Day503 Saturday 01/14/12

ran 3.3 miles

In an article from Investors.com, written by John Merline, we can take a close look at how uniquely unsuccessful Barack Obama’s efforts have been to create jobs. Merline titled the article “Nearly 1 Million Workers Vanished Under Obama” and here are some of the numbers to prove it. And keep in mind the failed stimulus package Obama pumped into the economy, which our children and grandchildren will be born into America owing, when you read them.

It has been thirty months since the recession officially ended and approximately one million people have slipped through the cracks of the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force has diminished by 170,000 in just the past two months.

In the past nine documented economic recoveries, the labor force numbers had increased by an average of 3.5 million by this point.

The number of people either working or seeking employment compared to the total working-age population is currently 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession was declared over in June of 2009. That is the lowest level since women started joining the workforce in far greater numbers decades ago. The current official unemployment rate of 8.5% would adjust to 11% if this drop were taken into account. And, to raise that number even higher, only those individuals who actively seek work are actually counted as “unemployed”.

547.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day138.

Day502 Friday 01/13/12

ran 2.6 miles

This was an ad from the 2010 midterm elections. That election was pivotal in slowing down Barack Obama's agenda and firing a huge number of Democratic members of congress who voted for the legislative pieces that an obviously large number of Americans did not want. There is going to be an information overload and a lot of distractions between now and the 2012 presidential election but one important thing to keep in mind is this:

What has changed? Why should November 2012 not be a repeat "shellacking" of Barack Obama and his congressional counterparts? All the blame he lays on congress is actually blame he lays on American voters because we voted his majority out of the House and we nearly voted out his majority of the Senate. We replaced these individuals with new elected officials who campaigned on the ideas we, as a majority of people from across the country, wanted. The 112th Congress he blames is simply performing the task we elected them to do.

I have some exciting news! I am going to be interviewed on a Lafayette radio station on Monday, January 16. Check back in for more details over the next couple of days.

551.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day137.

Day501 Thursday 01/12/12

Another $1.2 Trillion?



ran 4.0 miles

Barack Obama requested another $1.2 trillion today. We need more monopoly money to pay off our debts. Our current president is on pace to outspend every other president combined if reelected. At the risk of sounding completely materialistic, our economy and our national debt are a couple of my top issues as a voter. These topics are essentially one of the few things I want to here candidates talk about.

What is more important than stopping America from losing all credibility, going bankrupt and eventually losing the identity it has held for so long as the greatest nation on Earth? How important are the other issues we value in America if our nation falls into a state of economic chaos similar to what happened in Greece?

And while we are dangling off the edge of a cliff by a single finger, let's go ahead and figuratively cut that finger off with an expensive health care overhaul that a majority of this country wants no part of.

553.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day136.

Day500 Wednesday 01/11/12

ran 3.6 miles

Today ends 500 days of running against Obama. After 500 days of campaigning against him, this is what I have come to realize.

I have never taken on an endeavor of this size in my entire life. I have set out far less time and energy-consuming goals, which I came nowhere close to following through on, but this man and his ideas compel me to make a stand with a determination I have never before experienced.

This president had two years to do anything he wanted with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Ever since his “shellacking” on November 2, 2010, his fire of the first two years was put out and since then he has been blowing on the embers to get it started again. Frustrated by Republicans throwing sand on every flame he painstakingly sparked, he has been backed into a corner, due to his own actions and America’s disapproval of them, and there is little left for him to do but simply get out of the way or blame Congress for all of our woes. He has chosen the latter.

America was on the cliff’s edge of a recession, possibly another Great Depression, in 2009, and Barack Obama came along and signed sweeping health care legislation in tandem with a colossal stimulus package that amounted to nothing. Almost immediately he executed these actions with no regard for the dire circumstances our nation was in.

For decades Washington D.C. has been kicking the can down the road and prolonging the inevitable moment for this wasteful bubble to pop, just like the housing bubble and the banks, waiting and waiting, packing as much air into that balloon until it would explode. Well, it popped Mr. President. And your solution was to enact some of the most immediately costly health care legislation in America’s domestic history and to stimulate the economy with monopoly money, giving China and other nations even more ownership of America, which was spent to no avail. What we needed in 2008 was a hero with a different sort of hope and change. We needed a boot to kick this country in its rear-end and to step on the greedy fingers of what we have come to know as the typical politician. Barack Obama was the exact opposite of that.

