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Wednesday November 2 2005
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give us this day our daily images
I have other stuff I want to post but I'm beat. I finished a new website today. That's good. I've been working on these pictures. That's very good. Gerry (my mother-in-law) went to her doctor today for her Alzheimer's. Not so good. No surprises. Her memory is getting worse, she is increasingly confused, and the doctor is concerned over nocturnal wanderings. We have to secure the front door from the inside. Which brings up these pictures. I often go out to lunch with Gerry. That is usually her outing for the day. I've been taking pinholes of where we eat. This is growing into a series. I want to expand it to include all the regular places we go. I don't know how much longer we will be doing this.
The pinhole camera is working great. Although this roll had some flare problems, I think I found the offending bright spot inside the body that was doing the reflecting. It's now covered with black gaffer's tape and another roll of Fuji Reala is loaded. I was going to put these up one at a time but I like them too much and here they all are. These are all taken with 6x9cm Fuji Reala at f/190. I use a .0126" dia pinhole with a 2.5" focal length. The exposures were from 2 minutes to 4 minutes long.
A blueberry pancake and eggs and sausage at the Freeland Cafe
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A garden burger and a chicken caesar salad wrap at the Red Robin across from the Everett Mall
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Not a regular haunt. We had gone off Island to pick up a desk for Zoe.
Washington State ferry #1
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This was on the ferry as we went to pick up Zoe's desk and get lunch at the Red Robin.
Washington State ferry #2
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That's Gerry. She hates to have her picture taken.
Washington State ferry #3
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This couple was sitting across the aisle from us. The composition in all these pictures came out pretty much like I wanted but they all had pinhole surprises. I love the surprise on this one. It's spoiled by the internal reflection. I might be able to repair it better. Or not. I will just have to take more.
give us this day our daily image
Waiting Room Series #1
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The beginning of a series taken while I was waiting for Zoe to get an MRI on her wrist for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I used the Leica IIIc with the 35mm Jupiter 12. I'm beginning to really like the 35mm lens.
plamegate
Only one indictment but this game has just begun.
Fitz’s Knuckle Ball
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The indictment of “Scooter” Libby, ONLY Scooter Libby, and ONLY on investigation- related charges (perjury, obstruction of justice, lying to investigators), is bound to be misinterpreted (read: spun), by ideologues on both sides of the political spectrum. Lefties (in addition to being disappointed that their favorite bête noire, Karl Rove, has seemingly evaded the prosecutor's net) will feel like some of the wind has been knocked out of their sails because no crime was charged in connection with the underlying revelation of Valerie Plame's identity (a key element in their assertion that such revelation was motivated by the need to discredit a vocal critic of administration's casus belli for the war--Iraq's possession or acquisition of nuclear weapons capability). And righties will revel in that same fact (i.e., since no crime was committed by the Plame outing, the outing was nothing more than a legitimate defense against the attack on the motivation for the war--in other words, politics as usual).
But, to continue Patrick Fitzgerald's somewhat tortured baseball analogy, there is no reason either for joy or sorrow in Mudville. Mighty Casey (a/k/a Fitzgerald) has, in essence, taken a base on balls, four (or, in Libby's case, five) lousy pitches, none of which he could really swing at, much less hit out of the park. And, just like a base on balls does't count as an at-bat, in some ways Fitz still hasn't stepped up to the plate. But, I suggest that what he may have done is to cork a bat for his next up.
Yesterday's indictment was dictated by time more than anything else. With the grand jury's term expiring today, if any indictment was going to be returned, this was the day, and I, for one, don't question Fitzgerald's statement that Libby's obstruction of the investigation prevented him from getting to the truth about the so-called “underlying” charges (e.g., those associated with outing a CIA operative). Indeed, the obstruction charged against Libby prevented the prosecutor from furnishing the one element of the underlying crimes that may be the most difficult to prove: mens rea, as it's known in the criminal law (i.e., a culpable state of mind). But, be assured: the last out in this game is still to come, and the indictment is a shot across the bow for a whole host of characters in this unfolding drama that should indicate to them sighs of relief would be premature.
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Yes, my friends, Fitz is about to grab the pine tar rag, choose another, very special, piece of lumber and step back into the on-deck circle for the home run that is sure to follow. Batter up!
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thanks to daily KOS
Tomgram: De la Vega, a Prosecutor Considers Libby's Indictment
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The Grand Jury supervised by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has returned an indictment charging Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide and reputed "alter-ego" I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby with perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements to the grand jury. But this indictment does not end the story; rather, a close reading suggests that these charges are most likely merely a chapter in a long and tragic story. Here, from a former federal prosecutor, are thoughts about four things we should expect, four things we shouldn't, and one question we should all be asking.
