Day541 Tuesday 02/21/12

ran 3.3 miles
Greece was rescued today in the form of $172 billion by the European Union. This was the reason our stock market hit heights today it hadn’t seen since 2008. Enjoy the glimmer while it lasts.

Had this bailout not occurred a wake of economic disruption would have rolled up on many other nations’ shores, including our own. Think about it. Do you honestly believe that every country in the European Union actually wants to throw away money at a nation that naively promised its people the impossible? It’s like having a cousin who lacks all responsibility, hope for a future, and is involved in things that serve no real purpose for his own well-being. Ultimately, every member of this individual’s family, all the way to the most distant relative, is affected.

The EU is not letting this rapidly growing bubble pop. They are only buying time from inevitability at the price of greater disappointment.

Speaking of bubbles, there is an American bubble that will be popping soon and it is Barack Obama’s spending.

The American housing bubble that popped in recent years is similar to what happened in Greece. The banks that financed the loans for people who could not afford the payments to live in the houses they purchased are being blamed; in fact they are in the process of shelling out a few thousand dollars to each of the hundreds of thousands of those who received bad loans.

Bad loans?

There is a certain amount of common sense that is expected to function in American society and purchasing a house that is way out of your means lacks common sense. Shame on the banks, but shame on the unrealistic perception of one’s own financial situation, as well.

America, as a whole, has a bubble that is swelling to a devastating state It is our national debt. Just as Greece unrealistically promised its people golden pensions, unrealistic minimum wages, excessive vacations, and everything else utopias have to offer, Barack Obama is following this same path regardless of the warning signs, one after another.

Americans living in houses they know they cannot afford, the sense of “getting away with it” that they felt, Greece actually believing they could get away with the unrealistic way of life they were promised, and, back to America, the idea that so many believe we are moving forward under Barack Obama when we are only further ensuring a rapture of economic regression---there is a larger picture here.

Barack Obama is obviously not going to campaign on “hope and change” again in 2012 because "hope and change" failed. Fortunately for him, the average voter has the memory of a goldfish, so now he will campaign on something entirely less optimistic and more disparaging. His theme will be about fair shots and everyone getting a square amount. But it will be fresh and new and distracting and that’s what counts.

America is on Greece’s path and the current administration shows no apparent restraint from that course.

421.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day176.

Day540 Monday 02/20/12

ran 3.4 miles
As deciphering news often becomes confusing and contradictory, even more so when it is in the form of words coming out of the mouths of politicians, particularly our president, it is important to remember to go with your common sense. It is the most vital tool you can rely on.

For example, Barack Obama often stands in front of thousands of people, or in front of a camera, speaking to millions of people, and he smiles and says America is moving in the right direction, that our economy is moving forward, and that he deserves four more years. My gut and my common sense tell me otherwise. Most arguments he makes to showcase what he refers to as progress are at the peril of stacking up national debt to a level that is simply unsustainable. Any one of us could grin and lie about anything we wished if we too had a stack of blank checks or a credit card with no limit. But we don’t and that is because things like this do not exist. Our president thinks otherwise.

Here you go. You be the judge. Here are eighteen facts with sources affirming that the economy has not improved, but exponentially worsened, since Barack Obama became president. Somebody is lying here. It’s either our president or the eighteen different sources that these statistics came from. Here is the story.

• 88 million working-age Americans that are not employed and are not looking for employment (all-time record high).

• When Obama was elected, 15% of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks. Today it is above 30%.

• 1.2 million fewer jobs in America today than before Obama was sworn in.

• The number of long-term unemployed workers before Obama was 2.6 million. Today, the number is 5.6 million.

• Average duration of unemployment in America is close to an all-time record high.

• Under Obama, worker’s health insurance costs have increased 23%.

• 90% increase in the price of gas.

• Home values in America have declined 13% under Barack Obama.

• New home sales in America set a new all-time low in 2009, again in 2010, and once again in 2011.

• 6 million more Americans in poverty under Obama.

• Number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.

• Amount of money the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32%.

• Percentage of Americans in “extreme poverty” is now at an all-time high.

• When Obama took office an ounce of gold was worth about $850. An ounce of gold is now worth more than $1700.

• U.S. national debt has increased 44% under Barack Obama.

• During Obama’s first two years, our government added more to our national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

• Under Obama, our government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time of George Washington all the way through Clinton.

• U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than $4 billion per day since Obama was sworn in.

Things will all be fine very soon, though. Give this guy another four years and see.

424.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day175.

Day539 Sunday 02/19/12

ran 2.7 miles
Today ends week seventy-seven of running against Obama. I ran 24.7 miles this week, averaging 3.53 miles per day.

