Day471 Tuesday 12/13/11

Iowa:
Gingrich 22%
Paul 21%
Romney 16%
Public Policy Polling published at DailyCaller




ran 4.8 miles

648.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day106.

Day470 Monday 12/12/11

ran 7.1 miles
Between now and the next eleven months it is anyone’s guess what unexpected events will define the path to the 2012 presidential election. One can only speculate, but there is a lot of disturbing and epic legislation being discussed in Washington right now regarding civil liberties and the freedom of speech. The ideas are straight out of Orwell’s “1984” and force Americans to question what is going on, or what might be about to happen, that we don’t know about and our government appears to be preparing for?

FEMA is contracting companies to fill the everyday needs of hundreds of camps across America which appear to serve the purpose of detaining people. And this is happening simultaneously with legislation allowing the federal government to detain American citizens indefinitely with no trial or representation.

SOPA, the internet piracy bill, allows the government to make internet sites disappear, squeezing the life out of free speech as we know it and doing away with due process. If this particular site, for example, became a thorn in someone’s side and that individual or entity did not want this site to exist any longer, it would simply be gone one day with no notification or reason. The legislation for these ideas are not written with black and white clarity, but rather lawyer-speak jargon and plenty of hidden congressional motive that eventually leaves you questioning that if they can do this then where does it stop?

Remember when Egypt literally turned off the internet to prevent its people from organizing through social media. Our government can do that. Remember FEMA’s public broadcasting test a few weeks ago when our government attempted to determine whether or not they could temporarily cut off all radio and television broadcasts…for the first time in American history?

It’s going to be a crazy year and there is very little that would surprise me. On a completely separate and unrelated note, Michael Savage formally offered Newt Gingrich one million dollars today to drop out of the presidential race.

Things are only going to get more and more strange.

653.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day105.

Day469 Sunday 12/11/11

ran 3.0 miles
Today ends week sixty-seven of running against Obama. I ran 21.4 miles this week, averaging 3.06 miles per day.

In a 60 Minutes interview tonight President Barack Obama distilled, concentrated, filtered, and boiled down to one question what single answer a majority of voters will be casting their ballots for on November 6, 2012.

“Do they see a more compelling vision coming out from the other side?"

Describing Republican’s goals as more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and doing away with regulations, President Obama summed up the landscape of the 2012 battlefield with those few select words.

“If the American people think that that’s a recipe for success and… a majority are persuaded by that, then I’m going to lose.”

This election is a simple decision. Do we go down the path of Europe, which is failing miserably, despite the flashing neon signs of danger blinking right before our faces, or do we begin the first steps of undoing everything Barack Obama has done in his first term, chalking up a complete loss of time and trillions of dollars, and move forward in a more proud and dignified American way?

Choose one.

660.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day104.

Day468 Saturday 12/10/11

ran 3.0 miles
Here are some stats and facts about the state of Washington (to check out stats and facts about more states click on “states of the union” on the right):

• Washington was the forty-second state to join the union on November 11, 1889, one year before Idaho and three days after Montana.

• Population, as of 2010, is 6,724,540.

• Senators are Maria Cantwell (D) and Patty Murray (D).

• Representatives are Jay Inslee (D), Rick Larsen (D), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R), Doc Hastings (R), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R), Norman Dicks (D), James McDermott (D), Dave Reichert (R), and Adam Smith (D).

• Washington has twelve electoral votes. The state gained one electoral vote during the 2010 Census Reaportionment. Historically, Washington has swung back and forth for years at a time voting both red and blue. The state’s current trend has been blue and Washington has voted for a Democrat in the last six presidential elections. Barack Obama defeated John McCain 58% to 41% in 2008.

Thank you for keeping up with this blog! And if you have read this far I may as well make a little announcement. I am happy to announce that I am going to be a dad. Found out this morning that it’s a girl! Whole new set of lenses in my eyes.

663.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day103.

Day467 Friday 12/09/11

ran 4.8 miles
Found this on the Drudge Report. This Sunday 60 Minutes will be airing an interview with Barack Obama hosted by Steve Kroft on CBS. Here is an excerpt of the preview the network released.

