Bring back the draft

Rep. John Murtha, a Johnstown Democrat and decorated Vietnam veteran, told CNN's Wolf Blizter on Thursday that all Americans should be obligated to serve in the military -- at a time when very few actually have personal ties with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

Here's a partial transcript:

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D, PENNSYLVANIA): Yes. Well, Wolf, I voted against the volunteer Army because I felt if we ever had a war, we wouldn't be able to sustain this war. I said a couple years ago, we would never have enough troops.

This is one of the smallest armies we've had since World War -- before World War II, right before the Korean War. And they just can't sustain this deployment.

What they have to do is take people back before they should, extend people, call people back from the -- from the deep reserve. Those are the kinds of things that happen.

And I think also, everybody ought to be able to serve in this country. I think we ought to not just have a select few who volunteer. I think everybody ought to be obligated to serve.

We do it by lottery and we call everybody up. I think we have a citizen's Army is what it ought to be, not just a volunteer professional Army.

BLITZER: But, you know, most members of Congress don't like this idea. The military says they prefer an all-volunteer service. Public opinion polls say the American public doesn't want to bring the draft back. But you say it's needed?

MURTHA: Yes, I think it's absolutely needed. I think one of the things that I've been predicting is our strategic reserve is going to be gone because we'll be using up the equipment and the troops. We would have to send them back before they had time at home.

All these kinds of things.

This -- this president, this Bush White House, has forced the military to break all their guidelines because they don't have enough troops. And they rejected our effort to put more troops in the system just a couple years ago.

We put 30,000 or 40,000 troops in two years in a row. We said, you need more? They rejected it, we put them in any way. And it's a good thing we did, because it's helping to solve some of the problems. But they have to recruit."

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means committee, has said a draft would deter politicians from launching wars:

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," he said in November.

Yet a draft is highly unlikely, with about seven in 10 Americans in opposition, according to the Associated Press. Officials also say they do not expect to restart conscription.

The draft ended after the Vietnam War, and the Selective Service System now keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 as a potential extension for the all-volunteer armed forces. There are now about 16 million men in that group.

Genocide?

In the same CNN interview, Mr. Murtha said the ongoing violence in Iraq is tantamount to "genocide."

BLITZER: When I interviewed Senator McCain earlier in the week, he said if your plan is implemented -- in other words, U.S. combat forces out in a year -- there could be genocide that begins in Iraq.

MURTHA: Well, Wolf, there's genocide already.

They're going -- the Shias are going into the hospitals and getting rid of all the Sunnis. They're getting all the Sunnis out of the Shia areas. They're already working -- if it's not genocide, they're getting them out of the area, so they're changing the pattern of what's going on in Iraq.

The thing I measure progress by is oil production, electricity production, unemployment and incident. All those are going the wrong direction, so we have to change the direction. That's what we're trying to convince the president of."

Violence did continue this week throughout the country. Reuters reported that Al Qaeda is showing this week that it still has the seeming ability to strike at will:

"Bombings claimed 300 lives, with one attack triggering mass reprisal killings by Shi'ites, making it the bloodiest week since the launch of a major U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad in mid-February aimed at curbing sectarian violence.

"The top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, accused Sunni Islamist al Qaeda on Friday of barbarity and said it was trying 'to ignite sectarian violence' between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites and derail efforts to unify Iraqis."

Meanwhile, back in Washington, congressional Democrats are headed for a major confrontation with President Bush over Iraq policy. On Thursday, the Senate approved a massive emergency spending bill for the war that calls for a withdrawal of all non-essential U.S. combat troops to be completed by March of next year.

President Bush has promised to use his veto power and told reporters that Republicans were united in opposition to the Democratic strategies: "We expect there to be no strings on our commanders and we expect the Congress to be wise about how they spend the people's money."

With military commanders fretting about a possible cutoff in funds as the political wrangling drags on, Mr. Murtha told the Associated Press that Congress may consider passing month-long spending bills while it challenges Bush over his war policy.

Specter faces the heat

The vote split along party lines for Pennsylvania's two senators: Bob Casey, a Democrat, voted for the spending package with a withdrawal deadline, while Arlen Specter, a Republican, voted against it.

Mr. Specter is now facing repeated criticism from an anti-war group, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq

"Unlike the majority of the Senate, Senator Specter voted to endorse President Bush's failing strategy of endless war in Iraq," Moira Mack, the group's spokesperson, said in an email to reporters. "When faced with a clear choice between voting to redeploy troops out of Iraq OR voting to continue an open-ended war, Senator Specter chose party politics over the views of Pennsylvanians."

Mr. Specter has been critical of the war's conduct, but he has also criticized congressional efforts to "micromanage" the war.

According to a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University, 30 percent of Pennsylvanians approve of how the president is handling the situation in Iraq. Sixty-six percent disapprove.

Casey faces the heat

Congress soon will again take up the controversial issue of stem cell research, and Charmaine Yoest, vice president of communications for the Family Research Council, tells Pennsylvania's freshman senator he should remember what he said on the campaign trail:

She writes in Friday's Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Given his campaign commitment to oppose federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and given the role pro-life Pennsylvanians played in electing him, you would think the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 would be a no-brainer for Casey. Yet, suddenly there is some question about his position.

