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6.Holbrooke in critical condition after aortic surgery U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke was in critical condition at a Washington hospital Sunday night, after undergoing surgery on Saturday to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said. Holbrooke underwent another procedure on Sunday to improve his circulation, the department said in a statement Sunday night. Relatives, friends, colleagues and staff are by his side, and his wife Kati Marton spoke Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Kharzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.uggs online The State Department did not provide details of Marton's conversation with the presidents. Appearing earlier in the day on the CNN program "State of the Union," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said that Holbrooke was "fighting" the heart problem at George Washington University Hospital. He called President Barack Obama's special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan "a very tough person." "Many people would have succumbed," Axelrod said of the rupture. Richard Holbrooke in critical condition RELATED TOPICS Holbrooke, 69, fell ill Friday morning during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and walked down to the department's medical unit, a senior State Department official said. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, the official said. CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the tearing of one of the layers of the walls of the aorta "happens suddenly." It typically is associated with high blood pressure and typically occurs in men between the ages of 50 and 70.uggs outlet stores The location of the tear "would determine what, if any, other side effects would occur," Gupta said, adding that "this is different from a problem people think of with the heart where some of the blood vessels going to the heart become blocked." An operation "typically involves bringing layers of the aorta back together so that no further dissection can occur," Gupta said. "If that's done quickly and the aorta is intact, meaning it hasn't opened up, that can be a very good procedure and can take care of the problem." After doctors completed surgery on his aorta Saturday morning, Holbrooke was joined by his family, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Secretary Clinton visited Holbrooke at the hospital on Saturday, the State Department said. Holbrooke is a career diplomat best known for brokering the peace agreement between Bosnian factions in 1995 that became the Dayton accords.uggs sale President Barack Obama called the diplomat's wife, Kati, and told her he and first lady Michelle Obama have Holbrooke in their prayers, the White House said in a statement. "Richard Holbrooke is a towering figure in American foreign policy, a critical member of my Afghanistan and Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant who has won the admiration of the American people and people around the world," the president said U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke was in critical condition at a Washington hospital Sunday night, after undergoing surgery on Saturday to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said. Holbrooke underwent another procedure on Sunday to improve his circulation, the department said in a statement Sunday night. Relatives, friends, colleagues and staff are by his side, and his wife Kati Marton spoke Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Kharzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The State Department did not provide details of Marton's conversation with the presidents. Appearing earlier in the day on the CNN program "State of the Union," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said that Holbrooke was "fighting" the heart problem at George Washington University Hospital. He called President Barack Obama's special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan "a very tough person."uggs on sale "Many people would have succumbed," Axelrod said of the rupture. Holbrooke, 69, fell ill Friday morning during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and walked down to the department's medical unit, a senior State Department official said. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, the official said. CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the tearing of one of the layers of the walls of the aorta "happens suddenly." It typically is associated with high blood pressure and typically occurs in men between the ages of 50 and 70. The location of the tear "would determine what, if any, other side effects would occur," Gupta said, adding that "this is different from a problem people think of with the heart where some of the blood vessels going to the heart become blocked."burberry outlet online An operation "typically involves bringing layers of the aorta back together so that no further dissection can occur," Gupta said. "If that's done quickly and the aorta is intact, meaning it hasn't opened up, that can be a very good procedure and can take care of the problem." After doctors completed surgery on his aorta Saturday morning, Holbrooke was joined by his family, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Secretary Clinton visited Holbrooke at the hospital on Saturday, the State Department said. Holbrooke is a career diplomat best known for brokering the peace agreement between Bosnian factions in 1995 that became the Dayton