Day200 Thursday 03/17/11

ran 3.9 miles
Today marks 200 days and 570.9 miles of running against Obama. Throughout this campaign of running for the sake of making Barack Obama a one-term president, my key arguments have dealt with his socialistic health care law, spending money that does not even exist on bailouts and stimulus packages, an idle stance on tightening immigration laws and addressing the paper-thin walls on our southern border, and his general disinterest in slashing our deficit combined with his inability to stop spending more “monopoly” money. How do you drain a deficit by pumping more debt into a budget?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy the video above and just imagine how much more debt we still have time to build up over Obama’s remaining two years. Want him for another four years after that?

Here are some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 21% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –20.

• Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 55% disapprove.

• Only 22% believe America is heading in the right direction. That is down 5 points from a week ago and the lowest total since Obama took office.

• Reaching its highest level since May of last year, 62% favor repeal of the health care law, including 51% who strongly favor repeal. Only 33% oppose repeal, with 24% who are strongly opposed.

1,509.1 miles to go.

Day199 Wednesday 03/16/11

ran 3.6 miles

Mitt Romney recently defended his efforts at health care reform during a speech in New Hampshire. He said his reform plan for Massachusetts, which included a mandate that required people to buy insurance, was a modest success. “Some things worked, some things didn’t, and some things I’d change,” he said. He also vowed to repeal President Obama’s health care bill if he ever got the chance.

Mitt Romney’s is a unique case as far as 2012 presidential candidates go. In one breath he vows to repeal ObamaCare but in the other he discusses the pros and cons of his own state’s health care system he had implemented, which is largely similar to Obama’s plan. In his defense, something similar to ObamaCare may be conducive to the individual needs of his state. But it is not hypocritical for him to criticize Obama’s health care plan for the single reason that Obama is attempting to put a blanket law over fifty states, which all have different circumstances. There is no universal health care template for all of our fifty states and it is absurd to assume there is. Each state should have its own ability to design a system that fits its own needs.

Barack Obama only recently conceded to this fact by suggesting that states could possibly create their own health care plans around the federal government’s requirements. This notion of “one size fits all” for something as big as health care is a mistake. And the proof of that mistake resonates in Barack Obama’s concession for individual states to design their own programs.

Presidents don’t admit fault and they do not apologize for decisions they make. For President Obama to come forward and make a concession, might I add a big one, about his legacy legislation, his health care bill---he had no desire to say those words. But, when judges are ruling his bill unconstitutional, when more than half the states in America are racing to form a health care compact to avoid ObamaCare, when more than fifty percent of Americans don’t want this reform, and when high temperatures like these reach their boiling points, the least a president can do is offer a concession on his decision. That’s all he gave, but the fact that he offered it was a symbolic acknowledgment of the widespread disappointment people have in his health care bill.

“The federal government isn’t the answer for running health care any more than it’s the answer for running Amtrak or the post office.”

Mitt Romney

1,513.0 miles to go.

Day198 Tuesday 03/15/11

ran 4.2 miles
I came across a really insightful blog recently that I’d like to recommend. It covers a broad field of politics and current events from the minds of conservative thinkers---not overwhelming and very concise. The blog is www.theabsurdreport.com. I’ve been checking it out daily since I’ve found it.

In fact, one of The Absurd Report’s posts today coincides with something I wanted to post about. A death threat was sent to Republican state senators of Wisconsin a few days ago. I’m not going to post it because it is longwinded, demented and graphic, but here it is if you are interested in reading it.

Without labeling an entire party of political thought, this is, after all, only one person’s or one small group’s collective act of threatening death upon elected officials, it is important to note that after the Tucson shootings there was a united, national call for civility, led by Barack Obama. As our president, this was obviously the right and noble statement to make. But, one month later the DNC and OFA, websites that are obviously influenced by Barack Obama and utilized for liberal causes, were helping to organize and encourage the protests in Wisconsin. While a single individual’s pebble of action, or a small group of people’s stone of action cannot represent an entire mountain of political belief, I think it can be agreed, regardless of political affiliations, that if it were Republicans promoting violent protests fueled with vandalism and slander in Wisconsin, our newspapers would have been filled with very different headlines. They would have been filled with utter condemnation of the entire Republican Party.

