Day671 Saturday 06/30/12

22 Months Of Running Against Obama!!!

ran 3.3 miles

If you see smoke billowing out of a building then there is probably a fire inside. It does not require much common sense to connect those dots and to respond accordingly. So, why is it that our federal government, from both sides of the aisle, is straining our liberties through an unconstitutional sieve of frightening proportions and we for the most part do so little about it or completely ignore it?

All the signs are there. Smoke is billowing. Fire is blazing. And we all sit back and watch it assuming someone else will take care of the catastrophe. This is America. Someone will take care of this, right?

It is a feeling of helplessness. What can you actually do that would make a real difference? I don't have an answer for that. But, that is why I run all these miles. I was tired of feeling helpless and this was the only thing I could think of to do. I feel free again and the shackles of helplessness have broken away from my wrists.

Here is a glance at some controversial legislation, or billowing smoke,  that has been passed by our federal government and actions they have approved of in the last decade. As you read through them, ask yourself what is really going on here? The smoke is rising and they continue to tell us it's not there.

• The Patriot Act---passed in 2001 and extended in 2011 with additional controls, expands law enforcement powers and removes civil liberties and constitutionally guaranteed rights.

• The National Defense Authorization Act---passed on 31st December, 2011, allows the indefinite imprisonment by the military of any “suspects” (including American citizens on American soil) without allowing due process of law.

• The MAP-21 Bill--- allows the Internal Revenue Service to suspend the passport rights of Americans, based on the premise that their tax obligations may be unfulfilled.

• The National Defense Resources Preparedness Order---created in March, 2012, allows the President to take over control of all food, water, labor and industry in the US, “to promote national defense.”

• 30,000 Drones to fly over the U.S.---allowed by executive order, February, 2012, providing the government with an Orwellian surveillance ability and a killing capacity ranging from selected individuals to entire communities.

• FEMA Interment (Detention) Camps---to be constructed in every state, with 3 – 15 in each state, for an undisclosed purpose.

• Compounds to store "disposable coffins"---each with hundreds of thousands of 4-5 person coffins stored near city centers around the country.

• 450 million hollow-point bullets ordered by the Department of Homeland Security---to be used domestically. (The DHS is not responsible for addressing national invasions or overseas wars; it exists solely for the control of internal disorder. Hollow point bullets are not intended for sharpshooting – they are designed specifically to maximize tissue damage.)

(SOURCE)

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 10.6 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day306.

Day670 Friday 06/29/12

ran 3.6 miles 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 7.3 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day305.

Day669 Thursday 06/28/12

ran 3.4 miles

I was certainly blind-sided today by the Supreme Court's response to ObamaCare. That's an understatement, actually. It was more like getting hit by a train pulling one hundred box cars of chaos and confusion. First, I was in shock trying to piece together the events leading up to this day (Barack Obama clearly stated in the recent past that the mandate is not a tax, yet SCOTUS upholds the health care law in its entirety through the lens of the mandate not being a mandate, because that would be unconstitutional, but the mandate being a tax, which our federal government has the power to levy upon its people through the proper channels of Congress, but Obama did not recognize the mandate as a tax, but the Supreme Court did recognize the mandate as within the constitutional boundaries of taxation)---three days of oral arguments in which right-leaning justices absolutely humiliated the lawyers representing ObamaCare, often leaving them in a mumbling stupor unable to grasp one single fiber of argument to support this law. It was like watching a Jimmy Kimmel roasting where you can't help but laugh at the stutters, "if"s, "but"s, and "um...um...um"s these guys had loaded in their pea shooters of reason. And now they actually passed it? 

I'm not sure who said it first but this is a good line to live by, "I don't believe anything I hear and I only believe half of what I see".

After the initial shock of this verdict, I began looking for a logical approach to why ObamaCare was upheld in its entirety. This is the best I could come up with. It is mere speculation, but I am actually beginning to like this outcome. I am not endorsing the idea that perhaps the conservative seats on the bench did not want to make this decision and preferred to put it in the laps of the American people at large during the 2012 presidential election. But, that is the outcome we are left with and I prefer a collective American decision over the collective decision of only nine individuals. If you vote for Obama in November then you are voting for a full-blown, American-revolutionizing, point of no return, socialistic health care program, not much unlike exactly what is going on in a flailing Europe. If you vote for Romney then you are voting for a man who has made it his priority to remove Obamacare from existence. It is a gamble but if ObamaCare is something you would like to do without then Romney is a far better bet.

