Day558 Friday 03/09/12

ran 4.7 miles
I cannot imagine one single argument to defend Bill Maher, the hypocrisy of President Barack Obama (if he does not give back or donate this money elsewhere), or the double standard that exists between liberals and conservatives. Great video, ShePAC!

Here is a letter from ShePAC written to Bill Burton, cofounder of Priorities USA Action SuperPAC, who was (as recently as March 1, 2012) "promoting the views of a donor who referred to women in violent, hateful and derogatory ways: 

Dear Mr. Burton:

Having watched President Obama’s press conference yesterday afternoon we find ourselves in agreement with him regarding the inflammatory issues that have arisen in the media. We are sure we can all agree we have arrived at what the President might call a "teachable moment".

We were pleased to see Rush Limbaugh apologize for his incredibly unkind and insensitive remarks towards women during his recent radio broadcast. These types of remarks towards women have no place in public discourse – they are wrong, and offensive.

It was an important gesture that President Obama approved the time in his schedule to place a call to the woman to whom the offensive remarks were directed.  As parents of daughters ourselves, we were proud when we heard him say he took a personal stand on this issue with the hopes of always allowing his daughters the ability to have their own beliefs in the future.  President Obama said, "One of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on."

President Obama has categorically condemned this sort of language against any woman. We are calling on you today to put the President's words to action by condemning the equally egregious and despicable behavior of HBO talk show host Bill Maher.  Mr. Maher has a history of attacking women and recently attacked a host of women including a specifically violent attack at one woman who regularly, as the President says, “engages in the issues she cares about” and is a mother of three daughters and grandmother.

Mr. Maher, who disagrees with Sarah Palin's politics, has called her a litany of adjectives inappropriate to repeat in any setting and are of the most derogatory of terms reserved for only violent verbal hate crimes against women.  We understand that he has donated $1 million dollars of his personal money paid to him through various businesses that thrive on the ratings of his hate speech to your Priorities USA Action to aid in your efforts to re-elect President Obama.

President Obama eloquently stated today in his press conference that, "all decent folks can agree that the remarks that were made don't have any place in the public discourse.”

We are certain you agree with him, as do we that these types of remarks have no place in our society and the people that unapologetically make them must not be allowed to purchase a seat at the table of public discourse. Therefore, we are calling on Priorities USA Action and you to live up to the standard set by President Obama and take Mr. Maher’s million dollars and pay it forward.

Prove to American’s that your group is run by “decent folks” that President Obama speaks of. Donate this money to a charity of your choosing that focuses on supporting abused women and children.

We look forward to your action and joining with the President in ending hate speech against women.

Respectfully,

Teri Christoph, Co-Chair of ShePAC                      
Suzanne Haik Terrell, Co-Chair of ShePAC
Tim Crawford, Treasurer of ShePAC

365.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day193. 

Day557 Thursday 03/08/12

ran 4.0 miles

Barack Obama will be releasing a short movie in the coming days to promote his vision and his accomplishments. The trailer of propaganda above is a small taste of what to expect. "Bush this", "Bush that", and at the very end "I killed Osama". Very creative.

The trailer below, however, is one I am anticipating with much more enthusiasm. I have posted about Ayn Rand and "Atlas Shrugged" often and Part 2 will be coming to theaters soon. This novel, which Rand wrote in the late fifties, addresses our current issues much more effectively as a book of fiction than our president and his counterparts do here in the reality of 2012.

Below is a speech from one of the main characters, John Galt. If you are unfamiliar with the novel this excerpt will give you a good idea of what it is about and how the story is comparable to our current times.

369.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day192.

Day556 Wednesday 03/07/12

ran 3.3 miles

The Breitbart video series began tonight on Hannity. I was disappointed with the minimal amount of footage that was released and I naively thought all the cards were going to be shown tonight, but it is better that they spread this story out.

