DennisMansfield.com

"Idaho" in Obama Admin? Yep, congrats to Bruce Reed.

In the ongoing war of Red vs. Blue there are Purple moments of common sense -moments that highlight the giftedness of Idahoans in public service.

I was reading Jill Kuraitis' article of a couple of days ago and saw that long-respected Bruce Reed has been asked to fill a major role in the President's Administration. 

In '93 he was brought aboard President Clinton's staff and in time did a tremendous job crafting the welfare reform initiative - much to the concern of wing-elements of his own party and the GOP. I remember the struggle well and actually became a fan on this issue - of the thoughtful young man from northern Idaho. I lobbied the State Capitol during the '90s and knew his Mom - equally respected her commitment to the state and nation, though we were opposite on many social policy issues.

It is a good thing to have Bruce help all Americans from this unique position within the Obama administration. It's a great thing to have Idaho in the mix, regardless of the Administration.    

Given the nature of the Commission he will be heading up, he'll have his hands full. I believe he's up for the challenge.

Den                                                   

 By Jill Kuraitis, 3-26-10

Idahoans in D.C.

Idahoan Bruce Reed Will Direct Budget Council for Obama Administration

The son of former state senator Mary Lou Reed and attorney Scott Reed makes another impressive career move.Idahoan Bruce Reed has been appointed as executive director of President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Reed, who is the son of longtime Democratic state senator Mary Lou Reed of Coeur d’Alene and environmental attorney Scott Reed, was director of President Clinton’s Domestic Policy Council for eight years. Since then he’s been CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist organization.

Reed’s most public achievement under Clinton was heading up a welfare reform initiative which was unpopular with liberal Democrats, and his other moderate views have sometimes put him at odds with that wing of the party. (More here)

Contentious shouting match...

I had to go to London to find out about Washington DC.

Occasionally, it's a bit clearer to visit foreign press to get a better feel for the rawness of DC politics.

Here's a snippet:

"The White House meeting, which was described by Mr McCain's campaign as "a   contentious shouting match", appeared at one stage to have reached an  agreement.

But the Republicans' intervention, which centred on a proposal that the   Government offer to insure debts rather than use taxpayers' money to mop them up, caused the meeting to break apart in bitter political acrimony.

Leading Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reacted so angrily to the last-minute change in demands that Henry Paulson, the Treasury   Secretary, got down on one knee to beg them not to disclose how badly it had   gone, witnesses said."

Go here for the video and more.

Den

36 years later: McGovern-Biden?

Not sure if you remember my posting that Senator Obama's incredibly poor decision to choose Senator Joe Biden could ultimately come to be seen as the equivalent of Senator George McGovern's equally incredibly poor choice of Senator Thomas Eagleton, as his running mate in 1972. What, no McGovern-Eagleton '72 buttons and signs?

Probably because there are none - at least none that can be found. Eagleton was replaced by Kennedy-esque R. Sargent Shriver, just weeks after the Democrat Convention. By the way...they lost.

So, read the following piece from DC that was circulated all across the US just minutes ago. Gary Bauer's reach is amazing....he's skeptical that it could/would happen. I am not.

Remember, www.Dennismansfield.com was the first blog in America that connected the Palin-TR comparisons.

Den

Bye, Bye Biden?

I’ve been getting a lot of messages lately about the rumor that Obama will drop Biden from the ticket next month and replace him with Hillary in an “October surprise” intended to offset the gains Senator McCain has made with his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. I am skeptical about Hillary being on the ballot in November.

