Day687 Monday 07/16/12

ran 3.4 miles

It is exhausting to listen to people like this talk. If you can't create excuses for yourself than this guy has a whole bag of them he is ready to hand out. And if he doesn't have one you like then Frances Fox Piven is sitting right next to him with a whole other sack of racially charged excuses. I don't understand how anybody gets anything done when they focus so much time criticizing everything around them instead of simply working to achieve their goals regardless of circumstance.

Do you honestly think individuals who push these extreme racially charged issues will ever be satisfied? Will there ever be a day, given everything they've demanded, that they will sit back, exhale and say "my work here is done"?

No. Then they wouldn't have a job. I don't care if you're striped, if you're purple or have polka dots. The object is to look in the mirror, recognize your potential, set goals one at a time, and to slowly and patiently pursue the goals you set. If I ever came to realize later on in my life that I wasted all of my time making excuses and complaining about everything I never achieved, and blamed everything around me for my own shortcomings I think I would eventually realize how sad it was that I misused my time and efforts on Earth...and in America, for that matter. This is the United States of America where anyone can do anything if they have enough desire. And if you do lack the desire you don't simply get to pluck it away from someone else and fool yourself that you earned it or deserved it.

The term "middle class" has always bothered me. It is so broad. For example, I think I am middle class but when President Obama speaks and refers to the middle class I have no idea what middle class he is talking about. Nothing he says relates to my middle class condition. I think the vast majority of this entire nation feels they are part of the middle class. What is the alternative---poverty or $250k-plus? It would be far simpler to make a short list of those individuals than to name the endless members of the middle class.

The guy in the video above is basically claiming that if middle class whites vote for Mitt Romney then they must be racist. As ridiculous as that claim is by itself, once again, who is this middle class? Is he referring to $100k-plus earners, $60k-plus earners, or $30-plus earners...how far down and how far up are the brackets of the middle class?

I used to get mad at the world I lived in. I used to blame everyone and everything I could think of for how disappointed I was with my circumstances. I blamed any reason I could find for poor decisions that had led me to where I currently was. Then I woke up one day and refused to continue settling for excuses. They get you nowhere. My life isn't anything close to what I thought it would be when I was a naive kid, but I absolutely love it. It is mine, I worked hard for it, I earned it, and I am content with what I have. That feeling is something that can never be replaced by the message in the video above. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 61.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day322.

Day686 Sunday 07/15/12

ran 2.0 miles

Today ends week ninety-eight of running against Obama. I ran 22.2 miles this week, averaging 3.17 miles per day.

President Obama recently spoke in Roanoke, Virginia, pushing the message that  "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen". 

Attempting to soften voters up to the idea of higher tax rates ("2+2=5" sort of stuff) he spoke similar words that Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts Democrat running against incumbent Republican Scott Brown in November) expressed last year regarding this notion that highly successful individuals give themselves way too much credit and way too little reward to the taxpayers who apparently empowered them to succeed.

This is what our president had to say:

"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back.  They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart people out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.  Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."  [Emphasis added]

He continued: 

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." [Emphasis added]

(SOURCE)

This was Elizabeth Warren's speech from 2011:

Roads and bridges are built and used by taxpayers but once they open up it falls upon each individual to use them in whatever ways they choose to. Many taxpayers use them in highly unproductive ways, a lot of us use them in moderately productive ways and some use them in brilliant ways. 

And, Mr. President, if I become idol and unambitious, lose all motivation and drive to succeed, if the flame in my heart to accomplish burns out because America no longer offers me any reason to succeed because the federal government takes every reward that once made my life goal-oriented---I will remember to thank you for that. I will not gloat about my failures and forget who I have to thank for my mediocrity. I will pay it forward to the next citizen who is awaiting the opportunity to have their larger-than-life dreams shattered by a government who does everything it can to blame all of our woes on a tax revenue problem in the private sector when it is so obvious that it is a spending problem in the federal government.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 58.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day321.

   

Day685 Saturday 07/14/12

ran 3.3 miles

There are many reasons these signs are found so often and in so many different places. One of the many obvious reasons is because if people tossed food over fences all day to animals then those animals would become dependent on these random handouts. They would get used to these random and aimless treats and lose all sense of the intended diet they had followed before. This sort of behavior would eventually come to be expected and accepted as perfectly natural. And, one day, if it ever stopped, the animals would begin to growl, hiss, chirp, bark, or make whatever sounds it is they make when they are angry, unable to understand why random pieces of food were no longer being tossed over their fences for no particular reason.

