<p>According to a biography posted on a Web site connected with Speaker's law firm, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance, and then attended University of Georgia's law school.</p>
<p>Did he grauate? Or merely attend? It would seem the numbers don't work well for a graduate and commissioned officer with a law degree and now 31?</p>
<p>I was shocked to read that he attended USNA (gasp!). </p>
<p>"According to a biography posted on a Web site connected with Speaker's law firm, the young lawyer attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance, then attended University of Georgia's law school. He is in private practice with his father, Ted Speaker, an unsuccessful candidate for a judgeship in 2004."</p>
<p>However, since he has an undergraduate degree from U Georgia, I assume he left before commissioning. This is getting stranger by the minute...stepfather works for the CDC. Of course, now we want to know why he left USNA! Stupidity, selfishness, poor judgment, moral turpitude???</p>
<p>add "Not a team player" to the above list.</p>
<p>Andrew Speaker was a member of the USNA Class of 1997. From the alumni database, it appears that he never graduated from the academy. Mt guess is that he probaly was a plebe summer dropout; he obviously doesn't like to play by the rules. Ambulance chaser also says a lot about his character.</p>
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[quote]
Colleen Kelley, president of the union that represents customs and border agents, declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but said "public health issues were not receiving adequate attention and training" within the agency....
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</p>
<p>Do they not know how to read computer messages that pop up on their screens after scanning passports???</p>
<p>
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...Health law experts said Speaker could be sued if others contract the disease....
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<p>Now that would be poetic justice -- an ambulance chaser getting sued for reckless endangerment.</p>
<p>Crap. Now I'm thinking about Stephen King's "The Stand" all day long.....</p>
<p>from the looks of it he was in the wrong, but theres an interview with him tomorrow morning on good morning america. its always good to hear from both sides</p>
<p>I'm interested to hear how he justifies what he did especially since he was told NOT to take a long plane trip and turn himself into the Italian authorities.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous case of tuberculosis who was quarantined after he flew on crowded airplanes and crossed several borders spent two years as a midshipman at the Naval Academy, Navy Times has learned.</p>
<p>Andrew Speaker, 31, entered the academy in 1993 with the class of 1997, but he left before the 1995 fall semester, said academy spokeswoman Judy Campbell. She would not give a reason for his early departure. Midshipmen are permitted to leave with no penalties before their junior year....
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<p>I was wrong. Speaker took the USNA junior college option.</p>
<p>I wonder if his inablity to follow orders had anything to do with his leaving USNA after 2 years????</p>
<p>There is more to this story. Apparently his "father-in-law" is a biologist for the CDC and work with TB. </p>
<p>Speaker is claiming that he was never ordered not to fly only that is was "suggested" that he shouldn't. Father who is also a lawyer, apparently taped that meeting. Sure there will be much more to this......</p>
<p>All just seems a lil odd... especially with the Father-in-Law working for the CDC specializing in TB of all things.. and the son-in-law happens to come up with the most rare form of TB. And, that ambulance chasing lawyer really gets around the world on International flights. Conspiracy theory anyone? Just for fun of course.</p>
<p>"Meanwhile, questions arose as to whether the wedding even took place. The mayor of the island of Santorini in Greece, Angelos Rousso, told The Associated Press: "There was no wedding. They came for a marriage but they did not have the required papers." He said the couple stayed in a hotel for three days and then left."</p>
<p>Sad, considering TB kills more worldwide than any other disease. Just because they look like Ken and Barbie people (and ABC) think it's newsworthy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
All just seems a lil odd... especially with the Father-in-Law working for the CDC specializing in TB of all things.. and the son-in-law happens to come up with the most rare form of TB. ........Conspiracy theory anyone?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Without question, they will run assay tests to detmine the strain - from both the patient and the strains from the CDC- time will reveal all.</p>
<p>truly such a bizarre bizarre story. i don't care even if he was only 'advised' against flying...if i found out i had resistant TB, i think my first thought would be to cancel my imminent wedding in Europe...i don't know, some crazy desire to stay close to my doctor, perhaps. The man took like 6 or 7 flights as well, and from the totally clueless statements he and his wife(?) were making, it seemed like they just didn't get it.</p>
<p>the border agent should be sued for rampant stupidity. ignoring the computer popup ordering you to detain him and contact the authorities just because he 'looks alright' to you is truly heinous. it's like ignoring a popup advising you that a man is a terrorist because he 'doesnt look like one' to you.</p>
<p>
[quote]
An Atlanta attorney quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis apologized to his fellow plane passengers in an interview aired today, and insisted that he was told he wasn't contagious or a threat to anyone.</p>
<p>"I've lived in this state of constant fear and anxiety and exhaustion for a week now, and to think that someone else is now feeling that, I wouldn't want anyone to feel that way. It's awful," Andrew Speaker told ABC's "Good Morning America" from his hospital room in Denver. ...
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</p>
<p>Published in the New York Crimes:</p>
<p>
[quote]
As the Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous form of tuberculosis began treatment yesterday in Denver, the patient and government officials here and abroad provided sharply divergent accounts of his 12 days of world travel. The accounts seemed to agree only in the missed opportunities to head off what has become an international public health scandal.</p>
<p>The patient, Andrew Speaker, has said that public health officials in Fulton County, Ga., told him a trip would not be risky. But those officials said that he had been clearly warned of the dangers. In interviews, public health officials at the county, state and federal levels all said he should not have traveled and defended their handling of the case....
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</p>
<p>After he was diagnosed, I don't understand why he wasn't hospitalized IMMEDIATELY, to begin some type of treatment (including isolating him from the general public).</p>
<p>Short of a military state where you have 24/7 surveillance on someone, Dr. Osterholm said, you have to count on the good will of the individual. </p>
<p>Evidently Andrew Speaker's 'good will' doesn't extend beyond himself. Typhoid Mary was another example, and people with HIV/AIDS who knowingly spread it.</p>
<p>I have seen the CDC be more militant with people infected with Lyme Disease (which can be treated w/antibiotics) than this man.</p>