One of my fondest hopes may be realized if my senator, John Ensign, has just become burnt toast

John Ensign

take a look at that photo... too slick by half... he looks like a more modern and classed-up version of what we used to call a "lounge lizard," a fitting description i suppose of a las vegas native...

boo-hoo, john... this should teach ya to keep it in your pants, altho' i highly doubt it will...

Sources in Washington and Nevada say Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair.

Ensign, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, flew back to his native Las Vegas today in anticipation of the public announcement, sources said, missing a vote considered key to the Nevada tourist industry.

Two senior GOP political strategists, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the announcement was imminent. They declined to say with whom Ensign had the affair.

In February 2002, Ensign took an unexplained two week leave of absence from the Senate citing "personal reasons."

When he returned from that respite, Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun that he was "not making any comments one way or the other. I'm just asking people to respect my privacy."

while you're chuckling over ensign's now tarnished star, consider the very low statistical odds of ANYONE being a las vegas native...!

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The nightmare that is Dubai

i've now passed through dubai almost a dozen times over the past year and probably spent half that many nights in dubai hotels... in no way do i claim that makes me an expert on dubai... at best, i'm a casual, but still a reasonably intelligent and perceptive observer... however, i've found that the article that is very briefly excerpted below to be an accurate reflection of my own assessment...

i strongly recommend reading the whole thing here...

[Dubai] is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing -- at last -- into history.

my own snarky description of dubai has always been "las vegas without a sense of humor," and then i heard jon stewart's description: "dubai is the bastard child of las vegas and saudi arabia"... i think jon and i are on the same wavelength...

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Ricin in Vegas [UPDATE]

[BUMPED]

hmmmmmmmmm...

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of what they said is the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room.

No one has shown symptoms of ricin poisoning after the toxin was found Thursday at a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel.

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

The substance is "100 percent ricin," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. "We don't know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time."

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Friday there does not appear to be a link to terrorists.

the most trusted name in news, keepin' that fear quotient high, 24/7...

[UPDATE]

evidently, the man who found the ricin had come to collect the belongings of a friend or relative who succumbed to the poison after a stay in the room...

A man who stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin was found is in critical condition at a hospital, where he has been since mid-February, said a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department official.

Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the man called for medical help on February 14, saying he was suffering from respiratory distress, and was transported to the hospital.

A friend or relative of his who came to remove his belongings from the room found the ricin Thursday, Suey said.

(thanks to commenter, karen...)

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