As appalling as yet another radical association of Barack Obama’s is and how monumentally disappointing our mainstream media is at picking and choosing what to report and what not to report, the most disappointing element of what was revealed tonight and what will be exposed in coming days is the strong possibility that the current president of the United States of America could be proved to be something as preposterous as an alien from another galaxy, but I don’t believe for a moment that the approximate half of this country who wants him to serve another term will budge regardless of how controversial of a story makes its way to the surface.

On the other hand, an equal number of people in this country have deemed Barack Obama, including myself, and there is nothing he can say and no action he can make to change our minds from voting for anyone but him.

Between these two approximate halves is the small percentage (I would guess six or seven percent) that will decide this election. We have a nation almost completely divided and its fate will be decided by a small fraction of people who actually have the unique ability to somehow remain undecided among two completely opposite directions for the long-term future of America. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to straddle such a fence.

373.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day191.

Day555 Tuesday 03/06/12

ran 2.8 miles
Rush Limbaugh has some advertisers bending under pressure to discontinue advertising on his show due to a comment, in which he referred to the media’s latest sensation, Fluke, as a (this is a kid-friendly blog) poopie-head.

Calls for his resignation and the disgruntlement of his words have created uproar among certain people. Among others, Bill Maher’s constant use of (again, this is a kid-friendly blog) calling individuals like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman fart-head, cootie-pants, and stink-bucket is completely acceptable.

This double standard is unacceptable.

377.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day190.

Day554 Monday 03/05/12

1,700 miles!!!



ran 3.8 miles

379.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day189.

Day553 Sunday 03/04/12

Today ends week seventy-nine of running against Obama. I ran 23.2 miles this week, averaging 3.31 miles per day.

ran 3.2 miles
This book was written in 1958. You’ve probably never heard of it, but its tenets have been infiltrating America from our core outwardly in every direction for a very, very long time. Draw your own conclusion, but the parallels in 2012 with these ideas written in 1958 are undeniable.

“The Naked Communist”, written by former FBI agent Cleon Skousen, is the model that appears to be gaining momentum America.

The list you are about to read requires no arguments or convincing of what is happening to America right before our eyes. If you have a pulse this list of communist goals, which align with the current realities we face, should do no less than reset every perception of what you thought was really going on in America.

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.



383.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day188.

Day552 Saturday 03/03/12

ran 3.1 miles
From PBS.org, here is what some of the former members of the Weather Underground are doing now:








Laura Whitehorn
A former member of the Weather Underground, Whitehorn now lives in New York City and is active in a wide range of progressive causes.








Naomi Jaffe
A former member of the Weather Underground, Jaffe currently lives in Albany, New York, and is executive director of a foundation that supports women's activism.








David Gilbert
When the organization dismantled, Gilbert joined the Black Liberation Army and plunged deeper into revolutionary violence. He is currently serving a life sentence in New York’s Attica Correctional Facility for his role in a 1981 robbery gone awry, committed with his wife and fellow ex-Weatherman Kathy Boudin.








Brian Flanagan
A former member of the Weather Underground, Flanagan is currently a bar-owner in New York City.








Mark Rudd
Rudd was best known for his role in the 1968 Columbia protests. As part of the Weather Underground's leadership, he lived underground for several years during the 1970s. He now teaches at a junior college in New Mexico.








Bill Ayers
A central figure in the Weathermen, Ayers lived underground for ten years, an experience he wrote about in his memoir, Fugitive Days. Now married to Dohrn, Ayers is currently a school reform activist and a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.








Bernardine Dohrn
Part of the leadership of the Weather Underground, Dohrn was considered the organization’s figurehead. She spent the 1970s living underground and was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Today, Dohrn is an associate professor and director at Northwestern University's Children and Justice Center.



386.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day187.

Day551 Friday 03/02/12

ran 3.2 miles

The shocking news of Andrew Breitbart's death at the young age of forty-three on the day (March 1) that he was planning to release controversial videos of Obama's Harvard days, which he claimed would redefine the entire perception of the election we face in November, is like something right out of a best-selling novel filled with tragedy, a lot of questions, and much suspense.

