Day615 Saturday 05/05/12

August 5, 1964-May 4, 2012

ran 3.6 miles

As we all get older there is one thing that becomes very clear. We each only have so many opportunities to grasp, harness, and drive whatever it is we are motivated to achieve. Many pass life choices off to procrastination, laziness, or even the delusion that something or someone else will pick up the tab for our own shortcomings later on. Many are simply satisfied with doing nothing but wondering and wandering aimlessly. But, many more give up on themselves way too early, becoming frustrated with what they do not have but feel they somehow deserve, which is in direct opposition to what some others do have and actually earned.

The death of Adam Yauch is a big one for me. I turn 34 this month and I have found that as I get older my own mortality becomes thicker and thicker of a realization as my childhood heroes slowly begin to pass away. Adam Yauch, among many other giants I have always looked up to and have been influenced by since I was eight-years-old was a pioneer in an industry and style that no one else has been able to replicate or even attempt to challenge in the last twenty-six years. The Beastie Boys are the Beastie Boys. You can't compare them. What the Beastie Boys accomplished was absolutely amazing. These three individuals defined themselves, lived their definitions, and committed to their meanings.

If you are wondering why I posted about Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys on a blog that is determined to do everything it can to make Barack Hussein Obama a one-term president, the reason is simple. No government has ever painted a "Guernica", no government has ever written an "On the Road" or "Grapes of Wrath", no government has ever composed a symphony that brings tears to your eyes or even a theory of relativity. And no government has ever defined a culture and its time as boldly as the Beastie Boys did.

Our president discourages the success that adversity and determination have strengthened our country with over the last nearly 250 years. Adam Yauch did not co-found the Beastie Boys with a government handout or food stamps. This guy simply followed his dream regardless of the outcome, realizing that it is better to try and fail than to not try at all, and he succeeded. You have to respect that...or do you? I would venture to say that 50% of the people in this country do not respect hard work or determination, the likes of which Adam Yauch possessed, and that 50% of this country is unfortunately convinced that they vicariously deserve some of his beads of sweat, gritty tears, and weary blood that he worked so hard to bleed. 

Point is, Adam Yauch (MCA) was one outstanding human being. He was talented, he worked hard for what he earned, and he by all means deserved it. He is a glowing example of how much can be achieved by simply pursuing your interests to no end and completely disregarding the news of the day and the government before you. 

181.5 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day250.

Day614 Friday 05/04/12

ran 4.0 miles 

Another perfect example of what we are up against in November. 

185.1 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day249.

Day613 Thursday 05/03/12

ran 3.2 miles 

“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.” 

Ronald Reagan

189.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day248.

Day612 Wednesday 05/02/12

ran 3.5 miles

Here is the unapologetic American terrorist, Bill Ayers, best known for blowing up government buildings in the 1970s, best known for saying "I get up every morning and think...today I'm going to end Capitalism", best known for being married to Bernadine Dohrn (his terrorist accomplice), best known for escaping imprisonment due to a technicality on the part of the FBI when gathering evidence against his crimes, and best known for launching Barack Obama's political career from the inside of his own home.

Here is a small sample of his wisdom:  

And in case you may have forgotten or had never seen this video of an FBI agent who infiltrated Bill Ayers' and Bernadine Dohrn's terrorist group in the 1970s, check out what he had to say of what actions he observed and the words he witnessed:  

All of this galavanting around our president is doing, ignoring the lack of accomplishments he has to tout, is a distraction of the past three years and a distortion of what his actual intentions are for the next four. Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, media that refuses to examine this president's past, sealed records and college transcripts, food stamp explosions, immensely unsuccessful investments in alternative energy, no to Keystone, his legacy piece of legislation (his health care act), which is currently awaiting a ruling on whether it is even constitutional or not while hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been pumped into propping the health care machine upright before it has even been deemed legal. This president has nothing in his first term worth bragging about that did not send our national debt exponentially skyrocketing through the roof. If he or his Democratic counterparts would have signed at least one single budget in his first term then perhaps we could have given him some credit for at least appearing to be fiscally responsible or looking as though he had a plan. But they did not. 