Two nights ago I had posted about Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Jack Lew, who will take the place of Bill Daley. This guy was the chief operating officer of Citibank’s alternative investment division in 2009. He received a bonus exceeding $900,000 that year after billions of American tax dollars bailed Citibank out for the housing crisis they played a part in. His outrageous bonus was paid for by taxpayers.

Digging even deeper in the rabbit hole, Bill Daley, the current chief of staff who is stepping down, is the brother of the former mayor of Chicago. Bill Daley’s father was the mayor of Chicago before his brother. And Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff, is currently the mayor of Chicago, who took the place of Bill Daley’s brother.

Maybe you don’t feel it but this gets under my skin. It makes me feel helpless as I grasp for logical reasons why America has gotten to the point it is at. 2012 welcomed in a national debt that actually exceeds GDP. Our president is weeks away from requesting a trillion-plus dollar debt-ceiling hike. None of this makes any sense and I have no answer for why our federal government continues in the direction it does. It is a helpless and chaotic feeling to be a part of something you cannot understand.

This is why I run.

557.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day135.

Day499 Tuesday 01/10/12

ran 3.2 miles
Romney’s success in New Hampshire comes as no surprise but Paul finishing second is impressive. Huntsman earning third place behind Paul, leaving Santorum and Gingrich to fight for the scraps of the Granite State, had to have been disappointing for him. He put a lot of time, money, and confidence into his campaign in New Hampshire and third place might not be pivotal enough for him to keep stride.

South Carolina is next and this particular state will stand as a historic barometer of where America stands. The state has a thirty-year track record of successfully picking the Republican candidate who eventually goes on to be the presidential nominee. Not bad.

And after that comes Florida. This South Carolina/Florida combo of primaries, almost within a week of one another, will serve as a broad leap into severely narrowing down the speculation surrounding which one of these guys will finally be nominated to face Barack Obama on November 6, 2012.

561.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day134.

Day498 Monday 01/09/12

ran 3.5 miles
Obama’s chief of staff, Bill Daley, is stepping down and heading back to Chicago. Daley filled the position after Rahm Emanuel stepped down to run for and eventually win the position of mayor in Chicago, a position that Bill Daley’s father and brother had once held, and he will now be replaced by Jack Lew. Coincidentally, Lew received nearly $950,000 in bonuses in 2009 while serving as chief operating officer of Citibank’s alternative investments division. This was mere months after billions of dollars in bailouts were paid to Citibank with tax dollars. Here is the story.

Here are 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 42% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –19.

• Overall, 44% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 55% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Among voters, 52% think repeal of health care law is likely,

• National GOP Poll: Romney 29%, Santorum 24%, Gingrich 16%

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 44%, Democrats 38%

• Only 30% of Americans expect to earn more a year from now.

• Among voters, 22% say U.S. is heading in the right direction.

564.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day133.

Day497 Sunday 01/08/12

ran 3.0 miles
One of my favorite videos.

Today ends week seventy-one of running against Obama. I ran 24.8 miles this week, averaging 3.54 miles per day.

567.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day132.

Day496 Saturday 01/07/12

ran 3.5 miles
The final numbers are in for waivers from ObamaCare. All together there were 1,231 waivers issued to companies. From the DailyCaller, labor unions representing 543,812 union workers were granted waivers from Obama since June 17, 2011. The private sector received waivers for only 69,813 employees.

And, in case you don’t remember this story, the Department of Health and Human Services tightened their rules for issuing waivers when a DailyCaller story broke last May reporting that 20% of that month’s waivers went to businesses in Nancy Pelosi’s district in California.

For the most part, union’s backed Obama’s health care plan and now that it has passed over half a million of those union’s employees are exempt from it.

Many would argue that these waivers represent such a small faction of America that they are only a small bump in the road for the ultimate transition into full-blown nationalized health care, but many others would say they represent 1,231 small cracks in a concrete dam that will eventually, sooner than later, turn into much larger cracks.

