Day654 Wednesday 06/13/12

ran 3.3 miles

Here are a few videos of the day. Some rich material down below. First, we have a British politician, Nigel Farage,  shamelessly decrying how absurd the European Union, its debt crisis, and the leaders making the big decisions are. Second, David Axelrod, in a clip from 1994, almost as though he was prophesying his own future and the detestable fate awaiting him and the president he represents in alarming irony, describes the exact flawed tactics Barack Obama is employing here in 2012 to illegitimately strengthen his case for reelection. And the last video, Barack Obama, in what appears to be a standup comedy act, reiterates once again how all others who came before him are responsible for all our economic woes and how he has clearly not done one single thing wrong and does not hold a single fiber of fault.

   50.6 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day289.

Day653 Tuesday 06/12/12

ran 3.3 miles 

"Bring parties together?" 

"Manage through tough fiscal decisions?" 

"Everyone is doing their fair share?" 

Come on, Mr. President. You have a nation divided, a Democratic Senate that hasn't passed a budget since you've been elected, and the last budget you ran through Congress did not earn one single vote in the House or Senate. Bipartisanship? I don't see any. Coming together? It's not happening.

Our national debt is soaring, unemployment is not budging, the private sector, according to you, is doing just fine, and your best idea is to expand government more and more, which will only work to over-regulate and suffocate the success of the private sector just to create more dependence on and power for the federal government, an outcome that this country never intended. 

53.9 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day288.

Day652 Monday 06/11/12

ran 3.5 miles

Just as the House Oversight Committee prepares to schedule a vote on whether Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt for not releasing subpoenaed documents relevant to the "Fast and Furious" case, Eric Holder is in the process of launching an investigation into the recent White House leaks, which many argue was a deliberate release of classified information regarding our national security intended to bolster President Obama's campaign.

That ought to turn out well. An allegation that coincidentally bodes well for Barack Obama's campaign is being investigated by a man who is on the verge of quite possibly losing all credibility as our nation's Attorney General.

This will be only the fourth time in thirty years that Congress takes a contempt action against an executive branch member. The way Eric Holder dances around every question he is asked and refuses to comply and participate with this investigation, his actions demand a vote to hold him in contempt.

57.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day287.

Day651 Sunday 06/10/12

ran 3.8 miles

Today ends week ninety-three of running against Obama. I ran 23.8 miles this week, averaging 3.40 miles per day.

I had posted about this commencement speech a couple days ago. Here it is in its entirety. Pretty powerful message delivered by David McCullough, Jr. imploring a class of high school graduates to seize every moment they can, to understand they are not special or entitled to anything they do not work hard to earn, and that they have an obligation to themselves to create their own happiness and success and to not approach the rest of their lives with the assumption that they deserve anything for nothing. It's a well-articulated commencement speech worth checking out and it happens to defy much of what Barack Obama's big government nanny state liberal agenda stands for. The America and the future McCullough describes are abrasively truthful and full of difficult challenges we all face in different forms. But isn't that the point, to rise to challenges on our own and as a united people? Or is it something more like what Barack Obama envisions where everything is fair and equal for all, a nation where hard work is punished and mediocrity is rewarded, idleness doubly rewarded?

60.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day286.

Day650 Saturday 06/09/12

ran 3.1 miles

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) had no kind words yesterday for Bureau of Labor Statistics Acting Commissioner Josh Galvin regarding the official definition of a "green job".

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics a green job is defined as any job that “provides goods or services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.” This broad and nearly meaningless definition is the only reason Barack Obama has any ability to tout his green jobs agenda. The majority of what he claims to be new green jobs are actually just job jobs, for lack of a better term.

Here are some examples of what defines a green job as approved by Galvin:

10. Floor sweeper at a solar panel factory

The official definition allows for any position that will “reduce or eliminate the creation of waste materials” to be considered a green job. 

9. College professor teaching environmental studies

Any employee who is able to “provide education and training related to green technologies and practices” has a green job, according to the Department of Labor’s definition. 

