Day603 Monday 04/23/12

ran 3.5 miles 

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

Take a look and judge for yourself. 

218.8 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day238.

Day602 Sunday 04/22/12

ran 1.8 miles

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

222.3 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day237.

Day601 Saturday 04/21/12

ran 3.1 miles 
Allen West, people. Remember the name. He has achieved more for the future of America through his words over the last week than our president has through his actions over the last three years and four months. 

224.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day236.

Day600 Friday 04/20/12

600 DAYS!!!

ran 3.7 miles

Today is a big milestone and I'd like to take this opportunity to restate exactly why I have run an average of 3.09 miles per day for the last 600 days.  I run these miles because they represent something I earn by working hard and because they are a product of my hard work that cannot be taken away from me.  These miles are a sort of nontaxable currency that purchase a unique sense of freedom and liberty that our government is incapable of administrating.  This sense of freedom and liberty I am describing stands on the pillars of individual accountability and a government that governs least as possible.

No president can divide the miles I run or the desire I have to achieve my goals by various others’ desire to accept mediocrity or even failure as an American way of life; open mouths reliant on the government's teat---our current president relies on the determination of many to pay for the shortcomings of many others.  This he calls “paying one’s fair share".  Our president is determined to convince the people he leads that they are somehow entitled to the rewards others have earned. 

I run because it is the one thing I thought of to do that Congress could not regulate or limit.  They cannot tell me how, when, or where to run my miles.  No federal government can tax or redistribute my miles.  No IRS can audit or seize my miles.  No government regulatory agency can minimize or maximize the amount of miles I want to run or the amount of days I choose to run them.

I think this is what freedom and liberty were intended to feel like and no one can give you these two items but yourself.  No government can legislate freedom and liberty.  They can take it away, but they cannot convene on how to distribute it.  Freedom and liberty must be earned individual by individual, on their own merits. 

Thank you for following this blog over the last 600 days!

227.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day235.

Day599 Thursday 04/19/12

ran 3.3 miles

On this day in 1775, 700 British troops marched into Lexington on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and to seize their arsenal.  What they found was 77 armed minutemen led by Captain John Parker awaiting them in the city.  British Major John Pitcairn ordered the highly outnumbered Patriots to fall back.  After a brief hesitation, the minutemen began falling back until one unknown soldier took it upon himself to fire his gun toward the British.  This became known in history books as the “shot heard around the world”.  Within seconds, musket smoke blotted the battlefield.  By the end of the battle 8 minutemen were dead and 10 were wounded.  One British soldier was injured.

Then came Concord.  The British aimed to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock.  Warned by Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British were coming Adams and Hancock fled and were able to escape. 

When the British troops reached Concord they were encircled by hundreds of armed Patriots.  A battle ensued forcing Lieutenant Colonel Frances Smith to pull his British troops away and to retreat back to Boston.  Retracing a 16-mile journey, the British were constantly fired upon by Patriots waiting for them in hiding along the path of retreat.  Finally reaching Boston, the British had nearly 300 casualties and the Patriots had less than 100.

The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolution, which ultimately gave birth to the United States of America.

I wonder what these brave, rugged individuals who fought and died for the opportunity to embrace freedom and to escape the tyranny of overbearing government would think of America today.

230.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day234.

Day598 Wednesday 04/18/12

$5,027,761,476,484.56

ran 4.0 miles

The number above is a recent snapshot of ever-increasing national debt added by Barack Obama.  Having served less than one term, our current president holds the title of first American president to lead the federal government’s national debt into an increase of more than $5 trillion dollars.  Every other president in American history has done less damage with two full terms. 

“At the close of business on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the federal government’s debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the U.S. Treasury. By the close of business on April 16, 2012—as many Americans were working to finalize their 2011 tax returns to meet an April 17 filing deadline—the debt had reached $15,654,638,525,397.64."

CNSNews, Terence P. Jeffrey

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 313,385,295 people live in the United States. With that population, each one of us owes $16,043.39. 

(Source)

234.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day233.

Day597 Tuesday 04/17/12

ran 4.6 miles 

Not going to lower the price of gas overnight? This trumped up measure will make no difference at all. Presidents make this speech every single year---tightening the screws on speculators and increasing punishments for foul play, policing the system more diligently---blah, blah, blah. Our president does not want low gas prices. Any hint of low prices at the pumps directly takes away from Barack Obama's momentum to explore alternative energy sources with the vigor and lack of all restraint he desires for wasting as many tax dollars as he can in investments to that sector. It amazes me how a president of the United States of America can stand behind a podium in front of so many Americans and say so many words that serve so little purpose. 

238.2 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day232.

Day596 Monday 04/16/12

ran 4.4 miles

The Buffett Rule, a Democratic move to force a 30% tax rate on all households earning more than $1 million per year, failed to pass in the Senate today. For the legislation to pass it required sixty votes to end debate but only garnered fifty-one votes. 

Laws with this much gravity are not going to be passed this close to the election and the vote was nothing more than posturing and pointing fingers among Republicans and Democrats. Both sides walk away from the Senate vote with talking points to campaign on for their upcoming re-election races and Barack Obama now has on record another account proving that Republicans would rather have you drinking dirty water and breathing dirty air. He will argue that Republicans mistreat women and the elderly; that they care little for your wellbeing. He will cast them as generally greedy, heartless, Constitutional fanatics who cling to their guns and religion---among many other outlandish claims, which serve no real purpose other than to earn votes from utterly uninformed individuals.