• It would undermine Obama yet again on the key issue of experience and decisive leadership. We choose presidents to make tough decisions. You can’t vote “present” or change your mind on major decisions, like who should be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
• It would severely undermine Obama’s “change” mantra if a Clinton were on the ballot. Hillary is not forward-looking change, but a look to the past. Obama would be running for Bill Clinton’s third term.
• Obama rarely admits he’s wrong or has made a mistake, and I don’t think he is capable of admitting that the selection of Biden – rather than Hillary – was the wrong choice. And what would that ultimately say about his candidacy if he has to admit that he is not strong enough to win without her?
• Hillary comes with a lot of baggage, not the least of which is Bill, who recently said that Hillary wasn’t interested in being Obama’s running mate. I doubt those hard feelings have softened much since Obama so publicly dissed her by not even considering her for vice president.
• It could actually backfire, further energizing conservatives to vote and turning Independents against Obama, many of whom never really liked Hillary. During the primaries, many polls consistently showed that Hillary was very unpopular with Independent voters.
• Lastly, Hillary might not even accept. If Obama gets that desperate, there would still be a good chance he might lose anyway. It would be easier for Hillary to run in four years with the theme “I told you so” if she is not part of the losing ticket this time around.

Of course, with the Clintons, you “never say never,” and Biden is certainly doing his best to make the idea more attractive every day. From calling Obama campaign commercials “terrible” to taking contradictory stands on clean coal, Biden is living up to his reputation for having “foot-in-mouth” disease.

By the way, if John McCain had said, as Joe Biden recently did, that President Roosevelt went on the TV after the market crash in 1929, we’d be getting non-stop stories about the onset of senility and how unfit he is. (Roosevelt wasn’t president in 1929 and the television was still in the experimental stage.)

Idaho's citizens may have a Texas-size prison problem...

(This next week marks the completion of two full years of operation for a business I founded that provides housing and treatment for ex-addicts, who most often are also ex-inmates. My blog posting today is not an official statement by our company. Instead it's just a personal reflection and possible recommendation by me.)

During these last two years the issue of staffed, safe and sober houses came to the forefront of Idahoan's concerns, as it should have. The aftercare treatment of ex-addicts (who, in MANY cases, are ex-inmates) was examined in a series of television/radio news stories and newspaper articles....almost ad nauseum to some folks, I'd bet. Sides were unfortunately chosen by default on an issue that is really ALL of our concern: prisoners being released back into society; afterall over 97% of all prisoners will be returned to society...it's just a matter of when and where. Eventually, this past year some short term mini-solutions were entered into by all sides; long term big-scale solutions, as well as litigation, remain in limbo at this writing.

 

However, Governor Butch Otter's Administration has shown itself to be one of the most forward thinking admins in America on this issue. He and his staff are commited to ensuring that Idahoans DO NOT bear the huge burden of billions of dollars for new prisons. He's to be commended for that. As Director Reinke has stated repeatedly: "We cannot build our way out of this problem." The Director is absolutely right.

Then, we have the Idaho House. The Speaker of the House, Rep Denney, often works side by side with the Governor's administration at pursuing visionary, out-of-the-box, non building-related spending solutions to overcrowding. The Pro-Tem of the Senate, Sen. Geddes, echoes that same concern.

 

So where's the problem? Why are we shipping inmates to states like Texas? Do we HAVE to do that? (Here's where the Progressive Conservative perspective kicks in...). My call is that a radical solution MUST come from the public opinion among Idahoans. We know that public opinion drives public policy...and we know that many, many Idaho Legislators live and breathe by the the subsequent shock-therapy that accompanies an awakend Idaho electorate.

 

If Idaho citizens want to lead the US in a forward thinking public policy to limit or eliminate overcrowding in prisons, then it is fully within our capabilities to do so.

My prison after-care model is only one attempt at solving this probelm. There may be many others that are, in fact, a better method. If so, then let's get on with it! The key is that no sons or daughters of Idaho should be sent to other states for "warehousing"...and in some cases, death. (See story below by Andrea Jackson).

 

With 1 out of every 100 Americans in jail or prison right now and by some estimates, 1 out of every 30+ adult Idahoans incarcerated,....we all have both a stake in the solution and, most probably, a family member or friend who is/was behind bars.

That's what I've learned in these past two years.

 

So, what's your pleasure, Idaho?