STEVE KROFT: Do you think that you might have the unemployment rate down to 8 percent by the time the election rolls around?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think it's possible. But…I'm not in the job of prognosticating on the economy. I'm in the job of putting in place the tools that allow the economy to thrive and Americans to succeed. Sometimes when I'm talking to my team, I- describe us…as…I'm the captain and they're the crew on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no matter how well we're steering the ship, if the boat's rocking back and forth and people are getting sick and…they're being buffeted by the winds and the rain and…at a certain point-- if you're asking, "Are you enjoying the ride right now?" Folks are going to say, "No." And are they going to say, "Do you think the captain's good—doing a good job?" People are going say, "You know what? A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point." And I don't control the weather. What I can control are the policies we're putting in place to make a difference in people's lives.

STEVE KROFT: Did you overpromise? Did you underestimate how difficult this was going to be?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I didn't overpromise. And I didn’t-- underestimate how tough this was going to be. I always believed that this was a long-term project…And-- you know, for individual Americans, who are struggling right now, they have every reason to be impatient. Reversing structural problems in our economy that have been building up for two decades, that was going to take time. It was going to take more than a year. It was going to take more than two years. It was going to take more than one term. Probably takes more than one president.

In an MSNBC interview in 2009 with Matt Lauer, President Obama bluntly declared that if he had not fixed the economy within three years, then he would be a one-term president.



“If I don't have this done in three years, then this is going to be a one-term proposition."

Barack Obama

“I didn’t overpromise?”

“I didn’t underestimate?”

“Reversing structural problems in our economy…probably takes more than one president.”

There you have it. The only question for 2012 is "Why is Barack Obama even running for a second term when he has clearly failed, even by his own admission?'

666.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day102.

Day466 Thursday 12/08/11

ran 1.5 miles

Who is our president speaking to in the video above? I find it hard to believe he is addressing America. And here’s more to convey just how out of touch Barack Obama is with the severe realities before us. Our president claimed today that more jobs would be created from the payroll tax he is pushing (posted about it yesterday) and the extension of unemployment insurance than approving the Keystone pipeline. I can accept, based on the day-to-day lies we are told from all corners of Washington, that the payroll tax extension might do a fraction of good that will be immediately gobbled up by the exponential growth of our national debt every 24 hours, but don’t tell an entire country of informed citizens that extending unemployment insurance is more effective than a long-term, productive, and effective project like Keystone.

Enduring the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, for example, did not float such failed ideas as redistributing wealth or convincing American citizens that they were entitled to that which they had not earned. Herbert Hoover built a dam and employed many Americans with a lengthy task. He gave them purpose and an opportunity to earn their desires. Coincidentally, Hoover does not get much credit as a president because he was the man serving when the Great Depression struck, but he lost his second term to the belief that America's problems should have been solved by private measures and not by the government. He believed in hard work and the gratification it brings to Americans.

Keystone would have a similar outcome but Barack Obama won’t seize the opportunity. One single man possessing such delusions of grandeur and absolute denial of all reality and appreciation for what America truly stands for here and there is okay; that is their right, but the fact that a little over half of this country voted for this man in 2008 and nearly the same number wants to re-elect him is a frightening reality.

Here are some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 22% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –19.

• Overall, 45% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 55% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Only 17% of likely U.S. voters say the country is heading in the right direction.

• Election 2012: Generic Republican 49%, Obama 41%.

• Among likely American voters, 26% prefer government-managed economy.

671.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day101.

Day465 Wednesday 12/07/11

image

ran 4.2 miles
Had a good run tonight. It was thirty degrees outside, officially the coldest night of the season in Lafayette, Louisiana, and will be dropping to the mid-twenties by the time tomorrow arrives. Once you break a sweat the running comes easy, but stepping outside and getting started is torture. And don’t judge me you northerners; South Louisiana is not accustomed to snow or extreme cold temperatures. Come take a run with me in the heat and humidity of July or August and then we can see who is still standing.

