The Pumpkin Papers

Miracles do happen: A Christmas Story

2004-12-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Thank God for people like Debi-Faris-Cifelli and her husband Steve of Calimesa, CA. They are responsible for the non-profit organization the 'Garden of Angels'. It is a cemetery for unwanted and/or abandoned babies which have been found in various places including trash dumpsters. If not for this fine couple these little angels would not have a decent resting place. Well, God surely does work in mysterious ways because they have recently won a 26 million dollar California Lottery Jackpot. I feel certain that much good will come of that Godsend.

Sacramento Bee AP article

Something to ponder on your Thanksgiving Day

2004-11-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

As you sit down today with family and friends, say a special prayer for our fallen heros whom have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. "Semper Fi", indeed!

An excerpt from The American Thinker - 'Fallen Marines'

"I had a lot of time to think about the men that I had the privilege to carry. I had a chance to read the manifest on each and every one of them. I read about their religious preferences, their marital status, the injuries that were their cause of death. All of them were under age 27 with most in the 18-24 range. Most of them had wives and children. They had all been killed by an " IED" which I can only deduce as an [improvised] explosive devices. Mostly fatal head injuries and injuries to the chest area. I could not even imagine the bravery that they must have displayed and the agony suffered in this God Forsaken War. My respect and admiration for these men and what they are doing to help others in a foreign land is beyond calculation. I know that they are all with God now and in a better place."

May God Bless them all and "Ooo Rah"

Victory!

2004-11-03T14:28:00.001-07:00

The greatest battle of World War IV ends in total victory for the forces of good. Please say a prayer of thanks.

Bin Laden Endorses Kerry, Gets Talking Points Directly from Moveon.org and DNC

2004-10-29T15:50:00.000-06:00

Did Bin Laden receive his talking points from Michael Moore or Joe Lockhart?

"So he transferred the oppression of freedom and tyranny to his son and they call it the Patriot Law to fight terrorism. He was bright in putting his sons as governors in states and he didn't forget to transfer his experience from the rulers of our region to Florida to falsify elections to benefit from it in critical times. "

"Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the US armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves when they most needed him because it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting was more important than paying attention to airplanes butting the towers which gave us three times the time to execute the operation thank god. "

"Bin Laden pointed to the millions of pounds of explosives dropped on Iraqi children as bush his son had done, as he said to remove an old agent and install a new agent to help instealing the oil of iraq. "

Transcript on Drudge

President Bush on Defending the Defenseless

2004-10-27T15:32:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, Bush made an appeal for Scoop Jackson Democrats. Today in Pennsylvania, he made a pitch to pro-life Democrats: "The Democrat Party has also a great tradition of defending the defenseless. I remember the strong conscience of the late Democratic Governor from Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, who once said that when we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins. I remember the moral clarity of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, who said that partial birth abortion is 'as close to infanticide as anything I have ever come upon.' Many Democrats look at my opponent and see an attitude that is much more extreme. He says that life begins at conception, but denies that our caring society should prevent even partial-birth abortion.
"Preventing partial-birth abortion is an ethical conviction shared by many people of every faith, and by people who have no religion at all. I understand good people disagree on the life issue. So I've worked with Republicans and Democrats to find common ground on difficult questions and to move this good-hearted nation toward a culture of life. If you're a Democrat who believes that our society must always have room for the voiceless and the vulnerable, I would be honored to have your vote.
"There are Democrats all over America, north and south, east and west, who believe their party's nominee does not share their deepest values. I know the Democrats are not going to agree with me on every issue. Yet on the big issues of our country's security, victory in the war against terror, improving our public schools, respecting marriage and human life, I hope people who usually vote for the other party will take a close look at my agenda. If you're a Democrat, and your dreams and goals are not found in the far left wing of the Democrat Party, I'd be honored to have your vote. And next Tuesday, I ask you stand with me."

NRO the Corner

The extent to which Kerry will pander has no bounds.

2004-10-26T01:26:00.000-06:00

Whom of us can forget the many times which John Kerry cast aspersions on the coalition that President Bush assembled for the war against terror and Iraq? He at many times called it the, "Coalition of the Bribed and the Coerced". Now, incredibly, he wants to thank the Poles and promises to help them gain jobs during the reconstruction of Iraq.

"I am grateful to Poland for standing by the Euro-American partnership these last few years and for its courageous contributions to Iraq," Kerry said in the interview, which was also carried by Nowy Dziennik, a Polish language paper published in the United States. "I will not forget that."

John Kerry has absolutely no shame.

Kerry Praises Poland's Help in Iraq by AP

More Kerry Lies -No meeting with the U.N Security Council

2004-10-25T01:41:00.000-06:00

At least Kerry didn't try to stake claim to inventing the Internet, of course, Al Gore took claim to that.

