Monday's news and links

If you missed Meet the Press yesterday here is the transcript. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) was on the show and made a complete fool of himself. In attempting to make the case to withdraw from Iraq he had the following to say about where our troops should be redeployed:

MR. ROVE: Congressman Murtha said, “Let’s redeploy them immediately to another country in the Middle East. Let’s get out of Iraq and go to another country.” My question is, what country would take us? What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, what country in the Middle East would say, “Yeah. Paint a big target on our back and then you’ll cut and run on us.” What country would say that? What country would accept our troops?

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: What’s your response?

REP. MURTHA: There’s many countries understand the importance of stability in the Middle East. This is an international problem. We, we use 20 million barrels of oil a day. China’s the second largest user. All these countries understand you need stability for the energy supply that’s available in the Middle East. So there’s many, many countries.

MR. RUSSERT: Who?

REP. MURTHA: Kuwait’s one that will take us. Qatar, we already have bases in Qatar. So Bahrain. All those countries are willing to take the United States. Now, Saudi Arabia won’t because they wanted us out of there in the first place. So—and we don’t have to be right there. We can go to Okinawa. We, we don’t have—we can redeploy there almost instantly. So that’s not—that’s, that’s a fallacy. That, that’s just a statement to rial up people to support a failed policy wrapped in illusion.

MR. RUSSERT: But it’d be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa.

REP. MURTHA: Well, it—you know, they—when I say Okinawa, I, I’m saying troops in Okinawa. When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly. And—and—when they don’t know we’re coming. There’s no question about it. And, and where those airplanes won’t—came from I can’t tell you, but, but I’ll tell you one thing, it doesn’t take very long for them to get in with cruise missiles or with, with fighter aircraft or, or attack aircraft, it doesn’t take any time at all. So we, we have done—this one particular operation, to say that that couldn’t have done, done—it was done from the outside, for heaven’s sakes.

Okinawa! Okinawa? Doesn't he realize the Japanese people have been urging us to get our Marines off the island of Okinawa already? Making it even worse he cited the fact that Clinton followed his advice to abandon Somalia in 1993. How'd that work out again? Oh yeah, the country is a hot bed of Islamic fanaticism and that decision was noted by Osama bin Laden as evidence that the U.S. didn't have the backbone to fight terrorism. We should all be thankful that we now have a president who knows better than to seek advice from someone like Murtha.

The Party of Retreat and Defeat. It is a little long, but well worth reading. A good look at what happened to the party of John F. Kennedy and Scoop Jackson.

Is Al-Jazeera Less Biased Than The New York Times? Sadly, the evidence points to an affirmative response to that question.

Mary Katherine Ham has a column titled "SHAME." Just as Bob Dole asked "Where's the outrage" in the 1996 campaign, one could ask today "Where's the shame." Before we developed this aversion to being judgmental, shame was a very useful human emotion.

Don't count on inheritance, warns AARP. Basically, the AARP did a survey on inheritances which got predictable results. Dad and Mom aren't going to make up for a failure to save for your own retirement. They did not attempt to explain why, but my guess would be it is the same thing that is bankrupting Social Security - the ever increasing life expectancy. If Dad and Mom live 20 some years after retirement they're going to spend their money. Good, they earned it let them enjoy it while they can.