8. Salvation Army Employee

BLS says products and services that “collect, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or compost waste materials or wastewater” are considered green jobs. As Issa points out, any type of business that sells used goods is a green job, according to BLS. 

7. An antique Dealer

Same rule applies here as in number six. 

6. A clerk at a bicycle repair shop

Bicycle repair shops also reuse and recycle materials and is determined to be a green job.  

5. Any school bus driver

Just as all forms of mass public transportation, school buses reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road and therefore reducing “greenhouse gas emissions through methods other than renewable energy generation and energy efficiency.” 

4. Any employee who puts gas in a school bus

This one is humorous but confirmed by Department of Labor officials to be a green job. 

3. A full-time teenage employee at a used record shop

The recycled goods clause applies here, therefore it is dubbed a green job.

2. Train car manufacturers

Once again, employees whose job functions “reduce or eliminate the creation of waste materials; collect, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or compost waste materials or wastewater” have themselves a green job. 

1. And the number one most ridiculous job that the Labor Department considers “green” is… Oil lobbyist.

Galvin confirmed that an oil lobbyist is in fact a green job. It‘s not entirely clear where in BLS’s definition the position falls under, however, the job could possibly be considered to “increase public awareness of environmental issues.”

(Source)

64.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day285.

Day649 Friday 06/08/12

ran 3.2 miles

This is what we need more of. David McCullough, Jr.'s speech to the graduating class of Wellesley High School is the strong sinew of what America was once composed of. That strong sinew is rapidly being replaced by brittle government subsidized "hope and change" that serves no purpose other than making individuals think they are special and entitled to rewards for challenging tasks they made no attempt to work hard at. Coincidentally, McCullough's speech represents much of what our president and his like-minded cohorts on the left completely disagree with---particularly reality, accountability, and independence. 

Here is an excerpt of McCullough's speech. The first eight words are quite intriguing. Put into the proper context of a high school graduation his words were unexpected but brutally necessary. If only politicians would employ such common sense and embrace with such raw detail the realities our nation face. 

"You are not special. You are not exceptional. 

Contrary to what your u9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special. 

Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. Yes, you have. And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs. Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet. Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman! [Editor's upgrade: Or The Swellesley Report!] And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building… 

But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.[...] 

'But, Dave,' you cry, 'Walt Whitman tells me I’m my own version of perfection! Epictetus tells me I have the spark of Zeus!' And I don’t disagree. So that makes 6.8 billion examples of perfection, 6.8 billion sparks of Zeus. You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another-which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality – we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point – and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole. No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it… Now it’s 'So what does this get me?' As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans. It’s an epidemic – and in its way, not even dear old Wellesley High is immune… one of the best of the 37,000 nationwide, Wellesley High School… where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and the midlevel curriculum is called Advanced College Placement. And I hope you caught me when I said 'one of the best.' I said 'one of the best' so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition. But the phrase defies logic. By definition there can be only one best. You‘re it or you’re not."

67.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day284.

Day648 Thursday 06/07/12

ran 3.5 miles

70.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day283.

Day647 Wednesday 06/06/12

ran 3.2 miles

Congratulations Governor Scott Walker and the state of Wisconsin for standing up to the unions and showing them that fiscal responsibility for a state is more important than unrealistic pensions and zealous collective bargaining. 

Why it is that these unions somehow feel they deserve such a break at the expense of taxpayers is something I cannot understand. I pay into my 401k and sacrifice a big chunk of money each paycheck for my health care and I have no collective bargaining rights. I don't want any collective bargaining rights and I certainly don't want to be dead weight for what could be a thriving state economy.

I don't know what percentage of Wisconsin workers are unionized but last night's vote proved once and for all that those who are not members of unions have no interest in paying for the needs of union member's as well as those of their own. Was that really even a question?

What did these unions expect? Wisconsin's budget is in the red, like most other states, tax dollars are being drained by pensions that should never have even been promised, and these unions attempt to recall their governor actually assuming that private sector workers who put into their own 401ks and do not receive pensions will actually vote to continue wasting their state's money on the union's interests and edge ever closer to falling off their statewide financial cliff. 