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photography
A selection from the incredible Insight: Collections & Research Centre site.
JCA Redhead (1886-1954)
Early colour portraits
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During World War Two, as Head of Kodak Ltd's Photo Finishing Laboratory in Harrow, England, Redhead had access to supplies of scarce Kodachrome colour film.
Redhead took many colour portraits of politicians, high-ranking military figures and celebrities as well as ordinary people involved in the war effort. Here is a selection.
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'Princess Margaret', about 1942
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thanks to Conscientious
the great unraveling
We haven't seen a President and his administration experiencing this kind of disentegration since Nixon. This has only begun. You are watching history. Don't blink.
What It's Like
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When a White House is under siege, no one wants to talk to anyone. Literally, anything you say can and will be used against you. When you're in a meeting and you see one of your colleagues taking notes, you start to wonder how long it will be before you're interrogated based on her notes. Maybe she's doodling. Or maybe she's digging your grave. The mind tries to focus on the task at hand, but the grand jury is never far from your thoughts.
Compared to these folks, I had it easy. I'd never met Monica Lewinsky, had no knowledge of the affair, which took place when I was living in Austin, and I knew that neither I nor any of my colleagues were in Ken Starr's perverse crosshairs. The Fitzgerald investigation is very different. It's not about the President's extracurricular activities. It's about the essence of how the White House works - and the suggestion that this White House has become deeply corrupt.
If the waiting is as painful for the Bushies as I suspect it is, it's only because they know how terrible the toll will be when the truth comes out.
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Ladies and Gentlemen: The Real George W. Bush
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And just as it looked as if he was on the way to fulfilling another assignment -- the elimination of the estate tax -- his beard fell off. It was the thing they had always feared most: the real George W. Bush went public. There it was, for the whole world to see: a chuckling, twitching dope of man standing in front of the American people, unleashed and unscripted. Worse yet, he was making his own decisions. He chose his friend and admirer, Harriet Miers, for the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
What went wrong? Where were his handlers? Busy. They dropped Bush's leash when handed subpoenas. Junior was unleashed and home alone.
It's a moment new to America -- a leader who needs to be led, and now unled. And the world is watching. It's as if the police had come and dragged Edgar Bergin offstage in the middle of a show, leaving Charlie McCarthy, wide-eyed, mouth agape and slumped alone on his stool.
So, what now?
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thanks to wood s lot
Bush has so thoroughly destroyed the Republican establishment that no one, not even his dad, can rescue him now.
Things come apart
by Steve Gilliard
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We are entering a unique period in our history, one I don't think has been seen too many times in the West, which is the entire leadership of the government charged with serious corruption. Is it is a prediction? No, but it is possible. There are other alternatives, but don't mistake this as just another political crisis. This is the kind of crisis which changes countries. Alice Marshall likes to compare this to the fall of Galteri in Argentina in 1982. But this isn't Watergate, where the GOP eventually turned on Nixon. In this case, the GOP officials may have to turn on their leaders to save their jobs and that kind of thing is always messy.
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Tomgram: Will the Bush Administration Implode?
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As you consider this, remember one small thing: So far, hurricane Katrina aside, this administration has largely felt tremors coursing through the elite in Washington. The real 7.9 seismic shocks have yet to happen. Yes, in Iraq, the 2,000 mark in American dead has just been breached, but the Iraqi equivalent of the 1983 Lebanon barracks suicide bombing in which 241 American servicemen died, hasn't happened yet. Yes, gas hovers near $3.00 a gallon at the pumps, but the winter natural-gas and heating-oil shock hasn't even begun to hit; nor has next summer's oil shock (after the Bush administration bombs Iran); nor has the housing bubble burst; nor have foreign countries begun to cash in their T-bills in staggering quantities; nor has oil sabotage truly spread in the Middle East; or unemployment soared at home; or the initial wave of a recession hit; nor have we discovered that next year's hurricane season is worse than this terrible one; nor… but I'm not really being predictive here. I'm simply saying that, once upon a time not so very long ago, this administration had a fair amount of room for error. Now, it's no longer in control of its own script and has next to no space for anything to go wrong in a world where "going wrong" is likely to be the operative phrase for quite a while. The Fitzgerald indictments, in other words, are probably just the end of the beginning. Whether they are also the beginning of the end is another question entirely.
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White House on the ropes - and a bigger fight ahead
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