In news today one of the big headlines on DrudgeReport is “Iran Cuts Oil To UK, France”. At first glance, it looks like a severe measure taken by a nation that is constantly in the news demonizing and threatening other nations around the globe, particularly our own and our long-time ally, Israel. But what about this…

What if we let them stick a cork right in their Strait of Hormuz, as they keep threatening to do, and just say “fine”.

What if America said, “Okie-dokie. Don’t really need you and we also don’t appreciate your hate-mongering. We can refine our own resources. Good luck financing the nuclear projects we and other countries you export oil to are paying for.”

Two things wrong with that approach. The first, we currently have a president who has little interest in America relying on itself for its own natural resources. His alternative energy companies he invested in with our tax dollars are going belly-up monthly (I think it was four in the past one or two months) and his decision to turn down the Keystone pipeline speaks for itself. And, secondly, that is way to simple of a solution. Decisions need to make as little sense as possible to at least fifty-percent of our nation in order to pass in Washington.

Here is why Iran’s decision to cut oil to UK and France is hardly newsworthy. In a story from Reuters, “The European Union in January decided to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building bombs. Iran denies this.”

Iran chose to cut off UK and France but the entire European Union was planning to cut Iran off in July. Iran has been in the process of getting phased out due to their controversial nuclear research and they simply cut the cord early out of spite. EU’s sanctions on Iran far exceed the U.N.’s including a ban on dealing with Iranian banks and insurance companies.

Why isn’t America leading this effort with the most extreme sanctions and bans? Our largest obstacle is a president who has so little interest in domestic oil and so much in failed green companies.

427.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day174.

Day538 Saturday 02/18/12

ran 2.5 miles

“There are elements in our society and they are predominantly on the hard left that say it’s no longer enough to challenge and contradict or defeat or fight these fellas in arguments. We’ve got to smear them, stigmatize as racist or homophobic and then we’ve gotta silence and censor them and the way we do it is go after the media outlets that put them on the air…this is un-American what is going on right now.”

Pat Buchanan

430.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day173.

Day537 Friday 02/17/12

ran 3.6 miles
Unbelievable. Just look at Tim Geithner. He looks like an eight-year-old trying to convince his parents otherwise of a blatant truth only adults would understand. Head leaning forward, shoulders raised and clenched in guilt, little and sporadic eye contact, sarcastic grins, so desperate to defend himself that he only achieves making himself look that much less credible. And, through and through, Ryan sits across from him calmly explaining how ineffective and destructive his budget is. I actually felt a tiny bit sorry for him. But, as Paul Ryan pointed out, he is the Treasury Secretary and he deserves every belittling comment Ryan so easily threw at him.

This stuff isn’t hard to grasp. Our national deficit and the budgets our leaders draft each year are leading us further and further to the edge. Even if this edge has ten years of distance before it ends and drops off into an abyss, it is simply irresponsible to appease the short-term interests of our nation while jeopardizing the long-term potential of America.

433.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day172.

Day536 Thursday 02/16/12

ran 3.5 miles
Spending like this cannot last forever. I’d venture to say it couldn’t even last another five years. Yet, our president does not address the unacceptable state of our national debt. He keeps adding to it. The messages expressed in the videos above are a clear statement of how broken America’s compass is and how obvious it is that we are heading in the wrong direction.

What is the end game here? If I wanted to deliberately lose everything I have worked so hard for, let down my entire family, and abandon all sense of hope, I think the easiest way to do it would be to follow the template of living extraordinarily out of my means with absolutely no regard for the fact that the money I am wasting will eventually have to be paid back. This is what our government is doing, and should a government not lead by example?

436.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day171.

Day535 Wednesday 02/15/12

ran 4.5 miles
Barack Obama did something today that I never would have expected. He exhibited the virtue of humility. He held himself accountable. He did not blame someone else. When asked why he did not reach his promise of having the national deficit cut in half by the end of his term, his response was:

“Well we’re not there because this recession turned out to be a lot deeper than any of us realized.”



This might be the first time since he was inaugurated that he accepted blame, even if only a fraction.

Hang on, just found another one. July, 2011:



One last thing, here is something I found today on Snopes that I thought was interesting and serves to encapsulate the essence of the liberal agenda. And, it was written 63 years ago.
The ideas Barack Obama represents were a bad idea in 1949 and they are a bad idea in 2012.


440.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day170.

