"US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand.
As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.
A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine."
"In response to a study that found the Defence Department lax in the way it handles its bullets, mortars, bombs and torpedoes, the military is creating a new ammunition safety office.
The study found enough evidence of safety gaps to recommend a complete overhaul in the way the Canadian Forces handles its $3.2-billion inventory of explosives and other destructive material."
Report attacks 'myth' of foreign fighters
"The US and the Iraqi government have overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, "feeding the myth" that they are the backbone of the insurgency, an American thinktank says in a new report.
Foreign militants-mainly from Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - account for less than 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)."
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"The original purpose of this meeting has been completely distorted.
The imposed center of debate has been a so-called reform process that overshadows the most urgent issues, what the peoples of the world claim with urgency: the adoption of measures that deal with the real problems that block and sabotage the efforts made by our countries for real development and life.
Five years after the Millennium Summit, the harsh reality is that the great majority of estimated goals- which were very modest indeed- will not be met."
"Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, also warned the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis.Chávez says US plans to invade Venezuela
He told reporters later the crisis will keep growing, "not because we the producers want it but because we are running out of oil.''
Chavez singled out the United States as the most wasteful country, saying he was shocked when a quarter of all the cars he counted Thursday morning on New York streets had one person in them.
"That's crazy, one person with a huge car ... that is using up gas and polluting the atmosphere,'' he said at a news conference."
"The world cannot tolerate this model of development called the American way of life.''
In a form of energy diplomacy, Chavez has extended a preferential oil trade deal called PetroCaribe to 13 Caribbean countries in what he says is part of a plan to challenge U.S. economic domination of the region.
"Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez said on Friday he has proof of a United States plan to invade his county at the end of a visit to the US for the United Nations General Assembly packed with diplomatic fireworks."
"He highlighted how Venezuela is donating gasoline, through it state-owned Citgo stations, at a cut rate or free in American areas hurt by Hurricane Katrina.
"I have friends throughout the entire world, kings, princes, presidents, prime ministers," Chávez said. "The only country, the only administration, with whom we don't have good relations on the face of the earth is the administration of Mr Bush."
Chávez said that a 2002 coup, in which he was removed from power for two days, was the Bush administration's fault.
"This administration has truly broken with all protocols of democracy and respect for people. The coup d'état against Venezuela was manufactured in Washington. My death was ordered. And it was ordered recently," he told ABC."
"For the neo-cons, Republican and Democrat, and their exploitative business friends, the victims, whether in Africa or Louisiana, are always the same.
The incessant role of some international aid agencies and religious organizations in Africa's woes is The Constant Gardener's greatest exposé.
It is something this editor personally witnessed in Rwanda after that nation's U.S. and British-triggered presidential assassinations in 1994 by the U.S.-Anglo client, the Rwandan Patriotic Army, and the resulting (and expected) genocide."
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"A rowdy sunspot cluster hurled a record-breaking flare into space on Wednesday, blacking out all high- and low-frequency radio communications on both American continents, causing power surges, blinding satellites and lighting up aurorae, and more trouble is likely on the way, say experts.
A massive initial X-ray flare on Sept. 7 was immediately followed by an eruption of solar material that broke free from the sun at a speed of 5.8 million miles per hour, the speediest seen in 20 years of CME observations by the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory in Hawaii.
Earth and near-Earth space was first hit with X-rays, followed by an
ongoing magnetic storm and hard radiation."
More on this topic when time allows. If you are a blogger spread the word and help Rosemarie.
"As he stood about 10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some camera operators from CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble suddenly yelled, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you asshole!
"Hey, at least Marble was polite. After all, he referred to Cheney as “Mr. Cheney.”
"I had no intention of harming anyone but merely wanted to echo Mr. Cheney's infamous words back at him," Marble wrote. "At that moment, I noticed the Secret Service guys with a panic-stricken look on their faces, like they were about to tackle me, so I calmly walked away back to my former house.
"His friend videotaped a little bit longer and then came back to Marble’s house. As they were salvaging a few things from Marble's home, two military police waving M-16's showed up and said they were lookingfor someone who fit Marble's description who had cursed at Cheney.
"I told them I was probably the person they were looking for, and so they put me in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so," Marble wrote. "My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so tight, but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after getting all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I was free to go."
more on the doc and his art on Malefactor
"Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time."
BUSH'S CAVALIER ATTITUDE CONTRIBUTED TO MAGNITUDE OF HURRICANE DISASTER
"He gave the initial appearance of not caring at all. Where are his political minders? Even as the monster storm hit, Bush the son was counseling victims from afar to just tough it out -- and was photographed happily strumming a guitar provided to him by country star Mark Wills at a meaningless San Diego event before flying back to his ranch. It could only have been worse in terms of bad symbolic publicity if Dubya had been handed Nero's fiddle to play."Hurricane Katrina has shredded what was left of the Bush Administration's credibility.
"Bush -- who spent a good portion of his first forty years drinking, drilling dry wells as a failed oilman, and escaping his National Guard duties -- has no business being president. Is there any doubt that Bush overreacted on Iraq and under reacted on Katrina? Does anyone who has seen the devastation in New Orleans -- let alone Iraq -- still believe America is safer for having our National Guard troops patrolling Saddam’s slums rather than on call to protect America’s shattered cities?"Racist Media?
"So they found better accommodations for British white girls and selected other foreigners on Wednesday, while Americans were forced to remain coralled in the hellholes with no food or water."