Since the unions and Democrats have been longtime bedfellows, however, many headlines pointed out such ideas as the speculation that GOP Governor Scott Walker hated middle class families and that he was comparable to Hitler. Governor Scott Walker, in my eyes at least, is a bold pioneer, which many others will follow, in the new frontier of politicians doing what is right for their city, state or nation. Wisconsin, like many other states, has a nearly irreconcilable deficit and something had to be done. He could have kept the façade of budget stability going as others in every state have for so long, but he chose to take this monster on and it had to start somewhere. Ultimately, teachers lost collective bargaining and they received an 8% pay cut, which will go toward their pensions and health care. Last I checked, I and most of the other people in this country have no right to collectively bargain, we pay into a 401k, we pay a hefty premium on our health care, our pay is not given to us from tax dollars, and we don’t get a summer off each year. I love teachers and I hold them as immeasurable necessities for the education and development of our young, but if they are placed in the same circumstance the rest of us are already in, I’m okay with it for the collective good it will do for Wisconsin’s budget.

The Absurd Report summed up what happened in Wisconsin with this quote:

“There is no excuse for what has happened in Madison other than to say while they protest for their rights they have trumped the rights of the people at the ballot box.”

Check out the post at www.absurdreport.com.

1,516.6 miles to go.

Day197 Monday 03/14/11

ran 4.5 miles
On a local level, the Tea Party of Lafayette, Louisiana earned an impressive victory recently by putting a stop to a potential TIF (Tax Incremental Finance) district on Kaliste Saloom Road and Camellia Boulevard. Developer Glenn Stewart and Lafayette Economic Development Authority pulled the plug on this TIF District because people became involved and spoke up to stop it. In an article written by Real Estate Investor Jeremiah Supple at teapartyoflafayette.com he explains what a TIF is and outlines how unfeasible this particular proposal was.

A TIF, as described by Mr. Supple, can be used as a ‘loop hole’ around the laws that prohibit a parish to raise taxes without a vote of the public. The taxes on a TIF typically go to reduce the developer’s cost to develop the project. In that respect, tax dollars go to the developer. In a TIF, it is the Council, instead of the public, that determines the taxes paid and who will receive it. In the case with Parc Lafayette, the developer, Glenn Stewart, said he needed another $20 million from tax dollars to change his project of building a Boutique Hotel into a 300-room 5-star hotel.

These are the numbers Mr. Supple used to back up his argument that this TIF was a bad idea and a potential added burden to taxpayers of Lafayette.

• It takes 65% occupancy to break even on service debt in a new hotel in Lafayette, The market is 52%, with 500 more rooms coming on line this year.

• It takes $22 to $24 dollars per square foot to service debt on a new retail center, the market is $15.

• It takes $28 to justify new construction on Office space the market is $17.

Congratulations, Tea Party of Lafayette, for standing up and telling local government that more taxes for expansion we cannot afford is unacceptable. The disappointment in local government that this TIF was even proposed is far outweighed by the proud act of watching people come together to exercise their rights and to express their disapproval of any new taxes that cause more harm than good---especially loop holes that the people who are taxed do not even have the ability to vote for.

Become involved in Lafayette and make a difference! Check out teapartyoflafayette.com and acadianapatriots.com.

1,520.8 miles to go.

Day196 Sunday 03/13/11

ran 2.3 miles
Today ends week twenty-eight of running against Obama. I ran 22.6 miles this week, averaging 3.23 miles per day.