242.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day231.

Day595 Sunday 04/15/12

ran 3.3 miles

Today ends week eighty-five of running against Obama.  I ran 21.7 miles this week, averaging 3.1 miles per day.

Here is something to keep your eye on.  As the election gets closer and the time arrives for Romney to pick his Veep, it will be interesting to see if he chooses Marco Rubio.  Rubio is a top candidate for the job and he would bring a strong Hispanic vote to the Republican party, but, according to our Constitution, he is by definition unqualified.  Small hurdles like this do not usually stop Washington, though.

Marco Rubio 's parents, Mario and Oriales Rubio did not become naturalized American citizens until four years after Marco Rubio was born.  President and Vice President are the only two offices in America that require an elected official's parents to both be legal U.S. citizens at the time of that elected official's birth.  

If Romney were to pick Rubio it would be yet another section of our Constitution shredded to pieces, but it would also be a brilliant move in this political chess match.  Could Democrats conceive a way to call out Rubio on eligibility regarding his parents' citizenship while supporting a president like Barack Obama who clearly has some eligibility controversies of his own?

247.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day230.

Day594 Saturday 04/14/12

ran 3.2 miles

It was in February of last year that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin became a household name to represent the message of conservatives across the country.  This man shrugged union intimidation and liberal numbers from every corner of America.  He pressed his shoulder to the wheel and drove the economic reform he campaigned on to bring the state of Wisconsin closer to a budget that could breathe above the surface of deficit.  He succeeded.

For this, he is forced into a recall election.  Those who signed the petition to have him recalled would argue that he is robbing them of their pensions, their health care, and the promises that were made to them.  I, and many others like me, would argue that he is slowly decompressing a rupturing bubble in Wisconsin that will inevitably pop, sooner rather than later, to avoid the catastrophe of not facing the ugly economic truth before Wisconsin, and so many other states.

250.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day229.

Day593 Friday 04/13/12

ran 3.5 miles

Stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -17.

• Overall, 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 51% at least somewhat disapprove.

• On economic issues, 49% of voters trust Romney while 39% trust Obama.

• In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, Romney earns 48% and Obama attracts 44%.

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 45%, Democrats 40%

253.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day228.

Day592 Thursday 04/12/12

ran 3.7 miles 

"Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult." 

Ben Bernanke addressing Budget Committee earlier this week 

(Source)

Raising taxes on every household that makes $250,000 or more per year, then exponentially raising that tax rate for millionaires and billionaires is not going to solve our problems. The money would go to the federal government, which has already proven that they would run out of sand within five years if they were given control of the Sahara Desert. It would put a band-aid on the widest fracture of the debt dam but it ultimately serves no purpose. You can not put into words or even draw a picture of what $15, $16, or $17 trillion of debt looks like. Give Barack Obama another term and maybe you will have better luck with what $24, $25, or $26 trillion of debt looks like. 

I'm not sure what the solution is but I know introducing nationalized health care at a time like this is a proverbial nail in a coffin that has already been sunk three quarters of the way (just waiting on the Supreme Court). 

257.2 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day227.

Day591 Wednesday 04/11/12

ran 3.6 miles 

This is what we are up against. These are members of the "Occupy" movement that are widely supported by Liberals and have been encouraged by Barack Obama. The individual engaging the Anarchist and Communist "Occupy" camp in the video above is named Vladimir and he spent the first twenty-nine years of his life in the U.S.S.R and has lived in America for the last twenty-three years. This guy knows a thing or two about Socialism and effortlessly explains why it is a bad idea.

260.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day226.

Day590 Tuesday 04/10/12

ran 3.5 miles

"So these investments -- in things like education and research and health care -- they haven't been made as some grand scheme to redistribute wealth from one group to another.  This is not some socialist dream."

Barack Obama, 2012

"I’m gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5 percent of the folks who are doing very well – even though they’ve been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they’re paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts...I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."

Barack Obama, 2008

(Source)

In 2012 our president acknowledges that redistributing wealth from one group to another is a "socialist dream", but in 2008 he proposed the idea without acknowledging it was a concept straight out of Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto".  I think, in not so many words, he has just insulted the American people once again by calling us stupid.

I've mentioned this in many past posts and I will mention it in many more in the future.  Remember the midterm elections?  On November 2, 2010, Obama, in his own words, got "shellacked".  Republicans claimed the House and nearly took the Senate, all as a result of voting out as many Congressmen and women who aligned with Obama on the two hot topics of that time.

ObamaCare and the stimulus package.  These two pieces of legislation were so disappointing that it cost Barack Obama the numbers he needed to continue deconstructing America through piling on incomprehensible amounts of debt.  So the question is, what has changed?  Our president's power was chopped in half and since then all he has done is present the same alleged solutions that are exactly what got he and his party shellacked in 2010.  His argument is that he has a "do nothing" Congress but I would argue that they are doing exactly what the people who elected asked of them.  Namely, stop spending.  Most of the goals on Obama's path come at the cost of redistributing wealth or running up our national debt.  That is not progress and his spots have not changed since November 2, 2010.

The global economy is in a tailspin and our president regrets not having spent more on stimulus and he is currently awaiting a verdict from the Supreme Court on whether ObamaCare is constitutional or not.  Something as expensive as Obama's health care law could not come at a worse time and a substantial majority of Americans don't even want it.  Something that big with such division among Americans speaks for itself as a bad idea.

264.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day225.