gone or that something bad is coming. It is difficult, though, to articulate what exactly burdens each and every man and woman in this country when our leader is such a seasonal conformist to political weather. If it’s hot then find some shade; if it’s cold then light a fire. It’s not so simple, as November 2 has made abundantly clear.

I chose to not even look at the news or to read articles today because they are as informative and productive as staring at the hour and minute hand on a clock; you will never see either move, yet time passes far faster than we can even comprehend.

We all naturally, and with every right, focus on our own lives; our spouse’s needs; our children’s needs---but an immense obligation rests upon the shoulders of everyone, regardless of circumstance, prosperity or disparity, to keep this country the amazing, fortuitous, opportune, free, benevolent, unified, fair, just, democracy that it was meant to be.

For Barack Obama there is no compass to sense his direction. If November 2 had favored his agenda then he would be implementing incomprehensible “Change” to this country, which I and like-minded others would abhor as unconstitutional. But, because November 2 was such a victory, he is now, finally, acting like a president who is actually making some effort, if only little, to make decisions that actually make sense.

With that being said, by the time November 6, 2012 arrives and we hopefully elect a new president, I would like to implore you to remember two years before, which would be right now, that this president not only intended to turn your interpretation of America upside-down but, when confronted with the reality of American voters on November 2, recanted on what he believed in so passionately and conformed to what would get him re-elected.

What is worse? The leader of the most prosperous nation in the world attempting to destroy prosperity or a leader who halfway through, wreaking as much destruction as he could muster, all of a sudden decides that maybe the American people were right and that maybe he sort of does not deserve to be president because he has no experience worth mentioning besides being a Senator briefly and a Community Planner.

What I fear most, and I think you may agree, is the simple fact that he got elected to begin with, among such a populous that vehemently disagrees with his actions. If nothing else, his achievement of actually becoming President of the United States of America reflects a sleepy side to all of us that needs to wake up.

1,829.3 miles to go.

Day103 Friday 12/10/10

ran 0.0 miles
  • Idaho was the forty-third state to join the union on July 3, 1890, seven days before Wyoming and one year after Washington.
  • Population, as of 2009, is 1,545,801.
  • Senators are Mike Crapo (R) and James E. Risch (R).
  • Representatives are Walter Minnick (D) and Michael Simpson (R).
  • Idaho has four electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted for republican presidential candidates since 1952, except for the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964.
Reading news about the goings-on everyday in our nation’s capitol is one of the most counter-intuitive and taxing excesses I’ve ever pursued. While I can’t claim that I’m not somewhat entertained by many of the random congressional “Space Cadets” that step onto soapboxes as if they were starships, I can’t help but wish they would just shut up and quit behaving like children in a schoolyard quarreling over the ownership of a candy bar that belongs to America.

1,829.4 miles to go.

Day102 Thursday 12/09/10

ran 1.9 miles
  • Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating reflects that 27% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of President Obama’s performance and 41% strongly disapprove, making an Approval Index rating of –14 compared to –17 on this day last week.
  • Overall, 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president and 54% disapprove.
  • Only 26% of American voters feel the country is generally heading in the right direction.
  • For all the stories we hear in the news about Christmas trees being prohibited from the lobbies of businesses and “Happy Holidays” taking the place of “Merry Christmas”, here is an interesting statistic: 92% of Americans say they celebrate Christmas in their family and only 6% do not. If 6% of the people in America wanted to ban the phrase “God bless you” from being stated after anyone in America sneezed, would Congress legislate that? Would businesses threaten their employees with immediate termination if they were to say it because 6% of people in America wanted it that way?
Continuing to inundate headlines and amass indecision, the House of Representatives cannot seem to find a middle ground in which everyone can equally set aside their egos and do something useful concerning the Bush tax cuts. They are set to expire at the end of this year and a decision has to be made. First, Obama and his democrats were driven to end these tax cuts for every family making $250,000 or more, without compromise. Then, on November 2, America united together and spoke loudly showing Barack Obama that we were not interested in his plan to deconstruct our country and indebt our children and grandchildren. Now, Barack Obama wants to recant on his promise to end the Bush tax cuts, letting down all of the people who voted for him, and renew them for another two years, even to the highest earners in America. And, today, his democratic gears in the House of Representatives went against his wishes and did not sign the bill laid before them. In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, democrats chanted “Just say no” regarding the president’s intention to continue the tax cuts.

