Day695 Tuesday 07/24/12

ran 4.5 miles 

Nice ad, Senator Brown. In case you don't recognize the face of the woman in the video it's Elizabeth Warren, who is running against Scott Brown in Massachusetts. She was saying the same cockamamie message last year that President Obama is now saying---the whole "you didn't build that, someone else did" slogan. 

That turned out to be a real winner. Let's see how many other Democrats are going to go out on the front line using that as campaigning material. In closing, here is a video of one of the left's sweetest and most lovable, mild-mannered masters of buffoonery: Howard Dean  

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 89.6

Here is what happened one year ago on Day330.

Day694 Monday 07/23/12

ran 3.4 miles

For a long time I have been asking, "What is the definition of the middle class?"

We always hear our president referring to this faction of Americans with this broad label but you have to wonder who exactly it is he is speaking about. I consider myself middle class but very little of what our president has to say resonates with me. Does that mean I am not part of the middle class? At what point of not earning does a household become poor and at what point of earning does a household ascend into the upper class? I don't think there is an official number on either end of the spectrum because so much fluctuates in our economy and our costs of living. I cannot answer what sum of money propels a household from middle class to upper class, but I did find this information on what defined being poor in 2010.

"In 2010, the poverty level was $22,314 for a family and $11,139 for an individual. It excludes capital gains or accumulated wealth, such as home ownership, as well as non-cash aid such as food stamps and tax credits, which were expanded substantially under President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

An additional 9 million people in 2010 would have been counted above the poverty line if food stamps and tax credits were taken into account.

The Associated Press reportedly surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965."

TheBlaze/AP, Erica Ritz

An estimated 47 million Americans were "poor" last year. That is approximately one out of every six people in America, not even including food stamp and tax credit recipients.

This isn't progress. This is enabling a large portion of our population who take advantage of the safety nets we have set up for families in hard times. The tax dollars financing these safety nets are worth every penny if they are actually necessary but many people take advantage of our system and Barack Obama does nothing to address the abuse but, instead, feeds it with more and more tax dollars earning himself the title of "Food Stamp King". 

Wasteful government spending is setting America's economy on its head and the biggest shame about Barack Obama and his theme of "hope" and "change" is that if he would ever pull back the reigns on any of this spending that he has wasted for the past four years he wouldn't stand a chance of getting reelected. The man is an enabler. Much of this nation has an addiction to the sensation of feeling like a victim when they are nothing of the sort. Our president is their dealer of false hope and the stuff he is dealing (other people's money) is eventually going to run out, sooner rather than later.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 85.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day329.

Day693 Sunday 07/22/12

ran 3.3 miles

Today ends week ninety-nine of running against Obama. I ran 23.3 miles this week, averaging 3.33 miles per day.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 81.7

Here is what happened one year ago on Day328.

Day692 Saturday 07/21/12

ran 3.2 miles

There are some things about James Holmes' reign of terror that don't add up. I'm not suggesting anything one way or another and you can draw your own conclusions, but here is what I find curious:

How does a human being have the capacity to open fire on hundreds of innocent people packed into a virtual sardine can, then simply flip the switch and casually step back outside, lay down the weapons, and calmly surrender to police...and then warn those police that his apartment is filled with highly explosive booby-traps? If Holmes was in the mindset to kill, which he obviously was, wouldn't a massive explosion back at his apartment that was caused by someone simply opening his front door be the ultimate climax to his sick plan? But, he warned them---why?---and all of this behavior coming from a quiet guy with exceptional academic discipline and intelligence.

This is a quote from the NewYorkTimes from Billy Kromka, a pre-med student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who worked with Holmes for three months last summer as a research assistant in a lab at the Anschutz Medical Campus: "It was just shocking, because there was no way I thought he could have the capacity to commit an atrocity like this." There are countless quotes like this from acquaintances all expressing the same utter disbelief. The severity of his crime just doesn't add up to the toll of misery necessary for a man to commit an action like this.

