Day287 Sunday 06/12/11

ran 0.6 miles

Today ends week forty-one of running against Obama. I ran 19.6 miles this week, averaging 2.80 miles per day.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords will be released from hospital care within the month. Pictures were recently released of Giffords seeing her husband off to space at a NASA launch in May. What an incredible story of strength. Giffords Congressional seat is still reserved for her, and once she is fully released from the hospital more news will be released regarding the status of her recovery. Currently, it has been reported that she has trouble communicating verbally, however, she can by all means string coherent sentences together.

Jared Lee Loughner pleaded “not guilty” to the obvious charges before him. Deemed incompetent to stand trial, he will more than likely never pay for his crimes and he will most definitely cause all of us taxpayers thousands of dollars a year for the rest of his life. He is an expensive and highly disappointing example of loopholes in our legal system. With that being said, Gabrielle Giffords’ story and survival is an absolutely amazing tale of human resilience and American fortitude.

1,231.9 miles to go.

Day286 Saturday 06/11/11

ran 2.8 miles
Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 23% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 38% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –15.

• Overall, 48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 51% disapprove.

• Generic Republican candidate: 45%; Obama: 42%.

• Only 24% say they share Obama’s political views.

Robert Gates, appointed by Bush, is out. He blasted NATO, pointing out how futile, pointless, and expensive the organization was. Good for him. Not good for conservatives, though.

Leon Panetta appears to be the man to fill Gates’ shoes. An Obama-appointed Secretary of Defense. If you feel like putting this guy in your google machine, then go for it, but you already know where he stands. I had never heard of him but he has a big spot to fill. Knowing that it falls upon Obama to appoint someone to this important position, I had every expectation that Panetta would be…not even going to say anything.

Secretary of Defense. Use your imagination. Think about what organizations an Obama-appointee of this scale would belong to. Picture what ideas a man is required to have to fill such a spot at the request of Barack Obama.

1,232.5 miles to go.

Day285 Friday 06/10/11

ran 3.5 miles
In case you may have forgotten…

“Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois State Senator who voted ‘present’ nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.”

That was an early and insightful quote from Charles Krauthammer, putting a leash on Obama’s undeserved hype before a teetering majority of this nation voted him into power for all of the, what many may argue, wrong reasons.

This guy even won the Nobel Peace Prize, having accomplished nothing, not having the dignity to refuse to accept such an honor he knew he did not deserve while so many others did, effectively lowering the criteria for every other recipient in the past and potential honoree in the future who may have genuinely deserved or will deserve the award...

...biting my tongue in this late hour to not allow absurdities to guide me to sleep.

1,235.3 miles to go.

Day284 Thursday 06/09/11

New Chet's Restaurant (The Blade/Lori King)

ran 3.8 miles

One week after Barack Obama was in Ohio speaking at a Chrysler plant, distorting truths about the success of the auto bailout, a local restaurant in the area, “New Chet’s”, which Obama made reference to in his speech, and a kitchen plant workers would often visit during their lunch break, has officially gone out of business after seventy years of serving the area.

“New Chet’s Restaurant” had been hit hard by the economy. Lunch deliveries to the Chrysler Group LLC’s Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio had been cut back to a third of what it used to be for a long time. Obama visited the plant on Friday and told the workers that without them, who would eat at Chet’s or patronize other local businesses?

What he said more precisely to hundreds of workers in Chrysler’s Wrangler plant was, “And this plant indirectly supports hundreds of other jobs right here in Toledo. After all, without you, who‘d eat at Chet’s or Inky‘s or Rudy’s?”

I don’t know about “Inky’s” or “Rudy’s”, but our president’s message of hope for one certain eatery in Toledo, Ohio was a dollar short and a day late.

This story is very small and isolated; no way to define an entire nation, but it is a sign of the times. It is also a slap in the face to Barack Obama, whose credibility is fizzling out more and more each day as we move closer to November 6, 2012. He is rightfully being scrutinized more critically as a questionable voice for dangerously high risks.

Our president loves pointing out Main Street, America examples of people who are struggling that he wants to help. Nearly every speech he reads breaks off into an aside of Mary, the waitress in Tulsa, or Jim, the electrician in Pensacola. “Chet’s” is a far more realistic and disappointing example of Barack Obama’s Main Street, America.

1,238.8 miles to go.

