Day349 Saturday 08/13/11

ran 3.1 miles

Ames, Iowa has spoken and they want Bachmann. The Iowa Straw Poll, a rite of passage since 1979 for all Republican presidential candidates facing an incumbent Democrat, has been tallied and here are the numbers:

1. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (4823, 28.55%)
2. Congressman Ron Paul (4671, 27.65%)
3. Governor Tim Pawlenty (2293, 13.57%)
4. Senator Rick Santorum (1657, 9.81%)
5. Herman Cain (1456, 8.62%)
6. Governor Rick Perry (718, 3.62%) write-in
7. Governor Mitt Romney (567, 3.36%)
8. Speaker Newt Gingrich (385, 2.28%)
9. Governor Jon Huntsman (69, 0.41%)
10. Congressman Thad McCotter (35, 0.21%)

Texas Governor Rick Perry did not participate in Thursday’s Iowan debate, but he did announce his candidacy today. He did pretty well considering he threw his name in the hat only hours before the vote. Governor Mitt Romney placed a disappointing seventh behind procrastinating Rick Perry. That is surprising. Bachmann and Paul were within less than 1% of one another. I like Bachmann and Paul but we have the consent of an entire nation to deal with, not just Republicans from the state of Iowa. But it was an impressive victory, nevertheless. Pawlenty and Santorum did well but I can’t tell one from the other. I don’t feel these two guys have asserted themselves compared to others who did better or worse than them in the Iowa Straw Poll. I’m a big fan of Herman Cain and, while he did place in the top five, I had hoped he would have placed higher. Thad McCotter is the unknown candidate and Jon Huntsman is, in my opinion, a RINO. I purposely didn’t mention Newt Gingrich because he has done nothing impressive lately except for losing campaign staff members. And, in case you didn’t know, a RINO is a Republican In Name Only. There are a lot of them out there.

It will be interesting to see how this thing plays out. When November 6, 2012 arrives I will vote for a plank of wood before voting for Barack Obama. I definitely have a strong opinion of who this country needs as a president for the post-Obama era, but at the same time I firmly believe that a plank of wood could do a better job of not destroying our country than he has.

And, on a completely different note, our current president is going around encouraging Americans to call their Congressmen and women to tell them that we are tired of the lack of bipartisanship on both sides. Nice touch, Mr. President, to include both sides, but the reason there is gridlock is because Republicans and their constituents are tired of, completely exhausted by, nearly everything you do. When I call or write my members of Congress I encourage them to stand up to your agenda and to not cross the aisle. Our president has had almost three years and all he has done is spend and blame. When he says, “Call your Senators and Representatives and demand they compromise,” he is really saying, “Encourage your elected officials to let me dig this country deeper and deeper to the point of no return.”

1042.9 miles to go.

Day348 Friday 08/12/11

ran 4.7 miles
The past couple weeks have been daunting, running in this heat and humidity. My weekly running averages have been dropping as July and August have become more and more smothering. If you have never visited Louisiana, particularly the southern part of the state, the heat and humidity August blankets us with is nearly intolerable. I’m not trying to take anything away from the heat waves that have recently covered so many American states, and set so much of Texas on fire, but when the mercury hits 105 degrees in a state like Oklahoma, that is nothing compared to 95 degrees in south Louisiana. The humidity is so thick it beads up on you before you even start sweating. I have lived in Oklahoma and felt the state’s dry 100-plus degrees and it is far more tolerable than the sweltering humidity we have here at lesser temperatures. The heat indices here are off the chart.

But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t post about personal stuff too often and I thought I would rant about how unbearably hot and humid it is here. I guess what I am getting at is this: I have been physically incapable of running at the pace and distance I am used to for the other 10 or 11 months of the year. But I anticipated a lull in my running average for the summer and created a surplus of miles during the rest of the year. I have managed to stave off large losses in my running average by planning ahead, but my average has slowly been declining. By investing in a slow, patient surplus of miles ahead of time and running within my means I have created an opportunity to redistribute distances from my miles bank to keep myself afloat during these hard times. I invested in my own future and planned for any shortcomings, which may or may not have occurred in the near future of my miles balance. Unfortunately, a deficit has occurred; however, by anticipating it I have prevented panic and chaos. I did it by myself and I would never, never ask any other man or woman to give me some of their miles so that I may stay afloat with my own goal.

