Day701 Monday 07/30/12

23 months of running against Obama!!!

ran 3.4 miles

Standard & Poor's has awarded America with a AAA credit rating since 1941. Last August, our credit rating was lowered for the first time in American history. In that time, the United States of America has survived every other president, war, tragedy, epidemic, and economic season, but after two years of undeserving Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama as our president we were penalized with a credit rating downgrade to AA by S&P.

Just thought I would remind you of one of his many accomplishments you might have forgotten about. And, another reminder, remember November, 2010...when Obama was "shellacked" (the word he chose to describe the outcome of the midterm elections)? Voters took as many Democrats out of office as they could as a result of everything Barack Obama did in his first two years. What has changed? What has gotten better? I would expect no less of an outcome for this election cycle, yet Obama and Romney are neck and neck---and Congressional ballots are polling closely across the country. I don't know what has changed to allow Democrats the redemption that is reflected in the polls, but that is the thing about politics---they thrive on our short-term memories and promises for the future that candidates make but feel little necessity to uphold.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 107.6 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day336. 

Day700 Sunday 07/29/12

100 weeks of running against Obama!!!

ran 3.0 miles
Today ends 700 days and week 100 of running against Obama. I ran 22.5 miles this week, averaging 3.21 miles per day.

100 days left until the election. As we take inventory of the last four years under President Obama it is clear that America is not better off. Anything that might appear to be "better off" only seems that way because it was financed through loans from other countries or it was paid for by printing Monopoly dollars off the funny-money presses, which serve no long-term purpose other than to put America's youth and unborn children into debt they did nothing to incur.

The latest argument in Washington concerns the undecided fate of the Bush era tax cuts. They are set to expire on January 1, 2013, and both Republicans and Democrats are staring one another down waiting for the other to blink.

It appears to me that Republicans generally feel there is not a revenue problem in collecting enough tax dollars, but a spending problem in how those tax dollars are used. Conversely, I get the impression that Democrats will never be satisfied with any number of tax hikes and that they will continue to wastefully spend whatever sum of money it is they have on programs that put jobs and our economy behind less important issues.

Everyone seems to agree that if the Bush tax cuts expire it will make the figurative expression "jumping off the fiscal cliff" a reality. Our president wants to extend the tax cuts to all households making less than $250,000 per year, but he wants the cuts to expire on all earning above that figure. Republicans, obviously, want the tax cuts extended for all Americans.

Just as a note, if you refer to Day678, Rick Santelli explains that even if our president were to take one million dollars from each of the top 1% earners in America, it would barely be enough money to pay for one day of our federal government to simply function. As much money as that is, it is not even enough to scratch the tip of our national debt. All of this debate about raising taxes and extending tax cuts pales in comparison to the fact that our government has a full-blown spending problem and addiction and it needs an intervention followed by at least four years of rehabilitation.

Obama has often said in the past that this is no time to raise taxes. If it was "no time" then it certainly isn't time to raise taxes now. Our president's desire to raise taxes on top earners follows the narrative of his speech in Virginia, the infamous "you didn't build that" speech. It is class warfare he is waging and he is successfully dividing America in two. 

Two Americas cannot coexist in the same time and space and on November 6, 2012, one of the two emerging Americas is going to disappear for a very long time. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 104.2

Here is what happened one year ago on Day335.

Day699 Saturday 07/28/12

ran 3.2 miles 

Nice little propaganda piece for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London. While they have the world's greatest athletes in town to compete with one another, why not go ahead and promote nationalized health care? I don't see what one has to do with the other, but the English are apparently quite proud of their government-run health care. 

Good for them. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 101.2 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day334.

Day698 Friday 07/27/12

ran 0.7 miles

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 98.0

Here is what happened one year ago on Day333.

Day697 Thursday 07/26/12

ran 4.1 miles 

Just a thought---could it be possible that the pride so many Americans feel for their country and the dignity they live their lives with, abiding by the Constitution that the founders of our nation brilliantly designed, have overlooked the chance that perhaps at some point those who are governed may eventually simply find their way and discover government to be nothing more than an obstacle to the freedom they were guaranteed? And is it possible that the reason our current government is such an obstacle placed in front of everything America stands for a result of its people largely no longer needing them in the capacity they once had? 