Barack Obama currently faces a nation divided, with a greater number of people who do not believe in him or his ideas, a House of Representatives whose democratic lawmakers are behaving mutinously against what he is attempting to do to save some face in the eyes of American voters, and he will soon face a surge of newly sworn in conservative lawmakers, some who were highly driven Tea party candidates elected with a demanding obligation to make some real change in Washington.

The communal wall that separates politicians and their unexplainable motives from American voters and their just wishes is currently Barack Obama’s greatest bone of contention.

1.829.4 miles to go.

Day101 Wednesday 12/08/10

ran 1.0 miles
  • “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
  • “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
Thomas Jefferson
  • “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government---lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
Patrick Henry

Some of the decisions made in Washington this week stand as a monumental victory of American people over Barack Obama and radical liberal ideas. President Obama’s decision to extend the Bush tax cuts to everyone, including the wealthy is a really big deal! His pledge to end these tax cuts during his campaign were one of the most important pledges he had made to those who had voted for him. Not only has he blatantly let down the men and women who elected him, but he has also made a critical decision to do exactly what he, his democratic counterparts, and his voters did not want. He was forced to make this decision because of the votes Americans cast on November 2. We won, America. Barack Obama’s agenda was compromised because we stood up and voted against him. For him to pursue the direction he genuinely wants to follow, at this point, would be political suicide, and he knows that. There is no other reason he would do something so drastically logical and good for America like extending the tax cuts.

President Obama referred to the Republican House as terrorists who were holding…I’m not sure who they were holding; he did not specify---maybe Democrats or Americans, at large, as hostages. What an insensitive comment to make and a weak judgment to pass! If the president held any of the self-evident values of our Constitution as esteemed principles he would understand that our country and our politics are centered on a system of checks and balances. It has been made clear that America does not want what Obama is peddling and, ultimately, he has just been checked. Now he is licking his wounds and trying to find the balance. Was his sole credential, besides briefly being a senator, a job as a community planner or a community blamer?

This one fact demands stating. If it were not for an involved and proud nation of voters who are free to vote and free to express their opinions, and had this nation not exercised their freedoms and expressed their opinions on November 2, Barack Obama would be taking a very different direction than what he is being pulled by his ear to do right now.

1,831.3 miles to go.

Day100 Tuesday 12/07/10

ran 0.0 miles
On this day in history in 1941, Japanese dive bombers descended upon Pearl Harbor’s naval base on the shores of Oahu. The surprise attack of 360 warplanes bearing the symbol of the “Rising Sun of Japan” was a devastating blow against America, which drew our nation into World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors had suspected the attack was highly probable, but no action was taken to increase security or to anticipate the threat. At 7:02 a.m., two radio operators spotted large groups of aircraft advancing toward the island. It was assumed these incoming planes were friendly B-17s expected from the United States, so no alarms were sounded. The Japanese had a full element of surprise.

Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged. More than 200 American aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded while bravely responding to the attack.

The day after Pearl Harbor was attacked, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared December 7, 1941, as “A date which will live in infamy.” He requested Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for the war by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives signed the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The one dissenter was Representative Jeanette Rankin of Montana, an ardent pacifist who had also disapproved of America’s entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States.

Thank you for your bravery and your sacrifices, all veterans and active members of the United States military, for all you have done and continue to do to preserve freedom and to fight for America.

1,832.3 miles to go. I saw my doctor today and he informed me that nothing too serious seemed to be wrong with my knee or calf. He thinks I probably strained my calf muscle and only time can heal that. My leg feels better each day and I will be back to running soon. I definitely have some catching up to do!

Day99 Monday 12/06/10

ran 0.0 miles
Something you may not know…Congress agreed to extend unemployment benefits for another thirteen months. On the surface, that sounds humanitarian and every bit like a giving gesture any government should be obligated to do for its people, but if you happened to be collecting these benefits for the past two or three years, with no disabilities to claim, I’m sure the decision made today must be similar to the feeling a working man or woman has when he or she works everyday and gets a raise or a pat on the back, only it’s different, because a lot of people or content to do nothing but collect from the government---and, statistically, these are people who vote for liberal ideas.

