Bill was sponsored by Lugar and our new VP, Biden

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3194389

By Andy Leonatti, CongressDaily

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday sent a bill to the Senate that would strengthen the U.S. government's international reconstruction capabilities.

The bill (S. 613), the Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act, was passed by unanimous voice vote. It answers the president's call in his State of the Union address for a civilian reserve corps to assist in post-conflict situations to ease the burden on the armed forces' role in reconstruction and stabilization.

The bill was sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and FOREIGN RELATIONS CHAIRMAN JOSEPH BIDEN, D-Del., who introduced a similar bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but stalled in the House.

"Our committee's focus has been on boosting the civilian side of our stabilization and reconstruction capabilities, while encouraging improved mechanisms for civilian and military agencies to work together on these missions," Lugar said when he introduced the bill in February. "Those who were once unconvinced of the need for such a corps have only to look at our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan to understand its value."

The act authorizes the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Research within the State Department that will organize and recruit for the new Response Readiness Corps. The corps will be made up of 250 active-duty personnel and 2,000 standby personnel, with most employees coming from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The bill also contains language that calls for 10 percent of State Department and USAID employees to be members of the corps within three years. There would also be a 500-member civilian corps of private sector experts and consultants. The bill authorizes $80 million for fiscal 2008 and each fiscal year after that, along with a $75 million crisis response fund for each fiscal year.

"If we cannot plan better as a government, the United States may come to depend even more on our military for tasks and functions far beyond its current role," Lugar said.

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Your post that Jesus loves us even if we don't love him put a song running through my head.....Alzheimer.........what's the name of it, "He loved me ere I knew him, so all my love is due him...." What's the NAME of that hymn?????

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, political humorist Bill Maher (search), he has a new book out called "New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer." Of course, Mr. Maher is about as polite as I am and as timid as Dracula. He joins us now from Los Angeles.

You know, you've had some celebrities on your HBO show, "Real Time," which begins again on Friday, talking about policy and war on terror and stuff like that. I get the feeling they don't know very much, but you do. So I'd like to make Bill Maher, right now, the terror czar. Bill Maher, the terror czar. Could be a series.

BILL MAHER, HOST, HBO'S "REAL TIME": I think the first and most important thing is to get the politics out of the War on Terror. You know, maybe I'm a cockeyed optimist, Bill, maybe I'm naive, but I thought that 9/11 was such a jarring event that nobody would dare return to business as usual on that one subject after that.

But of course, we found out that nothing could be further from the truth. And your president, my president too, but the one you voted for...

O'REILLY: You don't know that. Were you looking over my shoulder there? I could have voted for Nader. I could have voted for Kerry, but Kerry wouldn't come on the program, so I wouldn't vote. But I could have gone for Ralph. Ralph's a friend of mine.

MAHER: Yes. Anyway, I said the guy you voted for, President Bush, you know, how come this guy, who was supposed to be such a kick-and-take- names kind of guy, how come he has not been able to get the politics out of this?

You know, as a guy who's been accused of treason, I'll tell you what real treason is: Treason is when legislators vote against homeland security measures because it goes against the wishes of their political or financial backers. Treason is the fact that, as a terrorist, you could still buy a gun in this country because the NRA (search) lobby is so strong.

O'REILLY: OK. But you're getting into the political, and I agree with you. I think that the country should be united in trying to seek out and kill terrorists, who would kill us.

But I'd like to have some concrete things that you, Bill Maher, the terror czar � and take this seriously, this could be a series � what would you do?

All right, so you've got bin Laden. You've got Al Qaeda (search). You've got a bunch of other lower-level terrorist groups. What do you do to neutralize them?

MAHER: OK. Well, first of all, you discounted my answer, which is get the politics out, but OK.

MAHER: We'll let that go. Keep going. I wouldn't worry that much about bin Laden. I mean, capturing bin Laden at this point, it doesn't really matter whether he's dead or alive. He's already Tupac to the people who care about him and work for him. Capturing bin Laden, killing him would be like when Ray Kroc died, how much that affected McDonald's.

O'REILLY: It would be a morale booster. But I understand. You're not going to send...

MAHER: A morale booster, right. Well, we've had plenty of morale boosting. We've had plenty of window dressing. What we need is concrete action.

In the book I wrote before this one about terrorism, I suggested that we have a Secret Service for the people. I said whenever the president goes anywhere, he has very high-level, intelligent detectives who look around at a crowd. They know what they're looking for. They're highly paid. They're highly trained.

We don't have that in this country. We should have that. We should have a cadre of 10,000 highly trained people who would guard all public events, bus stations, train stations, airports � and stop with this nonsense that this robotic sort of window dressing...

O'REILLY: OK, so you would create a homeland security office that was basically a security firm for major targets and things like that. It's not a bad idea. Costs a lot of money. Costs a lot of money. It's not a bad idea.

MAHER: Costs a lot of money compared to what? If you paid 10,000 people a salary of $100,000 a year, that would, I think, cost $10 billion or something. That's nothing. There's that much pork in the transportation bill before you get...

O�REILLY: You would create a super-security apparatus. OK, that's not bad. That's not bad. How about overseas now?

MAHER: What we need to do is what I call get Israeli about this. Because the Israelis are not afraid of profiling. The Israelis are not afraid to bury politics in the greater cause of protecting their nation. We don't act that way. You know, I'm afraid 9/11 really changed nothing.

