Having been the guy in Idaho to seal the tomb on the Religious Right a while back, saying that it is dead in Idaho, I found the following thing interesting: The Idaho Values Alliance has a new leader: Mr. Gary Brown (pictured). Here’s the link to their website, so you can see both his intro note AND Bryan Fischer’s letter of hand-off to Mr. Brown. A couple months ago, I was introduced to Mr. Brown and found him to be an affable man and very well spoken of. He was introduced to me by a close friend and I sat for about 40 minutes listening to him tell me about his life. His decision to locate to CdA — rather than Boise - was a curious thing. Not sure how that will work — or even if it is a part of the new IVA plan to lobby at the Capitol, but we’ll see/Dennis Mansfield. More here. (Read:Dustin Hurst’s Idaho Reporter story re: resurrected IVA here.)

• Jacket forty-nine ninety-five/Fort Boise
• Minnick’s attack ad falls flat/Idaho Conservative Blogger
• U.S. Senate candidate says he’s reduced his tax debts/Kevin Richert
• Idaho Legislature: Kathy Sims likely to win Sayler seat/Randy Stapilus
• Timothy Egan: A voice of the West/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Post
  

Question: Why did the Idaho Values Alliance select Coeur d’Alene rather than Boise for its HQ in its newest incarnation?

I confess that I hadn’t been following all that closely the controversy in New York City over the proposed construction of a Muslim cultural center not far from the site of the September 11 attack. Until, that is, I saw an item featuring the former Idaho fire brand, Bryan Fischer, suggesting that the country ought not allow the construction of another Mosque, ever, anywhere, at anytime. … It was his latest column that grabbed my attention. Here’s the first graph: “Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for Ground Zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government.” OK then/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Report. More here.

Question: Should New York City allow the construction of a Muslim cultural center near the site of the 9/11 attacks?

Rep. George Sayler (D-Coeur d’Alene), who survived a stiff challenge from conservative Republican Jim Hollingsworth in November, is back with his annual attempt to further push the nose of nanny government into Idaho’s daycare system. His bill (S1112) would require every daycare center which cares for at least four unrelated children to submit to onerous requirements for staff-child ratios, facility regulations and criminal background checks. It will necessitate an expanded taxpayer-funded bureaucracy to perform all the inspections and record-keeping that the bill will require. There is little to no evidence that increased regulation of daycare centers does much to protect child health and safety/Bryan Fischer, Idaho Values Alliance. More here.

• Stupid is as MoveOn.org does/Adam’s Blog
• Update from Room 1674/Bubblehead
• Wednesday morning coffee/Unequivocal Notion
• MADD has gone mad/IdaBlue
• Want to see a city-by-city Idaho stimulus list/From The Editor

Question: Do you agree with the Idaho Values Alliance that day-care regulations proposed by state Rep. George Sayler, R-CDA, are onerous?

BSU has been ignoring this constitutional standard for 14 years now, despite repeated appeals on the part of faith-based student clubs for fairness and equality in student funding. In other words, a university that prides itself on its inclusiveness has systematically been excluding people of faith for years. It took a lawsuit filed by six students on December in federal court to finally get BSU’s attention. What an appeal to the constitution, law and fairness could not do, the threat of being drilled in court for being on the wrong side of the law did/Bryan Fischer, Idaho Values Alliance. More here.

Item: BSU policy discriminates against religious clubs on campus, claims IVA/Idaho Values Alliance

More Info: “And worse, BSU is the only one of Idaho’s seven colleges and universities that engages in this kind of bigotry. This flagrant disregard of the First Amendment needs to be corrected immediately.

Question: If all other Idaho colleges and universities view religious clubs in the same light as other ones, is Boise State out of step, and perhaps discriminatory, in not funding religious clubs?