Day283 Wednesday 06/08/11

ran 3.5 miles

Chapter 11

A hero for the twenty-first century Americanadexican was a charismatic politician, a propaganda guru, or a media marvel. This hero was a man or woman who had no interest for any other people except that they continued giving them money for all of the prefabrications and lies he or she had seduced them with. It was at this point that America had finally gained eight more letters behind it. People actually wanted to emulate these politicians, gurus and marvels of mass destruction. There was a reason why only a few factions of people so desired to control everything. Very few are sure what exactly that reason was but it was obviously a big one because it has always been this way. The weak realization that millions of people aspired to follow and to be like these select few at any cost was the festering wound that America had become.

America had turned into a wasteland of opportunity where personal endeavors were discouraged and reliance on government and patriotism were enforced. There was no answer to what had happened in America in the first decade of the twenty-first century but there was a general understanding that absolutely nothing made any sense. The greatest shame in America’s slow, millennial suicide was that the last existing generations who had known better had not spoken out. Their children and their children’s children were born into a chaos that no founding father would have ever wished upon any one or any other country. Things were so good at the cost of other things being so bad elsewhere that they had no discretion in their selfishness. And the children were not to be blamed; the children who became men of every generation were to be blamed. The parents of Fear, Ignorance and Indecision bred Old America’s demise.

1,242.6 miles to go.

Day282 Tuesday 06/07/11

ran 4.0 miles

Dig the $534,000 of loose change you have under your sofa cushions, roll it up, give it to the IRS, and lets get America back on top. According to Dennis Cauchon of “USA Today”, that is the sum of money, $534,000, it currently requires from each and every household to pay for our nation’s unspent obligations; $61.6 trillion financial promises not paid for. Check in next week and that number will be even higher, on and on.

Taxes are likely to be going back up soon. Obama’s health care waivers are up to 1,500, nationwide, because it is simply unaffordable for so many. Unemployment is stagnant and disappointing. Our debt is out of control and handled with the same level of responsibility that a nineteen-year-old uses with fifty new credit cards. China’s arms are up in the air, threatening, and they are poised to make things a lot harder on us soon if we do not grasp control of our spending. And here’s Obama still blaming Bush, having achieved nothing but increasing our debt.

1,246.1 miles to go.

Day281 Monday 06/06/11

ran 1.4 miles
Weiner Exposes Himself; Caught Between Ethics And A Rock Hard Place; Pelosi Says She’s “Deeply Disappointed” in Weiner

Sorry, I had to do it. If you needed only one more reason to disapprove of Congress and to witness how naturally lying comes to politicians, Weiner is the perfect example of what appears to be a rigid truth shrinking into a flaccid lie. Thank you, Weiner, for the throbbing truth. Send Christopher Lee our regards.

In less humorous news, the waiver list for Obama’s health care plan, to be set in motion in 2014, continues to grow, our president’s Chief Economic Adviser, Austan Goolsbee, will soon be the next in a line of core economic advisers who will be resigning, and, as is the case with most of the skewed numbers we get from the federal government, the bank bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will cost taxpayers $317 billion, not the $130 billion usually claimed by the Obama administration. And this number continues to grow month by month.

Short post tonight. Thanks for swallowing your pride, Weiner, and spitting out the truth, distracting us all for a day.

1,250.1 miles to go.

Day280 Sunday 06/05/11

ran 3.0 miles
Today ends week forty of running against Obama. I ran 31.1 miles this week averaging 4.44 miles per day. For the past couple months I have set a goal to accomplish thirty miles in one week and I have continuously fell short of that goal. I’ve gotten close, but just couldn’t see it through. After today I have finally achieved thirty miles in seven days, with 1.1 miles to spare. It was a tough challenge but so are most of the important decisions and goals we all face.

This blog has always been about the strong history America has relentlessly flexed against every challenge it has ever encountered, in contrast to the current challenges we face in Washington D.C., namely a president intent on weakening the principles America represents and a liberal platform racing toward the exact predicament we have been staving off and have been liberated from for 235 years, since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. That predicament is a nation free of tyranny, one based on freedom and all of the tenets that follow such a God-given right. Barack Obama and liberal ideals are deconstructing, what was once a single brick at a time, now with a wrecking ball, entire layers of principles embedded with centuries of idealistic American brick, mortar, and concrete.

2012 is going to be the biggest crossroads this nation has faced in a long time. Our president is almost three years deep in failure, using scapegoats like the necessity of needing more time and blaming businesses for not hiring more workers. In three years this guy has wasted more money on more things than a human brain can even comprehend; he has wasted money on ideas that have been proven to fail and designed his plans around a multitude of arguments that an overwhelming many have condemned from the start.

What is he after? I just don’t get it.

