David Solway, a Canadian and therefor beyond reproach as far as American liberals are concerned, chimes in:

…it is hard to resist the conclusion that Barack Obama is nothing short of a national catastrophe, surely the worst presidential blight to fall on the U.S. since the woeful Jimmy Carter and probably as far back as Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce or John Tyler — take your pick. Many if not most American presidents, it must be admitted, with only a minim of illustrious exceptions, were flat-out second-raters. True, this is par for the course for the majority of political leaders around the world, but Obama is a special case. His evident failings of character and insight might be bearable in a comparatively less hazardous epoch, but in a time of looming insolvency and market collapse, the demographic incursion of extremist elements into the social fabric, aka “stealth jihad,” the advancing might of rejuvenated autocracies, an exploding Middle East and the nuclearization of rogue nations, Obama is quite simply the worst possible president at the worst possible time…

Solway goes on to paint a pretty bleak picture of our nation – that we are divided and, unless we change course, doomed. One shouldn’t worry too much along those lines. All nations are destined to greatness or doomed to fall, depending on how the people of the nation behave. America is no more doomed that China was doomed in the 18th century; no more destined to greatness in 2011 than we were in 1811. What we decide to do will tell the tale.

But there is this – the central choice to make, the factor which will stand largest in our fate for the next 100 years, is what we do about President Obama in 2012. If we re-elect him, it could prove catastrophic – if we defeat him, then we will have made a choice to restore American greatness. This isn’t about Obama, the man. As a man, Obama is just a fool entirely out of his depth – you could replace him with any one or a hundred similar fools in the Democrat party and get the exact same result. But Obama symbolizes both American decline and an American unwillingness to confront reality.

Only a nation in decline would entrust its fate to a man unknown as Obama was in 2008. Only a nation in decline would listen to the inane speeches of Obama in 2008 and then award him a majority of vote. But we went right ahead and did just that – challenged heavily by President Bush to assume the burden of fixing ourselves (with Social Security reform) and fixing the world (via a campaign for liberty around the world), we flubbed it – we proved ourselves unwilling to stick to it for any length of time. We turned to man who offered us sweet words which all amounted to “you don’t have to exert yourself”. We didn’t want to do hard things, and so chose a man who offered to get us off the hook – he would talk the enemy in to loving us, and spread the wealth around so that we wouldn’t have to work hard.

On the other hand, the stunning results of 2010 – and they really are stunning; everyone is trying to downplay them, but they were an historic and unprecedented loss for the party in power – show that at least a large portion of the population has awoken to our peril. There is a growing sense that we must do the hard things; that we must get back to work; that there is no free ride…and that in a hard world filled with enemies, a sharp sword is necessary. No one, back on January 20th, 2009, could have envisioned what happened this past November. All experience of politics, all reviews of historical precedent, argued for a continuing liberal, Democrat dominance of the United States, at least until 2012, and probably until 2014 or later. The turn around was dramatic and it augurs well for America’s future.

What will it be, now? Will we continue the awakening and recover our national purpose in 2012? Or will we fade away, already exhausted by half-finished efforts? I have to say, I don’t know – my faith in God and in the genius of our Founders tells me that revival is possible. My sense of what is happening, at bottom, in the Democrat party informs me that they are crumbling away, and one strong push can finish them. Liberalism is a failure – and a bane; and I think people realize it. But will we have enough spirit to press forward? Only time will tell.

From the AP:

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now…

Unless, of course, the Obama Administration can stop them. In the liberals’ endless efforts to hobble America and provide cold, hard cash to enemies who wish us dead, the EPA is now looking in to the practice to see if any liberal bed-wetters out there can cook up a reason to restrict or ban the practice. Doesn’t matter that the EPA investigated in 2004 and found no problem – now that we’re producing more domestic oil and look towards heavily reducing our dependence on imports, the EPA must act!

