Ming the Mechanic:
Rumsfeld and Friends

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Rumsfeld and Friends2003-01-24 23:59
6 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

This is Donald Rumsfeld (now U.S. Secretary of Defense) meeting with Saddam Hussein December 20th, 1983. Iraq had a few months earlier started using chemical weapons, particularly mustard gas, on the battle field, which Rumsfeld knew very well. The U.S. was providing Iraq with significant financial and political support at the time. The purpose of the meeting was to express U.S. support for Iraq against Iran, and to make sure that U.S. oil interests weren't harmed. They were further negotiating about an oil pipeline from Iraq to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. Events in the war after the meeting seem to indicate that Saddam felt he had gotten a green light from Rumsfeld to proceed in stepping up the war and the use of chemical weapons, which was greatly expanded after the meeting. These events are mentioned in an article in the Herald Tribune by Joost R. Hiltermann, and are based on declassified documents from the State Department, specifically the notes from the meeting. Also remember that American and British companies have sold Iraq lots of chemical and nuclear hardware.


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6 comments

25 Jan 2003 @ 09:42 by vaxen : code bloat...
it is getting increasingly difficult to get into your log ming. i do'nt have the time to check every little nuance in your java script etc., but the way you have this section split just is'nt working...like the ming the mechanic thing does'nt even appear, for instance, and the loading time has made it just really tedious to check your log out. i have'nt asked anyone else, yet, if they are having problems but i think this whole section is becoming, at least for the end user, really unwieldly. it used to be fun but now it is just really tedious and one really has to 'want' very badly to come here and read what anyone has to say. please rethink your code and maybe try some new compression algorithm which would make it easier for those you purport to be doing this for...i.e., 'the world at large?'  


25 Jan 2003 @ 15:17 by sharie : The Rich Get Richer-The Poor Get Killed
I don't have any problems with your log Ming.

I appreciate the "remember" link above.

As for the weapons of mass destruction made available worldwide... we Americans foot the bill for hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The weapons companies' CEO's and Board Members rake in millions of dollars. American "leaders" give away "Foreign Aid Packages" that include millions of dollars in land mines that dis-member civilians, biological weapons that kill the unsuspecting, and radioactive depleted uranium which results in birth defects to the poor soldiers - invaders and defenders alike. So the weapons companies CEO's and Board Members, many of which happen to be federal officials profitting from the war, are getting richer off the taxpayer. Where is the end to their insanity.  



25 Jan 2003 @ 15:50 by ming : Vaxen, code bloat?
Que? I understand your words, but I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Are you talking about the loading time of pictures, or of the design of the Communicate page, or of the content in my particular log. I can't see how JavaScript should cause you any trouble, other than if turn off JavaScript in your browser. Please enlighten me! Are the articles just not showing? Tell me what browser you're using. Nobody else has really complained recently about anything I can match up this up with. And there's really nothing fancy going on there. It is pretty much 5 year old kind of HTML and simple JavaScript. Although people have complained about the general layout in the NCN member area, as being too complex and confusing.

But, indeed, in the next version of the NCN site I do have in mind to put much less on each page. I.e. instead of something like the Communicate page, which points to chat rooms, news logs, personal messages, and more, all at the same time, it probably makes more sense for most people to have each thing separately. My personal preference is to see everything at the same time, but I realize that for many people that just makes things more confusing.

I also have in mind switching over to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and XHTML code, rather than the ancient approach used now. But that is only going to make it worse for older browsers.  



26 Jan 2003 @ 03:10 by jazzolog : "Really Not Sure"
In this case, I absolutely have no problem understanding exactly what Vaxen's talking about. And here's another vote about a certain hodgepodge quality to this Log---which I'm sure is very liberating to most people, just like NCN. The fact is there still are some poor folks who don't have Broadband...and I'm one of them. The cable people just won't run a line up our hill and that's that. I don't want a satellite. So I have dial-up, and the connection seems affected if a bird sits on the wire. This Log is a desk piled high with entries and comments and it takes an age to load and move around. Trying to find an entry, out of hundreds, that maybe you want to check comments on takes a long time. The front page of it, if I may call it that, seems to be a long scroll...that may go on forever for all I know. (Of course I have the advantage to be able to read your stuff in the Administrative venue---and so I can whip around with ease.) You could consider dividing the MetaLogue up chronologically or something---by years or months~~~Metalogue I, Metalogue II or somesuch. But of course it's your property and you do what you want.  


26 Jan 2003 @ 13:51 by ming : Newslog Problems
OK, so it sounds like what you guys are having a problem with is:
1. the variety and volume of stuff in my particular newslog
2. the load time, because I use bigger pictures, and longer text in front

As to votes, my log has more readers on most days than all the other ones put together, so I'll take that as a vote that there are people who like it that way. But I hear you, it might not be a great thing on a dial-up, and it might not be easy to get an overview. Not that I think it is much different than any other log, as far as I can see, other than the pictures. I show 8 days worth of postings. Most people show the past 20 posts. Which is about the same number of posts.

But it speaks for having alternative ways of looking at a log. One thing I'm working on is an aggregator view with different options. The combined newslog is essentially an aggregator, but it doesn't cut down on the volume. But there could very well be an option for seeing only headlines, or seeing it without pictures.

In the same vein I'm working on an aggregator that makes it easy to browse weblogs from outside sources.  



29 Jan 2003 @ 07:40 by fleer : january 25th were SQl slammer day
I recon that´s why some couldn´t access your log, Flemming  


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