J's Cafe Nette

Archive for July 10th, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI has declared the Roman Catholic Church is the only “true” church.

I reject this and I am offended by it.

For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.

Benedict approved a document released Tuesday from his old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which repeated church teaching on Catholic relations with other Christians.

I would only say to the Pope he is a fallible human being, and when Christ referred to the Church He wasn’t referring to any denomination but to the believers as a whole.

Go to Revelation or any part of the New Testament where you will see letters to the church in Ephesus, Corinth etc.

Revelation talks of seven churches. One in Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

Funny I don’t see Rome mentioned in Revelation Chapter 1 where Jesus Himself directs John to write to the various churches and John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos by those in Rome who were not Christians so there certainly existed a church in Rome at the time.

The new document — formulated as five questions and answers — restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which riled Protestant, Lutheran and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one Church,” said the document released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in Italy’s Dolomite mountains.

The document said Orthodox churches were indeed “churches” because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed “many elements of sanctification and of truth.” But it said they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope — a defect, or a “wound” that harmed them, it said.

“This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of Primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an ‘internal constitutive principle’ of the very existence of a particular Church,” said a commentary from the congregation which accompanied the text.

The Church is the Body of Christ in that it is the believers in Christ.

No Christian denomination can claim to be the only “true” church no matter how much they would like to and no matter how much the leader of that church, who is a man after all, would instruct his followers in that false teaching.

I have no quarrel with Catholics but I do have a strong disagreement with the statement by the present Pope who will one day die just as the rest have and will not be bodily resurrected on the third day as our Savior was. Then someone else will come in and explain it and go back to the new old teachings again. This shows man’s fallibility.

I have my salvation and I have never been a Catholic.

With all due respect to the Pope, there will not be only Roman Catholics or Orthodox Catholics in heaven. I already know of a lot of Protestants of different denominations who are there. Not for a fact that I have seen myself, but because I know what they believed, lived and taught.

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New York Post columnist Ralph Peters recently conducted a rather lengthy interview with General Petraeus. Below are just a few of the Q and A’s.

Ralph Peters: The current military operations in Iraq appear comprehensive and tenacious, part of a long-term, integrated plan. What can we realistically expect to achieve?

Petraeus: Our primary goal is to work with our Iraqi counterparts to improve security for the Iraqi people. This is intended to give Iraqi leaders the time to resolve the tough political issues they face and to pursue internal reconciliation.

Q: There’s a strong focus on going after al-Qaeda-in-Iraq in this offensive. How are you bringing our strengths against their weaknesses?

A: Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq’s key weaknesses are an ideology that does not resonate with Iraqis and an indiscriminate brutality that alienates the people. Popular sentiment has begun to shift against them.

To break al Qaeda’s grip on troubled areas, we employ the full range of our combat and support capabilities, as well as interagency assets. At the end of the day, though, it’s a Marine or Soldier on foot who does the final clearing, and our troops have been magnificent – as have, in many cases, our Iraqi partners, though their performance remains uneven.

Q: After more than four years of often frustrating operations in Iraq, troop morale remains remarkably resilient by historical standards. Even re-enlistment rates are impressive. How do our men and women in uniform remain so committed?

A: They know they’re engaged in a critical endeavor, one that’s “larger than self.” They recognize the mission’s importance not just to Iraq, but to the entire region and to our own country. Despite multiple tours and separations from loved ones, not to mention the impatience, frustration and other emotions we all feel at times, our men and women in uniform want to see Iraqis succeed – and, of course, they have a fierce desire not to let down their buddies. The bonds of those who have served together in combat are particularly strong.

Q: Now that the surge is fully in place, what’s your sense of the positives and negatives thus far? If you could have more of any one item, what would it be? Troops? Time? Iraqi unity?

A: I can think of few commanders in history who wouldn’t have wanted more troops, more time or more unity among their partners; however, if I could only have one at this point in Iraq, it would be more time. This is an exceedingly tough endeavor that faces countless challenges.

