"More Bad Judges"
Thursday, January 8, 2004 at 12:41PM Jack Newfield of The Nation has a piece about the Bush administration's latest crop of federal judicial nominees. Needless to say, he does not approve, concluding:
Bush is trying to transform America through lifetime judicial appointments for this biased batch and their clones. The bottom line is that the reckless Bushies are willing to violate computer privacy and vandalize the Bill of Rights to expedite this transformation. George W. Bush was appointed President by the Supreme Court after losing the popular vote by more than 500,000. Now he is trying to use the courts to legislate a mandate the voters never gave him by abusing the power of appointment and ignoring the Constitution's "advise and consent" clause.
You can read the whole thing here. (via How Appealing)
Reader Comments (796)
Also, what a tangled web we weave - you marry a man who had children from another woman, and then you have a baby of your own with him. No wonder the ex is bitter. I would be too. Thank God I'm not in your pathetic shoes. You helped ruin her family.
A wife and mother doesn't all of a sudden "go bad" for no reason. I don't know the details of your dysfunctional story (and I don't want to hear about them), but something happened in that marriage. Like I said, I'd like to hear her side.
And making babies with other women just ain't right IMHO. You're trying to re-create a family and this time it won't work either, with your kids having half-brothers and half-sisters.
The bottom line is, you didn't learn your lesson the first time around, and you still don't get it this time. Oh, well live and learn.
Still, I'd like to hear her side of your ex's story. Maybe you didn't spend enough quality time with her.
I am a Reno resident and our LIVES have been thrown from a quiet and mountain life style to a Vegas like info "hot spot". Reno is a better known for legalized prositution, good gambling, place were SMOKERS are looked upon as child murders, and the good'ol Wild West (yes, people also own guns). But the crime rate here is much less than say, California, NY, Michigan, or Tx.
While, the death of Carla Mack is unfortunate, the real crime is the lack of sympathy and concern for the three MACK children who have a missing father and their one child, they had together, who has also lost a mother. Life is "tough enough by itself" but people don't help it ...
Our world has gotten very selfish and materialistic. The past VALUES of our parents and grandparents are gone. The Ethics of Corporate America, our Politicians, and according to recent BLOGS even our JUDGES has gone BAD.
We are 20 year residents of RENO, now retired. For 15 years, we had a business DOWNTOWN ... surrounded by MACK family buildings and businesses. On many occasions we have had business interactions with the older MACK families and found them tough, unforgiving, and sometimes less than fair. But as for young Darren Mack, we found him more kind, gentle, and nice to do business with. This was not a spoiled KID from a weathy family, Darren made his own money and managed his own PAWN Business ... but kept the best aspects of being a nice man to do business with, in his sights. In 1998, there were BILLBOARDS in RENO touting Darren as "Father and Husband of the Year".
Today, I spoke with a long time employee of one of the Mack family PAWN SHOPS ... she remembered Darren as really nice guy, fair and honest, and great father and husband. Her comments regarding Carla was not as complementary. Unlike the media, which has portrayed Carla as a loving wife and mother, Carla has a lot of problems in her life. About 50% of the people who have claimed to know Carla socially, portray her as kind and involved in charity work, the other 50% who knew through the business, portrayed her as "controlling", "demanding", and one with a potential Dark Side.
According to filed COURT records, when Carla married Darren, she had no college education and was unemployed. Married for 7yrs, Carla has asked for full custody of their child, ownership of their 1M+ home, max child support ($948/m), and permanent alimony equal to over 10 times the child support, plus the requirement of Darren to pay for all HOME expenses, and more. According to COURT record, her reasoning was to keep her and her child had grown a custom to.
While murder is never an answer, I can't claim to understand what would drive a man to murder his extranged wife ... except reaching some breaking point. According to other postings, it is apparent that Darren has undergone some consuling for the year of their pending settlement hearings. Somewhere during that time, Court records also indicate that Darren on more that one occasion, offered to settle the contestments. Carla rejected all, not enough.
From all accounts Darren appears to have been the model Father and Husband. For Carla on the other hand, there is much less known and some indications of a Dark Side. All we know, is that prior to Darren ... Carla had nothing and was unemployed. Without a college degree, trade, or job at hand ... her outlook could be viewed as limited. In comes Darren, a successful businessman and powerful family and proven SUPER DAD (though one unsuccessful marriage). 7 yrs later, Carla files for divorce and wants millions ... everything Darren has.
Obviously there is some excessive demands here. Did Carla send Darren to college? Did Carla's parents lend the Mack's family money to enable their success. Did Carla in any way contribute to the Mack's success or Darren's income ability, before, during, or after they were married. The ANSWER was NO !
Not justifying this terrible crime ... just trying to explain some of the events surrounding the media blitz, but not being brought out.
Let's also remember, Darren is currently missing. Nobody has any evidence yet to the contrary, though he is a person with motive by the police and that is the only thing they got.Both Carla and Darren have each told their friends that each were concerned for their LIVES as things continued to escalate.