I believe if SCOTUS had struck down even only the mandate then that would have actually been a better predicament for Obama. This guys in a pickle and if he does get reelected it is going to be by the skin of his teeth. He has nothing to run on and throwing fuel on fire is his best campaign tool. The only thing he does have to run on is hope, which he has proven to be far overrated, and this health care law that the Supreme Court just handed him. But here's the thing. In recent months, Rasmussen Reports (the proven most reliable and accurate polling organization) has Americans at a consistent high fifties and low sixties disapproval rating regarding ObamaCare. His health care legislation is working against him more than it is for him and SCOTUS may have possibly returned a verdict that called Obama's bluff. I have every confidence that Barack Obama wanted his health care law to be deemed unconstitutional because that would have given him ammunition, and firing blame in all direction is the bedrock of this president's reelection platform. 

Whether it was intentional or inadvertent, I think the conservative Supreme Court justices may have just served Obama a worst case scenario for his upcoming election. The 55%-60% of Americans who oppose ObamaCare were already mad, but I think they are furious now. They are the one's who are left with political ammunition and it is Barack Obama and his Democratic counterparts who are left having to defend and campaign on something that America, as a majority, does not want.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 3.7

Here is what happened one year ago on Day304.

Day668 Wednesday 06/27/12

2,080 MILES!!!

ran 3.4 miles

Goal accomplished! Today I ran mile 2,080, the distance from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back. I ran these miles to protest President Barack Obama's policies and to campaign against him leading into the 2012 presidential election. I may not have even caused the slightest ripple in the vast, murky ocean of politics but I created a tidal wave within my own conscience and made use of my freedom of speech, while it is still around, out of love for this country and every fiber of my being that firmly believes Barack Obama is the biggest, most orchestrated hoax in the young, impressionable history of twenty-first century America. 

That being said, my original campaign goal was to run an average of 2.60 miles per day, every single day. I am currently averaging 3.11 miles per day. I am 343 miles and 133 days ahead of schedule. I am going to continue to run until Day801, the presidential election on November 6. Our federal government is not familiar with this term but that is what you call a surplus.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 0.3

Here is what happened one year ago on Day303.

  

Day667 Tuesday 06/26/12

ran 3.1 miles

This president is an incorrigible violator of our Constitution and he is not leading, but ruling like a king. There is no place for a king, or a dictator, in America. Shamelessly and self-righteously he treats Congress like an insignificant branch of government with an opinion that only carries merit if it is in his favor. And, as of lately, he has proven that he has no respect for our Supreme Court or the decisions they make unless they, too, align with his interests. He is like a spoiled child who has zero tolerance for obeying rules. The president, Congress and the Supreme Court were intended to serve as watchdogs over one another. Since Barack Obama has been president, he has usurped every dimension of government to fit his own ends. When his health care legislation passed by one single vote he praised and esteemed Congress and the process by which American citizens elect Senators and Representatives to steward their interests. Now that the Supreme Court is likely going to strike down his legislation and now that it is common knowledge that a significant majority of Americans do not even want ObamaCare, he persists and blatantly states that the American people want "this" and that the American people want "that". Who is he talking about? And Arizona...the Supreme Court rules in their favor to tighten the screws on their illegal immigration problem and within three hours the Obama administration denies the state of Arizona the federal assistance that is necessary for them to see their law through. And this on the heels of legalizing approximately 800,000 illegal aliens by executive order and with no consent of Congress.

Two more days. SCOTUS is going to deem ObamaCare and the House of Representatives is going to vote on whether to hold Eric Holder in contempt. I cannot wait to see what unbelievable words come out of our president's mouth and what undermining actions he will take to get his way with these two matters.   

3.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day302.

Day666 Monday 06/25/12

ran 3.3 miles
"Fashionable right now for people to be cynical?"

What was it in 2008 when Barack Obama got elected? That was fashionable. That was a fad that sold a lot of t-shirts, books, hope, and change---none of which are problem solving commodities or actions.

Cynicism in America is not fashionable. It is a product of this man standing behind a podium speaking in the most vague possible generalities about how "There is no problem out there, no challenge we face that we do not have the capacity to solve. We are Americans and we are tougher than whatever tough times bring us." Sounds like the pep talk a coach gave his basketball team of eight-year-olds before they got on a court against a team of teenagers he knew his squad could not beat. His words are like those a leader would say to his people at a time when they were facing impossibility. The man has hope. I'll give him that. But his hope is just so empty and lacks such an unbelievable amount of substance.

This Thursday the House of Representatives will vote on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Also, the Supreme Court will rule on ObamaCare the same day. Both of these events are highly likely to be a thorn in the Obama administration's side.