So, it’s cold outside. Moving on to more important things, the picture above marks where and how many FEMA camps are currently located across America to detain homegrown threats to national security. These camps have been in the works for years and are seldom reported on in the news. When I had initially heard of these camps, I thought, if it was even true, maybe there were two or three of them. Look at that picture above. Do they know something we don’t? There are hundreds of them. That is an image of a lot of time and money exhausted on something far too big to be only considered a trivial risk. That picture above looks like certainty to me.

Scary. Following the passage of the Senate’s Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which lays a path to American citizens being snatched in the middle of the night out of their homes or off the streets and held in FEMA detention camps indefinitely, these camps will serve to “concentrate” any individuals deemed as a threat without question in a detention center.

Here is a document showing that a Halliburton subsidiary, KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root Services), is moving forward to activate FEMA camps by seeking service providers to meet their needs.

Look at how many locations there are on that satellite image!

For those of us in Louisiana, here are our camp locations:

Fort Polk, Livingston, and Oakdale.

Here is a list of all of them across the American landscape.

This all seems too ridiculous and conspiratorial to be true, and I hope it is not true, but I keep finding reliable sources saying the same thing. If you can debunk this nightmare then I welcome you to do it.

It seems the magician has our attention with one hand distracting us while he is performing a deception with the other.

672.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day100.

Day464 Tuesday 12/06/11

image

ran 1.4 miles
One recurring theme that finds its way into the news every single day from politicians and pundits alike, conservatives and progressives, is the status of the middle class. What is the middle class? It is extremely difficult to put the middle class into an income bracket. I consider myself as middle class as middle class gets, however, I know there are others who earn far more than I do or far less than I do who consider themselves middle class, as well. So who is this middle class?

In Barack Obama’s Roosevelt-themed speech in Osawatamie, Kansas earlier today he spoke of the middle class in a context that would lead me to believe that the middle class is an extremely specific and bracketed faction of America. But it isn’t. Take a try at it. Define the middle class.

To hear Obama or Pelosi talk about the middle class always leaves me feeling as though I am extremely well-to-do, but I can assure you I am not. I live within my means, I balance my checkbook, I pay my bills, which is more than the federal government does, so does this disqualify me from the middle class?

"This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement."

Barack Obama

Who is the middle class, Mr. Obama? Be more specific. If I am part of the middle class, which I am pretty sure I am, the best thing you could do is to get out of the way of the progress I and others are trying to make as Americans who were born in or naturalized into this great country with the idea that governments that govern least are the best.

I am a part of the middle class and I think a very large majority of Americans believe they are a part of the middle class, too, so if you are trying to help me with your policies, thanks but no thanks. I can only speculate, but I am pretty sure nearly half of Barack Obama’s generally defined middle class is eagerly waiting for November 6, 2012, to make him a one-term president.

The latest in the news is Obama’s Payroll Tax Cut Extension and he claims maintaining a temporary cut in the payroll tax through next year is critical to our economic recovery. The big argument is the matter of where the funds come from to continue the extension. This is just the latest inevitable stalemate between Congress and the president, but what interests me is a claim that Obama made. He said, and this is not verbatim, middle class families would be paying an extra $1,000.00 in taxes each year if the extension is not made. There it is again. The middle class. Who is this middle class? If this legislation does not go through and you pay an extra thousand dollars next year in taxes then I guess that means you’re part of the middle class.

Who is the middle class? Forty-seven percent of Americans did not even pay income taxes last year. Will they be paying an extra thousand dollars? Is paying income tax a prerequisite to qualify for middle class status?

From MarketWatch here are some numbers to further confuse the definition of the middle class. In 2010:

• 99.8% earning less than $10,000 paid no income tax.

• 83.6% earning $10,000 to $20,000 paid no income tax.

• 61.8% earning $20,000 to $30,000 paid no income tax.

• 47.5% earning $30,000 to $40,000 paid no income tax.

• 35.7% earning $40,000 to $50,000 paid no income tax.

• 21.5% earning $50,000 to $75000 paid no income tax.

• 9.2 % earning $75,000 to $100,000 paid no income tax.

• 3.5% earning $100,000 to $200,000 paid no income tax.