If you put a bowl of milk and a can of tuna out for a stray cat on your doorstep one night, you may as well accept the fact that you have a new pet. That cat is going to come back hungrier and hungrier. And should you ever decide to stop feeding that cat one night, it will sit at your door and meow for hours unable to understand why the  free milk it did nothing to deserve and the tuna that had no reason to be there in the first place is no longer there.

Our president is that bratty, inconsiderate kid that keeps throwing Cheetos over the fence at the zoo. He is the misled neighbor that keeps feeding the stray cats that keep you up at night.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 56.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day320.

Day684 Friday 07/13/12

ran 2.4 miles

This is absolutely ridiculous. This guy may as well fly the American flag upside down and paint the White House red. From the time I first started running against Barack Obama nearly two years ago I have always commented on how openly and shamelessly he has constantly contradicted so much of what this country stands for, which happens to follow the communist dialogue that has been surfacing more and more in the news four years too late.

He is shameless and unabashed with what he is trying to achieve in America. Campaign slogan: Forward (one of the most notable campaign slogans in international Communist history). And the type face used above spelling the name of our nation...does it look familiar? Something out of the U.S.S.R.; Cuba maybe? The term "Forward" and the font "Revolution Gothic" are not undertones that are simply overlooked by Barack Obama's campaign team. This is intentional. He is telling us exactly what he is running on.

At this point there is a very small fraction of people in this country who are "undecided". It is incomprehensible to me how anyone can be undecided between Communism and the United States Constitution at this point, but these "undecided" individuals are the ones who are going to decide this election. It is even more incomprehensible to me that this man even stands a chance for a second term, but it is what it is. 

We have reached a culminating point in American history where our government has failed its people miserably and the American people have failed miserably to recognize it before it was too late. Am I overreacting? Look at that picture on the top of the page. That is the president of the United States of America behind the word A M E R I C A printed in the same font that Communist governments use for their own propaganda. 

    

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 53.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day319. 

Day683 Thursday 07/12/12

ran 3.6 miles

Wow. Was that real? I can't wait to see what this brings in at the Box Office. The only white guy in the preview was the lead character's boss, and he looked like a stereotypical greedy "cracker" in a suit (I can say that because I'm white). Just for kicks, the main character's nephew is a gun toting, cocaine snorting, womanizing...Republican, who is "anti-black"...even though he is black. Sounds like a Dave Chappelle skit I once saw.

Coincidentally, another movie, "2016: Obama's America" will be released tomorrow in select theaters. This movie doesn't have cocaine or a costume designer who should have been fired immediately, but it does offer real-life substance regarding how mysterious and bolted shut the true Barack Hussein Obama's identity is. This film exposes much of what our media outlets kept locked away in 2008. Here is the trailer: And here are a couple interesting interviews by Dinesh D'Souza you will not see on major cable networks: 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 50.7

Here is what happened one year ago on Day318.

Day682 Wednesday 07/11/12

ran 3.5 miles

I applaud him for accepting the invitation to speak to the NAACP. He knew he would be booed, but he did not pander to them or patronize the organization. He said his message and the organization can take it or leave it. 

“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone. Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, and median family wealth are all worse for the black community. In June, while the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the unemployment rate for African Americans actually went up, from 13.6 percent to 14.4 percent.”

While I am sure the NAACP did not like hearing that statistic, it does not change the fact that it is true...under Barack Obama's watch.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 47.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day317.

Day681 Tuesday 07/10/12

ran 3.8 miles

"This will be my last political campaign no matter what,"..."I've got nothing else to run for,"..."You start feeling a little nostalgic. You start thinking about some of your first campaigns. I think about all the places I used to travel in Illinois..."

(VIDEO)

--------------------

Illinois...let's look back on Illinois. Our president ran every other name running for the Illinois state senate seat against him off the ticket with bare-knuckle, back-alley tactics, which were in direct opposition with everything he stood for leading up to his run. He obliterated his competition during the electoral process to a point that he eventually won his seat unopposed. That's the American way, right...being a bully, an insolent child to get your way at any cost?

--------------------

"In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago's gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.

As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.

The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district."

(2008, CNN Politics, Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston)

--------------------

"That was Chicago politics. Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice."

