The LuLac Edition #179, March 20th, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: CONGRESSMAN PAUL KANJORSKI AND PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH.


LULAC FORUM

TIME CHANGE

The LuLac Political Letter City Council Forum is still scheduled for SUNDAY MAY 6th.

The LuLac Political Letter City Council Forum is still scheduled for the Imperial Ballroom at Genetti's Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Wilkes Barre.

HOWEVER

THE STARTING TIME HAS CHANGED FROM 3PM TO 430PM.

Invitations to all City Council candidates will be mailed in April.


SICK BAY

CONGRESSMAN KANJO

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is recovering from a surgery he underwent on Monday to bypass blockages in three blood vessels to his heart, according to a news release.
There were no complications, according to the surgeon who performed the operation, and Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, is expected to make a full recovery from the previously scheduled surgery, the release stated. The surgery wasn’t the result of a heart attack, according to the release.
He is expected to spend about a week recovering at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the release stated, and should return to work by mid-April.
The condition became apparent during an annual physical examination and follow-up tests in February, “which indicated that coronary heart disease had caused significant narrowing” of the three arteries.
Kanjorski, who turns 70 on April 2, also has diabetes, but Dr. Michael Curran, a cardiologist at the National Naval Medical Center where Kanjorski underwent a stress echocardiogram, didn’t expect that condition to “significantly impact” Kanjorski’s recovery because he follows a diet and medicine schedule.

AND THE VEEP TOO!

Vice President Dick Cheney went back to George Washington University Hospital on Tuesday after experiencing discomfort in his left lower leg — the same leg in which a blood clot was found two weeks ago — NBC News reported.
Initially the White House had said the vice president had gone to the hospital for a follow-up examination in connection with the clot. “He’s getting a routine follow-up on his leg. It’s just a routine checkup,” said spokeswoman Megan McGinn.
Cheney’s office issued an update after his return to the White House, saying the vice president experienced discomfort in his left lower leg Tuesday morning and after consultation with his physicians, he was asked to return to George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates for "repeat ultrasound imaging of the deep venous thrombosis (clot) in that leg."
The vice president's office said the ultrasound revealed no extension or complication of the clot. His blood-thinning medication was found to be therapeutic.
When doctors discovered a blood clot in the vice president’s leg two weeks ago, they said at the time that he likely would have to be treated with blood-thinning medication for several months.
Spokeswoman Lee Anne McBride said at the time that the 66-year-old had visited his doctor’s office on March 5 after feeling minor discomfort in his calf. An ultrasound showed the blood clot — called a deep venous thrombosis —in his left lower leg.
Blood clots that form deep in the legs can become killers if they break off and float into the lungs. This is called a pulmonary embolism. Deep vein thrombosis strikes an estimated 2 million Americans each year, killing 60,000.
Long-haul flightsMany people suffer DVT after spending long periods without moving, such as passengers on long-haul airline flights. Cheney had just spent about 65 hours on a plane on a nine-day, round-the-world trip.
Cheney has had had a host of heart-related problems over the years.
He had six hours of surgery on his legs in 2005 to repair a kind of aneurysm, a ballooning weak spot in an artery that can burst if left untreated. He has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant a special pacemaker in his chest.

BUSH TAKES A STAND

An angry sounding President Bush took a Texas style stand this afternoon in defense of his Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Taking the old Country and Western maxim to its ultimate, "If You Don't Stand For Something, You'll Fall For Anything" Bush was clearly playing to the 30% of the American public still supporting his administration.
Calling the Democratic response to the firing of eight federal prosecutors a "partisan fishing expedition," President Bush told lawmakers Tuesday not to subpoena White House staff for testimony related to the matter.
Bush's public statement came hours after the White House offered to make political strategist Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers available for interviews — but not testimony under oath — before congressional committees investigating the firings.
"We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants," Bush said in a statement from the White House. "I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse."
He added: "There's no indication ... that anybody did anything improper."
Democrats' response to Bush's offer was swift and firm. "Testimony should be on the record and under oath. That's the formula for true accountability," said Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, said he would still press for White House aides to testify under oath, saying that White House counsel Fred Fielding “indicated he didn’t want to negotiate” whether Rove and others would have to appear in a full hearing. “That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try,” Schumer said.
The White House move was announced after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to end the Bush administration’s ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies. That had come as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of the prosecutors.
Gonzales got a morale boost with an early-morning call from President Bush, their first conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with how the Justice Department handled the firings.
In his statement from the White House, Bush said of Democrats involved in investigating the firings: "I hope they don’t choose confrontation. I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials."
(from combined reports and MSNBC.com).