WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he hasn’t decided whether to seek a heart transplant. Cheney tells “Fox News Sunday” that his health has improved since last year, when he was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure. He had an operation last summer to fit his body with a battery-powered device that helps his heart pump blood. In his Fox appearance, Cheney spoke with a raspy voice and appeared less gaunt than he had in the months following the operation. Read full article > >

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he’s undecided on whether to seek a heart transplant

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Donald Trump expressed their admiration for the president.

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Obama Finds Praise, Even From Republicans

With Julianne Moore recently cast as Sarah Palin in HBO’s adaptation of Game Change and former President George W. Bush’s life translated to the big screen in W, it’s time former Vice President Dick Cheney head to Hollywood. Deadline exclusively…

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HBO Green-Lights Cheney Miniseries

Some animals should be endangered. Consider the V-22 Osprey. The tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, costs more than a $100 million apiece, killed 30 personnel in crashes during its development stage, and survived four attempts by none other than Dick Cheney to deep-six the program. Although it is no longer as crash-prone as it once was, the Osprey’s performance in Iraq was still sub-par and it remains a woefully expensive creature. Although canceling the program would save the U.S. government $10-12 billion over the next decade, the Osprey somehow avoided the budget axe in the latest round of cuts on Capitol Hill. read more

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One Creature That Deserves Extinction: The V-22 Osprey

Laura Rozen asks some pertinent questions about the Colonel’s lobbyists in America: One of the more unlikely image-mongers that has worked to burnish Qadhafi’s and Libya’s image never registered with the Justice Department. Prominent neoconservative Richard Perle, the former Reagan-era Defense Department official and George W. Bush-era chairman of the Defense Policy Board, traveled to Libya twice in 2006 to meet with Qadhafi, and afterward briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on his visits, according to documents released by a Libyan opposition group in 2009. Perle traveled to Libya as a paid adviser to the Monitor Group, a prestigious Boston-based consulting firm with close ties to leading professors at the Harvard Business School. The firm named Perle a senior adviser in 2006. The Monitor Group described Perle’s travel to Libya and the recruitment of several other prominent thinkers and former officials to burnish Libya’s and Qadhafi’s image in a series of documents obtained and released by a Libyan opposition group, the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, in 2009.

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What Was Richard Perle Doing With Col. Qaddafi?

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld can’t even go out in their own backyard: Ron Paul supporters heckled them at CPAC Thursday. Rumsfeld was greeted by boos and then a walkout of many young attendees. Cheney was peppered with taunts of “Where’s Bin Laden?”…

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Cheney Heckled at CPAC

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Hosni Mubarak had been a “good friend” to the United States who deserved to be treated well.

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The Caucus: Cheney Praises Mubarak

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he had not decided whether to seek a transplant for what he called “end-stage heart failure.”

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The Caucus: Transplant Possible for Cheney

Talk about covering all your bases in an interview. Former Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC he was considering a heart transplant, while also deeming President Obama a “one-term president.” Cheney said he suffered from “end stage heart failure,” and…

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Cheney Considering Heart Transplant