None of us, Iraqi or American, are anything but impatient and frustrated at where we are. But there are no shortcuts. Success in an endeavor like this is the result of steady, unremitting pressure over the long haul. It’s a test of wills, demanding patience, determination and stamina from all involved.

There is a lot more to this interview and as usual General Petraeus does not paint only a rosy picture.

HT: Hugh Hewitt

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Read this report from Politico and you will see there are differences in the Democratic party as to how far to go anti-war in the campaign.

As George McGovern is loosely quoted as saying, it wins the primary but it doesn’t win the general election.

For Democrats of a certain age, there is no figure more haunting than George McGovern, who ran for president pleading, “Come home, America,” but instead was sent home himself with just 38 percent of the vote.

Among those who worry that the lessons of 1972 may still spell trouble for Democrats in 2008 is none other than … George McGovern. He is 84 now, is as opposed to the Iraq war as he was to the one in Vietnam — and is paying close attention to the race for president.

“I’m not sure that an anti-war Democrat can win,” McGovern said in an interview. “We haven’t proved that yet.”

“Some people point to the fact that the war in Vietnam was dreadfully unpopular,” he said, “but that when I came out for an immediate withdrawal, it helped me win the nomination but not the general election. And there may be some truth about that.”

But some political analysts say they believe the McGovern experience could be repeated again, as the party’s presidential candidates compete to win the favor of anti-war Democrats while leaving themselves vulnerable to charges of weakness in a general election.

This uncertainty is one reason the leading Democratic candidates are trying to run as hawk and dove simultaneously. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), for instance, are both moving rhetorically and substantively against the Iraq war while calling for an increased military presence to fight terrorists in Afghanistan.

But if the mood of the country has changed, Democrats are plainly still laboring to project that opposition to Bush’s handling of the Iraq war — most polls show the public agrees with them — does not mean they are uncomfortable with military force.

“It’s one thing for (Democrats) to say, ‘Get out,’ or ‘Redeploy,’ or ‘Divide the country into thirds,’” said Mark Salter, a counselor to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). “But it’s another to say, ‘We won’t fund the troops.’ That, I think, will be a pretty costly mistake in the general election.

“You had 150,000 troops in the country, and you voted not to resupply them with armor,” Salter added. “Those things are easy to point out.”

Today, as Clinton and Obama debate who is more qualified to lead a pullout from Iraq, leading Republicans compete to portray themselves as most capable of continuing the fight. Neither party’s leaders seem willing to break too brazenly with their base over the war.

More than six in 10 Republicans still support the Iraq war, while nine in 10 Democrats do not, according to a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press analysis of March, April and June polling for The Politico.

Republicans are also more concerned over terrorism. Fifty-three percent of Republicans say they are “very” or “somewhat” worried about being a victim of a terrorist attack, while 43 percent of Democrats express the same, according to Gallup polling conducted in mid-June.

Among top-tier Democrats, it is Clinton’s maneuvering on Iraq that has drawn the most attention — and the most criticism — from people on both sides who see calculation rather than principle guiding her.

In the past year, she has advocated stances she once opposed, both on a set timetable for withdrawal and in utilizing the “power of the purse” to end the war in Iraq. But last month, at a Take Back America conference of liberal activists, she offended some by treading a careful rhetorical line.

“The American military has succeeded,” Clinton declared. “It is the Iraqi government that has failed.”

That drew boos from the hall. Clinton’s rhetoric seemed “almost calculated to draw a negative response” before the liberal audience, observed David Gergen, who has served in four presidential administrations. “That’s a very confident campaign,” he added.

Yet some Democratic veterans remain worried, including those who favor a withdrawal from Iraq. “I’m afraid that we might be pulled too much to the left, too much into the anti-war sentiment, so that it might be as drastic as during the Vietnam War,” said Richard Bolanos, who was one of four brothers to serve in the military during Vietnam and was part of the veterans group that campaigned for Kerry during the 2004 election.