Our federal government has grown bitter over the years as Americans have needed it less and less. And, considering that the federal government draws its strength from making people dependent upon it, it has done everything in its power to increase that deceitful sense of dependency. Who, then, is the federal government's greatest domestic enemy? 

Anyone who succeeds. Anyone who achieves their dreams. Anyone who did anything without the help of the federal government is the federal government's enemy. 

Barack Obama has made that abundantly clear. His comment in Virginia about "...you started a business? you didn't build that...someone else did...", or however it was he worded the unclear message---that is our president pitting those who made better use of the roads and bridges he is describing against others who made less use of them. And the advantage he has in pissing off every small business owner in America, as opposed to all others, is that there is one small business owner for every one or two hundred potentially disgruntled voters in America who do not own a business. 

He doesn't care about the red, white, and blue blood, sweat, and tears that went into the businesses that driven individuals established and then made into thriving businesses employing tens, and then hundreds, and then thousands, business by business. They are a small minority on the voting block and so they are disposable. For every business owner he loses a vote from he is going to gain 200 aimlessly, uninformed votes. That is Barack Obama's America. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 97.3 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day332.

Day696 Wednesday 07/25/12

ran 3.6 miles 

Clever idea and great video brought to you by the Republican Party Animals at CounterContempt.com. Great site, check it out! Here's one more video from their site:

 
2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 93.2

Here is what happened one year ago on Day331.

Day695 Tuesday 07/24/12

ran 4.5 miles 

Nice ad, Senator Brown. In case you don't recognize the face of the woman in the video it's Elizabeth Warren, who is running against Scott Brown in Massachusetts. She was saying the same cockamamie message last year that President Obama is now saying---the whole "you didn't build that, someone else did" slogan. 

That turned out to be a real winner. Let's see how many other Democrats are going to go out on the front line using that as campaigning material. In closing, here is a video of one of the left's sweetest and most lovable, mild-mannered masters of buffoonery: Howard Dean  

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 89.6

Here is what happened one year ago on Day330.

Day694 Monday 07/23/12

ran 3.4 miles

For a long time I have been asking, "What is the definition of the middle class?"

We always hear our president referring to this faction of Americans with this broad label but you have to wonder who exactly it is he is speaking about. I consider myself middle class but very little of what our president has to say resonates with me. Does that mean I am not part of the middle class? At what point of not earning does a household become poor and at what point of earning does a household ascend into the upper class? I don't think there is an official number on either end of the spectrum because so much fluctuates in our economy and our costs of living. I cannot answer what sum of money propels a household from middle class to upper class, but I did find this information on what defined being poor in 2010.

"In 2010, the poverty level was $22,314 for a family and $11,139 for an individual. It excludes capital gains or accumulated wealth, such as home ownership, as well as non-cash aid such as food stamps and tax credits, which were expanded substantially under President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

An additional 9 million people in 2010 would have been counted above the poverty line if food stamps and tax credits were taken into account.

The Associated Press reportedly surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965."

TheBlaze/AP, Erica Ritz

An estimated 47 million Americans were "poor" last year. That is approximately one out of every six people in America, not even including food stamp and tax credit recipients.

This isn't progress. This is enabling a large portion of our population who take advantage of the safety nets we have set up for families in hard times. The tax dollars financing these safety nets are worth every penny if they are actually necessary but many people take advantage of our system and Barack Obama does nothing to address the abuse but, instead, feeds it with more and more tax dollars earning himself the title of "Food Stamp King". 

Wasteful government spending is setting America's economy on its head and the biggest shame about Barack Obama and his theme of "hope" and "change" is that if he would ever pull back the reigns on any of this spending that he has wasted for the past four years he wouldn't stand a chance of getting reelected. The man is an enabler. Much of this nation has an addiction to the sensation of feeling like a victim when they are nothing of the sort. Our president is their dealer of false hope and the stuff he is dealing (other people's money) is eventually going to run out, sooner rather than later.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 85.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day329.

Day693 Sunday 07/22/12

ran 3.3 miles

Today ends week ninety-nine of running against Obama. I ran 23.3 miles this week, averaging 3.33 miles per day.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 81.7

Here is what happened one year ago on Day328.