Den

------------------------

Families feel loss as out-of-state prison population grows

By Andrea Jackson
Times-News writer

Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla.

She never saw him again.

In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes, mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma, allegedly assaulted by another inmate.

David Drashner was one of hundreds of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state.

"So watcha readin'?...and watcha dreamin'?"

National elections can be all-consuming to many of us who enjoy politics.

My experience (limited to observing activities from a conservative vantage point over these past 3 decades) is that liberals tend to eat, drink and sleep their brand of politics, EVERY DAY. So when a hero like Hillary Clinton or Teddy Kennedy fails to gain their party's nomination for President, many are lost and are forced to go home to sulk, maybe-voting with very little commitment for the party's choice, hoping REALLY that their "non-choice" ultimately loses...'cause then they can band together behind their original person. They LOVE to follow politics like a sports fan follows the sport-of-the-day...sport season after sport season. Year in, year out. Never giving up, never giving in.

Conservatives tend to eat, drink and sleep their brand of politics for a much shorter duration....maybe the election year cyle. The key, though, is that there is a clear line of demarcation demanding that conservatives go home, raise their kids, keep working their small businesses and get on with life. The harshest (and truest) comment about conservatives is that "they go home when they lose...and they go home when they win". Faith based conservatives are the worst....they/we tend to look too eagerly at going home...often, before we even vote. AWOL they call it in the military.

Liberals tend to always be on duty. They tend to be anti-war activists, always vigilant - ironically ready at right-shoulder-arms.

So, today I, as a Progressive Conservative, who is following this race (and blogging far too often about it), I decided to take the day off from walking the streets of The Holy City Of Obama-nation, Tina Fey-ville, McCain Keyboard-Town and Joe-Mama Biden Place to ask a question: what are you reading?

Here's a sample of what's occupying my dreamy mind in the City of Book-worm-ville:

"Good to Great" - almost done with this not-so-new-classic tale of moving people and companies up from mediocrity to greatness. Incredible read. It can impact your world, no doubt, as it has mine.

"1960" - see ealrier posting about this great new read. Like the author's previous work "1920" it's a fast and furious tale of LBJ, JFK and Richard M. Nixon...and their races to the White House in that year.

"Leadership and Self Deception" - The Arbinger institute's classic on how easily swayed and deceived leaders can become, because they/we/I never "get out of the box"...unless we change a position and DO IT.

"Courageous Leadership" - Bill Hybels' new work on leading a Christian organization. Though I enjoy it, I'd kinda like to have read ANYTHING about failures he's had...then move up from there, but alas...cold hard concrete when dreams might have been just as good....

Do you think that old dead dudes have very little to say to you? (You might if you fail to realize that strange things are a-foot at the Cirlce K. tee hee)

Civil War General Lew Wallace, writing in the first edition of "Ben Hur" (1873), wrote of dreams. He penned:

"Men speak of dreaming as if it were a phenomenon of night and sleep. They should know better. All results achieved by us are self-promised, and self-promises are made in dreams awake. Dreaming is the relief of labor, the wine that sustains us in act. We learn to love labor, not for itself, but for the opportunity it furnishes for dreaming, which is the great under-monotone of real life, unheard, unnoticed, because of its constancy. Living is dreaming. Only in the grave are there no dreams."

So...watcha readin'?

Den

Indicators of growth?

I'm not a fan of anecdotal incident(s). I tend to live in the world of trends developed by observable facts.

So, what am I to make out of what I saw this morning?

As I pulled up to my office complex in Boise, the parking lot was PACKED. Now, I'm all for businesses booming (especially NOW)...even if it's my business and many of our clients are ex-inmates who want to continue on as ex-addicts....but this BOOM had nothing to do with me.

It was a Real Estate School in our complex....people going to school to learn to be real estate agents and ultimately, Realtors. Lots of people...

So what's that all about?

My only call on it is that people are returning to their dreams...dreams of the future, hope for their families. Is it here yet? Not for a lot of people....but a WHOLE lot of people are planning for it.

