OFF THE TABLE: May 2007

My Prediction: Bush Approval Ratings to Go Sub 20% by June

I know I could flare some passions and maybe even a few tempers with this topic here, so I'm going to do my level best to limit my comments to the unprecedented fall out I believe Bush is about to experience.

Simply put, Bush just put the last death nail in his political coffin today with the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform, previously known as McCain-Kennedy, now surprisingly (wink, wink) renamed Bush-Kennedy (I'm sure that had nothing to do with McCain's aspirations).

If Bush was sad to see his approval number in the low-30's, he won't be happy with what I think will happen next. Just wait to see how the conservative base, his last bastion of support, will react to this latest move, effectively granting amnesty to the millions of illegals already here, plus the approximate 250,000 additional immigrants to be allowed each year under this Z visa program, with no true guarantee of border security. (Think back to Reagan's amnesty blunder and the supposed 'guaranteed border security' laid out at that time... this new bill is scary similar... see the article linked above.) This bill will not play well with the conservatives or the moderates, and if Bush thinks this will win him converts from the left, I think he's kidding himself.

As a point of clarification... I actually don't mind the idea of a guest worker program. I am personally adamant, however, that first things first we secure the border, after which I'll happily consider a guest worker program for those already here, working, established, and invested in various ways into American society. I have little faith in the Administration's intentions on doing what they're promising from a border security perspective, as every Administration failed to follow through on the promises from the Reagan era Amnesty deal, and most recently the current Administration failed to build the fence bill signed into law by this same Administration (only 2 MILES have been built so far after all this time).

Also, I'm not an isolationist. On the one hand, I accept the idea of accepting the world's 'hungry, tired, and down trodden.' However, on the other hand, we need to strike a healthy balance between educated/skilled/etc. versus hungry/tired/down trodden/etc. immigrants.

Labels: Amnesty, Border Security, Bush, Bush - Kennedy

The Mormons (Resurrected)

Note: In hopes of generating more discussion on the PBS documentary "The Mormons", which I think the series merits given the landmark breadth of its treatment on Mormonism together with the potential magnitude of its audience, yet in no way desiring to merely recreate Matt's apt inaugural post on the "The Mormons" and risk occasion for impetuous assessments of plagiaristic redundancy on my part -- I hereby resurrect Matt's post (together with its comment thread) as "new" or "most recent", or what have you... So, let us comment on comments unceasingly, and, by and by, the comment thread will yield fruits of insight, new perspective, and opportunity for each successive commenter to prove herself/himself more right than the commenter preceding.

I've heard a bit of negative and some positive feedback on the upcoming PBS two part series on the LDS Church. My understanding is that on the whole, part one is not a favorable portrayel of the Church, while part two is supposedly more reasonable. My brother is a bishop up in Michigan, and received a communication from a Church PR guy that effectively said it's not for the 'faint of heart.'

My questions to you all:

Will you watch? How best might you respond to others about, let's say, any 'over-emphasis' on some aspects of the LDS Church's history? On the whole, is PBS doing the public a service with a feature like this? (This last question may not be answerable until after watching it.)

Click here to visit PBS' site for more info.

If only we could all be so Christian...

I caught this story the other day, and found this couple's attitude toward respecting each other's religion one of the best examples of a "Christian" approach that I'd seen in a while (particularly in light of the scrutiny Romney is currently enduring about his Mormonism). Here's the run down:

The story covers a husband and wife. The guy is evangelical Christian, the gal is Mormon. They've been married twenty some odd years. Both, however, exhibit the kind of prayerful and embracing approach I think we all know is the appropriate way to share the Gospel. And, most important of all, they respect/accept each other for who they are. There are people within a given faith that can't even reach across smaller gaps with others within their own religion, let alone those of different faiths. Anyway, I found it somewhat inspiring. Enjoy.