This bill, which passed the House in January, is essentially the same as the measure Castle sponsored in the last Congress - the one candidate Casey opposed. If enacted over Bush's promised veto, this year's bill (just like last year's) would force taxpayers to fund killing 'leftover' human embryos stored at fertility clinics.

Despite the position candidate Casey took last year, bloggers pushing for embryonic stem-cell funding this year - bloggers including the Daily Kos and Californians for Cure - have listed him as one of the 'Swingable Seven,' a group of senators who might be swayed on the issue."

MC Rove in da' house

The Pennsylvania League of Young Voters is slightly horrified (and amused) at the sight of presidential adviser Karl "MC" Rove showing off his rapping skills at the Radio-Television Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

"A man definitely ON FIRE," they write in an email to members. "Seriously, we're taking a poll:

"Is this the most awesome thing you've ever seen...or the surest, saddest proof that hip-hop truly is dead?"

Indeed, it's a little strange to see a bald, portly white man known as one of the fiercest political operatives in American history bouncing to a hip-hop beat on live television. He also mentions his fondness for decapitating small animals. Watch the four-minute clip on youtube.com:

Need some cash for college

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency knows where you can get it. It ought to know. After all, its board members managed to find public funding for spa treatments, $150 cigars and golf outings.

Now, though, the agency has turned its attention from hiding its records on travel spending to helping families finance college tuition.

In a press release issued today, the agency said its Web site (www.EducationPlanner.org) can help families make sense of the financial aid process and award offers. The site includes a feature that analyzes aid awards to help families compare offers from different colleges and universities.

It doesn't, however, advise students on how to get public funding for their bar tabs, stress-relieving facials or extra-curricular fly-fishing trips. You have to be a PHEAA board member for that.

KEEPING TABS ON DRINKING

The job of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is to sell as much wine and spirits as possible to adults, in order to maximize revenue for the state.

But, LCB officials stressed today that they want to make sure all buyers are at least 21 and that high-risk drinkers, such as college students of legal age, don't overdo things, as they sometimes have been known to do.

So the LCB opened a two-day conference on underage and high-risk drinking prevention at a hotel in suburban Harrisburg, with more than 350 youths, parents, educators, law enforcement and community leaders attending to learn proven prevention methods.

"We hope that by bringing stakeholders together in this collaborative process, we can provide a supportive environment so our youth can make positive decisions in their lives and reject alcohol use," said LCB Chairman Patrick J. Stapleton.

At a recent hearing before a state Senate committee, LCB officials mentioned the discouraging fact that some Pennsylvania youths develop serious drinking problems when they are as young as 13.

Candidate wanted

When endorsed candidate Rachel Cooper was knocked off the ballot, the Pittsburgh Democratic Committee was left without a candidate in the 9th Council district, a seat now held by Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle. Ms. Cooper fell afoul of a technicality in the election laws, failing to file a copy of her financial disclosure form with the city clerk's office.

To find a replacement, the Democratic committee members in the district will meet Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum on Frankstown Avenue in Homewood.

In addition to Ms Carlisle, the candidates this time around include Ricky Burgess, Leah Kirkland and Randall Taylor.

Battling illegals works for mayor

The Allentown Call's Josh Drobnyk reports that "Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta met with national Republican Party leaders in Washington last month about the prospect of running for Congress. Barletta is in the middle of a court battle over a law he proposed last year to crack down on illegal immigrants. Barletta said he had a "very informal" discussion with members of the National Republican Congressional Committee, but that he has no plans to run for any other office than mayor of Hazleton.''

Mr. Barletta, who courted national headlines with his anti-immigrant legislation, ran against the veteran Kanjorski in 2002. Though the Democrat was targeted by national Republicans who poured lots of money into Mr. Barletta's challenge, Mr. Kanjorski won handily.

Santorum post-script

In its latest issue, Details Magazine spotlights the every smiling Jay Reiff, Bob Casey's campaign manager in his landslide victory over former Sen. Rick Santorum, as "an agent of change.

"In 2002, during the darkest days of the Democratic Party's electoral slump, Jay Reiff, then the campaign manager for South Carolina governor Jim Hodges, failed to get his man re-elected-Reiff's only loss in more than 10 years of Democratic campaigns. He decided to take lessons from the enemy, reading Bad Boy, the biography of GOP operative Lee Atwater, whose gleefully negative tactics became staples of Republican campaign strategy. "Once you understand how Atwater's Republicans won," says Reiff, "it helps you learn how to beat them."

Looking for miracle

Our friends at Politicspa.com remind us that "Tonight on the Travel Channel at 8 pm: Host Flavia Colgan takes viewers on a quest of discovery in a new three-part series, Miracle Quest. Each episode will follow Flavia around the world as she investigates claims of miracles, examining the theories, questioning authorities and speaking to those who say they have experienced the miraculous first-hand.''

Ms. Colgan's earlier experiences with unexplained phenomena include her stint as press secretary to Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.