Outside of that, this goes towards two things I’ve been harping on – making more of our own stuff (or, in this case, drilling for more of our own stuff) and the fact that we don’t nearly utilize our resources to maximum efficiency. Its raining soup in the United States but government taxes and regulations prevent us from getting a bowl to hold it. If we can just take the lid of – if we can just free our economy from the dead hand of government – the growth we’ll experience will astound the world.

From NRO’s The Corner:

In other House Republican news, a leadership aide associates himself with the accuracy of this Roll Call story:

House Conservatives Persuade Leaders to Slash Spending Further

House Republican leaders have agreed to a key conservative demand that they make good on their campaign pledge to reduce fiscal 2011 spending to $100 billion less than President Barack Obama’s budget request, GOP aides said Wednesday.

According to a GOP leadership aide, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other leaders are working with Republican appropriators, the Republican Study Committee and other conservatives on a “unified” strategy to reduce spending beyond the $74 billion in cuts they had already planned. The cuts, which would only apply to non-defense discretionary spending, would come as part of a continuing resolution to fund the government between March and the end of the fiscal year...

There had been some hemming and hawing over the $100 billion pledge from the campaign, and I’m glad the House leadership has come ’round on this. Failure to carry out such a significant promise would have outraged the TEA Party and weakened the GOP heading in to 2012. Remember, we were elected as a rejection of the Democrats – our pledge was that we have learned our lesson and will now do what we said we would…and if we don’t, we’ll pay a high price. If we do, on the other hand, we’ll reap the reward.

From CNN:

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, recovering from a gunshot wound to the head sustained January 8, is regaining part of her ability to speak, her spokesman said Wednesday.

C.J. Karamargin would not divulge what Giffords has said, other than saying she asked for toast.

“It’s very good news,” he told CNN…

It is, indeed, very good news – and God be praised for His mercy! This, more than anything else, stands likely to turn national tragedy in to triumph…that a woman so badly injured could come back so strong is emblematic of the American spirit.

From Zero Hedge:

Once again the ABC Consumer Comfort index indicates that it is leaps and bounds more relevant than the ADP Private Payroll number. With increasingly less relevant confidence indicators out of UMichigan and the Conference Board, which lately only seem to “poll” 20 people with a $1MM+ Schwab trading account, it is worth noting what a true polling index says about the economy. And it isn’t pretty:

“Soaring gasoline prices slammed consumer sentiment into reverse this week, threatening the slow recovery in economic views that’s been under way. With gas now at record high for a February in Energy Department data back to 1990, the weekly Consumer Comfort Index dropped by an unusually steep 5 points to -46 on its scale of -100 to +100.”

I don’t know about you, but I actually stop to think about filling up – and have started making travel plans with gas prices in mind. And I’m in a two-income household…I can imagine what it is like for those who are either unemployed or who have suffered some measure of income reduction over the past year or two. Things like rising gasoline prices just kick economic activity right in the gut. Lost in all the stories of America’s economic rise is the fact that until cheap overland transportation became available, most of what is today the United States was economically worthless. Take away cheap gasoline, and it is a huge hit to our viability – you just have to consider how much of our goods are moved by means of fuel oil.

The run up in prices, by the way, is not caused by shortages (the world is rather awash in oil at the moment), nor is it really caused by troubles in the oil producing areas (it does push speculative price rises, but not as much as we’ve seen); it is caused by the massive printing of fiat money by the United States and other major world economy (little noticed in the West – because China’s boosters prefer we not know it – is that China printed more, in relation to their economy, than we did). When you increase the supply of money out of relation to the growth of the underlying economy, then the money becomes worth less – but the producers of tangible assets will not and cannot accept less than actual value for the products they sell – prices rise as a result…and as money has been printed, speculators have started to buy up hard assets in anticipation of yet more printing. It is quite the vicious circle.

This rise in prices could be catastrophic for our economy. Over the years, you can track steep increases in unemployment with steep rises in oil prices. Each time it has happened, after a short lag time, unemployment has shot up. And this time it could be much worse, as prices of everything else are shooting up right alongside oil. If we don’t get this swiftly under control, we may return to the “stagflation” of 1979-80 where we had the horrible event of stagnation and inflation.