Redistributing miles, or money, from one party who worked so hard for what they have, to another is fundamentally wrong, petty, and something to be ashamed of. But so many in this country don't seem to find virtue in their own self-sufficiency.

If I fail to achieve my goal, any goal, I would never ask another to give me some of what they worked so hard to achieve so that I could falsely feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. If I fail at something I take stock of what lessons I learned in my journey and I find a better way to do it, or I move on to another goal.

I’m sort of trying to express through rambling about these miles I’m running how fundamentally I differ from everything Barack Obama stands for. When he says some of us are only lucky and we need to share, when he puts a cap on how much money I can earn before it is no longer worth it because it all goes to the federal government, when he mandates government health care and forces me to pay for others when I can hardly pay for myself, but I’m out there trying while so many others are not, so many others are watching day-time television all day and going to the emergency room twice a month just because they can---I fundamentally disagree with this guy. I want nothing more than for him to simply leave us alone and I don’t want any other person’s money unless I earn it.

1,046.0 miles to go.

Day347 Thursday 08/11/11

ran 2.2 miles

“You are finished in 2012, and you will be a one-term president.”

That sounds like commitment and assertion. That is putting yourself out there. That is not being coy, dodgy or comfortably floating along. But who said it?

If you watched the debate tonight then you know that was Michele Bachmann. I like her moxie and her determination. Barack Obama has that same quality except that his courage and drive has landed us…here, for lack of a better term, after nearly three years.

It’s starting. Can you hear the engine revving? It’s going to be a rollercoaster as we edge toward the one-year marker leading up to the election. Some candidates will drop out and others will emerge to the surface. We are still far off, but I cannot wait to see a debate between Barack Obama and whoever Someone Else is going to be. There is so much material to scrutinize. It hasn’t even been three years and this race will be that much more engaging in one more year from now.

Along those lines of Barack Obama being a one-term president, here is a continuation of his ever-plummeting approval numbers and polls from a growingly discontent America. Stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 21% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 43% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -22.
• That matches the lowest Approval Index rating for the president in 2011. Forty-one percent (41%) of Democrats strongly approve while 76% of Republicans strongly disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either political party, 16% strongly approve and 43% strongly disapprove.
• Overall, 43% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 56% disapprove.
• Only 16% of Americans believe the country is generally heading in the right direction.
• Among American voters 54% favor repeal of the health care law.
  

1,050.7 miles to go.

Day346 Wednesday 08/10/11

ran 3.9 miles

Chapter18

Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you’re in love with him
‘cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.

In a flat-black room of concrete and echoes, Jonas sat in a plain metal chair. Crimson red flakes were matted on his nose and lips. His eyebrows were pressed with blood. In front of him was a single, continuous pane of glass framed within an inescapable structure of re-bar, aggregate and cement.

“Concrete,” Jonas had thought to himself. “I must talk without talking for now.”

Jonas lifted his battered body out of his cold chair and stood. Blood was still dripping out of his left nostril. His plain white t-shirt was now red. He ran, all of a sudden, into the elongated window like an elephant attempting to head-butt a skyscraper.

The window paid no acknowledgment to his effort. Jonas froze in pain for a moment. What sense he still had left afforded him no profitable rationale.

“Tell them nothing,” he had mumbled to himself. “Tell them nothing,” he repeated over and over in his head like a hatter.

“Jonas Martin Cassidy, You have been deemed treasonous by the NorthAmeriCanaDexican Government. What have you to say?”

He had hesitated and then responded, “A bear and the pope walk into the woods…”

He had laughed to himself, further sputtering blood onto his red t-shirt. The humor and the self-defeat of the situation had put a sardonic smile on his face. “One says to the other…”

A fist came from out of nowhere shocking Jonas in his right temple sending him stumbling to his left and crashing into a wall, slowly sliding down to the floor.

“Jonas Martin Cassidy, we don’t think you understand the severity of your circumstances. Your life is in jeopardy as pertains to your actions and words. You have done nothing yet but make a fool of yourself and a mockery of everything you wrongly believe in.”

“I am guilty of nothing.“ Those words were all Jonas could utter and they were hardly audible or coherent as he was nearly unconscious and completely beaten and exhausted.

