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.

And we Republicans have picked it up – from the LA Times:

For Democrats, Ashley Bell was the kind of comer that a party builds a future on: A young African American lawyer, he served as president of the College Democrats of America, advised presidential candidate John Edwards and spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

But after his party’s midterm beat-down in November, Bell, a commissioner in northern Georgia’s Hall County, jumped ship. He joined the Republicans…

…”I think the midterms showed you really can’t be a conservative and be a member of the Democratic Party,” Bell said.

Since the midterm election, 24 state senators and representatives have made the switch in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

Mr. Bell is correct – but not only is it impossible to be a conservative Democrat, you can’t even really be a moderate Democrat. Unless, that is, you’re willing to throw it all away when the liberal leadership demands (as it did demand in 2010 on ObamaCare, and look at all the moderate Democrats who got clobbered over it). Its just not possible for anyone to really be a Democrat and stray far from the party line. If you want to chart an independent course where you think for yourself and act upon what you believe is right, only the GOP offers a home for you in politics.

This trend will just continue – even if Obama manages to get re-elected in 2012, the fact will remain that outside the liberal bastions, the Democrat party is rapidly dying away.

Interesting from ABC News:

Rep. Heath Schuler, D-N.C. is one of the 20 Blue Dog Democats who plan to meet with businessman Donald Trump today in New York City. The meeting with Trump, who has expressed interest in running for president in 2012, is set to last an hour. Sources say they will talk about the economy and ideas Trump has for improving it.

Just to be clear here – Donald Trump as Presidential candidate is a sad joke. Quite seriously, given a choice between Trump and Obama, I’m either voting for Obama or getting too drop dead drunk on election day to bother. But it is interesting that he’s meeting with the Blue Dogs.

If Trump really is considering a run for the Presidency, his options are wide open as far as venue goes. He can run as an Independent, as a Republican or as a Democrat. It doesn’t even matter what his registration is now; he can always switch it as necessary. When I first heard the absurd idea of Trump running, my guess was that he’d go Independent, though perhaps only after a head fake to the GOP. But what if his plan is to march in to Obama’s turf?

It can’t be that Trump is thinking he can take the Democrat nomination away from Obama – quite simply there is no one, anywhere, who can do that. Even if unemployment shoots up to 20% by January and Obama’s approval rating is at 20%, he will be re-nominated. Not necessarily because the Democrats would at that point think he could win, but because they know that rejecting Obama would cause a down-ballot destruction of the party, perhaps for good. But in preparation for running as an Independent, suppose Trump enters the early Democrat primaries and then marches off, proclaiming himself as the only real “hope and change” candidate – thus giving disaffected Democrats some one to vote for in the general election other than Obama?

There would still be no chance Trump could win – getting to 270 electoral votes is next to impossible for any third party candidate and even if such a candidate took enough electoral votes to deny the major parties an electoral majority, the House would then elect one of the two major party candidates as President. Of course, Trump might have a big enough ego to think he could pull it off…or, observing the destruction of our economy under Obama, he might just be trying to do his bit to ensure Obama’s defeat next year.