Day44 Tuesday 10/12/10

ran 3.2 miles
There are millions upon millions of unsung heroes, both alive and deceased, who do and have done things on any given day to sustain the integrity of America and its principles. Rather than post about something we all recognize as a memorable day in history, perhaps a tribute to everyday people, who are equally significant, is just as important.

On this day in history, at any given time, someone in America has grinned inwardly with a humble sense of pride because they achieved a goal that they had sweat and bled for. At any given time, someone in this country stood up for something they believed in and they changed states of affairs, allowing them to simply sleep better at night. On this day in history, somebody woke up and got out of bed and went to work, once again lubing the gears of this incomprehensibly massive machine called America, asking in return only to be left alone to live his or her life, unfettered from the nearly unbearable gravity American politics have heaved upon our backs. On this day in history, someone realized that reliance on any government is an impediment to his or her self-being. On this day, at any given time, someone wanted to scream from the top of a mountain that the way to beat a government is for individuals to set goals and to do everything they can to obtain them. This single noble act, which I believe we were put on Earth to perform, to have a chance to embrace life and live it to its fullest, is the one ultimate obstruction that any government faces; a nation of self-fulfilled citizens is a nation where presidents, senators, and representatives have no firm ground in which to create complication out of nothing.

Government is by all means necessary, but obligation falls upon every individual citizen to rely on it as little as possible. The decisions Barack Obama is making right now are like hollowing out a giant rock, which is America, and stuffing it with feathers. America is losing its structure and becoming a pillow for anyone to rest their heads on.

1,964.3 miles to go.

Day43 Monday 10/11/10

ran 3.2 miles
This is an open letter written to President Obama by Jeffrey S. Howard, a normal American simply trying to succeed.

“In today's dangerous world, we need a president with experience, leadership and courage. Unfortunately, you have shown us little of those traits.

Your childhood and younger years denied you the opportunity to grow up as an American man, and that is no fault of your own. Unfortunately, your lack of empathy for and experience of a traditional American upbringing has left you out of touch with those of us who grew up learning the traditions and work ethic of our predecessors.

You have never accepted the honor of military service, or held and survived in any sort of entry-level working position. You are bereft of many of the basic building blocks of a true American personality and worldview.

You have never experienced the icy hand of fear caressing your gut during a firefight when your very survival from second to second depends on your luck, wits, fellow troopers and the grace of God. You have never sweated out a payroll when your receivables are late.

You've missed the rewarding feeling of flogging a loaded truck all night to deliver a load 500 miles away at 7 a.m. You never shoveled cow manure for less than minimum wage to earn enough for a rattletrap car. You missed out on greasing dump trucks on the night shift, and never had the opportunity to start out cleaning restrooms and sweeping floors in a factory.

Your education was in the law, and you ignored any opportunity to absorb the lessons of history or the theories of economics. You have never experienced the law of the jungle in the private sector.

While you play golf and basketball and surround yourself with "the swells" enjoying concerts in the People's House, those of us in the general public dine on Spam and Costco burgers. I can't put my wife on a 747 and send her to Spain so she can be ready to spend 10 days on Martha's Vineyard when she gets back. She works seven days a week and so do I — spreading four full- and part-time jobs between us to make ends meet.

I watch in pain while my business venture slides into oblivion and my small IRA erodes as your economic policies push the nation into a double-dip recession. This economy is locking up again, and you cannot blame former President Bush. The great construction jobs I created are ending while you pour trillions in borrowed money into the public sector to buy votes. I blame you personally for appointing the ship of fools you have as Cabinet officials and advisers.”

Open letters written to Obama are flooding the web with like sentiments of disappointment in the direction America is heading (go to your favorite search engine and type “Open letters written to Obama”, they are numerous). Everyday citizens of various industries who point out blatantly poor decisions made on behalf of our president write these letters. I am obviously biased in my opinion that Barack Obama and his like-minded counterparts need to leave Washington figuratively tarred and feathered, so, I can’t help but wonder, how many more detrimental decisions does this man need to make before we are left with no impetus or hope?

1,967.5 miles to go.