The booby-traps were described by the bomb squad as "sophisticated" and as "something they had never seen". Aside from the top-shelf ballistic gear he was wearing in the theater, one rifle, two handguns, a knife, a bullet proof vest, a ballistic helmet, a gas device, a gas mask, military SWAT clothing and unidentified explosives were also found in Holmes’ car---this guy was a college student with no job who was collecting unemployment checks. Estimates are at $20,000 for what it cost him to purchase all of the gear between his apartment, vehicle, and what he donned in the theater (much of his gear and explosives are not things you find readily available in your local Wal-Mart or even in specialized shops). And, where did he gain the knowledge to design an elaborate maze of booby-trapped explosives throughout his apartment that bomb squad veterans had never seen the sophistication or likes of? How did he pay for all of this stuff and how did he become such a bomb expert with no help from anyone?

Here's the clincher: In one week, Barack Obama is set to sign the UN global small arms treaty that could result in gun confiscation across America. Even though the NRA has 58 Senators who have pledged to vote against it, if Harry Reid does not bring it to the Senate floor for a vote, which he will not,  then America's second amendment is bound to the United Nations by Barack Obama's signature. The only way to reverse our president's decision to rip this section out of our Constitution is to vote him out and have Romney renounce the treaty, which he would, and/or get a Republican majority in the Senate so the issue can be brought to a vote.

The timing of all this is eerie. I'm not going to say it but you'd be naive not to question it.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 78.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day327.

Day691 Friday 07/20/12

ran 3.4 miles

First comes the shock, then the anger, and then the blame. It is a tragedy what happened today. The events that unfolded today in Colorado's first hour in that movie theater are beyond imagination. But, at the risk of sounding insensitive to the immediate loss of life suffered today, stolen away by this demented individual, this event is going to lead to a lot of second amendment discussions in the coming weeks. Should Americans have the right to bear arms or should they not?

This is a very divided issue and the government gears are grinding ever closer to abolishing our second amendment rights in America. I support the right to own a gun and I thoroughly encourage as many Americans as possible to utilize this Constitutional right. 

As much as our parents, our upbringings, our American way of life, and our government want to assure us that we are absolutely safe and that life is an experience with no perils or dangers, it is naive to assume that things like this cannot happen to you. The only solution is to be prepared and to be capable of defending yourself when psychos like this cross your path. As Americans, we have insurance policies on just about everything in our lives that could possibly go wrong. Having the ability to defend yourself in unexpected, chaotic situations like what happened in Colorado is an insurance policy that a vast majority of Americans completely disregard.

There are many gun owners who often emerge as heroes for being armed in a situation that they did not anticipate but felt the need to defend themselves from and to protect others from should it emerge, but those stories are not often reported because they are not filled with tragedy like the story we are all reading and hearing about today.

There is nothing proper or correct to say after a day like this. Makes you realize just how precious life is and how quickly and meaninglessly it can be snatched away.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 75.2

Here is what happened one year ago on Day326.

 

Day690 Thursday 07/19/12

ran 3.3 miles  

Take your foot out of your mouth, Mr. President, and walk in a direction that doesn't have you so cornered by your own first term that you cannot even keep your composure while trying your hardest to deliver a message that makes one single iota of American sense. The way the Democrats are trying to spin this verbal diarrhea that slipped uncontrollably out of our president's mouth is similar to a child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He's going to tell you he was doing something completely different, even though crumbs are all over his hand and the cookie is in his mouth, but, let's face it, he's a kid and a cookie was what he wanted.

This is Barack Hussein Obama. Liberal pundits claim his words were taken out of context (even though they were direct quotes), they say his message was misinterpreted (even though none of his words were minced or dubbed over), and their best claim is that he was actually referring to "this" or "that", but the message was not succinct.