The most notable legislation Barack Obama signed in the first half of his term stands to be overturned and deemed unconstitutional in a few days, unemployment remains fixed (yet he shrugs opportunities like the Keystone Pipeline), the "Fast and Furious" scandal is casting a dark shadow on his administration, SCOTUS upheld the primary piece of Arizona's immigration law enforcement today (allowing police officers to ask for proper immigration documentation if suspicion arises), which the federal government has been battling Arizona over in the courts, the housing market is stuck in a tar pit, the Muslim Brotherhood just won the election in Egypt, our president intervened with Libya (minus Congress' consent), but won't in Syria where the brutal killing of civilians is far more numerous, and someone in the White House is leaking vital, secret information, which makes America look suspect and untrustworthy to other nations who may have once invested more stock in our government's ability to keep secret information secret. 

And Barack Obama casually stands behind a podium and has the audacity to belittle the genuine problems we as a nation face by suggesting that it is "fashionable right now for people to be cynical".

6.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day301.

Day665 Sunday 06/24/12

ran 3.4 miles

Today ends week ninety-five of running against Obama. I ran 27.6 miles this week, averaging 3.94 miles per day.  

This has to be one of the worst, most poorly executed messages for a campaign ad, ever. Whoever is running against this Ryan Combe for a seat in the Utah House should make a sequel to this ad. They should call it "Reality". Have the parents immediately kick their son out of their house (they are, after all, depicted as heartless) and force him to make ends meet on his own while continuing to be so compassionate and intellectual. By the time thirty seconds is up the prodigal son can walk back into his parents house, apologize, and change the party on his voter registration card to "R". 

Here is the source for the video above. The article elaborates much further on everything that is wrong with this video. 

9.5 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day300.

Day664 Saturday 06/23/12

ran 4.1 miles

Just imagine. In only 137 days President Barack Hussein Obama could be voted out of office like a lemon being returned to a dishonest car dealership. Fed up and disappointed in their purchase, a collective America could march into his office and tell him that the moment they started the car he had sold them the wheels fell off, the muffler was rusted and detached after hitting a bump on the road, and the spark plugs were not sparking. We won't be able to get our money back but we can certainly make Barack Obama drive the sorry car he sold our nation right out of his office and into the history books as the worst president in modern American history.

In nineteen weeks and four days we can fire this man. He is our leader and we have been led astray from what America represents and what it demands to maintain. Now that Barack Obama's first term is nearing an end he is finally being vetted and I think we can all agree that if the media would have done its job in 2008 then he would never have even been elected or even stood a chance in the primaries.

In only four months and fourteen days this nation is going to make a decision that will impact America for generations. We can either shred our Constitution and tear every fiber of freedom, religion, opportunity, capitalism, and success that has defined America for over two hundred years, or we can give America a swift kick in its rear end to wake it up and remind its people of everything we stand for that has obviously been forgotten.

I've been following the news and posting on this blog every single day for nearly two years. I have ran over three miles every single day for 664 days just to avoid periodic combustion due to how inexplicable the actions of our president are. The simple fact that he was ever even elected to sit in the Oval Office is an outcome I will never understand.

Over the past two years I have received a lot of oppositional comments about my views and what I am doing from individuals who support Obama. Whether it is email, blog comments, or facebook posts, the large majority of these people send messages hoping that I get hit by a bus or that I don't stop running once I hit D.C. and continue straight into the Atlantic Ocean. They suggest I should not have children. They call me a racist for being dedicated enough to run everyday for an America I believe in. Running is now racism, in case you didn't know. They troll and troll and troll away at me with the most ignorant accusations and falsehoods they can create.

After doing this for nearly two years, I can tell you this. I think both Republican and Democratic politicians are egomaniacs who do not have our best interests in their hearts. I can tell you that Mitt Romney only scares me slightly less than Barack Obama, and for that reason he has my vote. And I can tell you that neither of the two candidates you vote for during any election cycle have anything to do with what you were put here on Earth to perform. The power is in the people and it has been that way since day one of America. Our federal government, our presidents, particularly Barack Obama, have been increasing the size of government and people's dependency on it for a long time. These actions equate to less freedom and less opportunity to perform the tasks we are driven to do on our own.

What value is it to set a goal to run 1,000 miles in a year if people who are determined to run more than 1,000 miles in a year have to redistribute some of their miles to others who are not driven to run even 10 miles in a year? Am I lucky because I can run 1,000 miles in a year? Barack Obama would say I am, but I am not. I am determined. I want the reward of succeeding in difficult tasks I set for myself. I don't want a hand-out or a mile voucher that gets me out of the obligation of running each day. It's hard. It's challenging. But the reward is worth it. That reward is unfiltered freedom to make my own decisions, to successfully follow through with them, and to not have to depend on anyone else or any government to get me through each day.

