Day323 Monday 07/18/11

ran 4.7 miles

Looking over a few articles in the news tonight, I happened to come across one that cited the fact that Barack Obama had one the Nobel Peace Prize. That fact had slipped my mind and being reminded of it forced a sudden laugh, followed by a lifted brow and a condescending grin and, finally, frustration set in. Really?! The Nobel Peace Prize?!

I am only one person so, consequently, my single opinion bears little effect on America’s perception of President Obama’s having one the Nobel Peace Prize for achieving absolutely nothing, but my common sense opinion is that the integrity of the Nobel Peace Prize has been tarnished and what was once perhaps perceived by many as an indisputable honor may now be a questionable award based on the fact that Barack Obama won it for…nothing.

Coincidentally, the article that cited Obama’s unearned Nobel Peace Prize had a more pressing story. Barack Obama has been formally accused of crime against humanity for killing Bin Laden. Daniel Fiol, a Spanish lawyer, submitted a written complaint to the International Criminal Court, which accused President Obama of violating the Geneva Convention.

Fiol argues that Bin Laden should have been “pursued, arrested, tried and convicted”; not assassinated in Abbotabad, Pakistan. As of yet it is unknown who hired Fiol to place this charge, but there is much speculation that it might be Osama Bin Laden’s son Omar Bin Laden.


One of the few issues I can agree on with Barack Obama was killing Osama Bin Laden. I didn’t post about this article to dispute his decision and this charge placed by Daniel Fiol will gain zero ground, but I did post about it because, in addition to reminding me of how ridiculous it was that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, this article had a picture of what must be the worst, most pathetic, most uncreative, disappointing, thrown-together effigy I have ever seen. The magazine page they used for a head and the complete lack of arms and legs were a nice touch. I can understand why these guys may want to burn the shirt with the American flag, but that is a perfectly good, useful set of jeans.

It is important to point out that I completely disapprove of the actions being portrayed in this image. I do not condone the burning of images of American flags or American presidents, whether it is on our soil or elsewhere. The main reason I posted this image was to underline the fact that our Nobel Peace Prize winning president has effigies modeled on his appearance violently burned quite often in dozens of different countries, which we, for some odd reason, give millions upon millions of our tax dollars to each and every year. I’m not sure where this picture was taken, but I’d be willing to bet that we gave these peoples’ government a whole lot of money very recently.

Back in America, Steve Wynn, CEO of casino company Wynn Resorts, delivered an intense anti-Obama rant during his company’s quarterly conference call today. He projected a sentiment many Americans seem to feel, regardless of social class, all the way up to the wealthiest of the wealthy, such as Wynn, and that sentiment is that American families and American companies are sitting on their thumbs and not spending money because we fear Barack Obama’s vision and path. People and businesses are not spending money, leaving the economy stagnant, because we are scared of what our president is trying to do. And it’s not so much that we fear precisely what he is doing, but that we fear our complete lack of logical understanding for the actions he makes.

This is Wynn’s tirade:

“I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.”

1,119.8 miles to go.

Day322 Sunday 07/17/11

ran 2.9 miles
Today ends week forty-six of running against Obama. I ran 20.9 miles this week, averaging 2.99 miles per day.

I read an article from Reuters, by Andrew Quinn, today and can’t help but attempt the best way possible to express an analogy between real quotes from the article and outlandish possibilities of the world we all actually live in.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced strong U.S. support this weekend for Greece’s battle to overcome its debt crisis (a crisis created by the same unrealistic fundamentals that Barack Obama is currently attempting to implement in America), stating that Greece was taking the difficult steps required for future growth.

In words and in a common sense you and I better understand, Clinton agrees that Greece is making the difficult decision to further bury themselves in debt through the same means of borrowing and living far outside of their means that got them where they are to begin with.

“Americans know these are difficult days, and again we stand with you as friends and allies.”

In other words, we are actually trying to deconstruct our country in the same way you have weakened yours by designing completely unrealistic economic plans that lead to more and more borrowing and taxation until eventually we no longer have a country worth mentioning.