Day692 Saturday 07/21/12

ran 3.2 miles

There are some things about James Holmes' reign of terror that don't add up. I'm not suggesting anything one way or another and you can draw your own conclusions, but here is what I find curious:

How does a human being have the capacity to open fire on hundreds of innocent people packed into a virtual sardine can, then simply flip the switch and casually step back outside, lay down the weapons, and calmly surrender to police...and then warn those police that his apartment is filled with highly explosive booby-traps? If Holmes was in the mindset to kill, which he obviously was, wouldn't a massive explosion back at his apartment that was caused by someone simply opening his front door be the ultimate climax to his sick plan? But, he warned them---why?---and all of this behavior coming from a quiet guy with exceptional academic discipline and intelligence.

This is a quote from the NewYorkTimes from Billy Kromka, a pre-med student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who worked with Holmes for three months last summer as a research assistant in a lab at the Anschutz Medical Campus: "It was just shocking, because there was no way I thought he could have the capacity to commit an atrocity like this." There are countless quotes like this from acquaintances all expressing the same utter disbelief. The severity of his crime just doesn't add up to the toll of misery necessary for a man to commit an action like this.

The booby-traps were described by the bomb squad as "sophisticated" and as "something they had never seen". Aside from the top-shelf ballistic gear he was wearing in the theater, one rifle, two handguns, a knife, a bullet proof vest, a ballistic helmet, a gas device, a gas mask, military SWAT clothing and unidentified explosives were also found in Holmes’ car---this guy was a college student with no job who was collecting unemployment checks. Estimates are at $20,000 for what it cost him to purchase all of the gear between his apartment, vehicle, and what he donned in the theater (much of his gear and explosives are not things you find readily available in your local Wal-Mart or even in specialized shops). And, where did he gain the knowledge to design an elaborate maze of booby-trapped explosives throughout his apartment that bomb squad veterans had never seen the sophistication or likes of? How did he pay for all of this stuff and how did he become such a bomb expert with no help from anyone?

Here's the clincher: In one week, Barack Obama is set to sign the UN global small arms treaty that could result in gun confiscation across America. Even though the NRA has 58 Senators who have pledged to vote against it, if Harry Reid does not bring it to the Senate floor for a vote, which he will not,  then America's second amendment is bound to the United Nations by Barack Obama's signature. The only way to reverse our president's decision to rip this section out of our Constitution is to vote him out and have Romney renounce the treaty, which he would, and/or get a Republican majority in the Senate so the issue can be brought to a vote.

The timing of all this is eerie. I'm not going to say it but you'd be naive not to question it.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 78.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day327.

Day691 Friday 07/20/12

ran 3.4 miles

First comes the shock, then the anger, and then the blame. It is a tragedy what happened today. The events that unfolded today in Colorado's first hour in that movie theater are beyond imagination. But, at the risk of sounding insensitive to the immediate loss of life suffered today, stolen away by this demented individual, this event is going to lead to a lot of second amendment discussions in the coming weeks. Should Americans have the right to bear arms or should they not?

This is a very divided issue and the government gears are grinding ever closer to abolishing our second amendment rights in America. I support the right to own a gun and I thoroughly encourage as many Americans as possible to utilize this Constitutional right. 

As much as our parents, our upbringings, our American way of life, and our government want to assure us that we are absolutely safe and that life is an experience with no perils or dangers, it is naive to assume that things like this cannot happen to you. The only solution is to be prepared and to be capable of defending yourself when psychos like this cross your path. As Americans, we have insurance policies on just about everything in our lives that could possibly go wrong. Having the ability to defend yourself in unexpected, chaotic situations like what happened in Colorado is an insurance policy that a vast majority of Americans completely disregard.

There are many gun owners who often emerge as heroes for being armed in a situation that they did not anticipate but felt the need to defend themselves from and to protect others from should it emerge, but those stories are not often reported because they are not filled with tragedy like the story we are all reading and hearing about today.

There is nothing proper or correct to say after a day like this. Makes you realize just how precious life is and how quickly and meaninglessly it can be snatched away.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 75.2

Here is what happened one year ago on Day326.

 

Day690 Thursday 07/19/12

ran 3.3 miles  

Take your foot out of your mouth, Mr. President, and walk in a direction that doesn't have you so cornered by your own first term that you cannot even keep your composure while trying your hardest to deliver a message that makes one single iota of American sense. The way the Democrats are trying to spin this verbal diarrhea that slipped uncontrollably out of our president's mouth is similar to a child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He's going to tell you he was doing something completely different, even though crumbs are all over his hand and the cookie is in his mouth, but, let's face it, he's a kid and a cookie was what he wanted.