“I am guilty of being free.”

Jonas was now unconscious. Many in the room thought he may have been dead. But his mind went on quietly above the words of his interrogator.

“I only want to live. I want to be challenged. I want opportunities like the ones our old country, America, once gave everyone who sought something worth fighting for. You are the government. You are the enemy. Your deceit and destructive legislation, not for and against the people, you behind the glass, in the dark, hidden away and out of touch,…you! Ask me anything you want to know and I swear I won’t tell you!”

These words went unheard, aired only in the subconscious of Jonas’ battered and unconscious body.

“His antics will not last for long. There are others among us who would have him tortured and killed for his deviance, alone. I think we still have use for him. Clean him up and keep him alive.”

Jonas suddenly stirred with one last stroke of cognizance. “Show me your face so I can at least die knowing I beat you and your lies! Show me your face! Show me your face!”

“I pity you Jonas Martin Cassidy. You are a waste of intelligence. You chose the wrong side.” A set of black boots slowly strutted toward Jonas. Everything went black again.

I started singin’
“Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.”

1,052.9 miles to go.

Day345 Tuesday 08/09/11

ran 1.5 miles



Blaming the Tea Party for the dismal state of our nation’s economy is not much unlike asserting that rationality and sanity, as a state of mind, should be reason enough to send anyone who uses them as contemptible enough to send those people to an asylum. The lunatics have taken over. And, as opposed to what are Tea Party backers in contempt? The destructive spending habits of our president, which would have inevitably led to more severe measures had S&P not reprimanded America’s credit rating one degree that can be earned back in the near future? S&P’s judgment was a warning and a gesture to send the message that out-of-control spending needs to stop.

1,056.8 miles to go.

Day344 Monday 08/08/11

ran 2.5 miles

“Does anybody now doubt that this is on purpose? I mean, after all, Barack Obama inherits a AAA credit rating from George W. Bush, and look what he does to it. Obama is always running around complaining and whining and moaning about all that he inherited from George W. Bush. Well, he inherited a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of 5.7%. Does anybody doubt that this is on purpose?”

Rush Limbaugh

"It reinforces, perhaps, like nothing else has the impression that Obama is overseeing -- and some respects engineering -- the decline of the American republic."

Pete Wehner

“I call on the president to seek the immediate resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and to submit a plan with a list of cuts to balance the budget this year, turn our economy around and put Americans back to work.”

Michele Bachmann

“If the president were in the Southeastern Conference, he would be fired as a coach. He would not have his contract renewed. Mr. Obama is failing, and it’s not the Tea Party’s fault. What was hope and change is despair and confusion.”

Senator Lindsey Graham

“It ought to push [Congress] more toward reality and the reality is if you spend a buck and borrow 41 cents, you have to be very stupid.”

Alan Simpson

"Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country."

Barack Obama

That's all you have to say? Some kind of underdog high school pep rally cheer for our team? This is serious, Mr. President. You can't just deny the reality before you.

As our president spoke these words the stock market continued to plummet with investors’ ears averted from his words. This guy can continue to blame Bush and the man in the moon as long as he likes but our AAA credit rating being downgraded for the first time in American history during his presidency is an inescapable reality that he has to face.

1,058.3 miles to go.

Day343 Sunday 08/07/11

ran 2.8 miles
Today ends week forty-nine of running against Obama. I ran 22.3 miles this week, averaging 3.19 miles per day.

One brief and concise point today. All of these fork-tongued liberal pundits we see on television calling the Tea Party “terrorists” need to check their premise. First, if Republicans or conservative media figures had referred to any liberal faction to such an excessive extent as a group of terrorists who threw metaphorical bombs at the American economy, or anything else, it would have been unacceptable. But in this instance it is somehow appropriate? Way to tone down the rhetoric amid real and tragic global terrorism that occurs daily. Second, the Tea Party comprises far less than 20% of the vote at this time. If you ask me what the paradigm of terrorism is in the twenty-first century I would say it is fundamental Islamic jihadists. But they are a splinter faction of Muslims that carry out these attacks. And when they do they either die during the attack or run as far away as they can because what they did was an atrocity and they know it. To call the tea Party terrorists is absurd. If the Tea Party made an attack during the debt ceiling talks, they certainly aren’t ducking and running now. They stand firmly in their position because it is self-evident to them that our president and Congress are not doing what we hired them to do. Lastly, if the Tea Party continues to grow in approval and shellacs Obama and his counterparts again in 2012, will that be an act of terrorism, too. At what point do hard-working, proud Americans stop being called terrorists and start being called a majority that will go down in history books as the generation of voters that put an end to America’s federal wasteland?

