Day109 Thursday 12/16/10

ran 3.4 miles

• Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 41% strongly disapprove, making an Approval Index rating of –17, compared to –14 on this day last week.

• Overall, 47% of voters at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president and 53% disapprove.

• Just 23% of American voters believe the country is heading in the right direction, the lowest total since Barack Obama took office.

• American voters, when asked if they would reelect someone who voted for the health care law, reflected poll results of 43% who felt they deserved reelection and 50% felt they did not. When asked about the reelections of those who voted for the taxpayer bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, 36% believed that decision deserved reelection and 53% did not. Along the same trend, 41% of American voters feel their congressional representatives should be reelected if he or she voted for the stimulus plan, while 50% feel they should not be reelected.

It’s as though November 2 was completely ignored by our lawmakers. They did not perceive the statement we voters made, or they just ignored it. I posted a quote yesterday from one of the world’s most significant figures and greatest philosophers, Plato, and in four small words he spoke a voluminous truth that applies now to us just as it did to him and his society nearly 2,500 years ago.

“Your silence gives consent.”

Our politicians walk all over us and our president is not leading by example to change the corrupted protocol of Washington. His philosophy appears to be rooted in the idea that words, which are spoken at one time, mean nothing at another time. I agree, enthusiastically, with extending the Bush tax cuts, but some of the legislation attached to this bill contradicts progress. These decisions are all being crammed into a Senate and House that are about to undergo a significant shift in power once the candidates we voted for are sworn in and the incumbents we fired clean out their offices. The interim between those leaving Washington and those voted in is obviously too long and could use some revising.

Obama swore to let Bush tax cuts expire on every family earning more than $250,000. He lied to the people who voted for him and he appeased the populous that did not vote for him. Now, the Omnibus Appropriations plan, the next tarred feather in Barack Obama’s cap, will cost $8.3 billion and it includes 6,714 earmarks. Another thing Obama swore to end during his campaign was earmarks. But it’s not only Barack Obama; it is all of Washington. We just held a mid-term election that sent a pretty clear message that we did not want to spend any more tax-payer’s money on unnecessary enterprises such as earmarks. Completely ignoring this message, a month and a half later Washington acts as though the election and our message meant nothing.

“Your silence gives consent.”

1,814.6 miles to go.

Day108 Wednesday 12/15/10

ran 4.6 miles

• “What country is suffering from too much freedom of speech? Name it, is there one?”

Julian Assange

Assange makes a valid point and argues a debatable message, but he overlooks the unspoken understanding we all have as human beings that sometimes certain things are better left unmentioned, whether in the full scope of international political relations or within the walls of any given one single household. I would feel somewhat presumptuous to assert that the freedom of speech may have some understood boundaries and rules of etiquette, and I would not be surprised by the fact that you would probably agree with me, although neither one of us would want to have the responsibility of defining what exactly “Freedom of speech” allows or may be limited to. What Julian Assange did was completely disregard the human lack of desire for unwavering, honest confrontation, which many of us tend to shy away from.

• “George Bush’s economic policies still offend my conscience and they still offend yours.”

Barack Obama

I cannot say it enough, that Obama’s legislation on continuing the Bush tax cuts to everyone, including the highest earners in America, is a complete contradiction of what he campaigned on. This is an action that needs to be remembered in 2012 when another candidate is running against him. Halting the tax cuts at $250,000 was a tenet of his proverbial coronation into the White House. So, at least one more time, I find it necessary to point out that he reneged on a huge promise to the people who voted for him, he succumbed to the voice of the people who did not vote for him, and many that had, on November 2, and he has proven that his audacious promises are only as good as his word, which has just been officially compromised.

“Your silence gives consent.”

Plato

1,818.0 miles to go.

Day107 Tuesday 12/14/10

ran 3.5 miles
On this day in history, in 1799, George Washington, esteemed by fellow soldier and Virginian Henry Lee as “First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen” died at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Rising to eminence by his own means, his first job at age seventeen was as a surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1752, he joined the British army and served as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War. Once the war ended, Washington left the army and returned to his newly inherited estate, upon the death of his older brother, in Mount Vernon. He served in the colonial House of Burgesses and, like many of his peers, grew more and more frustrated with colonial rule by the British government. It was not long before he joined his co-revolutionaries in the Continental Congress.

In 1775, the Continental Congress unanimously chose Washington to command the new Continental Army. His successes in Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown were necessary victories for the emerging nation. In 1789, due to the leadership he displayed during the war, Washington was elected the first American president under the new United States Constitution.

