Ted Turner: World Needs a 'Voluntary' One-Child Policy for the Next Hundred Years

Philly 9/11 Truth Confront Billion Eugenicist on Calls for 95% Population Reduction

Okay, so Ted Turner's not a people person. But, he has a plan to bring the world's population down to 2 billion-- a figure substantially less than current numbers-- that he says would allow for a better standard of living... for everyone.

Though it might be trying for the world to adopt the brutal one-child policy of China, it would, ideally, help humanity to avoid the nightmare cannibalism scenario Turner claims we otherwise face in the wake of global warming.

Ted Turner used his Southern charm to calm worries that he longed for 95% decline from current population levels during a question and answer session-- as the billionaire eugenicist was quoted in Audubon magazine more than a decade ago.

"That's not really true," Turner told members of Philly 9/11 Truth. He instead cited 2 billion as the target-- a mere 2/3 reduction of the human population -- which he claims would allow 'everyone' to have a decent standard of living, including a "refrigerator and air conditioner."

The 9/11 Truth activists probed the billionaire on how he would achieve these population goals-- citing policymakers like Henry Kissinger who advocate using 'food as weapon.'

Turner commented, "The way I think we should get there is have a voluntary one child per family for the next hundred years... like they do in China now."

Despite the fact that Turner himself has 5 children, he has put forward this view a number of times before. "We're too many people; that's why we have global warming," he told PBS's Charlie Rose in April. "Too many people are using too much stuff."

"On a voluntary basis, everybody in the world's got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it," Turner added during the April 2008 interview.

Ted Turner pictured with fellow eugenics enthusiast David Rockefeller, who have both contributed massive funds to population control efforts worldwide.

China's policies have been heavily criticized not only for the gross human rights violations against its dehumanized population, but also for its peer-pressure affect on the rest of the world to adopt similar polices. China, too, started with a so-called 'voluntary' policy which then led to fines and only later to more extreme punishments for having more than one child.

In the name of global warming and environmentalism, children have now been blamed as 'part of the problem' and calls to limit children have now saturated the Western World.

In the third world, Turner has contributed literally billions to population reduction, namely through United Nations programs , leading the way for the likes of Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett (Gates father, for one, has long been a leading board member of Planned Parenthood and a top eugenicist).

These same figures have also donated vast sums of money for vaccination programs that many have identified as part of the problem.

Members of Philly 9/11 Truth also asked Turner about being the largest land owner in North America. Turner suggested that his vast acreage-- estimated at more than 2 million acres-- was being put to good use, deflecting claims of hypocrisy.

Turner has also been criticized recently for advocating the production of corn-based ethanol, which has now been blamed by the U.N. and others for causing food shortages and increased poverty, particularly in the 3rd World.

Philly 9/11 Truth also confronted the unrepentant Turner after the event to further criticize his involvement with globalist agendas that continue to pursue drastic population reduction at the cost of dignity and respect for the masses of humanity.

In 1996, Turner stated in an interview with Audubon Magazine that a 95% population reduction would be ideal. Below is his quote.

“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal." Jones Report

The Iraq War Morphs Into the Iran War

It is 1939 all over again. The world waits helplessly for the next act of naked aggression by rogue states. Only this time the rogue states are not the Third Reich and Fascist Italy. They are the United States and Israel.

The targeted victims are not Poland and France, but Iran, Syria, the remains of the Palestinian West Bank and southern Lebanon.

The American mass media is overjoyed. War coverage attracts viewers and sells advertising.

The neoconservatives are ecstatic. Hegemony uber alles is back on track.

The US Air Force can’t wait “to show what it can do.”

Defense contractors see no end of the profits.

Under cover of the mayhem and propaganda, Israel can grab the remains of the West Bank and have another go at grabbing the water resources of southern Lebanon.

Unlike the US and Israel, Iran is neither occupying any other country’s territory nor threatening to invade another country. Nevertheless, propaganda against Iran is spouting from US and Israeli mouths at an increasing rate. Lie after lie rolls off the tongues of leaders of the “two great democracies.”

On April 27 Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, blamed Iran for “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq. Has Admiral Mullen forgot that it is the US, not Iran, that is responsible for as many as one million dead Iraqis and four million displaced Iraqis, the “collateral damage” of a “cakewalk war” now into its sixth year?

On April 26 the Washington Post reported that “the Pentagon is planning for potential military courses of action” against Iran.

The Bush Regime’s national security advisor says Iran is a threat in Iraq, an accusation echoed endlessly by secretary of defense Robert Gates, secretary of state Rice, vice president Cheney, and president Bush. The US, which has 150,000 troops in Iraq, is not a threat. The US troops are protecting Iraq from Iran, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. Just ask Fox “News.”

Doing its part to egg on war with Iran, the US TV news program, “60 MInutes,” gave air time to the commander of the Israeli Air Force, General Eliezer Shkedi, who declared in a special interview that Iranian president Ahmadinejad was the new Hitler and that we must not again make the mistake of disbelieving a Hitler.

There are better candidates for the role than Ahmadinejad.
Gen. Shkedi himself sounds like Hitler blaming Poland for the outbreak of the second world war. Ahmadinejad has attacked no country, whereas Israel repeatedly invades its neighbors and continues 40-year occupations of Syrian and Palestinian territory.

As Noam Chomsky has written, the US government thinks that it owns the world (Chomsky could have added that Israel thinks it owns the Middle East and America). Americans can wallow in indignation over China’s occupation of Tibet, but be perfectly content with America’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel can wax eloquently about “Palestinian terrorism” while its military and Zionist settlers terrorize Palestinians.

Americans see no hypocrisy in “their” government’s damning of Russia for opposing the incorporation of former Russian satellites and constituent parts in a US military alliance.

Americans see manifest destiny, not US aggression, when “their” government drops bombs on Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Pakistan. Americans do not think it is aggression for them to develop war plans to attack Iran or China or N. Korea or whomever, or to maintain hundreds of military bases all over the globe. The same Americans work themselves into hysterical frenzies over “Iranian influence in Iraq” and “al Qaeda plans to bring the war to America.”