"I am not here to in any way downplay the immediate challenges because they are real. But I am here to say that we believe strongly that this will give Greece a very strong economy going forward," Clinton said.

By “this” Clinton means borrowing even more money to continue a broken system, not much unlike what our president is working for here in America.

Greece is currently hoping for a second European bailout package of nearly 110 billion euros to keep the nation up and running until the end of 2014. If you ask Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidi about Greece’s deficit he will tell you that the government is determined to forge ahead. If that makes Greeks sleep better at night instead of rioting in their streets, which is more often the case, then job well done, Mr. Lambrinidi.

The people of Greece have been rioting and the government of Greece has been scrambling for a long time. Ultimately, their government gave their people an economic plan that was far too good to be true and completely unsustainable for any government. Sound like Barack’s America?

Earlier in this post I mentioned something about an analogy. A comparison between the disturbing reality Greece has arrived at and the disturbingly similar path America is being forced down against its will. This analogy, or comparison, is nothing that requires many powers of observation to make. Take your household, as a micro-economy, and apply your economic principles of common sense, which allow you and your family to thrive or at least stay afloat, to the actions our government makes to further disillusion us and to completely mismanage the money we give them and ask yourself if you could not do a better job. The economic rules and principles that apply to individuals, families, and even businesses transform into pure chaos once they reach the federal level.

1,124.5 miles to go.

Day321 Saturday 07/16/11

ran 2.9 miles
Our president recently claimed that “80% of Americans want higher taxes” for the debt reduction plan Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over. I don’t know where Obama is getting his numbers from but 80% seems outrageously manufactured. If you were to ask Americans if they wanted cherry pie, I don’t think 8o% would say yes to even that. But 80% of our country wants higher taxes? In the recently quoted words of Joe Biden, “C’mon, man!”

Republicans quickly pointed to other polls, which reflect far less support for tax hikes. For example, Rasmussen Reports shows that 55% of Americans are opposed to new taxes as part of a debt reduction deal. Not only does the majority of those surveyed frown upon new taxes, but those who favor the tax increases are nearly only half of the number Barack Obama embellished.

"I hope [Republicans are] not just listening to lobbyists and special interests ... I hope they're listening to the American people as well."

I hope so, too, Mr. President. I hope they are not listening to your lobbyists, special interests, or your ideas. And, apparently they are not because our Republican leaders do not seem to be budging on raising taxes and that is, in fact, what half if not more of Americans actually want them to do, and they are listening.

1,127.4 miles to go.

Day320 Friday 07/15/11

ran 0.1 miles
Just some facts about the state of Oklahoma today:

• Oklahoma was the forty-sixth state to join the union on November 16, 1907, five years before New Mexico and eleven years after Utah.

• Population, as of 2010, is 3,751,351.

• Senators are Tom Coburn (R) and James M. Inhofe (R).

• Representatives are John Sullivan (R), Dan Boren (D), Frank Lucas (R), Tom Cole (R), and James Lankford (R).

• Oklahoma has seven electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted blue for all but two presidential elections through 1948 and has not gone Democratic since, except for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. John McCain defeated Barack Obama 66% to 34% in 2008.

1,130.3 miles to go.

Day319 Thursday 07/14/11

ran 2.6 miles
Short post today. Just some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 26% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 38% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -12.

• Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 50% disapprove.

• Consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest level in two years with 52% of Americans believing their personal finances are getting worse.

• Only 25% believe the country is generally heading in the right direction.

• Generic Republican candidate 48%, Obama 43%.

• Generic Congressional ballot: Republicans 44%, Democrats 38%.

• Support for military action in Libya is down to 24%.

1,130.4 miles to go.

Day318 Wednesday 07/13/11

ran 3.6 miles
On this day in history, in 1960, John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was nominated for the presidency of the United States of America by the Democratic Party Convention. He defeated Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and, on the next day, Johnson was named Kennedy’s running mate by a unanimous vote of the convention.

