State Legislators In Now-Infamous Solitaire Photo Identified

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, far right, speaks while colleagues play solitaire on their computers as the House convenes to vote on a new budget for the fiscal year in the Capitol on Monday [AP Photo/Jessica Hill]

A photo of two Democratic legislators playing solitaire has ignited controversy at the state Capitol and in the blogosphere.

The Associated Press picture has appeared in any number of venues, and it shows two lawmakers sitting in the back row of the historic Hall of the House in Hartford during the lengthy debate over the two-year, $37 billion state budget.

On the left is Rep. Barbara Lambert, a freshman Democrat from Milford who won her first legislative election in November 2008. She replaced longtime Milford Democrat James Amann, who ended his legislative career as the House Speaker and is now running for governor against Republican M. Jodi Rell.

Lambert is playing spider solitaire in the photo, while Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, a Bridgeport Democrat who has served in Hartford since 2005, is playing regular solitaire. They both voted in favor of the Democratic-written budget, while Cafero voted against it. A Boston College graduate, Hennessy is a delivery specialist for FedEx.

During the long debates at the state Capitol, legislators often work on their laptop computers - as seen in the photograph. Sometimes they are answering e-mails from constituents, while other times they are researching important information on pending bills. Other times, they are playing solitaire.

When asked Tuesday about the photo by Capitol Watch, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell laughed and said, "I think if they'd spend less time playing computer games and more time looking for spending cuts, then we would have been out of here a lot sooner.''

Republican Tom Foley, who is running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Christopher J. Dodd, said, "I was disheartened to see a Hartford Courant front page photo showing members of our Democratically-controlled legislature playing solitaire on their computers while debate was occurring on a new state budget that raises taxes and contains no net reduction in spending. This is not a time for the Democrats who control our legislature to be playing games with Connecticut's future. Our elected officials need to put away their computer toys and help working people by lowering taxes and keeping government spending down."

The photo by Jessica Hill is gaining national attention through an item posted to the front of the Drudge Report and a blog post by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin.

Source : courant.com

Why You Should Fear Swine Flu

The last deadly flu epidemic broke out almost 90 years ago in 1918. How quickly did the flu spread? From PBS.org comes this map that shows how the virus spread across the United States in just two weeks.


At the time, the United States had an excellent rail system that assisted the spread across the country. Transcontinental travel was limited to boats, and it took weeks to cross the Atlantic. But these are ancient forms of transportation when compared to the speed and efficiency of interstate highways and air travel that we enjoy today. And the capacity is significantly greater as well. In an age when you can fly from London to Lagos or New York to New Dehli within a day, the swine flu will spread like nothing seen before in human history if it connects from human to human.

In retrospect, it appears that the Avian flu was controlled because it never passed from human to human. We can hope the same stays true for swine flu, but from the epicenter in Mexico City we’re already seeing cases emerge in Texas, California, Kansas, and possibly New York. As with SARS and the avian flu scare of 4 years ago, the WHO and world governments are acting as quickly as possible to prevent its spread. But as the map above shows, if the flu does begin to expand across the map like wildfire, there may be nothing that anyone can do to stop it.