Day433 Saturday 11/05/11

1,300 MILES!!!

ran 3.0 miles
Only 780 miles left to go! Tomorrow puts us at exactly one year from the day we will vote for the next president of the United States of America. One year until we can start turning this mess around, looking less like the beginning of Greece’s demise and more like America.

Here are some stats and facts about the state of Vermont (to check out stats and facts about more states click on “states of the union” on the right):

• Vermont was the fourteenth state to join the union on March 4, 1791, one year before Kentucky and one year after Rhode Island.

• Population, as of 2010, is 625,741.

• Senators are Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernard Sanders (I).

• The representative is Peter Welch (D).

• Vermont has three electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted red since the founding of the modern Republican Party in 1854 through the election of 1988, except for 1964. In 1992, Vermont voted for Bill Clinton and has been a blue state since. In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain 68% to 30%.

778.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day68.

Day432 Friday 11/04/11

Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 19% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 42% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –23. The month of October claimed Barack Obama’s lowest approval index yet.

• Overall, 44% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 54% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Despite the allegations against Herman Cain, he continues to lead the Republican field of presidential candidates.

• Cain: 26%

• Romney: 23%

• Gingrich: 14%

• Undecided voters claim 13% and all other candidates are in single digits.

"I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement," Rudy Giuliani said at the Defending the American Dream Summit. "It would not have happened, it would not have happened but for his class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse because it's going to get worse and worse, where it came from. Barack Obama. He praised it. He supported it. He agrees with it. He sympathizes with it. And as it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama's neck that will take his presidency down."

Rudy Giuliani quoted by www.realclearpolitics.com

781.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day67.

Day431 Thursday 11/03/11

ran 3.6 miles

I remember watching videos like this over a year ago for the riots in Greece. I was shocked to see what was happening and even more shocked by how many people were saying that this would happen in America. At the time I didn't believe I would ever see this degree of protesting and rioting on our own soil. But, sure enough, here it is.

For so long, American government has revolved around a two-party system of Democrats and Republicans. We were all born into this enduring system and it is all we have ever known. It is a challenge to envision anything different that we can all at least half way agree on. But something is unfolding right before our eyes. It is no longer about party in the capacity that you have views that are similar to one or the other and you, therefore, vote for that party. This country is looking less and less Republican and Democratic. It is comprised of those who pay taxes and those who don't. Roughly 53% of Americans pay federal taxes. We pay these taxes because our households earn more than (I can't remember the exact figure) twenty-something thousand dollars per year. The other 47% do not earn that bare minimum and they in turn suck off the teat of the government like milk-drunken babies. While the achievers currently hold a modest majority, the under-achievers are creeping closer and closer to an overpowering number that is comprised of an utter lack of logic and all rationality. Our traditional two-party system is being taken over by two new parties. I don't know what their names will be, but one feels entitled to anything they desire regardless of how lazy they are and the other understands they are not entitled to anything unless they earn it.

785.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day66.

Day430 Wednesday 11/02/11

ran 3.2 miles
It was on this day one year ago that Americans cast their votes during the midterm elections to claim sixty Republican House seats, six Republican Senate seats, and seven Republican governorships. Obama deemed this defeat a “shellacking”. I think he could have used a more severe term.

Ultimately, this shellacking represented a national rejection of his first two years, in which he had a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, when he could have passed more efficient and productive legislation. Instead, he signed Obamacare and divvied up a stimulus package the size of which our minds are not even capable of comprehending without illustrations of football fields with pallets of hundred dollar bills stacked up against skyscrapers. Now, he wants a jobs bill, which is another stimulus package. The only plus is that it will not amount to quite as many skyscraper-sized football fields of money stacked on pallets. It is not as much money, but our president will probably not be allocating as many billions of tax-dollars to solar companies that go belly-up as hundreds of people lose their jobs and the few guys left at the top walk away with golden parachutes paid for by the tax-payers.

Barack Obama has outspent Bush, who he had so harshly criticized during his campaign and constantly blames for so many of our problems, in two and one-half years. Bush had eight years.

If you want people to follow you, you must lead by example. There are a lot of people in this country who balance their budgets despite how irresponsible our president and our congress have been. We do not have credit cards that allow us to purchase things that future generations pay for. The federal government seems to believe they do have one of these elusive credit cards. There are few other scenarios in a practical world in which a person, a business, or a government can spend to this extent, devaluing their own dollars at a rate that so far exceeds logic and progress, as that which is occurring in America right now.