As Chomsky says, we own the world. No one else counts.

Except Israel.

Israel counts so much that every presidential candidate has declared his and her willingness to expend whatever American blood and treasure are necessary “to protect Israel.” There are no limits on the promise “to defend Israel,” no matter what Israel does, no matter if Israel initiates (yet again) war with its neighbors, no matter if it continues to force Palestinians out of their homes and villages in order to “create living room” for Israelis.

With this sort of promise, why should Israel ever settle for anything less than “greater Israel”?

Just as the US government launched its illegal invasion of Iraq on the back of lies about weapons of mass destruction and mushroom clouds, the US government claims it must attack Iran or Iran will build a nuclear weapon. The Bush Regime has learned never to discard a lie as long as it works.

The lie works for the US Congress, the US media and much of the US public, but it is breaking down abroad. On April 27 the British newspaper, the Independent, responded to the recent US government claim that the Syrian facility attacked last September by Israel in an act of naked aggression was a nuclear reactor built by N. Korea:

“There is no independent way to verify any of this, especially since the installation has now been destroyed. We must rely on the integrity of the Israeli and US intelligence. That is where we hit a problem. The former US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented similar evidence to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003 showing what we were told was strong evidence of Iraqi storage of weapons of mass destruction. As we all know, that intelligence turned out to be bogus.”

A needless war, a country destroyed, all for bogus intelligence.


Why must we repeat our crime in Iran?

Why do we persist in our crime in Iraq? On April 27 McClatchy Newspapers reported that 50 Iraqi political leaders representing numerous political groups including Sunnis went to Sadr City to protest the siege by the US military. Why is al Sadr under seige?

He called for a halt to bloodshed between Iraqis, for a “liberation of ourselves and our lands from the occupier,” for “a real government and real sovereignty.” However, for the Bush Regime, rhetoric about “freedom and democracy” is but a mask behind which to impose a US puppet government. Real Iraqi leaders like al Sadr are “terrorists” who must be eliminated.

Why do the American people and “their” representatives in Congress continue to tolerate a criminal Bush Regime that uses lies and propaganda to mask its acts of naked aggression, war crimes under the Nuremberg standard?

Why does the rest of the world continue to receive political representatives from a war criminal government?

What if the rest of the world told the US to close its bases, its embassies, its CIA operations and to go home?

Self-righteous Americans would regard such demands as effrontery! We own the world.

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Counterpunch

04.30.08 -- Googling on My Mind

Copperstate Design

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Click here for abridged post in LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Henry Hook, edited by Will Shortz

GOOGLING (1D. Solver’s online recourse) has changed the world of crossword puzzles as surely as it has changed the world. Authors (or constructors) of crosswords, along with solvers are falling further and further into the pit of electronic entries -- even the clues are being affected. The crossword puzzle constructor has forced the issue -- it is possible to find a justification for almost every combination of letters in any corner of the puzzle into which the constructor has been painted. It doesn’t take a vast array of knowledge or exhausting tactile research to come up with a Mann’s “Der TOD in Venedig”.

Change that clue for GOOGLING to (1D. Crossword constructor's online recourse). Like it or not, it's here to stay! So Google this!

GENTLEONMYMIND (20A. 1968 Glen Campbell hit); GEORGIAONMYMIND (34A. 1960 Ray Charles hit); and ALWAYSONMYMIND (53A. 1982 Willie Nelson hit) are this Wednesday’s inter-related entries.

Across: 1. Taunt; 5. Slalomer’s moves; 9. “ALLI ask is a tall ship…”; John Masefield; 13. Sans deferment; 14. Till you get it right; 16. “Present” in bad kids’ Christmas stockings; 17. Acapulco acclamations; 18. Bellini two-actor; 19. Fail miserably, in slang; 23. Daughter of Muhammad Ali; 24. Cut into parts; 25. Mouse who’s always throwing bricks at Krazy Kat; 27. Hardly stuffy; 28. Aficionado; 29. Gets; 40. Peace-and-quiet venue; 41. “Whaddya waiting’ for?!”; 42. Title lover in a 1920s Broadway hit; 44. Little fingers or toes; 47. He wrote “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invest him”; 52. Borrow a partner; 55. Nolo contendere, for one; 56. Get by; 57. False deity; 58. “Gilmore Girls” daughter; 59. New Jersey’s SETON Hall University; 60. Novel ending?; 61. 1961 “space chimp”; 62. Wraps (up); 63. Accordion part.

Down: 2. Allied (with); 3. Enjoyed doing; 4. Title locale in a Cheech Marin flick; 5. Actor Billy of “Titanic”; 6. “What AGOOD boy am I!”; 7. Adorned, in the kitchen; 8. Super Bowl XXI M.V.P., first to say” I’m going to Disney World!”; 9. What demonstrators demonstrate; 10. Auto shop’s offering; 11. Longtime Cowboys coach Tom; 12. Sort; 15. Senate tally; 21. Midback muscle, briefly; 22. Villain; 26. Suffix with Meso- or Paleo-; 30. Ewe said it; 32. Singer DiFranco; 33. Mosque V.I.P.; 35. Things people are trained in?; 36. Van Susteren of Fox News; 37. Begin; 38. Put up; 39. Approached zero; 42. Burial place of King Arthur; 43. Ravel work; 45. Unfriendly; 46. Repertoire component; 48. Senate tally; 49. N.H.L. Eastern Conf. team; 50. What a traveling salesman travels; 51. Establish, as a chair; 54. Department store section; 55. Opposite of post-.

Today's Shortzesque twin clues? 15- and 48- Down, Senate tally, NAYS and AYES.

Google it!

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Redefining Iran as the Enemy in Iraq

In Washington and Tel Aviv, war drums are beating again regarding Iran, as the Bush administration and Israel’s Olmert government see the window closing on the time frame for confronting Teheran with George W. Bush in the White House.