Day534 Tuesday 02/14/12

ran 4.6 miles
I stumbled across an interesting article today at InfoWars, written by Kurt Nimmo. The article, “Active Duty Troops to March on White House”, claims that over 1,000 veterans and active duty troops supporting Ron Paul will be marching to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on February 20, 2012. Protesting the “unconstitutional forever war agenda of the establishment”, the veterans and troops will do an about face and salute a folded American flag for the same amount of seconds as the number of troops who have died since Obama has been president.

We don’t hear about it much in the news but Ron Paul has been receiving an overwhelming majority of donations from active duty members of the service. This same trend existed in 2008, as well.

Regardless of how you feel about Ron Paul, the pie chart above makes a loud statement. Those of us who never joined the military have many opinions about issues that directly affect servicemen and women, but they are the ones who are in the middle of those decisions fighting for their lives and seeing firsthand the results of war. The fact that 71% of these brave men and women support Ron Paul is a fact that is hard to ignore.

444.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day169.

Day533 Monday 02/13/12

ran 3.3 miles

Our president released his election-year budget plan today. From an AssociatedPress article, written by Andrew Taylor, “Taking a pass on reining in government growth, President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan Monday, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to help pay the costs. The ideas landed with a thud on Capitol Hill.”

The Obama administration’s expectation is that the deficit will sink to $901 billion next year (this still requires our federal government to borrow $0.24 on every dollar we spend) and will make its way down to somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion by 2015. I'm sure that'll go just as planned. Have to spend money to save money, right?

Taylor went on to state, “The deficit for the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30, would hit $1.3 trillion, a near record and the fourth straight year of trillion-plus red ink.”

As the video above depicts, there is no guesswork and there is no need to get a general feeling of direction by studying the needle on a barometer. As Hannan said, “Just look outside your window.” Barack Obama’s destination is just across the pond in Europe. As we all watch how that is unraveling for them, our president continues to push in that direction regardless of all the warnings.

449.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day168.

Day532 Sunday 02/12/12

ran 2.1 miles
Today ends week seventy-six of running against Obama. I ran 22.2 miles this week averaging 3.17 miles per day.

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That was the oath our president took when he was sworn in. Yet, so many of his legislative actions have teeming numbers of states appealing his actions to higher courts. Or they seek interstate compacts to avoid some of his decisions, which have been deemed unconstitutional by Americans.

No president in history has ever been so limited by the Constitution to reach his goals as Barack Obama, yet he swore to defend it. Our president challenges it constantly. On Day526 I posted a quote from an interview Barack Obama had with NBC:

“What’s frustrated people is that I’ve not been able to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than I would like sometimes.”

They designed a system to prevent people like you from violating it, Mr. President. After citing the oath you took, after the actions you’ve made, and after the idea that you suddenly discovered it turns out that our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than you would like, I have one question:

How do you swear one thing and at the same time do another?

The oath does not state, “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, disregard, destroy, and redefine the Constitution of the United States.”

452.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day167.

Day531 Saturday 02/11/12

ran 2.0 miles
Sarah Palin’s speech at CPAC has turned out to be the most highly anticipated and received message at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s conference. After instantly silencing a few Occupy Wall Street hecklers she went on to raise multiple standing ovations with her words. The video speaks for itself.

I am almost through with my list of our fifty states and the important stats and presidential voting histories they each have. I wanted to compile this list as a key to quickly reference when the election arrives, rather than having to listen to five different news stations all reporting different things about which directions different states will be likely voting. So, here is the second to last one. Click on “States of the Union” to the right to view more information on other states.

Stats and facts about the state of Wisconsin:

• Wisconsin was the thirtieth state to join the union on May 29, 1848, two years before California and two years after Iowa.

• Population, as of 2010, is 5,686,986.

• Senators are Ron Johnson (R) and Herb Kohl (D).

• Representatives are Paul Ryan (R), Tammy Baldwin (D), Ronald Kind (D), Gwen Moore (D), James Sensenbrenner (R), Thomas Petri (R), Sean Duffy (R), and Reid Ribble (R).

• Wisconsin has ten electoral votes. Historically, the state voted primarily red through 1928. Wisconsin turned blue, like many other states, during the Great Depression and World War II. From 1944 to 1984 the state was unpredictable and swung in both directions from election to election. However, Wisconsin has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every single election since 1988. Barack Obama defeated John McCain 56% to 42% in 2008.

454.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day166.

Day530 Saturday 02/10/12

ran 4.3 miles

I don’t know about you but I missed the memo that we recently declared war on Iran.



