books first, then news

books first:

1) A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes : stories from Latin America – edited by Thomas Colchie
2) The Bird Artist - Howard Norman
3) Smoke and Mirrors: the war on drugs & the politics of failure – Dan Baum
4) Dark Alliance: the CIA, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion – Gary Webb
5) Desperados: Latin drug lords, U.S. lawmen, and the war america can’t win – Elaine Shannon
6) Drug Lord: the life and death of a mexican kingpin: a true story – Terrence Poppa
7) The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless – Ahmet Zappa

all by John Harvey:
8) Flesh & Blood
9) Lonely Hearts
10)In a True Light
11)Rough Treatment


prostitution made legal in russia? - the mayor thinks it will deter men from committing acts of extremist racial violence. so spend more time screwing, less time punching? interesting theory. the best part (by far) is that the mayor - Igor Shpektor – promises the women state protection and a full pension. yay!

remember Afghanistan? - things are more intense than is being reported at home. look at the link – NOT a national source.

wyclef jean thinks a little weed would do the president some good. as if that's all it would take! i never liked the man. still don’t.

researchers are thinking that Neanderthals may have lived longer than previously thought. hmm, i’d swear there are still some out there dragging their knuckles on the ground...

In a devastating one-two-three punch, the Uribe government in Colombia announced that it intends to partially-privatize the state-
owned oil company Ecopetrol and then declared its intentions to slash corporate income taxes while simultaneously increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) on food basics such as rice, potatoes and chicken.

Greg Palast and television producer Matt Pascarella were charged, by Homeland Security, with the ’...unauthorized filming of a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.’ they videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. okaaaay.