O'Reilly gets an overdue "Worst Person in the World" award

Ah, Bill O gets slapped twice!

Once again, hat tip to the great Scarce!

Senator Dodd calls for hault on the import of Chinese toys

From Senator Dodd's press release

In a letter sent to the White House yesterday, Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd called on President Bush to use his executive powers and his rights under the WTO to suspend imports on food, toys and pet food from China. Wednesday at the Iowa Federation of Labor, Senator Dodd called for a suspension on imports of food, toys and pet food from China, citing safety concerns.

"While it is clear that many US businesses who choose to locate their manufacturing facilities outside of the United States have failed to guarantee the safety of their products, it is also clear that the US Government's current inspection system is simply inadequate," said Dodd in the letter. "Therefore, I urge you to work with the US Congress to devise a more robust and effective inspection mechanism, so that we can make certain that all products imported to the United States and used by American consumers are safe, regardless of where these products originate."

Yesterday, on CNN's The Situation Room, Dodd elaborated on his call for a halt on Chinese imports.

Is Lieberman's favorite mayor in a bit of trouble

Seems like Hartford Mayor and fellow Liebercrat Eddie Perez is taking a note from John Rowland's playbook

State criminal investigators searched the house of Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez and the office of a Hartford contractor Tuesday, seeking information regarding kitchen and bathroom renovations at Perez's house done by the contractor, who had gotten millions of dollars in work from the city.

The exact nature of the investigation is unclear, but Perez confirmed the search in a statement issued Thursday in response to questions from The Courant. The mayor said the work on his house was done by Carlos Costa, president of USA Contractors, and that Perez had paid for the work himself.

"Even though Mr. Costa was paid in full for the work he performed, it was a mistake on my part to retain a city contractor to perform work at my house," Perez said in a statement. "The perception in today's environment has the potential to undermine public confidence in government."

[...]

Costa has done construction projects for the city, and his company was the low bidder for a Park Street streetscape improvement project in 2003. Investigators took boxes of documents and copies of computer hard drives from his office Tuesday. State investigators have been asking questions and collecting documents at City Hall since at least late April, when questions surfaced about two deals involving political operative and former State Rep. Abraham L. Giles.

In one situation uncovered by The Courant in February, Perez awarded Giles a no-bid contract in November 2006 to run a downtown, city-owned parking lot.

The Courant later reported on April 21 that Giles was on the verge of getting $100,000 from a private developer to walk away from another city-owned parking lot he operated without a contract. That deal collapsed before Giles got the fee.

Two days later, Perez sent a letter to Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane asking him to look into the matter, explaining that he was concerned that "one or more individuals may have intended to use city funds from the project to unjustly enrich one or more parties."

TB followup

Here's a follow-up to the TB scare report at Danbury High School.

The Ghostwriter

Lieberman on Petraeus, July 17 2007:

HANNITY: Congress' approval rating now that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been in power is now at an all-time low in the history of poll taking at 16 percent. We have been through non-binding resolutions, we have been through the idea that Petraeus was appointed unanimously. Harry Reid at the time said trust the generals. The surge was approved. We're not supposed to get the full report until September.

Why did they decide do this now, considering they were supposed to give General Petraeus that time?

LIEBERMAN: There is no good reason to have this vote and this series of votes now. I know the war is unpopular. I know that there is pressure within different constituencies to do something. But Sean, what you said is basically right. We adopted a law in May that set a series of benchmarks. First the interim report last week.

But it was clear to everybody - I would say the Senate, the Congress made an institutional pledge to General Petraeus and incidentally to every man and woman in uniform -- they made a pledge to have every man and woman in Iraq that we would wait until September when he and Ambassador Crocker come back to report to us to make judgments about how the surge is going...

Shays on Petraeus, July 19th:

KING: Well, you say we don't have the force structure. What should be done in the short term, then, if we don't have the force structure?

And as you await that report in September, I know you're just back from I believe your 17th trip in Iraq recently. And you sent this letter that I have here to Secretary Gates in which you think the Iraq Study Group should be reconstituted so that you have an independent assessment once General Petraeus comes forth with that report in September.

Do you, sir, simply not trust that you will get an independent or an unbiased report from General Petraeus?

SHAYS: No, I think we'll get a very accurate report from General Petraeus....

Olbermann on Petraeus August 16 2007.

Buried in a L.A. Times article was the statement that the Petraeus Report will not be written by Gen. Petraeus but by the White House instead.

Danbury in the news

Recently, Danbury has been the center of attention in the mainstream media. With the spotlight on Hat City, a brief list of two Danbury-related stories that's gaining state-wide attention.

WEST NILE VIRUS

Last night, FOX 61 continued their story on the West Nile virus case. For those who don't know, last week, health officials confirmed that two female individuals, one from the New London area and the other from Danbury, contracted the virus. According to news reports, both were admitted to the hospital for treatment and are currently recovering at home.

The Danbury woman is between 20 and 29 and was admitted in hospital for encephalitis with a fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, weakness and memory loss two w3eeks ago. The New London resident, who is in her 30’s, was hospitalized around the same time with symptoms of meningitis with headache, a stiff neck, joint and muscle pain and weakness.

The News-Times did a write up on the story and did a small background on the virus.

West Nile virus, which turned up in the U.S. in the fall of 1999, is the most common mosquito-born illness in the country.

While many people infected with the disease suffer no symptoms — or little more than a three-day headache — others can suffer a prolonged, flu-like illness with fever, head and joint aches, and fatigue.

The virus has been especially hard on the elderly, causing encephalitis (swelling of the brain), chronic fatigue, a polio-like paralysis and, in some cases, death.

Since 1999, the virus has killed 902 Americans, including three in Connecticut.

Last night, FOX-61 filed this brief report on the case.

In short, the West Nile virus is a disease that people should take seriously. The CDC has detailed outline on ways one can reduce your risk of becoming infected with virus.

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TUBERCULOSIS SCARE

The other news story of the day is the recent detection of students with tuberculosis at Danbury High School. News-Times education beat reporter Eileen FitzGerald and staff reporter Robert Miller have been all over this story and have a detailed write-up in today's paper.

A student at Danbury High School has active tuberculosis, prompting the city to notify at least 150 people at the school and at Danbury Library – where she works as a volunteer – to be tested for the disease.

"We want to be as conservative as possible," city health director Scott Leroy said. By conservative, he means opening the circle of people to be tested to include the girl’s casual contacts, to make sure no one has been infected with the disease.

Dr. John Gundy, the school’s medical adviser, said the girl ran a fever last winter while school was in session, then recovered. This summer, she developed active TB and is now being treated for the disease.

Gundy said because the disease in its early stage can manifest itself with a fever, health officials in the city can’t be sure she did not have the first signs of active TB last winter.

The city learned last week from state laboratories that the girl had active TB. On Monday, the school system sent out letters to students and staff informing them of the situation. The high school will have an informational session and TB skin tests for them Aug. 27 at 1 p.m. at the high school.

Mark Hasskarl, Danbury Library director, said his staff has been notified. They will be tested Monday, he said.

Dr. Thomas Draper, the city’s associate health director, said there is no need to test people who simply entered the library or the school when the girl was there.

WTNH were on the scene at Danbury High and filed this report during their noon news broadcast.
You can find more information on tuberculosis on the CDC's website.

Congressman Chris Murphy does Face the State

Doesn't this Congressman understand that he's on vacation?

Congressman Chris Murphy made an appearance on WFSB's Face the State and talked about his time in office, his stance on several major issues, the state of the Democratic controlled Congress, and his support of Chris Dodd for President.