To look at these series of events only on the surface, they appear far too connected to not acknowledge some sort of conspiracy or foul play. But, on the other hand, we get nowhere by assuming facts we do not know. This thing is going to play out over the next couple of weeks. As Michael Savage hinted at, after all of this build-up, if these videos are never shown and the whole thing blows over, then we all have that much more reason to lock our doors at night and be that much more careful about how far we are willing to go to take on Barack Obama and what is happening in America. If the videos are released and they prove to be as damaging as Breitbart claimed, then the dynamics of this presidential election may severely change.

Either one of these two outcomes will be epic, and it has to be one or the other. I'm not sure why this number of seven to ten days is necessary to release the videos when Breitbart was ready to do it yesterday, but I certainly hope they become public. Because if they don't, then we all ought to be very, very frightened by what lengths and measures are clearly being used in the arena of this dangerous political game.

389.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day186.

Day550 Thursday 03/01/12

ran 3.8 miles
On this day, in 1781, the Articles of Confederation were ratified. These Articles were signed by Congress and issued to each state on November 15, 1777, after sixteen months of deliberation and argument. Due to land claims between Virginia and Maryland the final ratification by all states took nearly four years. The Articles of Confederation are something you don’t hear about often but they were the first attempt at what is currently our United States Constitution.

Our current United States Constitution became law mere years later in 1789. The difference between the Articles and the Constitution are defined most easily by their opening statements.

Articles of Confederation:

“To all to whom these Present shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States…”

U.S. Constitution:

“We the people of the United States do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The Articles of Confederation had clearly set out to give states sovereignty, or the undisputed executive ability to make their own decisions regardless of what directions fellow states took.

Articles of Confederation, Article II:

"Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled."

America had overthrown its own government for a second time in a little over twenty years. What had began as a confederation of sovereign states had quickly turned into a federal government of sovereign people.

In that brief period of time, America went from serving a sovereign king, to freely living in sovereign states, to freely living as a united sovereign people under a federal government.

It is interesting to note how history tends to repeat itself. Here in 2012, under President Barack Obama, many states are independently seeking to utilize what sovereignty they have left to avoid some of his more controversial legislation. The health care act has more than half of the states in America seeking an interstate compact to avoid Obama’s one-size-fits-all plan. The contraception mandate has an equal amount of states scrambling to define their own sovereign positions on the issue.

King George enraged the American colonies to seek independence and Americans formed a new government model on the foundation of states making their own decisions. Soon after, American leaders found more virtue in an equally united people under a federal government. And here we are now, divided as can be, with one handful of states doing everything they can to avoid some of the decisions the federal government is mandating and the others fully supporting the key legislation of the last three years.

Under President Obama, the Articles of Confederation look like a great idea to a great many, just as independence did from King George.

393.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day185.

Day549 Wednesday 02/29/12

18 months of running against Obama!!!

ran 3.0 miles
Barack Obama’s Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, put his foot in his mouth today claiming to a House committee that the Obama administration has no interest in lowering gas prices.

Our president, making the best of a good crisis, seems to look at $5.00/gallon gas as a plus, $8.00 and $9.00/gallon gas even better, which he believes creates incentive to utilize alternative energies, an obvious agenda of his. When asked about the inflation of gas prices recently our president responded by recommending that we incorporate pond scum, or algae, into the American energy plan.

The denial of the Keystone pipeline was a monumental mistake that forfeited tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenues, and a broad step further toward energy independence.

Our president has no interest in lowering gas prices. For him, the higher the cost the better to push his agenda. Yet, the importance he gave to the payroll tax cut extension, which gives an average of forty extra dollars to American households per month, was treated with severity.

How much money would you save per month if gas was $2.50/gallon again? I can tell you I would save about…$53.00/month, and my trip to work each day is less than ten miles. If you’re a commuter than this payroll tax extension is even further insignificant to the larger priority of lower gas prices.

