Yes, it can – from NRO’s The Corner:

James Clapper, the head of intelligence for the United States of America, has explained to Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” It further has “eschewed violence,” decries al-Qaeda as a “perversion of Islam,” and really just wants “social ends” and “a betterment of the political order in Egypt.”

I kid you not…

This is the man in charge of ensuring the President has the best intelligence possible of what is going on in the world – whatever decisions Obama will make regarding Egypt and the larger issues will be based upon what Clapper says…and Clapper’s statements are the exact opposite of the truth about the Moslem Brotherhood.

We’re in for a very bad time, foreign policy-wise…

Nick Gillespie over at Reason has an interesting article – from the distinctly Libertarian point of view – regarding all the fracas over CPAC…who is attending, who is not attending, what is conservatism, etc. It is a genuine must read. Not that I agree with Gillespie – especially this bit:

…And third, social cons have lost, period. Gays are not going back in the closet and demands for equal standing under the law are logically coherent from a conservative POV. Gays didn’t destroy marriage or the family (neither of which is in ruins, by the way, but that’s another issue). The same goes for drug legalization, which has been touted by such raging liberals as William F. Buckley. In terms of abortion, like it or not, the country has settled into a semi-easy truce that abortion earlier in a pregnancy is OK and the closer the mother comes to term, the less comfortable people feel with it. In any case, advances in contraception and reproductive technologies will almost certainly render such decisions moot as people have gain ever-vaster control of their bodies…

Oh, so that’s it, then? We’re just supposed to retreat to the sidelines, provide millions of votes and tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds and get nothing but lower taxes out of the deal? I hate to break it to the Libertarians of the world, but they can’t win election to dog catcher without us. True blue social conservatives probably outnumber true blue Libertarians by 10 to 1. We dog, you tail; you don’t get to wag us.

Marriage and the family are in ruins – and with it, our civilization. Perhaps a Libertarian doesn’t see rampant drug abuse, kids having sex, nauseating pornography throughout popular culture and the increasing recourse to extreme violence on the part of some as a death of civilization, but we do. And we’re bound and determined to stop the rot and reverse the course. Don’t try to tell us we can’t turn back the clock – we darned well can, and will. There will come a day when abortion no longer takes place, where divorce becomes the bizarre exception to the rule and people are, once again, shocked by sex and violence in public.

This is not to say it will be easily done. In fact, we may “lose” in the sense that this civilization may, indeed, die. But we social conservatives – Christians, you know? – will just rebuild from the ashes, as we have done time and time again. We’d rather not have to rebuild from scratch, but we’re not about to sell our souls and help with the destruction of our civilization. One way or the other, we will win. And if Libertarians want to come along for the ride, they’re welcome to it – because we recognize that small government is best and taxes should be lower and, in general, people should not be bothered about what they do behind closed doors…we’re certainly better for Libertarians than the Totalitarians on the left.

Now, if Libertarians decide that they don’t want to work with us because of our adherence to morality, then that is their choice. It may cause the whole conservative cause to come out loser in the contest. How that will help Libertarians is a bit of a mystery. It won’t particularly hurt us – we’ll hunker down, say our prayers and wait until in God’s good time, things come our way, again. The silliest thing a Libertarian can do is cut loose from us – but if a rigid, ideological demand that two men be allowed to “marry” is more important to Libertarians than people, on the whole, being free, that is their business.

As for me and my fellow social conservatives, we’re just fine. We’re having a good time, feel good about the way things are going and are absolutely confident that the gates of Hell will not prevail. So, make up your mind, Libertarians – join us or die.

UPDATE: Allahpundit reports a bit more on the battle over CPAC. Interesting bit – both in the gratuitous insult by a GOProud representative, and his very manly apology for getting off base. The bottom line is that we should all work together – the battle is against the left, after all. But this has all been a good lesson to all concerned that the right lives or dies with the social conservatives…we in conservative Christianity drive the movement. We’re willing to be pretty darn flexible, but we won’t roll over for anyone.

UPDATE II: And Ann Coulter weighs in:

(6) Are gay rights part and parcel with basic conservatism? If so, why are so many elected Republicans so skittish/unsupportive about the subject? If not, tell me why.

No, we don’t generally care for identity politics of any sort, much less hearing about people’s sex lives, even Nino Scalia’s. (And judging by the number of children he has, it’s pretty active.) Conservatives believe in individual rights, low tax rates, fighting terrorism and punishing criminals — so do gays! They also happen to believe Judy Garland was the most underappreciated and misunderstood person in the history of show business. I don’t think most gays care about gay marriage; they like going to the gay marriage meeting because it’s a good way to meet other gays.

With Mubarak deciding to stay in office what we have is a situation where we have neither kept friends with the old regime, nor made friends with the new. Both sides in Egypt – the current group of kleptocrats and the thugs/rabble/perhaps some democrats who want to replace them – have reason to dislike American policy…while the ultimate power in Egypt, the army, has not been made to understand that their support from the US is at risk. A more stupid way of going about things could not be imagined – quite simply, if we wanted to have an Egyptian policy it should have been either to back Mubarak to the hilt (something I say “no” to) or ditch him entirely and get on side with the democratic rebels (if there are any such – this is my preferred policy, with the proviso of standing off from the rebels until we get a better idea where they’re headed). We got the worst of both worlds.

With US policy in shambles and new power structures emerging – none of which will trust us as an ally nor fear us as a foe – the only thing we can hope for, now, is that nothing really bad happens until we can get Obama out of office.

A dying dinosaur?

The U.S. Postal Service warned Wednesday that it may default on some of its financial obligations later this year after reporting yet another quarterly loss.

The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said it suffered a loss of $329 million in the first quarter of federal fiscal year 2011. That compared with a loss of $297 million a year earlier.

The agency has been suffering from an ongoing decline in mail volume, which has undercut revenues, while retiree health care costs have been straining its reserves…

With a monopoly on first class mail delivery, it still can’t make it. Time to abolish the privilege and put all mail delivery in private hands. There’s just no justification in the era of e mail and cell phones for a monopoly mail service.

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?