"U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

A U.S. official with intimate knowledge of the Security Council's actions in fall of 2002 said that he was not aware of any meeting Mr. Kerry had with members of the panel. An official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations remarked: "We were as surprised as anyone when Kerry started talking about a meeting with the Security Council."

At a New Mexico rally last month, Mr. Kerry said Mr. Bush will "do anything he can to cover up the truth." At what campaign aides billed as a major foreign-policy address, Mr. Kerry said at New York University last month that "the first and most fundamental mistake was the president's failure to tell the truth to the American people."

The Democrat has also made his own veracity a centerpiece of his campaign, calling truthfulness "the fundamental test of leadership." Mr. Kerry closed the final debate by recounting what his mother told him from her hospital bed, "Remember: integrity, integrity, integrity." In an interview published in the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Mr. Kerry was asked what he would want people to remember about his presidency. He responded, "That it always told the truth to the American people."

Security Council members deny meeting Kerry
by Joel Mowbray of The Washington Post

President Bush, a man of vision and conviction

2004-10-25T01:17:00.000-06:00

"I am a person who looks long-term, and I recognize the path we need to take. There will be moments when people are unhappy and disgruntled with some decision-making. Nonetheless, what matters most is to reach the destination. And my job as President is to see clearly where I want to go and be steadfast in my resolve to realize that vision."

"Iraq is a central commitment in the War on Terror, which requires all our resources, all our strengths," he said in Mason City, Iowa last week. "If America shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy . . . . We're staying on the offensive, we'll strike the terrorists abroad, we'll spread freedom and we will prevail . . . . as we did in Afghanistan . . . ."

'We have been in Iraq for some 19 months, and a free Iraq is now emerging . . . . But, you know, the true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.'

Person to Person with President Bush by Trude Feldman

"The Worst President in History" made this happen:

2004-10-09T09:20:00.000-06:00

Between John Howard's resounding victory in Australia, the miraculous election in Afghanistan and the President's performance in St. Louis, this will go down as a pivotal weekend in the history of World War IV. Maybe even the tipping point.

The One Debate Question We'd Like to Ask John Kerry

2004-10-07T09:53:00.000-06:00

"Senator Kerry, you've accused the President of lying to or, at the very least, misleading the American public and world leaders in an effort to gain their support for the invasion of Iraq. This is a very a serious accusation and you are a lawyer. When lawyers make such an accusation they are required to prove a motive. What, sir, was the President's motivation for doing such a thing?"

To gain re-election? The President has a pretty direct example in his family that a perceived successful war in Iraq does not ensure re-election.

To prop up his father's reputation? Well, lets see. He went about things pretty differently than his father did and the very fact that he felt the need to take Hussein out is a tacit acceptance of at least some failure on his father's fault... or at least the process his father followed. Hard to see how that reinforces his father. Continued enforcement of the terms of the cease fire would seem to be a better approach.

Oil? That doesn't seem to be happening either. Even so, wouldn't it have been simpler to invade Venezuela?
I would dearly love to see Senator Kerry answer this question. Not only because a sensible answer is impossible, but because the very process of answering it would inevitably group him with the Michael Moore's and Mary Mapes' of this world.

Oh and if I could ask one more question it would be: "Senator, why did you remove links to Joe Wilson's website from your own?"
I'd dearly love to hear the answer to that one. Could the answer be because the Senate Intelligence Report showed that the Iraqis really were seeking enriched uranium?

Silky Pony is ridden awfully hard tonight. I think he'll be needing an extra helping of oats and be put to bed very, very early!

2004-10-05T23:37:00.000-06:00

For some of the best post debate quotes, please visit Kerry Spot at NRO.

My initial conclusion: This was the single most devastating one-sided drubbing since Lloyd Bentsen smacked Dan Quayle all around the stage in 1988.

UPDATE: The Bush campaign must be happy - they have a bunch of quotes to distribute to reporters:
ABC News' Poll Shows 43 percent think Vice President Cheney won debate, only 35 percent think Edwards won. (ABC's "Special Coverage," 10/5/04)
(sorry for the excessive capitalization, folks)

NBC's Tom Brokaw: "Dick Cheney Reminded Me Of George Foreman, Kind Of A Slow Gait, But A Powerful Right-Hand When He Unleashed It In A Number Of Areas As He Went After The Kerry-Edwards Ticket." (NBC's "Special Coverage," 10/5/04)

MSNBC's Ron Reagan: "This Time, I Think The Chattering Classes, And I Include All Of Us Among Them, Will Come Out On The Side Of There Was A Stature Gap There, And It Was To Cheney's Advantage." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 10/5/04)