I like to do things. I like to set personal goals and to achieve things. I like to be challenged. I appreciate what I earn and the thing I like least is to ask other people or my government for help. Unemployment checks are a useful commodity for any man, woman or family who is facing adversity for a patch of time, but to grow rooted to the soil of the government and the idle nutrients it supplements some people with, for years, is more of a crime than a charity.
In the spirit of not simply complaining, but presenting a solution, too, I propose a deadline and a set of contingencies for these unemployment benefits to expire. As the deadline nears and some certain mouths refuse to stop sucking upon the teat of the government, present drug tests and more stringently documented efforts of attempting to seek employment. If a person cannot meet the minimal demands of being a contributing member of society then they do not deserve our tax money. And if genuine effort is made to contribute to society but opportunity is simply unavailable, no judgment should be held over any man’s or woman’s head, and they should be able to receive every bit of aid they need until they do find an opportunity.

I am trying to tiptoe over strewn eggshells that, obviously, no politicians want to address with any real sense of validity. It is a sensitive topic but I think this one fact speaks for itself: Long time recipients of welfare or unemployment checks do not, statistically, vote for Republicans. That being said, conservative ideas are not insensitive to certain voters, they are designed with the intention to motivate Americans to succeed and to not sit idly by.

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day98 Sunday 12/05/10

ran 0.0 miles
Today marks fourteen weeks. I am really bummed about not being able to run this past week but all I can do is take it one day at a time. Especially on the eve of making one hundred continuous days of running, something unexpected like this is disappointing but there is no use in dwelling on events that are out of my control. I actually have a stat for this week. The last day I ran was Monday and I decided that if my leg still hurt after that then I would stop running and make an appointment with a doctor. I am seeing the doctor on Tuesday and my leg does not seem to be feeling much better, so I am eager to get closure on what exactly the injury is. This week, or on Monday alone, I ran 2.7 miles, bringing my total amount of miles run to 247.7, averaging 2.53 miles per day over the past ninety-eight days.

Check back on Tuesday and I’ll post about what my doctor has to say.

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day97 Saturday 12/04/10

ran 0.0 miles
I’m in New Orleans for the weekend with my wife and her family and it is absolutely beautiful; sunny, cold (the way December should be), and teeming with Christmas shoppers. We checked out the shops on Magazine Street, saw the Christmas lights at City Park, got snowed on at Harrah’s, and ate some awesome food (Café Maspero was my favorite).

However, there are a couple of curious things I saw here. One was a homeless man who walked up to us and asked, “Do you have any change because Obama doesn’t have any?”

The other thing I saw was Christmas trees…everywhere; the nerve of some people to impose such a symbol on others. They were in homes, in businesses, in front of buildings, and two that I saw were even ninety or a hundred feet tall. Real trees, artificial trees, white trees, green trees, red trees---they were everywhere scaring and intimidating people back into their homes.

Back to the homeless man, his appearance drew pity and I avoided even beginning to think of what the cold night still held for his suffering, but I found his approach to begging to be both a clever pun and representative of America’s sentiment towards Barack Obama and just how deceiving his entire campaign was. Even this desperate, homeless man was convinced two years ago that Obama’s change was going to trickle down into his own tin cup.

Back to the trees; those colorful, ornamented and glowing trees of religious oppression and intimidation, with their popcorn strings and candy canes, that so many malevolent Americans maliciously cut down and put in their houses and businesses for the sole purpose of continuing a beautiful tradition of peace, harmony, prayer, thankfulness, appreciation, gift-giving, and a holiday that illuminates every child’s imagination more than any other day of the year, while making the hearts of adults, even the angriest grinch’s, every once in a while, glow as a reminder of why we are all really here.

See what just happened there? I switched it up on you to place emphasis on how ridiculous this “Christmas tree” debacle and “Merry Christmas” ban in America has become. What ties this whole post together is some news I came across today out of Southlake, northeast of Fort Worth, Texas, in which a branch of Chase Bank was forced to remove a Christmas tree that was donated by a friend of the branch manager. The artificial tree was assembled and decorated on the Monday before Thanksgiving and taken down one day later. Some complaints were filed by customers of the bank apparently leaving Chase Bank with no choice but to remove the offensive monstrosity of age-old American culture.

Happy Holidays!

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day96 Friday 12/03/10

ran 0.0 miles
  • Hawaii was the final state to join the union on August 21, 1959, seven months after Alaska.
  • Population, as of 2009, is 1,295,178.
  • Senators are Daniel K. Akaka (D) and Daniel K. Inouye (D).
  • Representatives are Charles Djou (R) and Mazie Hirono (D).
  • Hawaii has four electoral votes. Historically, the state has been blue since 1960 excluding the 1972 and 1984 elections (Nixon and Reagan). Hawaii is also the state Barack Obama was born in, which was a great source of speculation and controversy in his first year as president regarding the proper documentation to prove his birthplace.
It’s been two years since Obama has been in office and numbers that should be high are low and statistics that should be low are high. Unemployment is up to 9.8%. Debt is festering like an infected wound. Everything this man, our president, campaigned on was unrealistic.

