[George W. Bush]

...and I had no trouble hearing about Bush's quarantine order.

I suspect a lot of FReepers would feel differently had that E.O. been signed William Jefferson Clinton.

Just a hunch.

The article is correct about the political utility of the SARS scare allowing cover for governments to mask other political agendas, both internal and external. And it's a WHO power-grab. Just ask Toronto. Wonder if they're still so happy with their global village.

[TaxRelief]

The Executive Order merely amended the Public Health Act to add SARS to the list of quarantinable diseases. Without this change, the government would have no authority to

1) close the borders to "quarantine" the country.
2) to keep a mentally ill contagious person in confinement.
3) to close down schools or cities in heavily affected areas. or
4) to ground airplanes and control traffic into or out of heavily infected areas.

Our constitution and our courts protect us from any massive abuse of power that quarantine authority could produce. Unlike China, who can use SARS as a way to eliminate dissidents, our Bill of Rights is sound enough to prevent any such occurence here. BTW, look for an unusually high number of "college age" and otherwise healthy individuals to start dieing from SARS, in China and maybe even Hong Kong. (Read: convenient dissident elimination)

You are right, though, that if Bubba had done it, some freepers would have been hard to calm down, but with good reason.

===> Nobody trusted Bubba and nobody ever will.<===