Chicago Daily Observer

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration doesn’t know who it’s signed up for an enlarged health insurance program, how much money in premiums it’s collected or even where that money is, according to a court ruling Friday that blocked the program’s expansion.

Illinois’ First District Appellate Court in Chicago upheld a lower court’s decision to deny Blagojevich permission to broaden FamilyCare after he was rebuffed by the General Assembly and the secretary of state.

The Democratic governor went ahead anyway, offering FamilyCare to participants with higher incomes, up to $83,000 a year for a family of four. The higher the incomes, the larger the premiums.

In a lawsuit filed by a lawyer and two business-group representatives, Blagojevich lawyers admitted they had virtually no record of the program, according to the opinion written by Judge James Fitzgerald Smith.

Can’t the Dems ever do anything without larding the legislation with gifts to their supporters?

That’s a rhetorical question. I know what the answer is.

House Republicans refused to support the Henry Paulson/Chris Dodd compromise bailout plan yesterday afternoon, even after the New York Times reported that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got down on one knee to beg Nancy Pelosi to compromise. One of the sticking points, as Senator Lindsey Graham explained later, wasn’t a lack of begging but a poison pill that would push 20% of all profits from the bailout into the Housing Trust Fund — a boondoggle that Democrats in Congress has used to fund political-action groups like ACORN and the National Council of La Raza.

From Lindsey Graham

And this deal that’s on the table now is not a very good deal. Twenty percent of the money that should go to retire debt that will be created to solve this problem winds up in a housing organization called ACORN that is an absolute ill-run enterprise, and I can’t believe ... Read More...

The Fifth Division of the Cook County Circuit Court has approved an injunction against Governor Rod Blagojevich, effectively stopping the Illinois Executive Branch from unilaterally enacting legislation.

Attorney Richard Caro and business leader Ron Gidwitz (note also the Chairman of the Chicago Daily Observer) have pursued this case vs. Gov. Blagojevich for the last year.

Full decision attached

Economics is a big reason why I am a Republican. When they are not demagoguing, Republicans’ principles make more sense to me.

Let’s take a look at our current economy. The two major dislocations come from policy priorities of the Democrats: the mortgage crisis (already discussed) and the energy crisis.

We have an energy crisis for one reason and one reason only: the Democrats have refused to allow us to tap into our incredible wealth of energy resources. Let me be clear, it is not just a matter of reducing our dependence on foreign oil; we have the resources and capacity to be a one-nation OPEC. You probably already know that we have three times as much oil in the form of shale in the Rocky Mountains alone as in all of Saudi Arabia. We have enough proven ... Read More...

John McCain has had extraordinary good luck with Hail Mary passes. His support of the surge when there was little public belief that Iraq could be saved…and his reaching out to Sarah Palin which caught the Obama people off-balance for at least 10 days.

This latest effort, suspending his campaign, ditching the Friday debate and asking Obama to do the same, in favor of going to Washington to be seen on TV with his sleeves rolled up while his opponent glad hands, was another attempt. By declining to do so and with a cool remark-that a president should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time-Obama scored a point on McCain.

Then Bush intervened on the side of McCain and personally invited both of them…McCain and Obama…to a meeting with congressional leaders in the White House at 10 a.m. EST today. There is an indication that ... Read More...

(T)his morning, Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank—the two lead congressional Democrats on this issue—were telling reporters that a deal was close. But according to House sources, those claims were nonsense. “This was a smart political move by Senator McCain—working in a bipartisan fashion to try to get something done,” says a senior House Republican aide. “It’s something he’s done in the past.” Democrats, this Republican says, immediately began plotting to deny McCain credit for a deal if one was reached and to blame him if a deal was not reached.

At least temporarily, we are seeing an interesting partnership between House Republicans and John McCain. When I asked one GOP Hill staffer whether McCain was serving as a proxy for House Republicans, I was told that such a claim would be too strong but that McCain is, at the very least, trying to give voice to House ... Read More...

I find myself hoping that about 17 days out from election John McCain finds himself trailing by three points in every poll. It’s not that I don’t want a Republican victory; it’s because I do want a Republican victory. McCain is at his best when his back is against the wall – and is absolutely terrible when he is feeling confident.

The meltdown in financial markets triggered by the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have locked the election away for McCain. It was a cautionary tale of Democratic economics come to life for all to see. The two entities had been run by Democrats under rules championed by Democrats (with only a little help from a few of their ‘moderate’ Republican friends). McCain had even been counted among the Republican leaders who had consistently called for reform, repeatedly warning that if Democrats kept blocking reform, what actually ... Read More...

Was the extent of the Treasury’s and Fed’s involvement in financial markets during the past several weeks justified? Certainly there was a widespread belief during this week among both government officials and participants in financial markets that short-term capital markets completely broke down. Not only Lehman, but also Goldman Sachs, Stanley Morgan, and other banks were also in serious trouble. Despite my deep concerns about having so much greater government control over financial transactions, I have reluctantly concluded that substantial intervention was justified to avoid a major short-term collapse of the financial system that could push the world economy into a major depression.

MORE THUGGISHNESS: Obama threatening the licenses of TV stations that run NRA ads.

Haven't we had about enough of this? Related item here. They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected there would be brazen efforts to suppress free speech on political grounds -- and they were right!

UPDATE: Still more on the ad-silencing effort here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: "I fear that under the Obama administration, the lawyers sending these letters will be government employees."

Plus, from Jacob Sullum at Reason, Why Obama is Vulnerable On the Second Amendment.

MORE: Prosecutors and sheriffs threatening to prosecute Obama critics?

Thugs on parade. Will the U.S. Department of Justice investigate? Or are they compromised?

STILL MORE: This is the ad that's got the Obama campaign so upset. You can make up your own mind, but it doesn't seem especially unusual for a political ... Read More...