I began this blog and started running all of these miles against Barack Obama to evaluate, on a daily basis, every argument, and there have been many every single day, to express how important it is to get this guy out of the White House. Lately, Obama’s shortcomings and his ability to not address his many failures, side-stepping them like a nervous child, appears more like a sabotage of America than a plan because there is no possible way that a man with the education and experience he claims to have can be this blind and juvenile.

I can hardly wait for the 2012 election to appear clearly and with more definition on the horizon of America’s future. There is nothing left to point out in Obama’s character that he does not exhibit daily, flaw by flaw.

Who is Someone Else and where do I get in line to vote for him or her?

1,251.5 miles to go.

Day279 Saturday 06/04/11

ran 3.8 miles
Some stats and facts about the state of North Carolina:

• North Carolina was the twelfth state to join the union on November 21, 1789, one year before Rhode Island and one year after New York.

• Population, as of 2010, is 9,535,483.

• Senators are Richard Burr (R) and Kay Hagan (D).

• Representatives are George Butterfield (D), Renee Ellmers (R), Walter Jones (R), David Price (D), Virginia Foxx (R), Howard Coble (R), Mike McIntyre (D), Larry Kissell (D), Sue Myrick (R), Patrick McHenry (R), Heath Shuler (D), Melvin Watt (D), and Bradley Miller (D).

• North Carolina has fifteen electoral votes. Historically, the state voted nearly exclusively blue from 1876 through 1964. Beginning in 1968, North Carolina has voted almost entirely red. Barack Obama ended the Republican trend by beating McCain 49.7% to 49.4%. North Carolina voters cast 4.3 million votes and the decision came down to merely 14,000 votes. In 2012, North Carolina will be one of the most battled-for swing states.

I’ve been posting these facts and stats for each individual state for the past thirty-three weeks. I’ve gathered some interesting history and realized certain things I never would have considered, otherwise. For example, the nine most populous states claim more than half of America’s total population. The twenty-five least populous states harness less than one-sixth of the U.S. population. Make of that what you will, but I can say, regarding our electoral college, something about the overwhelming differences in those two sets of numbers seems frustrating and highly consequential. I am not suggesting that popular vote alone should be the deciding factor in determining what single man or woman gets to sit in the Oval Office, but nor am I dismissing it as a better idea. Popular vote would have been a game changer on some occasions in the past. It is a different approach, yet it equally lacks any strategy or planning for the presidential election process we currently have.

This is what rattles me. A state like California, a state that if the other forty-nine states aspired to be like or viewed America through the same set of eyes with, a state who's example would lead to monumental failure the likes of which America has never before seen, has such a population and so many electoral votes. The questionable legislation California passes in their own state compared to the failures the state faces constantly and the bailouts their decisions cause the federal government, my and your money, the businesses they force out of their state with high taxes and incomprehensible restrictions, sending these businesses to states like Texas who legislate and think rationally, completely losing out on opportunity in their own front yard---and this state, California, has the electoral power to negate the rational thinking of ten other states in our union.

1,254.5 miles to go.

Day278 Friday 06/03/11

ran 4.1 miles
Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 25% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 36% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –11.

• Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 50% disapprove.

• Rasmussen’s latest telephone poll among likely U.S. voters finds that a generic Republican candidate earned 45% of votes and Obama attracted 43% of the vote.

• Among U.S. voters, 26% say America is heading in the right direction.

Sorry for the short post tonight. Sometimes there just aren’t enough minutes in the day. I’ll have more time tomorrow.

1,258.3 miles to go.

Day277 Thursday 06/02/11

ran 5.2 miles

As I’ve previously mentioned in numerous other posts, I am a big fan of Herman Cain for president in 2012. Cain has outlined a five-point tax plan to put America back on top and to undo the anti-American trail our president and his liberal counterparts have been blazing through a forest of American logic and economic rationale, which already had its paths carved out. Here are Cain’s ideas and take note of how utterly different and full of sense his ideas are in contrast to what has defined the last 2 1/2 years of decision making in this country.

1. Eliminate the taxes on repatriated profits, which are earnings of American-based multinational companies that sit in bank accounts overseas to avoid double taxation for bringing their profits back to the U.S.

2. Make the current tax rates permanent. Families and businesses do not plan for two years at a time!

3. Reduce the corporate income tax from 35 to 25 percent, with the potential for additional incremental decreases over time.

4. Eliminate the tax on capital gains and their dividends.

5. Suspend payroll taxes for both employees and employers for one year.

Herman Cain is a proven leader and has a successful track record of turning large scale, borderline bankruptcies right side up. Our economy is in serious jeopardy, and Barack Obama and liberal ideology is doing nothing to make matters better.

