Day610 Monday 04/30/12

20 Months Of Running Against Obama!!! 

ran 3.9 miles

Our president is on the campaign trail "spiking the football" once again for reaching Osama Bin Laden's end zone around this time last year.  He is claiming that Mitt Romney would not have "pulled the trigger" on Osama.  I really didn't feel like wasting the energy to examine what exactly it was that he had said or in what context he had put it in because the fact that this is the direction he is going with his campaign at this point reflects how desperate and incapable of utilizing his record is for reelection.  Of all the legislation that has passed and out of all the events that have transpired over his presidential term, which is getting closer and closer to four entire years, the best idea Barack Obama has at this point is to remind us all that Osama Bin Laden was killed during his presidency and to merely speculate that, hypothetically, Mitt Romney would not have given the order.  I don't see the objective but I do see the desperation.

Coincidentally, here is a list of nine more things Herman Cain itemized yesterday that Barack Obama did, which Mitt Romney would also not have done:

• Mitt Romney would never have thrown $862 billion down a rat hole, claiming it to be “economic stimulus” that would keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent. Then, three years later when unemployment was still struggling to get back down below 8 percent, he would never be so brazen as to claim such a move had actually been successful.

• Mitt Romney would never have signed Obamacare into law. I know some think otherwise because the plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts had some similar elements. But Obamacare was sold to the public with blatantly dishonest numbers and hidden taxes, and rammed through Congress via a series of political giveaways that would embarrass the most shameless of con artists. Whatever your disagreements with the structure of Masscare, Romney would never have done any of that. And if an Obamacare repeal reaches Romney’s desk, he will sign it.

• Mitt Romney would never have exploded the deficit to more than $1 trillion a year, then allowed his Treasury secretary to tell the chairman of the House Budget Committee, regarding plans to fix the problem, “We don’t have a definitive solution, but we know we don’t like yours.”

• Mitt Romney would not be running around claiming that businesses need to pay more in taxes. He would not try to tell CEOs what to do with their cash reserves (although he could do so much more competently than Obama, since unlike the president he actually knows a lot about business), because he knows that is not the president’s job. He understands that businesses are the ones who create jobs, and the last thing we need when the economy is struggling to create jobs is to increase the tax burden on businesses.

• Mitt Romney would not attack people for being successful. He would not encourage the middle class to resent successful people, but instead would encourage them to learn from those who have been successful and to seek opportunities from them.

• Mitt Romney would never have promised the Russians he would give them what they want on missile defense as soon as he didn’t have to worry about those pesky voters anymore.

• Mitt Romney would never have stonewalled efforts to make crucial energy supplies available to Americans, as Obama has done on everything from the Keystone XL pipeline to the opening of domestic oil supplies in offshore locations and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

• Mitt Romney would never have let Congress get away with not passing a budget at all for three years, while running up the nation’s credit card at unprecedented levels through a series of continuing resolutions that escape the light of public scrutiny.

• Mitt Romney would never have blamed someone else for the continued impact of problems he was elected to fix – as Obama does endlessly.

199.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day245.

 

Day609 Sunday 04/29/12

ran 0.1 miles

Today ends week eighty-seven of running against Obama.  I ran 19.0 miles this week, averaging 2.71 miles per day.

Our president making jokes about eating dog while growing up in Indonesia and completely missing the most impressionable years of his life not in America.  This guy is doing everything but campaigning on his record and the results they have failed to produce.  Every maneuver he makes stinks of desperation and it is absolutely bewildering that half of this country backs him up.  There is a lot of "conspiracy theory" out there suggesting that our president does not have America's best interest at hand.  I would ask you to take inventory of the last four years and to see where this country is now and where it was four years ago.  Right now, America is divided right up the middle.  Barack Obama has this country at odds with itself and that is exactly what he wants.  

Let's put that number into perspective.  That means, regardless of what side of the fence you stand on, one out of every two people you know or cross in the street,  fundamentally disagrees with you.  They disapprove of the way you think and the way you function.  This is not healthy for a nation and our president injected this ailment into our collective vein.

203.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day244.    