"But as we cut through all the talk and the politics in the energy debate, we can see what the debate is really about. We see the family that thinks twice about what they'll spend at the grocery store this week, because they've been paying $40 to fill up the tank for the last month. We see the grandmother who isn't sure how she'll make her Social Security check cover January's heating bill. The autoworker that isn't sure what the future at Ford holds for him. And the mother who sees turmoil in the Middle East and worries that someday her son might have to fight to secure our oil supply. Ultimately, we see a nation that cannot control its future as long as it cannot control the source of energy that keeps it running."

Barack Obama, 2005 at a meeting of Resources for the Future

The Barack Obama we now know as our president is unwavering in his agenda to do as little as possible to slow the soaring price of gas. Since the Horizon accident last year, only two permits have been issued (both within last month) to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, which supplies one-third of U.S. oil and natural gas needs. Obama has also withdrawn permits that had been issued for drilling in Alaska and made millions of acres of federal land in the lower forty-eight states untouchable for future oil exploration.

In 2007, the Energy Information Administration projected that 700 million barrels of oil would be produced offshore in 2010; the actual number was 600 million. The EIA also predicted 133 million barrels onshore and it was actually 114 million. Currently, they project total U.S. oil production to go down 250,000 barrels per day next year.

This past week, at a CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates) event, where Bill Clinton and George Bush were both speakers, they each expressed disappointment in Barack Obama’s slow process of issuing drilling permits and they agreed that in this economy it was an unnecessary burden. Bill Clinton said that under Obama there are “Ridiculous delays in permitting when our economy doesn’t need it”.

1,525.3 miles to go.

Day195 Saturday 03/12/11

ran 1.4 miles
Americans for Tax Reform, you can check them out at www.atr.org, highlighted President Obama’s initial budget proposal from mid-February with some disappointing numbers. This information was published on February 14, 2011. Since then an extension favoring the GOP’s more realistic agenda of spending severely less money was passed. Although these numbers will more than likely not apply to the budget, should Congress ever concur on a plan, it is important to note that this is what Obama wanted and brought to the table as a solution to tackle our overwhelming deficit.

Tax hike “lowlights”, as ATR referred to them, include:

• Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike

• Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%

• Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike.

• Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales tax, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phase-out of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike

• New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years

• New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years

• New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years

• Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years

• Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years

• Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income. This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years

• A giveaway to the trial lawyers---not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years

• Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion

All together, this budget is a ten-year, $1.5 trillion tax hike over present law. The “tax relief” in the budget is essentially an extension of present law, and also some refundable credit outlay spending in the tax code. There is virtually no new tax relief relative to present law in Barack Obama’s budget.

There is little surprise House Republicans found this proposal appalling. And it is very surprising that our president would submit such a proposal that calls for higher taxes to pay for more government spending at a time like this. Under this budget, tax revenues would grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021.

1,527.6 miles to go.

Day194 Friday 03/11/11

ran 1.4 miles

• Mississippi was the twentieth state to join the union on December 10, 1817, one year before Illinois and one year after Indiana.

• Population, as of 2010, is 2,967,297.

• Senators are Thad Cochran (R) and Roger Wicker (R).

• Representatives are Alan Nunnelee (R), Bennie Thompson (D), Gregg Harper (R), and Steven Palazzo (R).

• Mississippi has six electoral votes. The state had seceded from the union during the Civil War and did not participate in the 1864 or 1868 presidential elections. Mississippi had voted almost exclusively with the Democratic Party from reconstruction through the early 1960s. Since 1972, the state has voted Republican, except for 1976 (Jimmy Carter). Three times since World War II, Mississippi voted for third-party candidates, more than any other state. John McCain beat Barack Obama 56% to 43% in 2008.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Those were Rahm Emanuel’s words back in 2009. With that in mind, thank you Huffington Post for using shallow scare tactics to move your political vehicle forward on the axles of Japan’s devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Directly under an image of Japan torn asunder and engulfed in flames reads the headline “Tsunami Relief And Preparedness Cut In GOP Budget Proposal”.

Thoughts and prayers with those who suffered the disaster in Japan.

1,529.0 miles to go.

Day193 Thursday 03/10/11

ran 3.2 miles

Some polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 23% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 39% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –16.

• Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 52% disapprove.

• The Rasmussen Consumer Index shows consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest levels of 2011. Only 33% of American adults rate their own personal finances as good or excellent. That’s down from 43% the night before Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. It’s also down from 38% on the night President Obama was elected and 35% the day he was inaugurated.

• Among American voters, 27% believe the United States is heading in the right direction.

• Among Wisconsin voters, 48% think that increases in public employee pension benefits should require voter approval before implementation.

• Among likely Wisconsin voters, 34% strongly approve of the job Governor Scott Walker is doing and 48% strongly disapprove.

Speaking of Wisconsin, unrest has lost no momentum in the streets and inside the capitol, where hordes of protestors refuse to accept their state government’s decision to curb collective bargaining. Reverend Jesse Jackson has weighed in on the opportunity to stir the pot saying, “So they’re going to escalate the protests---you will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you’re going to have it through the streets. People here will fight back because they think their cause is moral and they have nowhere else to go.”

1,530.4 miles to go.

Day192 Wednesday 03/09/11

ran 3.0 miles
The Wisconsin tug-of-war over union rights officially ended today. Despite the absence of fourteen Senate Democrats who had fled to Illinois and have been hiding from reality for nearly three weeks, the Wisconsin Senate voted to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers. Up until today, the Democrats hiding in the shadows of Illinois were preventing the chamber from having enough members present to vote on Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill (a solution to plug a $137 million budget shortfall).

Discovering a way to overcome the chamber’s aloof Democrats, Senate Republicans split the proposal to reduce union rights from the legislation, effectively avoiding a quorum (a fixed number of members in a legislative assembly required to be present before certain legislation can move forward), which is required to take up any measures that spend money---reducing union rights spends no money. The bill was passed shortly thereafter.

The one Democrat present on the special committee, Peter Barca, shouted that the meeting was a violation of the state’s open meetings law. Republicans voted over his protests, the Senate convened within minutes, and the measure was passed without debate.

“There is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill.” Those were the words of Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller in an interview with The Associated Press.

After pointing out that Democrats had nearly three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, Walker stated, “I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government.”

Walker’s measure prevents most government workers from collectively bargaining for wage increases beyond the rate of inflation, requires public workers to pay more into their pensions, and it doubles their health insurance contribution. Police and firefighters are exempt.

“The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a statement following the vote. “Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.”

Wisconsin has a $3.6 billion deficit and something had to be done…something big. Rather than pussyfooting around the very important decision of whether it is a better idea to pretend the deficit will magically go away, much like the federal government, or making some tough and effective decisions right now that will strengthen the immediate future, Governor Walker chose the latter. Furthermore, whatever raging quotes or bitter disgruntlements we may read or hear in the coming days from the fourteen Senate Democrats who fled Wisconsin ought to be automatically dismissed as words from individuals who lack all credibility. Their act of running away from the legal lawmaking process because they could not have their way will stand out, at least in my mind, as one of the most ridiculous, unexplainable, desperate measures I have lived to see. They refused to take part in this legislation. In refusing to return to Wisconsin, they forfeited their involvement and their opinion on this issue. If they didn’t have anything to say on the Senate floor for the past three weeks, they certainly don’t have anything worth hearing now.

1,533.6 miles to go.

Day191 Tuesday 03/08/11

ran 3.3 miles

In an op-ed piece in the Boston Herald, Mitt Romney held nothing back today in criticizing Barack Obama’s economic policy. Obama was actually in Boston today, giving Romney’s op-ed an even more direct effect. Romney expands on an interesting term he coined over the weekend in New Hampshire, the “Obama Misery Index”. In 1980, Ronald Reagan placed a Misery Index on Jimmy Carter consisting of the sum total of unemployment and inflation. Presently, the new equation includes unemployment, debt, home foreclosures and bankruptcies. Here are some quotes from the op-ed:

“Turnarounds work when the leader focuses on what’s most important. President Obama did just the opposite: he delegated the jobs crisis to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and he went to work on his own priorities, like cap and trade and government-run health care.”