In this guest essay, the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland looks at how – in support of this political need – the ever-shifting enemy in Iraq has become Iran:

According to General David H. Petraeus’s progress report to Congress on Iraq, the latest worst threat to the shaky U.S. position is Iranian-backed “special groups.”

This label refers to parts of Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, which Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his security forces ham-handedly sought to confront and undermine in Basra before the fall local elections.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is so passé.

This repeated allegation during the congressional hearings and the firing of Admiral William Fallon as commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East, who was an opponent of any attack on Iran, should again raise worries to war-weary Americans about a cowboy attack on Iran before the Bush administration leaves office.

On cue, administration surrogates, such as former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, repeated Petraeus’s charges: “...despite undeniable progress against Sunni radicalism [read: al-Qaeda], events in Iraq are still inseparable from the actions and attitudes of Shiite militias armed and directed by Iran—an influence that America failed to confront for many years.”

Not only has America failed to confront these Shiite militias, the Bush administration has been enabling them.

The congressional hearings failed to bring out, because of administration intention and Democratic ignorance, that Maliki’s security forces are infested with Shiite Badr Brigade militias that Iran prefers over the Iraqi nationalist Mahdi Army.

The confused milieu of Iraq, an administration with no coherent strategy to improve the conditions in that country, has always tried to downplay that the U.S.-backed Shiite government and its associated militias are the same ones backed by its archenemy, Iran.

But the hearings once again confirmed that the administration, always better at politics than at governing, does have a strategy: hold the lid on violence in Iraq until the Bush administration leaves office, and then blame any subsequent deterioration or loss in Iraq on the next administration.

This tack will be similar to the ludicrous argument that Henry Kissinger, who has been advising both the administration and presidential candidate John McCain, still uses about the Vietnam War: we were winning until the Democrats cut off funding for the war.

This explains Bush’s acceptance of Petraeus’s troop-withdrawal pause, which will undoubtedly continue until January of 2009. Of course, retaining a high level of U.S. forces, and the troop surge that preceded it, really has just been an insurance policy and a macho way to mask the real U.S. strategy of paying off the Sunni and Mahdi Army enemies.

This libertarian strategy ordinarily might be smart, except that bolstering these militias will, in the long run, exacerbate any civil war when they again begin to fight each other.

At the congressional hearings, however, there were signs that the latest botched Iraqi government offensive in Basra, the most important city in Iraq because it’s in a region containing 60 percent of the country’s oil and has Iraq’s only access to the Persian Gulf to ship that oil (why the U.S. let less capable British forces try to secure this city has been an unexplored administration blunder), was beginning to flip a few Republicans against the war.

This movement was indicated by some Republicans adopting the Democrats’ argument that Iraqis were failing to do enough to become democratic.

Although it is grossly unfair to invade a country, destroy its social fabric and economy, and then expect people who have had no experience in democracy to quickly become democrats, if it takes those rhetorical gymnastics to justify a more rapid U.S. withdrawal, then I guess it’s an improvement.

But unfortunately, as the hearings showed, progress toward a U.S. exit is very slow indeed.

Ivan Eland is Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. Dr. Eland has spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues, including stints as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. His books include The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, and Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy.

Making a 'Killing' on the 'War on Terror'

Editor’s Note: One of George W. Bush’s long-lasting legacies may be what President Dwight Eisenhower might have called the “terror-industrial complex,” a vast web of interlocking corporations, government agencies and consultancies that have turned the shock of 9/11 into a blank check against the U.S. Treasury.

In this guest essay, the Independent Institute’s Ian S. Lustick looks at the ever-expanding size of this leviathan that is devouring tax dollars and American liberties:

Nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response?

Why, absent any evidence of a serious domestic terror threat, is the War on Terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding?

The fundamental answer is that al-Qaeda’s most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes, but to hijack our political system.

For a multitude of politicians, interest groups, professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and state governments and federal agency officials, the War on Terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, project, grant and contract proposals.

For the country as a whole, however, it has become a maelstrom of waste and worry that distracts us from more serious problems.

Consider the congressional response.

In mid-2003, the Department of Homeland Security compiled a list of 160 potential terrorist targets, triggering intense efforts by representatives, senators and their constituents to find potential targets in their districts that might require protection and therefore be eligible for federal funding.

The result? Widened definitions and blurrier categories of potential targets and mushrooming increases in the infrastructure and assets deemed worthy of protection.

By late 2003, the list had increased more than tenfold to 1,849; by 2004 it had grown to 28,364; by 2005 it mushroomed to 77,069; and by 2006 it was approximately 300,000.

Across the country, hundreds of interest groups recast their traditional objectives and funding proposals to reflect the new imperatives of the new war.

The National Rifle Association declared that the War on Terror means more Americans should own firearms to defend against terrorists. The gun control lobby argued that fighting the War on Terror means passing stricter gun control laws to keep assault weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

Schools of veterinary medicine called for quadrupling funding to train veterinarians to defend the country against terrorists using foot-and-mouth disease to decimate cattle herds. Pharmacists advocated the creation of pharmaceutical SWAT teams to respond quickly with appropriate drugs to the victims of terrorist attacks.

According to a 2005 report by the Small Business Administration (SBA) inspector general, 85 percent of the businesses granted low-interest SBA counterterrorism loans failed to establish their eligibility.

The SBA authorized 7,000 loans worth more than $3 billion, including $22 million in loans to Dunkin’ Donuts franchises in nine states.

With a half-billion dollars in homeland security funds available for bulking up the counterterrorist and intelligence capabilities of state and local police and sheriff’s departments, jurisdictions throughout the country scrambled to expand lists of potential threats.

By 2006, thanks to this flood of federal funding, more than 100 police departments had established some type of intelligence unit.