Day608 Saturday 04/28/12

ran 1.4 miles

You may not know this, but President Obama's State Department is giving (yes, giving!) away seven "strategic, resource-laden" Alaskan islands to Russia.  The Russians will also be given tens of thousands of square miles of surrounding oil-rich seabed.  According to the Department of Interior, estimates of barrels of oil are in the billions.

Posing as a simple maritime boundary agreement between Alaska and Siberia, in which our federal government put the islands on Russia's side, the state of Alaska was not allowed an opinion in the matter and Alaska's people were not permitted to comment.

(Source)---thanks for the link, Betty!

203.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day243.

Day607 Friday 04/27/12

ran 3.1 miles

Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Obama 47%, Romney 46%, third party candidate 4%, undecided 3%

• Barack Obama's presidential approval index is -13

• Florida: Romney 46%, Obama 45%

• Virginia: Romney 45%, Obama 44%

• 29% say U.S. heading in right direction

204.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day242.

Day606 Thursday 04/26/12

ran 3.6 miles

Governor Jesse Ventura said it best when he made the analogy "Politics in America today are identical to pro wrestling.  And what I mean by that is in front of the cameras and the public we all hate each other...yet behind the scenes we are all friends going out to dinner together...Democrats and Republicans aren't really opposed to one another."

I think in an underhanded sort of way he is basically calling you and me stupid, gullible, ignorant, and so distanced from reality that we actually think we can make a difference with merely a single vote.  I completely agree with Governor Ventura's assessment of calling it for what it is, but all we, as average Americans, walk away with is a sense of "hmmm, that's a good analogy and it makes perfect sense in an upside-down sort of way, but that's just politics".

We all go on thinking only of the tasks for tomorrow with no sense of consequence for the larger horizon before us that keeps getting closer and closer.  

Things only feel normal right now.  Our senses and perceptions are massaged with information that have a placebo effect on the temperament of our rationale.  In simple terms, if the United States of America was geographically constructed in the shape of a human body, China would own an entire arm right up to the shoulder and they would have invested interests in some of the more important vital organs like the heart and kidney of America.  They would want to drill the mind of America.  And what is so ironic about how helpful China is to our debt woes is the fact that they are the international beacon of Communism.  They are the paradigm of everything we have fought to defend from America.  But we are figuratively selling American limbs and organs to them just so we can keep our necks above our sea of debt.

I'm not excited about Romney because this election will be as premanufactured as a wrestling bout between John Cena and Triple H.  And because of that, I feel gypped, but that is why I write this blog and run these miles.  I simply want something real that no government could ever possibly deliver.  I want them to leave me alone and to show others how valuable being left alone and not reliant on the government is.

But, if that were to happen their power to control would cease to exist.  Their purpose would be devalued and their egos deflated.  Their statures would crumble and their strength would diminish.  Americans and the small businesses and corporations that employ them could could call the government's bluff.  Maybe one day.  The first step is getting Barack Hussein Obama out of the Oval Office.

207.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day241.

      

Day605 Wednesday 04/25/12

ran 4.2 miles

Marine Sgt. Gary Stein was recently discharged from the Marine Corps for expressing criticism of President Barack Obama on Facebook (this is his page: Armed Forces Tea Party). Interpret the discharge for yourself, but here is yet another pathetic example of double standards I can’t pass up.  Military men and women take an oath and accept that they sacrifice a large amount of their freedom of speech when they enter a branch of the military.  They are not reserved the right to question their superior’s orders, all the way up the POTUS, or to criticize them in a public forum. 

Imagine a scenario where a sergeant, major, or general gives a command and one of his or her troops says something to the effect of “Are you sure?  Is that really what we should be doing?”  This sort of action does not happen on the battlefield and it is not accepted in the political arena, either.  I can see how Sergeant Stein's actions are questionable but I commend him for them, and this is the reason why. What incenses me is the double standard that exists between how black and white it is for military men and women to do as their told without question based upon an oath to serve their country in comparison to how gray and murky our Constitution’s interpretation has become to our political leaders.

Gary Stein is being discharged for arguably using his freedom of speech while President Barack Obama blatantly discards the Constitution that he took an oath to defend.  Sergeant Stein is being discharged while Barack Obama gets away with impeachable actions.

