Who Are the U.S. Drug Kingpins?

Tell the truth. If old enough to have first heard the term "drug kingpin" in 1988, when Title 28 C.F.R. 26.3 became the law of our homeland, did you ever imagine that kingpins would be elusive foreignors instead of clandestine domestics? Had you ever heard of Pablo Escobar? Importation of any illegal commodity in heavy demand enriches domestic financiers. Who are they? Try to name even one. Their return on the underlying investment must beat bank rates, yet where does it go?A former prosecutor has written an interesting book about Jimmy Hoffa's murder (I Heard You Paint Houses, a 2004 best seller by Charles Brandt). You probably missed this book -it was trememdously overshadowed by last year's election cycle. Read it before Hollywood botches the movie. Find out not only who did Hoffa, but who did JFK and why. Heck, even learn why Ramsey Clark was appointed US Attorney General, forcing his Supreme Court Justice dad to step down due to the conflict of interest created. What a son he was! You will also hear confirmation of political links to organized crime and mob links to undercover U.S. operations. What you absolutely will not find out is who was issuing instructions to Russell Bufalino. Hint: not some mafioso in Sicily. Are you starting to form your big picture?Fast forward to 2005. Lawyers comprise 36% of the U.S. House and 53% of the Senate. (Why is it so difficult to find out who is a lawyer*?) We almost had two more lawyers as head of our Executive branch! Lawyers control a major political party and have stealth operatives in the other one. Don't forget...100% of the Supreme Court and the lower courts are already and ALWAYS lawyers. The U.S. electorate is not yet convinced that lawyers' access to power needs to be minimized due to conflict of interest. More on that, later...Question of the day: *Mike Taibi is a...a) journalistb) lawyerc) journalist and lawyerd) neithere) don't care (I 'm a Yellow-dog Democrat)Answer will be given later.Next Time: Pablo Escobar or Members Ofthebar?