We were not put on Earth to sit back and vote for some guy who campaigns on redistributing self-worth and sustenance just so we can rest our bodies on government subsidized recliners and achieve absolutely nothing at the cost of those who actually deserve self-worth and sustenance. We were put on Earth to achieve and to pave our own ways to happiness, not to sit idly by and let governments choose our ways for us. 

12.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day299. 

Day663 Friday 06/22/12

ran 4.0 miles

President Barack Obama and his campaign team continue to sink even further into desperation and the reproachable depths of tactlessness. Just when our president hits a new level of absurdity that could not possibly be outdone, he completely surpasses our expectations...every few days, lately. 

Now, instead of receiving wedding gifts to hold onto for the rest of your life as mementos for the one special day of your life that you are eternally bonded with the one individual you love, our pompous president suggests you forgo these less important commodities and keepsakes and turn them into campaign contributions. 

Birthdays? Anniversaries? You can give your gifts to Barack Obama for these occasions, too. Forget about your special day...Barack Obama needs a second term. 

(More about the "Obama Event Registry") 

17.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day298.

Day662 Thursday 06/21/12

ran 4.1 miles  

President Barack Obama is not to be blamed for all of our nation's problems. Many presidents and many more politicians came before him who contributed to our present state and the disaster that has become our economy. But, he is to be blamed for not moving in a proper direction to move back at least a mere inch from the financial cliff we are sliding off of. In fact, he seems to be deliberately edging closer to the gravity just beyond the cliff. 

Each day seems to be getting worse and worse for our president and his reelection chances. He still blames Bush for everything under the sun (including "Fast and Furious" as of today), but he needs to answer for why his landmark legislative achievement (Affordable Health Care Act, which is exactly the opposite of what the name implies) is on the eve of more than likely being ruled unconstitutional, why his stimulus packages have resulted in nothing more than further national debt, why he won't take common sense opportunities like the Keystone Pipeline, and why unemployment won't budge, just to name a few. 

This president had two years to do anything he wanted with control of Congress and those two years have amounted to debt on unborn Americans and a health care law that, as I said earlier, is probably going to be ruled unconstitutional and illegal in a matter of days. The second half of his term has been uneventful because Americans were so at odds with him for what he did in the first half that they fired an enormous amount of Democratic Congressmen and women and replaced them with the exact opposite. Congressmen and women who vowed to not raise taxes and to stop our president from continuing his destructive path. Our current Congress has been named the most "do nothing" Congress in American history by many pundits. That name was intended to be an insult but I think it is a worthy accomplishment. The fewer laws, regulations, and tax increases they make the more free and prosperous we as individuals are. 

21.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day297.

Day661 Wednesday 06/20/12

ran 3.7 miles 

The House oversight committee voted today to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for his refusal to hand over critical documents regarding the "Fast and Furious" scandal. The vote was 23 to 17 (23 Republicans and 17 Democrats). Next week, despite President Obama's order of executive privilege to deny certain documents demanded by the investigatory panel, the House of Representatives will hold the contempt vote. 

“Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding Fast and Furious were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed. The administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?” 

Michael Steel, Mr. Boehner's spokesman 

25.1 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day296.

Day660 Tuesday 06/19/12

ran 4.2 miles  

If Eric Holder were a normal American citizen like you and me in a courtroom with these charges against him, supported by overwhelming evidence, the judge would laugh at the audacity he possesses to conceal evidence the way he is currently doing. Then the judge would immediately hold him in contempt and put him in a jail cell. Instead, because he is the United States Attorney General, he is somehow granted flexibility to waste time and postpone verdicts that would be delivered to people like you and me quite swiftly. 

28.8 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day295.

Day659 Monday 06/18/12

ran 4.1 miles

Socialist leader of France, President Francois Hollande, swiped a parliamentary election power grab yesterday by earning 314 Socialist representatives of the 577-member National Assembly. With this majority Hollande will be in a position to execute exactly what he campaigned on. His intention is to halt numerous tax exemptions, pass tax hikes for large corporations (particularly banks and energy firms), and, finally, here is the zowie---impose a 75% tax rate on those earning over 1 million euros. These are the maneuvers Hollande claims will  bring France's deficit to within the 3% European Union limit by next year. 

(Source)

Gross government debt in the twenty-seven nations belonging to the Euro in 2010 was 80% of GDP. American gross federal debt in 2010 was 94% of GDP. Separately, government debt is growing more slowly in the EU than in America because the majority of nations belonging to it are actually implementing austerity measures. The accumulated government deficit among the European Unions twenty-seven nations was 6.6% of GDP in 2010. America's federal deficit in 2010 was 9% of GDP.