192.3 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day247.

Day611 Tuesday 05/01/12

ran 3.6 miles

Our president, or Campaigner in Chief, has reached some remarkable record-setting milestones on the campaign trail over the last few years. In a book by Brendan J. Doherty, "The Rise of the President's Permanent Campaign", set to be published this July, Doherty points out how determined Barack Obama is to be reelected, which consequently takes away from his appointed duties of actually serving as POTUS.  This president is exponentially more preoccupied and distracted with running for a second term than any other president in history.

From a DailyMail article written by Toby Harnden:

"Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than every elected president since Richard Nixon combined. Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined. Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in the 1980 campaign, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004."

Presidents do not behave in this desperate sort of way when they have a successful record and results to back themselves up with. Ronald Reagan did not hold one single fundraiser when he ran for reelection in 1984. His results and his success made it unnecessary to waste his time with such sideshows. It might be accurate to say that Barack Obama's indulgence in fundraising events, more than every other president since Nixon, combined, is directly proportionate to his being the worst president since Nixon.  Reagan was highly successful and did not hold one single fundraiser (he also happened to win 49 out of 50 states) in 1984. Obama has a country completely divided, a terrible record, and the only glimmer of hope he has is to distract, blame, and distort as much as the money he raises will allow him to do.

195.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day246.

Day610 Monday 04/30/12

20 Months Of Running Against Obama!!! 

ran 3.9 miles

Our president is on the campaign trail "spiking the football" once again for reaching Osama Bin Laden's end zone around this time last year.  He is claiming that Mitt Romney would not have "pulled the trigger" on Osama.  I really didn't feel like wasting the energy to examine what exactly it was that he had said or in what context he had put it in because the fact that this is the direction he is going with his campaign at this point reflects how desperate and incapable of utilizing his record is for reelection.  Of all the legislation that has passed and out of all the events that have transpired over his presidential term, which is getting closer and closer to four entire years, the best idea Barack Obama has at this point is to remind us all that Osama Bin Laden was killed during his presidency and to merely speculate that, hypothetically, Mitt Romney would not have given the order.  I don't see the objective but I do see the desperation.

Coincidentally, here is a list of nine more things Herman Cain itemized yesterday that Barack Obama did, which Mitt Romney would also not have done:

• Mitt Romney would never have thrown $862 billion down a rat hole, claiming it to be “economic stimulus” that would keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent. Then, three years later when unemployment was still struggling to get back down below 8 percent, he would never be so brazen as to claim such a move had actually been successful.

• Mitt Romney would never have signed Obamacare into law. I know some think otherwise because the plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts had some similar elements. But Obamacare was sold to the public with blatantly dishonest numbers and hidden taxes, and rammed through Congress via a series of political giveaways that would embarrass the most shameless of con artists. Whatever your disagreements with the structure of Masscare, Romney would never have done any of that. And if an Obamacare repeal reaches Romney’s desk, he will sign it.

• Mitt Romney would never have exploded the deficit to more than $1 trillion a year, then allowed his Treasury secretary to tell the chairman of the House Budget Committee, regarding plans to fix the problem, “We don’t have a definitive solution, but we know we don’t like yours.”

• Mitt Romney would not be running around claiming that businesses need to pay more in taxes. He would not try to tell CEOs what to do with their cash reserves (although he could do so much more competently than Obama, since unlike the president he actually knows a lot about business), because he knows that is not the president’s job. He understands that businesses are the ones who create jobs, and the last thing we need when the economy is struggling to create jobs is to increase the tax burden on businesses.

• Mitt Romney would not attack people for being successful. He would not encourage the middle class to resent successful people, but instead would encourage them to learn from those who have been successful and to seek opportunities from them.

• Mitt Romney would never have promised the Russians he would give them what they want on missile defense as soon as he didn’t have to worry about those pesky voters anymore.