“Democrats could still blow this, particularly if they get themselves into a posture where they were to force all the troops to come home over the next six months,” Gergen said. “That would leave them very, very vulnerable, because Republicans could argue that whatever chaos erupts, that has Democratic fingerprints all over it.”

“When (Democrats) nominate someone who seems soft — Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, who I love, Jimmy Carter in his second incarnation — they lose,” Wattenberg added. “This is not proof, but Americans want a guy who will stand up for America.”

Clinton is compelled to prove Americans also want a woman, an obstacle Obama does not face. “She’ll be as tough as any Republican on our enemies,” Bob Nash, Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, says when the subject of gender is raised.

For his part, McGovern wishes that Clinton — toward whom he said he feels “personal loyalty” — was less worried about looking tough and more willing to be “stronger in favor of disengagement.”

But McGovern said he, of all people, understands the appeal of political pragmatism.

“I lost for standing up for what was right,” McGovern continued. “Some of our greatest presidents have compromised their positions in order to not offend large elements of the voting public. It’s possible that’s what Hillary is doing.”

I let the article speak for itself.

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I’ve always liked John McCain. I hope this does his campaign some good. God knows he needs all the help he can get.

Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign manager and a longtime strategist resigned Tuesday — the latest and most dramatic staff shake-up in his struggling bid for the White House.
“This morning I informed Senator McCain that I would be resigning from his presidential campaign, effective immediately,” Terry Nelson, McCain’s campaign manager, said in a statement released by the campaign. “It has been a tremendous honor to serve Senator McCain and work on his campaign. I believe John McCain is the most experienced and prepared candidate to represent the Republican Party and defeat the Democratic nominee next year.”

“As of today, I have resigned my position as chief strategist to John McCain’s presidential campaign,” McCain strategist John Weaver said in a statement, also released by McCain’s campaign. Nelson was a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 campaign; Weaver was instrumental in McCain’s emergence in 2000 as Bush’s chief Republican alternative.

The announcements came as the Arizona Republican was on the Senate floor defending the current Bush administration strategy in Iraq. That’s one of several controversial stands that have dogged the 70-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war in his second try for the GOP nomination.

Story

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Pretty amazing ha?

A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.

The frozen carcass is to be sent to Japan for detailed study.

The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.

The animal’s trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.

Story

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Something rang true with me this morning when reading Grim at Blackfive.

The whole point of the Surge is to address this particular problem. It is six months in the making, if you count from the start of the buildup. If the politicos in Washington set goals that Iraq could not realize, that is their own fault. It is the fault of those whose goals were set without bothering to take any account of military reality.

We’ve got people who are risking their lives every day to give Iraq the chance embodied by the Surge. There are 25 million people in Iraq whose lives depend on the outcome. These games in DC and among the press, they are beyond reprehensible. Real lives are at stake here — better lives than the ones lived by these politicians and journalists.

It is oh so easy to be the “Armchair General” or to “Monday morning Quarterback” all decisions made in Washington in the past.

The President has often said most of his decisions as to operations in Iraq were made after hearing and taking advice from the Top Brass with boots on the ground. That being said, final decisions were in his hands and are his responsibility. However, I believe both the Commander in Chief and those doing the “hard work” in this war see well beyond Iraq.

Would I like to bring home every soldier, sailor, marine and air force member serving in foreign territory..that goes without saying.

Do I believe as Americans we should expect Iraq to field a strong government of their own..absolutely, but standing up that government will be hard work, especially when dealing with the various sects within the country.

Unfortunately, I believe no harder than it would be to stand up a government today in Washington DC with the partisanship and corruption we have on both sides of the aisle.

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I still say let’s get the hell out of there and let them kill each other.

A number of mortars have hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, with eyewitnesses reporting smoke rising from the area around the US embassy.
About 10 mortars landed in the heavily fortified district where the government and parliament are based, and which is also home to many foreign embassies.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

It comes a week after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki warned militants against attacks on the Green Zone.

US military helicopters took to the air moments later from the Green Zone apparently searching for the firing positions.