And that may be a bit more than an anecdotal incident.

Den

Bush, Bob Costas and Being Free

Saw a very interesting (and unscripted) interview between Bob Costas and President Bush at the Olympics. This topics of these short segments are near and dear to me.

The first one's about faith, Russia, Putin and Georgia. The second one's about the underground church in China.

Here's my call: for all the current hatred vomited against "W", we will one day look back and view him as a very close second to Harry Truman in trust. Nobody likes a street fighter...unless you need one on your side of the street.

"W" doesn't read the Post, could care less about MSN, ignores the opposition party and...as we used to say in the Army: he "drives on".

People hated President Truman. Now it's impossible to find an I-like-Ike button next to an I-hate-Harry one.

Watch and see.
Den

Opening Ceremony of the Chinese Olympics

Not sure what we have opened....

But my gut feeling is that China's triumph on the world stage may well lull folks into believing that China is, actually, sort of like America - some parts "blue", some parts "red" and some other parts...well... "REALLY red".

The homogenization caused by globalization can give us all a false sense of security, can't it?

Yet, when we WANT to strip away all the economic factors that create clear and divisive distinctives, and we WANT to reduce ourselves all down to people-groups desiring to simply improve our individual family's lot in life, there can be a tendency to believe that every government really only wants what is well for its countrymen.

Not so.....because words mean things. "Communism" has a meaning.

Many national governments were birthed with the clear fear-based understanding that "we" must strike first, before "they" strike us. The we and the they are outside of their country and inside it, as well.

China is such a country. Fear is a national vibe there.

China, being so desirous of wanting global acceptance, while at the same time living a fear-based life, full of lies and fantasies about human nature, makes me hearken back to another Olympics - one that gained the international attention, soothed fears and opened up economic borders for a season.

Guess the date.
Den

PS: Found this controversial flag for your consideration:

What does "it" matter? - 50,000 page views later

Get this, on September 2nd of 2006 we launched this blog with the following text:

What is "it"? There have been a lot of "its" in the past and many quotes like "it's the economy stupid" and many others. For this website the "it" for now is an attempt in fusing politics, culture, business, personality, religion, you and me.

No longer will there be a perceived hidden agenda - you'll get the straight scoop right here. There has never been a hidden agenda in my life; I like to lay myself right out there. Along with some friends there is a plan to bring many thoughts and plans to help businesses succeed, to help people reach their true potential and see a fusion of different perspectives become a stronger entity.

You'll see video, documents to download, links to other sites and people that speak into this dream - hang on & hope you like "it"!

Well....it's been 23 months since that first post (and 50,000 pageviews later as well - we hit that today.)


I'm sure that's not a big deal for some folks, but on this blog, it's fun to see us tip the scales at 50,000. ( I think that's more than the total number of election votes I've ever received - tee hee)


We've had a bunch of posts and we'll have a bunch more....

Keep hangin' on...and thanks for joining us, lo these many , many days/weeks/months and now years.

Den

 PS: Let me know which ones may have been "favorites", ok?
I just may sprinkle this month of August with a few "Best Of's"

Ready for an adventure?

                                                     Ready for an adventure?

Thanks to all of you who connected with my comments on the recent post regarding ex-inmates and jobs. The MSNBC article WAS awesome.

With all the bad financial news on banks, stocks and such...some have asked me how to gain a return in a recession-proof business....hmmm...how 'bout crime?

What? Well, let me explain.

I suppose it'd be better put by saying how 'bout financially supporting efforts to see folks come out of jail/prison and start their lives over anew....and having a piece of the business that helps them succeed, at the same time. Believe it or not, helping ex-inmates is recession-proof....and can be a great blessing.

There are lots of ways to do it via loans, etc, just email me at Dennis@DennisMansfield.com and I'll connect you with the key person in our firm who does that sort of thing.

Don't be down-in-the-financial dumps...fly high, baby...fly high.

Den