(2008, Chicago Tribune, John Kass)

--------------------

And here is the record Barack Obama is running on. It requires little explanation.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 43.6

Here is what happened one year ago on Day316.

Day680 Monday 07/09/12

ran 3.6 miles

In an article from the DailyCaller, an overwhelming 83% of 699 random American physicians surveyed nationwide have considered quitting over ObamaCare. The survey was conducted by the DPMA (Doctor Patient Medical Association). 

“Doctors clearly understand what Washington does not — that a piece of paper that says you are ‘covered’ by insurance or ‘enrolled’ in Medicare or Medicaid does not translate to actual medical care when doctors can’t afford to see patients at the lowball payments, and patients have to jump through government and insurance company bureaucratic hoops.”

Kathryn Serkes, co-founder of DPMA

In related ObamaCare news, Governor Rick Perry has officially declined to enact a state insurance exchange or to expand Medicaid as written in the Obama's health care plan, a growing trend among multiple Republican governors. 

“If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government.”

Rick Perry

"In the ObamaCare plan, the federal government sought to force the states to expand their Medicaid programs by  – in the words of the Supreme Court – putting a gun to their heads. Now that the 'gun to the head' has been removed, please relay this message to the President: I oppose both the expansion of Medicaid as provided in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the creation of a so-called 'state' insurance exchange, because both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state."  

Rick Perry

(SOURCE)

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 39.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day315.

Day679 Sunday 07/08/12

ran 3.3 miles

Today ends week ninety-seven of running against Obama. I ran 22.5 miles this week, averaging 3.21 miles per day.

Forbes Op-ed written by Larry Bell:

U.N. Agreement Should Have All Gun Owners Up In Arms

It may not come as surprising news to many of you that the United Nations doesn’t approve of our Second Amendment. Not one bit. And they very much hope to do something about it with help from some powerful American friends. Under the guise of a proposed global “Small Arms Treaty” premised to fight “terrorism”, “insurgency” and “international crime syndicates” you can be quite certain that an even more insidious threat is being targeted – our Constitutional right for law-abiding citizens to own and bear arms.

What, exactly, does the intended agreement entail?

While the terms have yet to be made public, if passed by the U.N. and ratified by our Senate, it will almost certainly force the U.S. to:

1. Enact tougher licensing requirements, creating additional bureaucratic red tape for legal firearms ownership.
2. Confiscate and destroy all “unauthorized” civilian firearms (exempting those owned by our government of course).
3. Ban the trade, sale and private ownership of all semi-automatic weapons (any that have magazines even though they still operate in the same one trigger pull – one single “bang” manner as revolvers, a simple fact the anti-gun media never seem to grasp).
4. Create an international gun registry, clearly setting the stage for full-scale gun confiscation.
5. In short, overriding our national sovereignty, and in the process, providing license for the federal government to assert preemptive powers over state regulatory powers guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment in addition to our Second Amendment rights.

The United States joined 152 other nations and officially supported the U.N. Arms Treaty Resolution in January of 2010. Secretary of State Clinton has promised to push the treaty through the Senate.

Read full Forbes Op-ed here.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 36.2

Here is what happened one year ago on Day314.

Day678 Saturday 07/07/12

ran 2.8 miles 

I think what Mr. Santelli is trying to tell us, after all the theatrics and arithmetic, is that nothing from behind a podium in Washington D.C makes any sense, that our politicians are the most highly paid wasters of time and money in America, and that, as he clearly pointed out, nothing is what it seems. 

Our current president is constantly fighting a difficult battle for an array of new tax increases. The point Mr. Santelli was making was that he could have them all and it still wouldn't be enough to even put a dent in this unfortunate economic state we all bear on our backs. So what is really going on when everything we fight about regarding tax rates, spending, and our national debt does not even logically translate into any single means of actually addressing the full scope of the severe problems before us? It's like coming home to find your house completely demolished by a storm and, rather than beginning right away to repair it, you throw gasoline over what is left and toss a match on it first.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 32.9

Here is what happened one year ago on Day313.

Day677 Friday 07/06/12

ran 3.7 miles

A dismal 80,000 new jobs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Odds are they are fluffing the pillow to make our heads a little more comfortable. With that in mind, 85,000 workers abandoned employment for Disability insurance in the same month, according to the Social Security Administration. If this is the best they could do to feather numbers to not be quite so barbed and abrasive then one can only wonder how much deeper the hole goes.

