Davis . . . said neither he nor anyone on his staff were aware that any money from a terrorist organization was used to pay for his trip until the story broke in the Chicago Tribune. [He] said he first learned of the charges when a Tribune reporter called his West Side office before the paper’s Aug. 24 story. The Tribune followed up with another story four days later on Aug. 28. On Aug. 25, the paper wrote a scathing editorial concerning the trip and politicians, such as Davis, who take “junkets,” or trips taken by government officials and paid for with public funds.

 

Davis said the trip was public and that “there was nothing secretive about the trip.”

 

He said some of his Sri Lankan constituents urged him to visit the country. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Census shows 44 people in the 7th Congressional District who identify themselves as Sri Lankan or part Sri Lankan.

proposed solution (greater state funding of education) fails to quantify inevitable massive individual state income tax and, worse, ignores the root cause of the current dilemma-namely out-of-control local school expenditures due to salary increases far in excess of inflation and staffing increases disproportional to enrollment trends.

OP’s Committee for Just Peace in Palestine speaker asked if Zionism is racism, compared Israel-Palestine today to apartheid-era South Africa — “It’s much worse,” he said.  He’s Farid Esack, a Muslim theologian and author of Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression; On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today; and An Introduction to the Qur’an.

He had spoken two days earlier at Dominican U. ($10 a head) in a “dialogue series.”  DU says he’s been active in “the Call of Islam,” which as a message is said by the Muslim American Society to include this:

The Muslim regards himself as commanded by God to call all humans to a life of submission to Him, to Islam as a present participial act (42:15). His life goal is that of bringing the whole of humankind to a life in which Islam, the religion of God, with its theology and Shari’a, its ethics and institutions, is the religion of all humans.

He’s currently at Harvard Divinity, having just done a three–year stint at Xavier U., Cincinnati (where this blogger taught briefly in the late 60s).  Coming up at Dominican is a lecture 9/21 on “theological challenges and opportunities of Muslim-Catholic dialogue,” a lecture 10/30 on “Transforming the Self [sic], Transforming Society” an open meeting 11/8 of Chicago-based “Catholic-Muslim Dialogue.”

To Esack’s credit, he does not turn up in search of the Anti-CAIR or Front Page web sites, each of which has sensitive antennae when it comes to Islamism.  He does turn up in an Amazon-posted rave review of Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism, by Omid Safi, to which he contributed “an essay that takes the document ‘Progressive Islam – A Definition and Declaration’ as its point of departure.” In the essay he

is very critical of the views expressed by many liberal Muslims, whom he accuses of suffering from the same myopia as their fundamentalist adversaries: presenting themselves as ‘authentic’ interpreters of Islam and canonizing certain statements in the sacred scriptures without regard for the context. He is equally dismayed by liberal Muslims’ failure to challenge that other form of fundamentalism: that US interests represent the axis around which the earth rotates. [Italics added]

Uh-oh.

No need for “timeout” on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as Cook County Commissioner Quigley called for, says mayors’ group.

Last week I talked about Oak Park’s Kelo problem. You may say to yourself, “I understand that Oak Park likes to restrict the ability of owners of real estate to use their property, but so what?” To my mind, … (read more)       

In a town meeting about taxes,

[Township pseudo-assessor] ElSaffar explained taxes have increased steadily due in large part to a series of successful voter approved tax referendums and residential assessment increases.

There we have it, ladies and gentlemen.  We or someone like us voted up those referendums, for good or bad reasons, depending whom you ask.  This is plain talk from ElSaffar (who is pseudo because he doesn’t assess anything but voters’ ire — worst he’s seen this time around — but explains things).

“It’s partly our own fault. We’ve never seen a referendum in Oak Park that we’ve said no to,” said one taxpayer, a UIC prof, adding ominously, “We need to look very carefully at what we’re voting for.”*

Won’t happen.  Depends how many look carefully.  Some always have, but teachers and parents have won the day every time, including this blogger working might and main for his six kids in public schools.  As long as OP is home to a school population like this, the referendums will pass.  Trust me.

This is not a retirement village, in other words.  This also spells doom for the Perennial Outs in the April village board elections.  Shockingly In last time, they have irritatingly gone against the Expansion Grain.  This time they will lose.  Trust me.
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* Or this, from another resident, who went to the Board of Review to appeal her taxes: “The man listened to me very politely then when I was done said ‘You people in Oak Park come crying to us every year. Stop voting yes for every referendum’.”