I found last year’s Sen. John Ensign sex scandal puzzling. (We have so many of these – sigh.) The mystery was how could Nevada elect to the US Senate a guy who was still such a Mama/Papa’s boy? He gets in trouble and turns to his parents – his parents! – to bail him out by buying off the mistress and her husband.
Now, according to LasVegasNOW.com, the local US Attorney and the FBI are in Las Vegas, spreading subpoenas; according to the AP, a grand jury has been convened. They’re interested in much more than the sex angle. They’re focusing on Ensign’s own ethical violations, quite a few of which appear to be illegal.
In the more consequential world, there’s a real chance that Ayad Allawi might win the election in Iraq. This would be terrific news. He’s secular and his coalition is majority secular. If he fails, if Malaki is re-elected, Iran wins. Malaki is a partisan Shia and is building a deep relationship with Shia Iran.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the story is all about drones and suicide bombs and whether the Pakistani military is serious about taking down the Taliban.
It’s yet to be seen whether this is good or bad news for our troops in Afghanistan, where it is the 160th day of the ninth year of the War. And here is a stunning picture: it’s in Afghanistan, northwest of Kabul, looking toward the ancient Silk Road. More pictures, The Year in Afghanistan, can be found here.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
Off topic – wolf tweets:
“I want to wish Christiane Amanpour all the best as she gets ready to leave CNN for ABC News. She’ll host “This Week.””
What you make of it, better pay? She just got her own show on Cnn a few months ago.. or bad ratings perhaps, or too big a shadow from fareed zakaria.
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You subscribe to Wolf’s tweets??? Heee.heee.
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Hihi.. I get them straight to my phone! Bip-bip!
Take a listen to no. 9 on the Snoops visit to Letterman this week. Clip.
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You and Snoop – must mean you’re w-a-y c-o-o-l !
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Me-snoop-n-blitz is tite.
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[too big a shadow from fareed zakaria.]
I’m going with that one Mac. It’s sure occurred to me even before this. It’s like his star shone so bright, she was losing some luster.
Or maybe she just wants to settle down in DC or NY and go home for dinner every night.
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It was a bit strange programming though, putting her right after him on sundays. You feel kind of full after an hour of in-depth analysis of afpak tactics and strategies.. Even if she went for a different angle on things than fareed.
Just a quick check on the web – it might seem like a step up for her to host “The Week”, and Cnn has bad ratings.. and she’s been there for 27 years..
Btw; John King has a new show starting monday at 7pm eastern, so we’ll check it out. Otherwise there’s not much left there now.. one hour of Gps a week.
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