On November 8 of 1960, Kennedy won 49.7% of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in American history, merely surpassing Richard M. Nixon’s 49.6% of the vote.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the thirty-fifth American president on January 20, 1961. During his famous inauguration address, Kennedy declared “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” and encouraged Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.

These were inspiring words, and considering how often the media compares Barack H. Obama to John F. Kennedy it would be refreshing to hear our current president utter something to that same inspirational effect. In a time of endless entitlements, government waste, and general mismanagement of what is left of our economy, I would like to hear Kennedy’s words and not see the actions Obama is committing which come across verbally as “ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you”.

Our debt is out of control. Our tax codes are endless labyrinths of loopholes designed to manipulate the people they represent. Our Congress is nearly at a percentage of disapproval lower than the legal age required to vote. We give dozens of nations who despise us hundreds of millions of American tax dollars each year for reasons I’ve never once heard anyone be able to clearly explain. Our government regulates business in the country it is supposed to be representing with so many ridiculously high taxes that we send millions of jobs to other countries because it is significantly more affordable. The only thing I have observed that really, really makes sense in America is the people. Our ability to conduct our lives the civil and responsible way we do is a testimony to what our forefather’s fought for and the American belief so many have given their lives for. When our forefathers drafted the constitution and elected to sign that controversial document we know as the Declaration of Independence they were asking one basic question that they believed to be true. Can a nation of people govern themselves? The answer is yes and the federal government has grown into an unintended burden on all of our lives.

Regarding foreign policy, Kennedy vigorously fought communism in the world. He ordered the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, sent thousands of U.S. military “advisors” to Vietnam, and displayed solidity and restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis, showing uncompromising opposition to the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Domestically, he introduced his “New Frontier” social legislation, calling for a federal desegregation policy and a sweeping new civil rights bill.

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

As an afterthought, I think John F. Kennedy was a far more inspiring man than Barack H. Obama is but, to play devil’s advocate to myself, this is an interesting pamphlet that was actually handed out in Dallas days before he was assassinated. It was fringe propaganda but the pamphlet has many parallels with the criticisms our current president receives and it is something to think about. This was sent to me by a friend of mine who I can always rely on to show me the other side of my own arguments.


1,133.0 miles to go.

Day317 Tuesday 07/12/11

ran 5.1 miles
"After years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable."

Mitch McConnell

America is in for something big soon. I’m not sure what it will be but the two sides making decisions are firmly rooted in their sparring stances. My opinion, which is obviously biased, given the name of this blog, is that Barack Obama is intent to not help this country but to get reelected and that Republicans are bent on making Obama a one-term president through any means possible.

Barack Obama is under far more pressure to concede his liberal principles than the Republican Party as a whole is. If I may validate this point with one simple and crystal clear observation, on November 6, 2012, American voters made a monumental statement concerning how they felt about Barack Obama and the direction this country was heading under liberal policies.

What has gotten better?

Not enough time to make a difference yet, you might ask? Need more time? History and the patience of American voters rarely side with such poor odds in a president and his unsuccessful decisions. For this reason it his back that is pressed more tightly against the wall with less maneuverability. He is offering impressive concessions that will infuriate his congressional cohorts and voters, but Republicans refuse to budge about raising taxes, at least for now.

And why should they? They were the replacements of an overwhelming amount of liberal politicians in 2010 that were elected for important campaign promises such as not raising taxes and adhering to their conservative principles. Their backs are only brushing the wall of pressure right now.

President Obama said himself that raising taxes, or ending the Bush tax cuts, was a bad idea in an economy like this back in December of 2010, so again, what has gotten better? What has changed? If it wasn’t a good idea then it is certainly not a good idea now!

Again, this is my biased perception. Obama is posturing and attempting to appease his voter base to get reelected with sweeping tax increases at the cost of America’s future. And Republicans are trying to preserve what is left of America until Someone Else takes office in 2012 by doing what seems to make the most sense of all---stop wasteful spending!!! There is so much waste in Washington, D.C. that is not even being addressed.

