DennisMansfield.com

Prisons and State Budgets – How Far Can the Money Go?

One of the most respected think tanks in America has weighed in on prisons, budgets along with the staffed, safe and sober house issue. Fascinating piece, and you know where I stand. Take time to read and then respond, if you would. At what point do you think our current path deserves a 2^nd or 3^rd look?

Right from their about section – "The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems.  Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life."

Now I try to walk with a higher power than knowledge -> Veritas vos liberabit

Please read the whole article and Conicio Mihi Ossis

>Den

Poinsettia Bowl: NFL Great, Coach Chuck Knox signs hat for Boise's Coach Pete

Think of being 16 years old, on your way as an observer, to a national Bowl Game, when the night before you're given a chance to meet one of the truly "greats" of NFL Football.

What would you do?

Well, let me tell you what young Justin Gaupp, die-hard BSU fan, did this evening.

He and I (along with other friends) were given a chance-meeting tonight to be with Coach Chuck Knox , legendary NFL Coach and inspiration for now-greats like Redskins Coach Jim Zorn. 

Coach Knox was at his daughter's house - down the street from where Justin, his dad Lee and the rest of us are staying the night prior to the Poinsettia Bowl Game tomorrow.

I had already decided to take my BEST orange BSU cap with me to give to Coach Knox. During a conversation that Justin and I were having, it became clear that we ought to get Coach Knox's signature on the hat so that Justin could give it to Coach Pete prior to the game, if at all possible.

Will Coach Pete care?  Hmmm. Will young Justin succeed? Hmmmm. If I were Coach Pete, I'd REALLY want anything connected to Coach Chuck Knox near me the ENTIRE game...for good luck....or good fortune.

Here are some photos that prove our night and will hopefully open the door for Justin to hand over the BSU hat with Coach Knox's autograph ESPECIALLY for the Poinsettia Game.

Any BSU coach or staff person (Gene Blaymire?) who can make this happen, please call Justin's dad, Lee Gaupp, at 1-208-863-7830.

Den

"H8"....is such a strong expression. (Or do we TODAY even know what hate is?)

I was watching the local news coverage of weekend rallies planned by Idaho's/other States' opponents to California's recently passed Proposition 8 - which negated the CA Supreme Court's May '08 decision to allow same-sex marriage.

The newly-minted public policy decision by CA's electorate to deny their Supreme Court from determining the state's public policy on same-sex marriage was met by a mini-firestorm of resentment and anger. (Hmmm...for some reason, I never saw the McCain/Palin team hosting regional rallies two weeks after the election implying hate or anything else, but I might have missed them...See, they lost the public policy debate for President/VP....and the debate was over.) 

In fact, cleverly woven into the signs were various uses of the term "H8". Pretty good use of symbols, I thought - though I disagreed with them - still, creativity should always be given its due....even when it might be disingenuous.

Hate? Because the public has decided over and over again that same sex marriage is inappropriate for the United States? The President-elect is not in favor of it. Neither is Joe Biden, nor Teddy Kennedy. Even Elton John doesn't want  same sex "marriage". They all prefer civil unions...but not marriage.

Do they hate same sex couples? So, why the use of the word "hate"? Is there ever a time when this word can be rightly used?

Well, historically we can say "Hitler hated the Jews". Correctly, we can say " the KKK hates minorities."

And if you lived through the civil war in Lebanon, as did Brigitte Gabriel, you can say that many Arabs hate the Jews and Israel....and , from her life story, be accurate.

In fact, she's written a very personal memoir of the years she and her parents lived in a bunker during that time, entitled "Because They Hate.". I'm reading it right now. I'll put her bio, etc below so you can read up on her and visit her website.

I suppose this weekend's news reports, coupled with being deeply in the middle of her book caused me to wonder out loud: " Do the soft-seated fill-in-the-blank cubical employees and others who attended the downtown rally in support of same-sex marriage REALLY even have a clue regarding H8?" I'm just not sure.....but I bet Ms. Gabriel has an opinion.

Den

BSU and KTVB – Equally Yoked?

[Disclaimer – this is not a post by Dennis]

First and foremost I'm glad we have KTVB Channel 7. Their news program is tops, I always go there first for my local coverage of news! If you haven't tried the website via your cell phone go try now…it is amazing (of course you have to have a decent cell phone).Coverage of weather is also great! The coverage of local high school sports is pretty cool, and I'm sure they get the high school teen and parent crowd for that. Their new(er) 24/7 channel is nice to have when you miss the normal news program time slot. But, do you cringe, when after you've seen ESPN's coverage of BSU and you have to watch BSU play on KTVB?