The only example necessary is our president's military involvement in Libya without the approval of Congress.  The Constitution clearly states that war acts have to be approved by Congress and our president completely usurped this law and issued an executive order.  Furthermore, as Syria continues to become worse and worse of a situation, Leon Panetta sits in front of Congress informing them that when he, the president, and United Nations reach a decision they will inform the Senate on what action they will take regarding Syria. 

This is unconstitutional!

If Gary Stein can be discharged for expressing and documenting how terrible of a job he thinks President Barack Obama is doing, then President Barack Obama should be impeached for walking all over the Constitution, which he swore to defend every fiber of, when he is clearly breaking his own oath.

211.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day240.

Day604 Tuesday 04/24/12

ran 3.1 miles

"It’s still about the economy…and we’re not stupid."

Here are some excerpts from the AntiObama after 43 primaries and caucuses, which have led him through a rather straight path to the official Republican nomination.  The one main question Romney wants voters to ask themselves is, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"

"Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less."

"Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements…and rightly so. But because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now. It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid."

"I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents - some successful even beyond their wildest dreams – and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.

This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.

In the America I see, character and choices matter. And education, hard work, and living within our means are valued and rewarded. And poverty will be defeated, not with a government check, but with respect and achievement that is taught by parents, learned in school, and practiced in the workplace.

This is the America that was won for us by the nation’s Founders, and earned for us by the Greatest Generation. It is the America that has produced the most innovative, most productive, and most powerful economy in the world, with one of the highest standards of living of any major nation. …"

I'm not entirely thrilled by Romney but I am absolutely devastated by Obama. And if it is Mitt Romney's intention to undo the damage done by Barack Obama then that is enough for me. Whether those intentions and talking points will actually bear action in the future remains to be seen, but they are a far less dangerous gamble than handing Barack Obama four more years with no electorate to answer to.

(Source)

215.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day239.

Day603 Monday 04/23/12

ran 3.5 miles 

Few messages are as succinct and powerful as the one in the video above. It usually requires a brilliant 300-page novel or a well-directed 2-hour long movie to build up to a climax in the last few moments that can compare with what this 4 minute and 39 second video achieves in each frame.

Take a look and judge for yourself. 

218.8 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day238.

Day602 Sunday 04/22/12

ran 1.8 miles

Today ends week eighty-six of running against Obama.  I ran 24.9 miles this week, averaging 3.56 miles per day.

222.3 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day237.

Day601 Saturday 04/21/12

ran 3.1 miles 
Allen West, people. Remember the name. He has achieved more for the future of America through his words over the last week than our president has through his actions over the last three years and four months. 

224.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day236.

Day600 Friday 04/20/12

600 DAYS!!!

ran 3.7 miles

Today is a big milestone and I'd like to take this opportunity to restate exactly why I have run an average of 3.09 miles per day for the last 600 days.  I run these miles because they represent something I earn by working hard and because they are a product of my hard work that cannot be taken away from me.  These miles are a sort of nontaxable currency that purchase a unique sense of freedom and liberty that our government is incapable of administrating.  This sense of freedom and liberty I am describing stands on the pillars of individual accountability and a government that governs least as possible.

No president can divide the miles I run or the desire I have to achieve my goals by various others’ desire to accept mediocrity or even failure as an American way of life; open mouths reliant on the government's teat---our current president relies on the determination of many to pay for the shortcomings of many others.  This he calls “paying one’s fair share".  Our president is determined to convince the people he leads that they are somehow entitled to the rewards others have earned. 

I run because it is the one thing I thought of to do that Congress could not regulate or limit.  They cannot tell me how, when, or where to run my miles.  No federal government can tax or redistribute my miles.  No IRS can audit or seize my miles.  No government regulatory agency can minimize or maximize the amount of miles I want to run or the amount of days I choose to run them.

I think this is what freedom and liberty were intended to feel like and no one can give you these two items but yourself.  No government can legislate freedom and liberty.  They can take it away, but they cannot convene on how to distribute it.  Freedom and liberty must be earned individual by individual, on their own merits. 

Thank you for following this blog over the last 600 days!

227.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day235.