After facing competing factions within his own administration and attempting to set unwritten rules of conduct for future presidents, leading by example, he chose to resign in 1797 after two terms. Washington did not want to appear monarchical and exhibited a precedent of transferring power peacefully and under a set limit of terms.

Washington contracted a severe respiratory infection on December 13 and died the next day. His last words were “Tis well”. The first president of the United States was eulogized by friends and political foes, alike, both at home and abroad. Even King George III of England referred to Washington as the “Greatest character of the age”. In his will, Washington referred to himself humbly as “George Washington, of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States”.

1,822.6 miles to go.

Day106 Monday 12/13/10

ran 3.2 miles
Today was a historic day in Barack Obama’s presidency and America’s future. Although our president will receive full credit for taking the initiative to extend the Bush tax cuts, it is important to realize that this decision would not have been made had American voters not shown up and spoken so loudly on November 2.

The Senate finally capitulated on the bill and here are some of the details about the compromise struck between apprehensive democrats and energized republicans:

• The bill will cost $858 billion, but, unlike Obama’s stimulus package, most of this spent money is instantly retained in the pockets of every working American. It is not Monopoly money and it rewards working Americans with money they earned and deserve to keep.

• The advancement of the bill required sixty votes and passed 83-15. Obviously, many Democrats who would rarely ever characteristically vote for a fiscal decision of this magnitude succumbed to its demands.

• The legislation will extend all expiring income-tax reductions through 2012. Barack Obama swore during his campaign that tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or more would expire. While it is a good decision for him to change his mind, it is also a great example of how unrealistic and radical his principles are. If he had committed to what he had promised his voters then America would have further spiraled down into more economic devastation and immense voter discontentment.

• The bill will cut payroll taxes by 2% during 2011 and extend unemployment benefits throughout 2011. Unemployment benefits are a sensitive issue surrounded by much debate. While many people take advantage of the system and grow accustomed to government handouts, losing all initiative to contribute to society, many others genuinely do need it for whatever amount of time it takes for them to get back on their feet.

• Companies will be allowed to write off 100% of their capital investments and dozens of other business tax breaks, which had expired in 2009, will be revived.

The bill has yet to be enacted but if it passes it will be a huge victory for American voters and conservative ideals. There are only a little more than two weeks left in December and if action is not taken by the end of the month then the Bush tax cuts will automatically expire, and that is highly unlikely to happen. Put a point on the board for American voters!

1,826.1 miles to go.

Day105 Sunday 12/12/10

ran 0.0 miles
Today is my fifteenth week of running against Barack Obama. I could only muster a mere three miles this week, but my leg is slowly feeling better each day. In lieu of running this week I was able to visit a doctor and I also had my running gait analyzed, gaining some valuable insight on my form and what type of shoes I should be running in. For any avid runner, it is surprising how many minute details revolve around the dynamic relationship of bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons in the leg when they are all pummeling asphalt day after day.

I highly recommend Tri-Running, here in Lafayette, to any runner seeking solutions for pain in their legs or to anyone looking for shoes or accessories that conform to your personal build and needs. I purchased a new pair of shoes, which I am pretty excited about, and plan on hitting the streets again soon. I have almost forty miles of running I need to catch up on from the past two weeks and every day I don’t run from this day forward increases my deficit.

Officially, I ran 3.0 miles this week, bringing my total amount of miles run to 250.7, averaging 2.39 miles per day over the last 105 days.

I’ll be seeing a sports therapist this week and hopefully he can bend and tweak whatever it is that needs attention in my leg, then back to the streets. My budget has suffered a troubling deficit but I will, one day at a time, work towards rebalancing it and then creating a surplus as we move closer to November 6, 2012, the presidential election that has stoked every ember in my heart and mind to get Barack Obama voted out of office.

1,829.3 miles to go.

Day104 Saturday 12/11/10

ran 0.1 miles

At times, more often than not, scrolling through the news of a country the size America has to print and air on a daily basis, I feel a great tedium, a general lack, and an overall inability towards everything, to be specific. I think a lot of people have an intuitive feeling that either something good is gone or that something bad is coming. It is difficult, though, to articulate what exactly burdens each and every man and woman in this country when our leader is such a seasonal conformist to political weather. If it’s hot then find some shade; if it’s cold then light a fire. It’s not so simple, as November 2 has made abundantly clear.

I chose to not even look at the news or to read articles today because they are as informative and productive as staring at the hour and minute hand on a clock; you will never see either move, yet time passes far faster than we can even comprehend.

We all naturally, and with every right, focus on our own lives; our spouse’s needs; our children’s needs---but an immense obligation rests upon the shoulders of everyone, regardless of circumstance, prosperity or disparity, to keep this country the amazing, fortuitous, opportune, free, benevolent, unified, fair, just, democracy that it was meant to be.