• Mitt Romney would never have stonewalled efforts to make crucial energy supplies available to Americans, as Obama has done on everything from the Keystone XL pipeline to the opening of domestic oil supplies in offshore locations and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

• Mitt Romney would never have let Congress get away with not passing a budget at all for three years, while running up the nation’s credit card at unprecedented levels through a series of continuing resolutions that escape the light of public scrutiny.

• Mitt Romney would never have blamed someone else for the continued impact of problems he was elected to fix – as Obama does endlessly.

199.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day245.

 

Day609 Sunday 04/29/12

ran 0.1 miles

Today ends week eighty-seven of running against Obama.  I ran 19.0 miles this week, averaging 2.71 miles per day.

Our president making jokes about eating dog while growing up in Indonesia and completely missing the most impressionable years of his life not in America.  This guy is doing everything but campaigning on his record and the results they have failed to produce.  Every maneuver he makes stinks of desperation and it is absolutely bewildering that half of this country backs him up.  There is a lot of "conspiracy theory" out there suggesting that our president does not have America's best interest at hand.  I would ask you to take inventory of the last four years and to see where this country is now and where it was four years ago.  Right now, America is divided right up the middle.  Barack Obama has this country at odds with itself and that is exactly what he wants.  

Let's put that number into perspective.  That means, regardless of what side of the fence you stand on, one out of every two people you know or cross in the street,  fundamentally disagrees with you.  They disapprove of the way you think and the way you function.  This is not healthy for a nation and our president injected this ailment into our collective vein.

203.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day244.    

Day608 Saturday 04/28/12

ran 1.4 miles

You may not know this, but President Obama's State Department is giving (yes, giving!) away seven "strategic, resource-laden" Alaskan islands to Russia.  The Russians will also be given tens of thousands of square miles of surrounding oil-rich seabed.  According to the Department of Interior, estimates of barrels of oil are in the billions.

Posing as a simple maritime boundary agreement between Alaska and Siberia, in which our federal government put the islands on Russia's side, the state of Alaska was not allowed an opinion in the matter and Alaska's people were not permitted to comment.

(Source)---thanks for the link, Betty!

203.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day243.

Day607 Friday 04/27/12

ran 3.1 miles

Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Obama 47%, Romney 46%, third party candidate 4%, undecided 3%

• Barack Obama's presidential approval index is -13

• Florida: Romney 46%, Obama 45%

• Virginia: Romney 45%, Obama 44%

• 29% say U.S. heading in right direction

204.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day242.

Day606 Thursday 04/26/12

ran 3.6 miles

Governor Jesse Ventura said it best when he made the analogy "Politics in America today are identical to pro wrestling.  And what I mean by that is in front of the cameras and the public we all hate each other...yet behind the scenes we are all friends going out to dinner together...Democrats and Republicans aren't really opposed to one another."

I think in an underhanded sort of way he is basically calling you and me stupid, gullible, ignorant, and so distanced from reality that we actually think we can make a difference with merely a single vote.  I completely agree with Governor Ventura's assessment of calling it for what it is, but all we, as average Americans, walk away with is a sense of "hmmm, that's a good analogy and it makes perfect sense in an upside-down sort of way, but that's just politics".

We all go on thinking only of the tasks for tomorrow with no sense of consequence for the larger horizon before us that keeps getting closer and closer.  

Things only feel normal right now.  Our senses and perceptions are massaged with information that have a placebo effect on the temperament of our rationale.  In simple terms, if the United States of America was geographically constructed in the shape of a human body, China would own an entire arm right up to the shoulder and they would have invested interests in some of the more important vital organs like the heart and kidney of America.  They would want to drill the mind of America.  And what is so ironic about how helpful China is to our debt woes is the fact that they are the international beacon of Communism.  They are the paradigm of everything we have fought to defend from America.  But we are figuratively selling American limbs and organs to them just so we can keep our necks above our sea of debt.

I'm not excited about Romney because this election will be as premanufactured as a wrestling bout between John Cena and Triple H.  And because of that, I feel gypped, but that is why I write this blog and run these miles.  I simply want something real that no government could ever possibly deliver.  I want them to leave me alone and to show others how valuable being left alone and not reliant on the government is.