(Source)

America is worse off financially than the EU-27 and it seems our nation's leaders and our media are doing everything they can to not spell that out in the simple and understandable terms we deserve to hear. 

A 75% tax rate. This is insanity. I predict a lot of France's wealth will be packing their bags and selling their homes very soon. We are worse off than Europe and doing less to fix our deficit. If Hollande can take three quarters of what highly successful, hardworking French citizens make than Obama, or future American presidents, can do the same thing in the very near future. There is your proof. It can happen and is happening right across the pond.

33.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day294.

Day658 Sunday 06/17/12

ran 3.2 miles

Today ends week ninety-four of running against Obama. I ran 23.6 miles this week, averaging 3.37 miles per day.

In an article by Emily Miller from the Washington Times, "The next time President Obama hits the links, it will be his 100th round of golf since coming to the White House."

In three and one-half years this president has golfed enough to equal four entire months worth of work time.

2009: President Obama promised his stimulus bill would save or create 3.5 million jobs. Unemployment was 8.3% and our national debt was $10.8 trillion. First golf outing was April 26, 2009. Twenty-seven rounds were played in his first year.

2010: Unemployment at 9.7%. President Obama proposed a second stimulus and a health care overhaul. The Democratic Congress passed these bills. Thirty-one rounds of golf were played in his second year.

2011: Unemployment at 9.1%. During the midterm elections President Obama was "shellacked" and lost control of his House. The Senate took losses but narrowly remained Democratic. American voters had sent a message of how little they approved of Barack Obama's leadership and the decisions he had made. National debt was $14 trillion. Thirty-three rounds of golf were played.

2012: By the time President Obama had delivered his State of the Union Address, he was up to ninety-three rounds of golf. Unemployment was at 8.3%, national debt was $15.2 trillion, and America's credit rating was downgraded.

37.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day293.

 

Day657 Saturday 06/16/12

ran 3.4 miles

This is President Obama at a 2011 Univision Town Hall describing the limitations he has as president to successfully suspend deportations for anyone because of existing laws that he would break by issuing an executive order on the matter. He describes in concise detail how taking such an action would be a rank violation of the separation of powers. Well put, Mr. President.

This is President Obama contradicting the video above by announcing he is going to stop deporting illegal immigrants who break the law and come into our country at an early age (approximately between the ages of 15-30). With no congressional consent, our president is going to open the floodgates allowing a projected 800,000 illegal immigrants to remain in the country without the fear of deportation and they will even be put in jobs programs...oh, and they will probably be able to and encouraged to vote in the presidential election in November.

The reporter who appears to be heckling Obama in the video was simply asking him why he felt it was more important to give foreigners jobs than Americans. This immigration announcement comes at a time when low-skilled workers, Hispanic, and African-American unemployment is setting records. Unemployment rose in all of these categories in May and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 50% of younger African Americans have full-time jobs. Perfect time to add more workers to the pool.

40.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day292.

Day656 Friday 06/15/12

ran 3.3 miles 

Gerald R. Molen, producer of "Schindler's List", has a new movie hitting theaters this July. "2016: Obama's America" is a film based on the New York Time's bestseller by Dinesh D'Souza. The film examines a potential America at the end of a possible second Obama term. D'Souza has written a lot of books and has earned many accolades for his work. He is not an outlandish, conspiracy theory mongering, brute who holds personal resentment to our current president. He is just really good at examining and exposing all of the mystery behind Barack Hussein Obama and his past that our main stream media failed to do in 2008. Here is the website for "2016: Obama's America" and below is an extended trailer of the movie:  

43.7 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day291.

Day655 Thursday 06/14/12

ran 3.6 miles

President Obama gave a 54 minute speech in Ohio today outlining the same themes and ideas he's been talking about in more brief and concise speeches of the past. This particular one differed only in that it was brutally lengthy and redundant. The main message of his speech was declaring the reality before us in this election that a choice between "two fundamentally different views of which direction America should take" will have to be decided. I could not agree more.

Here are some responses to his Ohio speech from the political press corps who heard it:

"In terms of politics, this speech could have ended about 20 minutes ago. Drive your message, take your ball, go home."

Mike O’Brien, Politico

"Just cheerleading BO doesn't help him. He needs a sharper, more cogent message with some memorable lines. I ain't walking my criticism back...one of the worst speeches I’ve ever heard Barack Obama make."

Jonathan Alter, MSNBC

"This Obama speech is so long-winded it might be the first attempt to filibuster an election."

John Hayward, Human Events

"In America we don't quit till we've spoken for 54 minutes."