Obama needs to look like a middle-of-the-aisle hero in this scenario, which he is only doing as a result of circumstance for the bad decisions he has made. It is certainly not because he desires to be moderate. He has proven that. And Republicans need to look as hard-nosed, staunch and unwavering as possible because that is what they were elected to do in 2010.

1,136.6 miles to go.

Day316 Monday 07/11/11

ran 3.7 miles
The screws continue to tighten on President Obama. Ultimatums and threats are coming from both sides of Congress over the smothering gravity of our debt ceiling. August 2 is the last square on the calendar to sort it out and make big decisions that will have long-term effects on America.

Making an ultimatum of their own, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is urging voters not to donate their time or money to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign if he “agrees to cuts in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid”.

More than 160,000 people have pledged to not support Obama in 2012 if the above-mentioned concessions are made, according to the PCCC. One of the committee’s co-founders, Adam Green, feels that if Obama doesn’t fulfill these requests of his voters then it may be a better idea for him to run as an independent in 2012 instead of in the Democratic primary.

"If he's running as a Democrat, antagonizing the base like that is a pretty bad strategy."

This debt ceiling issue is one of the biggest decisions we’ve faced during Obama’s presidency and both sides have their backs up against the wall. Even compromising fairly on raising taxes and cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, no matter how incrementally, will stir much discontent from voters on both sides. And the last thing these politicians want is to lose their jobs on November 6, 2012. This decision will clearly define exactly how honest and genuine each Senator and Representative is to their constituencies.

On a lighter note, here are some facts and stats about Ohio:

• Ohio was the seventeenth state to join the union on March 1, 1803, nine years before Louisiana and seven years after Tennessee.

• Population, as of 2010, is 11,536,504.

• Senators are Sherrod Brown (D) and Rob Portman (R).

• Representatives are Steven Chabot (R), Jean Schmidt (R), Michael Turner (R), Jim Jordan (R), Robert Latta (R), Bill Johnson (R), Steve Austria (R), John Boehner (R), Marcy Kaptur (D), Dennis Kucinich (D), Marcia Fudge (D), Patrick Tiberi (R), Betty Sutton (D), Steven LaTourette (R), Steve Stivers (R), Jim Renacci (R), Timothy Ryan (D), and Bob Gibbs (R).

• Ohio has eighteen electoral votes after having lost two as a consequence of the 2010 Census Reapportionment. Historically, Ohio has been a swing state for a long time. The state’s large number of electoral votes makes it a priority for campaigning in every presidential election. Ohio has voted for the winning president in every single election except one in 1944. Ohio’s unexplainable ability to correctly pick the winner so often makes the importance of the state’s votes even more critical to secure each presidential election. Barack Obama defeated John McCain 52% to 47% in 2008.

1,141.7 miles to go.

Day315 Sunday 07/10/11

ran 2.4 miles
Today ends week forty-five of running against Obama. I ran 21.6 miles this week, averaging 3.09 miles per day.

August 2 will be here soon and a decision on raising the debt ceiling or defaulting on our debt will have to be made. Defaulting on our debt is something America has never done and it is highly unlikely that it will happen now. Such a decision would have a global impact and America’s economy, which appears underwhelming and stands slouched, would be ground zero of the damage. It would be similar to you claiming bankruptcy and your creditors losing all trust and interest in you for a significant amount of time. More importantly, it would lead to other competitive nations advancing exponentially beyond America as we slowly pick up the pieces of what we once were.

Defaulting seems unrealistic, but the compromises Republicans and Democrats are attempting to strike with one another in Congress are leading to nowhere. Republicans want to slash spending with absolutely no consideration for tax hikes and Democrats want to perform an intricate surgery on spending with much gravity on increasing taxes.