Some celebrities aren’t just pretty faces. A few of them are also touched with that Yankee prowess for tinkering and invention. In this weekly series, we introduce you to the Patents of the Rich and Famous. And maybe you learn a little bit about how patent literature works along the way. Inventor: Paul Winchell Known For: An actor recognized more for his voice than his face, Paul Winchell rose to fame as a ventriloquist. He had two popular dummy pals, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, with whom he performed. In a 1954 interview Winchell admitted he didn’t enjoy sharing his spotlight: Gradually I found myself faced with the dilemma that comes to most ventriloquists. I was snowed under by the personality of the dummy. Mail began to pour in to ‘Paul Mahoney’ and ‘Jerry Winchell.’ I was Jerry’s straight man. Everybody knew who Jerry was, but they were beginning to forget the name of the guy who operated him. To that extent it was jealousy. Here’s Winchell performing with Mahoney: After Winchell’s career as a ventriloquist ended he continued putting his voice to good use, voicing Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the evil sorcerer Gargamel and Baby Smurf in the Smurfs . He holds over thirty patents. Invented Apparatus: ” Artificial heart ” We already unearthed the world’s first artificial heart transplanted inside a human body, but Winchell holds the patent for one of the first artificial heart devices ever made, which he developed with surgeons working at the University of Utah. They created a non-toxic device that Winchell hoped could replace a failing heart for a working organ. As the patent explains, the ersatz organ works something like this: A mechanical heart system for installation in the human or animal body, embodying an artificial heart as such, with an electric motor for driving the heart disposed outside the body with a drive shaft for the artificial heart extending through the body from the artificial heart to the motor carried externally of the body, all elements of the apparatus contained within the body being insulated or covered with material inert to body fluids. A battery-operated motor worn outside the body connects to a non-toxic bag inside the body, which mimics the pumping action of a real heart. Rationale Behind Invention: Having met Dr. Henry Heimlich, of Heimlich maneuver fame, Winchell pitched the idea to his medical contact. He hoped the device could replace a failing heart: The present invention contemplates an artificial heart that can be mounted inside the body of a patient as a replacement or substitute for a removed heart so that the patient may live a substantially normal as well as a moderately active life for an indefinite period of time. Unfortunately, the mechanism never made it that far, never supporting human life for any indefinite periods of time. There is some controversy over who really invented the first artificial heart. Many cite the Jarvik 7 , an air-powered pump invented by Dr. Robert Jarvik, as the original faux organ. However, Winchell claims his patent influenced Dr. Jarvik. Today, people use devices much like the Jarvik. Winchell may hold the patent, but Jarvik has the legacy. Off-label Uses: Dick Cheney has a new heart pump that, according to the New York Times , will keep him from ever returning to full strength again; the heart will never beat at the same level. Imagine the former vice president walking around with Winchell’s artificial heart battery pack slapped onto his chest. He’d look like Darth Vader, but it could help. Future Directions: In Winchell’s autobiography he explains that making his artificial heart didn’t differ much from building his dummies: Odd as it may seem, the heart wasn’t that different from building a dummy; the valves and chambers were not unlike the moving and eyes and closing mouth of a puppet. Winchell’s artificial heart motor could use some personality. Everyone who grew up with The Wizard of Oz can think of at least one character that would appreciate a good heart and had plenty of personality to spare. The Tin Man: Winchell’s new spokesperson. View the complete Celebrity Invention archive.

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Celebrity Invention: Paul Winchell’s Artificial Heart

Take cover! Dick Cheney is hunting again. After retreating from the Washington fray after getting a new heart pump in July, former vice president Dick Cheney is resuming something of his normal routine: hunting, socializing, and headlining events for…

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Heart Pump Restores Cheney’s Routine

… but, as so often with serendipitous humor in the China Daily , we’re left to wonder: intentional? or Found Art? From the NYT home page just now: No larger point. And, yes, I realize it was probably just an automatic story-grouping algorithm. Still…

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I’m Sure This Was Just an Accident of Page Layout…

Since receiving a device that saved his life, Dick Cheney is focused on finishing his memoir and stepping back, gingerly, into public life.

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With New Heart Pump, a Reflective Cheney Re-emerges

An employee of the US Air Force writes: > > I’m a 24-year-old male with an implanted defibrillating pacemaker. I grew up in Southern California and now work in Washington D.C. I’ve flown back and forth to California since 2005, and as a result have been to every major airport in the National Capitol Region, and 7 Airports in the Southern California region, plus a few in the San Francisco bay area. I’d estimate that I’ve been patted down by TSA agents in excess of 50 times, in six years, across five states. To this day, the only federal employees who insisted I go through a metal detector are the Secret Service security details at The White House when I took a West Wing tour in 2008. I attempted to argue with them, but their response was: “Vice President Cheney does it every day. Trust me, you’ll be fine.” Hard to take exception, since Cheney not only has a pacemaker but also an implanted heart pump (the dude lacks a pulse). I also wanted to see what the agents would do if my pacer started beeping, as it has in the past when trifled with. I walked through the metal detector without incident, partially because I was carrying resumes, and figured I could just plaster the place during my tour. I still avoid metal detectors at airports on my doc’s advice. I last flew out of LAX on Dec. 16, and ran into a backscatter for the first time. Two words: Never Again. On top of the unanswered radiation question, you get to stand there and wait for someone in a back room to clear you and radio the agent working the gate. Meanwhile, I simultaneously stand there wondering; Who are is in the back room? Who do they work for? Where are they? What sex are they? Where is that image going? How much money did the machine cost, and can I REALLY fool it by duct-taping a friggin’ hotcake to my stomach? At least the TSA agents narrate what parts they’re touching and maintain a modicum of transparency. I can also safely assume that if they pull some shenanigans and begin to pant heavily, I can sue and settle for at least enough money to repay my student loans.

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Today’s TSA Billet-Doux

Oilfield contractor Halliburton has agreed to pay Nigeria $35 million to settle bribery allegations that led to charges against former Vice President Dick Cheney and other executives, the company announced Tuesday.

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Halliburton settles Nigeria bribe claims