Herman Cain intends to increase opportunity and expansion for those who desire to work hard and invest their time and money in an America that works. One of the primary reasons businesses are harboring so many dollars that they refuse to spend is because they have little confidence in Obama’s economic decisions or in his second term. This is only my opinion, but there is certainly a very big reason that so few American companies are contributing even half of their resources to attempt to keep our economy afloat. There is an immense lack of confidence in something in this country. It is certainly not doubt in hardworking American people. I think it is quite reasonable to believe it has much to do with Congress and our president.

I think there are a lot of people hoping this guy gets voted out in November 2012 and they have no reason to waste their money on Barack Obama’s plans when something as beneficial and fair as Herman Cain’s plan is potentially right around the corner. Rewarding businesses and making things easier for them, and interfering less with individual Americans, not raising taxes; these are all great ideas. And, for any of you out there who care little for hard work and the rewards that follow, and perhaps you cherish entitlements and avoid opportunity like the plague, by voting for a president in 2012 that does not want to raise taxes and wants to give huge breaks to Corporate America and maybe even let the wealthy keep their wealth, you will have a much better shot at riding out the ability to accomplish nothing and to earn money for it with Someone Else than you will with another four years of Barack Obama.

Just my opinion.

This is an interview Walton and Johnson conducted with Herman Cain today.

1,262.4 miles to go.

Day276 Wednesday 06/01/11

ran 4.6 miles

Chapter 10

Jonas always felt something was wrong. It was something greater than he could explain. He did not know how to take out of his heart the feeling he could not explain. The next best thing for him to do was to throw away everything he knew and to pursue this inescapable calling that demanded his every fiber of existence. After years of flowing from underground puddle to underground stream to underground puddle of so many unaccepted, black-marketed thoughts and actions that the rank-and-file surface no longer accepted or was brave enough to reclaim, he now found himself at the bay of his destiny.

Jonas inhaled. “Americanadexico”, he had thought to himself.

That was it. It was what it was. He did not know what he was going to do or what would happen if he had done it, but he knew he had to do something.

As a boy every man dreamed about being a hero. They all wanted to do “good” and to protect others from harm. Every man once wanted to battle villains and to bring criminals to justice. They wanted to stop evil and to save the girl. But something had happened along the way. Boys had grown into men. Very few men had remembered their dreams but they had recalled enough to recognize the confusion they had felt any time they saw something un-American or unfair. They were holding onto an almost unrecognizable smidgeon of American patriotism that their grandfather’s grandfathers had bled for them.

America had reached a point where the only choice left to sustain itself was to expand and socialize its people. America was dead. Everything that George Washington, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Alexander Hamilton, and hundreds of thousands of other unnamed heroes had given their ideas and lives for was gone. As tragic as that was it was even more tragic that people simply did not care. They no longer had the ability, the passion, or the intelligence to care.

In the eighteenth century, a tiny coastal sliver of what America was to become took on the international leader of that time. England was the unequivocal King of the world and America was nothing more than a futile, unattainable idea. Whether it was God or human perseverance that allowed a man to be defeated by a mouse was of no consequence that thirteen colonies had defeated England, became America, and grew for many more than two hundred years into a religious and political paradigm of strong and faithful people that had been unmatched anywhere until now.

1,267.6 miles to go.

Day275 Tuesday 05/31/11

ran 4.6 miles
New Mexico will be ending a food stamp supplement for elderly and disabled residents of the state on July 1, 2011. There is no money left in New Mexico’s budget for it. As awful as it is that these highly dependent citizens of New Mexico are going to lose $25.00 monthly from their own state, it is one of many different examples festering in all fifty states of a truth that is growing more and more severe.

Even if you happen to be someone who clings to Bush for the blame of every problem we currently have, which is pure poppycock, what has this current president done that has moved us forward? Regardless of whose fault it is, Barack Obama is doing nothing but perpetuating an irresponsible cycle of empty promises and false hopes. And the near-future outcomes of his actions quite possibly will end in the same way as the events I am about to describe in New Mexico.

Federal law requires that recipients of food stamps receive a minimum of $16.00 a month. New Mexico is currently paying $25.00 to all who qualify for food stamps. This is down from a total of $30.00 last year.

If I might make a comparison, New Mexico is one single state and their circumstances cannot possibly be applied to every other state (for the same reasons that Obama’s universal health care plan would not work for fifty different states), but notice the abrupt transition from what was a small decrease, yet still more than a necessary amount, to what will soon become nothing at all, in the case of New Mexico versus the ability to afford food stamps for elderly and disabled residents.