570.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day131.

Day495 Friday 01/06/12

ran 1.9 miles

Barack Obama continues to exercise his executive powers blaming Congress for all of America’s woes. Feeling disenfranchised and not supported by his own Congress, he has little else choice but to blame others as a child would do. His actions defy and take advantage of the other branches of government, which were put in place to prevent this exact breach of power from occurring.

Here is a man, Senator Marco Rubio, who has the brass to let him know.

January 6, 2012

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President

Any day now, news reports suggest you will ask Congress to approve yet another increase in the debt ceiling. The expected request is another $1.2 trillion, adding to a three-year debt binge that has totaled $4.5 trillion on your watch and that has enabled our overall debt to surpass $15 trillion. Your latest request will push the federal debt limit well above $16 trillion.

This pending request will be the sixth time during your Presidency that Congress is being asked to keep allowing government and spending to grow at rates that are unsustainable. In other words, you have made it a routine part of your job to ask for more room to spend without any plan to reduce our debt.

Instead of making debt ceiling increases a routine Washington exercise, we need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in. Until then, I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly.

As I wrote in The Wall Street Journal in March 2011, I will oppose a debt ceiling increase unless such an authorization is accompanied by a real plan to tackle our debt. Ideally, such a plan would feature both pro-growth elements and spending restraints, including fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform, meaningful cuts to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security and Medicare.

If we had done this in mid-2011 when we last debated the debt ceiling, we could have set America on a path to economic growth and prosperity. This would have led to more jobs and, in turn, to more duly employed taxpayers generating more growth-driven revenue to help us pay down our debt. Instead, you failed to lead, punted the tough decisions and, in doing so, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history. It’s a tragic reality but, on your watch, more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation inevitably heading toward a European-style debt crisis.

When you served in the Senate in 2006, you called raising the debt limit “a sign of leadership failure.” Using your own standard, this request will mark your sixth “sign of leadership failure” on the debt ceiling issue alone. Throughout our history, Americans have revered courageous leaders and celebrated them as profiles in courage.

Unfortunately, the first three years of your presidency have been a profile in leadership failure. While you may choose to run your reelection campaign against a “Do-Nothing Congress,” your insistence on doing nothing to meaningfully tackle our debt poses a direct threat to America’s exceptional character and is leading us towards a diminished future.

America deserves leaders who will stand front and center, level with the American people about our challenges and offer real solutions to solve them. Instead of simply asking for another debt ceiling increase, I urge you to come forward with a real plan to tackle our debt in 2012.

Sincerely,

Marco Rubio
United States Senator

574.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day130.

Day494 Thursday 01/05/12

ran 3.5 miles
On this day in history, President Harry Truman gave his “Fair Deal” speech in the form of his State of the Union address. The year was 1949 and Truman declared that every American deserves a fair deal from their government.

Sound like a familiar idea here in 2012? I agree every American, every legal American, deserves a fair deal, in which they have every opportunity any other individual has, but that “fair deal” or opportunity has nothing to do with the federal government granting it.

President Harry Truman laid out a plan for domestic policy reforms including nationalized health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation, federal aid to education, increased minimum wage, government assistance to farmers, extension of Social Security, and immediate anti-discrimination policies regarding employment.

I’m not suggesting these are bad ideas but the ruthless haste most presidents use in implementing their ideas far too often leaves a wake of unexpected disaster elsewhere. Barack Obama’s use of stimulus packages and introducing his health care bill in the first half of his term amidst a full blown recession are two examples of cramming futility down the throat of logic. Many would argue things would be worse had he not invested so many monopoly money tax dollars into so many things that have unraveled as complete failures; I would argue that if he had invested in resources and technology, such as drilling for oil, that we as a nation already have a firm grasp on then his stimulus package could have been a success rather than a monumental failure.

In 1949, much like in 2012, politics were shifting to the right and anti-communist sentiment was increasingly slowing down Truman’s agenda, just as Barack Obama’s agenda is becoming more and more difficult to fulfill. The “Fair Deal” was being interpreted more and more as socialism by Americans.