Day599 Thursday 04/19/12

ran 3.3 miles

On this day in 1775, 700 British troops marched into Lexington on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and to seize their arsenal.  What they found was 77 armed minutemen led by Captain John Parker awaiting them in the city.  British Major John Pitcairn ordered the highly outnumbered Patriots to fall back.  After a brief hesitation, the minutemen began falling back until one unknown soldier took it upon himself to fire his gun toward the British.  This became known in history books as the “shot heard around the world”.  Within seconds, musket smoke blotted the battlefield.  By the end of the battle 8 minutemen were dead and 10 were wounded.  One British soldier was injured.

Then came Concord.  The British aimed to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock.  Warned by Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British were coming Adams and Hancock fled and were able to escape. 

When the British troops reached Concord they were encircled by hundreds of armed Patriots.  A battle ensued forcing Lieutenant Colonel Frances Smith to pull his British troops away and to retreat back to Boston.  Retracing a 16-mile journey, the British were constantly fired upon by Patriots waiting for them in hiding along the path of retreat.  Finally reaching Boston, the British had nearly 300 casualties and the Patriots had less than 100.

The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolution, which ultimately gave birth to the United States of America.

I wonder what these brave, rugged individuals who fought and died for the opportunity to embrace freedom and to escape the tyranny of overbearing government would think of America today.

230.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day234.

Day598 Wednesday 04/18/12

$5,027,761,476,484.56

ran 4.0 miles

The number above is a recent snapshot of ever-increasing national debt added by Barack Obama.  Having served less than one term, our current president holds the title of first American president to lead the federal government’s national debt into an increase of more than $5 trillion dollars.  Every other president in American history has done less damage with two full terms. 

“At the close of business on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the federal government’s debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the U.S. Treasury. By the close of business on April 16, 2012—as many Americans were working to finalize their 2011 tax returns to meet an April 17 filing deadline—the debt had reached $15,654,638,525,397.64."

CNSNews, Terence P. Jeffrey

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 313,385,295 people live in the United States. With that population, each one of us owes $16,043.39. 

(Source)

234.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day233.

Day597 Tuesday 04/17/12

ran 4.6 miles 

Not going to lower the price of gas overnight? This trumped up measure will make no difference at all. Presidents make this speech every single year---tightening the screws on speculators and increasing punishments for foul play, policing the system more diligently---blah, blah, blah. Our president does not want low gas prices. Any hint of low prices at the pumps directly takes away from Barack Obama's momentum to explore alternative energy sources with the vigor and lack of all restraint he desires for wasting as many tax dollars as he can in investments to that sector. It amazes me how a president of the United States of America can stand behind a podium in front of so many Americans and say so many words that serve so little purpose. 

238.2 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day232.

Day596 Monday 04/16/12

ran 4.4 miles

The Buffett Rule, a Democratic move to force a 30% tax rate on all households earning more than $1 million per year, failed to pass in the Senate today. For the legislation to pass it required sixty votes to end debate but only garnered fifty-one votes. 

Laws with this much gravity are not going to be passed this close to the election and the vote was nothing more than posturing and pointing fingers among Republicans and Democrats. Both sides walk away from the Senate vote with talking points to campaign on for their upcoming re-election races and Barack Obama now has on record another account proving that Republicans would rather have you drinking dirty water and breathing dirty air. He will argue that Republicans mistreat women and the elderly; that they care little for your wellbeing. He will cast them as generally greedy, heartless, Constitutional fanatics who cling to their guns and religion---among many other outlandish claims, which serve no real purpose other than to earn votes from utterly uninformed individuals.

242.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day231.

Day595 Sunday 04/15/12

ran 3.3 miles

Today ends week eighty-five of running against Obama.  I ran 21.7 miles this week, averaging 3.1 miles per day.

Here is something to keep your eye on.  As the election gets closer and the time arrives for Romney to pick his Veep, it will be interesting to see if he chooses Marco Rubio.  Rubio is a top candidate for the job and he would bring a strong Hispanic vote to the Republican party, but, according to our Constitution, he is by definition unqualified.  Small hurdles like this do not usually stop Washington, though.

Marco Rubio 's parents, Mario and Oriales Rubio did not become naturalized American citizens until four years after Marco Rubio was born.  President and Vice President are the only two offices in America that require an elected official's parents to both be legal U.S. citizens at the time of that elected official's birth.  