O'REILLY: Boy, your ACLU (search) pals aren't going to like that. You're going to lose your membership card there.

O'REILLY: Oh, sure you are, just like I voted for Bush. You're a member of the ACLU. I can see the card right in your pocket there.

MAHER: Bill, I'm not a joiner. I'm not a joiner. I don't like organizations.

O'REILLY: They won't have you, Maher, let's be honest about that. All right, now, in your book, which is very amusing, by the way � if you want a few laughs buy Maher's book.

O'REILLY: You take some shots at FOX News, which is your wont, and I just want to know why you think we're so fabulously successful here.

MAHER: Well, I think that question has been answered many times. It's because the conservative viewer in this country, or on radio the conservative listener, is very predictable. They like to hear what they like to hear. They like to hear it over and over again.

O'REILLY: All the surveys show that the viewers are all over the map. They're not conservative in a big bloc. Some of them are moderate. Some of them are Democrats. Some of them are Moroccans. I mean, they're everywhere. That's your analysis? That just the conservatives watch us?

MAHER: Well, I think mostly the conservatives do watch you. That's not to take anything away from what you guys have achieved over there. It's a very well-produced broadcast, and they have excellent personalities like yourself, Bill. Who could resist watching you when you get home from work at night?

O'REILLY: Anyone who doesn't watch here is misguided. We identify them as such.

But look, I think there's more to it than � you're in TV. You know the ratings game. I mean, if you don't provide a product that is satisfying people, no matter what your ideology, they tell you to take a hike.

There's a guy over at MSNBC. He's a very conservative guy. He was hired and nobody's watching him. They hire liberals. Nobody watches them. Air America (search). Nobody's listening to it.

I mean, there's got to be a reason why we're No. 1, a punch line for you, and No. 2, you know, becoming the most powerful news network in the world.

MAHER: Well, I think, as I say, it's a well-produced product. You know, your program moves along, always at a clip that never seems to bore. You know, you move along to the next topic, the next guest. It never sort of drags. I don't think a lot of people know how to produce that stuff that way.

O'REILLY: All right. It's bells and whistles and my charming personality. That's what I thought it was.

Last thing: You know, one thing I like about Maher is he's not a hypocrite. He drives a little hybrid vehicle. Right? You putter around there. Does it have training wheels? What's it like?

MAHER: Actually, I had the Prius hybrid for three years. I was one of the first ones to get it right after 9/11. And I traded it in a few months ago for the Lexus hybrid.

O'REILLY: I think we should all cut back on our energy consumption, and I think we should all get these hybrids as fast as we can.

Hey, Bill, always nice to see you. Thanks very much. Good luck with the season on the TV show.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!"

Content and Programming Copyright 2005 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.

Obama has shown great judgment in the people who surround him. He picked a great VP choice, and his wife is impeccable as a helpmate and is a fantastic role model for the American children.

I hope that anyone who hasn't seen this interview will click on the link and view it. Biden answered each of her questions fully and completely.

I personally believe that Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert will have a field day with this one! The questions reminded me of one of Colbert's "Better Know a District" segments.

were for preemptive war, suspension of habeas corpus, torture, and no oversight of corporations resulting in Halliburton, Enron, and banking industry scandals, I would not consider voting for them, no matter how compelling their personal stories or charming they may be. That is why I vote democrat.

remarks with his fondness for JMC as a person and honors his service. He does NOT think his policies are right for the country. Big difference.

Biden caught in a lie

This really couldn�t have come at a worse time for Joe Biden. Speaking on Fox and Friends, Sen. Biden, the Democrat VP nominee denied reports from ABC news that if elected, he planned on pursuing criminal charges against the Bush Administration.

�That�s not true. I don�t know where that report�s coming from,� Biden told Fox & Friends.

Here you go Joe. See if this jogs your memory just a bit.

Poor old Joe. I expect the �Dump Biden� movement to pick up steam in the next few days.

h/t FreeRepublic

Anyone else read the article where Biden says Hilary Clinton might have been a better choice as a VP than him? How true. Hilary doesn't scare me nearly as much as Obama does!

really means at times and then having to backtrack. Just like what he said about Obama's experience until he was picked #2 and now Obama is experienced. LOL. Or how about when Biden criticized an ad the Obama campaign released stating,"I thought that was terrible by the way" and "if I'd have had anything to do with it, we never would have done it." Now he is saying it is okay because McCain's campaign ads are just as bad and therefore McCain has no reason to complain about Obama's ads. LOL!

I seriously wonder what Obama was thinking when he picked Biden. I bet they cringe every time he is interviewed.

I think a woman should have a right to choose no matter what the circumstance. And all of you saying you want to pay more taxes for these children born out of wedlock like Palin's daughter, then you're being hypocritical. You either want to pay more for these programs or you don't.

FYI to poster in this thread; STDs do take lives. AIDS kills. If the doctor doesn't treat the patient and educate them on safety especially homosexuals, an STD will take a life.

All three are out campaining - Obama, McCain & Palin. And they are campaining hard. All 3 of them. So where in the world is Biden and why is he not out campaigning? The last I saw they had him stuck in a plane by himself somewhere probably on his way back to his mansion to keep his mouth shut. Another person who is not out anymore is Richardson. Haven't seen him since he slipped and let it known that Obama keeps lowering his idea of rich.