The TB guy does not have brown skin

[mudesi]

I can't help but wonder whether or not the man infected with tuberculosis would have been able to cross the border, or even get on a plane, for that matter, had he had a Middle Eastern name, or looked like a Middle Easterner.

Why are the Democrats not making political hay out of this situation? After all the claims of Bush making the country safer, given almost 6 years after September 11, 2001, a man with an extremely dangerous disease was able to freely cross the border, as well as get on a plane.

Or is it only people named Ahmed or Mohamed who get "special treatment"?

[Sequoia]

1. Yes

That other TB guy who's in a jail that the media won't talk about is foreign born as I remember it. Why nothing about him? He's in a jail and this "healthy and tanned" guy is in a cushy medical facility.

[originalpckelly]

3. Yep, that's precisely it.

Though I do also think the the fact that they had to put out an alert to any passengers on the planes who might have contracted this from Speaker also helped it into the news.

[originalpckelly]

2. Yes, only our guests with brown skin win a free trip to sunny GITMO Bay, Cuba.

Sean Hannity and all these other rightwing idiots would be making such hay out of this if it were someone with brown skin.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

4. Is it true that the border agent let him cross...

because he "looked healthy"? I think heard that last night on Olbermann, but found his fill-in so annoying I didn't fully tune in.

[pitohui]

8. border control officers are not doctors

he did no tests nor did he have the qualifications to determine if mr. speaker was healthy

he let him across in moments, in my opinion, almost certainly because there was a wad of bills bundled up in mr. speaker's passport

i mean, come on, you get a warning pop up immediately that a guy has an infectious deadly disease and you just shrug and say "cool?"

something happened that we haven't been told, and "something" usually involves money in my life experience

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. Who said they are?

That's quite possible, but after spending 24 years in the workforce, I see laziness, incompetence, and/or indifference as possible reasons. Or maybe it's just 7 years of the current Maladministration that makes me thinks so.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. Is Lou Dobbs going to do a scathing report on it?

Doubt it.

[jgraz]

6. Of course not -- it's not like the guy had leprosy

:banghead:

[pitohui]

7. my husband is lily white and gets "special treatment"

people who get "special treatment" are people with such names as ed kennedy, david nelson, clark lewis, you know, regular common ordinary names held by thousands of people, out of which there will be one or two with that same name who are bad guys

as far as TB guy being allowed to cross the border, his name AND passport number did come up on the screen, along with an infectious disease warning, and the border control agent let him in anyway, against the rules -- it's a 99 to 1 odds that the agent was given a bribe to let this man through, seems to me

[swimmernsecretsea]

9. "He didn't look sick" was one official's reason

for letting him through a border. He's been placed on administrative leave.