Jennifer Epstein, Politico

"There is nothing new in this speech."

Zeke Miller, Buzzfeed

(Source)

47.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day290.

Day654 Wednesday 06/13/12

ran 3.3 miles

Here are a few videos of the day. Some rich material down below. First, we have a British politician, Nigel Farage,  shamelessly decrying how absurd the European Union, its debt crisis, and the leaders making the big decisions are. Second, David Axelrod, in a clip from 1994, almost as though he was prophesying his own future and the detestable fate awaiting him and the president he represents in alarming irony, describes the exact flawed tactics Barack Obama is employing here in 2012 to illegitimately strengthen his case for reelection. And the last video, Barack Obama, in what appears to be a standup comedy act, reiterates once again how all others who came before him are responsible for all our economic woes and how he has clearly not done one single thing wrong and does not hold a single fiber of fault.

   50.6 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day289.

Day653 Tuesday 06/12/12

ran 3.3 miles 

"Bring parties together?" 

"Manage through tough fiscal decisions?" 

"Everyone is doing their fair share?" 

Come on, Mr. President. You have a nation divided, a Democratic Senate that hasn't passed a budget since you've been elected, and the last budget you ran through Congress did not earn one single vote in the House or Senate. Bipartisanship? I don't see any. Coming together? It's not happening.

Our national debt is soaring, unemployment is not budging, the private sector, according to you, is doing just fine, and your best idea is to expand government more and more, which will only work to over-regulate and suffocate the success of the private sector just to create more dependence on and power for the federal government, an outcome that this country never intended. 

53.9 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day288.

Day652 Monday 06/11/12

ran 3.5 miles

Just as the House Oversight Committee prepares to schedule a vote on whether Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt for not releasing subpoenaed documents relevant to the "Fast and Furious" case, Eric Holder is in the process of launching an investigation into the recent White House leaks, which many argue was a deliberate release of classified information regarding our national security intended to bolster President Obama's campaign.

That ought to turn out well. An allegation that coincidentally bodes well for Barack Obama's campaign is being investigated by a man who is on the verge of quite possibly losing all credibility as our nation's Attorney General.

This will be only the fourth time in thirty years that Congress takes a contempt action against an executive branch member. The way Eric Holder dances around every question he is asked and refuses to comply and participate with this investigation, his actions demand a vote to hold him in contempt.

57.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day287.

Day651 Sunday 06/10/12

ran 3.8 miles

Today ends week ninety-three of running against Obama. I ran 23.8 miles this week, averaging 3.40 miles per day.

I had posted about this commencement speech a couple days ago. Here it is in its entirety. Pretty powerful message delivered by David McCullough, Jr. imploring a class of high school graduates to seize every moment they can, to understand they are not special or entitled to anything they do not work hard to earn, and that they have an obligation to themselves to create their own happiness and success and to not approach the rest of their lives with the assumption that they deserve anything for nothing. It's a well-articulated commencement speech worth checking out and it happens to defy much of what Barack Obama's big government nanny state liberal agenda stands for. The America and the future McCullough describes are abrasively truthful and full of difficult challenges we all face in different forms. But isn't that the point, to rise to challenges on our own and as a united people? Or is it something more like what Barack Obama envisions where everything is fair and equal for all, a nation where hard work is punished and mediocrity is rewarded, idleness doubly rewarded?

60.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day286.

Day650 Saturday 06/09/12

ran 3.1 miles

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) had no kind words yesterday for Bureau of Labor Statistics Acting Commissioner Josh Galvin regarding the official definition of a "green job".

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics a green job is defined as any job that “provides goods or services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.” This broad and nearly meaningless definition is the only reason Barack Obama has any ability to tout his green jobs agenda. The majority of what he claims to be new green jobs are actually just job jobs, for lack of a better term.

Here are some examples of what defines a green job as approved by Galvin:

10. Floor sweeper at a solar panel factory

The official definition allows for any position that will “reduce or eliminate the creation of waste materials” to be considered a green job. 

9. College professor teaching environmental studies

Any employee who is able to “provide education and training related to green technologies and practices” has a green job, according to the Department of Labor’s definition. 

8. Salvation Army Employee

BLS says products and services that “collect, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or compost waste materials or wastewater” are considered green jobs. As Issa points out, any type of business that sells used goods is a green job, according to BLS. 

7. An antique Dealer

Same rule applies here as in number six. 

6. A clerk at a bicycle repair shop

Bicycle repair shops also reuse and recycle materials and is determined to be a green job.  

5. Any school bus driver

Just as all forms of mass public transportation, school buses reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road and therefore reducing “greenhouse gas emissions through methods other than renewable energy generation and energy efficiency.” 

