New Year...Same old Politics

Our dear friend, Harry Reid:

• Made comment about President Obama being “light skinned” black and doesn’t have a negro accent unless he wanted to. Interesting where was the press on this one? Not saying he should be fired, but come on now - if this was a republican there would be bills passed condemning this behavior. What democrats can say racial type of things and republicans can't?
• Steele “if Trent Lot is the standard” then Reid must step down.
• Lot made comments during 100th birthday party for Strung Thurmond. Saying that he should have run for president. Some how do not think there was any racial undertone there.
• I feel Harry Reid is not a racist – he is just destroying the country along with Pelosi..

Kisser who closed EWR
This happed the day before my wife and I left from Philadelphia Airport to come back to Houston, Texas.  Thank God we did not leave from our usual Newark Liberty Airport. I just have a few questions about this...

• How about the TSA Agent who did not do his job?
• How did he keep his job and he was on his cell phone?
• How much money did he cost the airlines and government and most importantly the American people?
• The offender goes to jail for 30 days. Why isn’t this employee fired. I know I would be fired if I cost a company millions of dollars.  But hey that is just me. 

Seperation of Church and State:
With the New Jersey just narrowly defeating the same sex marriage law, a lot of people started crying for a Separation of church and state.  That got me thinking:

• I beleive the founding fathers meant seperation of church and state meant that you don’t have to be a certain religion to have a certain job within government.
• This goes back to the Church of England versus the Vatican
• When Henry VIII broke away from Rome and the Roman Catholic church.
• You had to be a member of the church of England to serve the country
• The founding fathers did not want the new America to be like England, thus included the seperation of church and state.  People over the years have taken this line completely out of context.

Martha Coakley has used this line previously.   She believes that if you are a Catholic you cannot work in emergency rooms in Mass and do not have religious rights.

• Catholic hospitals are told they cannot deny services
• She supports partial birth and late term abortion, but is a child advocate.

SEIU spent 680k on Coakley’s campaign against Scott Brown to show he is supported by extremists – Tea Party members.  Funny how Scott Brown won anyway.

Ed Shultz:
Left Wing Commentator Ed Shultz: "Tea Party people are un-educated and carry guns at rallies. Thinks the Senators only represent a section of the state, not the whole state. Stated he would cheat the election system to keep conservatives and defenders of the constitution out of office. Also have been whipped up into a frenzy."  Interesting though, can't the same thing be said of exterme liberals?

President Obama's agenda push:
It seems like lately, our vote does not matter, some examples.

• Congress did not pass Cap & Trade
• The EPA said they would do it anyway
• FCC wants net neutrality – Congress said no
• The FCC as said it will make the internet a public utility and get it done anyway.

President Obama's endorsement not as strong:
Special election in Mass is now Obama’s third failed attempt to gather support for party:

• Governor race in Virginia
• Governor race in New Jersey
• Senate Race in Massachusetts

Scott Brown Victory:

Scott Brown will take away the 60th vote and the super majority for Health Care Bill. Important to keep in mind they only need 51 votes and congress still has that.

There was a clear message from the unions – Brown won because democrats could not get Health Care done.

56% people were polled and voted for Brown because of the Health Care situation.

The Democrats and the Liberal left have said the state of Massachusetts is not really as liberal as people make it out be.  Because Ted Kennedy lost after his little car accident, seriously how stupid do they think we are?

President Obama sums up the victory by blaming the voter anger in MA on 8 years of George Bush. So to show how angry they are they voted for a Republicans?? How long can you blame the previous administation?

President Obama states that government lost touch with the American people because he is too busy getting work done. So 400+ speeches, constant compaign mode isn’t enough?

NAACP:
The NAACP Chairman Julian Bond in a radio interview stated Martin Luther King Jr. was a socialist and Dr. King thought a modified version of socialism would be best for the United States. Also the chairman stated that the man we celebrate today is different from real life

A New Year...Fitness Goals

Wow, I did not realise it has been over a month since my last posting. 2009 was certainly interesting to say the least.  I got married, moved to a new loft apartment downtown and I finally started a personal training program at Body 3 Fitness.  The gym's owner Tom Jacobs and our trainer Carlos Camacho could not have been more wonderful and supportive in our goal of getting more fit.  Our 2009 stats:

• Weight Lost:
• Me: 40lbs
• Wife: 50lbs
• Percentage of Bodyfat lost:
• Me: 2.7%
• Wife: 3.0%
• Clothes size:
• Me: down 2 sizes
• Wife: down 6 sizes

Needless to say I have some catching up to do.  Due to my competitive spirit I feel I must reach the finish line first...ok well maybe tied since she is my wife and all :).  The ultimate goal before our anual two week trip to New Jersey for Christmas, is to loose 100lbs each of us.  We are currently on track to accomplish this.  It is hard to imagine that kind of weight loss, but averaging 2lbs a week, should do the trick. 