Day42 Sunday 10/10/10

ran 2.1 miles
This post makes six weeks. I remember in elementary school we received report cards every six weeks. Those six weeks seemed like an eternity. Now, six week increments come and go like forgettable strangers passing on a sidewalk. When I was in elementary school Ronald Reagan was our president. That man was elected president at a time when America was falling apart. Incumbent Jimmy Carter was attempting to do much of what Barack Obama is actually getting away with today, the USSR was in an arms race with America, and the United States was looking for a hero.

When Reagan entered office unemployment was at 11%. Among other statistical deficits, Reagan led this country out of a hole that liberals had tunneled to nowhere. Reagan broke up Russia’s socialist republic, created 15 million jobs, and, among many other accomplishments, managed to do all of this by usurping the gossip of media and the politics of Congress, by speaking directly to the American people. Ronald Reagan was known as “The Great Communicator” and we need a hero like him as soon as possible.

I have run 109.3 miles so far, averaging 2.60 miles a day.

1,970.7 miles to go.

Day41 Saturday 10/09/10

ran 2.6 miles

• President Obama’s National Security Adviser, General James Jones, is leaving the administration this month. This departure is the fifth top-level adviser to walk since July.

• Senate staffers will indulge in a two-day splurge of back massages, organic food testings, milk mustache photos, and other spoils next week during a Health Fair put on exclusively for staffers. While these men and women enjoy the best health care in the country contrasted to millions of hardworking Americans who struggle everyday, it is we the people, who are trying to make ends meet, who are paying for this Health Fair with our tax dollars. There will be activities running the whole spectrum of personal health. Vendors and service providers were not commented on and nor was the sum of money this will cost taxpayers.

• The jobless rate is stuck in the proximity of 9.6%. There are 305,689,000 people in America meaning that 29,346,144 people are without jobs. If you average that by 50 states, roughly, 586,923 people are jobless from state to state. These numbers are one of many convincing lenses to look through to understand how ineffective and wasteful Obama’s stimulus packages have been. Health care reform will only worsen the situation at a full stride. The decisions Obama has made are rife with what seems to be contempt for this country and his change that he speaks of so often is…socialism…there is no other word for it.

1,972.8 miles to go.

Day40 Friday 10/08/10

ran 3.2 miles

• Arizona was the forty-eighth state to join the union on February 14, 1912, one month after New Mexico and forty-seven years before Alaska.

• Population, as of 2009, is 6,595,778.

• Senators are Jon Kyl (R) and John McCain (R).

• Representatives are Ann Kirkpatrick (D), Trent Franks (R), John Shadegg (R), Edward Pastor (D), Harry Mitchell (D), Jeff Flake (R), Raul Grijalva (D), and Gabrielle Giffords (D).

• Arizona holds 10 electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted republican since 1952, barring Bill Clinton’s win in 1996.

In April 2010, Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, signed a rigid bill on illegal immigration into law. The bill allows local law enforcement to apprehend illegal aliens if they do not have the proper documents to prove their legal status. This sounds logical. If they are residing in Arizona illegally then they get sent back home. This sounds logical. Most other countries burden foreigners with much gravity pertaining to legal documentation and legal motives for being in their country. But not America. Obama seems to want to level the greatness of this country with scattered shortcomings of various other countries, but is it not an arrogant statement, concerning the status of ultimate power, to say to the world that we are the one nation possessing power and economical strength that is too cool to be more rigorous about the laws concerning what foreign people in our country are doing at any given time? No other country with the success and the verve we possess is nearly as loose on immigration as we are and eventually it will be the end of America as we know it. America will go on, but it will not be our America.

Pertaining to Arizona’s decision to take illegal immigration seriously Jan Brewer, a pioneer in creating some real change in this country, had this to say, “The law represents another tool for our state to use as we work to solve a crisis we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix.”

This sounds logical.

1,975.4 miles to go.

Day39 Thursday 10/07/10

ran 2.6 miles
Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval poll indicates that 28% of Americans strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president, while 41% strongly disapprove. His Presidential Approval Index is –13, compared to –17 on this day last week. Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance and 53% at least somewhat disapprove.

Deviating from statistics and polls, the story about McDonalds and approximately thirty other companies being awarded exemption from Obama’s health care plan was jaw-dropping when I read about it. This makes no sense on so many different levels.

