Shooting My Brother-in-Law

Ray and the El Camino

Ray has been threatening to change the engine on his vintage El Camino for a while now. I knew he'd been tinkering with it for a couple weeks, doing just that, but I was surprised when he asked me to make some pictures of it for him. I went over this morning. At first I thought I'd take some strobe lights but, on second thought, I didn't want to make a big production out of it. I stuck with available light and a 28-300mm lens. He'd said he wanted pictures of his engine ... but i think he was really looking for a portrait and didn't want to phrase it quite like that.

Anyway, I think i got a good portrait out of it, both for him and for me.

Another daily dose

In another example of life imitating art, illegal immigrants and their US employers act out a political cartoon I saw a day or two after the 600 mile border fence was approved by Congress.

Bush looses track of the distinction between fact and fiction ... again ... some more ... a lot ... as usual. What is it with the Right? When the facts don't fit ... MAKE UP other "facts"?

The annual dinner for TV and radio correspondents turns really ugly. They shoulda invited Colbert back.

OK. It's Saturday morning ... how much news did you really expect?

You saw it here ... maybe even first

It's what we call the news.

Jib-jab: Right on, as always.

AL IS IN IT!

... and he's in it to WIN!!!

Another passing glance

A Quick Look at This Morning's Headlines

The media mistakes its own reflection in the mirror for news while ignoring actual current events.

In the latest from AttorneyGate we find that Pat Robertson's Holy-Roller U. provides the administration's worker-bees. In the meantime, Josh Marshall writes that Monica Goodling may be "afraid of indictment for perjury because she has to go up to Congress and testify under oath before the White House has decided what its story is."

And then there are the reasons!! Accourding to the Washington Post: "Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch."

Gonzo's Chief of Staff testified ... according to the Washington Post: "It may have been a tactical effort to limit his risk of perjury, but Sampson displayed the recall of a man who recently fell off a ladder."

We could always simply pray to God that everything will work out OK ... if we could figure out which God to pray to ...

Just Checking In On Reality

Congress redoubles efforts to loose the war in Iraq.

Former Gonzo aide makes the case that US Attorneys should, in fact, be prepared to pursue trumped up political cases rather than real criminal cases because there's no difference between politics and performance when it comes to justice.

In a criminal justice breakthrough, the Brits figure out how to convict criminals before the crime happens. Leave it to the Brits!

Suddenly "Law and Order" is a political liability ... for Fred Thompson. All those re-runs could sure rack up a lot of "equal time" for everyone else.

Sacco and Vanzetti just won't go away ... maybe because there are still some lessons in the story left to learn.

In Summary ...

Bush: Americans will blame Congress for failure to fund troops ... and whatever he's smoking ... I want some!!

White House delegates decisions about career prosecutors to 33 year old graduate of Holy-Roller U.

Wal-Mart is not overly enthusiastic about NYC. The City says the feeling is mutual.

Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania thinks comparing the FBI to the Keystone cops is an insult to the Keystone cops.

Fed Chairman Barnenke speaks and cures the booming economy with just a few magic words.

Maybe we could arrange to have N. Korea attack on a sunny day?

File Under "I Told Ya So"

FBI Provided Inaccurate Data for Surveillance Warrants

By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 27, 2007; Page A05

FBI agents repeatedly provided inaccurate information to win secret court approval of surveillance warrants in terrorism and espionage cases, prompting officials to tighten controls on the way the bureau uses that powerful anti-terrorism tool, according to Justice Department and FBI officials.

The errors were pervasive enough that the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, wrote the Justice Department in December 2005 to complain. She raised the possibility of requiring counterterrorism agents to swear in her courtroom that the information they were providing was accurate, a procedure that could have slowed such investigations drastically.

Get the rest of the story here ...

There's a reason for oversight. It usually becomes apparent when people forget for whom they work.

4th Ave. Street Fair

The 4th Ave. Street Fair is a Tucson tradition - a twice a year tradition. December and March.

This time I almost got a punch in the nose for my efforts. I was trying to frame a picture of some guys metal flowers adn he put his hand in front of my camera.

"NO PICTURES!"

"Why," I asked?

"BECAUSE I SAID SO."

The moron was afraid that I was trying to steal his idea. I say "moron" because it never occurred to him that if I really wanted to steal his idea, I'd simply BUY one of his flowers. Then I'd have his manufacturing techniques, his sheet metal pattern, his painting specifications ... the whole thing. Everything! Anyway, It would have been a good picture.

What if I'd been freelancing for a travel magazine? No interview for him. No publicity. No magazine clipping to display with his wares to show that the world has taken notice. Some people are short sighted. they trip over the possibility of dollar bills reaching to save a penny.

I hope he reads this ... but then, I don't really care. But I do hate confrontational horse's rear ends.

But there were other pictures.


Facade
Fourth Ave. Street Fair, Tucson, AZ

Blue = Cloudless Sky
Yellow = Plaster Facade
Purple = Awning



The Hippie Gypsy Head Shop
Fourth Avenue, Tucson, AZ


Calling Home
Fourth Avenue, Tucson, AZ


Head Obsession
Fourth Avenue, Tucson, AZ