Here are a couple of interesting facts that add more dimension to the picture of what is really going on. For one thing, Barack Obama is currently trying to raise taxes, exactly what he thought was a bad idea in December of 2010, shortly after the mid-term elections. He continued the Bush tax cuts, not just for certain classes but across the board, after campaigning on ending them. Why is it a good idea now to raise taxes if it was not a good idea then? What has changed in the past seven months that makes tax hikes justifiable now? Nothing has changed. Our economy and jobs numbers are the same, if not incrementally worse.

“…Insisting on really big tax increases as a condition to do anything on the spending side, we believe the president was right back in December when he signed the two-year extension of the current tax rates that raising taxes in the middle of this economic situation we're in is a terrible idea. Let me just look at the unemployment figures last Friday. All the arguments the president used in December are still here today. There's an additional issue to unemployment at work here and that is what kind of government do you want to have?

And if you look back at the last two and a half years, you see the government running banks, insurance companies, car companies, national housing loan business, taken over healthcare, trying to take over the Internet, increasing spending, discretionary spending 24 percent, increasing debt 35 percent. What -- how big a government do we want? And we don't want to use this opportunity presented by the president's request of us to raise the debt ceiling to kind of freeze the perpetuity of this much government. I don't think the American people want it. I don't think it's good for the economy.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that 235 Republican members of the House and 40 Republicans in the Senate took a pledge to not raise taxes, as demanded by their constituents, in the form of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. It was proven as a result of the mid-term elections of November 2010 that it is very easy to get fired if members of Congress do not abide by the demands of the people. The Republicans who signed that pledge to not raise taxes stand to lose their jobs if they give in to what Democrats are demanding.

It is a win-win situation for the left because taxation has no end for the policies they adhere to and if they can get Republicans to cave and raise taxes, which makes zero sense at an economic time like this, then they will have achieved stirring the disappointment and anger of those constituencies that are represented by the 275 Republican seats of Congress who signed a document swearing to not raise taxes. Politically, it is a brilliant way to jostle the chances of reelection for these seemingly ardent, hard-nosed conservative members of congress. And they are between a rock and a hard place because if the ceiling does end up making contact with the floor then blame is going to be projected in every direction. Again, brilliant political strategy.

Let no tragedy go unused, that’s how they think, and if you stand to be a one-term president, which really is sort of humiliating as far as history books go, shake things up at any costs, create some chaos, broaden your odds at any cost.

This is the world of politics. It’s about you and me only so long as these pompous, arrogant, entitled children get their ways. They find far more virtue and honor in being a career politician than they do in serving our interests.

With all of the circular talk we have been hearing about the debt ceiling, here is a shot of pure logic from Senator Marco Rubio:

“Let’s stop talking about new taxes and start talking about new taxpayers, which means jobs. This debt is the No. 1 issue on everyone’s minds and rightfully so. It is a major issue, but everywhere else, in the real world, the No. 1 issue on people’s minds is jobs. And I tell you, every other problem facing America — a mortgage crisis, a home foreclosure crisis, this debt problem — all of these issues get easier to deal with if people are gainfully employed across America. And the impact that unemployment is having across this country is devastating. …

Our job here [in Congress] is to do everything we can to make it easier for them to find a job, not harder. And I think that’s what we have to do when it comes to ‘a balanced approach’ and when we talk about revenue. We don’t need new taxes, we need new taxpayers, people who are gainfully employed, making money, paying into the tax system and then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. …

So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed and here’s what I say: I say we should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue No. 1 in America. I want to know which one of these taxes they’re proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the planes tax. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the oil company tax that I’ve heard so much about. How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires that the president talks about? I want to know! How many jobs do they create? …

I traveled the state of Florida for two years campaigning. I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I’ve never met a single job creator who has ever said to me I can’t wait ’til government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job. I’m curious to know if they say that in New Hampshire because they don’t say that in Florida. So my view on all that is, I want to know how many of these tax increases the president proposes will create jobs because if they’re not creating jobs and they’re not creating new taxpayers, they’re not solving the problem.”

1,145.4 miles to go.