Other cities found more imaginative ways to combat terrorism.
In May 2007, Augusta, Ga., officials authorized spending $3 million to protect fire hydrants against terrorist tampering. This spending decision was recommended by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, which cited a 2004 government report labeling hydrants “a top vulnerability.”

Not surprisingly, the American Waterworks Association warmly endorsed the idea of spending nearly $60 billion to protect fire hydrants nationwide.

Universities also have benefited from the ready availability of new grant and contract funds, creating graduate programs in homeland security, institutes on terrorism and counterterrorism, and proposals for academic conferences.
It is difficult to blame scientists and researchers for responding to government appeals to devote their talents to the War on Terror.

In 2004, I attended a lecture given by the official in charge of encouraging scientists to shift their research activities in this direction. We were told that no matter what topics we worked on, and whether we were natural scientists or behavioral scientists, our work likely could help in the fight against terrorism.

The official strongly encouraged us to submit grant proposals for projects based on “outside the box” thinking because, he said, there was plenty of money available.

Officially, the terrorist threat level is always and everywhere no less than elevated. The threat is constantly dangled before us: ports, border crossings, the milk supply, cattle herds, liquid natural gas tankers, nuclear power plants, drinking water, tunnels, bridges, subways.

The result: continued support for ever-increasing funding.

Within little more than half a decade America adjusted psychologically, politically and militarily to the Soviet enemy and its capacity to incinerate our cities on a moment’s notice.

We came to know the Soviet enemy very well and were able to adopt prudent, realistic and successful policies in the face of genuine threats of national destruction posed by Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.

Rather than let our fears and anxieties of Muslim fanatics drive policy, we need the same sober approach to the real but lesser threat posed by terrorists.

Ian S. Lustick is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Political Science and Director of Graduate Studies in the Political Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds the Bess W. Heyman Chair. [This story originally appeared in The Hill.]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/042408a.html

04.29.08 -- SYZYGY

Syzygy, stained glass by Carl Powell

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Click here for abridged post in LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Will Nediger, edited by Will Shortz

Five alphabetical syzygies are the inter-related entries of today’s crossword: ALLTHATJAZZ (17A. Semiauto- biographical Bob Fosse film); ALEXRODRIGUEZ (38A. A.L. M.V.P. in 2003, 2005 and 2007); APOLLOSOYUZ (60A. 1970s joint U.S./Soviet space project); ASHKENAZ (12D. Namesake of a branch of Judaism); and ALCATRAZ (38D. The Rock) -- that is to say, each entry begins with the letter A and ends with the letter Z.

SYZYGY (46D. Alignment of the sun, earth and moon, e.g.) is given an astronomical definition; however, it has a broader meaning, as defined in Webster’s:

Beyond that, this crossword puzzle’s entries are like bumper cars at an amusement park -- BATTY (4D. Loco) and CRAZED (48D. Loco), the requisite Shortzesque twin clues are a good definition. Can’t remember seeing KALKAN (2D. Brand name in dog food) and OSAKAN (8D. Resident of Japan’s “second city”) on the same page. Bashing about are JAG and ZAG, LIZ and IZE, UGH and URN, EWOK and EXES, EZRA and UZI, and the wee and wild PYX ramming about with TANYA, TARTAN, TASK, TECHNO, TOJO, TUNES and TYPE, leaving the only other long entries, JACOBITE (11D. Supporter of the House of Stuart) and LAGRANGE (39D. Georgia city or college), IDLING (3D. In neutral) in a LAZE (10D. Loll).

This puzzle also HADAGO (14A. Tried one’s hand [at]) such fare as The Beatles’ “I Am the WALRUS” (23A.) and WAGERS (34D. Exactas and trifectas); SKIBUM (1A. No stranger to the slopes) and SHASTA (1D. Daisy developed by Luther Burbank); NEWLINE (33A. “Lord of the Rings” studio); New Jersey’s MCGUIRE Air Force Base (43A.); RETINA (27D. Eye part); RUPAUL (40D. Drag performer with a wax likeness in New York’s Madame Tussauds) and ALEXEI (25D. Only son of Czar Nicholas II); AIRDRY (32D. Hang on the line) and SERUMS (35D. Blood fluids) -- rounding out with OBEYED (68D. Followed orders), “JINGLE Bells” (65A.), BLARED (41A. Trumpeted) and EUROPE (44A. It was divided by the Iron Curtain).

MOAB? UGH! SFC? Get out the FERULE (47D. Punishing rod)!

The ROLL (7A. Bun) call Across: 11. Sporty auto, for short; 15. Mongolia’s home; 16. Cigarette’s end; 19. Tai CHI (meditative martial art); 20. “Saturday Night Live” bit; 21. Schnoz; 22. Creature from the forest moon of Endor; 24. Country singer Tucker; 26. Blacken on the barbecue; 28. Laid up; 30. “Brokeback Mountain” director Lee; 31. “Well, LAH-di-dah!”; 35. River along the Quai d’Orsay; 37. Highlander’s textile pattern; 42. Things to whistle; 45. Bogey beater; 46. Certain NCO; 49. “Getting close”; 50. Arizona birthplace of Cesar Chavez; 52. More cunning; 54. It’s a piece of work; 56. Decisive defeat; 58. Book after II Chronicles; 59. Part of a coffee service; 63. Sharp turn; 64. Ilk; 66. Suffix with modern; 67. Former mates.

The DEN (29D. Cub’s place) of Downs: 5. “Yecch!”; 6. Ancient land along the Dead Sea; 7. Eastern prince; 9. Clairborne of fashion; 13. 4, on a keypad; 36. Summer hrs. along the Atlantic; 41. Audi competitor; 51. Lawn diggers; 53. Spaghetti western director Sergio; 55. Actress Winslet; 57. Hitler : Germany :: TOJO : Japan; 59. Gun in an action film; 61. Eucharist vessel; 62. Sis or bro.

About that bumper car analogy -- one last look -- HERE!

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Puzzle available on the internet at

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Ted Turner Repeats Call For Depopulation

Says diminishing farmland will lead to food riots, despite being behind corn-based ethanol push.

