Colin Powell's Rocky Mountain High

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 state it appeared to be a combination of altitude sickness and something he ate. Powell, (former My Lai whitewasher and current Iraq WMD liar) was in Colorado for the Aspen Ideas Festival, a conference in its second year that invites some of the world’s leading thinkers.

The 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival is proudly sponsored by:
Booz Allen Hamilton, Lexus, Altria, Boeing, Chevron, Ernst & Young, GE.

With support from the following donors:
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Casey Family Programs
Bezos Family Foundation
Resnick Family Foundation
William A. Haseltine foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts.

No invitation required. "Unfortunately, despite the institute's efforts to make Ideas Fest an accessible public event, there is little chance at this point of fully participating in the utopian exchange of ideas. Tickets have been sold out since January, and even if you could get your hands on some, they would run you $1800 each. So absent a miracle, most of the common men, at least here in the valley, will be stuck on the outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of greatness eating a slice at New York Pizza or arguing the merits of American foreign policy while waiting for a table at Jimmy's. It is this fact that has kept this festival largely obscure to most in the valley, even as it assembles some of the greatest minds alive today.

As Elliot Gerson, the executive vice president in charge of seminars for the Institute puts it, at any one moment, the festival might deal with "Shakespeare or Darfur, the future of the universe, or the future of the species, energy or terrorism, America or Africa, politics or poetry, medicine or the media."

But hey, isn't it true that where foundations and their famous friends gather to eat, drink, and defecate it's good for the local economy? Somebody gotta cook that food and change those sheets whilst catching a glimpse of the haves-more species. Can't you just imagine where the future of the universe would be without all these foundations and institutes stimulating their intellects?