Hurry up, November!

396.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day184.

Day548 Tuesday 02/28/12

ran 3.3 miles
This is the best idea I have seen in a long time and the first thing I am going to do tomorrow is purchase a few stacks of post-it notes. I am going to scribble and stick these things everywhere and I encourage you to do the same.

This is as grassroots as it gets. If you want to get involved, remain anonymous, and express how you feel, go to a store and buy a pad of post-it notes and stick them on anything that moves you.

Gas stations, grocery stores, libraries, malls, restaurants…there is no end.

And, just to fully convey to what extent how disappointing the direction our country is heading under Barack Obama, what sort of message would his supporters write on these post-it notes to promote his re-election?

I can’t think of one.

399.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day183.

Day547 Monday 02/27/12

ran 3.6 miles
Stats and polls from RasmussenReports:

• 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. This is the lowest rating in over a month.

• Overall, 45% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 53% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Romney 45%, Obama 43%

• Paul 43%, Obama 41%

• Obama 45%, Santorum 43%

• Obama 49%, Gingrich 39%

In a poll conducted today from TheWashingtonFreeBeacon, they found that an overwhelming majority of voters think the rich already "pay their fair share".

“The big majority opted for a lower tax bill when asked to choose specific rates; precisely 75 percent said the right level for top earners was 30 percent or below. The current rate for top earners is 35 percent. Only 4 percent thought it was appropriate to take 40 percent, which is approximately the level that President Obama is seeking from January 2013 onward.”

The Associated Press and a Pew poll surveyed the same topic recently and found a completely contradictory result. November 6, 2012, will be the only way to settle these opposing numbers.

403.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day182.

Day546 Sunday 02/26/12

ran 3.2 miles
Today ends week seventy-eight of running against Obama. I ran 21.1 miles this week, averaging 3.01 miles per day.

Unbelievable.

How about “Whites for Paul”? Or “Caucasians for Romney”? What about “Americans of European Descent for Santorum”? Or “Anglo-Saxons for Gingrich”?

This is the battle we are entrenched in. Our president has been shamelessly engaging in class warfare and now he is deploying racial warfare on a one-way road. None of the Candidates in line to win a shot at Barack Obama would ever ask an entire minority or majority to vote for them. Everything about this is wrong, yet our president employs these un-American, desperate tactics to ensure his journey to his cliff’s edge.

America has been divided right up the middle under Barack Obama. Along the lines of figuratively examining this end he is after, to divide America, let’s assume we could literally divide this country in half. Everyone who plans on voting for Obama gets one side and everyone who plans on voting for anyone on Earth besides Obama gets the other half. What side would you want to be on?

On the one side, Barack Obama could take all the money from the wealthiest who chose to be on his side and redistribute it properly to those who voted for him, they could manufacture solar panels and electric car batteries, refine algae for energy, and they could live happily on their twenty-five state unicorn farm. On the other side, those who would be happy to elect anyone else but Obama could happily live their lives in the other twenty-five states without the infection of communism.

Just wishful thinking, but it goes to show that if you could divide America in two and compare Barack Obama’s half to anyone but Barack Obama’s half, one side would clearly thrive and the other would not. Does it take that much common sense to figure out who is who?

406.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day181.

Day545 Saturday 02/25/12

ran 6.2 miles
Another green company, A123 Systems (an electric car battery company), has recently laid off 125 employees after receiving $390 million in government subsidies. That is not very surprising, but what is disappointing is that the company is handing out raises to the company executives at the same time.

Just one more small notch on the giant chart of things in America that make absolutely no sense.

I ran a 10k in Houston today and got my best time ever. 6.2 miles in 44:52 (7:13 per mile). Better than some, worse than others, but I am very happy with it. And it helps when I have a cause to run for like the removal of Barack Obama from the White House.

410.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day180.