Reporters: 1 Mormons: 0

Saw a piece in the news about a fellow who graduated from BYU who was excommunicated from the LDS church prior to receipt of his diploma. The story told a strange tale: his leaving the church prevented him from the diploma. Hogwash. Sounds to me like anti-Mormon prejudice...and I am not LDS...just logical and (hopefully) more fair-minded than the reporter. Dennis "iPhone" Mansfield

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

SNL Begins Tonight. Black is Back...are YOU Black Enough?

SNL is known for their amazing spin on politics. (remember the other day's blog?) To help you prepare for what's about to bust out on Palin, let's look back at their Blackness Scale on Obama. Imagine The Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Irrelevant Al Sharpton.

Let's see what Michael Phelps has to say

The New Reformers: Progressive Conservatives & Gov. Sarah Palin

Churchill's adage that in politics, young men are liberals and old men are conservatives makes for a good plausible thought...but not a true fact. Regardless of Churchill's enduring observation of age (and obvious omission of gender), something else SEEMS to coalesce political types together, rather than age. But what is it? Maybe, a better take on those interested in getting people elected could be that politics is like high school.

Think about it: some are in the "in" crowd and others are simply crowding in - awkward outsiders with their noses pressed against the plate glass, "feeling-about" for their identity....(maybe feeling like they are looking for their lockers...)

The underlying theme of this metaphor is that whether folks are conservative or liberal, their ideology (dare I say neo-religion?) demands that they capture ground and keep it. Once "in", never again to be outside looking in.  But does that work?

In a sense, I suppose I am a "recovering high school student", finally loosening the bonds of attachments that created in me a "mini-adult" status so many years ago, watching too many political movies and TV Oval Office shows and trying to act and pose like actors who act and pose like candidates...At 52 years of age, it's about time to acknowledge that I've finally graduated...tee hee.

I see it in all levels of the Democratic Party and the GOP. "Them that's gots, keeps..." Could be the mantra, I suppose. For the purpose of this posting, allow me to center in on the GOP, as it is my affiliation. For the purpose of this posting I site Sarah Palin as someone who got into politics to do something and will get out. For goodnes sakes, she spent years in her PTA and on her local town council...not quite CareerBuilder.com stuff.

I'd argue hers is the safer plan for the nation to enjoy, than the perpetual high school student councils elections of Biden, Kempthorne, Kennedy(s), Craig and Nixon.

I've been around the GOP for 32 years, run for office, lost and run again. With each passing year, I move further and further away from the goofiness of political in-fighting and power plays...and towards reform, progressive conservative reform. Please do not consider me bragging, but rather, illustrating the path of a progressive conservative - a reformer, encouraging others to reform their lives, cities and government like Sarah Palin has done.

• Get in and get out. I supported the Term Limits reform in Idaho. When the legislature overturned the will of the people, I led the actions that put the Referendum into place - forcing the issue back on the ballot for a final vote by the people.
• Turn them in, get them out. Reform demands that a person do what's right. I "turned in" my then-boss, a CA legislator (Assemblywoman Doris Allen), who was operating unethically.
• Run for office, even if it looks like political suicide. In 2000 I ran for US Congress against Butch Otter. People told me I was crazy. Though a good friend and a sitting Lt. Governor, Butch represented years of "in" crowd GOP back-slappers. No reform. No vision. In a field of 8, I came in 2nd to Butch. My race for State Senate was not too dissimilar.
• Stand up, speak out. Even if your friends  don't agree. Reform doesn't mean winning the first time, but it can happen. Don Paradis was on death row. I didn't see him as guilty and led the effort to have his case reviewed. Governor Batt amended his sentence and Don is a free man today.
• Change the world. We opened New Hope Community Health to help secure sobriety housing and classes for ex-addicts/ex-inmates. Godly, Christian, Republican neighbors opposed me. Hmmm...Reform means change. Change is painful. Changing the world is REALLY painful.

Progressive conservativism simply means well thought-out reform, regardless of personal costs; all accomplished from a traditional reference point. Getting rid of personality-driven public policy is key to it. Teddy Roosevelt did it 100 years ago. Sarah Palin is being called on to do it this centrury. My call is that a progressive conservative movement will rise within the GOP  - a movement of home makers, outsiders, part-timers and reformers.

After all, remember that the term status quo means "he/she who stays".....

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."