Nearly 14% of Americans receive food stamps. Don’t quote me on this, but I am pretty sure that the Tea Party represents 13% of the vote. Those are two extremely different sides of the aisle when it comes to casting votes. I'm not trying to capture any real point that isn't immediately obvious, but it is certainly an interesting couple of numbers to look at. As of March, under Obama, there was an 11% increase of food stamp recipients from the year before, more than 44.5 million Americans, and the number of recipients from four years ago is up 61%. That’s a lot of voters who would never vote for a man or woman who campaigned on and threatened to fix this problem that has been created.

To take a step back to the comparison I was trying to make in the paragraph before last, it is unfortunate, but what happened in New Mexico is a very common sequence of events, which tend to lead up to the utter failure of government programs. New Mexico was given a $16.00 per month minimum to disperse, they upped it to $25.00 per month, raised it to $30.00 per month, dropped it back down to $25.00, and then, unexpectedly, completely ignoring the idea of reverting back to the minimum, as established by the federal government, they went from $25.00 to zero. Nothing! And, they could have not upped the amount and let the program last twice as long.

Just think about how terrifying it could be if that standard method of operation was applied to a much larger scale. Health care, serving all fifty states, for example, in the very near future. This is a micro-example of such a larger national scale, but do you honestly think for a second that the federal government would behave any differently if their bottom fell out?

You are promised $16.00, you receive $25.00, then $30.00, the bottom falls out and they return to $25.00…and then it’s over. Just like that! It is a similar sense of utter denial that children often exhibit and it is cruel and unusual punishment to be so deceitful and out of touch with the people who are being served that rather than prepare for and adapt to the realities before our leaders, they too often go on lying and behaving as though everything is fine.

Our national debt? Health care? Our borders? Idiotic spending at an incomprehensible scale? If you back Obama than good for you, but I can tell you this, as New Mexico has just made a great example of; Barack Obama and minds like his have great intentions but they seem to lack rationality and feasibility. If you voted for Barack Obama in 2008, whatever it is you disagreed with on the conservative side of the political arena, I think it is important to note that here in 2011 and on into 2012, there is only one side that has an attainable goal to flip this country right side up, and it is not the liberal, or progressive side. The House had a vote tonight on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling and if I remember correctly, only 10% voted to raise it, further hurling our nation into financial oblivion. The 300-something House members who voted against it, many of which were on the left side of the aisle, obviously realized that they would quite possibly lose their jobs in 2012 if they continued to do what our president wanted and what the people did not.

1,272.2 miles to go.

Day274 Monday 05/30/11

800 miles!!!

ran 5.8 miles

Today marks 800 miles and the end of nine months of running against Obama.

I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend and thank you, military men and women, veterans, and those soldiers who we mourn, for the brave and noble sacrifices you have made for America.

Watching Memorial Day specials on television today I noticed a recurring theme through the many different testimonials that were given by active and veteran military men and women. That theme was one that underlined the fact that many of our physically wounded and emotionally devastated soldiers lack many of the resources they need once they return home. It seems that our soldiers’ wellbeing and their futures should be a top priority compared to many other things that seem to claim priority over them.

For example, wasteful earmarks, which have only recently been fully exposed and limited for the wasteful and abusive spending they are, serve very little purpose other than as an obstacle to more important and needy uses for tax dollars, such as the healthy and dignified futures of our veterans and their families. Our federal government spends our tax dollars on many questionable things, and these many curious things have no rhyme or reason of importance.

While our active military and veterans are often compromised after having served their country, it is insulting when you look at how many of our tax dollars go to other nations, countries that wish harm upon us and are perhaps considered our enemies. It is insulting how much we spend for illegal aliens in hospitals and how certain states are beginning to start programs that pay for the college educations of illegal aliens, while legal citizens have to work twice as hard to succeed, and veteran causes and programs take second place to helping illegal aliens adjust to the traumatic transition of being lucky enough to become an American. It is so backwards! Welfare recipients who stay fused to the teat of the government, food stamps, unemployment benefits…these are all valid, necessary and important programs that America no doubt needs, but the system is taken advantage of to such a degree it is simply insulting to needy veterans, whatever their needs, when they cannot be helped but so many millions of others, who contribute so little to society, are so well taken care of. There are a lot of undeserved tax dollars being delegated to more mouths than we can feed, yet our military men and women work the hardest for what amounts to so little when you begin to compare what is really important.

There are better answers out there but none of them can be looked at until we lock elbow to elbow and pull our economy up from the cliff’s edge it is desperately hanging onto.

1,276.8 miles to go.