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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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?