We had momentum in 2010 and an important message was sent to Washington D.C. Stronger momentum is necessary to continue that message in 2012.

789.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day65.

Day429 Tuesday 11/01/11

ran 3.6 miles

The House of Representatives voted today on whether “In God we trust” should or should not remain the United States of America’s official motto. This motto was adopted by America in 1956 and it is also the state motto of Florida. A common misperception is that “E pluribus unum”, Latin for “out of many, one”, is our nation’s motto, but it is not. It appears on plenty of seals and forms of American currency but “In God we trust” is the actual motto.

"Unfortunately, there are a number of public officials who forget what the national motto is, whether intentionally or unintentionally. There are those who become confused as to whether or not it can still be placed on our buildings, whether it can be placed in our school classrooms. Almost a year ago, the president in making a speech across the world said that our national motto was 'E pluribus unum’. When the Visitors Center was opened ... they did not have the national motto in there. In fact, they inscribed in the stones that our national motto was 'E pluribus unum.' "

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) in an article written by Pete Kasperowicz from The Hill

The vote to keep “In God we trust” as the national motto prevailed by a count of 396 to 9. One Republican and eight Democrats voted against it. Two additional Democrats voted “present”.

Those who voted against the bill were Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and Pete Stark (D-Calif.). Stark is the House's only open atheist.

The two who voted “present” were Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Mel Watt (D-NC).

792.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day64.

Day428 Monday 10/31/11

Billboard in Clovis, New Mexico

ran 3.5 miles
“…President Barack Obama will ‘continue’ to act ‘independently’ without congressional authorization to ‘benefit the American people’ as part of the White House’s ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign.”

“He [Obama] fully understands that the kinds of things that are contained within the American Jobs Act require congressional action, require laws being passed, and that’s why he’s pressing for Congress to take action legislatively.”

“But he can also act independently or, rather, administratively, and exercise his executive authority to benefit the American people in other ways. And he will continue to do that.”

Nicholas Ballasy of Daily Caller quoting White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

Barack Obama is acting more like a king than a president. While he travels around in his black “Death Star” buses blaming Republicans for obstructing his Jobs Act, it goes right over his head that on November 2, 2010, during the mid-term elections, America fired a large portion of his liberal counterparts and replaced them with Republicans who campaigned on obstructing him from raising taxes and further stimulating the economy, which is what his jobs plan is. Congress is not bullying him. The Americans who put Republicans in office are not bullying him. American voters deemed Barack Obama and what he represents in his first two terms as unacceptable. So now that new members of Congress, and older ones who are no longer willing to put their political careers on the line, defy and block the president from his agenda, they are somehow made out to be the bad guys.

The only thing left for this man, lost, mindlessly roaming the halls of the White House, to do is executive orders that usurp Congress and the natural process of legislation. He is blazing a path in the opposite direction that American voters demanded he follow in November of 2010.

796.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day63.

Day427 Sunday 10/30/11

14 MONTHS!!!

ran 2.1 miles
Today ends week sixty-one of running against Obama. I ran 21.9 miles this week, averaging 3.13 miles per day.

Today also ends 14 months of running against Obama. After 427 days of running against an administration that encourages an abusive reliance on government and discourages the ambition necessary for Americans to challenge themselves, to take some risks, and to ultimately succeed---after 427 days, I find that liberal ideas broadly weaken the morale of the millions of people they affect and when these ideas are unleashed at the height which they currently are under Barack Obama the only rationale and sense that is left is to get angry, violent, and to act like a spoiled child. There you have it. That is my brief description of the liberal mindset. It is playing out right before our eyes.

Barack Obama has not been a successful president. The occupiers in the streets of our cities, who have way too much time on their hands, are costing taxpayers even more money, they are disrespectful to our police officers, and they are serving no real purpose other than to distract the entire country from how miserable of a job President Barack Obama has done and continues to do. The biggest accomplishment our president has, which many consider yet another failure, is his health care bill. America does not want it. Repealing it is on the top of the list for most of the candidates running to replace him. I don’t think he has done anything that we can all agree on. And one of the few things we can all agree on is a good economy.

“It’s the economy, stupid.” That line surfaced while Clinton was running for president and it is being screamed even louder now.