I do recall that a couple weeks ago our president was self-aggrandizing his accomplishment of pulling troops out of the Middle East and bringing them back home. I recall very recently that he claimed we had achieved what we had set out to do in that region, and that we were close to the end. I didn’t believe it but those are the sorts of things presidents say. I remember he cut a substantial amount of funding to the Pentagon, as well.

But to hear that we have officially declared war on Iran seems counter-productive to the above-mentioned alleged achievements.

On February 5, 2012, President Obama invoked, fresh out of the box, the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), issuing an executive order declaring the threat of Iran to be a National Emergency. Iran’s threat to sever oil supplies is the basis of the declaration.

From InfoWars, “The executive order directs all government agencies to respond immediately to the threat. It further invokes the authority of the 2012 NDAA, which gives the President the power to launch military action against any nation without the approval of Congress. Ironically, the State of Emergency order also accuses the Iranian central bank of deceptive banking practices.”

By the way, NDAA is the active legislation you’ve been hearing about that allows indefinite detainment without trial of American citizens. And, coincidentally, there are hundreds of active FEMA detention camps set up across the American landscape.

But, back to Iran. It wasn’t that long ago that our president was advocating the idea that Israel should revert back to 1967 borders, which would have been devastating to Israel and advantageous to countries like Iran who openly seek to destroy the Jewish nation. Mere months later our president is declaring war on Iran, the nation that would have been directly empowered by 1967 borders? But, here’s the thing. The reason this story isn’t resounding is because at first glance war is not being declared. But, technically it is. Our Constitution, up until NDAA, required war to only be declared when there was a direct threat upon Americans on American soil. Once a threat was deemed reasonable, contingent on the approval of Congress, war could be declared. That no longer exists as of very recently. Congress tolled much disapproval when Barack Obama ordered military operations in Libya because he circumvented their authority and their approval. Their authority and approval no longer apply.

That is a lot of lumpy and abrasive information to pass through the smooth and fine interpretive conduits of our collective American minds, but here’s the point. Having no ability to run on his record, Barack Obama has no choice but to create distractions and to fabricate situations if he wants to be re-elected. If the election were tomorrow, I don’t think he would stand a chance. In a figurative world, where you wake up tomorrow and hear that you have to spontaneously vote on that day, what would you do? It is only my opinion, but I don’t think Barack Obama would stand a chance today or tomorrow. Put any one of the four candidates against him. If you feel the same way, then what is his only option to change the mood and reason of voters between now and November? It’s nothing that his record can speak for. He would have to do something monumental and distracting enough to make a large amount of voters completely overlook the first three years of his presidency in exchange for whatever plan he concocts.

456.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day165.

Day529 Thursday 02/09/12

ran 4.2 miles
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, this is the American government overstepping one of the most important constitutional boundaries ever drawn. If they can do this, what else is possible? It is unbelievable that our president is pursuing such a controversial, direct violation of everything America stands for less than one year before the next presidential election.

461.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day164.

Day528 Wednesday 02/08/12

ran 3.1 miles
Obama’s contraceptive mandate has been the big issue the past few days. In usual form, he had assured that he would not enforce such a radical measure (as he is currently imposing on America) back in 2009 when he had signed his health care act.

Last night I posted about Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Penn) who was one of many members of Congress that were fired in 2010 during the midterm elections for siding with Barack Obama over issues like health care reform. She has recently come out and said she would never have voted for Obamacare had she known the final version of the bill would “force Catholic hospitals and Catholic colleges to pay for contraception”.

Along those same lines, author Eric Metaxas was on an MSNBC program today and he compared Obama’s contraceptive mandate to Germany’s holocaust policies (story from TheBlaze).

Metaxas’ book, which he had the opportunity to hand to Barack Obama personally, is named “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”. The book describes the life of Bonhoeffer, who was hanged after being exposed in an elaborate plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

From TheBlaze’s article, written by Billy Hallowell, “Leading up to the Holocaust, conditions became less favorable to faith groups, yet no one stood up to prevent the downward spiral that would inevitably end in genocidal chaos. He then connected these small pre-Holocaust signs to the situation we’re seeing with the contraceptive mandate here in America.”

“In the early 30s, little things were happening where the state was bullying the churches. No one spoke up. In the beginning, it always starts really, really small. We need to understand as Americans — if we do not see this as a bright line in the sand — if you’re not a Catholic, if you use contraception — doesn’t matter. Because eventually, this kind of government overreach will affect you.”

Eric Metaxas

I don’t think our president is concerned with those who “cling to their bibles” and he appears to be achieving even more division among Americans than he has already created. He is running on thin fumes of desperation and it is simply disappointing that so many Americans continue to stay on this guy's ship as it sinks deeper and deeper.

465.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day163.