In Truman’s second term minimum wage was almost doubled, he succeeded with his “Housing Act”, which provided 800,000 new houses for the poor, and Congress approved his extension of Social Security benefits. As far as nationalized health care was concerned, Congress obviously rejected the idea.

In 1950, the Korean War and the Cold War were too big of distractions for Truman to pursue his more important domestic interests any longer.

What was the theme of that speech Obama gave last month in Osawatomie, Kansas? “Fair Deal”, was it? No, it was the “Fair Shot” speech.

576.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day129.

Day493 Wednesday 01/04/12

1,500 MILES!!!

ran 4.6 miles

Back from Hawaii and with the dust still clearing in Iowa from last night’s caucus, Barack Obama has yet again demonstrated his arguable overreaching of powers. From a Washington Times article written by Stephen Dinan and Susan Crabtree, Obama utilized his recess appointment powers today to name a head for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board.

Who the appointees were is not nearly as important as the defiance our president exhibited when he usurped Congress to make his own decisions. The Senate is still in session and the president is not authorized to make a recess appointment until three days of recess have passed. The number of recess days needed for him to make an unapproved appointment was actually even longer until 2010 when Obama’s top constitutional lawyers made an argument to the Supreme Court that the waiting period should only be three days. Apparently, it is now zero days.

The reason we have a President, a Senate, and a House, is to act as watchdog over one another. And the people of America or the fourth watchdog. This is what our forefather’s intended from the beginning.

“I refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer. I’ve said before that I will continue to look for every opportunity to work with Congress to move this country forward. But when Congress refuses to act in a way that hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them.”

Barack Obama

After our president’s first two terms, Americans from all over the country voted during the mid-term elections and they sent Barack Obama a direct message. Now he blames Congress for our woes, but a majority of Americans who were disappointed in Obama’s decisions fired many of the members of Congress who supported them. The 112th Congress he accuses of being the problem is simply doing the job they were hired, or voted for, to do by the people. Who’s really to blame here?

Can you imagine if Americans were as ignorant and as uninformed as our federal government assumes us to be? What would be happening right now if the people of this nation simply had not cared and had not shown up at their precincts to vote in November of 2010? Where would we be if Barack Obama still had control of the Senate and the House? Voters served their role as watchdog and leveled the imbalance of power that had existed and was obviously not working in a majority of our interests.

1,500 miles!!! Thanks for reading!

579.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day128.

Day492 Tuesday 01/03/12

$15,222,940,045,451.09

ran 4.7 miles
The numbers are in and the U.S. Treasury has closed out 2011 with an official $15.2 trillion in national debt. U.S. debt to GDP is now sitting at 100.3%. In simple terms, our boat is about an inch away from filling up completely with water regardless of how much we are throwing out over the side with our useless government-subsidized buckets. We need bigger buckets and a new captain.

Check this page out. The U.S. National Debt Clock has America projected at $23.9 trillion by 2015. Only three short years away. This is clearly unacceptable and enough water to sink any ship, so do we continue in Barack Obama’s direction or do we elect someone else who will stop spending incomprehensible sums of money that do not even exist?

The Iowa caucus is the first mile on the street of 2012 leading to November 6. From USA Today, here is the rapid schedule of primaries and caucuses after Iowa:

Jan. 10: New Hampshire primary
Jan. 21: South Carolina primary
Jan. 31: Florida primary
Feb. 4: Nevada caucuses; Maine caucuses begin
Feb. 7: Colorado, Minnesota caucuses; Missouri primary*
Feb. 28: Arizona, Michigan primaries
March 3: Washington State caucuses
March 6: Super Tuesday — Primaries or caucuses in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia. Wyoming caucuses begin.
March 10: Kansas caucuses
March 13: Alabama, Mississippi primaries; Hawaii caucuses
March 17: Missouri caucuses
March 20: Illinois primary
March 24: Louisiana primary
April 3: District of Columbia, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin primaries
April 24: Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island primaries
May 8: Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia primaries
May 15: Nebraska, Oregon primaries
May 22: Arkansas, Kentucky primaries
June 5: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota primaries
June 26: Utah primary
*Non-binding primary; Missouri delegates chosen at March 17 caucuses.Source: USA TODAY reporting

584.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day127.