This is ugly, but Carla appears to have been the predator in my opinion. Was it planned ? .... Don't claim to know, but there are a lot of Anne Nicoles out there. But Media, still can't get away of the BAD Husband syndrone and that all girls before marriage are innocent.
Bob of Reno
He must have married her for her dark side,ugliness and non-education. In seven yearsshe must have been doing nothing, like hiding ina closet waiting for Darren to discover her dark side.
boys, trying to make Darren look like a goodytwo shoes is impossible, one only has to scanhis myspace file, listen to the music, to makethe assumption that he is one screwed up individual.come on, get real
I say that the affected people with the real cases show up to demand family courtaccountability in a demonstration against thecorruption of Washoe County Family Court.
Pay attention.
Whatever his reasons for marrying her, Darren obviously was an honest, loving person at that point who "trusted" her... He was honest and hard-working and would never think of cheating anyone. It never occurred to him that someone he loved could ever do that to him.
Hindsight shows he should have had a pre-nuptial agreement; much grief would have been avoided.
Charla comes off as nasty to to the point of demanding more and more and expecting to be allowed to rob him blind legally. Sadly, the judge allowed it.
Those actions show someone who never did love him, only his money. She was not looking out for her daughter's best interests by being so greedy.
BTW, read today's paper. See which Mack was investigated 8 years ago for child abuse, which one was not for violent outbursts and physical attacks on their spouse... hint: it wasn't Darren.
Darren's no saint; but what he became was forced upon him- by a wife he only wanted to love, and by a judge who's impartiality he should have been able to expect.
Instead of dwelling on which Mack was right. Let's all find out what is going on in Family Court that is making it all so wrong!
I don't know why you're saying "one only has to scan his myspace file, listen to the music, to make the assumption that he is one screwed up individual."
You are a fucked up dude. or chick. Get a life and quit trying to smear someone, using evidence that doesn't even back up your claim!! lol What a joke. That's like claiming a philanthropist who donates millions of dollars to his local church is a satan worshipper and saying that his donations are proof he worships satan. doesn't quite make sense does it?
Dumb ass bitch.
For those who want to see his myspace profile, go to http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=17033252
He's got all of 7 friends and hardly any prose at all. This is basically a profile of someone that rarely if ever used his myspace account. People that use myspace as a real network have hundreds or thousands of "friends" and all sorts of video and pictures and music. Darren's profile is very, very basic.
So s.simon, go fuck yourself. Show us some real evidence. It's not hard to find. For instance, killing his ex-wife, that's pretty bad. But his myspace profile? Give me a fucking break. Toolbag.
Isn't everyone intelligent enough to make their opinion known without name-calling and obscenities?
Pretend for a minute that your mother or children are reading this... some of you should be ashamed.
I suggested everyone "act" more civilized- in other words: behave.
My last suggestion was to "pretend" your mother and children were reading this; I didn't say that they were.
And, yes, you should be ashamed. Your word choices in your response to s.simon totally destroyed the righteousness of your post.
Darren was a very good person for a very long time. Just because someone doesn't agree with him having a blog-site, or his choice of music, or his choice of lifestyle, does not make him a bad person. He wasn't hurting anyone with any of those things.
As far as his lifestyle, I hear that his wife shared it with him for more than 8 years. Just in the past two years, she decided it wasn't for her but didn't like that Darren wouldn't give the lifestyle up along with her.
What made him snap and become the bad person everyone is focusing on is the same type of holier-than-thou judgments (as s.simon's) that were being handed down to him by his wife and the judge.
Truth be known, he could probably build up a pretty damned good temporary insanity case.
And, please do continue to tell people "how it is." Just do it with less foul language.
dude now you are just being a chode. YOU need to read more carefully buddy. S.simon is not just saying "I don't like his myspace account or choiceof music." She IS saying that his myspace account and his one song on there somehow make him this deranged, messed up person. And THAT is a hell of a lot different than just stating a simple personal opinion. Duh. I posted the website for you all to see. Go see it. Tell me what part of it makes him seem anything but like a normal dude. If anything, his myspace account makes him seem NORMAL, and even perhaps BORING.
Dude, you should be ashamed of yourself for being a freakin' retard! Learn to recognize false evidence when you see it! lolYou guys are too much sometimes. Makes me laugh.
Uh, duh, now you're jumping on me for AGREEING with you. You're making your point seem less and less valid.
I KNOW what s.simon is saying. I KNOW what you are saying. I WAS agreeing with you.
I must have been mistaken to think you were able to read more closely.
Your choice of words again only shows your rather low level of maturity.
You know what makes me laugh? People who argue against people who are on their side! ... Now, that's funny!
Give everyone a break was siding with you and you go ballistic like some dumbass.
Stupid!
bro you got a funny way of "agreeing" with people. I bet your agreeing techniques make you lots of friends. "Um yeah, I totally agree but you should be ashamed of offending all the precious mommies and young impressionable children reading, and act civilized." Ok dude, thanks for agreeing.
I agree with you too, when you said "a" and "him." So yeah we're in total agreeance, but I'd just try not to act like such a dork chief. But yeah, total agreeance here! lol
you're a clever one alright.