AP: Powell Briefly Hospitalized in Colorado

[Eugene]

July 7, 2006, 4:19AM
Powell Briefly Hospitalized in Colorado

© 2006 The Associated Press

ASPEN, Colo. — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was briefly hospitalized
early Friday after he fell ill at a restaurant where he was dining with former
President Clinton and others, police said.

Aspen police Sgt. Bill Linn said the four-star general told him it appeared
to be a combination of altitude sickness and something he ate.

"He is conscious and in very good spirits," Linn said shortly before Powell was
released from Aspen Valley Hospital at 1:45 a.m. Linn said Powell asked him
to speak with reporters.

<snip>

Powell, 69, was in Colorado for the Aspen Ideas Festival, a conference in its
second year that invites some of the world's leading thinkers.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4030330.html

[Epiphany4z]

1. jeez

I would stay out of Aspen for a while...first Lay keels over now Powell gets sick...ya know you could write a hell of fiction novel with all this ...the Libby poem..Ken Lay dead..Powell food poisned...ahh Aspen...

[Delphinus]

2. Well,

my first thought was Scotter (traitor) Libby's phrase to Judith (traitor) Miller: The aspens are turning.

[bklyncowgirl]

3. Oh, shit he was dining with Clinton!

Wait for the right wing nut jobs to start talking about another Arkencide!

Of course Shrub would have far more reasons to hasten Powell's demise and frankly I can't think of any reason Clinton would want him dead but you know the right wing.

Hopefully he just had a touch of the flu.

[Tesla]

4. Maybe the plate was switched!

"The Aspens are turning" is a metaphor for kill everyone that knows anything!

I would hate to be known as an acquaintance of *'s right now!

[sweetheart]

5. free medical care for attendees!

There it is, an aspen idea, universal medical care.

[MADem]

6. Altitude sickness. Too high a climate for old men.

If you are over sixty, and don't live there normally, stay the hell away. That joint will kill ya.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

7. Aspen! AGAIN! Hmmmmmm.

Those leaves are turning fast now, aren't they. :scared:

[mainer]

8. Powell talking to Clinton? That's the interesting part.

Were they alone at dinner? Is Powell venting his frustrations about Bush? Is Powell now sorry he backed up the boy king? Is Powell turning Democrat? What the heck is going on here? This has got to make the Bushies nervous.

[samplegirl]

10. Well afterall

he was invited to a dinner of "leading thinkers"

[Ilsa]

12. Ahhh. And no one sent an invitation to DimSon! ;) nt

[1932]

9. I'm reading America's Prisoner by Manuel Noriega and Peter Eisner

and Powell comes accross as an asshole in the beginning. Eisner quotes from Powell's biography and Powell seems insane.

Actually, Powell does that right wing thing where he tries to characterize Noriega as insane as an effort to justify an immoral and illegal invasion. Days before the invasion, in 1989, Bush fired the general in charge of the Southern Command because he disagreed with the state department and said the invasion was not justified. Then Bush promoted Powell from a staff position to command the invasion (quite a promotion) and it was because Powell would do for Bush what generals with more experience would not.

[Drum]

11. At first, alcohol at an altitude like that

will :kick: your ass. I learned that early on in visiting Aspen and other high places out there. Until you're really acclimated you have to take the hydration issue seriously, and go very lightly on the spirits. Even a couple of beers can send you reeling, and an altitude hangover is a memorable teacher!

[Ilsa]

13. We weren't even drinking and my husband was nauseous

from altitude sickness in CO. We got there in two days driving from the Texas coast. I acclimated quickly and had no problems, so I kept my husband on light duty until he was better.

[Robb]

14. You never know who it's going to hit

I live at around 8K feet, and I've seen it all. Incredibly fit people get hit with altitude sickness. Unhealthy people do. You can live here for years, then go to sea level and return and one time it will affect you, some other time it won't. It's quite unpredictable. :)

Didn't Cheney hit the hospital in Aspen this year? Or last year?

[bleedingheart]

15. I got severely sick in Vail Colorado...I was so nauseous

and yet when we started the drive to Boulder...I felt better...

[Robb]

19. Well, that's the treatment!

First thing to do is to lose some elevation... our ambulance here will take people a thousand feet lower, most improve immediately. :)

[bleedingheart]

20. I never realized it was probably altitude sickness until I read this

thread.

It was my third (I realized that Grand lake is the same elevation about..)night in the higher elevations...I had a glass of wine with a very nice dinner...and I woke up in the middle of the night...I was so disoriented and severely nauseous....we had wanted to go biking in Vail and I just couldn't even bear it...I got back to Boulder..took a nap and voila..I was fine..if it had been a stomach bug (which is what I thought)...it would not have gone away so fast...

What was odd was that I started to feeling unwell while going through Rocky Mountain National park
and with my asthma..I had to use my inhaler a few times. We spent two days in Grand Lake Colorado where I was steadily feeling weirder...but I chalked that up to all my hiking and moving about..

The last night in Vail...I was just completely out of it...

[colorado_ufo]

26. My son had specialized orthopedic surgery in Vail.

At the hospital there, they put EVERYONE on oxygen - before, during, and after surgery - regardless of where they are from (we are Colorado folks). The stress of surgery, or any stress, can take a tremendous toll at that altitude. Take an aging polictician who is likely out of shape, add jet lag, gourmet food, and drink, mix well and serve at Alpine altitudes, and voila! A trip to the ER.

Hope Bill Clinton is very careful considering his past episodes with his heart.

[Drum]

28. I performed many times in Apsen,

as a modern dancer, with a very short acclimation period---about 24 hrs max, sometimes I had none---and our theater always had oxygen apparatus in the wings for a sip between exits and re-entrances. I didn't always use it, but but those tanks and masks saved our collective company's butts, that's for sure! For five summers I taught dance in the mountains above Taos (10K up) and the acclimation-in-full would take 2-3 weeks for me to be at full strength.
The decrease in O.2 at altitudes like Aspen is something like 1/3 or more...you're getting maybe 40% less oxygen in each breath to the blood, brain, etc....

[Ilsa]

17. Exactly. When "macho man" husband was embarrassed about

getting sick, I explained that to him and he felt better. It's a totally unpredictable ordeal, as far as I'm concerned.

[kestrel91316]

16. Jet lag + altitude + too much drink and rich food = upset tummy

[Dover]

18. Did Kennyboy join them for dinner?...n/t

[David Zephyr]

21. Aspen, Kenny Boy dies, Powell hospitalized after dining with Clinton?

You don't need a tinfoil hat to do the un-likelihood in mathematical probabilities that this is all coincidental.

[Tight_rope]

22. Why does it seem that all the crooks are in the Aspen's nowadays?

[dave29]

23. because they are connected at the roots

:tinfoilhat:

[colorado_ufo]

25. Gotta love botanical jokes!

[shanti]

30. exactly

what's up with colorado?

[Demeter]

24. Altitude Sickness, or Guilt?

maybe half and half. Synergy, you know. Or the feeling that Retribution is about to bite your ass coming up from behind you....

Hope you never have another good night's sleep, Colin.

[daleo]

27. The aspens are sure falling together lately.

Or so it seems. Maybe a little warning to Colin.

[MRDU]

29. I bet she did!

A nursing supervisor at the hospital, where former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was rushed to and pronounced dead early Wednesday, refused to comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/07/colin.powell.ap/