The unions just got put in their place last night and this message has the potential to reverberate across America all the way into the 2012 presidential election.

74.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day282.

Day646 Tuesday 06/05/12

2,000 miles!!!

ran 3.8 miles 

Today is a big milestone for this campaign of running against Obama. Thanks for following or occasionally checking in with this blog over the last 21 months. 

Tomorrow we will be exactly 5 months from the 2012 presidential election and Americans will make an important decision at the crossroads of America's future. The president serving this next term will either further pursue the failed, big government, socialistic ideas that have led to so many of Europe's problems or he will unleash the private sector, cut our stifling regulatory agencies, and get the federal government out of the way so Americans can do what they do best---succeed without the giant obstacle Barack Obama has made of the federal government. 

Thought I'd post this video of Bill Clinton sabotaging one of Barack Obama's biggest criticisms of Mitt Romney, regardless of how untrue and farfetched that criticism is. It is an interesting triangle Bill, Hillary, and Barack have to coexist in. Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama's Secretary of State, so Bill Clinton is sort of obligated to help in any way he can to bolster Barack Obama and his administration, yet it is obvious that Bill Clinton has a poor opinion of the president and, after statements like the one he made in this video, he clearly does not want this president to have a second term. 77.5 miles to go. 

Here is what happened one year ago on Day281.

Day645 Monday 06/04/12

ran 3.2 miles

In my state, Louisiana, chaos ensued this past Saturday morning when it became evident that Ron Paul was going to win the majority of delegates at the Louisiana State Republican Convention.

In a PolicyMic article written by Hamdan Azhar, “The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

Establishment  Republicans  were  not  at  all  happy  with  this revelation. Here are a couple videos of the footage: 81.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day280.

Day644 Sunday 06/03/12

ran 3.6 miles

Today ends week ninety-two of running against Obama. I ran 21.7 miles this week, averaging 3.10 miles per day.  

Wow. That ad was frothing with substance. I've never heard of Anna Wintour, but this is yet another Obama campaign effort to slap us all in the face with a whopping open hand of hypocrisy. Barack Obama puts on his face of compassion and talks about everyone having their "fair share" and he advocates wealth redistribution because the split between those who have and those who have not is far too steep, but then he has these $35,000 per plate dinners with the elites and casually has this eccentric Wintour lady invite a couple of lowly sheep out of their pastures and into the gold-leafed interiors of her world. Her condescending tone is absolutely repulsive---and not one mention of anything substantive regarding this critical election. 

Erica Ritz of TheBlaze puts it best when she says, "That Wintour pitch, coming in the middle of tough economic times, seems to have the same feel as Marie Antoinette offering a couple of peasants a chance to hang out with King Louis XVI and the aristocrats just as the Bastille was being stormed." 

84.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day279.

Day643 Saturday 06/02/12

ran 3.5 miles

SCOTUS will hopefully be putting POTUS in his place at the end of this month with their decision on his Affordable Health Care Act (curious name for something that more than half of this country does not want for the precise reason that it will be monumentally expensive, adding even more unsustainable debt to our already capsizing national debt).

After President Obama initially claimed he was "confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress" (and by "passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress", he is referring to not one single Republican vote in the House and a win in the Senate by a margin of one vote---thanks, Arlen Specter---this bill could not have been more divided or contrived).

Now, all of a sudden, President Obama is conceding that his administration may be forced to revisit his health care law in his second term, because, you know, it might just be completely unconstitutional and may have been one of the biggest wastes of time and tax dollars in modern history. All of these dollars and hours spent on something that stands a very good chance of being deemed illegal. Thank you, President Obama for all of the waste. Should he eke out a second term we can all look forward to him wasting even more time and tax dollars on rewording the same unconstitutional dribble he spent his first term drafting. Perhaps better confusing and perplexing the American people with an additional 1,000 pages of lawyer-speak very few people can even understand would help. 2,500 pages was not enough, let's break this thing down and take out all the bad stuff with 4,000 pages. 