For Barack Obama there is no compass to sense his direction. If November 2 had favored his agenda then he would be implementing incomprehensible “Change” to this country, which I and like-minded others would abhor as unconstitutional. But, because November 2 was such a victory, he is now, finally, acting like a president who is actually making some effort, if only little, to make decisions that actually make sense.

With that being said, by the time November 6, 2012 arrives and we hopefully elect a new president, I would like to implore you to remember two years before, which would be right now, that this president not only intended to turn your interpretation of America upside-down but, when confronted with the reality of American voters on November 2, recanted on what he believed in so passionately and conformed to what would get him re-elected.

What is worse? The leader of the most prosperous nation in the world attempting to destroy prosperity or a leader who halfway through, wreaking as much destruction as he could muster, all of a sudden decides that maybe the American people were right and that maybe he sort of does not deserve to be president because he has no experience worth mentioning besides being a Senator briefly and a Community Planner.

What I fear most, and I think you may agree, is the simple fact that he got elected to begin with, among such a populous that vehemently disagrees with his actions. If nothing else, his achievement of actually becoming President of the United States of America reflects a sleepy side to all of us that needs to wake up.

1,829.3 miles to go.

Day103 Friday 12/10/10

ran 0.0 miles

• Idaho was the forty-third state to join the union on July 3, 1890, seven days before Wyoming and one year after Washington.

• Population, as of 2009, is 1,545,801.

• Senators are Mike Crapo (R) and James E. Risch (R).

• Representatives are Walter Minnick (D) and Michael Simpson (R).

• Idaho has four electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted for republican presidential candidates since 1952, except for the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Reading news about the goings-on everyday in our nation’s capitol is one of the most counter-intuitive and taxing excesses I’ve ever pursued. While I can’t claim that I’m not somewhat entertained by many of the random congressional “Space Cadets” that step onto soapboxes as if they were starships, I can’t help but wish they would just shut up and quit behaving like children in a schoolyard quarreling over the ownership of a candy bar that belongs to America.

1,829.4 miles to go.

Day102 Thursday 12/09/10

ran 1.9 miles

• Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating reflects that 27% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of President Obama’s performance and 41% strongly disapprove, making an Approval Index rating of –14 compared to –17 on this day last week.

• Overall, 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president and 54% disapprove.

• Only 26% of American voters feel the country is generally heading in the right direction.

• For all the stories we hear in the news about Christmas trees being prohibited from the lobbies of businesses and “Happy Holidays” taking the place of “Merry Christmas”, here is an interesting statistic: 92% of Americans say they celebrate Christmas in their family and only 6% do not. If 6% of the people in America wanted to ban the phrase “God bless you” from being stated after anyone in America sneezed, would Congress legislate that? Would businesses threaten their employees with immediate termination if they were to say it because 6% of people in America wanted it that way?

Continuing to inundate headlines and amass indecision, the House of Representatives cannot seem to find a middle ground in which everyone can equally set aside their egos and do something useful concerning the Bush tax cuts. They are set to expire at the end of this year and a decision has to be made. First, Obama and his democrats were driven to end these tax cuts for every family making $250,000 or more, without compromise. Then, on November 2, America united together and spoke loudly showing Barack Obama that we were not interested in his plan to deconstruct our country and indebt our children and grandchildren. Now, Barack Obama wants to recant on his promise to end the Bush tax cuts, letting down all of the people who voted for him, and renew them for another two years, even to the highest earners in America. And, today, his democratic gears in the House of Representatives went against his wishes and did not sign the bill laid before them. In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, democrats chanted “Just say no” regarding the president’s intention to continue the tax cuts.

Barack Obama currently faces a nation divided, with a greater number of people who do not believe in him or his ideas, a House of Representatives whose democratic lawmakers are behaving mutinously against what he is attempting to do to save some face in the eyes of American voters, and he will soon face a surge of newly sworn in conservative lawmakers, some who were highly driven Tea party candidates elected with a demanding obligation to make some real change in Washington.

The communal wall that separates politicians and their unexplainable motives from American voters and their just wishes is currently Barack Obama’s greatest bone of contention.

1.829.4 miles to go.