Billionaire Globalist Ted Turner, who earlier this month predicted that global warming would eventually lead to cannibalism, has repeated his call to curb population growth, claiming that disappearing farmland will cause food riots, despite the fact that Turner himself is behind the push to grow corn-based ethanol, an industry the UN has blamed for food shortages and increased poverty.

“There are a lot of different problems being caused by an ever-increasing number of people in a finite-sized world,” Turner told CNBC’s Bob Pisani. “The resources of the planet just can’t keep up with the demand and I’m afraid this going to be more commonplace. I’m afraid we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. It’s very complicated I do want to say.”

Watch the video.

“We’ve had warnings for a number of years,” Turner said. “Grain stocks have been dropping every year for the last 10 years or pretty close to that – the reserves. And, the environment in so many different areas is being – the pressure being put on it by the ever-increasing number of people and the number of people using more stuff and more energy – that’s what ‘s leading to global climate change and the over-fishing of the oceans," he added.

Turner cited increased vehicle usage as a reason for disappearing farmland.

“Agriculture is complicated anyway. For instance – China adds more cars, they need more roads and the only place to put more roads in China is over farmland. So you lose farmland as you increase development. We’re doing it even here in the United States.”

However, Turner failed to acknowledge the fact that one of the main reasons behind food shortages is global demand for biofuels, an industry that Turner has vigorously promoted and publicly supported in a 2006 WTO speech.

As the UN warned last year, "The global rush to switch from oil to energy derived from plants will drive deforestation, push small farmers off the land and lead to serious food shortages and increased poverty unless carefully managed".

Earlier this month, Turner caused shockwaves when he stated that inaction on global warming “will be catastrophic” and those who don't die “will be cannibals.”

"We're too many people; that's why we have global warming," he said. "Too many people are using too much stuff," adding that "on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world's got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it."

Turner himself failed to live up to such a pledge, having fathered five children, but continues to lecture the rest of us on how we should limit our procreation.

Some would find Turner's zeal to "thin" the human population hard to reconcile with his leadership of a UN initiative to combat malaria.

When one considers Turner's past comments about the supposed need to drastically cut world population levels by up to 95%, his involvement in any kind of program run under the guise of "improving health" in third world countries should be examined with severe caution.

"A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal," Turner stated in 1996.

As the Baltimore Sun reported, "Most of [Ted Turner's first donation to the United Nations Foundation of] $22 million went to programs that seek to stall population growth."

Paul Joseph Watson

The Enemy Is Us

I suppose the one saving grace of the human race is that virtually all of our problems are self-inflicted. Theoretically at least, if we are the cause of the problems, we should be able to provide the cure or correction.

Hopefully, the Democratic Party will learn from this experience that it is not a good idea to award delegates on a proportional basis. If the primaries had been winner-take-all, the party would have had its nominee long ago and could be chopping on the Republican tree.

Instead, it is stuck with an exceedingly close race that apparently can only be settled by the so-called superdelegates, who are appointed and not elected (another bad idea). This means that inevitably they will be seen as stealing the nomination from one of the two candidates. This will undoubtedly cause a rift in the party.

I used to make money betting that no matter how unlikely the Republican candidate was, the Democrats would scour the country to find somebody who could lose the race. It worked with Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and Al Gore. In the interim, of course, the Republicans picked up the Democrat habit and nominated Bush the First for a second term and then dragged out the old relic, Bob Dole, so both could be mowed down by Bill Clinton.

Now the Republicans have found another old relic, John McCain, to go up against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. What a great choice in the minds of many: an African-American, a woman or a geezer. Though they won't tell it to the pollsters or say it on television, there are still blocs of Americans who will not vote for an African-American or a woman. Racist and sexist? Of course. Who told you the American people had become civilized, urbane and educated?

This was supposed to be a shoo-in year for the Democrats. The Republican president has disapproval ratings of historic proportions, has screwed up the economy and has gotten us stuck in two wars. It should have been no contest, but the Democratic Party has managed, with its nutty rules, to make it a level playing field.

This means the geezer has a chance, provided he doesn't topple over during the campaign. He doesn't seem to be very much in touch with reality, but that will merely carry on the tradition of George W. Bush, who, as the Buddhists say, seems destined to have been born drunk and to die dreaming. They will just have to hire somebody to stay close and whisper in McCain's ear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. He seems confused.

Well, the world can't blame us. We are only 300 million souls, which is a small field to choose from. Nor can we help it that reasonably honest people with reasonably good skills can make more money in the private sector than in public service, so that we are stuck largely with crooks, lazy people and incompetents.

Another self-inflicted problem is that our whole society, like some wooden house in a swamp, is riddled with lawyers who most resemble termites. There is a truthful old saying that if a town has one lawyer, he will be poor, but if there are two, they will both prosper. That's because lawyers are hired arguers, and it takes two to have a dispute. Lawyers have almost replaced car salesmen in local television advertising.

There is a lot of talk about the rising costs of health care, but I think that lags far behind the rising cost of legal services. Legal fees seem to run into the millions of dollars in the blink of an eye these days, and not because there has been a burst of legal talent. They have their own monopoly and usually charge what the traffic will bear and then some.

But, as I said, most of our problems are self-inflicted. Let's just hope we can avoid self-destruction.


http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese451.html

Riding the warhorse: Introducing President McCain

First, allow your brain to conceive of John Sidney McCain as president of the United States. Then, form in your mouth the proper noun, President John McCain, and let it roll off your tongue into the room and ears of those nearby.

Practice it because it is what you will be saying when George Bush leaves office although you will know that George and John are one and the same. President John McCain.

With President McCain many more troops will die. And not just in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the situation, now, is not genocide of the Iraqi people, it will be under President John McCain who will, most likely, spread the disease of war to other countries.