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Calls The Debate Between Vice President Cheney The "Howitzer" And Senator John Edwards The "Water Pistol." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 10/05/04)

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell: "I Think Dick Cheney Did Awfully Well, At, First Of All, Putting John Edwards In His Place. Saying That I Have Been Presiding Over The Senate, And I Didn't Meet You Until Tonight. Talking About His Not Having Been On The Job Was Pretty Devastating." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 10/5/04)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: "I Tell You, Tonight, No Doubt About It, Edwards Got Obliterated By Dick Cheney. This Is The Most Surprising Part. This Debate Actually Turned In Cheney's Direction When They Started Talking About Domestic Issues. I Thought Cheney Handled The Foreign Policy Issues Very Well." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 10/5/04)

Kerry Spot at National Review Online

Well done Mr. Vice President!

2004-10-05T23:01:00.000-06:00

Vice President Cheney was like a man among boys tonight. He was able to set the record straight about everything that we were hopeful that GW should have said last thursday. Well as the saying goes," better late than never." Gary Andres presents a brief synopsis of Cheney's crushing performance over the 'Silky Pony' earlier this evening. Here are a few of the little kisses that Cheney blew Silky Pony and John Kerry's way:

"If you can't stand up to Howard Dean, how can you stand up to Al Qaeda."

"I'm the president of the Senate and first time I met you was tonight."

"I can think of lots of words to describe John Kerry, but consistency is not one of them."

Mission Accomplished, Veep night in Cleveland by Gary Andres

All is not lost, Bush by 5%

2004-10-04T16:39:00.000-06:00

The ABC/WASHINGTON POST POLL and the PEW poll, both have the Bush lead at 5% points. Favorability ratings remained essentially unchanged in both polls. It now appears that the only post debate poll showing the president as an underdog is the NEWSWEEK poll, indicating Bush down by 2% points. As previously posted by my compatriot, Checkers, the NEWSWEEK post debate poll was weighted towards the Democrats.

ABC/WASHINGTON POST

PEW RESEARCH

For further detailed comparisons of the above mentioned polls, please visit Jim Geraghty's 'Kerry Spot'.

More media manipulation.

2004-10-04T10:05:00.000-06:00

Once again the major media is trying to manipulate the presidential race.

Here's Newsweek's voter distribution for their 9/4/2004 poll:

374 Republicans (plus or minus 6)
303 Democrats (plus or minus 6)
300 Independents (plus or minus 6)

PR Newswire Summary of Newsweek 9/4/2004 Poll

Here's Newsweek's voter distribution for their 10/2/2004 poll:

345 Republicans (plus or minus 6)
364 Democrats (plus or minus 6)
278 Independents (plus or minus 7)

PR Newswire Summary of Newsweek 10/2/2004 Poll

There is a legitimate argument among pollsters on how to weight a poll. There is nothing legitimate about changing the distribution this dramatically from one poll to the next. Newsweek has manufactured a post debate 'bounce' for Kerry and, just as with the phony National Guard document story, it was reported everywhere.

Meanwhile the new Tarrance Group / GWU Poll shows no change in the President's lead but a slight change in his direction on a few of the internal questions:

Tarrance Group 10/3/04 Poll

A request...

2004-09-30T13:05:00.000-06:00

At some point today, before the debate, we request all of our visitors to drop to their knees and say a prayer for this good man, our president.

Senator Kerry Becomes the Latest "Pumpkin Papers" Fan.

2004-09-28T16:59:00.000-06:00

Apparently he likes us so much he's dyed his face orange! Thanks, Senator.

Are We Winning?

2004-09-28T16:47:00.000-06:00

A French liberal believes we are. From David Ignatius in the Washington Post:

' "The principal goal of terrorism -- to seize power in Muslim countries through mobilization of populations galvanized by jihad's sheer audacity -- has not been realized," Kepel writes. In fact, bin Laden's followers are losing ground: The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been toppled; the fence-sitting semi-Islamist regime in Saudi Arabia has taken sides more strongly with the West; Islamists in Sudan and Libya are in retreat; and the plight of the Palestinians has never been more dire. And Baghdad, the traditional seat of the Muslim caliphs, is under foreign occupation. Not what you would call a successful jihad.

Kepel argues that the insurgents' brutal tactics in Iraq -- the kidnappings and beheadings, and the car-bombing massacres of young Iraqi police recruits -- are increasingly alienating the Muslim masses. No sensible Muslim would want to live in Fallujah, which is now controlled by Taliban-style fanatics. Similarly, the Muslim masses can see that most of the dead from post-Sept. 11 al Qaeda bombings in Turkey and Morocco were fellow Muslims. '

Are the Terrorists Failing? by David Ignatius

Tony Blair Continues to Stand Tall

2004-09-28T16:27:00.000-06:00

Tony Blair grows as a leader and continues to further cement his place in British history with each passing day. He also seems to have sworn off Clintonism and the 'third way' for good. Ignore the blaring headlines from the liberal media crowing about his 'apology' and read the speech he made today to the Labor Party conference:

"So the decisions I've been called on to make are stark.