The only legitimate argument to counter the words that came out of our president's mouth is to suggest that his misplaced, choppy use of forming sentences and placing emphasis in the wrong part of his rambling, fragmented message may or may not have been up to par and that his message might have been misconstrued. This is Barack Obama we are talking about, he doesn't get nervous or deliver vague messages. He says what he means and he's extremely good at it. And, in this particular case he has once again said exactly what he meant. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 71.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day325.

Day689 Wednesday 07/18/12

ran 3.4 miles

"Nobel Peace Prize? You didn't earn that."

"Harvard Degree, Obama? You didn't earn that."

“Let me be clear – I did not get this Connecticut Social Security number on my own — I had help from people along the way.”

"Fake Hawaiian birth certificate? You didn’t build that!"

(Comments and images from MichelleMalkin.com)

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 68.5

Here is what happened one year ago on Day324.

Day688 Tuesday 07/17/12

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ran 3.3 miles 

Every once in a while I'll hop across the aisle and see what's going on in Leftopian media. This segment with Ed Schultz and Van Jones just claimed 6 minutes and 20 seconds of time I will never get back. Proceed with caution if you hit play.

The words that come out of our president's mouth are nothing less than shocking and he is only going to turn the voltage up as we get closer to the election. 111 days away. The lunatics are running the asylum and we haven't seen anything yet.

This is one comparison I like to make regarding a hardcore Obama-backer and a resolute anybody-but-Obama voter: If a group of fundamental conservatives were ever to suggest that extreme liberals ought to just take a portion of this country, pick whatever conglomeration of states you would like, and go execute your political beliefs free of Republican restraint and independent of influencing those Republicans---they would be up in arms and calling Republicans every name in the book---accusing them of everything in their playbooks.

However, if a group of fundamental liberals were ever to suggest that extreme conservatives ought to just take a portion of this country, pick whatever conglomeration of states you would like, and go execute your political beliefs free of Progressive restraint and independent of influencing those liberals---I think they would smile and simply say "okay".

Barack Obama has this nation divided right down the middle. I would call him a success for achieving that. But that is clearly no way to run a country or to lead a nation into its future. This idea of socialism or communism, or whatever -ism you want to use, is a recurring theme in human history all over the world. It sucks people in like a vacuum but it just doesn't work---and the people who perpetuate it are either bent on the destruction of America or they are insane. Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For generations we have been fighting communism and sacrificing American lives to ensure it does not spread. We have now come full circle. Our president has brought the enemy onto our own soil and propagandized it in such a way that nearly half of this nation believes it, utterly disregarding everything America was intended to be. For me, the saddest part of this all is the fact that Barack Obama's solutions have been proven historical failures and they have failed even during his own term, yet the ideas he expresses behind his podium are accepted by so many as answers. It is going to be difficult to get out of the mess we are in, but an internal alarm should ring in every American's heart and head when they hear their president asserting that tax increases, wealth redistribution, stimulus packages, and the printing of Monopoly money from the Federal Reserve are the answers to our problems. Our government wasting less time and money is the answer to our problems.

You could give this president every tax hike he desired. He would waste it and America would be worse off. He could apply all of it to our national debt and it would not even make a dent. That is something the news doesn't mention. Most of the information and the issues we hear about and see on the news is absolutely futile. Do we raise the debt ceiling or don't we? Do we increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans or don't we? Do we nationalize the health care industry or don't we? It's all distractions. From what, I don't know. But our president does. You can take all of the major issues surrounding this upcoming presidential election, roll them up into a big ball, and place them next to our national debt and they would not even tip the scale. Yet, the news provided to us rarely ever mentions, except in passing, how devastating this one particular catastrophe is. What else is there to even talk about if the American economy sinks like the Titanic? 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 65.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day323.

Day687 Monday 07/16/12

ran 3.4 miles

It is exhausting to listen to people like this talk. If you can't create excuses for yourself than this guy has a whole bag of them he is ready to hand out. And if he doesn't have one you like then Frances Fox Piven is sitting right next to him with a whole other sack of racially charged excuses. I don't understand how anybody gets anything done when they focus so much time criticizing everything around them instead of simply working to achieve their goals regardless of circumstance.