Our president had two years with a Democratic Senate and House. He could have done anything he wanted. He made his choices and they have not only failed but set America that much further back. He has stimulated us to the edge of oblivion with monopoly money that has served no noticeable purpose.

I often wonder where the focus would be right now if these young, restless people weren’t in the streets marching around, distracting. I think the focus would be on a failed president and the excitement involved in getting him out of the White House.

799.7 miles to go.

Day426 Saturday 10/29/11

ran 3.2 miles
Some stats and facts about the state of Utah:

• Utah was the forty-fifth state to join the union on January 4, 1896, eleven years before Oklahoma and six years after Wyoming.

• Population, as of 2010, is 2,763,885.

• Senators are Orrin Hatch (R) and Mike Lee (R).

• Representatives are Rob Bishop (R), Jim Matheson (D), and Jason Chaffetz (R).

• Utah has six electoral votes. The state claimed the third largest population swell over the past decade (nearly 24%) and gained one electoral vote for the next decade. Historically, Utah has not voted blue since 1964. In 2008, McCain defeated Obama by 28%.

This is from an ABC News article, “The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people ‘you are on your own’.”
That quote from Barack Obama is the most refreshing thing he has said in three years. “On our own” is what we want. Although the quote was uttered during a fund raising dinner in San Francisco, I don’t think Obama has any clue how successful he could be as a president if he would only phrase those words in a different context. Something to the effect of “We cannot continue spending ourselves into oblivion and we cannot continue encouraging Americans to be so reliant upon the government”.

I can’t understand the sense of entitlement so many people in this country feel is somehow owed to them. Get off your rear-end and move forward. We are all victims of the same circumstances. Things could be better and they could be worse. Some of us choose to achieve, no matter how small or large the task, during these hard times and others choose to do…less, for lack of a better and less severe term. Too many have made their government a sedative to everything America has to offer.

801.8 miles to go.
Here is what happened one year ago on Day61.

Day425 Friday 10/28/11

ran 3.1 miles
This evening, the deadline to appear on the ballot for the New Hampshire primary arrived. The official date of the vote is yet to be determined but it is expected to be January 10. This next bit of information I found to be absolutely shocking. There are THIRTY Republican candidates running in this primary! Who are these people and where did they come from? This total number of candidates surpasses the previous record of twenty-five in 1992. Furthermore, there are thirteen Democrats in addition to Barack Obama.

Here they are:

Republicans

Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, Texas, Fred Karger of Laguna Beach, Calif., Andy Martin of Chicago, Ill., Jon Huntsman of Salt Lake City, Utah, Buddy Roemer of Baton Rouge, La., Herman Cain of McDonough, Ga., Vern Wuensche of Houston, Texas, Rick Santorum of Great Falls, Va., Mark Callahan of Eugene, Ore., Mitt Romney of Belmont, Mass., Hugh Cort of Birmingham, Ala., L. John Davis, Jr. of Grand Junction, Colo., Joe Story of Jacksonville, Fla., Linden Swift of Plainfield, Ind., James A. Vestermark of Taylor Mill, Ky., Jeff Lawman of Derry, N.H., Joe Robinson of Newton, Mass., Keith Drummond of Katy, Texas, Newt Gingrich of McLean, Va., Randy Crow of Kelly, N.C., Michele Bachmann of Stillwater, Minn., Michael J. Meehan of St. Louis, Mo., Benjamin Linn of Milford, N.H., Christopher V. Hill of Prospect, Ky., Stewart J. Greenleaf of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., Gary Johnson of Canoncito, N.M., Rick Perry of Austin, Texas, Timothy Brewer of Dayton, Ohio, Kevin Rubash of Wilmette, Ill., Bear Betzler of Philadelphia, PA.

Democrats

Barack Obama of Chicago, Ill., Darcy G. Richardson of Jacksonville, Fla., Aldous C. Tyler of Madison, Wis., Robert B. Jordan of Garden Grove, Calif., John D. Haywood of Durham, N.C., Bob Greene of Mountain View, Calif., Craig Freis of Lake Elsinore, Calif., John Wolfe, Jr. of Chattanooga, Tenn., Randall Terry of Purgitsville, W.V., Ed Cowan of Moretown, Vt., Cornelius Edward O'Connor of West Palm Beach, Fla., Bob Ely of Lake Forest, Ill., Edward T. O'Donnell, Jr. of Wilmington, Del., Vermin Supreme of Rockport, Mass.