As ridiculous as that sounds, this is how these individuals think. It is the same dismissive, arrogant, condescending thought process that makes people like Nancy Pelosi say things like "Let's just pass this thing and then we'll see what's in it." That statement captures exactly how stupid and unfit to make our own decisions many of our politicians think we are.

88.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day278. 

Day642 Friday 06/01/12

ran 4.3 miles

Speaking at a fundraiser today in Minneapolis, President Obama described his Republican opposition as a stubborn "fever" that would break once he was reelected. He claimed once there was no chance of him being reelected a third time then Republicans, like a "fever", would break and he would be able to move forward with his agenda. 

In my opinion, what he is actually saying is he thinks this election is about contempt for him and that it has nothing to do with his decisions or policies. He actually believes that if his reelection is secured then Republicans will simply say "ahh, shucks" and roll over on their backs. He seems to suggest that it is not his leadership or decisions that so many people have problems with, but him personally. And if we could only accept that he is going to be our leader for a second term then we will just swallow our pride and let him have his way.  That's just not the case. This president wants to fundamentally change what America was intended to be and no one who believes in our Constitution will back down from him regardless of whether he gets a second term, a third term, or even becomes king.

"I believe that If we're successful in this election, when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that. My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn't make much sense because I'm not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again."

Our president lost "cooperation" in November of 2010 when America cleaned out the House, nearly cleaned out the Senate---and all to send a message to Barack Obama and Democrats that we have voted as many new leaders as we could to essentially stop cooperating with his agenda and to even reverse it. Little has changed since then and this 112th Congress being called the most "do-nothing" Congress in American history is something I view as a huge success under a president like Barack Obama. They achieved what they campaigned on...not allowing Barack Obama to continue the path he was blazing.

(Source)

91.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day277.

Day641 Thursday 05/31/12

ran 3.4 miles

Here is a rare story about a unique rock star we all know. In the world of celebrities it is not often that we hear a man or woman with this sort of elite notoriety, which they by all means have earned and have not had handed to them in any way, condemn the alternatives to something as natural and effective as simple free enterprise. So, thank you, Jack White, for simply acknowledging and praising the simple logic behind unrestrained capitalism, which happens to be counter-intuitive to so many ideas our own president and those who think like him hold as the bedrock of so many of their alternative economic beliefs.

It comes down to the argument of whether hard work and the revenue it generates should be rewarded to those who earned it are if it should be redistributed to those who did nothing to earn it. Jack White, of "White Stripes", owns a record label (Third Man Records), which specializes in "rare an interesting vinyl". In a market where individuals collect rare and interesting items, market prices are inevitably higher than one where individuals collect common and uninteresting items. What White discovered was that artificially pricing items of high worth at a low cost to make it available to all (leveling the playing field; giving everyone their fair shot---sound familiar?) only led to people buying his products in bulk and then reselling them at higher prices, at the cost it is actually worth in its appropriate market. Jack White found that he was working very hard to make a lot of money for record flippers who did nothing to earn what he had worked so hard for, other than to follow the simple tenets of cost and demand better than he had. White was attempting to be charitable and to allow anyone, regardless of circumstance, to enjoy and to be able to afford something rare and interesting that he was selling. The market simply would not allow it, though, and White was left in a position where his good intentions were being swooped up and resold by individuals who did understand the market and the unwavering concept of cost and demand.

White found that "if customers want rare and valuable albums they will be expensive, the market price will be reached no matter what they sell them for initially, and if someone is going to profit it might as well be the creators."

Now, White auctions his records and lets the market dictate their worth. Something he once sold for $20 he now can make $300 on. Previously, his product was bought up in bulk and resold at a much higher rate. He has cut out the middle men, who did nothing to earn what they were auctioning the records off for, and stayed true to the market earning exactly what he deserves.

(Source)

Thought that was interesting and here is a completely unrelated video put out by FOX News looking back at 4 years of "Hope and Change":

  95.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day276.