This is a quote from Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger:

"It is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”

That statement would not be so insulting to our intelligence and our ability to look around and observe for ourselves what is happening to America and our economy if it had not been the thirty-first time the White House issued the very same statement since November, 2009. Thirty-one separate times the White House has urged Americans to not read too much into these numbers and to consider other data. This is over the span of thirty-one months and these reports come out once a month. Every single one of them came with the same fool's disclaimer. And half of this country is chewing this cardboard up and swallowing it just because their government tells them it's steak.

(SOURCE)

The best part of this video is when he meekly throws in that the progress he has made is why he is running for a second term. I think he came close to clearing his throat as he said it to muffle any bit of sincerity that may have surfaced. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 30.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day312.

Day676 Thursday 07/05/12

ran 2.6 miles

Stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 25% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 43% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -18.

• Overall, 48% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 53% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Mitt Romney: 47%, Barack Obama: 44%, Other: 4%, Undecided, 5%

• From the Declaration of Independence, "governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed." 70% of American adults agree with the statement (66% agreed last year and 56% agreed in 2008), 13% disagree, and 17% are undecided.

• Only 22% of the nation’s likely voters believe the government today has the consent of the governed.

• 52% favor repeal of Barack Obama's health care law.

• 30% say America is better off today than four years ago.

• 58% say a government with too much power is a bigger danger than a weak one. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 26.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day311.

Day675 Wednesday 07/04/12

ran 3.4 miles

Happy Fourth of July!

This is the same post I did last year for Independence Day. I thought it would be worth mentioning once more just how much was risked for America to gain its independence and how much we have to be thankful for through the sacrifices of the men and women of that time who dared to challenge the severe consequences awaiting them should they have failed. I am doubtful that the men who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence would be proud of their nation over two hundred years later considering how much our current president disapproves of their ideas.

Here is some history about Independence Day:

Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, our founding fathers came together, despite numerous fears and differences, and forged the document that has guided our nation to the freedoms and opportunities we all experience 236 years later.

There are many interesting details and stories surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but these are a couple of lesser known facts you may not realize. For one thing, when those men decided to sign that document they made a decision that would have had them shot or hung if they were unable to win the Revolutionary War they were currently fighting. It was a gamble and, while the odds were not on their side, providence and destiny were.

Ask yourself if you would have done it. Would you have signed a document that utterly defied the King of what was arguably the world power at the time? Could you have placed such a wager on your own head, on your family, on your fellow men and women, to risk everything for an idea you passionately believed in?

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence figuratively signed their names in blood, and if America had not won the Revolutionary War then the signers of that monumental document would have been hunted down and made examples of.

But we did win, with all odds against us, and I firmly believe it was providence and not chance.

One other interesting piece of history surrounding the Declaration of Independence is the final days surrounding the lives of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. It was on this day in 1826, the fourth of July, the anniversary of the day both of these men had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, that they both died within five hours of one another.

Jefferson and Adams were the final surviving members of the original American revolutionaries who signed the Declaration of Independence. They shared a common cause in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; however, as time went on they differed more and more on how to achieve the American vision. Both men having served as presidents, Adams believed in a strong centralized government and Jefferson believed in a weaker federal government with more rights deferred to individual states.

Through years of heated arguments and differences, an animosity that had led to years of silence between the two ex-presidents, John Adams made the decision to contact Thomas Jefferson in 1812, wishing him many happy years to come. Thomas Jefferson responded with kind words and the two founding fathers looked past their differences and rekindled the friendship they had once had.

On July 4, 1826, at the age of 90, John Adams died. His last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives”. But he was mistaken. Jefferson had died five hours before in Monticello at the age of 82.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 23.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day310.

Day674 Tuesday 07/03/12

2,100 miles!!!

ran 3.4 miles  

Should America ever find itself with an overwhelming majority of people who think the way this arrogant, condescending, pompous bag of hot air does, then we will all know that this nation has officially had its identity stolen and that it will never be returned. This guy needs to sell his unicorn farm and buy an American History text book with his profits. Fifth grade level will do. Anything more advanced might be a bit too shocking to his complete disapproval and spite for everything the Constitution of the United States of America stands for. 

On the other hand...
 

...this man, Allen West, represents an entirely different message. Should America ever find itself with an overwhelming majority of people who think the way this common sense, constitutionally derived, beacon of truly American intentions does, then we will know that Barack Obama has certainly been voted out of a second term and that America is ready to be restored.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 20.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day309.