I had no idea there were so many candidates. I took the liberty of looking a few of them up and they are a colorful bunch. I had begun listing some details about some of them who I found to be a bit more eccentric than others but then decided against it. If there is one thing I have learned about following the news and blogging everyday it is the fact that we are all very different and very easily offended. What I may find as comical or ridiculous, others might hold in high regard and take quite seriously. I highly recommend Googling every name above you have never heard of.

805.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day60.

Day424 Thursday 10/27/11

ran 3.8 miles

What would be going on right now if this childish, prefabricated parade of whining was not being choreographed and portrayed on the American stage by so many angry and vulnerable malcontents? If Wall Street had never been "Occupied" then our current president would have been that much more exposed for the failure he has been over the last three years. Take away the drama and the masquerading in the streets that is demanding so much of our attention and what do you have left? A failed president who has no leg to campaign on except for the opportunities he seizes in the near future of chaos that is unfolding.

808.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day59.

Day423 Wednesday 10/26/11

ran 3.1 miles

811.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day58.

Day422 Tuesday 10/25/11

ran 3.4 miles

Today I stumbled upon a quick, easy test you can take to see how closely you fall in line with the ideas of the presidential candidates. Not only do the results place your likeness with candidates but with members of Congress, as well. The results elaborate on each candidate or member of Congress explaining in what ways your views match or oppose theirs. Not sure where you stand? This test might help.

Coincidentally, if you click on Day57 below there is another quick, informative quiz.

815.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day57.

Day421 Monday 10/24/11

ran 3.2 miles
Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 19% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 40% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –21.

Overall, 45% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 54% at least somewhat disapprove. The president earns approval from 80% of Democrats while 91% of Republican voters disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 44% approve and 55% disapprove.

Among American adults, 41% say their views are closer to the Tea Party than Occupy Wall Street while 34% are closer to OWS.

In case you didn't know, our federal government will be turning off all television and radio communications simultaneously on the afternoon of 11/9 for the first time in American history. It will occur at 2:00pm (EST). This shut down is a test for the national Emergency Alert System. Or is it? Remember Egypt's uprising when the government blacked out the internet because the protestors were so well organized and were growing too powerful through the use of sites like facebook? Perhaps this test is filled with innocent, good intentions but we will no longer be curious whether our government has the power to completely cut off communication and news. Pretty scary. Especially when our president is a leader who openly entertains the idea of overriding Congress when he cannot get his way. If this country keeps crumbling in division, potential actions like these become desperate measures for desperate times---and America is getting desperate.

818.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day56.

Day420 Sunday 10/23/11

ran 3.1 miles
Today ends week sixty of running against Obama. I ran 28.4 miles this week, averaging 4.06 miles per day.

It appears that Occupy Wall Street is showing early signs of internal frustration and implosion. From www.nypost.com, here are some facts and quotes from Ginger Adams Otis’ article “They want $lice of the occu-pie”.

Occupy Wall Street’s Finance Committee (ironic, right?) has around $500,000 in donations in a bank (ironic, right?) and, as donations continue to grow, different factions of protestors are losing their patience with the Finance Committee’s inability to properly redistribute the donations to meet the needs of every protestor.

One small example, a few protestors with drums were angry after fellow protestors vandalized their drums on Wednesday night. The drummers requested $8,000 for new drums and the construction of a small building to lock their drums in at night. They were turned down by the Finance Committee. These individuals are now threatening to protest elsewhere.

“F--k Finance. I hope Mayor Bloomberg gets an injunction and demands to see the movement’s books. We need to know how much money we really have and where it’s going.” This from Bryan Smith, a Californian who joined OWS three weeks ago. Is he looking for fiscal responsibility and effectiveness? I think I heard hints of a desire for him and his faction of protestors to receive what they worked so hard to earn, rather than work hard for no reason because those who put in so little claim so much. That sounds American, and dare I say conservative?

“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?”

Smith went on to explain that the Finance Committee hordes the dollars raised by all occupiers, but doesn’t give it back (that sounds familiar). Bryan Smith’s Comfort group receives an allowance of $150 per day as bigger groups, such as the Kitchen group, get nearly $2,000 each day.

“What can I do with $150?” said Smith. “We have three tons of wet laundry here from the rainstorm -- how do I get that done? We need winter gear, shoes, socks. I could spend $10,000 alone for backpacks people need. We raise all this money. Where is it?”

821.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day55.