Tomorrow starts our 5th month of personal training and it has certainly paid dividends.  While the scale is not as impressive as I would have liked, I have gained lean muscle (a pound of muscle burns 35 calories a day at rest) and I can actually run up stairs without feeling like I am going to pass out.  I do not have the body type that will be rail thin, but if I am healthy at 225lbs then that is where I want to be.

Recent Fitness Results

Now getting back to the real reason this blog was created - a way of tracking my fitness goals.  We went in for our 3rd measurements since starting our personal training program on August 10, 2009.  Our latest results:

Myself:

• Another 8 pounds lost
• Another 3 pounds of muscle gained
• Lost an additional 2% of body fat.
• Overall (16 weeks):
• lbs lost: 20
• Inches lost: 3
• % of Body fat: 3 

This makes since May 2, 2009 a total of 40 pounds lost. I still kick myself for not doing this sooner. Its been a struggle since I have been back in NJ since we have great food back home.  But so far its working, being smart on ordering when eating out, and eating correctly when at home.  Reading nutrition labels when shopping.  All of this was a learned process, not something that came naturally.  And while results are slow and steady, at least its in a healthy manner.

A post from December 16 2009

Stimulus Bill Pork spending: - House approves 447 billion spending measure.

• $54 Million dollars for a CA Wine Train
• $2.2 Million dollars for Failing golf course in San Francisco, CA
• $1.5 Million dollars for Fossil research in Argentina (Not even spent in the US)
• $750k for puppet shows and clown theaters
• $400k for malt liquor and marijuana journals
• $200k for college hook up study
• $500k for facebook study
• $220k for rats and bird study and ant division of labor

When is enough, enough.  Does the American people even know about this? Check out even more below:

• "Obama spokesman said while there maybe be a few unwise programs out there but its small in comparison to 50k new programs approved"
• New omnibus spending bill is over 2400k
• Republicans slide in more pork barrel spending
• 7 million jobs lost since resession started in 2007 - 4 million since Obama took office
• Before Obama one employee making 170k in Department of transportaion. Today 1,671 employees
• Average government employee 71k.  Average private sector: 40k
• 1,700 employees got raises in the FAA, but they want to restrict private CEOs.

Congress just passed bill that would give power to congress to break up companies that threaten and are a danger to the economy.

Enivormental Protection Agency:

• EPA rules CO2 must be regulated and considered dangerous.
• EPA clean water restoration ACT: Control all waters in the United States would be in violation of interstate commerce laws.

Thanksgiving...

This was the first Thanksgiving that I did not spend with my immediate family in New Jersey.  First we watched the Holiday Parade from the bottom of our Loft complex as they lined up at the beginning right outside our place.  Of course people were bundled up for the 45+ degree day, me being fresh from NJ/NYC - wore basketball shorts and a T-shirt.  I got some strange looks.  The parade was disappointing, I must say.  I am used to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC.  This was only a 45 minute parade.  Sure it ended with Santa Clause, but where was the big balloons, the broadway show numbers, the celeberties?  I guess that may come in time, but being this was the 50th annual edition, I dont think it will change much.

Where did I spend Thanksgiving? Well a few months ago I got in contact with my cousin Cathy.  She is a cousin from my mother's Puerto Rican side that I had not met prior to Turkey Day.  Her Father Carlos is my mother's nephew (just so you get an idea on the relation).  They live out in the "Hill Country" of Texas - New Braunfels.

The drive wasn't bad, about 2.5 hours from our loft apartment downtown.  The food was good, a mix of Puerto Rican food with traditional American Thanksgiving food.  I am not sure my wife understood the white rice with turkey, but I had to explain white rice to the Spanish is what pasta is to Italians, its a staple and can be added to almost everything.  It was great to catch up with family I had not seen in some 15 plus years.  I hope we can stay in touch more often.

On the back, we passed the Katy Mills Outlet mall around 2AM Friday.  I have never seen the mall as packed as I did on this day.  It was crazy...just tells me people are willing to shop at any given hour for a good sale.