Ted Rall for December 30, 2013

I thought we voted for Democrats so we wouldn’t have an efficient government. What a letdown.

Seriously though, what I’m seeing is an ongoing effort to set in place mechanisms to “legally” quash uprisings as quickly as possible, which means they are genuinely concerned they have something to worry about. Which they do. Climate disruption alone is going to continue to disrupt agriculture, food prices will continue to rise, jobs will continue to be outsourced, China will continue to gain power as they hold so much of our debt. USAians are due for a brutal awakening from the Dream, and they’re not going to be happy about it.

Thanks, Ted. Depressing New Year to you too.I would suggest conservatives look at the House vote before jumping on Democrats. Google NDAA 2014…

I’m also curious about when they’ll start the mandatory microchipping, like with pets. Where they scan you every time you engage in a transaction.

I guess they need to invent the technology first that makes the microchip explode if you try to remove it.

Oooooh, the Mengele card! That’s better than the Hitler card!

Just a correction: Obama was a “Lecturer” at the University of Chicago and by all accounts a pretty poor one. He was never a “Professor” nor did he ever get tenure..Almost uniformly the faculty and students that dealt with him there found he was a mediocre intellect, had little desire to do anything academic, and had some very odd ideas about Constitutional law.

If you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Yet.

Nothing to see here. Go back to sleep…..

Adrian, I stated facts, nothing more. No hatred involved..The University of Chicago says he was a “Senior Lecturer.” I think they are the original source and would know better than an Obama organ like factcheck.org on that..http://obama.uchicago.edu/.http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media.And, much like his Presidency his popularity plummetted as students an faculity recognized his medioricty:.http://washingtonexaminer.com/chapter-ii-the-myth-of-the-rock-star-professor/article/2508418

Please. Whenever you equate your opponents to Nazis, you’ve lost the argument.

I did read it. You are citing out of context Nantucket.

“From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School’s Senior Lecturers has high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.”.“Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors…”.Senior Lecturers are NOT Professors even though they are regarded as such. He was a Senior Lecturer not a Professor..It may seem like splitting hairs but there is a distinction made there or there would not be two seperate titles. Obama was not a Professor.

Did anyone see the interesting article in the New York Times the other day about academia and their financial interest in political figures? Have you ever worked for a non-profit that looks to hire degrees rather than talent so that their fund-raising resume is highly gilded? Is it really out of the realm of all possibilities that when a lecturer became President of the United States that they conferred an “honorary professorship” on him, thereby also shining up their own happy little faces for this now-most-powerful-of-all-men?

“Tenure” isn’t required to be a “professor”, it’s more like “publish or perish” though.

Mostly I’m glad my state has Wyden (who voted AGAINST all entry into Iraq, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee), and Merkeley, they are both Democrats with strong support for constitutional rights, and opposition to the idiocy of the M.I.C..

Which, it’s the reason why whether Republican or Democrat, folks should pay attention to what their representatives and Senators vote for, or against, and NOT just to either follow the “party line”, or oppose the current President. It’s why I disagreed with on many issues, but fully supported and respected Mark Hatfield (Republican and overall good guy, because he was the ONLY Republican with the guts to go against his party!)

We need to get rid of all the “clones” in Congress, along with all the total idiots and clowns like Inhofe and Coburn, and I’m not at all fond of Harry Reid either!

Come on Parker, read the thread. I pointed out he was a senior lecturer. That he turned down a tenure track and Professor position is irrelevant to history. I also posted links showing that he was not highly regarded by facuilty or students for most of his time at the University of Chicago..So he won a popularity contest and got on the staff of the Harvard Law Review. Respected? Who knows. There is certainly nothing in print to indicate one way or the other on that.Published? Nothing with his name on it, a real almost unique rarity for someone on the staff of that journal.Politico says he wrote an uncredited article on an abortion case and notes his ideas as on the fringe..http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12705.html.I gave a link to commentary on his U of C time with regard to his lack of academic interest an publishing as well earlier.So, you can poh-poh my commentary all you like but it is accurate and accurate by more than one source.

If people refused to vote for or sign bills they didn’t have time to read, maybe shorter bills would get written. And who benefits from a legal system nobody has the time to read?

This kinda thing is exactly what it looks like half a decade before a working class revolution! Get ready, folks! It’s gonna be a wild ride!

Why do people continually talk about Democrat and Republican? It should be obvious by now, if it wasn’t for the last 60-plus years, that the Federal Reserve and Council on Foreign Relations ARE the government. Your chosen party is loaded full of CFR’s, BOTH SIDES. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. That is why a Bush-hater like Ted can find just as much to hate whenever the regime changes….because nothing changes.

Not so much afraid of the “Death Panels” Sarah Palin claimed would be brought about. Now I’m worried about the NDA Act Death Squads.