“Our out-of-control fiscal policies are also impinging directly on the labor market. The failed stimulus program cost around $800 billion. Obamacare is going to cost another trillion. The denizens of the White House appear not to know it, but employers and entrepreneurs worry a good deal about the federal deficit and the federal debt. They look at the future and see that the government’s spending binge will mean higher taxes, higher interest rates, and a much weaker dollar.”

“President Hoover once ruefully complained, 'I’m the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him,' (Hooverville). Obamanomics, which at extraordinary cost has accomplished extraordinarily little, is earning our president his own dubious place in our history books.”

Entering office in the middle of an economy run-a-muck and choosing to pursue something as large as his idea of health care reform, in tandem with an exorbitant stimulus package, is something that instantly burned a sense of disappointment in Barack Obama's direction. I agree with Romney that Barack Obama’s priorities have been a puzzle with odd pieces forced together in places they don’t belong. It’s a puzzle. It makes a recognizable picture. Start with the pieces that can easily be built upon.

Running alongside Romney’s op-ed was another by Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.), in which he discussed America’s corporate tax rate, the second highest of any industrialized country, behind Japan. Here are some quotes from the op-ed:

“Higher taxes mean fewer jobs, and America has the second-highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized country. When Japan reduces its tax rate, we’ll have the dubious distinction of being number one. We need to improve the incentives for businesses to create jobs here in America. A bipartisan bill I’ve introduced, the Brown-Klobuchar Innovate America Act, would cut through the red tape that’s holding back our manufacturers and boost science and technology innovation.”

“Growing our economy will require Washington to stop its binge spending habits. At every level — local, state, and federal — the government is saddled with too much debt, and more borrowing goes on the national credit card every single day. You said that you would veto bills containing earmarks, and that’s a good start. But unfortunately, old Washington habits are hard to break. The budget you proposed in February would almost double the debt in 10 years to $27 trillion. By 2025, tax revenues will only cover interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Every other federal government activity — from national defense to education — will have to be paid for with borrowed money, which will be added to the tabs of our children and future generations.”

“I just introduced a bipartisan bill with Senator Bill Nelson of Florida that would require the IRS to provide an itemized “receipt’’ showing taxpayers exactly how the federal government spends our money every year and how much new debt we’re putting on the national credit card. This effort will lead to more government transparency.”

The campaign trail to the 2012 election for Barack Obama, as well as, Senators and Representatives will be in full effect soon. Obviously, there are some sleeves being rolled up, hands tightening into fists, and candidates are stepping into the ring. Barack Obama’s first two years as president cost an overwhelming number of senators and representatives their jobs on November 2, 2012.

One particular Democrat, freshman Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, tore into Barack Obama today concerning his budget proposals. Manchin voiced that Obama was failing to lead the way in reducing spending. He also argued that the Republican budget proposals were unrealistic. He and others clearly want some decisive results, as they will be facing tough reelection races in November of 2012. And if issues like these cannot produce timely results over the next two years, one side or the other stands to be shellacked in the next election.

1,536.6 miles to go.

Day190 Monday 03/07/11

Charles Dharapak/Associated Press. President Barack Obama with
China’s Ambassador to the U.S., Zhou Wenzhong, left, and U.S.
Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman on the Great Wall, November 2009.

ran 8.0 miles

Here are a few things you may have missed today.

• President Obama will likely nominate Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be his ambassador to China. This nomination arrived on the heels of Jon Huntsman announcing his resignation from the current position of ambassador to China. Huntsman is aiming to explore a presidential nomination on the Republican ticket in 2012. That’s awkward. The current tension between the U.S. and China continues to build over concerns from Congress and the White House that the yuan is intentionally undervalued, giving China an unfair advantage in world economics.