1,060.8 miles to go.

Day342 Saturday 08/06/11

ran 3.1 miles
United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To “AA+” On Political Risks And Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative

Here are some excerpts from the S&P report:

“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”

“The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.”

“The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed.”

“A new political consensus might (or might not) emerge after the 2012 elections, but we believe that by then, the government debt burden will likely be higher, the needed medium-term fiscal adjustment potentially greater, and the inflection point on the U.S. population’s demographics and other age-related spending drivers closer at hand.”

Check out the full report here.

Get ready. The only possible liberal response to this will be higher taxes. These guys are going to stand behind their podiums and in front of cameras telling us with straight faces, “We warned you all that we should have raised taxes. We would not be in this position if we had increased federal revenue. And, at last, it is the Republican’s and the Tea Party’s fault for not compromising.”

More blame. And there will not be a shred of fault attributed to anything he has done over the past three years. Not even after saying in 2009 that he would be a one-term president if the economy was not rebounding by the end of the third year of his term. Tick tock, Barack.

1,063.6 miles to go.

Day341 Friday 08/05/11

ran 2.2 miles
Some facts about the state of Pennsylvania:

• Pennsylvania was the second state to join the union on December 12, 1787, six days before New Jersey and five days after Delaware.

• Population, as of 2010, is 12,702,379.

• Senators are Robert Casey, Jr. (D) and Patrick Toomey (R).

• Representatives are Robert Brady (D), Chaka Fattah (D), Mike Kelly (R), Jason Altmire (D), Glenn Thompson (R), Jim Gerlach (R), Patrick Meehan (R), Michael Fitzpatrick (R), William Shuster (R), Thomas Marino (R), Lou Barletta (R), Mark Critz (D), Allyson Schwartz (D), Michael Doyle (D), Charles Dent (R), Joseph Pitts (R), Tim Holden (D), Tim Murphy (R), and Todd Platts (R).

• Pennsylvania has twenty electoral votes after losing one for the 2010 Census Reapportionment. The state has voted blue in the last five presidential elections, but is considered a swing state. Barack Obama defeated John McCain by 11% in 2008.

By the way, Standard and Poor’s has officially downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in American history. Happy Birthday, Barack Obama. This is a response to the mockery our president and congress has made of wasting our tax dollars fighting a lengthy battle over a useless decision regarding our debt ceiling. This is ridiculous. What are these people thinking who fight so hard for Barack Obama? All I see is bitterness and a destructive, childish, misunderstood passion to end America as we know it.

If you voted for this guy, and I know it’s hard for anyone to admit that they were wrong, it’s time to swallow your pride and save your country.

1,066.7 miles to go.

Day340 Thursday 08/04/11

http://www.standard.net/stories/2011/08/01/obama-turns-50-amid-debate-over-debt

ran 3.3 miles

Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 22% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 40% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -18.

• Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 54% disapprove.

• Only 14% believe America is generally heading in the right direction. This is a staggering disappointment. Confidence in the direction our president and Congress is leading us was 17% last week, 21% the week before, and 25% the week before that. This week’s 14% is the lowest since the week before Barack Obama won the 2008 election. Nearly three years later and we have come back full circle, minus trillions more tax dollars wasted.

• Just 22% of Americans approve of the debt ceiling deal. Republicans and unaffiliated voters are overwhelmingly opposed while Democrats are nearly evenly divided.

• If given the choice to keep or replace the entire Congress, 62% of voters would get rid of them all and start over. Only 15% would keep them.

• New low: Only 6% think Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

• Election 2012: Generic Republican 47%, Obama 42%

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 43%, Democrats 39%

Hope and change. As we near three years of Obama’s presidency it is hardly even necessary to study American sentiments are to comb over daily news. Things are bad and getting worse and it can no longer be blamed on others.