Day314 Saturday 07/09/11

ran 3.4 miles
“It’s all about jobs. In it’s life, it (the health care bill) will create 4 million jobs---400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

Who is this oracle? Who is this guru of wisdom so adept to foresee such an indisputable future? Who is this investor in futures as colorful as rainbows are tangible? Who is this walking, talking head bobbling about with a series of three or four trademarked string pulls?

“But we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.”

“Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs.”

“In our recovery package we put new standards of accountability and transparency, which we hope will now apply.”

Do not pass go. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

There is more flotsam and jetsam flowing through the murky waters of Nancy Pelosi’s mind than there is purity and patience in the river she represents.

(I'm no expert in body language but the manner in which Obama's hand presses into his face in the video above reminds me of myself when I am forced to sit in my dentist's waiting room awaiting a root canal.)

1,147.8 miles to go.

Day313 Friday 07/08/11

ran 1.9 miles
Stepping away from current events today. Here are a few good quotes.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

Justice William O. Douglas

“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every man has a right to knock him down for it.”

Dr. Samuel Johnson English author, lexicographer

“Blessed are the young, for they will inherit the national debt.”

President Herbert Hoover

“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.”

Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798

“A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.”

H.L. Mencken

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

Plato

“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

Will Rogers

“Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties - 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests. - In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still and pursue the same object. The last one of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all.”

Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1824

1,151.2 miles to go.

Day312 Thursday 07/07/11

ran 4.0 miles

“Let’s stop talking about new taxes and start talking about new taxpayers, which means jobs. This debt is the No. 1 issue on everyone’s minds and rightfully so. It is a major issue, but everywhere else, in the real world, the No. 1 issue on people’s minds is jobs. And I tell you, every other problem facing America — a mortgage crisis, a home foreclosure crisis, this debt problem — all of these issues get easier to deal with if people are gainfully employed across America. And the impact that unemployment is having across this country is devastating. …

Our job here [in Congress] is to do everything we can to make it easier for them to find a job, not harder. And I think that’s what we have to do when it comes to ‘a balanced approach’ and when we talk about revenue. We don’t need new taxes, we need new taxpayers, people who are gainfully employed, making money, paying into the tax system and then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. …

So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed and here’s what I say: I say we should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue No. 1 in America. I want to know which one of these taxes they’re proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the planes tax. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the oil company tax that I’ve heard so much about. How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires that the president talks about? I want to know! How many jobs do they create? …

I traveled the state of Florida for two years campaigning. I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I’ve never met a single job creator who has ever said to me I can’t wait ’til government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job. I’m curious to know if they say that in New Hampshire because they don’t say that in Florida. So my view on all that is, I want to know how many of these tax increases the president proposes will create jobs because if they’re not creating jobs and they’re not creating new taxpayers, they’re not solving the problem.”

---Florida GOP freshman Senator Marco Rubio from a speech made on the Senate floor

Sometimes you read something and you admire it so much because the man or woman who wrote the words articulated with such brevity and concision the exact idea you feel but are incapable of articulating yourself. That is what Marco Rubio’s words above just accomplished. Where is the common sense in the White House?

Here are some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 39% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -15.

• Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barrack Obama’s performance and 50% disapprove.

• Among American voters, 25% believe the America is generally heading in the right direction.

• Only 23% of Americans are at least somewhat confident that U.S. policymakers know what they’re doing when it comes to handling America’s current economic problems.

• Generic Republican candidate 44%, Obama 44%.

• Favoring repeal of the health care law hit a new high at 53%.

1,153.1 miles to go.

Day311 Wednesday 07/06/11

ran 4.8 miles

Chapter 14

Jonas was in a new place. He stepped into a tub of hot running water. A particular and rare kind of peace had fallen over him. It was one of the seldom moments when the entire universe stood still in all of its clarity---but only long enough to catch a glimpse of its simple geometry for a mere perplexing second. Jonas saw, somehow, men stripped and women bare with shame and confusion for so many questions they had so few answers for; children branded, tagged like so many heads of cattle in a herd, branded and tagged like commercial images in young impressionable minds content to follow those in front of them, behind them, and on their sides regardless of where it leads them; so many distractions to occupy and obstruct the precious little we would all like to know but don’t know how to ask for; to clothe, layer after layer, so many fabrics and materials of thin and delicate armor to protect what is so quietly inside of us all and to shield what is so piercingly intent to get inside.