Day491 Monday 01/02/12

ran 3.6 miles
This is Ron Paul’s final television ad in New Hampshire before the primary begins in eight days. It begins airing today and it will be the last spot to air in New Hampshire before the primary begins.

Ron Paul has a strong and wide following but he turns a lot of people off when it comes to foreign policy. This is my interpretation of Ron Paul. Regarding civil liberties and economical matters, the man is incomparable to any other candidate. His voting record is a solid line of consistency. He has never voted for a tax increase. He says things the way he sees them regardless of what you or any other person may think of him, and those ideas are based on his beliefs in our Constitution and what our forefathers intended.

But, when he begins talking about pulling troops from all over the globe and letting Iran do as they please with nuclear weapons, Paul gets tuned out immediately by a lot of people and the varying views and beliefs they hold as important.

But ask yourself this question. What is more important than ending the wasteful spending we have been piling on ourselves and on unborn Americans for so long? Our economy is on the brink of collapse. The numbers speak for themselves. It is not even necessary to speculate at what injury will be put on our nation if Obama finagles another term out of American voters. But we can speculate at how center-of-the-aisle Romney and Gingrich are. I like Romney and Gingrich and would vote for either of them as well as any other candidate instead of Barack Obama, but while we still have options Ron Paul is the man who is best suited to reverse our economical woes. Rick Santorum is another candidate I like and I am very curious to see how he does tomorrow in Iowa. But, ultimately, more and more, I want the tough love, relentless, genuine, conservative, hard working, economy repairing principles of Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is a radical, just as Barack Obama is, but he is on the opposite end of the spectrum, which I believe to be the far more productive and American extreme. What better candidate to neutralize Barack Obama and his extreme policies than the one who most represents the precise contradiction of everything our current president holds as important?

Here are the final polls for Iowa:

Romney 24%
Paul 22%
Santorum 15%
Gingrich 12%
Perry 11%
Bachmann 7%

589.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day126.

Day490 Sunday 01/01/12

ran 0.1 miles

Welcome to 2012. Last night, while we were ushering in the new year, Barack Obama seized the opportunity to sign the National Defense Authorization Act. This act, among other things, allows indefinite detainment of American citizens with no trial for any reason our government sees fit.

Any time our federal government signs something into law on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, I think it is safe to say that what they signed is usually a huge injustice to the American people. It’s a sucker punch. It’s a cheap shot. And they only get two of them per year so you know they choose the most controversial laws they can find for these two holidays. For example, the Senate passed Obama’s health care bill on Christmas Eve, 2009.

The reason they pick these holidays to enact absurdity is because the media is reporting holiday stories the next day---and, people don’t want to think about the nonsense that is churning daily in Washington on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. So they swoop in and pillage while we are distracted by warm, pleasant holidays with friends and family.

President Barack Obama released a signing statement after signing the act. While most of it strikes me as disingenuous fluff, this one particular quote caught my attention.

“Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation.”

There are so many things wrong with this statement. This is a pledge coming from the same man who said he would be a one-term president if the economy was not fixed in three years. It’s been three years and the economy is far from fixed. Those are some strict terms but he set them, not us.

Obama has lost credibility when it comes to the economy. However, the one area he has thrived in is dealing with terrorists. And now that every American is a potential terrorist threat and can be snatched up in the middle of the night, just not under his administration, Obama does have credibility in Bill of Rights defying nightmares like this. He signed this monstrosity into law, but as a consolation he claims that his administration will not authorize “the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens”. Beyond the fact that those words mean nothing, what about the next administration and the one after that? Barack Obama has signed into law the biggest threat to civil liberties we have seen in a very long time. He has cracked open a gate and eventually this gate will be wide open.

“…I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.” Traditions and values? These are laws. These are laws that America was built upon. They are the essence of America.

Almost forgot...today ends week seventy of running against Obama. I ran 20.7 miles this week, averaging 2.96 miles per day.

592.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day125.