If Romney were to pick Rubio it would be yet another section of our Constitution shredded to pieces, but it would also be a brilliant move in this political chess match.  Could Democrats conceive a way to call out Rubio on eligibility regarding his parents' citizenship while supporting a president like Barack Obama who clearly has some eligibility controversies of his own?

247.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day230.

Day594 Saturday 04/14/12

ran 3.2 miles

It was in February of last year that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin became a household name to represent the message of conservatives across the country.  This man shrugged union intimidation and liberal numbers from every corner of America.  He pressed his shoulder to the wheel and drove the economic reform he campaigned on to bring the state of Wisconsin closer to a budget that could breathe above the surface of deficit.  He succeeded.

For this, he is forced into a recall election.  Those who signed the petition to have him recalled would argue that he is robbing them of their pensions, their health care, and the promises that were made to them.  I, and many others like me, would argue that he is slowly decompressing a rupturing bubble in Wisconsin that will inevitably pop, sooner rather than later, to avoid the catastrophe of not facing the ugly economic truth before Wisconsin, and so many other states.

250.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day229.

Day593 Friday 04/13/12

ran 3.5 miles

Stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -17.

• Overall, 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 51% at least somewhat disapprove.

• On economic issues, 49% of voters trust Romney while 39% trust Obama.

• In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, Romney earns 48% and Obama attracts 44%.

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 45%, Democrats 40%

253.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day228.

Day592 Thursday 04/12/12

ran 3.7 miles 

"Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult." 

Ben Bernanke addressing Budget Committee earlier this week 

(Source)

Raising taxes on every household that makes $250,000 or more per year, then exponentially raising that tax rate for millionaires and billionaires is not going to solve our problems. The money would go to the federal government, which has already proven that they would run out of sand within five years if they were given control of the Sahara Desert. It would put a band-aid on the widest fracture of the debt dam but it ultimately serves no purpose. You can not put into words or even draw a picture of what $15, $16, or $17 trillion of debt looks like. Give Barack Obama another term and maybe you will have better luck with what $24, $25, or $26 trillion of debt looks like. 

I'm not sure what the solution is but I know introducing nationalized health care at a time like this is a proverbial nail in a coffin that has already been sunk three quarters of the way (just waiting on the Supreme Court). 

257.2 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day227.

Day591 Wednesday 04/11/12

ran 3.6 miles 

This is what we are up against. These are members of the "Occupy" movement that are widely supported by Liberals and have been encouraged by Barack Obama. The individual engaging the Anarchist and Communist "Occupy" camp in the video above is named Vladimir and he spent the first twenty-nine years of his life in the U.S.S.R and has lived in America for the last twenty-three years. This guy knows a thing or two about Socialism and effortlessly explains why it is a bad idea.

260.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day226.

Day590 Tuesday 04/10/12

ran 3.5 miles

"So these investments -- in things like education and research and health care -- they haven't been made as some grand scheme to redistribute wealth from one group to another.  This is not some socialist dream."

Barack Obama, 2012

"I’m gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5 percent of the folks who are doing very well – even though they’ve been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they’re paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts...I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."

Barack Obama, 2008

(Source)

In 2012 our president acknowledges that redistributing wealth from one group to another is a "socialist dream", but in 2008 he proposed the idea without acknowledging it was a concept straight out of Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto".  I think, in not so many words, he has just insulted the American people once again by calling us stupid.

I've mentioned this in many past posts and I will mention it in many more in the future.  Remember the midterm elections?  On November 2, 2010, Obama, in his own words, got "shellacked".  Republicans claimed the House and nearly took the Senate, all as a result of voting out as many Congressmen and women who aligned with Obama on the two hot topics of that time.

ObamaCare and the stimulus package.  These two pieces of legislation were so disappointing that it cost Barack Obama the numbers he needed to continue deconstructing America through piling on incomprehensible amounts of debt.  So the question is, what has changed?  Our president's power was chopped in half and since then all he has done is present the same alleged solutions that are exactly what got he and his party shellacked in 2010.  His argument is that he has a "do nothing" Congress but I would argue that they are doing exactly what the people who elected asked of them.  Namely, stop spending.  Most of the goals on Obama's path come at the cost of redistributing wealth or running up our national debt.  That is not progress and his spots have not changed since November 2, 2010.

