8:02:32 PM The polls have now closed in Illinois.


Update: (8:34:14 PM) For all the results, you can go here:

http://www.suntimes.com/index.html


Update 2: (10:19:58 PM) Rep. Mark Kirk has won the GOP Senate Primary. I said I would remind all my readers every time Mr. Kirk is in the headlines and I will continue to do that because of a key vote that he too last year. So, a reminder, Mr. Kirk was one of 8 House Republicans who voted for the greatest tax increase in American history, AKA cap-and-tax, which passed the House back in June of last year by a vote of 219-212.

Kirk coasts to win in GOP Senate race

BY DAVE NEWBART AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, whom former Gov. Jim Edgar called “the best-qualified candidate we’ve had in my lifetime,’’ easily coasted to victory in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Kirk had 56 percent of the vote. His closest of five challengers, Hinsdale developer Patrick Hughes, had 19 percent.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2025826,senate-race-gop-020210.article

Update 3: (5:22:25 AM)

Update 4: (5:23:56 AM)

Quinn declares victory, though Hynes refuses to concede

Quinn declares victory, Hynes to keep fighting

BY DAVE McKINNEY AND MARY WISNIEWSKI Staff Reporters

Gov. Quinn declared victory early today in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but Comptroller Dan Hynes vowed to fight on and added another layer of uncertainty to one of the most dramatic political nail-biters in recent Illinois history.

"The time for fighting is over. The people have won, and we have won this election," a smiling Quinn told cheering supporters at the Hotel Allegro at 12:14 a.m. with his beaming, 92-year-old mother Eileen at his side.

Quinn was introduced by Secretary of State Jesse White, one of his earliest supporters, who compared the months-long primary battle and its sizzling conclusion to "a Chicago street fight."

Just minutes earlier at Carpenters Hall, where Hynes' post-election party was at, the three-term comptroller was still swinging. His tone was anything but conciliatory, and he refused to concede to Quinn, despite trailing the governor by 5,382 votes with all but 2 percent of the precincts counted statewide.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2026722,CST-NWS-govdem03.article

To Charles Grassley, a senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the questions seem pretty simple. How many of the political appointees now in charge of terrorist detainee issues at the Obama Justice Department were, not too long ago, lawyers and activists working on behalf of those very detainees? Who are they? Have they removed themselves from cases involving their former clients?

The questions are particularly critical now, as Attorney General Eric Holder struggles to find a place to hold the trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. If Holder goes ahead with a KSM trial somewhere in the United States, we’ll likely see other Guantanamo inmates being tried on the mainland, too. “It’s a dangerous thing to bring them here,” Grassley says. “But if they’re coming, I want to know who made the decision, and when the decision was made, and I want to make sure that it’s being made by people who have independent judgment and don’t have a foregone conclusion about it.”

So far, Grassley is having a hard time getting the information he wants. His problems started on Nov. 18, 2009, when Holder appeared before the Judiciary Committee and Grassley asked him to reveal which department lawyers had represented which detainees. Grassley is still waiting for an answer.

“He said something like, ‘I have to think about it,’ ” Grassley says. “He must still be thinking about it two and a half months later.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/GOP-presses-Holder-on-Justice_s-terrorism-policies-83301922.html

Just whom are we trying to impress?

That's a question that occurred to me when, on his second full day in the presidency, Barack Obama announced we would close the Guantanamo detainee facility within one year.

It's a question that has kept occurring to me over the last year and nine days, even though Obama and his administration have proven unable to keep that promise.

Whom are we trying to impress by ruling out enhanced interrogation techniques on unlawful combatants, techniques that produced valuable intelligence that saved American lives? Whom are we trying to impress by limiting questioning to the Army Field Manual?

That's a good guide for handling prisoners of war and other lawful combatants covered by international law. But whom are we trying to impress by extending those protections to those who are not covered by the Geneva Conventions or other treaties we have signed?

Whom are we trying to impress by trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in civilian courts after he already pleaded guilty to a military tribunal? And trying him in New York City, where the trial will cost something like $1 billion and tie up Lower Manhattan for years?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-impresses-_educated-class_-but-not-terrorists-83069192.html

The Lost Decade

By Randall Hoven

The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.