The tide is rising and drowning Barack Obama’s credibility. I follow just enough news to keep my brain from taking on the form of peanut butter, and my mind is still tacit enough to point out that what is happening with his presidency is very interesting and equally predictable. The majority of people in this country are against the big decisions he’s made. What American people do want is what he does not want. Barack Obama is now faced with the difficult decision of swallowing his pride and letting conservative direction make a success of his presidency or to further push his agenda, which is inundated with statistics in all the wrong places.

Amidst all the crises roiling the United States, Obama made a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan today. Bravo on the gesture, but in what reality does it make any sense for our president to be jumping all over the globe in the span of one single month, after a midterm election that rejected his policies, when he is needed so urgently here? His actions over the past month suggest that foreign affairs are more important than the problems weighing on American soil.

1,832.3 miles to go. Today is the fourth day I haven’t run. It is disappointing, but I am going to see a doctor on Tuesday to figure out what is wrong with my leg.

Day95 Thursday 12/02/10

ran 0.0 miles
  • Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval poll indicates that 22% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 39% strongly disapprove, equaling an Approval Index rating of –17 compared to –14 on this day last week.
  • Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president and 54% disapprove.
  • In November, 36% of American voters identified themselves as Republicans, 34.7% considered themselves Democrats, and 29.3% were not affiliated with either party. This is the largest number of conservative voters since February 2005. Only two years ago, Republicans stood at a meager 33.8% and Democrats towered above them at 41.4%.
Following the endless news of each day is both taxing on time and nearly not worth it. It is usually not my interest to allow something so trivial as the posturing and flexing of politicians and the lofty clouds their heads float upon to steal my time away, but Barack Obama is sort of a big deal. And I don’t mean that in a good way. Politics, as a whole, if you view it in broad strides and not under a day-to-day microscope, are a predictable loop of push and pull that most often end in a somewhat functional manner of governing; Americans get to be Americans and politicians get to be politicians. But every once in a while, Jimmy Carter was the last one, someone comes along after one of the two primary parties have been in power for too long, and they are granted the opportunity, through voter discontentment due to politicians getting carried away with the inestimable powers they have, to get away with doing something drastic. The stars aligned for Barack Obama in 2008. Bush averted his eyes to critical matters that have contributed much to our current economic state, leaving Obama with a lot of maneuverability to push any agenda he chose. Obama came, he saw, he shined, he was elected, and now he is becoming the product of what American history repeats cyclically. I firmly believe Barack Obama’s greatest purpose in American history will be to squeeze a hero, like a diamond out of a lump of coal, into the 2012 presidency; a candidate who will be every bit as significant and heralded as Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter.

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day94 Wednesday 12/01/10

ran 0.0 miles
On Wednesdays, I usually post a few quotes from American leaders, writers, or artists, from the past or present, which strike my American heartstrings and force goose bumps to the surface of my skin. But on this particular day, one man who stood alone and said something so definitively reflective of American’s sentiments across the country deserves the spotlight by himself.

Indiana Representative Steve Buyer is the man of the day who stood before his peers and told Nancy Pelosi, “This is why the American people have thrown you out of power,” when refused the request to speak for five minutes to debate certain legislation being passed in Chamber. He then patiently requested to speak for one single minute. Pelosi continued to refuse his simple request, which was completely tyrannical and unconstitutional, and then he absolutely blasted her.

This was the scenario---Congress is currently in its “Lame duck” session and Barack Obama and his liberal proponents are trying to utilize all of the votes they still have to pass bills they fear will not stand a chance once the new Congress is sworn in. Not only are democrats on the verge of losing a large number of chairs they needed to pursue their agenda, which we Americans voted out, but they are about to be replaced with senators and representatives we voted for who will not be so easily persuaded to align with the liberal agenda. Many of these new senators and representatives are going to forego persuasion and downright buck Barack Obama, and that is why every bill you are hearing about in the news right now is extremely questionable. They would not stand even remotely in their current written forms once the “Lame duck” session ceases and the votes that were cast on November 2 become a reality.

1,832.3 miles to go.