Day101 Wednesday 12/08/10

ran 1.0 miles

• “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

Thomas Jefferson

• “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

Thomas Jefferson

• “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government---lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

Patrick Henry

Some of the decisions made in Washington this week stand as a monumental victory of American people over Barack Obama and radical liberal ideas. President Obama’s decision to extend the Bush tax cuts to everyone, including the wealthy is a really big deal! His pledge to end these tax cuts during his campaign were one of the most important pledges he had made to those who had voted for him. Not only has he blatantly let down the men and women who elected him, but he has also made a critical decision to do exactly what he, his democratic counterparts, and his voters did not want. He was forced to make this decision because of the votes Americans cast on November 2. We won, America. Barack Obama’s agenda was compromised because we stood up and voted against him. For him to pursue the direction he genuinely wants to follow, at this point, would be political suicide, and he knows that. There is no other reason he would do something so drastically logical and good for America like extending the tax cuts.

President Obama referred to the Republican House as terrorists who were holding…I’m not sure who they were holding; he did not specify---maybe Democrats or Americans, at large, as hostages. What an insensitive comment to make and a weak judgment to pass! If the president held any of the self-evident values of our Constitution as esteemed principles he would understand that our country and our politics are centered on a system of checks and balances. It has been made clear that America does not want what Obama is peddling and, ultimately, he has just been checked. Now he is licking his wounds and trying to find the balance. Was his sole credential, besides briefly being a senator, a job as a community planner or a community blamer?

This one fact demands stating. If it were not for an involved and proud nation of voters who are free to vote and free to express their opinions, and had this nation not exercised their freedoms and expressed their opinions on November 2, Barack Obama would be taking a very different direction than what he is being pulled by his ear to do right now.

1,831.3 miles to go.

Day100 Tuesday 12/07/10

ran 0.0 miles
On this day in history in 1941, Japanese dive bombers descended upon Pearl Harbor’s naval base on the shores of Oahu. The surprise attack of 360 warplanes bearing the symbol of the “Rising Sun of Japan” was a devastating blow against America, which drew our nation into World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors had suspected the attack was highly probable, but no action was taken to increase security or to anticipate the threat. At 7:02 a.m., two radio operators spotted large groups of aircraft advancing toward the island. It was assumed these incoming planes were friendly B-17s expected from the United States, so no alarms were sounded. The Japanese had a full element of surprise.

Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged. More than 200 American aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded while bravely responding to the attack.

The day after Pearl Harbor was attacked, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared December 7, 1941, as “A date which will live in infamy.” He requested Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for the war by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives signed the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The one dissenter was Representative Jeanette Rankin of Montana, an ardent pacifist who had also disapproved of America’s entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States.

Thank you for your bravery and your sacrifices, all veterans and active members of the United States military, for all you have done and continue to do to preserve freedom and to fight for America.

1,832.3 miles to go. I saw my doctor today and he informed me that nothing too serious seemed to be wrong with my knee or calf. He thinks I probably strained my calf muscle and only time can heal that. My leg feels better each day and I will be back to running soon. I definitely have some catching up to do!

Day99 Monday 12/06/10

ran 0.0 miles
Something you may not know…Congress agreed to extend unemployment benefits for another thirteen months. On the surface, that sounds humanitarian and every bit like a giving gesture any government should be obligated to do for its people, but if you happened to be collecting these benefits for the past two or three years, with no disabilities to claim, I’m sure the decision made today must be similar to the feeling a working man or woman has when he or she works everyday and gets a raise or a pat on the back, only it’s different, because a lot of people or content to do nothing but collect from the government---and, statistically, these are people who vote for liberal ideas.

I like to do things. I like to set personal goals and to achieve things. I like to be challenged. I appreciate what I earn and the thing I like least is to ask other people or my government for help. Unemployment checks are a useful commodity for any man, woman or family who is facing adversity for a patch of time, but to grow rooted to the soil of the government and the idle nutrients it supplements some people with, for years, is more of a crime than a charity.

In the spirit of not simply complaining, but presenting a solution, too, I propose a deadline and a set of contingencies for these unemployment benefits to expire. As the deadline nears and some certain mouths refuse to stop sucking upon the teat of the government, present drug tests and more stringently documented efforts of attempting to seek employment. If a person cannot meet the minimal demands of being a contributing member of society then they do not deserve our tax money. And if genuine effort is made to contribute to society but opportunity is simply unavailable, no judgment should be held over any man’s or woman’s head, and they should be able to receive every bit of aid they need until they do find an opportunity.

I am trying to tiptoe over strewn eggshells that, obviously, no politicians want to address with any real sense of validity. It is a sensitive topic but I think this one fact speaks for itself: Long time recipients of welfare or unemployment checks do not, statistically, vote for Republicans. That being said, conservative ideas are not insensitive to certain voters, they are designed with the intention to motivate Americans to succeed and to not sit idly by.

