Hynes concedes in emotional speech

Fighting back tears, Dan Hynes conceded the Democratic primary election for governor Thursday morning and endorsed Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s reelection bid after a bitter campaign that came down to just 8,000 votes.

“The people have spoken and the votes have been counted,” Hynes said in an emotional but gracious speech.

“We rose up but fell just a little short,” the state comptroller said. “We did the right thing, made sure all the votes were counted and now we’re sure: That wasn’t us. And rather than contest or demand anything further, let’s do the right thing again."

With all precincts reporting, Quinn defeated Hynes by only 8,090 votes, 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32527.html

President Obama: “Every Economist from the Left and Right” Says Stimulus Has Saved or Created At Least Two Million Jobs

President Obama veered off script – and away from the facts – when he spoke about the stimulus bill today in Nashua, NH.

“Now, if you hear some of the critics, they'll say, well, the Recovery Act, I don't know if that's really worked, because we still have high unemployment,” the president said. “But what they fail to understand is that every economist, from the left and the right, has said, because of the Recovery Act, what we've started to see is at least a couple of  million jobs that have either been created or would have been lost. The problem is, 7 million jobs were lost during the course of  this recession.”

Um, it’s not true that “every economist” has said the Recovery Act has saved or created two million jobs.

...

The president was originally supposed to say, according to his prepared remarks, that “I understand why some people are wondering whether the Recovery Act has really worked.  Because while these steps mean 2 million Americans are working right now who’d otherwise be unemployed, and our economy is growing again instead of shrinking – and growing at the fastest rate in 6 years – we lost 7 million jobs during this recession.”

-Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/president-obama-every-economist-from-the-left-and-right-says-stimulus-has-saved-or-created-at-least-.html

There aren't any major differences in beliefs between "Tea Party" activists and the Republican Party, the top House Republican said Thursday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the GOP and the groups conservative activists across the country are indistinguishable when it comes to policy.

"There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the tea party activists believe in," Boehner said during an appearance on the conservative Mike Gallagher's radio show.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/79725-boehner-no-difference-in-beliefs-between-gop-and-tea-partiers

Administration changes story on Christmas Day bomber

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
02/03/10 7:57 AM EST

A number of news organizations are reporting that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the al Qaeda soldier accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet, is now cooperating with authorities and has provided useful intelligence to terrorist investigators.

The Washington Post, citing "Obama administration sources," reports Abdulmutallab "has been providing FBI interrogators with useful intelligence about his training and contacts since last week." The Politico quotes a "law enforcement source" saying Abdulmutallab has provided "useful, current intelligence." And ABC News, citing a "senior administration official," reports that the intelligence "has been disseminated throughout the intelligence community."

The reports represent a striking turnaround in the administration's position. Ever since the public learned that authorities had just 50 minutes to question Abdulmutallab before he was read his Miranda rights and refused to answer any further questions, the Obama administration has claimed that it had, during that brief interrogation, gotten all the information that was possible to be gained from Abdulmutallab. On Fox News Sunday January 24, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that "FBI interrogators believe they got valuable intelligence and were able to get all that they could out of him." When host Chris Wallace asked, "All they could?" Gibbs answered, "Yeah."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Administration-changes-story-on-Christmas-Day-bomber-83431262.html

Taxpayers to Fork Out $2.5 Million for Single Census Ad During Super Bowl

FOXNews.com

Taxpayers might want to pay close attention to this Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast or they'll miss Uncle Sam's 30-second, $2.5-million reminder to stand up and be counted.

Taxpayers might want to pay close attention to this Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast or they'll miss Uncle Sam's 30-second, $2.5-million reminder to stand up and be counted.

That's what the Census Bureau paid CBS to get their message notched somewhere between a National Lampoon reprisal, a weird dude with big glasses, a beer-can house and men without pants.

And, that's just a fraction of what the bureau plans to spend this year to get Americans to answer a simple, 10-question survey.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/03/taxpayers-fork-million-single-census-ad-super-bowl/

Airliner bombing suspect is providing FBI with intelligence, source says

By Carrie Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010; 6:13 PM

Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been providing FBI interrogators with useful intelligence about his training and contacts since last week, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.