As our military force is depleted by roadside bombs, suicide bombers, and sniper fire in addition to suicide, which is on the rise among our stretched and multi-deployed troops, the ranks will explode with a different kind of service, one that’s already operational. These are the people once turned away from recruitment stations -- the criminal population. Also, the private army will increase. Highly paid, federally funded Blackwater mercenaries, mostly unaccountable to the rule of law, will swell.

Eventually, conscription will be reinstated.

War will be a way of life. Future generations will say they don’t remember a time when our country was not at war.

President John McCain says he hates war but he seems to also despise negotiation.

Talking about his years as a prisoner in Vietnam seems to give him pleasure. He reminds us of it often enough.

John McCain will ascend not just because ours is a society that praises soldiers who are ordered to destroy but also because the mainstream media salivate over him. He dropped bombs and napalm from high in the sky, never seeing those whose skin he melted, and he became a hero here at home. He destroyed persons who must have wondered what they’d done to incur his fury, and he was lauded back in the US. A legend was born. A massive ego was created. He perceives himself as a kaleidoscope of sacrifice and heroism, the candidate who will send more battalions to Iraq and will not leave Iraq until success is achieved.

Hillary Clinton understands this and is ramping up her alpha female by bullying Iran, proving her loyalty to Israel. Barack Obama says he has what it takes to protect Israel. But they are out of their league compared to John McCain who actually livens up a bit, managing to not look like he was just exhumed, when singing about bombing Iran and issuing harsh warnings to North Korea, Syria, and Russia.

Despite the world consensus that the US has lost its moral standing and power, so many Americans refuse to believe that our might doesn’t make us right. Even some who oppose the war think that John McCain can best handle Iraq.

And, then, there’s McCain’s latest triumph. When the North Carolina Republican Party created an ad calling Obama “extreme” because of his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and implied that Obama heard Wright’s sermons, McCain condemned the ad. For this, he should be proclaimed McSaint. How wily he and his handlers are. The media grabbed this ball, airing the ad, over and over, while extolling the goodness of McCain for his denunciation of the swiftboating of Obama. Gullible voters will say McCain’s a man of great character, adding this to the war-hero status and the maverick image.

We are so easily fooled.

The truth is that McCain carries the weight of too many years inside the Capital Beltway and is known to brim with the rage of a tyrant whose demands have been ignored.

But he grins and calls us his friends when he talks about his soul mate, war.

President McCain. Say it. Get used to it.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3223.shtml

New DNC Ad Attacks McCain for 100 Years in Iraq Comment

“If all he offers is more of the same….is John McCain the right choice for America’s future?”

The neoconning of a nation

Vice-President, shilling troupe of retired generals, deliver fantastic tales for their cause.

PARIS -- U.S. intelligence released a dramatic video last Thursday, supposedly taken by an Israeli spy, that purportedly showed North Korean technicians helping build a nuclear reactor in Syria.

The reactor was destroyed seven months ago by Israeli warplanes.

Until now Israel and the U.S. have remained silent about the attack. Syria claimed a warehouse was hit, but curiously said nothing more about what was an act of war. Washington offered no proof the reactor, if it was one, would have produced weapons rather than electric power. U.S. and Israeli intelligence have long stated Syria had no nuclear weapons capabilities.

Vice-President Dick Cheney and fellow neocons forced the CIA to release the James Bondish video in an effort to sabotage an impending six-nation agreement to end North Korea's nuclear program. They bitterly oppose the deal for being too soft on Pyongyang. Neocons long have worried the possibility of North Korea selling nuclear technology to Arab states posed a potential threat to Israel.

This mysterious imbroglio also is being used by Israel's rightwing Likud Party, a close ally of U.S. neocons, to attack political rival Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Party.

BACK-CHANNEL TALKS

Olmert has been involved in Turkish-brokered, back-channel peace talks with Syria for years. Likud and its U.S. allies are determined to sabotage any deal with Damascus that would return the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered in the 1967 war, to Syria. The Likudniks also sought to derail efforts by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter to encourage the Israeli-Syrian talks, and get Israel and the militant Palestinian movement, Hamas, to talk.

Under the purported deal, Israel would return the Golan Heights in exchange for Damascus' agreement to sever its close links with Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Hamas. Syria also would grant Israel important water rights. The fate of up to 250,000 Syrian inhabitants driven from Golan remains uncertain.

Israel, backed by the Bush administration, certainly has been using the carrot of a return of Golan to entice Syria away from Iran. But there is also a big stick: Ever-stronger threats of a U.S.-Israeli attack on Syria. Israel's September attack on Syria was a clear warning.

Cheney and fellow militarists are pushing hard for attacks on Syria, Lebanon and Iran before President George W. Bush leaves office. Neocons have flocked to Sen. John McCain's banner -- in spite of Hillary Clinton's vow to "obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. They believe U.S. attacks on Arab states and/or Iran would prove decisive in winning the presidency for McCain this November. A U.S. attack on Syria could well be the first step of a broader air war against Lebanon and Iran.

SYRIAN REACTOR

Meanwhile, Cheney and allies in Congress and the media are also using the Syrian reactor hubbub to undermine efforts by the U.S. state department, a primary hate object for neocons, to implement the nuclear weapons freeze with North Korea. State department boss Condoleezza Rice has run for cover, leaving her chief negotiator with North Korea to twist in the wind.

As the latest furor builds over the nefarious North Korean, we should remember that this scare story comes from the same Washington fib factory that manufactured all the alarms and "evidence" about Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaida.

North Koreans are pretty scary, but their nuclear capabilities and the threat they supposedly pose have been exaggerated. South Korea and European intelligence agencies, for example, are cautious about Washington's claims about North Korea and Syria.