Do you honestly think individuals who push these extreme racially charged issues will ever be satisfied? Will there ever be a day, given everything they've demanded, that they will sit back, exhale and say "my work here is done"?

No. Then they wouldn't have a job. I don't care if you're striped, if you're purple or have polka dots. The object is to look in the mirror, recognize your potential, set goals one at a time, and to slowly and patiently pursue the goals you set. If I ever came to realize later on in my life that I wasted all of my time making excuses and complaining about everything I never achieved, and blamed everything around me for my own shortcomings I think I would eventually realize how sad it was that I misused my time and efforts on Earth...and in America, for that matter. This is the United States of America where anyone can do anything if they have enough desire. And if you do lack the desire you don't simply get to pluck it away from someone else and fool yourself that you earned it or deserved it.

The term "middle class" has always bothered me. It is so broad. For example, I think I am middle class but when President Obama speaks and refers to the middle class I have no idea what middle class he is talking about. Nothing he says relates to my middle class condition. I think the vast majority of this entire nation feels they are part of the middle class. What is the alternative---poverty or $250k-plus? It would be far simpler to make a short list of those individuals than to name the endless members of the middle class.

The guy in the video above is basically claiming that if middle class whites vote for Mitt Romney then they must be racist. As ridiculous as that claim is by itself, once again, who is this middle class? Is he referring to $100k-plus earners, $60k-plus earners, or $30-plus earners...how far down and how far up are the brackets of the middle class?

I used to get mad at the world I lived in. I used to blame everyone and everything I could think of for how disappointed I was with my circumstances. I blamed any reason I could find for poor decisions that had led me to where I currently was. Then I woke up one day and refused to continue settling for excuses. They get you nowhere. My life isn't anything close to what I thought it would be when I was a naive kid, but I absolutely love it. It is mine, I worked hard for it, I earned it, and I am content with what I have. That feeling is something that can never be replaced by the message in the video above. 

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 61.8

Here is what happened one year ago on Day322.

Day686 Sunday 07/15/12

ran 2.0 miles

Today ends week ninety-eight of running against Obama. I ran 22.2 miles this week, averaging 3.17 miles per day.

President Obama recently spoke in Roanoke, Virginia, pushing the message that  "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen". 

Attempting to soften voters up to the idea of higher tax rates ("2+2=5" sort of stuff) he spoke similar words that Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts Democrat running against incumbent Republican Scott Brown in November) expressed last year regarding this notion that highly successful individuals give themselves way too much credit and way too little reward to the taxpayers who apparently empowered them to succeed.

This is what our president had to say:

"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back.  They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart people out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.  Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."  [Emphasis added]

He continued: 

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." [Emphasis added]

(SOURCE)

This was Elizabeth Warren's speech from 2011:

Roads and bridges are built and used by taxpayers but once they open up it falls upon each individual to use them in whatever ways they choose to. Many taxpayers use them in highly unproductive ways, a lot of us use them in moderately productive ways and some use them in brilliant ways. 

And, Mr. President, if I become idol and unambitious, lose all motivation and drive to succeed, if the flame in my heart to accomplish burns out because America no longer offers me any reason to succeed because the federal government takes every reward that once made my life goal-oriented---I will remember to thank you for that. I will not gloat about my failures and forget who I have to thank for my mediocrity. I will pay it forward to the next citizen who is awaiting the opportunity to have their larger-than-life dreams shattered by a government who does everything it can to blame all of our woes on a tax revenue problem in the private sector when it is so obvious that it is a spending problem in the federal government.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 58.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day321.