The global economy is in a tailspin and our president regrets not having spent more on stimulus and he is currently awaiting a verdict from the Supreme Court on whether ObamaCare is constitutional or not.  Something as expensive as Obama's health care law could not come at a worse time and a substantial majority of Americans don't even want it.  Something that big with such division among Americans speaks for itself as a bad idea.

264.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day225.

Day589 Monday 04/09/12

ran 0.9 miles

 O'Keefe strikes again!  

While Attorney General Eric Holder ignores how much of an injustice and a threat voter fraud is, O'Keefe comes through big once again showing that even Holder's vote can be claimed by anyone regardless of what state they live in or what identity they presume.

"There is no statistical proof that voter fraud is a big concern in this country."

Eric Holder

Here is your statistical proof, Mr. Holder.

This is James O'Keefe's website, ProjectVeritas.com.  Preceding the Washington, D.C. video above, ProjectVeritas exploited voter fraud in the New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Vermont Republican primaries.  Soon after, Voter ID laws were passed in two of those three states.

268.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day224.

Day588 Sunday 04/08/12

ran 2.3 miles

Today ends week eighty-four of running against Obama.  I ran 22.0 miles this week, averaging 3.14 miles per day.

I think it might be about time to wipe the grins of ignorance and denial off our faces.  There is a blatant reality before us regarding Barack Obama, the 2012 election, and the long-term future of America.  The election is only seven months away, and regardless of how farfetched you may find the possibility that this guy could actually be reelected, the threat is real.

Ever just step back and really take inventory of who Barack Obama is and what these past four years have been defined by?

This guy is the shadiest, most questionable president to ever sit in the Oval Office.  If Bush, Romney, or anyone else you can think of who has served as President or ran for President, had held the associations and the concealed past our current president possesses then they would have been dragged through the coals, turned to ash, and their political aspirations would have ceased to exist.  But not Barack.

This president represents every fiber of what America's Founding Fathers despised and so adamantly planned to avoid when they wrote our founding documents.  His most recent child-like insubordination to the ultimate authority of the Supreme Court regarding ObamaCare defines exactly who he is.  Making threats to the justices, or ultimatums, is uncouth for any President of the United States of America.  But he certainly has no problem doing it.
Four more years?

268.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day223.

Day587 Saturday 04/07/12

ran 2.1 miles

271.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day222.

Day586 Friday 04/06/12

ran 3.3 miles

Short post tonight---just some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 26% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 42% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -16.

• Overall, 47% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 52% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Obama 46%, Romney 46%

• Obama 47%, Santorum 41%

• 29% say U.S. heading in right direction.

• 6% rate Congress’ job performance as good or excellent.

273.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day221.

Day585 Thursday 04/05/12

ran 3.2 miles

http://youtu.be/L4OzabHa-Do

Above is a link to a video of White House press secretary Jay Carney answering questions about what was perceived by many to be an intimidating and threatening message to the Supreme Court justices regarding the constitutionality of ObamaCare.  I would have embedded the video in the same way I have embedded videos over the past year and seven months of running against Obama, off of YouTube with no problem on any other given day, but for some peculiar reason every submission of this video I can find blocks me with the message "Embedding disabled by request".

All the more reason to click on the link above.  Somebody doesn't want you to see it.  Watching Jay Carney attempt to keep his neck above the waters of Barack Obama's actions is entertaining in and of itself.  This guy is half-decent.  Our president gives this guy a sack of rocks and tells him to knead them flat like dough and he nearly does it.  Carney takes crumpled up balls of aluminum foil and turns them into nuggets of fool's gold.

It's just fortunate for our president that the vast majority of Americans don't catch these press conferences.  They are constant reminders of just how stupid, gullible, and incapable the current administration thinks we are.

276.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day220.

    

Day584 Wednesday 04/04/12

1,800 Miles!!!

ran 4.6 miles

This map speaks for itself. 

