Breaking: DePaul's Finkelstein resigns!

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration required:

The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised.

Instead, he read a statement announcing his resignation this morning on the university's main quadrangle before about 120 supporters announcing that he and DePaul had resolved the controversy. But the terms were kept confidential.

More...

A colorful demonstration for Finkelstein on campus this morning included representatives of the National Lawyers Guild, the Socialist Workers Party, the Revolutionary Communist League and Jewish Voice for Peace.

UPDATE 9:20 PM CST: On the DePaul web site there is a joint statement from the university and and ex-Professer Finkelstein.

Thanks for the links:

Solomonia
Little Green Footballs
HazZmat
Pajamas Media
Daled Amos

Technorati tags: Chicago illinois college education news DePaul Norman Finkelstein Catholic Jewish

Pro Finkelstein protest at DePaul at 11am Central

DePaul University's fall quarter began this morning, and the opening festivities include a rally in support of embattled Professor Norman G. Finkelstein.

The fun starts in a few minutes.

Related post:

DePaul's Finkelstein accused of "threatening and discourteous behavior"

Technorati tags: Chicago illinois college education news DePaul Norman Finkelstein Catholic Jewish

Meant as an insult...

...but I'll take it as a compliment.

From Green News and Opinion:

Oh yeah...Marathon Pundit put a special spin, as only a blogger can, on the announcement that we will meet in Chicago in 2008.

No explanation on that site, however, on how lunatics of all political shapes and sizes are taking over the Green Party.

Scroll down two posts to see what I mean.

Technorati tags: Green Party politics Chicago 2008 election

Second rising? Craig may not resign from Senate

Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Elton John, 1976.

Last Saturday most people thought that the Senator Larry Craig men's room scandal came to a climax when the Republican from Idaho announced his intention to leave the Senate, presumably from the back door, at the end of this month.

But showing virility usually assumed to be the sole province of younger men, the sexagenarian has hardened his resolve, and may pull out of his promise to resign.

For now he's stalling on his possible retraction. But if he's cleared of the charges of soliciting gay sex in a Minnesota men's room---and remember, Craig say's he's not gay--he may enjoy a second rising in the Senate.

Either way, don't expect any Craig statues to be erected anywhere soon.

Technorati tags: republicans Idaho gaycurrent events politics Larry Craig Elton John

Still in the 1960s: 2008 Green Party convention coming to Chicago: UPDATED

And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
Send in The Clowns, lyrics by Steven Sondheim as sung by Judy Collins.

Chicago will be home to a national political convention next year--that of the Green Party.

Until a few days ago, I thought such a gathering would be peaceful shindig of Dennis Kucinich vegan-types.

Perceptions and stereotypes can be wrong sometimes, as I blogged here last week.

But not always, as AP reports:

To Green Party members, bringing the convention to Chicago is significant for another reason: Next year is the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago that saw clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators outside.

This time, (Green Party spokesman Patrick) Kelly said the anti-war protesters will be inside a political convention nominating the Green Party's candidate.

Sheesh, can't the Left get over the 1960s? Even Barack Obama, who was born the same year I was, 1961, gets mired in that decade, based on some passages of his Audacity of Hope.

Folks: The 1960s ended 37 years ago.

UPDATE 11:40 PM CST: Commenter Michael Pugliese directed me to a Joshua Frank article in the Atlantic Free Press. It's not just bicycle riding Vegans, or as Solomonia discovered, Islamists and anti-semites who've infiltrated the Green Party with a "the clap," but crazies on the from the extreme-right as well.

From Frank's article:

Green delegates from Tennessee have recently advanced a proposal which they call "Moving the Money from Wall Street to Main Street." Certainly sounds innocuous enough. Tragically the delegates from Tennessee based their proposal on a presentation made to the Green Party delegates at their convention by a woman named Catherine Austin Fitts.

Ms. Fitts, a Republican, was Assistant Secretary of Housing in the administration of George Bush Sr. and now supports libertarian causes. Why was Fitts invited to talk to the Green Party about banking issues? Nobody really knows. Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the associates of Catherine Austin Fitts is Franklin Sanders, a leading thinker in the extreme right-wing Constitution Party. Sanders is also chairman of the Tennessee chapter of "The League of the South", yes, from the same state of the Green Party delegates who offered the proposal in the first place.

The League of the South is quite an outfit. They advocate the ideology of "kinism", and would outlaw racial intermarriage and non-white immigration, expel all "aliens" (including Jews and Arabs), limit the right to vote to white landowning males over the age of twenty-one, and re-institute black slavery. The Green Party is about to adopt a proposal based on the philosophy of people like Fitts and Sanders. One has to wonder who would influence these guys if they were savvy enough to win elections.

Man oh man, the Green Party's slogan should be, "If you're nuts, your one of us." And this Clown-a-palooza is coming to Chicago.

Related post: Illinois gov race--Rich Whitney: What is Green once was Red

Technorati tags: Green Party politics Chicago 2008 election

Camp Obama is back and it's "ruthless"

Not to be confused with the Upper Midwest camp portrayed in Bill Murray's Meatballs, Camp Obama was back in session over the Labor Day weekend.

And the Chicago Sun-Times reports that ruthlessness is one of the cafeteria offerings at the camp:

The next tip is to be absolutely ruthless, We want you to be determined, ambitious, take a risk.

The campers bowed down the altar of far-Left radical community activist Saul Alinsky. While a community organizer on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s, Obama worked for a couple of Alinsky disciples.

Obama's political rival Hillary Clinton wrote her Wellesley College thesis on Alinksy, who like HRC herself, was born in Chicago.

Summer camp employees have to be screened before getting hired--which is essential for the safety of the children. The stakes at Camp Obama aren't as high, which explains how Robert B. Creamer, husband of my left-of-left congresscritter Jan Schakowsky, was able to work as a trainer at a previous Camp Obama. As far as I know, Creamer is now "pursing other opportunities."

A self-appointed consumer advocate and occasional campaign worker, Creamer has a five month gap in his résumé, time spent last year at the Federal Correction Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana for crimes associated with check-kiting scam while leading the Illinois Public Action Council.

Although not accused of any crimes, Rep. Schakowsky was on the board of directors of the IPAC while hubby as using his creative financing techniques.

The next Camp Obama pitches its tent in Chicago on September 12. If you are attending, brush up on your Saul Alinsky.

Related post:

Ex-con and congresswoman's husband Creamer taught at Camp Obama

Technorati tags: Schakowsky Jan Schakowsky Obama barack obama Congress 2008 democrats election banking Saul Alinsky

The Morton Grove Mosque

Post 4,001 keeps me in Morton Grove, Illinois. Although it's quite close to my home, I haven't driven past the soon-to-be completed Morton Grove mosque in a few months, but today was Labor Day, and I had a little extra time on my hands.

Opposition to the mosque was very vocal, particularly among people living adjacent to the site. The neighborhood consists of post-war housing boom bungalows, and isn't on any busy streets, which explains my absence from the area.

The mosque is actually an addition to the Muslim Community Center school. Some Muslims bought the school it around 1990; it was once owned the public school district where my daughter now attends classes. That's the school on the far right side of the picture.

Behind the scaffolding is a minaret. Original plans were for the minaret to be much taller. The tower is purely symbolic, there will be no muzzein issuing calls for prayer from it.

Related posts:

Morton Grove mosque construction

Family Circle Magazine names Morton Grove, IL one of its "10 Best Towns for Families"

WorldNet Daily gets it wrong on my hometown

Technorati tags: Morton Grove Islam muslim Illinois mosques muslims