From the AP:

Employers posted fewer jobs in December, the latest evidence that businesses are not ready to step up hiring.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers advertised nearly 3.1 million jobs in December, a drop of almost 140,000 from November and the second straight monthly decline. That’s the lowest total since September…

The “recovery” grinds to a halt. In return for printing trillions of dollars and borrowing trillions more, we got economic “growth” in 2010. Growth which, at best, allowed us to tread water…but treading water while debt piled up and the fundamentals of the US economy weakened. Now, what?

Well, we can print up some more money (Bernanke is already doing that, of course); we can borrow some more, too (Obama wants to, but the House GOP won’t let him). This might buy us another 6 to 9 months of “growth”.

Or, we can just admit that our economy is broken, allow the collapse to hit bottom and then start rebuilding an economy which rewards hard work, savings and careful investment. Such an economy would (you guessed it!) involve Americans making, mining and growing far more of their own things; it would, at least initially, have a lower wage level; it would involve more hard work and less pipe dreams about “innovation” and “green jobs” getting us out of the ditch without effort and sacrifice on our part.

What will it be, Americans?

Building a wall of defense around the anti-human organization:

Liberal groups, including the NAACP and the Sierra Club, are rushing to the defend of the nation’s largest abortion business after videos were released last week showing Planned Parenthood staffers helping alleged sex trafficking ring operators…

The Sierra Club? What possible reason could an environmentalist group have with abortion? Do they not realize that a lot of their support must, of necessity come from pro-life people? I guess not – if you’re of the left, slavish devotion to the cause is the name of game.

From The Hill:

Blue Dog Democrats might support a plan from House Republicans to cut $32 billion in discretionary spending this year, a spokesman for the fiscally conservative bloc said Monday.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said the Blue Dogs are waiting to see the details of the proposed GOP cuts before taking a position. The draft legislation from the House Appropriations Committee is due on Thursday…

This could just be something Democrats are doing – Nancy Pelosi already has a high enough hill to climb in 2012 if she wants her old job back. If she forces the remaining Blue Dogs to walk the tax and spend liberalism plank, then her task goes from “extraordinarily hard” to “existentially impossible”. On the other hand and especially in light of other 2012 news, this might signal a willingness on the part of some Democrats to break away from the Democrat leadership – perhaps, eventually, in a permanent manner.

The fact of the matter is that if you are someone who can’t go GOP because we have become too conservative for your views (maybe, for instance, you are genuinely pro-life but also like a lot of social spending), you need an alternative the Democrats cannot provide because they have become too liberal. A new party of genuine centrist could appeal to people like the Blue Dogs and their supporters – as well as appeal to a segment of the GOP (people like Senator Susan Collins of Maine and her supporters). Much could be made of this – not, to begin with, a majority party, but certainly a party a lot of people would be comfortable with.

We’ll have to see how this plays out, but 2012 could get very interesting.

UPDATE: And the centrist Democrat Leadership Council is bankrupt. Obama seems to be presiding over a party crumbling from the bottom up.

In the form of destroying evidence of the Jews:

Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple’s Altar, Temple activists charge.

The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome – which has a diameter of 14 meters – has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near…

The Dome of the Chain is apparently right on the spot where the altar of the Jewish Temple was placed – and the “dig” is actually just an attempt to erase any evidence of Judaism from that spot. This is just more proof that no non-Moslem can feel safe under Moslem rule – even the very past can be destroyed because at least some Moslems – and especially those in ruling positions – are determined to establish their claims, even if they have to out right lie to do it.

The Temple Mount should be taken away from Moslem authority – and, in fact, all religious sites in Israel and the West Bank must be kept safe from Moslem interference. A neutral, third party organization should be created as caretaker for such places – a group which will ensure access for believers to perform their ceremonies, but which will also prevent any attempts to destroy archeological evidence.