The only thing I am going to say is that Americans in every single state have to show their driver’s license for a multitude of different reasons that serve logical purposes but, when it comes to voting, twenty states require no identification to vote.  This policy reeks of liberalism and accordingly makes absolutely no sense.  I’d venture to say that if every state did require a driver’s license, which is not that farfetched of an idea, or some sort of identification then liberalism would be forced to completely redefine its platform of ideas in order to avoid ceasing to exist.  The Democratic Party would have to employ ideas like personal responsibility, common sense, and the message that if you are an American and you are proud of it then you should be able to proudly present a form of identification in order to vote in an election in the greatest country on Earth. 

This is how Republicans think, though, and while conservatism is far more logical and enduring for the principles and the longevity of this nation, Barack Obama advocates the idea that being asked to show identification to vote for the President of the United States of America is a form of intimidation or racism.  It is a shallow puddle this man gathers his ideas from and the map above is proof of how soft this country has gotten when it has been convinced that not providing identification to vote in twenty states is acceptable.

279.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day219.

Day583 Tuesday 04/03/12

ran 3.2 miles

President Obama has been publicly inserting himself into the Supreme Court discussions regarding his Affordable Health Care Act.  Making indirect threats to the justices and imposing his influence on something that, while the origins of this law do have much to do with him, its deliberation has absolutely nothing to do with him or his opinion or his threats.  Tactless behavior for a president of the United States of America.

The mockery the justices made of ObamaCare and his individual mandate suggest the law will be overturned, but it would not at all surprise me if they ruled it constitutional.  The only reason I think it may be ruled constitutional is because so many millions of Americans who had preexisting conditions are now insured and because the age limit of Americans in their twenties who were uninsured can now stay afloat on their parents' coverage.  To overturn the mandate, which I think is the constitutional thing to do, would be devastating to those who would have that insurance ripped away from them.  Our president would blame the justices and Republican ideology for being basically heartless, but I would argue that our president anticipated this exact scenario to be the gravity to keep his unconstitutional law firmly in place.  Let's assume for argument's sake that the millions who currently have insurance who did not have it before due to ObamaCare were not entitled to it until later in the near future.  This law would be thrown out in a heartbeat.  This is the use of leverage in its most potent form. 

Our president has been inserting himself into the Supreme Court case with the argument that elected officials passed this law with a "large" majority of Congress and so it should not be overturned.  Not true. 

When it comes down to it, the Senate sneakily passed this sweeping, unconstitutional monstrosity on Christmas Eve in 2009.  Any time something gets passed in Washington on Christmas Eve, fear it.  The vote was 60-39.  While that seems like a large majority at first appearance, which is what Barack Obama is referring to, the law actually passed by one single vote (Thanks a lot, Arlen Specter).  In the case of the Affordable Health Care Act the Senate had to have 60 votes to enact the law (normally 51 votes does the job, but after Republican filibustering a vote of cloture was made, requiring a two-thirds vote for the bill to pass) .  So, ObamaCare passed by only one vote.  59-41 is one vote short.  This bill passed by the skin of its teeth.

In March of 2010, the House passed it by a vote of 219-212.  Not one single Republican voted for it and 34 Democrats voted against it.

This is not a large majority, Mr. President.  This is the dividing of a nation.  And, not that it matters, because ordinary people can't think for themselves according to D.C., but on any given day polls show that 60% to 70% of Americans do not want ObamaCare.

Coincidentally, in November of 2010, during the midterm elections Americans went to their precincts and voted out an overwhelming number of those Senators and Representatives who sided with Barack Obama, his health care law, and his stimulus package.  Yet, our president stands in front of the camera, confidently insisting that the Supreme Court will uphold his law, as though there is not a shred of doubt among him or the hundreds of millions of Americans (and illegal aliens) he leads.

284.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day218.

  

Day582 Monday 04/02/12

ran 3.3 miles

“You know, each of us is only here because somebody somewhere felt responsibility, yes to their families, but also to their fellow citizens.  Also to our country’s future.  That’s the American story.  The American story is not just about what we do on our own.  Yes, we’re rugged individualists, we expect personal responsibility and everybody out there has got to work hard and carry their weight…

…We also have always understood that we wouldn’t win the race for new jobs and businesses, and middle class security if we were just applying some ‘you’re on your own economics’…

…It’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the decade before the Great Depression.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the last decade.  We just tried this.  What they’re peddling has been tried---it did not work!”