Correct range

The Green Zone is supposed to be a safe area of operation for the US civilian and military authorities in Baghdad, US contractors and the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi government.
In a recent report, the United Nations underlined the increased risks of operating in the area. According to UN figures, 26 people were killed by indirect fire from mid-February to late May.

Story

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I believe in friendship but this guy is willing to drag down the administration with him.
With an approval rating of 27, the president, in my opinion, cannot afford to keep this guy around.

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. “There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse,” Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Story

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Where do we go from here?

A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reforms, speeding up the Bush administration’s reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday.

The “pivot point” for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15, as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush’s so-called “surge” plan is due, but instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment is released, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft is still under discussion.

But another senior official said Bush’s advisers, along with the president, decided last week there was not enough evidence from Iraq to justify a change now in current policy.

They had launched discussions about how to react to the erosion of support for the president’s Iraq approach among prominent Republicans, that official said, and the debate was part of a broader search for a way out of a U.S. combat presence in Iraq by the end of Bush’s presidency.

Story

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Just one of those days where time seems to be at a premium so just a quick update on a few sites that you might find worth a read.

Omar from Iraq The Model has one of his first hand accounts on various issues taking place in his country. I suppose the following may be the reason we have not heard much from him as of late:

These months have been the worst in electricity supplies ever. We’re getting an average of one hour per day of electricity from the grid. The last time we had such hour was three days ago!

Second Chances is the latest dispatch from Michael Yon. I usually find a favorite line or paragraph in each of his pieces and this particular one was the easiest yet.

Yet street by street, house by house, step by step, the infantry soldiers cleared most of Baqubah, working under intensely stressful conditions. They cleared block by block, no place to sleep but the ground, no showers to wash away the sweaty grit of war. This combat-experienced brigade outsmarted the enemy. I’d like to say more, but the enemy will get no help from these pages.

Also included in Michael’s latest piece are two audio interviews and as usual his terrific photography.

Last, but certainly not least a Letter to America from a site I have recently discovered, Jack Army.

I asked an Iraqi I know to write a letter to Americans. I told him he should write whatever he wants. Specifically, I said, “if you could say anything you wanted to the American people, what would it be?”

This is what he wrote:

To my brothers and sisters all over the world,

Hi, I am in individual Iraqi, I can only express my own ideas about what is going on in this whole situation and I am very sure that the majority of Iraqis have the same idea.

First, before Coalition Forces came to Iraq, we were under a tyrant regime. Saddam and his followers, no doubt most of them were from Arab Sunni, those people were from Iraq too but they tortured, abused and offended the Iraqi people a lot, like mass graves, genocide, and so on. I cannot talk to you about the details of all what they did against us because it is unbelievable to someone to understand that.

Part one continues here. Part two of the same letter may be accessed here.

I strongly urge our readers and bloggers to read each of the posts listed in this post of Sue’s, and to listen to or read the information provided to you in Ayschlay’s post “Soldiers as Voters”. Each post has valuable information in it. ~J~

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China has executed its former drug chief for approving drugs that were not safe and for taking bribes.

BEIJING (AP) – China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog on Tuesday for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.
The execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.

During Zheng’s tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media reports. One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.

“We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now and what we will do in the future,” Yan said.

Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth $832,000 when he was in charge of the State Food and Drug Administration.

His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined, and indicates the leadership’s determination to confront the country’s dire product safety record.

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Here’s a Washington Post story that says about the same thing the New York Times was quoted as saying yesterday in this post on this blog.

President Bush, facing a growing Republican revolt against his Iraq policy, has rejected calls to change course but will launch a campaign emphasizing his intent to draw down U.S. forces next year and move toward a more limited mission if security conditions improve, senior officials said yesterday.

Top administration officials have begun talking with key Senate Republicans to walk them through his view of the next phase in the war, beyond the troop increase he announced six months ago today. Bush plans to lay out what an aide called “his vision for the post-surge” starting in Cleveland today to assure the nation that he, too, wants to begin bringing troops home eventually.