So who is this middle class? And why are these numbers so randomly fractional in each bracket? Instead of wasting more tax dollars on all of these prolonged stalemates and planned failures, like the Super Committee, how about explaining to America what all these numbers above mean. It is almost as though there is some lottery we don’t know about going on in which some are exempt from taxes and others are not.

676.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day99.

Day463 Monday 12/05/11

1,400 Miles!!!

ran 3.5 miles
With only 680 miles to go to reach my goal of running the distance from Lafayette, Louisiana to Washington, D.C. and back, I am proud to say that I am way ahead of schedule and my budget of miles will be at a large surplus by November 6, 2012.

Surplus. What a pleasant word.

Deficit, not so much.

The out of control spending is what really gets me when I step back and look at the whole picture of America. I do not claim to be anything close to a political pundit or a man with an answer for any one single problem our nation faces, but I am frustrated enough with the state of our nation to run 2,080-plus miles over the course of two years, two months, and seven days, just for the opportunity to do something quirky and earn two seconds of other peoples’ attention each night to say with as much conviction and intestinal fortitude that I can conjure up, “Hey! Balance your budget, Washington! You are not a good role model. You do not lead by example. It is an unacceptable shame that we have a $15 trillion debt.

And I don’t blame Barack Obama for our current state. Our problems are a compounded result of many elected officials from both sides of the aisle over a long period of time. However, Barack Obama has been attempting to suffocate the flames of our demise with highly flammable materials soaked in lighter fluid. Our debt is soaring and it is going to get worse before it gets better.

It is disappointing that elections and the candidates campaigning in them are generally placed on a scale of lesser evil rather than greater good. Their ideas are half-empty glasses, which resemble nothing remotely half-full.

Only speaking for myself, my greatest priority is to simply decimate our national debt. Through every possible means, quit spending money. Lead by example. Our federal government should be run the same way any given household is run. Balancing checkbooks, committing to goals, and producing results are not federal government impossibilities. It is insulting how elaborately our politicians waste our time and money. Get out of our way and balance your checkbook!

678.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day98.

Day462 Sunday 12/04/11

ran 3.3 miles
Today ends week sixty-six of running against Obama. I ran 25.3 miles this week, averaging 3.61 miles per day.

“I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests. In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them.”

Barack Obama interview by ABC News

Do you see what he did there, ever so subtly? Our president just compared Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party. He put in the average voter’s mind a seed of relation between these two movements when there is nothing similar about them. Barack Obama should be comparing OWS to the protests, riots, crime, pillaging, and vandalism in Greece. That is the direction his compass is pointed toward and that is what these occupiers see on their televisions and feel compelled to mimic.

At the Tea Party’s peak leading into the Mid-term elections of 2010 (in which they accomplished much without breaking any laws), many of the politicians, namely Barack Obama, who currently sympathize with those involved in this parasitic OWS movement, were waiting on the edges of their seats for any one Tea Party member to perform a single questionable action that they could blow a whistle on. It never happened. There is a list of hundreds upon hundreds of lewd and violent acts that OWS has committed but these actions are somehow deemed acceptable.

What were these people doing before OWS?! They’ve been at this for, what, three months now? It is hard for me to even make my Tea Party meetings once a month on one single night after work, much less sleep in a tent and beat on drums and create havoc for three straight months.

Maybe they’ll beat their drums a little harder and vandalize with a bit more vigor now that their supportive president is taking a seventeen-day vacation. Aloha!

681.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day97.

Day461 Saturday 12/03/11

ran 2.3 miles
“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign. Because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I’m not a fighter.”

Herman Cain quoted by NYTimes

We will probably never know if this was all mud or truth being slung in Herman Cain’s direction, but it is disappointing news. I’ve been raving about Cain for a long time before the Republican race heated up and the before debates began, so it is doubly disheartening to see him step down under these circumstances.

