Quarantines are nothing new, and they aren't a Rethug conspiracy.

[pnwmom]

http://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/historyquarantine.html

Quarantine Now

The Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is part of CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and is headquartered in Atlanta. Quarantine stations are located in Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. (see contact lists and map).

Under its delegated authority, the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is empowered to detain, medically examine, or conditionally release individuals and wildlife suspected of carrying a communicable disease.

The list of quarantinable diseases is contained in an Executive Order of the President and includes cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers (such as Marburg, Ebola, and Congo-Crimean), and severe acute respiratory syndromes.

Many other illnesses of public health signficance, such as measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox, are not contained in the list of quarantinable illnesses, but continue to pose a health risk to the public. Quarantine Station personnel respond to reports of ill travelers aboard airplanes, ships, and at land border crossings to make an assessment of the public health risk and initiate an appropriate response.

[Electric Monk]

1. Did someone say they were? If so, that's really ignorant, indeed. nt

[pnwmom]

2. Some people here consider it an abrogation of civil rights, and are saying things like

"feeling an awful like the beginnings of the patriot act, and homeland security of bushco time."

[840high]

3. I read that and had

a good laugh.

[Electric Monk]

4. I hadn't read that yet, but now I have and I see what you mean.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5711197

I still stand by my previous reply, though.