This attempt at health care reform, before it is even implemented, had to be waived for thirty major companies comprising nearly one million part-time or low-wage employees. These are the people that the health care bill is supposed to help most. The bill was designed so everyone could have health care. And now, the majority of people who need health care through intervention of the government, a government that wants other people to pay for it, at a penalty of fines if they don’t, may not be able to receive it because these companies threatened to drop the insurance altogether because they cannot afford it.

“Without waivers, companies would have had to provide a minimum of $750,000 in coverage next year, increasing to $1.25 million in 2012, $2 million in 2013 and unlimited in 2014.” USATODAY.com

If the government waives one single company, that is precedent to waive more. Perhaps if every company requests exemption we can turn this bad idea around. And what’s the end game? If these companies can’t pay these insurance premiums now why would they be able to at any other time in the future. This makes no sense. Our government conjured up this utopian health care bill, which they think is revolutionary and some how good (turn on your television and look at the riots and protests occurring in Europe; their behavior is a product of social programs going bad and running out of money---these plans are designed with the best of intentions, but they just don’t work…ever…anywhere, and our government is trying to do it after so many others have failed?), they believe it is indisputable and necessary, yet they so easily come to the aid of thirty companies, to save them from the costliness of the health care they designed, representing one million employees to grant them waivers from their own ridiculous health care program, which is designed to help, most of all, the very people who said they refuse to participate because it is too astonishingly costly. How can these politicians be so adamant and passionate about something that completely contradicts its intentions before it is even put into effect?

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded these waivers because the part-time and low-wage employees who currently receive minimum benefits were going to lose all benefits because these companies threatened to drop health insurance altogether. President Obama assured America that no one would lose the coverage they currently have. This may be one way to prevent him from breaking his promise but it is certainly not right. It is far from it.

This demands repeating: One million people, who this health care reform was primarily designed for, stood to lose their health insurance altogether, unless the government stepped in to exempt them from the health care plan that is supposed to help them, before it was even put into effect. How does this make any sense?

1,978.6 miles to go.

Day38 Wednesday 10/06/10

ran 3.2 miles
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”

Plato

“We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate.

Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard

“Politicians are people who, when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.”

John Quinton

Both Democrats and Republicans have successfully contributed in mongering lies, spewing insincere intentions, and uniformly setting this country on a regressive path that will take a long time to reconcile. I’ve said this before and I will continue to say it: Barack Obama and his radical agenda are simply the straws, which his ego views as concrete pillars, that have broken the proverbial camel’s back. That camel is the people of this country, and it actually takes a ridiculous sum of wrongdoing to get a massive number of people of this country to rally against their leader and their government, but Barack Obama and his democratic counterparts have done it. They kicked over the wrong anthill and the ants are tired of rebuilding their humble mound they work so hard for.

Up until now, many Americans shrugged most challenges outside of their personal bubbles because they were unaffected. It was not because they were selfish, but because they were hardworking and self-sufficient. They contributed to society. They did not need to rely on the government for sustenance and they did not want the government interfering with their lives.

These people are being interfered with now by an entity that they believe has no right to impose itself like such an unwelcome houseguest. That entity is our own government and this administration has overstayed its welcome.

1,981.2 miles to go.

Day37 Tuesday 10/05/10

ran 3.2 miles
On this day in 1947, President Harry Truman was filmed for the first-ever televised address from the White House. His primary topic was food-conservation, requesting Americans to decrease their consumption of grain to help starving Europeans. Europe was still rebuilding from World War II and famine was a constant struggle.

Truman, the thirty-third president, had requested farmers and distillers to slow grain use and implored the public to abstain from eating beef on Tuesdays, eggs and poultry on Thursdays, and to save a slice of bread each day. This food program was brief and served its purpose swiftly helping to revitalize economic growth in Europe.

In 1947, television was a new technology and exclusive to a privileged few, numbering in only thousands of homes. But by the early 1950s, televisions were in millions of households.

Each of Truman’s following White House speeches, including his 1949 inauguration speech, was aired on national television. Truman was the first president to air a paid political advertisement on television, as well, pioneering the avalanche of political ads we are bombarded with today.

1,984.4 miles to go.