This is Barack Hussein Obama. Liberal pundits claim his words were taken out of context (even though they were direct quotes), they say his message was misinterpreted (even though none of his words were minced or dubbed over), and their best claim is that he was actually referring to "this" or "that", but the message was not succinct.

The only legitimate argument to counter the words that came out of our president's mouth is to suggest that his misplaced, choppy use of forming sentences and placing emphasis in the wrong part of his rambling, fragmented message may or may not have been up to par and that his message might have been misconstrued. This is Barack Obama we are talking about, he doesn't get nervous or deliver vague messages. He says what he means and he's extremely good at it. And, in this particular case he has once again said exactly what he meant. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 71.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day325.

Day689 Wednesday 07/18/12

ran 3.4 miles

"Nobel Peace Prize? You didn't earn that."

"Harvard Degree, Obama? You didn't earn that."

“Let me be clear – I did not get this Connecticut Social Security number on my own — I had help from people along the way.”

"Fake Hawaiian birth certificate? You didn’t build that!"

(Comments and images from MichelleMalkin.com)

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 68.5

Here is what happened one year ago on Day324.

Day688 Tuesday 07/17/12

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ran 3.3 miles 

Every once in a while I'll hop across the aisle and see what's going on in Leftopian media. This segment with Ed Schultz and Van Jones just claimed 6 minutes and 20 seconds of time I will never get back. Proceed with caution if you hit play.

The words that come out of our president's mouth are nothing less than shocking and he is only going to turn the voltage up as we get closer to the election. 111 days away. The lunatics are running the asylum and we haven't seen anything yet.

This is one comparison I like to make regarding a hardcore Obama-backer and a resolute anybody-but-Obama voter: If a group of fundamental conservatives were ever to suggest that extreme liberals ought to just take a portion of this country, pick whatever conglomeration of states you would like, and go execute your political beliefs free of Republican restraint and independent of influencing those Republicans---they would be up in arms and calling Republicans every name in the book---accusing them of everything in their playbooks.

However, if a group of fundamental liberals were ever to suggest that extreme conservatives ought to just take a portion of this country, pick whatever conglomeration of states you would like, and go execute your political beliefs free of Progressive restraint and independent of influencing those liberals---I think they would smile and simply say "okay".

Barack Obama has this nation divided right down the middle. I would call him a success for achieving that. But that is clearly no way to run a country or to lead a nation into its future. This idea of socialism or communism, or whatever -ism you want to use, is a recurring theme in human history all over the world. It sucks people in like a vacuum but it just doesn't work---and the people who perpetuate it are either bent on the destruction of America or they are insane. Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For generations we have been fighting communism and sacrificing American lives to ensure it does not spread. We have now come full circle. Our president has brought the enemy onto our own soil and propagandized it in such a way that nearly half of this nation believes it, utterly disregarding everything America was intended to be. For me, the saddest part of this all is the fact that Barack Obama's solutions have been proven historical failures and they have failed even during his own term, yet the ideas he expresses behind his podium are accepted by so many as answers. It is going to be difficult to get out of the mess we are in, but an internal alarm should ring in every American's heart and head when they hear their president asserting that tax increases, wealth redistribution, stimulus packages, and the printing of Monopoly money from the Federal Reserve are the answers to our problems. Our government wasting less time and money is the answer to our problems.

You could give this president every tax hike he desired. He would waste it and America would be worse off. He could apply all of it to our national debt and it would not even make a dent. That is something the news doesn't mention. Most of the information and the issues we hear about and see on the news is absolutely futile. Do we raise the debt ceiling or don't we? Do we increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans or don't we? Do we nationalize the health care industry or don't we? It's all distractions. From what, I don't know. But our president does. You can take all of the major issues surrounding this upcoming presidential election, roll them up into a big ball, and place them next to our national debt and they would not even tip the scale. Yet, the news provided to us rarely ever mentions, except in passing, how devastating this one particular catastrophe is. What else is there to even talk about if the American economy sinks like the Titanic? 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 65.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day323.