• Rising gas prices due to crises in North Africa and the Middle East are posing the question of whether Obama should tap America’s 727 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve to quell the inflation of gas prices. Industry insiders and pundits feel doing so would be a bad idea and that the reserve should only be used for real emergencies, while certain Senators and Representatives fear the return of a recession and advocate the use of the reserve. It’s no quick fix, but how about letting America drill its own resources again. Mass transit and green energy are modern technologies with much future potential, but to halt the ability to drill our own natural resources and at the same time import oil from volatile countries that make our energy prices contingent on whether these countries are overthrowing their leader or having a civil war is extremely unreliable and very stressful on an economy. Our lack of energy stability in proportion to the fact that America is fully capable of supplying its own gas and oil needs has always been an unexplainable curiosity of mine. Why have we been using so much oil from so many countries that don’t even like us when we could supply ourselves---creating jobs, bolstering the economy, and being secure in ourselves. Green energy still requires quite a bit of developing at the intended mass scale and ideas like high speed rails, or mass transit, are obviously not feasible at this point because states have been turning away federal money for such projects. In the mean time, and it will be a long “Mean time”, there is every reason to drill. A few permits have been issued recently, but in the full spectrum of opportunity, they are hardly worth mentioning.

• The total number of ObamaCare waivers issued by the Department of Health and Human Services reached 1,040 on Friday. These organizations were given a one-year exemption from a new coverage requirement included in the health care reform law. First thing that comes to mind is how are these companies that received waivers going to afford the costs they are averting now when next year arrives? And the year after that, once this thing really cranks up?

• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker received a letter today from Democratic escape specialist/state Senate leader Mark Miller suggesting a meeting “Near the Wisconsin-Illinois border” to discuss the state’s budget impasse. As would anyone who was in their right mind, Walker dismissed it as “Ridiculous”. Miller has been MIA since February 17.

1,539.9 miles to go.

Day189 Sunday 03/06/11

ran 4.1 miles
Today ends week twenty-seven of running against Obama. I ran 24.1 miles this week, averaging 3.44 miles per day.

Recently, a friend of mine brought an important fact to my attention, which I need to address concerning some misinformation on this blog. I try diligently to cite verifiable facts when the need arises to back up my opinion but I failed in this particular case. It was not my intention to exaggerate any truths or to blatantly post something false under the guise of factuality and, with that being said, while my opinions are up for interpretation, facts are not.

Here is what happened. On Day141 and Day184, I listed what I thought were some facts regarding ObamaCare. To my fault, I did not dig deeply enough to verify the integrity of my source. The information is presented as an outline drafted by Judge David Kithil of Marble Falls, Texas in which he assumingly points out facts about the health care bill, itemized by sections and page numbers. After doing some research I can officially say it is indeed misinforming.

If you’re interested in learning more about Judge Kithil’s outline of ObamaCare, start here to see his list. Click here to see to what degree aspects of Judge Kithil’s claims are false or true.

I apologize for the misinformation and I will use more scrutiny in verifying my sources in the future. The last thing I want is to lose credibility from people who support or oppose the views expressed in this blog. I am passionate about this nation and I am passionate in my belief that Barack Obama is leading America in the wrong direction, but there is no excuse to purposely misconstrue facts to prove that point. That was not my intention and I will correct the mistake by denoting on Day141 and Day184 that Judge Kithil’s outline of ObamaCare does not accurately reflect the actual text of the health care bill.

Using this source was unfortunate, but I am in no way deterred from my opinion that ObamaCare is a severely flawed plan that has been tested in other countries and proven to fail. Obama is finally offering concessions for states to model their own health care plans based on federal requirements after realizing how absurd it was to create a blanket health care plan for fifty diverse states. But, even with this concession, states are still banding together to avoid the federal government’s grip on health care entirely. That is a big statement and it is also a fact.

1,547.9 miles to go.

Day188 Saturday 03/05/11

ran 2.6 miles

In an interview on MSNBC, hosted by Cenk Uygur, Washington Democrat Representative Jim McDermott supported a theory from Uygur that the GOP-lead House is determined to sabotage the American economy in an effort to defeat Barack Obama in 2012 by refusing to budge on cutting government spending.