accords. President Barack Obama called the diplomat's wife, Kati, and told her he and first lady Michelle Obama have Holbrooke in their prayers, the White House said in a statement. "Richard Holbrooke is a towering figure in American foreign policy, a critical member of my Afghanistan and Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant who has won the admiration of the American people and people around the world," the president saidburberry sale Some battles in American history and politics never end, at least in terms of passionate public argument. The Civil War. The Vietnam War. Abortion. The Red Sox and the Yankees. Bush v. Gore. .Fortunately, the last one did not come to violent revolution. But the end of the 2000 presidential election – marked Sunday by the 10-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision that made George W. Bush the 43rd President of the United States – is just as debatable. The closest presidential race in US history came down to 537 votes out of 101,455,899 cast. Gore had won the popular vote by more than half a million, but it was the contentious recount in Florida – eventually halted by the Supreme Court – that gave it to Bush in the Electoral College, 271-266. IN PICTURES: Bush's most interesting decision pointslouis vuitton outlet Thus did “hanging chads,” “dimpled chads,” and “pregnant chads” enter the political lexicon. (One political consultant scooped up those bits of paper ballot detritus and sold them on eBay, bags of 10 for $20.) Depending on one’s point of view the 5-4 Supreme Court vote cutting off the Florida recount was either as it should have been (given how messed up the balloting and recount procedure had become there) or a political travesty as bad as the 1857 Dred Scott decision denying constitutional protections to slaves of African descent. That the five justices in the majority vote favoring the Republican nominee all had been elevated to the high court by Republican presidents (four by Ronald Reagan, one by George H. W. Bush) meant the outcome would inevitably be seen in starkly political terms. And so it is today, despite the admonition of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (one of the pro-Bush five in 2000) that people should simply “Get over it!” as he’s said on a number of occasions.louis vuitton handbags “Voters who cast ballots incompetently are not entitled to have election officials toil to divine these voters' intentions,” columnist George Will writes in the Washington Post, referring to the chad debacle. “Al Gore got certain Democratic-dominated canvassing boards to turn their recounts into unfettered speculations and hunches about the intentions of voters who submitted inscrutable ballots.” “Gore's lawyers persuaded the easily persuadable state Supreme Court – with a majority of Democratic appointees – to rewrite the law [requiring counties to certify their results within seven days],” Will writes. In an essay in the New Yorker magazine, Jeffrey Toobin sees it differently: “What made the decision in Bush v. Gore so startling was that it was the work of Justices who were considered, to greater or lesser extents, judicial conservatives,” writes Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst for CNN. “[But] the Court stopped the recount even before it was completed, and before the Florida courts had a chance to iron out any problems – a classic example of judicial activism, not judicial restraint, by the majority.” .And the result, Toobin continues, is that the high court – headed by Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, who worked on Bush’s behalf in the Florida recount – has continued this kind of conservative activism, marked by its “willingness, even its eagerness, to overturn the work of legislatures.” For political junkies who appreciate the ironic and the fanciful, New York magazine has “Memories of the Gore Administration.” Written by “five (sometime) novelists” – Kurt Anderson, Kevin Baker, Glenn Beck, Jane Smiley, and Walter Kirn – it’s an imaginary look at the last ten years as if the 2000 election had gone the other way. In this fictitious look back, 9/11 still happened (and Flight 93 did hit the White House, although Gore survived), and so did Katrina. (As FEMA director, Robert Gibbs does “a heckuva job.”) The US invades Afghanistan, but not Iraq. Hillary Clinton becomes vice president, replacing Joe Lieberman, who had resigned in protest over failure to be more confrontational with Iraq and Iran. (This was after Hillary Clinton had divorced Bill Clinton, who married Carla Bruni.) In the 2008 presidential election, Mitt Romney beats John Edwards, whose running mate is “all-around man-of-the-future Barack Obama.” Romney appoints Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior. And so on.chanel outlet shop In this case, as it’s turned out, truth may indeed be stranger than fiction. Footnote one: The Green Party will disagree, but it can be argued that Ralph Nader did to Gore what Ross Perot did to George H.W. Bush in 1992, that is, cost him the election. In Florida, Nader won 97,000 votes – many times more than Gore needed to win the state and the presidency without the hassle of a recount. But like the election itself, that debate will never be settled. Footnote two: Bush v. Gore featured opposing attorneys who gained rock star status: David Boies for Gore and Theodore Olson for Bush. Today, Boies and Olson are working together on behalf of gay rights to overturn California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.winter boots