Barack Obama’s fiftieth birthday brought with it an avalanche of bad news. The gains of the entire year have been compromised, epic lows comparable to Jimmy Carter are being cited, unemployment is as steady as ever, and our president is hosting a birthday campaign dinner at a rate of $36,800 per couple. Do these wealthy contributors who will be attending Obama’s birthday fundraiser read any news? Have they kept up with what his ideas are and what he is campaigning on? In what world does it makes sense to contribute $36,800 to a presidential candidate who wants to take $3,680,000 more from them in taxes? Would they give him $368,000 if he offered to take $36,800,000 from them in taxes? Where is the logic?

1,068.9 miles to go.

Day339 Wednesday 08/03/11

ran 3.3 miles

Chapter 17

Amidst the noise and wind of the helicopter had come a swarm of vehicles surrounding Woodard’s car. This had been very, very planned. The same thought had permeated in Jonas’, Erica’s, Thomas’ and Mason’s mind all at once.

“We should have killed you and thrown you in a dumpster,” Mason grunted in Ben’s direction.

But it was too late.

After the smoke had cleared and the noise had stopped, Jonas and Anna were put in two separate vehicles. Black cloth bags over their heads had swallowed the world around them.

This they knew: Ben, the traitorous informant who should have been shot earlier, was now shot and dead. Michael Woodard had barrel rolled out of the car and fled. That left two. Two more shots had been fired.

This they assumed: Thomas and Mason were dead. It was reasonable to assume they had been executed on the shoulder of an interstate in Americanadexico like common drug dealers or fugitive rapists.

This they foresaw: Torture. Humiliation. Atonement. Recantation. Dissolution. Death. And any other words imaginable to what the leaders of a world spinning out of control are capable of when they are so desperate to perpetuate a path toward a dead end rather than just turning around and finding their way back to common sense.

Before Thomas was ripped out of Woodard’s vehicle by the storm of continental police he had known what the outcome was to be. His revolver was loaded and he was determined to go down in a blaze. He looked Mason in the eyes and they shared a moment few other human beings have ever shared or will ever share. A tear rolled down Mason’s rigid cheek. It was not a tear of fear or cowardice. It was moistened bravery and respect between two men who were about to meet their end after taking out as many of the enemy as they could first.

Mason extended his hand to Thomas and they shook on death. Their grip was tight and they met eye to eye without one single word. Erica turned to Thomas. She whispered in his ear, “Carmen. My name is Carmen. Thank you, Thomas.”

The siege was quick. Thomas did not even have time to pull his trigger. Mason was shot in the back of his head. In his hands were two North American officers’ necks. It was over.

Jonas was in a black Lincoln Union with tinted windows and Erica was behind him in an identical model. They sat in two separate backseats with identical black cloth bags over their heads as though they were on their way to visit an executioner. They both knew that was going to be the end destination. But first, there was to be torture, humiliation, atonement, recantation and dissolution. And any other dark ideas that came to their minds.

Erica had always thought about this day. She had wondered how she would have reacted. She and Jonas had decided long ago that their cause was worth fighting and dying for. Through belief and commitment they had hardened themselves and established acceptance of any circumstance. They could accept any circumstance as long as it was in the name of their dead country, America, being resurrected.

The first night Jonas was reunited with Carmen they had stayed up all night talking. They did not talk about their long ago past with one another. They spoke of things red, white and blue. They discussed topics spangled with stars. They talked about men from nearly 250 years ago who had founded the idea of America, which was now dead. And lastly, they pretended to be captured one day and to suffer all of the punishments Americanadexico could possibly inflict upon them.

Jonas had said, “If, or I should say when, they do catch me I will tell them that I have my God and I have my country and that they have neither. After that I imagine they will beat me nearly to death to convince me otherwise. But they will convince me of nothing. I would like to sing something that screams ‘America’, which they would never understand, like some Don McLean, whenever they put a gun to my head. Can’t you just see it? They would have a gun pressed to my temple screaming, ‘Your country never was! America was a failure! This is Americanadexico and you are a dead treasonous rat!’ And then the coward with a gun in his hand would say, ‘Confess.’ And I would then sing like a madman.”

Carmen had laughed. That’s what he called her when they were alone, Carmen. He put his hand over hers and told her that everything was going to be all right,

“Jonas, I’m terrified. I would never show it, not even to a firing squad. But I’m terrified. What happened to us? What happened to this country? Why are people so content to be slaves? This continent is like a plantation from the old south and the government is the slave master. Why do people want to sit so idly and slowly die with no sense of challenge, risk or accomplishment? How did Capitalism turn into Communism and why does nobody talk about it?”

