DennisMansfield.com

iQuestions.com Earthquake. The next Hulu.com?

I'm in a brief meeting with about 100 leaders. Michael Boerner (the founder) is giving an amazing presentation about what may well be the next Hulu.com (which is the NBC/Fox Internet partnership). Never heard of iQuestions?

You're not alone ...until now.

Check out my imbedded link to the right and see. It's the safe and trusted site for answers to the most difficult (and at times personally awkward) questions.

And guess what...like the TV...it came from Idaho (yeah, no kidding!) Media leaders: if you haven't seen/visited the iQuestions' folks you just might to cover them before the LA Times does or the NY Times. Michael Boerner is clearly one of my dearest friends. For me, it's a little like watching Steve Jobs start up Apple...and KNOWING that the product he would soon produce has nothing to with fruit. Den

Putting down his favorite calf...and touching the world.

One little boy, losing a calf, crying while talking to a radio DJ.

Not much of a story. Except for millions of people. Meet Logan.

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.)

BSU Christian Week - Separation of Church and State? How 'bout a separation of God and fate?

Between Heaven and Hell

A Reader’s Theater

Presented by

The Ex-Inmate Theater

Today, Sept. 24^th  7:00-9:00 p.m.

BSU Special Events Center

On November 22, 1963 J.F. Kennedy was killed.  It was also the day C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died.  Come listen to some of the greatest voices of the last century discuss questions we have all considered in the darkest recesses of our minds.

 

A Free Event

Sponsored By:

CampusROAR

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

Promise Keepers rises from the dead.

In 1992 I was honored to help bring a fledgling group called Promise Keepers (PK) to Boise, Idaho to do a "test" conference to see if men would actually come to venues outside of Colorado to hear speakers and grow in their in their faith to God and in their respsonsibility to their families .

Over 4,000 men filled Hawks Stadium and PK passed the test. Boise was kept as a conference city for a toal of three years. Over 20,000 men attend the PK conferences in Idaho. Throughout the US, millions of men attended the conferences, culminating for me with a national conference on October 4th 1997 in Washinton, DC. From that point on, it never again had the impact of its original vision.

It looks like it might be time for a 2nd Act....maybe a 2nd Chapter of Acts, even?

Promise Keepers will once again be run by Coach Bill McCartney, retired coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. here's the press release:

Sept. 10, 2008 - Former University of Colorado football coach, and co-founder of the national Christian men's ministry Promise Keepers (PK), Bill McCartney has returned to the helm of the organization five years after resigning. McCartney, 68, will assume his new role effective immediately and has brought back former Promise Keepers executive and current PK board member Raleigh Washington to serve as president.

Promise Keepers was birthed in 1990 following a discussion between McCartney and friend Dave Wardell, Ph.D., in which McCartney dreamed about filling the University of Colorado's Folsom Field with 50,000 men for teaching on what it means to be a godly man. That summer the two men convened 72 men to pray about a national Christian men's conference. The following year 4,200 men gathered at the University of Colorado Events Center for the organization's first conference.

The number grew to 22,000 when men representing every state in the nation gathered in Folsom Field in July 1992. Boise ID hosted the first non-Colorado conference on May 1st, 1993. McCartney's initial dream was fulfilled in 1993 when 50,000 men packed Folsom Field and the ministry of Promise Keepers was up and running. Attendance at multiple stadium events grew to 278,000 in 1994, 738,000 in 1995 and more than a million in 1996. In 1997 more than one million men gathered on the National Mall in Washington for "Stand in the Gap."

Since 1990, Promise Keepers has drawn more than 6 million men to some 250 conferences in stadiums and arenas across North America. In 2003, Bill McCartney resigned as president of the organization he helped start. He has since launched a ministry called "Road to Jerusalem," whose vision is to mobilize the Body of Christ to partner with Jewish believers.

Having spoken at PK's Atlanta conference last month, McCartney is excited about the future of the Promise Keepers ministry and will begin unveiling plans for 2009 and beyond after he and Washington have had an opportunity to meet with the ministry's staff in the coming days.

Bare Naked Worship

Script a classic rock DJ joining up with a progressive conservative blogger (and all-around rabble rouser for Jesus), add clean ex-addicts and a sound track that makes your ears bleed, (cause it's cranked to a "10"). Follow it up with sound Bible teaching.

And what do you get?

Bare Naked Worship. Every Thursday night in Boise, with Doug Hardy of The Eagle, classic rock and me.

Interested in attending? it's 59 minutes long. (can't go any longer than that, due to nicotene fits by some). Email me at Dennis@DennisMansfield.com . I will give you the details.

Den

Sarah Palin: From"Who's She?" to "Who's Who" and BTW...Hillary Who?

I'll be adressing some thoughts on poltics and high school on Monday's blog, but until then...

I find it interesting that in a brief but powerful political week we've seen two women capture the attention of the world. Hillary Clinton, as she left the scene and Sarah Palin, as she arrived on it.

It's like we are watching a "Who's She?" become a "Who's Who"...right while we are seeing the political world ask itself "Hillary Who"?

How fitting that it is happening during the first week of high school, all across the nation...'cause it all feels sort of high school-ish, doesn't it?

The "cracked ceiling" about which Hillary repeatedly spoke now has a new female to possibly break it. But Sarah Palin doesn't seem to be the right "kind" of female, does she?

Somehow, many don't want to accept her. She seems to be the wrong type of woman from the wrong type of party with the wrong type of look. It's like the "ugly" people of high school are trying to have their revenge...or so it seems.

Two females, two stories. One goal? I'd hope so...but maybe not.

Why do I sense I am listening-in on a series of catty conversations at a middle-aged female sleep over, with Janice Ian's one hit wonder, Seventeen, playing nervously in the background, ad nauseum?

It's really a sort of reverse-Seventeen, though, this time around. Suddenly in politics, a pretty (and smart) female Republican VP seems worthy of mocking. Or is it just me that feels this way?

Den

"I learned the truth at seventeen

That love was meant for beauty queens
and high school girls with clear skinned smiles
who married young and then retired."

Governor Sarah Palin, GOP VP - what will women voters do?

Unbelievable!! John McCain chose a woman VP - Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska...wow.

McCain may have ultra-syncopated the political rhythm of our times.

The case can now be made that the 18 million cracks in the ceiling will be broken by a conservative, pro-life, hockey-mother....

John McCain knows strategy...and he knows combat...and he knows how to win elections. His choice was superb.

Now, the question for the male and female feminists of America is whether Sara Palin is "female enough" to be supported by them....or whether it's not REALLY a matter of  being a woman in high office, after all - it might be a variation on the theme from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are MORE equal than others." Hmmm...we'll see.

Welcome to a new world. This ain't your Geraldine Ferraro's Oldsmobile. BTW: Gov. Palin is a University of Idaho graduate...a little slice of Idaho.

Here's a little bit of Fox News background on Sarah Palin's history. Alaskans have a bumper sticker that says: "Coldest State. Hottest Governor" How funny....

Den