Toward the bottom of an otherwise run-of-the-mill report on Las Vegas Sands' year-end numbers, Sands supremo Sheldon Adelson lets fly with a bombshell: Not only will there be no new casino concessions in 2009, when Macao Chief Executive Edmund Ho leaves office, there will be fewer. (Bad news for Harrah's, this. They're really banking on a new round of concessions and, perhaps, subconcessions too.)

"Some of the bottom, the older, individual non-known (Stanley Ho-run operations) ... like Golden Dragon and Greek Mythology" and others could have their casinos closed, Adelson predicts. However ... it turns out that Adelson is merely "hoping" that this scenario will come to pass, basing it primarily on a "feeling" he gets with talking to Macao's Communist overlords in Peking.

"(T)hey indicate to us that they feel that there have been too many licenses out there," quoth Adelson. Of course, there's still a big difference between feeling there's too much of X on the market and actually constricting the supply of X. So we'll have to wait and see.

Bush sticks it to tribes once more: The most anti-tribal administration in recent U.S. history is at it again. Presumably to help pay for his quixotic war in Iraq, Shrub proposes to slash the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget by $100 million. Monies earmarked for fighting meth, increasing student achievement and economic development (the latter up 35%) will be increased.

And what are the 'frills' that have been targeted for the meat cleaver? Oh, how about school building, public assistance, scholarships, road maintenance, adult education, tribal courts, Johnson O'Malley education grants, land consolidation and housing improvement? (The last there would be zeroed out completely.)

As far as tribes are concerned, a John McCain administration probably can't come soon enough. They're one group of Americans who will undoubtedly be heartily relieved to see the last of this current administration and its contemptuous disregard for those at the very bottom of the economic ladder.

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