4. Any employee who puts gas in a school bus

This one is humorous but confirmed by Department of Labor officials to be a green job. 

3. A full-time teenage employee at a used record shop

The recycled goods clause applies here, therefore it is dubbed a green job.

2. Train car manufacturers

Once again, employees whose job functions “reduce or eliminate the creation of waste materials; collect, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or compost waste materials or wastewater” have themselves a green job. 

1. And the number one most ridiculous job that the Labor Department considers “green” is… Oil lobbyist.

Galvin confirmed that an oil lobbyist is in fact a green job. It‘s not entirely clear where in BLS’s definition the position falls under, however, the job could possibly be considered to “increase public awareness of environmental issues.”

(Source)

64.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day285.

Day649 Friday 06/08/12

ran 3.2 miles

This is what we need more of. David McCullough, Jr.'s speech to the graduating class of Wellesley High School is the strong sinew of what America was once composed of. That strong sinew is rapidly being replaced by brittle government subsidized "hope and change" that serves no purpose other than making individuals think they are special and entitled to rewards for challenging tasks they made no attempt to work hard at. Coincidentally, McCullough's speech represents much of what our president and his like-minded cohorts on the left completely disagree with---particularly reality, accountability, and independence. 

Here is an excerpt of McCullough's speech. The first eight words are quite intriguing. Put into the proper context of a high school graduation his words were unexpected but brutally necessary. If only politicians would employ such common sense and embrace with such raw detail the realities our nation face. 

"You are not special. You are not exceptional. 

Contrary to what your u9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special. 

Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. Yes, you have. And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs. Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet. Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman! [Editor's upgrade: Or The Swellesley Report!] And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building… 

But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.[...] 

'But, Dave,' you cry, 'Walt Whitman tells me I’m my own version of perfection! Epictetus tells me I have the spark of Zeus!' And I don’t disagree. So that makes 6.8 billion examples of perfection, 6.8 billion sparks of Zeus. You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another-which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality – we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point – and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole. No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it… Now it’s 'So what does this get me?' As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans. It’s an epidemic – and in its way, not even dear old Wellesley High is immune… one of the best of the 37,000 nationwide, Wellesley High School… where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and the midlevel curriculum is called Advanced College Placement. And I hope you caught me when I said 'one of the best.' I said 'one of the best' so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition. But the phrase defies logic. By definition there can be only one best. You‘re it or you’re not."

67.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day284.

Day648 Thursday 06/07/12

ran 3.5 miles

70.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day283.

Day647 Wednesday 06/06/12

ran 3.2 miles

Congratulations Governor Scott Walker and the state of Wisconsin for standing up to the unions and showing them that fiscal responsibility for a state is more important than unrealistic pensions and zealous collective bargaining. 

Why it is that these unions somehow feel they deserve such a break at the expense of taxpayers is something I cannot understand. I pay into my 401k and sacrifice a big chunk of money each paycheck for my health care and I have no collective bargaining rights. I don't want any collective bargaining rights and I certainly don't want to be dead weight for what could be a thriving state economy.

I don't know what percentage of Wisconsin workers are unionized but last night's vote proved once and for all that those who are not members of unions have no interest in paying for the needs of union member's as well as those of their own. Was that really even a question?

What did these unions expect? Wisconsin's budget is in the red, like most other states, tax dollars are being drained by pensions that should never have even been promised, and these unions attempt to recall their governor actually assuming that private sector workers who put into their own 401ks and do not receive pensions will actually vote to continue wasting their state's money on the union's interests and edge ever closer to falling off their statewide financial cliff. 

The unions just got put in their place last night and this message has the potential to reverberate across America all the way into the 2012 presidential election.

74.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day282.

Day646 Tuesday 06/05/12

2,000 miles!!!

ran 3.8 miles 

Today is a big milestone for this campaign of running against Obama. Thanks for following or occasionally checking in with this blog over the last 21 months. 

Tomorrow we will be exactly 5 months from the 2012 presidential election and Americans will make an important decision at the crossroads of America's future. The president serving this next term will either further pursue the failed, big government, socialistic ideas that have led to so many of Europe's problems or he will unleash the private sector, cut our stifling regulatory agencies, and get the federal government out of the way so Americans can do what they do best---succeed without the giant obstacle Barack Obama has made of the federal government. 

Thought I'd post this video of Bill Clinton sabotaging one of Barack Obama's biggest criticisms of Mitt Romney, regardless of how untrue and farfetched that criticism is. It is an interesting triangle Bill, Hillary, and Barack have to coexist in. Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama's Secretary of State, so Bill Clinton is sort of obligated to help in any way he can to bolster Barack Obama and his administration, yet it is obvious that Bill Clinton has a poor opinion of the president and, after statements like the one he made in this video, he clearly does not want this president to have a second term. 77.5 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day281.