The New York Times revealed last week what this column has long said: The Pentagon has duped Americans and Canadians by organizing a bunch of retired U.S. generals -- mislabelled "independent military experts" -- to shill for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Watch these rent-a-generals again prostitute themselves on TV by promoting the administration's party line about the great Syrian nuclear menace.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2008/04/27/5401676-sun.php

04.28.08 -- NECKING

Monday, April 28, 2008

Click here for LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Gary Disch, edited by Will Shortz

NECKING (41A. Making out … or a hint to this puzzle’s four hidden articles of clothing), along with ROOMSTOLET (17A. Boardinghouse sign); NOVASCOTIA (64A. Halifax’s home); ANTIELITE (11D. Favoring common folk) and NASCARFAN (34D. Daytona 500 enthusiast), are this Monday back-to-work crossword inter-related entries.

Whoa! This is certainly minimal clothing -- stole, ascot, tie, scarf -- sounds like formal wear at a nudist colony. Other articles of “clothing” (or the lack of it) in the puzzle include SASH (1A. “Miss America” might be printed on one); LOADS (57D. Laundry units) and naturally, NUDE (41D. Michelangelo’s David, e.g.).

The TANGLE (25A. Snarled mess) of the Monday commute could easily lead off this puzzle’s rubber- NECKING plethora of crosswordese with the six-letter group including NEPALI (23A. Katmandu resident); PREVUE (35A. Sneak peek: Var.); UNSEAL (44A. Open, as an envelope); ACETIC (50A. Vinegary); THRALL (54A. Slave); BEAGLE (10D. Snoopy, for one); ICEAGE (47D. Time of advancing glaciers); preceded by two seven-letter entries: HYMNALS (4D. Church songbooks) and PERGOLA (45D. Shaded passageway).

Five-letter entries include ALTAR, ANIME, AROSE, ASONE, CAPOS, COVEN, GRECO, INPEN, IGLOO, IVORY, LOIRE, LUCID, OMEGA, PILOT, RELAX, SARAN, SETON, STOOP, SYNOD, TANGS, UNLIT.

Four-letter: ALFA, ALTO, ANON, ARES, ARTY, ASPS, ATOP, AVOW, BABA, BOON, CARE, CASH, CHIC, ENOS, GINS, GREG, HONE, LANA, LARD, LICE, NOGO, PEAL, PEAS, PUNS, SELA, STAG, URDU, VIAL, WACO.

Three-letter: ADS, CAT, EKE, ERA, ISM, SOD and TEA.

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For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.

Across: 5. Mafia bosses; 10. “Ali ___ and the Forty Thieves”; 14. Painterish; 15. Japanese cartoons; 16. Grandson of Adam; 19. Perched on; 20. Together; 21. Canceled; 22. Goes out in game of rummy; 27. Old-time actress Turner; 29. “Chill!”; 32. Many conundrums have them; 39. Suffix with human or organ; 40. Pitcher’s stat; 45. Pod contents; 46. Perfectly clear; 48. Some creepy-crawlies; 58. The “C” in T.L.C.; 60. Openly declare; 62. Eskimo home; 63. ___ Romeo (car); 66. Male-only; 67. El ___, Spanish artist; 68. Cooking fat; 69. Sharpen, as skills; 70. Church council; 71. God of war.
Down: 1. Brand of kitchen wrap; 2. Lifted off the launch pad, e.g.; 3. Not stand completely erect; 5. Purrer; 6. Soon, to poets; 7. Stove light; 8. Letter after phi, chi, psi; 9. Not vacillating about; 12. Great benefit; 13. Nile reptiles; 18. Emmy-winning Ward; 24. Permanently, as writing; 26. Tour de France winner LeMond; 28. Rainbow shapes; 30. Between ports; 31. Lennon/Ono’s “Happy ___ (War is Over)”); 32. Sound of laughter; 33. Language of Lahore; 36. ___ out a living; 37. Lab bottle; 38. Not yet burning; 49. A la mode; 51. Zesty flavors; 52. Old piano key material; 53. Witches’ group; 55. Place to exchange “I do’s”; 56. Valley known for its chateaux; 58. Bills and coins; 59. Saxophone type; 61. Texas city on the Brazos; 65. Old prairie home material.

UN Confirms and Defends Deletion of Ban Statements from Transcripts, What Else Gets Erased?

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 -- At the UN statements, like web sites, can be made to disappear. While the range of web sites blocked inside the UN, which Inner City Pres first reported on earlier this month, includes watchdog sites like GlobalCompactCritics.net, on Monday UN Spokesperson Michele Montas defended the omission from the UN's online transcript of Ban Ki-moon's April 16 Q&A session with the press of an answer he gave about Iran.

According to, yes, the UN's transcript, at Monday's noon briefing Inner City Press asked
I noticed last week when there was a stakeout by the Secretary-General, he made a statement about Iran, and when I read the transcript, it wasn't in the transcript. There was a whole paragraph where he said that he welcomed cooperation by Iranian authorities with the IAEA.
Spokesperson Montas: It was simply that the question was about Iraq and he answered on Iran so on the transcript, we put his answer on Iraq.

Inner City Press: Okay, I guess I am saying, the thing on Iran stands. That is his position on Iran.

Spokesperson Montas: Yes.

Inner City Press: I guess I am wondering, has there been a thought on whether the transcript should be changed in that way?

Spokesperson Montas: No, because he was not asked that question. The transcript is supposed to reflect really the questions asked and the answers that occur at a stakeout or a briefing.

But the answer that actually occurred was excised from the transcript. On April 15, Ban was asked a question about the situation in Iraq and an upcoming meeting in Kuwait. Video here, at Minute 13:25. Ban responded about Iraq's neighbor, Iran, that "Iranian authorities should fully comply with the most relevant Security Council resolutions," adding that he is "satisfied with the progress" of Iranian authorities in complying with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Video here, from Minute 13:35. Then his spokesperson Michele Montas whispered that the question had concerned not Iran but Iraq.

Ban gave a brief answer, which is the only part of the answer that the UN's transcript includes:

Question: What are your comments on the situation in Iraq, and what would be your message to Iraq's neighbors who are meeting next week in Kuwait?