Separately, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III was asked at a Senate hearing Tuesday afternoon whether Abdulmutallab was providing information to investigators. Mueller said "yes," without elaborating.

Word that the Nigerian student accused of trying to detonate a powerful explosive on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 is cooperating with criminal investigators comes amid a fierce debate in Congress over the Obama administration's approach to national security.

Abdulmutallab has recently told authorities more about where he trained overseas and others he met there, leads that the FBI has shared with other members of the U.S. intelligence community, the law enforcement source said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202995.html

First-time jobless claims rise unexpectedly

WASHINGTON – The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.

The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.

The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100204/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_jobless_claims;_ylt=AqS2pz0ovOnMdQCGLt_OcKiyBhIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJpcm44cGJiBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMjA0L3VzX2pvYmxlc3NfY2xhaW1zBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNmaXJzdC10aW1lam8-

Crist Draws Reagan Parallel to Quiet Critics

Florida may be the site of the Super Bowl XLIV, but another high-stakes contest is also drawing attention.

According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist trails fellow Republican Marco Rubio in their Senate primary race by three points – a statistical dead heat. Some of Crist's critics paint the governor as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) while Rubio is seen as a true conservative.

Crist addressed his naysayers during an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday.

"If I'm a RINO, then so is Ronald Reagan. I'm [a] less taxing, less spending, less government, more freedom kind of guy and I just take a pragmatic common sense approach to government. And if that's not what the people want, they'll let me know. But I'm confident that it is," he told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/04/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6173083.shtml

Eye to Eye on Iran?
Our partisan Congress has united behind sanctions.

Washington’s partisan divide is as wide as it’s ever been. Democrats and Republicans bitterly disagree on fundamental points of principle and policy. So it should not go unremarked: Last week, the Senate passed — unanimously — a bill that would impose serious sanctions on Iran. A similar bill already has passed the House by a 412-to-12 margin. What explains this sudden outburst of harmony?

Members of Congress from both parties appear to have recognized that if those who now rule Iran acquire nuclear weapons the consequences will be dire.

http://article.nationalreview.com/423827/eye-to-eye-on-iran/clifford-d-may

‘Merely Organized to Convict’
Sage advice for Holder from his professed role model.

Attorney General Eric Holder keeps on the wall of his office a portrait of Justice Robert Jackson, who was attorney general under FDR. Holder explains that Jackson is one of his heroes. The display is both an homage and a reminder to consider the justice’s reservoirs of wisdom, which ran deep.

Or maybe it’s just for show. For all the professed admiration, the attorney general mentions only Justice Jackson’s famous concurring opinion in the “Steel Seizure” case, regarding the limits of executive power. In that 1952 case, Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer, the Supreme Court invalidated President Truman’s attempt to nationalize the steel mills in order to avert a work stoppage that might have harmed the Korean War effort.

Justice Jackson’s concurrence laid out a very general three-part test, arguing that the president’s constitutional power ebbs and flows with congressional support, silence, or opposition. In modern times, it has become a favorite of Democratic lawyers — at least during Republican administrations. As is their wont, they exaggerate the parts they like: Jackson did not, as they suggest, declare the president was without power if Congress opposes him. He acknowledged that even at this “low ebb” — presidential action that contravenes a congressional statute — the measure of lawfulness is the Constitution, not the statute. Regardless, Holder claims that Jackson’s opinion “remains the gold standard to this day for defining the extent to which the president can operate consistent with the rule of law.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/423902/merely-organized-to-convict/andrew-c-mccarthy

How to Blame Bush: Lie

By Randall Hoven

Has this happened to you? You start reading an article written by a Democrat, wondering if it is just possible that he has a legitimate point. But one or two paragraphs in, you find yourself so deep in outrageously false premises that you wonder if you share the same planet. How do they manage to pack so many falsehoods into so few words?

Democrats would not be playing the blame game with one another for the [Massachusetts] loss or for the healthcare [sic] 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.