Less than a breath later and Jonas returned back to the clumsy, lethargic reality that consumed his and everyone else’s lives.

Jonas thought about the poem he had read earlier. It was page thirty-four of Anna’s untitled book. He now understood that there was more to all of this than he had previously understood. The circumstances of Jonas acquiring that book were unquestionable. The intentions were still unknown but his puppet strings were being pulled and twitching with curiosity.

What people need now is another Henry Thoreau
to aspire towards on rainy days.

What we need now is a sunny gloom to rekindle
the hopes of our warm shadow’s rays.

People need to peel their hands from the mouths
of their souls to allow for noise and the power to not do what they’re told.

What we need now is quietude and screaming
at the inversely appropriate times that they would commonly behold.

Jonas sat in the hot water sweating in comfort. He thought about his mother. She used to always tell him, “If it sounds too good to be true than it probably is.” He wondered if something was too bad to be real if it couldn’t be. It did not go both ways.

1,157.1 miles to go.

Day310 Tuesday 07/05/11

ran 3.7 miles
“The staff names and salary report, required annually by Congress, was released on Friday by the White House. The timing, however, was probably an accident because last Friday most Americans were not watching the news closely and were thinking of not working for a three-day holiday weekend.”

Nice use of sarcasm, Andrew Malcolm, in an article for the Los Angeles Times. Are you suggesting that maybe the release of 454 Obama White House aides who will collectively earn $37,121,463 this year was strategically posted on a day when the American people were less likely to be paying attention?

“Because Americans would no doubt be pleased to know of the Obama staff's economic success amid the bleak national scene for so many others, we saved the information for today, when most Americans who are still employed are back at their own jobs and can share the joy.”

One small disappointing detail that this report failed to mention was the fact that 41 unidentified Obama staff members currently owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes. That separate report came out last fall.

President Obama has upped George W. Bush by seven staff members and nearly $4 million from 2008. Also, nearly one out of every three earn more than $100,000 a year. That number has also been raised from Bush’s 130 staffers with that salary. And, twenty-one Obama staff members earn $172,200 a year, the highest salary.

Our national debt is $14.2 trillion, up 35% since Obama took office. While paying staff members an accumulative $37,121,463 a year is a drop in the bucket at the far larger scale of the economic crisis our nation is suffering, it is a matter of principle, the shamelessness and audacity Obama possesses to be so exorbitant---and not only in this particular instance, while our nation is coasting along at the brink of failure.

From Andrew Malcolm, here are some coincidental Chicago connections who happen to be recipients of the top pay scale.

"Chief of Staff William Daley, who is the brother of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who just retired and left the top Democratic-machine job there to Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff and before that held the Chicago House seat of Rod Blagojevich, who had given it up to become governor of Illinois, which he no longer is due to impeachment and, now, convicted on 17 counts of fraud.

The Daleys' father, Richard J. Daley, was also a longtime Chicago mayor whose operatives provided Illinois' crucial electoral votes to elect John F. Kennedy president back in 1960 before Obama was born.

Valerie Jarrett has a White House title as long as Chicago's winters (senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement). Before this, she was a chief of staff for the most recent Mayor Daley and hired an assistant named Michelle Robinson, who went on, of course, to become Mrs. Barack Obama, whose chief of staff also earns the top $172G paycheck.

This year, the one before Obama's attempted reelection, he reduced his staff by 15 people and $1.7 million.

Some White House aides have already returned to Chicago as campaign employees, including political strategist David Axelrod, who helped elect the most recent Mayor Daley, as well as, briefly, Sen. Obama and then President Obama. Axelrod also made the top salary when he had to live in Washington."

1,161.9 miles to go.