I hope that Herr Cheney gets better.

But...

Gee Wally, it looks like people were right to question his Herr Cheney's health after all. Makes one wonder what else is being hidden.

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Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
~C. Montgomery Burns

Dick Cheney did NOT, repeat, NOT have a heart attack. He suffered from a slight narrowing of an artery, which could have occured in any man his age. The problem has been corrected.

All previous medical reports showed that Cheney was in perfect health for a man of his age. All medical reports show that he will return to normal functioning immediately.

Bottom line: Dick Cheney's health is not an issue, unless you have a problem with his age.

CNN reports:

quote:

---

After the surgery, Dr. Alan Wasserman, interim chair of the department of medicine at George Washington University, told reporters that Cheney's prognosis is "excellent" -- and he should be able to resume normal activities in a "few weeks" at most. Cheney will remain hospitalized for the next 2-3 days.

However, doctors failed to disclose that Cheney suffered a heart attack for some hours. They waited until a second news conference more than two hours later to disclose Cheney's true condition.

"There was a very slight heart attack," Wasserman told reporters later Wednesday afternoon....

---

Slight? The New York Times reports:

quote:

---

Doctors found that one of Mr. Cheney's coronary arteries was about "90 to 95 percent blocked," and tests later determined that he had what they eventually termed a "very mild heart attack."

---

Los Angeles Times reports:

quote:

---

But doctors revised their diagnosis after a later set of blood tests indicated a "minimally elevated level" in heart muscle enzymes. The presence of these enzymes indicates heart muscle damage--a heart attack.

On Wednesday, in explaining the change in their earlier diagnosis, doctors stressed that the definition of heart attack was changed last year by the American Heart Assn. to reflect "any enzyme elevation" measured in the blood.

"Over a year ago, this amount of enzyme elevation would not have been considered by most people signs of a heart attack," said Dr. Alan Wasserman, professor of cardiology at George Washington University Hospital, where Cheney--experiencing chest discomfort--checked himself in before dawn Wednesday.

"To put this into some perspective, in someone that has had a significant heart attack, the levels would be somewhere 20 to 50 times higher," Wasserman added.

---

CNN writes:

quote:

---

Cheney, 59, had three heart attacks and quadruple cardiac bypass surgery before turning 50, but recently said he now leads an "extraordinarily vigorous lifestyle." Cheney says he quit smoking, exercises regularly and takes medicine to lower his cholesterol.

---

Make that 4 heart attacks.

So, either you don't know what you are talking about or you don't care to find out.

Conservative talk radio information isn't what's it's cracked up to be is it?

Clearly you haven't clue. Better tell someone to lock the thread.

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Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
~C. Montgomery Burns

My grandad had three heart attacks, and told each one of 'em to go away because he was busy (same thing he told the Nazi who shot off his ear, except he delivered that message with a bullet). Anyway, my grandad's still kickin' -- and workin -- at 87 or so (he's an old coot).

Still -- he had his heart attacks later in life than Cheney did.

I think its a valid point if any elected official could drop dead from a heart attack. It's not something to cover up or gloss over as Omega seems to be doing (sorry dude, you are).

Of course, the election is over in that we just don't know who won ... but I don't think this is a very good start for the Bush Presidency, and if this whole Florida fiasco wasn't going on, I think it would be a *much* bigger story.

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

Bush can appoint someone new as VP before the electorate college votes, as long as the Republican party backs him. Even if he decides to appoint someone after the EC, he can probably do it without having to get the guy approved by Congress because of the stuff going on in Florida ... (I know I fumbled some of the details, but thats the gist of it).

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

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What did it mean to you
An early chat with death
To pull your body for a moment from your soul
--
Camper Van Beethoven
****
Read chapter TWO of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Now with 30% more plot.

Still a question for Omega. What is the "truth" then?

Now, what I said in my initial post was that Cheney had a heart attack. True.

That heart attck comes on the heels of questions about his health. True.

Does this affect his ability to be Vice President? Who can say. His doctor does not think so...so, I can only speculate.

Deal you with that.

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Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
~C. Montgomery Burns

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Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
~C. Montgomery Burns

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**...****...**

Adviser Mary Matalin said Cheney was undergoing a cardiac catheterization at George Washington University Hospital to determine what was causing the chest pains. ``They're going in to take a look,'' she said. ``Details to follow.''