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day98 Sunday 12/05/10

ran 0.0 miles
Today marks fourteen weeks. I am really bummed about not being able to run this past week but all I can do is take it one day at a time. Especially on the eve of making one hundred continuous days of running, something unexpected like this is disappointing but there is no use in dwelling on events that are out of my control. I actually have a stat for this week. The last day I ran was Monday and I decided that if my leg still hurt after that then I would stop running and make an appointment with a doctor. I am seeing the doctor on Tuesday and my leg does not seem to be feeling much better, so I am eager to get closure on what exactly the injury is. This week, or on Monday alone, I ran 2.7 miles, bringing my total amount of miles run to 247.7, averaging 2.53 miles per day over the past ninety-eight days.

Check back on Tuesday and I’ll post about what my doctor has to say.

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day97 Saturday 12/04/10

ran 0.0 miles
I’m in New Orleans for the weekend with my wife and her family and it is absolutely beautiful; sunny, cold (the way December should be), and teeming with Christmas shoppers. We checked out the shops on Magazine Street, saw the Christmas lights at City Park, got snowed on at Harrah’s, and ate some awesome food (Café Maspero was my favorite).

However, there are a couple of curious things I saw here. One was a homeless man who walked up to us and asked, “Do you have any change because Obama doesn’t have any?”

The other thing I saw was Christmas trees…everywhere; the nerve of some people to impose such a symbol on others. They were in homes, in businesses, in front of buildings, and two that I saw were even ninety or a hundred feet tall. Real trees, artificial trees, white trees, green trees, red trees---they were everywhere scaring and intimidating people back into their homes.

Back to the homeless man, his appearance drew pity and I avoided even beginning to think of what the cold night still held for his suffering, but I found his approach to begging to be both a clever pun and representative of America’s sentiment towards Barack Obama and just how deceiving his entire campaign was. Even this desperate, homeless man was convinced two years ago that Obama’s change was going to trickle down into his own tin cup.

Back to the trees; those colorful, ornamented and glowing trees of religious oppression and intimidation, with their popcorn strings and candy canes, that so many malevolent Americans maliciously cut down and put in their houses and businesses for the sole purpose of continuing a beautiful tradition of peace, harmony, prayer, thankfulness, appreciation, gift-giving, and a holiday that illuminates every child’s imagination more than any other day of the year, while making the hearts of adults, even the angriest grinch’s, every once in a while, glow as a reminder of why we are all really here.

See what just happened there? I switched it up on you to place emphasis on how ridiculous this “Christmas tree” debacle and “Merry Christmas” ban in America has become. What ties this whole post together is some news I came across today out of Southlake, northeast of Fort Worth, Texas, in which a branch of Chase Bank was forced to remove a Christmas tree that was donated by a friend of the branch manager. The artificial tree was assembled and decorated on the Monday before Thanksgiving and taken down one day later. Some complaints were filed by customers of the bank apparently leaving Chase Bank with no choice but to remove the offensive monstrosity of age-old American culture.

Happy Holidays!

1,832.3 miles to go.

Day96 Friday 12/03/10

ran 0.0 miles

• Hawaii was the final state to join the union on August 21, 1959, seven months after Alaska.

• Population, as of 2009, is 1,295,178.

• Senators are Daniel K. Akaka (D) and Daniel K. Inouye (D).

• Representatives are Charles Djou (R) and Mazie Hirono (D).

• Hawaii has four electoral votes. Historically, the state has been blue since 1960 excluding the 1972 and 1984 elections (Nixon and Reagan). Hawaii is also the state Barack Obama was born in, which was a great source of speculation and controversy in his first year as president regarding the proper documentation to prove his birthplace.

It’s been two years since Obama has been in office and numbers that should be high are low and statistics that should be low are high. Unemployment is up to 9.8%. Debt is festering like an infected wound. Everything this man, our president, campaigned on was unrealistic.

The tide is rising and drowning Barack Obama’s credibility. I follow just enough news to keep my brain from taking on the form of peanut butter, and my mind is still tacit enough to point out that what is happening with his presidency is very interesting and equally predictable. The majority of people in this country are against the big decisions he’s made. What American people do want is what he does not want. Barack Obama is now faced with the difficult decision of swallowing his pride and letting conservative direction make a success of his presidency or to further push his agenda, which is inundated with statistics in all the wrong places.

Amidst all the crises roiling the United States, Obama made a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan today. Bravo on the gesture, but in what reality does it make any sense for our president to be jumping all over the globe in the span of one single month, after a midterm election that rejected his policies, when he is needed so urgently here? His actions over the past month suggest that foreign affairs are more important than the problems weighing on American soil.

1,832.3 miles to go. Today is the fourth day I haven’t run. It is disappointing, but I am going to see a doctor on Tuesday to figure out what is wrong with my leg.