“It’s numbers, Carmen. I don’t know what went wrong or when it happened, but all of a sudden those who lacked all ambition, those who bathed in laziness, those who only worked hard to breed with complete irresponsibility, creating more and more misguided mouths to feed, multiplying welfare and food stamp recipients at the price of everything that was once good and noble in this country being utterly robbed and destroyed, health care paid for by so few and given to so many at absolutely no cost to the squandering, ungracious majority…it’s just numbers, Carmen. Those who destroyed America kept our democracy, a system where the majority of voters wins elections, in place until it was no longer necessary. The new majority no longer cared. Nor did they know or care about the history of how America had began.

What I find to be a reasonable and responsible member of society is a couple who has an amount of children that is within their own means to pay for. They have jobs and the security to raise their reasonable amount of children to be intelligent and respectful children who hunger to find their own happiness in the future, whatever that may be. just as long as it is theirs and it was their choice to work for it. But what we have is millions upon millions of unreasonable and irresponsible individuals who do not contribute to society whatsoever. And their genuine belief that they are entitled to other peoples’ money through the vehicle of government checks is an injustice to themselves that they cannot even recognize. But that argument is useless now. The government gave and gave and gave, destroying Capitalism and American ambition, until the few who were paying for so many simply quit. So here we are. Broken, shattered, and powerless.

This is the new majority, Carmen. And the explanation is that they simply outbreed people like us every day by the thousands.”

Carmen laughed painfully to herself and said:

A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile...

Jonas, with his black cloth bag over his head, was in his Lincoln Union being interrogated and beaten. He was pistol-whipped and threatened to soon publicly recant his ideas and his manifesto that he had written so long ago. The butt of a pistol struck Jonas square on top of his head. In his agony and humiliation he slowly lifted his head and began to sing in garbled syllables:

And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

Erica, blinded by black and terrified, tried to calm herself down.

“Don’t show the enemy any sign of fear. Be strong”, she kept repeating to herself.

“Erica, you are going to tell us your real name. You are going to tell us your name and everyone you know and then we are going to kill you. Your death will be a public execution. Jonas will die, too. But first we will turn you on one another. You will die hating Jonas Martin Cassidy and he will die hating…what is your real name?”

There was such calm in the tone of voice in the man who was speaking. Erica knew the words she had been hearing had come from the mouth of a ruthless, unmerciful monster.

“Breathe, Carmen, breathe”, she said over and over again in her head.

A fist suddenly shocked Anna’s left eye. In all of her blackness and in all of the blackness that was to come, Anna opened her black eyes and parted her black lips and began to sing in garbled syllables:

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

So bye-bye Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’ “This’ll…”

Blackness.

1,072.2 miles to go.

Day338 Tuesday 08/02/11

ran 4.1 miles
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally.”

“Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/debtlimits.asp

1,075.5 miles to go.

Day337 Monday 08/01/11

ran 3.5 miles

1,000 miles!!!

I broke 1,000 miles today! Pretty excited. I will be at the halfway point in a couple of weeks and it will be downhill from there as we get closer and closer to November 6, 2012. It’s been a long, challenging journey so far. Battling the mental and physical obstacles that come with any endeavor---goal versus risk, achievement versus failure, boldness versus fear, all of those elements that make us so passionate or idle about certain ideas and beliefs, these 1,000 miles have formed a firm foundation for me to stand on and explain with conviction why I think it is so critical for the future of America to not reelect Barack Obama. Thank you for reading and keeping up with the blog. I hope you will continue to follow the miles and the posts as we move closer to the intersection awaiting us in 2012.

Since today is a big milestone I thought I would do something different and share some stats about the blog and where the traffic has been coming from over the past year. Thanks for keeping up!
Thanks for reading!!!

1,079.6 miles to go.

Day336 Sunday 07/31/11

ran 2.6 miles
Today ends week forty-eight of running against Obama. I ran 18.0 miles this week, averaging 2.57 miles per day.

An agreement was reached on the debt ceiling tonight. The details are:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

1,083.1 miles to go.