Cheney, 60, suffered a heart attack in late November but quickly resumed a full schedule after an operation to fix a blocked artery.

One of his heart arteries was 90 percent blocked, so doctors implanted a wire scaffolding-like device called a stent to push away the blockage and prop open the artery walls.

It was his fourth heart attack since he was 37. In 1988, Cheney had quadruple bypass surgery to clear clogged arteries.

Aides said Cheney, who was working at the White House on Monday, told Bush in the morning that he was experiencing discomfort in his chest and planned to be examined by a doctor.

One aide to Cheney said he headed to the hospital about 3:30 p.m. The aide said he appeared normal, even cheerful, all day.

Matalin said Cheney checked himself into the hospital ``for a repeat cardiac catheterization after experiencing two brief, mild episodes of chest discomfort. This is a non-emergency precautionary procedure. An EKG obtained at the White House this afternoon was unchanged from one obtained last Thursday.''

In procedures such as the one Cheney underwent Monday, doctors insert a flexible tube into a leg vessel, and it is run from there up to the target artery supplying blood to the heart. At that point, dye is injected. The dye shows up on an X-ray or fluoroscope, enabling doctors to see the flow of blood through the artery.

If there is a blockage, the tube can be backed out and another tube, larger, can be inserted. This tube can be used to perform a balloon angioplasty, a technique whereby a collapsed balloon is placed at the point of blockage and then inflated. This opens the artery.

If no problem is found, a patient undergoing catheterization could be sent home from the hospital in six to eight hours. If problems are found and additional procedures are required, then the patient will probably remain in the hospital for a day or two.

Cheney is an unusually active and influential vice president. He headed Bush's transition team, played a major role in Cabinet and top personnel selections and has helped Bush forge foreign policy as well as a national energy policy. White House officials say Cheney is the adviser Bush most relies upon to make sure his agenda is carried out.

His hospitalization came less than a week after Bush's first address to Congress, just as Bush is trying to generate attention and support for his tax-cut plan.

In a telephone interview, Matalin said the EKG last week was part of a normal followup to the heart attack Cheney suffered late last year.

She said Cheney reported the discomfort to his doctor, who advised the vice president to have the new procedure done sometime this week.

In a television interview Sunday, Cheney said he felt great. ``I am well-behaved. They've taken control of my food supply. So I'm trying to do all those things you need do to be a responsible individual with a history of coronary artery disease and somebody who's 60,'' he told CNN.

After his last heart attack, Cheney's doctors said the accumulation of disease had left his heart moderately damaged. Other heart experts said Cheney was at higher risk for further heart attacks than the average person his age and he needed to take such protective steps as losing weight.

Cheney late in November revealed that his blood pressure was an excellent 106 over 80. He was taking cholesterol-lowering medicine that had kept his total cholesterol level around a good 170, he said. However, he didn't reveal levels of so-called bad cholesterol and triglycerides, more important than total cholesterol counts.

Asked if he feared another heart attack, Cheney said: ``I don't operate that way. ... I look forward to several more years.''

A few days after his November heart attack, Cheney demonstrated his back-to-business mindset when he responded to questions about his health by jumping up and down and pumping his arms.

Cheney, who has declined to release his full medical records, seemingly has lost some weight since then, but aides won't say how much - or how much he now weighs. He exercises regularly on a treadmill and has been skipping sweets, aides said.

The Constitution requires Congress to confirm a new vice president if that office should become vacant. The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, has been invoked twice, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and again after President Nixon resigned in 1974, elevating Vice President Gerald Ford to the presidency.

When Agnew resigned in 1973, Nixon nominated Ford to be his vice president. Less than a year later, Nixon resigned, Ford succeeded him and designated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president.

AP-NY-03-05-01 1724EST

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?

I have an inclination to trust Fox News before CNN, or the New York Post. :P

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"President Bush. It's fun saying that. Go ahead, you try." - M. Lucinsky, Spectrum Editor

sheesh, do people have to jump to conclusions for this?

But maybe's it time for Dubya to go shopping for a new VP.

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?