When I hear people say: "I want the old Tony Blair back, the one who cares", I tell you something.

I don't think as a human being, as a family man, I've changed at all.

But I have changed as a leader.

I have come to realise that caring in politics isn't really about "caring".

It's about doing what you think is right and sticking to it.

So I do not minimise whatever differences some of you have with me over Iraq and the only healing can come from understanding that the decision, whether agreed with or not, was taken because I believe, genuinely, Britain's future security depends on it.

There has been no third way, this time.

Believe me, I've looked for it."

Say a prayer for Tony Blair. The world needs him.

Full text of Blair's speech

It appears that John Kerry's brain aneurysm has now reached critical mass.

2004-09-28T01:24:00.000-06:00

After weeks of President Bush calling for the stoppage of all of the so called 527 adds, John Kerry has now come to the revelation that the " advertising war" must stop. What is so incredible about this statement is that it comes after the barrage of attacks that Kerry's lie mongers, particularly, Michael Moore, have been waging against our president for at least the last year. Kerry even tries his hand at his own "Bushism" by coining a new term for these trumped up, scare tactic adds as "misleadesments".

"I'm calling them 'misleadisments,'" Kerry said of the adverts. "It's all scare tactics ... because (Bush) has no record to run on."

The Democrats have complained bitterly about a new advertisement that shows Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), September 11 hijack leader Mohamed Atta, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and the ruins of the World Trade Center, and questioned whether Kerry was up to dealing with them.

A statement called the spot, run by the Republican group Progress for America Voter Fund, the latest in a series of "desperate and despicable attack ads" aimed at diverting attention from Bush's record."

In one breath, Kerry states that Bush, "has no record" and then goes on to say that the ads are aimed at "diverting attention away from Bush's record". A brain aneurysm is the only thing that can explain these wildly opposing statements.

Be sure to check out this soon to be classic Kerry rhetoric piece today.

"Kerry appeals for end to election year advertising war" by YAHOO News

The Beheadings Go Beyond Simple Terror

2004-09-27T16:55:00.000-06:00

In a fascinating article at National Review Online Michael Ledeen argues that the barbaric beheadings are additionally intended for recruitment. Ledeen also makes the case that enemies of the war are intentionally trying to mute the viciousness of the Islamic terrorists:

"The opponents of our campaign against the terror masters immediately recognized that it was crucial to cancel that message, to dilute it with nuance and deception, and the first step in their campaign was to stop broadcasting the images of 9/11. They justified it by saying they did not want to shock the American people, that the pictures were too horrible, that we needed to move on. In like manner, they now say that the beheadings should not be shown, because they too are too shocking, too upsetting to our sensitivities. Others say they should not be shown because in showing them we risk becoming indifferent to such acts, losing our sense of shock and our will to resist."

"Know Thine Enemy" by Michael Ledeen

Gallup and Washington Post / ABC polls out.

2004-09-27T16:26:00.000-06:00

As expected the President's lead has diminished slightly but still looks to be solid. Thursday's debate appears to be Senator Kerry's last chance to gain traction.

Gallup
Washington Post/ABC

A Conflict of Faiths

2004-09-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

In the early 1950's Whittaker Chambers recast what was thought to be a political conflict into a conflict of faith. At perhaps the darkest point in this battle Chambers joined the side which he believed would be the eventual losers - the side of the anti-Communists and the free world. Almost thirty years after his death as West and East Berliners danced upon the wall bisecting their city, somewhere Chambers enjoyed a relieved smile. Now it seems as if that fall was inevitable. But it was never inevitable. Brave men, doing what they knew to be right, unafraid of criticism by those with minds too small to comprehend the gravity of the times made it happen.

After a brief period in which our leaders pretended that the dangers of the world could be ignored and avoided we face a similar predicament today. Unfortunately few have the courage to step forward and state that our battle is not political but a battle of faiths that no political compromise will solve. At the Pumpkin Papers we suffer under no such delusion. The peoples of the world are involved in a global war between the forces of radical Islam and those who choose not to fall under its yoke. The battle is that simple. Yet the players their motives and their means, many of whom are left over from the previous war, are as deceptive, inscrutable and barbaric as those we previously faced.

The Pumpkin Papers will chronicle the minor skirmishes and the major battles of this war of faith and culture.