Author's posts

Obama Believes in Guilty Verdicts

If you haven’t read Glenn Greenwald’s latest, you should.  He details how the Obama administration is all about trials for alleged terrorists at Gitmo, when they even occur, that are assured of guilty verdicts.

“‘Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military commissions . . . . and about 75 more have been deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted because of evidentiary issues and limits on the use of classified material’ . . . If true, that means that there are 75 so-called ‘Fifth Category’ detainees who might be subject to indefinite detention without trial” — The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, yesterday, quoting The Washington Post.

(crossposted at Daily Kos)

When Hate in Religion

In case you missed it, Texas has now banned gay marriages.  Oh wait, that isn’t all — they have now banned ALL marriages in Texas!

AUSTIN – Texans: Are you really married?

Maybe not.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.

Here is the money quote from the legislation:

The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by voters, declares that “marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.” But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

Is marriage dead in Texas due to hate?

An Essay on Narcissism

In one of my diaries, a comment was posted.  Whether it was meant to be sarcastic or not is unknown.  It did, however, bring up a point that, like other points brought up about me in the past, I feel needs to be addressed and responded to, maybe in this case needlessly.

The comment was:

I hope you’re able to deal with that burden effectively, Michael. Trying to curve corners at a resolutely square place will do weird things to one’s sense of self-righteousness. It almost obscures the sharp points of one’s own corners that refuse to curve.

I understand that, in the overall comment, it was more about DK than it was about me.  But, asking if I can deal “with the burden” was, to me, more a comment on being right…

Ft Hood; A Tragedy That Was Avoidable

Yes, the Ft. Hood shooting was a tragedy.  Yes, it was an avoidable tragedy.  

It is a story, still emerging, of a man that was harassed for his religious beliefs, that saw a war he would be deployed to a war he didn’t believe in, a war that was characterized by the military in their proselytism of Catholicism, who got to hear one bad story after another, and had nowhere to turn himself.  

The story isn’t so much as one about the man as the system that failed him, making him feel forced to do what he did.  It is a system that has existed for a long time before him and will for a long time after him.

I detailed a similar system in my Daily Kos diary, “Mess Up, Move Up,” written two and a half years ago.

But, there was more to that story.  For the first time, I will document the time I spent in that unit, and, how like at Ft. Hood, I saw a system totally fail…

Oil, Pipelines and 9/11

I posted a diary at Daily Kos earlier today in response to Jerome a Paris’s diary in which he purported to debunk any claim that the invasion of Afghanistan for a pipeline was all conspiracy theory.

There is a teaching moment here; no matter how much you’ve previously researched, there is always more information out there you missed.

I know this, because I missed something very important…

Greenwald Goes There!

Oh, how I do like Glenn Greenwald.  He’s the type of guy who seeks out the truth no matter where it leads.  Reminds me of somebody, he does; ME.  Anyway, here is what he said that has me clapping:

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, I think one of the most significant issues of the Obama administration has been what role progressives-the progressive infrastructure has played in applying pressure on the Obama administration. One of the very first things that the Obama administration did-and Rahm Emanuel has specialized in trying to control and silence the left; I mean, that’s how he built his power base-in the House of Representatives was, they created these weekly meetings called Unity ’09 and Common Purpose, where members of all of the allegedly progressive groups devoted to progressive causes meet every week on Tuesday, often with members of the White House communications team, including oftentimes Rahm Emanuel, and they coordinate their messaging. So, instead of being devoted to, for example, pressuring the administration on issues relating to labor or to choice or to gay issues or to war, instead they’re coordinating their messaging to insure that their real allegiance is to serve the interest and the agenda of the Obama administration. And it’s really enabled the Obama administration to annex large aspects of the progressive infrastructure and to remove what ought to be an important pressure point.