Democrats would not be playing the blame game with one another for the [Massachusetts] loss or for the health care debacle if they had only pointed fingers at those (or in this case, the one) who put Americans (and most of the world) in the predicament we're in: George W. Bush.

Black History Month Should Be about Black History

By Lloyd Marcus

I've often said jokingly that Black History Month should more accurately be called "white people and America suck" month. Rather than focusing on all of black history, every February, the liberal media and most democrats gleefully bring up all of America's past sins. Fine. I mean, after all, it is a part of history. But what is so wrong is that these race exploiters imply that current race relations in America have not come very far from the days of blacks being lynched. Thus, Black History Month in reality is the liberal democrats' annual fundraiser and promo campaign for more entitlement programs.

Hoyer: Balancing Budget ‘Further Ahead Than I Want to Plan’ – Opposes Congressional Pay Freeze
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer
Washington (CNSNews.com) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) rejected the idea of continuing a congressional pay freeze until Congress can balance the budget, saying that it would take “a long time” until the budget might be balanced – too long, he said, for Congress to go without a pay raise.
 
Speaking to reporters at his weekly press briefing, Hoyer explained that Congress had already frozen its pay by rejecting a cost of living increase. However, extending that freeze was too much for Hoyer to support.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/60854

Steny Hoyer: White House rethinking Guantanamo transfers

By JAKE SHERMAN | 2/2/10 3:09 PM EST

The second-ranking House Democrat signaled Tuesday that the White House is reconsidering a plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison in northwest Illinois. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he agrees that the Obama administration should reassess the plan to move terrorist suspects from the Cuba military base to Thomson Correctional Facility in the state’s northwest corner. 

“I think the administration realizes that this is a difficult issue,” Hoyer said, speaking at his weekly meeting with Capitol Hill reporters. “And I think that they are assessing where they are and where they think we ought to be, and I think that’s appropriate and I look forward to discussing it with them.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32396.html

Well, it turns out am because they have a very good graphic outlining Obama's budget on their website:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?hp

Still Rolling: Fox News Has Its Best January Ever

by Steve Krakauer

Fox News had its best January in the history of the network, and was the only cable news network to grow year-to-year.

FNC also had the top 13 programs on cable news in total viewers for the fifth month in a row, and the top 13 programs in the A25-54 demographic for the first time in more than five years.

• FNC grew in double digits in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic from January 2009. In prime time, it was up 22% in total viewers and 51% in the demo. CNN was down 34% and 37% and MSNBC down 26% and 38%. In total day, FNC was up 16% and 28%. CNN was down 34% and 41% and MSNBC down 28% and 39%. Last January all networks performed while with the Inauguration coverage. This month, the big political event was Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, which FNC dominated in the ratings.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/still-rolling-fox-news-has-their-best-january-ever/

Washington (CNN) -- The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward repealing the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay and lesbian service members, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

Laying the groundwork for a repeal of the policy will take more than a year, Gates said. In the interim, however, the Defense Department will start enforcing the policy "in a fairer manner," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

President Obama called for a repeal of the policy during last week's State of the Union address.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/02/gays.military/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Tax Cuts to Expire for Top Earners

By MARTIN VAUGHAN

Taxes on high-income earners would rise by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, under the budget plan put forward by President Barack Obama on Monday.

The bulk of that increase comes as tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush expire at the end of 2010.

The top two income-tax rates, which affect people earning more than $200,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples, will return to 36% and 39.6%, from 33% and 35% now.

Under the budget plan, capital gains and dividends would be taxed at 20%, up from 15% now, for people at those income levels.

Limits on upper-income people's ability to claim personal exemptions and itemized deductions will also snap back next year, without any action needed from Congress.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575039132987274858.html?mod=WSJ-hpp-LEADNewsCollection

White House budget cut to charitable deduction alarms philanthropists and non-profits

Early draft of the Constitution found in Phila.

By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: "We The People. . . ."

They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution's framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing.

A mystery, Toler thought, until she examined other Wilson papers from the Historical Society's vault in Philadelphia and found what appeared to be the rest of the draft, titled "The Continuation of the Scheme."

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20100202_Early_draft_of_the_Constitution_found_in_Phila_.html