Day36 Monday 10/04/10

ran 3.8 miles
Oklahoma has recently passed a number of new and bold laws. Surmounting Arizona’s recent new immigration laws with boldness and controversy, the state has enacted six new laws, which more states will hopefully follow the model of.

• Oklahoma has declared itself a sovereign state, not subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, joining Texas, Montana and Utah in sovereign status (HJR 1003).
• On the front lawn of the Oklahoma State Capitol the Ten Commandments will be displayed (HB 1330).
• Oklahoma is now incarcerating all illegal immigrants and sending them back where they came from unless they choose to undergo the process of being a naturalized citizen (HB 1804)
• Oklahoma now has the right to collect DNA samples from illegal aliens for storage in their criminal database, for criminal investigative use (SB 1102).
• The people of Oklahoma voted for the right to bear arms, confirming citizens have every right to possess and transport weapons in their vehicles.
• The people of Oklahoma voted to print all drivers’ license exams exclusively in English, following the logic that all road signs are printed only in English.
  

This is a huge statement and it is likely that more states will follow this stream of logic, unfettering themselves from the shackles of Barack Obama and his agenda. Initiative like this at the state level is a preemptive insurance policy against administrations with ideas like Obama’s and all future governmental gears that have un-American machines to build.

1.987.6 miles to go.

Day35 Sunday 10/03/10

ran 2.0 miles
Today marks five weeks, 88.6 miles, and 16735 words. My daily running average is 2.53 miles a day and my daily posting average is 478.1 words a day. These miles and words have opened my mind and heart to avenues they have never known before now.

To establish where I am coming from and how valuable this goal is I would like to point out that I have no desire to run everyday or to post on this blog every night. But I find it to be a necessary burden for a worthwhile cause. This world may be large but that is no reason for anyone to be small. When I don’t want to run I convince myself to persevere by imagining how petty I am to consider idleness when so many soldiers have and continue to serve in our military, fighting for our freedom. They don’t get to wake up and say, “I don’t feel like doing this today.”

When I don’t have time or energy to type a post for this blog I remind myself that, by candle light and no modern technology, our forefathers drafted a brilliant path against all odds for this country to follow. And for me to not continue this goal would be an insult to every success this country has had for more than two centuries. It is a testing goal, but it is nothing compared to what so many others have done.

1,991.4 miles to go.

Day34 Saturday 10/02/10

ran 2.6 miles
Scanning over articles and current events from the past week, I found a lot of bone and not much meat. There was a lot of interesting news but it’s the same predictable material day after day. Countries in Europe are protesting and rioting, Obama is doing everything he can to save his cause, firing and hiring administrative members, blaming republicans for everything that’s wrong, the Pope and the Muslim religion can’t keep the ink off the papers across the globe, Senators and Representatives are spending millions upon millions of dollars to campaign for seats that only earn an average salary of $174,000 per year…

…Let’s take a step back. How can anyone justify spending millions of dollars on vinyl signs, billboards, advertisements and appearances when a candidate’s actual plan is the real substance of the matter at hand? And whatever this man’s or woman’s plan is should be intuitive and self-explanatory. It should not require millions of dollars to sell an election. It should take a plan, common sense, and voters who are interested in the state of their country and educated about its history and current events.

I’m going to crawl out on a thin limb and make a judgmental call. President Obama’s entire plan is to make things work out for everybody and to make things equally enjoyable in America. While I believe this effort is a tenet of communism, I am curious to know why Barack Obama, or Bush, because I know that is who he would blame it on, has not said, “Wake up, America! If you want something you have to earn it. The government is here to serve as little intervention in your life as possible. We want you to succeed by yourself and you have every ability to do it. So what are you waiting for?”

That’s my America.

1,993.4 miles to go.

Day33 Friday 10/01/10

ran 2.6 miles

• Alaska was first made into a district on October 18, 1867. The district became an organized territory on August 24, 1912, and finally became the forty-ninth state on January 3, 1959, after Arizona and before Hawaii.

• Alaska was purchased from Russia through the negotiations of William Henry Seward, secretary of state under President Lincoln. Our government paid $7.2 million dollars for the land (2 cents per acre). Many Americans at the time called the purchase “Seward’s Folly”, regarding Alaska as an icy wasteland. As it turns out Alaska thrives in mining, is rich in oil and draws much tourism.