But, if that were to happen their power to control would cease to exist.  Their purpose would be devalued and their egos deflated.  Their statures would crumble and their strength would diminish.  Americans and the small businesses and corporations that employ them could could call the government's bluff.  Maybe one day.  The first step is getting Barack Hussein Obama out of the Oval Office.

207.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day241.

      

Day605 Wednesday 04/25/12

ran 4.2 miles

Marine Sgt. Gary Stein was recently discharged from the Marine Corps for expressing criticism of President Barack Obama on Facebook (this is his page: Armed Forces Tea Party). Interpret the discharge for yourself, but here is yet another pathetic example of double standards I can’t pass up.  Military men and women take an oath and accept that they sacrifice a large amount of their freedom of speech when they enter a branch of the military.  They are not reserved the right to question their superior’s orders, all the way up the POTUS, or to criticize them in a public forum. 

Imagine a scenario where a sergeant, major, or general gives a command and one of his or her troops says something to the effect of “Are you sure?  Is that really what we should be doing?”  This sort of action does not happen on the battlefield and it is not accepted in the political arena, either.  I can see how Sergeant Stein's actions are questionable but I commend him for them, and this is the reason why. What incenses me is the double standard that exists between how black and white it is for military men and women to do as their told without question based upon an oath to serve their country in comparison to how gray and murky our Constitution’s interpretation has become to our political leaders.

Gary Stein is being discharged for arguably using his freedom of speech while President Barack Obama blatantly discards the Constitution that he took an oath to defend.  Sergeant Stein is being discharged while Barack Obama gets away with impeachable actions.

The only example necessary is our president's military involvement in Libya without the approval of Congress.  The Constitution clearly states that war acts have to be approved by Congress and our president completely usurped this law and issued an executive order.  Furthermore, as Syria continues to become worse and worse of a situation, Leon Panetta sits in front of Congress informing them that when he, the president, and United Nations reach a decision they will inform the Senate on what action they will take regarding Syria. 

This is unconstitutional!

If Gary Stein can be discharged for expressing and documenting how terrible of a job he thinks President Barack Obama is doing, then President Barack Obama should be impeached for walking all over the Constitution, which he swore to defend every fiber of, when he is clearly breaking his own oath.

211.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day240.

Day604 Tuesday 04/24/12

ran 3.1 miles

"It’s still about the economy…and we’re not stupid."

Here are some excerpts from the AntiObama after 43 primaries and caucuses, which have led him through a rather straight path to the official Republican nomination.  The one main question Romney wants voters to ask themselves is, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"

"Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less."

"Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements…and rightly so. But because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now. It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid."

"I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents - some successful even beyond their wildest dreams – and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.

This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.

In the America I see, character and choices matter. And education, hard work, and living within our means are valued and rewarded. And poverty will be defeated, not with a government check, but with respect and achievement that is taught by parents, learned in school, and practiced in the workplace.

This is the America that was won for us by the nation’s Founders, and earned for us by the Greatest Generation. It is the America that has produced the most innovative, most productive, and most powerful economy in the world, with one of the highest standards of living of any major nation. …"

I'm not entirely thrilled by Romney but I am absolutely devastated by Obama. And if it is Mitt Romney's intention to undo the damage done by Barack Obama then that is enough for me. Whether those intentions and talking points will actually bear action in the future remains to be seen, but they are a far less dangerous gamble than handing Barack Obama four more years with no electorate to answer to.

(Source)

215.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day239.

Day603 Monday 04/23/12

ran 3.5 miles 

Few messages are as succinct and powerful as the one in the video above. It usually requires a brilliant 300-page novel or a well-directed 2-hour long movie to build up to a climax in the last few moments that can compare with what this 4 minute and 39 second video achieves in each frame.

Take a look and judge for yourself. 

218.8 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day238.

Day602 Sunday 04/22/12

ran 1.8 miles

Today ends week eighty-six of running against Obama.  I ran 24.9 miles this week, averaging 3.56 miles per day.

222.3 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day237.