Law

  • Yup, the CIA Spied on Congress

    Need a break from the news about the NSA spying on pretty much everybody? OK. Here’s some news about the CIA spying on congressional staffers. For four years, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – the legislative body tasked with “oversee[ing] and mak[ing] continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the United States Government” – had been reviewing…

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  • Gimme Shelter: Gangs, Violence, Corruption, and Exclusion in Brazil’s Favelas

    I wrote this for a class on Brazil’s ongoing transition from “developing” to “developed” country. Some snippets: Residents of Brazil’s favelas (and other slum-like urban settlements, which will be distinguished below) exist in a strange limbo of legality. They often have no title to the lands they occupy, their living is often made in informal…

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  • A Thousand Twangling Instruments: Racial and Ethnic Political Identities in Modern Latin America

    I wrote this for a class on Latin American comparative politics. My conclusions: …Indigenous movements are just one section in the symphony of “a thousand twangling instruments” that comprise the social movement scene in Latin America. The present period seems may be like the cacophony on before the concert as the musicians separately tune their…

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Portrait illustration of Mike LaSusa

Mike LaSusa