This time the member of the “Anonymous Family” is called “Senior Official”. Here’s what Senior Official has to say:

“Look, the president understands the American people are frustrated,” said a senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging Bush. “We’ve been at this a long time. We’ve sacrificed some of our best and brightest. . . . But they want to see that we have a vision for success that will allow us to gradually downsize our role and reduce our footprint. The president needs to and wants to remind everybody that he shares that frustration.”

We’ll find out today what the president says to confirm the “Anonymous Family’s” reports.

Again, I have no problem with the story if it’s accurate, and I am not questioning the accuracy. I just get irked at people who refuse to be named in newspaper articles when they are quoted.

In something that has interested Guss for a long time, not because of who may be outed, but because it’s a sex scandal, we might as well get the fact Sen. David Vitter’s (R) of Louisiana name has turned up on the D.C. Madam’s telephone rolodex out on the table.

You’ll have to read that one for yourself as I’m not particularly interested in sex scandals whether they be Republican or Democrat.

Finally, President Bush has asked former White House aides Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers to not testify under oath to Congress, asserting Executive Privilege. Read the rest of this entry »

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Yesterday I told you about the ninth birthday of our second granddaughter Kelsey.

Today is our first granddaughter, Ashley’s tenth birthday.

Ashley was a bit over 8 pounds when she was born and she and her brother both had cheeks that looked as though they had apples stuffed in the sides of them for the longest time.

Ashley was born on her Dad’s birthday and, because they wanted her birth and later the birth of their son to be private for just them, we waited until we got the call she was here. I believe there were lots of calls to the room from me in the meantime, though.

I remember when we first walked in I saw my daughter in the bed, looking exhausted, and my son-in-law with a grip on that little baby I thought he was never going to release.

He finally asked me if I wanted to hold her and I held her in my arms for the very first time and fell in love with a baby for the second time in about 7 months. Our first grandson had been born the previous December, making us first time grandparents.

Ashley was kind of stubborn when it came to taking her pictures in utero, as she kept her legs crossed and kept us guessing her sex up until three days before she was born, at which time I took my daughter shopping to find suitable clothes to bring a little girl home from the hospital, and little girl things for her to have after she got home. Up until then everything was neutral, but we didn’t do a lot of pink.

Her coming home dress was blue with pink and white in it and a nice white collar.

She had the least amount of hair of all four of our grandchildren, but then her mother had the least amount of hair of the two of my children.

Ashley is also a very bright child who happened to have skipped second grade and has maintained an “A” average throughout school. She’ll start middle school in the fall (actually August) and will be the first of our grandchildren to graduate from high school and go on to college.

It’s good she skipped a grade because I had been fretting over how to be at hers and Patrick’s (our older grandson) graduations at the same time. (They live in different states.) Now I don’t have that problem.

Ashley has done ballet and swimming, but is mostly interested in swimming for leisure and not competition. She’s our book worm. She loves to read, so when middle school gave a reading assignment of 3 or 4 books for this summer she had them finished up in a couple of weeks.

Next, she’s on to do some community service work that is required by the time she gets through sixth grade. Her Dad has her lined up for something, but I don’t recall right now what it is. I do know by the time she’s finished she will have just 3 hours of community service to finish before she finishes sixth grade.

She and I have talked about it and I’ve suggested she go to a nursing home and visit and read to some of our elder citizens. She thinks that’s a good idea, but then anything her “Pooky” tells her is always a good idea.

Yes, I’m “Pooky” to her and her brother and my husband is “Da-ha”. I called all my grandchildren pumpkin from the time they were born and she translated pumpkin into “Pooky”. My husband’s first name is Don and when I said, “Let’s call Grandpa. Don!” for something one time while she was little she translated that into “Da”, which became “Da-ha”.

Thankfully our other grandchildren call us “Grandma” and “Grandpa”.

We are so very proud of every grandchild we have. Each is different from the others and we love each of them just for who they are.

It’s true that if I had known how much fun grandchildren would have been I would have had them first.

Happy birthday, Pumpkin, and to your Dad too!

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