“Well, Cenk, you’ve pulled the curtain away from what their hidden agenda is. You have to remember one thing, if you just remember this for the next twenty-four months you will understand what’s going on. They want to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. Everything they do is directed at that and what’s happening right now is their worst nightmare. Here we’ve got more jobs, and they say the only thing we should be doing is cutting spending. And everybody says, ‘No, no that is the wrong thing. You’ll lose 700,000 jobs.’ Goldman Sachs is saying it’s a bad idea. They simply only have one note and that note is beat Barack Obama in 2012. If it costs the economy, if it costs the taxpayers, if it costs the workers---we don’t care, as long as we beat him in 2012.”

The people who pump money into the economy, the taxpayers and the workers, are the people who put these Republicans in the House and they are doing exactly what they campaigned on. There is no hidden agenda. Do many Republicans want Obama out? Yes. Would many Democrats do anything in their power to block a conservative agenda if the tables were turned? Yes. In fact, Wisconsin is a perfect example of how spineless certain politicians can be. Many of the liberal Senators fled their state to avoid the constitutional process of lawmaking. But the current actions of U.S. Republican House members possess no hidden agenda. They are simply representing the constituents who put them in office on November 2, 2011.

McDermott describes the Republican House as a plotting, secretive panel of lawmakers harboring conspiracies that are detrimental to the American people. There is no plot and there is no conspiracy. Look at the polls. Look at what happened on November 2, 2010. Look at the majority of states who are fighting to avoid Obama’s health care. Look at our deficit. Look at the ramifications of what will happen to America if we lose the position of world currency holder. Look who the most influential man in the world is; it’s not Obama, it’s Chinese president Hu Jintao. There is no plot or conspiracy. Conservatives are simply representing the ideas and desires of the people who voted for them and put them in office.

1,552.0 miles to go.

Day187 Friday 03/04/11

ran 2.7 miles

• Minnesota was the thirty-second state to join the union on May 11, 1858, one year before Oregon and eight years after California.

• Population, as of 2009, is 5,266,214.

• Senators are Al Franken (D) and Amy Klobuchar (D).

• Representatives are Timothy Walz (D), John Kline (R), Erik Paulsen (R), Betty McCollum (D), Keith Ellison (D), Michele Bachmann (R), Collin Peterson (D) and Chip Cravaack (R).

• Minnesota has ten electoral votes. Pieced together from part of the original United States, land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and land attained from Great Britain in 1818, the state voted Republican from 1860 through the onset of the Great Depression, except for 1912 (Theodore Roosevelt). From 1932 onward, Minnesota has voted Democratic except for 1972 (Richard Nixon). In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain by 10%.

Obama Doctrine of Humility and American Unexceptionalism

In an article by Mark Whittington, he examines the “Obama Doctrine”. What is behind his conviction to refuse to embrace the exceptionalism that America has earned and desires to maintain?

Following our president’s unimpressive and ineffectual response to the current Libyan Civil War, as one example, it seems his passive policy on foreign affairs manifests itself from a unique and unsettling view of America; one that finds strength in weakness. He believes America has been too prideful, has “Shown arrogance”, a phrase he’s used, and needs to be humbled.

While campaigning, Obama shunned the idea of American exceptionalism. He seems to believe that America throws its weight around when it should instead sit idly by rather than attempting to make the world in its own image.

Regarding Libya, another president would have had battleships off the coast of Libya as soon as possible. But that action would have contradicted his defeatist attitude because being the first international country to show up would have displayed way too much power in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Even canceling the U.S. Space Program is suggestive of America disinheriting its superiority. Whittington suggests that “Too much chest thumping arrogance, rubbing the world’s nose into American technological superiority” would be far too immodest.

Other countries welcome our new strategy of humility and they are laughing at us. When Obama does make a demand or gently pose a threat, there is little force behind his words and even less in the ears that receive them.

1,554.6 miles to go.