Two thoughts: The first, how blind are you to honestly believe you can run for the President of the United States of America without a crisis like this eventually revealing itself? If the allegations are true, then this man must obviously believe he can get away with anything. This is a nonplussing complete lack of virtue and morality that no man or woman should campaign for office with hanging next to their suits in their closet. Second, if Cain is innocent and this was nothing more than an orchestrated plot to remove him from the campaign then American politics have yet again been exposed for the unsavory and malevolent source of abuse we have all come to get comfortable with.
Both scenarios seem too farfetched to accept, yet one of the two are a reality. John Edwards comes to mind. This guy was having an affair with a woman from Argentina, had a child with this woman, and he ran for president. You can’t make stuff like that up because it is just too ridiculous.

So Cain is stepping down. It is what it is. Looking forward, the man had a substantial following of supporters, so his endorsement for one of the remaining Republican candidates will be quite a bounty of transferred support. I am predicting he endorses Newt Gingrich. I don’t think that is a bold prediction as much as an obvious one, and I’m all for it.

684.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day96.

Day460 Friday 12/02/11

Victor Juhasz

ran 5.0 miles

GQ put together a list of “The 25 Least Influential People Alive” recently and Barack Obama barely slipped in ranked number twenty-five. This list is only trivial entertainment and it obviously holds no merit that I or anyone else should take seriously, but it led me to the cartoon above. Thought you might like it. It's titled "The Actual Debt Ceiling".

And, as an afterthought, Barack Obama has no place on a list rating meager amounts of influence. This guy is extremely influential. He has a nation essentially divided right up the middle. I can’t speak for the other half, but the half I am on feels influenced by fear and loathing for Barack Obama’s vision of America. President Barack Obama has influenced me to run 2,080 miles over the course of two years, two months, and seven days for the sake of contributing to the cause of making him a one-term president. No other individual has ever influenced me to take on such a long-term commitment as what I am doing with this blog and these miles for the sake of the America I envision raising my children in.

Thank you, Barack Obama, for the inspiration. Thank you for opening my eyes to everything I do not want America to be.

Here is a little something extra to leave you with tonight. Adam Carolla, you rock! I just watched this video and he nailed Occupy Wall Street on its collective head.



687.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day95.

Day459 Thursday 12/01/11

ran 3.0 miles

“I’m going to be the nominee. It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee. And by the way I don’t object if people want to attack me, that’s their right. All I’m suggesting that it’s not going to be very effective and that people are going to get sick of it very fast. And the guys who attacked each other in the debates up to now, every single one of them have lost ground by attacking. So they should do what they and their consultants want to do. I will focus on being substantive and I will focus on Barack Obama.”

Newt Gingrich in an ABC News interview today

Meanwhile, back at the unicorn farm, Barack Obama made some appearances in Pennsylvania and New York City urging wealth redistribution, or government revenue from those who are “not paying their fair share”, depending upon whose side you’re on. There was general vilifying of everything Republican and many outlandish claims, as usual, making conservative ideas appear abusive and destructive. Usual script. Remember the bit about “…the Republicans would have you drinking dirty water and breathing polluted air”? Sounds like an eight-year-old telling his friends that a couple of other kids in their class are butt-heads that suck on rotten eggs. Ridiculous. Our president had two years to form a path and a legacy with a Democratic Senate and House. He made his decisions and a substantial amount of Americans think they were very poorly devised choices.

Now he is campaigning on not being done with his hope and change, and needing more time to achieve his goals.

"I'm going to need another term to finish the job.”

Barack Obama speaking to donors in New York City, quoted by AP

Sounds like a hit-man saying he needs fifteen more minutes to finish the job.

692.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day94.

Day458 Wednesday 11/30/11

15 Months!!!

ran 3.5 miles
Today ends 15 months and 1,384.8 miles of running against Obama! Something short and fun tonight. One of my favorite authors and books is Douglas Adams’ “So Long and Thanks For All the Fish”. Adams, now deceased, had a gift to expose typical human behavior for the chaotic, nutty thing it is, and in the following excerpt he sums up in only a few lines just how chaotic and nutty it is that we elect the politicians we do. Thanks Reddit and speedyturtle4.

Ford Prefect explaining to Arthur Dent about why a robot said "take me to your lizards".

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

"What?"

"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"

"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."

Ford shrugged again.

"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said.

"They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."

695.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day93.