Day645 Monday 06/04/12

ran 3.2 miles

In my state, Louisiana, chaos ensued this past Saturday morning when it became evident that Ron Paul was going to win the majority of delegates at the Louisiana State Republican Convention.

In a PolicyMic article written by Hamdan Azhar, “The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

Establishment  Republicans  were  not  at  all  happy  with  this revelation. Here are a couple videos of the footage: 81.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day280.

Day644 Sunday 06/03/12

ran 3.6 miles

Today ends week ninety-two of running against Obama. I ran 21.7 miles this week, averaging 3.10 miles per day.  

Wow. That ad was frothing with substance. I've never heard of Anna Wintour, but this is yet another Obama campaign effort to slap us all in the face with a whopping open hand of hypocrisy. Barack Obama puts on his face of compassion and talks about everyone having their "fair share" and he advocates wealth redistribution because the split between those who have and those who have not is far too steep, but then he has these $35,000 per plate dinners with the elites and casually has this eccentric Wintour lady invite a couple of lowly sheep out of their pastures and into the gold-leafed interiors of her world. Her condescending tone is absolutely repulsive---and not one mention of anything substantive regarding this critical election. 

Erica Ritz of TheBlaze puts it best when she says, "That Wintour pitch, coming in the middle of tough economic times, seems to have the same feel as Marie Antoinette offering a couple of peasants a chance to hang out with King Louis XVI and the aristocrats just as the Bastille was being stormed." 

84.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day279.

Day643 Saturday 06/02/12

ran 3.5 miles

SCOTUS will hopefully be putting POTUS in his place at the end of this month with their decision on his Affordable Health Care Act (curious name for something that more than half of this country does not want for the precise reason that it will be monumentally expensive, adding even more unsustainable debt to our already capsizing national debt).

After President Obama initially claimed he was "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" (and by "passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress", he is referring to not one single Republican vote in the House and a win in the Senate by a margin of one vote---thanks, Arlen Specter---this bill could not have been more divided or contrived).

Now, all of a sudden, President Obama is conceding that his administration may be forced to revisit his health care law in his second term, because, you know, it might just be completely unconstitutional and may have been one of the biggest wastes of time and tax dollars in modern history. All of these dollars and hours spent on something that stands a very good chance of being deemed illegal. Thank you, President Obama for all of the waste. Should he eke out a second term we can all look forward to him wasting even more time and tax dollars on rewording the same unconstitutional dribble he spent his first term drafting. Perhaps better confusing and perplexing the American people with an additional 1,000 pages of lawyer-speak very few people can even understand would help. 2,500 pages was not enough, let's break this thing down and take out all the bad stuff with 4,000 pages. 

As ridiculous as that sounds, this is how these individuals think. It is the same dismissive, arrogant, condescending thought process that makes people like Nancy Pelosi say things like "Let's just pass this thing and then we'll see what's in it." That statement captures exactly how stupid and unfit to make our own decisions many of our politicians think we are.

88.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day278. 

Day642 Friday 06/01/12

ran 4.3 miles

Speaking at a fundraiser today in Minneapolis, President Obama described his Republican opposition as a stubborn "fever" that would break once he was reelected. He claimed once there was no chance of him being reelected a third time then Republicans, like a "fever", would break and he would be able to move forward with his agenda. 

In my opinion, what he is actually saying is he thinks this election is about contempt for him and that it has nothing to do with his decisions or policies. He actually believes that if his reelection is secured then Republicans will simply say "ahh, shucks" and roll over on their backs. He seems to suggest that it is not his leadership or decisions that so many people have problems with, but him personally. And if we could only accept that he is going to be our leader for a second term then we will just swallow our pride and let him have his way.  That's just not the case. This president wants to fundamentally change what America was intended to be and no one who believes in our Constitution will back down from him regardless of whether he gets a second term, a third term, or even becomes king.

"I believe that If we're successful in this election, when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that. My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn't make much sense because I'm not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again."

Our president lost "cooperation" in November of 2010 when America cleaned out the House, nearly cleaned out the Senate---and all to send a message to Barack Obama and Democrats that we have voted as many new leaders as we could to essentially stop cooperating with his agenda and to even reverse it. Little has changed since then and this 112th Congress being called the most "do-nothing" Congress in American history is something I view as a huge success under a president like Barack Obama. They achieved what they campaigned on...not allowing Barack Obama to continue the path he was blazing.

(Source)

91.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day277.