• Population, as of 2009, is 698,473.

• Senators are Mark Begich (D) and Lisa Murkowski (R).

• Representative is Donald Young (R).

• Alaska has 3 electoral votes. It has been a red state since it joined the union excluding the presidential election of 1964, voting for democrat Barry Goldwater.

• Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas and possesses more than half the world’s active glaciers. The state is larger than England, France, Italy and Spain combined, yet if its population density were applied to New York City, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan.

The polls open up tomorrow for the election of local officials here in Lafayette, Louisiana. Many people fail to vote for even Senators or Representatives, or even for the President of the United States (I used to be one of them), but get out there and make a difference. Do some research. I know voting is the last thing on a lot of people’s minds because it may not seem important, but look at it like a cold, clear glass of refreshing water. You never fully appreciate how good water tastes or how vital it is until you are forced to drink a warm cup of murky water filled with impurities. If you ever lost your right to vote you would cringe like you had just took a sip of that rusty, parasitic water. Appreciate and utilize your right to vote. People died for it.

1.996.0 miles to go.

Day32 Thursday 09/30/10

ran 3.2 miles
Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval poll indicates that 29% of Americans strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president, while 46% strongly disapprove. His Presidential Approval Index rating is –17, compared to –14 on this day last week. Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance, and 55% at least somewhat disapprove.

These are the current polling results, according to Rasmussen Reports, of the Senate race in November.

Solid democratic states are:
Hawaii
Maryland
New York
Oregon
Vermont

Lean democratic states are:
California
Connecticut
Delaware

Toss-up states are:
Illinois
Nevada
West Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin

Lean GOP states are:
Colorado
Florida
Missouri
New Hampshire
Ohio
Pennsylvania

Solid GOP states are:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Utah


And one last thing, I stumbled across a cool website hosted by “Citizens Against Government Waste”, www.cagw.org, and they had some interesting facts about 2010 earmarks. These are a few examples of how our government is spending our taxes.

$465 million for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine. This military aircraft has an engine that does not work and apparently we need to find one that does.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) received $7,287,000 to continue the Harkin Grant program and Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) received $7,000,000 for the Robert C. Byrd Institute of Advanced Flexible Manufacturing Systems.

And here’s to Representative Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) for his ever-changing stance on earmarks; first signing a no-earmark pledge, then receiving $21 million in earmarks, then supporting the Republican earmark moratorium.

Today is the first day of a new month of running and blogging and I am now officially under 2,000 miles.

1,998.6 miles to go.

Day31 Wednesday 09/29/10

ran 2.6 miles
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”

Thomas Paine

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

Thomas Paine

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

George Washington

“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”

Thomas Jefferson

Much of the media continues to harpoon blame of Obama’s low approval numbers by essentially attributing all of our current turmoil to Bush’s eight years, which does actually hold a substantial amount of truth, and an underwhelming generalization that American voters simply disapprove of Barack Obama’s actions because we are all frustrated by the economy and an overall lack of productive results.

American voters want to reconcile wrongdoings and problems from the past decade as much as Barack Obama does, but would it be possible for us to not be depicted by the media as a simple-minded herd of cattle, only capable of mooing that we want results and that we want them now? We certainly want some real change soon, but could it be possible that millions of people in this country firmly believe Obama’s direction and his ideas are shaded with dangerously dark tints of socialism? Newspapers don’t allude to this real possibility very often. Our voice stands as simple results of random polls.

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

This line from Karl Marx is possibly the most naïve and out of touch series of letters ever pushed onto a sheet of paper by a pen. It is a utopian fairy tale. Read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, or read the “Communist Manifesto”. They are both very quick reads. The former is a step-by-step demise of applied communism and the latter is a collection of theoretical wishful thinking that simply does not work without compromising every fiber of what a country like America is.

“The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.”

“The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.”

“Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.”

These quotes from Karl Marx sound like the words of an angry, bitter man who takes everything he sees in the world very personally, as though everything were an insult to him and his ego, and he wants to put the world in its place, regardless of the others around him. That is what Communism is. It is like an angry child throwing a tantrum and wanting everything his way and all of his things to be in their proper place.

2,001.8 miles to go.