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: This is going to be a very important meeting. Unfortunately for me, I will not be able to participate in person, because of a scheduling problem. As I said, I am going to visit African countries exactly on that day, therefore I am going to dispatch Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. B. Lynn Pascoe. But I am going to convene, and myself preside over an International Compact with Iraq [meeting] in late May, May 29th , in Stockholm.

Ban's responses about Iran, clearly visible on the video, are simply excised from the UN's written transcript. If "the transcript is supposed to reflect really the questions asked and the answers that occur at a stakeout," why erase the answer that actually occurred? Anyone can make a mistake. But since this got deleted, what else is being concealed?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1transcripts042108.html

Inner City Press

http://innercitypress.blogspot.com/2008/04/un-confirms-and-defends-deletion-of-ban.html

04.27.08 -- Oops!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Click here for LARGE PRINT.

Puzzle by Oliver Hill, edited by Will Shortz

Perhaps in anticipation that this crossword puzzle would not be dreary or tedious enough, there are ten across entries deliberately misspelled, which along with the central across entry IMPROPERLYSPELLED (65A. Like the answers to the 10 asterisked clues, more often than any other English words, according to a 1999 study) are today’s little spelling bee lesson of inter-related entries.

MILLENIUM (26. *Long, long time) = millennium; INNOCULATE (32. *Stick with a needle, maybe) = inoculate; EMBARASSMENT (34. *Absence at a nudist colony?) = embarrassment; HARRASSES (44. *Bugs) = harasses; MINISCULE (51. Wee) = minuscule (however, Webster‘s has miniscule as an alternate spelling); NOTICABLE (82. *Conspicuous) = noticeable; SUPERCEDE (87. *Supplant) = supersede; PERSEVERENCE (94. *Doggedness) = perseverance; ACCOMODATE (97. *Oblige) = accommodate; OCCURENCE (107. *Event) = occurrence.

I just had a war with my spell-check function while typing the above.

Saturday’s puzzle offered us CURATESEGG (18A. Something damned with faint praise, in British lingo); today’s gives us CURES (99D. Parish priests) and VICARS (96D. Parish priests) -- very Shortzesque -- Heavens (114D. SKY) and then “Heavens!” (109D. EGAD) -- well it is Sunday!

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For an additional cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Click on images to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.

Across: Program executors, for short; 5. Miracle- ___; 8. Tribal council makeup, often; 14. Casual attire; 19. Like the carol “Away in a Manger,” originally; 21. Wine sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon; 22. Be; 23. Turn away; 24. Foot, slangily; 25. 2% alternative; 28. Loot; 30. Yank or Tiger; 31. Half-baked; 41. What a Tennessee cheerleader asks for a lot?; 42. Stuck; 43. Neighbor of Ga.; 50. Jazzy Jones; 54. Below par; 55. X-ray ___; 56. “What a moron I am!”; 57. Gawk at; 58. Whatchamacallit; 60. Monterrey mister; 62. Suffix not seen much in London; 63. Least bold; 69. Narrative; 71. ___ choy (Chinese vegetable)(; 72. Contract specifics; 73. Luster; 74. Tip of the Arabian Peninsula; 76. Massage target?; 77. Spicy cuisine; 81. Debt acknowledgment; 86. Trying period for a doctoral student; 91. Clean air org.; 91. Baseball’s ___ league; 93. Gen ___; 103. Commotion; 104. Series of rounds; 105. Is undecided; 113. Root used in perfumery; 115. Farmer’s ___; 117. Attempts; 118. T-shirt style; 119. Follows; 120. Like some pens; 121. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” e.g.; 122. Plain; 123. Alternative to dial-up; 124. French noblemen.
Down: 1. Symbol of happiness; 2. Long-haired sheepdog; 3. Regulated bus.; 4. Writer/illustrator Silverstein; 5. Mustang competitor; 6. Photoshop options; 7. Tops; 8. Ambulance figure: Abbr.; 9. Many August babies; 10. Disarming words?; 11. Rocker John; 12. Violinist’s need; 13. Pen, to Pierre; 14. 1950’s Braves All-Star pitcher Burdette; 15. Relaxes, in a way; 16. It’s bowed; 17 Archipelago part; 18. Cubic meter; 20. Laredo-to-Galveston dir.; 27. “Bro!”; 29. Cliff; 33. Spanish “a”; 34. Karl Max’s one; 35. Alphabet quartet; 36. Expose; 37. Product with TV’s first advertising jingle, 1948; 38. Word of encouragement; 39. QB Manning; 40. “Illmatic” rapper; 44. Most massive; 45. The whole wide world; 46. Show up again; 47. Judged, with “up”; 48. They’re seen in many John Constable paintings; 49. ___ machine; 51. Orator’s no-no; 52. Restaurant chain since 1958; 53. Close, as a relationship; 56 Laura of “Jurassic Park”; 58. Some shampoos; 59. Running mate with Dick; 60. Like cotton candy; 61. Commercial come-on; 62. Type; 64. Ticklish one?; 65. Freeze; 66. Target of many a Bart Simpson prank call; 67. Rice-A-___; 68. Marmalade component; 69. Without adjustments; 70. Dynasty of Confucius and Lao-Tzu; 75. Trendy; 77. Olive or apple; 78. Goldie of “Cactus Flower”; 79. Actor Baldwin; 80. “Ah, yes”; 83. O.K. mark; 84. When Earth Day is celebrated: Abbr.; 85. ___ profundo; 86. Anthem contraction; 88. Rare imports, maybe; 89. Crucial sleep stage; 90. Cock-a-doodle-doo; 92. Examination; 94. Opposite of “nod off”; 95. Marked permanently; 96. Parish priests; 97. Previously mentioned; 98 Toes’ woes; 99. Parish priests; 100. Matriarchs; 101. ___ -garde; 102. Brusque; 106. Ooze; 108. Dorm heads, for short; 109. “Heavens!”; 110. International chain of fusion cuisine restaurants; 111. Course after trig; 112. Somme times; 114. Heavens; 116. Literary inits.