I think they’ve done the same with lots of progressive pundits, who aren’t necessarily attending these meetings, but who have voluntarily ceded their role in the progressive world and in progressive opinion making and activism. And you see this conflict more and more, I think. For example, the Huffington Post had an article critical of the Obama administration, reporting, for example, that they were working behind the scenes, in contrast to what Obama was saying, to sabotage the public option. And you saw in various places, on Daily Kos and others, suddenly declarations that the Huffington Post was suspect, and they were right wing, and they were the enemy, because anyone who reflects negatively on Obama has to be discredited. And I think you see that conflict, and I hope it will continue to grow, because it’s healthier than having progressives devote themselves to cheerleading for the President.

Ok… let me highlight it…

For something completely different…

Prof. Johnathan Turley has a great blog.  This story is not only seasonal, but, instructive as well!

Maryland police Sgt. Eric Janik, 37, may not get the thrust of trick of treat traditions. The Baltimore police office went to a haunted house called the House of Screams with friends and when confronted by a character dressed as Leatherface with a chainsaw (sans the chain, of course), Janik pulled out his service weapon and pointed it at the man, who immediately dropped character, dropped the chainsaw, and ran like a bat out of Halloween Hell.

HEADLINE: Cop scares ghoul on Halloween!

Ok… here’s the analysis…

How to PWN a Nut 101

So, Thomas Friedman, our ever wrong NYT pundit decided to give is ever wrong opinion on Iraq, again.

In the comment section, me and a poster named Patriot have been discussing terrorism, Iraq, oil, you name it.  The article itself is crap, but, the comment sections may give people help in how to counter wingnut lunatics they encounter.

(Author note:  Those here at docudharma have seen what my posts look like when I get a bit drunk.  And no, I’m not now, but, do apologize for posting the last two drivels.)

Now… class is open…

Don’t thank me….

Ok.  I have not been shy letting people know that I am ex-military and that I have been to Iraq twice during wartime.

This has prompted people to say, “thank you for your service”.

Don’t.

And I’m going to tell you why…

Banana-Republic Blogs

You know what I mean.  You simply can’t have opinions.  They must be THE opinion du jeur of that day.  I think many of us know which ones qualify.

Well, I’m adding another one; balloon-juice.

Yeah, I cause a row because the idiots wanted to make fun of the balloon boy story.  And, when I tried to tell them how many people, first responder’s, weren’t laughing, I hit a nerve.

Well, I sent John Cole my certs, I sent them to dougj, so the internet warriors would be embarrassed for their attacks.  Here is what I got back from John Cole:

John Cole

Jesus fucking christ, Gass. Take a picture of the god damned documents and put it on one of the 500 free image hosting sites. Or upload it to google docs. Regardless, I thought it was pretty damned clear I had seen the documents proving you are in fact Michael Gass when I said the following:

I just don’t feel comfortable publishing people’s personal shit like that, even if they ask.

Additionally, I’m sure I said something two weeks ago when this damned drama started.

At any rate. PLEASE. SEEK. HELP. I don’t know if you are still in law enforcement, but you should not be anywhere near a gun.  

I didn’t ask John to publish the documents.  I sent them to him so he could SEE the documents, read the comments, and say, “hey, he IS what he said, back off”.  And, he THINKS he said something.  Let’s find out.

An Introduction (Enquiring Minds Wanted To Know)

Yes, there were some people who, over at John Cole’s blog, balloon-juice, who after the little row I caused, decided to ask, “just who is this Michael Gass guy, anyway”?

So, I thought I would do this introduction essay, not just for them, but, for all the new people here at docudharma.

Who am I?

The Privatization of Death

Raw Story has an article on how Arizona, looking to close a gap on state debt, is looking to privatize prisons, and, prisons that house death row inmates.

The State of Arizona, seeking to close a $2 billion budget gap, is planning to open bidding on all but one of its prison facilities.

Included in the offerings to private firms is an opportunity to manage the captivity of those condemned to die: a move that, for the first time ever, would put a U.S. state’s death row in corporate hands, according to The New York Times.

This is an extremely bad idea, and, here’s why…

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