Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Oak Park Village Hall
123 Madison, Oak Park, Illinois

Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
River Forest Community Center
8020 Madison Street, River Forest, Illinois

Monday, April 12, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Westchester Village Hall
10300 Roosevelt Road, Westchester, Illinois

If you want to hear what the Congressman has to say or pose a question to him in person, this is your chance.

Even from an ecological standpoint, given that America will continue to consume oil for the foreseeable future (especially with Obama’s consumption-oriented stimulus plan in full bore), it makes more sense to drill within America’s stronger eco-guidelines than to import oil pumped under the lax rules of third world nations.

No, it won’t end our dependence on foreign oil, but if companies are willing to drill for it, this off-shore oil is certain to benefit the country, and Davis is right to support access to it.

In the interview, which discusses the “Jobs Bill,” Davis makes the following outlandish arguments:

1. Not passing the bill would mean the government is “hoarding” money from the economy

Davis has said this before, and it’s patently ridiculous. Our government is currently running both the highest debt and highest deficit in our country’s history. For decades, we have been operating at the extreme polar opposite of “hoarding” — spending all of our all savings as well as some of the savings of other, poorer countries. By contrast, countries that could truly be considered as hoarding money (such as China, India, Brazil and Singapore) have economies that are continuing to grow.

2. Not giving jobs to the unemployed will cost the country more in care for these people

This might be true if Davis was talking about eliminating barriers to productive employment, but he’s not. The kind of stimulus programs Davis has largely supported have been the kind that rely on money “trickling down” to those in need, usually through corporate sectors like the automotive, real estate — and recently — coal freight car manufacturing industries. It would actually be cheaper — and more humane — to simply give the money directly to the needy (through either tax cuts or stimulus checks), rather than making them toil at an artificial job for a small cut of the cash.

Take this press release for Davis’ newly-introduce tax credit, which as of this morning reads as follows:

Is this a proofreading oversight, or does Davis really expect the recession to last that long?

Either way, there will be more to follow on this ridiculous piece of legislation, which smacks of government favoritism for an ultra-specific segment of industry. (And to that point, what is a “cap-and-trade” congressman like Davis doing trying to subsidize coal transportation?)

All told, this is yet another blow to Davis’ so-called “progressive” record and another indication that what he found unacceptable during the Bush years is suddenly very acceptable to him now.

Now, the date of the Patriot Act reauthorization vote is drawing near.

To his credit, Davis voted against the Act twice before (1, 2), but with Obama now in office, will he continue to hold the line?

You can give the congressman a bit of extra encouragement by sending him this pre-written message on the Patriot Act via the ACLU. The Campaign for Liberty has a similar petition directed at the Senate.

Update: the Senate voted on February 24 to extend the Patriot Act by one year. The ball now rolls into Congress and Danny Davis’ court.

The official results page for the district is here.

Candidate Jim Ascot has already congratulated Davis on his victory.

Image by the Chicago Tribune

You can find your polling location by entering your address on the front page of the Tribune.

And of course, our resources on the District 7 Democratic congressional candidates can be found here.

Danny Davis – Public Affairs

The topics covered were as follows:

0:50 The Illinois Democratic Primary and Davis’ challengers

1:57 Rod Blagovich’s rejected Senate seat offer to Davis

3:10 The Cook County Board presidential race and why Davis dropped out to run for reelection

4:55 Davis’ position on the House Ways and Means Committee

5:10 Funding for local community health centers

7:38 Todd Stroger and the Cook County sales tax hike

9:55 Davis’ endorsement for the Cook County Board race

11:15 The health care debate

14:00 The effects of the stimulus spending and jobs in the 7^th district

19:45 Education in the 7^th district, charter schools, and school vouchers

24:55 The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act

26:00 Obama’s Afghan troop surge

27:00 The Wall Street Bailout

27:43 Davis’ controversial trip to Sri Lanka

Overall, Berkowitz did a good job of interviewing Davis and holding his feet to the fire, even when Davis tried to dodge on questions about his positions on the Cook County sales tax hike and charter schools in Chicago.

However, Berkowitz also seemed insistent on pinning some of the blame for the failure of Chicago public schools on Davis, to which the congressman rightly replied “Talk to the people who run the schools!” Indeed, public schools are largely run at the local, not federal, level.

Berkowitz also repeated tried to frame Davis’ congressional actions in a “how has this benefited the 7th?” mindset, to which Davis again appropriately countered by saying that his voters cared about the country as a whole. (I certainly do).

However, it certainly wasn’t all wisdom flowing from Davis’ lips. When the discussion came around to Obama’s proposed Afghan troop surge, Davis offered lukewarm criticism of the troop increase, but then consoled himself with the following:

“The one thing I did agree with – that I really liked – was the fact that President Obama says, ‘We’re going to go in here, we’re going to have a surge, and we’re going to start pulling out at a time certain.’ I hope that that does in fact work, but I’m not enthralled with the fact that we’re sending 30,000 additional troops.”

Unfortunately, as Glenn Greenwald has pointed out, statements by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have directly contradicted Obama’s promise of a fixed withdrawal date.

Things then went further down hill with Davis justifying his trust in the Commander in Chief by saying, “It’s possible that President Obama may have known something that I didn’t know.”

Of course, Congress’ role is not to trust that the president “knows best” but to act as a check and balance. Furthermore, can anyone imagine Davis applying the same logic while Bush was still in office?

“If somebody’s got to bite the bullet on a tough decision I think the people of Illinois are ready for it and if it comes to Illinois the detainees will be well taken care of and the citizens well protected.”

Guess what? He’s right.

Terror suspects have been tried and imprisoned in America before without a hitch, and at least one Illinois town is enthusiastic about doing it again. (And unlike some of Davis’ other programs, the economic benefits of a traditional American prison over one in far-flew Cuba are obvious).

Add to that evidence that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been a prime motivating factor for Islamic terror, and Davis’ argument is easily one of the wisest in this debate.

Still, talk is cheap. Hopefully Davis will act to give Constitutionally-guaranteed trials to all those accused of terrorism and if they are convicted, see to it that they are housed in real prisons with other real criminals.