Barack Obama speaking at a fundraiser at the University of Vermont

It’s no longer disappointing to hear such Communist rhetoric from our president compared to the disappointment that nearly half this country actually accepts and wants to adopt these ideas, which have been proven to fail over and over again in other countries across the world and throughout time. 

Whether you start with Karl Marx and the “Communist Manifesto” or dig deeper into history, big government and its appetite for unlimited power have been suffocating freedom, individuality, and everything that has defined America for nearly two and one-half centuries.

I am making the exact opposite and equal argument our president is making.  Essentially, he claims America is a failed system and that we, as a nation, need to purge our “rugged individualism” and live collectively.  We all need to pull our own weight, but no need to pull too much weight at once. 

“Look around,” he might say.  “No one else is working nearly as hard as you.  Ignore your determination.  Let your goals go.  There is no need to work this hard.  You are making the others uncomfortable.  With everyone united together and pulling their own weight, it is not necessary for you to work harder than others.  There is no real reason for you to be competitive with others.  In fact, if you don’t slow down and quit being so selfish with your talents and your perseverance I may be forced to have you psychologically examined to determine your defect.”

This is the direction we are heading in.

“You’re On Your Own Economics”---Our president says it’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked.  Did he grow up in this country?  Is he aware of our story? 

(rhetorical questions, of course---I am beyond the “birther” stuff---I don’t care whether Barack Obama was born in America or Timbuktu and his intentions for the future of America speak for themselves---there is plenty of material to make arguments against him regardless of what hospital he was born in)

America has faced some of the greatest adversities on the face of this Earth and we are here today because we are fiercely competitive and we refuse to lose.  We pay taxes to fund everything from the title of the most powerful military on the face of the planet to generously aiding those who are in hard times, and even those who, for whatever reason, absolutely refuse to contribute to society in any way.  Our tax dollars offer a teat for anyone’s sustenance, but the responsibility lies in each individual to release their lips from government codependence when the time is right.  Comparatively, a baby is weaned from its mother’s breast within a year, maybe two, on average.  Why is it that adult-aged men and women, like children who have been fooled by the teat that feeds them for far too long, continue to suck, and suck, and suck.  They are being denied the opportunity to adapt in the real world and to embrace and act upon whatever goals and dreams they may have. 

This is, in my opinion, the self-destructive societal direction President Barack Obama is steering America in.  His ideas grow more optimal with every individual who gives up and sells themselves to the notion that they are entitled to the rewards of other people’s hard work rather than earning the dignity they deserve, but policies like Obama’s discourage.

One last, separate issue to touch on---our president declared today that the Supreme Court could not legally overturn ObamaCare because he’s “confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”

It was not a strong majority, Mr. President.  However, there is a strong majority of Americans who want the law repealed.  And why all of a sudden is Congress so important?  According to our president, Congress no longer has the right to vote on war acts.  American military involvement now passes through United Nations.  Check your premise, Mr. Obama.  You cannot pick and choose principles only when they are convenient for you.

287.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day217.

Day581 Sunday 04/01/12

ran 3.1 miles

Today ends week eighty-three of running against Obama.  I ran 25.0 miles this week, averaging 3.57 miles per day.

This video won’t make you any smarter or more informed, but it is one of the most ridiculous journalist face-offs I’ve ever seen.  Regarding the Trayvon Martin case and all of the hoodie-hype surrounding it, these two guys look like they should be on the set of SNL.  Piers Morgan rightfully blasts this guy, Toure, and I think it is a perfect example of the liberal/conservative double standard that holds way too much authority in this country. 

The video gets really good at the beginning of the eleventh minute, but if you watch the whole thing listen to the message from each side and imagine if each man’s words were coming out of the other man’s mouth (role-reversal).  Piers Morgan would no longer have a job at his network and Toure would have used an excessive amount of common sense that would have left his listeners nothing more than confused.

Example:  At one point, Toure expressed to English-American Pierce, who has been in America for six years, that he had not been in America long enough to understand America and the American soul.  Now, for argument’s sake, if Toure happened to be an African, who had been in America for six years, and Pierce had told him that he was incapable of understanding America or being able to fully embrace everything this country stands for, I think it is safe to say he would have been fired.

290.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day216.