   

Day685 Saturday 07/14/12

ran 3.3 miles

There are many reasons these signs are found so often and in so many different places. One of the many obvious reasons is because if people tossed food over fences all day to animals then those animals would become dependent on these random handouts. They would get used to these random and aimless treats and lose all sense of the intended diet they had followed before. This sort of behavior would eventually come to be expected and accepted as perfectly natural. And, one day, if it ever stopped, the animals would begin to growl, hiss, chirp, bark, or make whatever sounds it is they make when they are angry, unable to understand why random pieces of food were no longer being tossed over their fences for no particular reason.

If you put a bowl of milk and a can of tuna out for a stray cat on your doorstep one night, you may as well accept the fact that you have a new pet. That cat is going to come back hungrier and hungrier. And should you ever decide to stop feeding that cat one night, it will sit at your door and meow for hours unable to understand why the  free milk it did nothing to deserve and the tuna that had no reason to be there in the first place is no longer there.

Our president is that bratty, inconsiderate kid that keeps throwing Cheetos over the fence at the zoo. He is the misled neighbor that keeps feeding the stray cats that keep you up at night.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 56.4

Here is what happened one year ago on Day320.

Day684 Friday 07/13/12

ran 2.4 miles

This is absolutely ridiculous. This guy may as well fly the American flag upside down and paint the White House red. From the time I first started running against Barack Obama nearly two years ago I have always commented on how openly and shamelessly he has constantly contradicted so much of what this country stands for, which happens to follow the communist dialogue that has been surfacing more and more in the news four years too late.

He is shameless and unabashed with what he is trying to achieve in America. Campaign slogan: Forward (one of the most notable campaign slogans in international Communist history). And the type face used above spelling the name of our nation...does it look familiar? Something out of the U.S.S.R.; Cuba maybe? The term "Forward" and the font "Revolution Gothic" are not undertones that are simply overlooked by Barack Obama's campaign team. This is intentional. He is telling us exactly what he is running on.

At this point there is a very small fraction of people in this country who are "undecided". It is incomprehensible to me how anyone can be undecided between Communism and the United States Constitution at this point, but these "undecided" individuals are the ones who are going to decide this election. It is even more incomprehensible to me that this man even stands a chance for a second term, but it is what it is. 

We have reached a culminating point in American history where our government has failed its people miserably and the American people have failed miserably to recognize it before it was too late. Am I overreacting? Look at that picture on the top of the page. That is the president of the United States of America behind the word A M E R I C A printed in the same font that Communist governments use for their own propaganda. 

    

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 53.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day319. 

Day683 Thursday 07/12/12

ran 3.6 miles

Wow. Was that real? I can't wait to see what this brings in at the Box Office. The only white guy in the preview was the lead character's boss, and he looked like a stereotypical greedy "cracker" in a suit (I can say that because I'm white). Just for kicks, the main character's nephew is a gun toting, cocaine snorting, womanizing...Republican, who is "anti-black"...even though he is black. Sounds like a Dave Chappelle skit I once saw.

Coincidentally, another movie, "2016: Obama's America" will be released tomorrow in select theaters. This movie doesn't have cocaine or a costume designer who should have been fired immediately, but it does offer real-life substance regarding how mysterious and bolted shut the true Barack Hussein Obama's identity is. This film exposes much of what our media outlets kept locked away in 2008. Here is the trailer: And here are a couple interesting interviews by Dinesh D'Souza you will not see on major cable networks: 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 50.7

Here is what happened one year ago on Day318.

Day682 Wednesday 07/11/12

ran 3.5 miles

I applaud him for accepting the invitation to speak to the NAACP. He knew he would be booed, but he did not pander to them or patronize the organization. He said his message and the organization can take it or leave it. 

“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone. Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, and median family wealth are all worse for the black community. In June, while the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the unemployment rate for African Americans actually went up, from 13.6 percent to 14.4 percent.”

While I am sure the NAACP did not like hearing that statistic, it does not change the fact that it is true...under Barack Obama's watch.

2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C. and back + 47.1

Here is what happened one year ago on Day317.