Google Street View Car In La Mesa, CA on November 30, 2010

        Google is a government information collection agent that will tell law enforcement officials how you use the internet without a warrant. With cars like what you see above, they are enabling the United States government to know what you do online AND provide them with recent photos of the house that you use the internet from. The car you see above is a tool being used to usher in the police state of America, so I took a picture of it, including the license plate. Can anyone run the plate and tell me who and where it was registered?

        According to a cable sent from Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton on February 18, 2009 to the American ambassadors at the embassies of Jordan, Kuwait, The Untied Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Israel, the US state department wants the diplomats of these countries to tell their host countries to tell Russia that they (Russia) should not deliver S-300 air defense systems and missiles to Iraq.

        The reasoning that Hillary Clinton instructs her lap-dog diplomats to use in selling this to their host countries is very strange. She says that this defensive system could be used to support offensive operations, and that the range of the missiles would reach beyond Iranian airspace. From the cable, “The most modern variant of the S-300, high-performance surface-to-air missile system would greatly improve Iran’s ability to defend large regions of its airspace up to 200 km beyond its borders.”

        So let me get this straight Hillary Clinton, you non-elected politician… The reason you think Iran should not be entitled to defend itself from American bombers an attack from the air is because they might use them in support of offensive action? I don’t think so. I think Hillary Clinton is doing everything she can to minimize the risk to American bomber pilots when the order is given to start dropping bombs on Iran.

        There is one and ONLY one reason for the United States of America to keep Iran from defending it’s airspace from an attack by air… Because America is going to attack Iran from the air. So, here is my prediction for the press conference that will take place the day after the attack: The White House spokesperson will say blah blah blah about this and that and then will also say something else. He or she will talk about how no American bomber pilots were shot down during the raid, and will allude to the fact that through good intelligence and planning, America managed to cripple Iranian air defenses with a computer virus or something. What the White House spokesperson will NOT say during the press conference is that America made sure, thanks to Hillary Clinton back in February 2009, Iran didn’t even HAVE an air defense system to cripple.

        My source for this article comes from a secret cable from Hillary Clinton to 7 American ambassadors posted in Middle East countries that Hillary Clinton felt hold more than average sway with Russia. The cable is just one of about 250,000 American embassy and State Department cables released by Wikileaks today. I urge every person on the planet to read through the cables and report about what you find.

        1. eBay – Because selling things online has been my bread and butter since 2002. If I want to sell or buy anything, eBay is the yardstick I use to determine an objects worth. eBay is my 24/7 personal convenience store that makes the internet profitable and legitimate.

        2. Twitter – My personal vice, aside from my personal website, The World Is Raw. Follow me on Twitter for updates on my blog, my world and my life.

        3. Photography Is Not A Crime – Back on September 5, 2009 I filmed San Diego trolley security guards as they tackled and arrested a man for smoking inside the 12th & Imperial transit station. Ultimately, the guards told me (on camera) that I was not allowed to take pictures in that particular public space. I shopped my video around so NBC picked it up at aired the story, along with an apology by then Heritage Security CEO Ken Moller. This event lead me to Carlos Miller’s website Photography Is Not A Crime, which is an aggregate of instances where photographers are harassed, detained and imprisoned for doing nothing more than engaging in photography in a public place.

        4. Photo Attorney – Great resource for photographers that are facing legal trouble or want to know what to do if they engage in an activity that may land them in legal trouble.

        5. Mark J. Rebilas’s Blog – Mark is a sports and action photographer that has a life I wish I had. He jet-sets around the country shooting things that travel at least 200MPH, and makes money doing it. He is a photographer that is known ONLY for his photography and nothing else. He doesn’t host podcasts, seminars, workshops or dinners. He just makes incredible photography.

        6. New York Portraits– This is a blog that does something I would eventually like to do. The photographer of this blog lives in Brooklyn and she takes and at least one photo per day in one of the five boroughs of New York and blogs about it. What I really like about this blog is that the photographer fearlessly shoots people candidly.

        7. Digital Photography School – No matter what you think your skill level of photography is, this site has information that will make your next photo-shoot better.

        8. America’s Test Kitchen – If you cook your own food, if you want to know the best way to make ANYTHING, if you live in a place that has an oven, burners, or a microwave, you should spend time looking over their website. They test and rate everything they buy, everything they cook and everything they present, so we get nothing but succinct, perfect recipes to create at home.

        9. Wikileaks – I really can’t believe this is a website I didn’t create. Wikileaks is everything I never knew I always wanted to do. I discovered the site in the wake of the Bradley Manning incident. As an ex-military person that served in the United States Navy in the age BEFORE the internet, I was made to take part in things that were immoral and illegal, and then made to lie about it. In the pre-internet days, that’s as far as criminal activity by the military would go because there was no way to tell the world. Now the internet and Wikileaks has American generals and politicians shaking like little girls during a thunderstorm. Why? Because now they can be held accountable. Thanks to Wikileaks having the balls to publish crimes committed by American military personnel at the behest of our American politicians, the playing field has been leveled, so the rest of us can play now too. Ultimate democracy.

        10. Netflix – I hate TV, the news, commercials, sitcoms and the film industry, but I like movies. So, I don’t go to the theater, watch privacy invading TV shows or listen to anything network TV has to tell me. Netflix allows me to watch movies without interacting with or paying money to the people that created it. It’s not that I don’t think they’re due, but they are millionaires that live in paid for mansions, so they don’t need my money.

Grilling The Gourds For Thanksgiving

        Thanksgiving was good for me this year; I got to spend it with family and I made some new friends too. My cousins brought me to a late afternoon feast being held in a very inviting backyard patio, in the North Park area of San Diego.

Thinking About What To Give Thanks For

        The timing of our arrival was perfect. We had time time meet with and talk to people, have a cocktail and enjoy the earliest stages of a late November San Diego sunset. I was three sips into my second drink when the turkey made its first appearance of the night, and in those fleeting moments everyone could plainly see that this bird was perfectly cooked with a smell that indicated it would taste perfectly in your mouth.

One Perfectly Cooked Turkey

        Above is one of the gracious hosts giving everyone a quick glimpse of the turkey before taking it back inside for carving. In the background is the amazing patio and backyard area where 12 of us ate, gathered around two huge tables.

San Diego 2010 Thanksgiving Turkey

        Thanksgiving is a great holiday because it brings people together to share time for a meal, give thanks and talk about good things in the world. The drinks and the turkey are catalysts for the history and the memories that will be made around millions of tables in America tonight.

Thanksgiving Meal In San Diego – 2010

        I’m glad I brought my camera to this Thanksgiving dinner, and glad that thanks to my gracious hosts, Brian and Joel there is a short photographic record of one Thanksgiving feast in one little corner of San Diego. Happy Thanksgiving America!

Commercial & 15th Street – San Diego

        Last Sunday in walked north on Commercial Street from the 12th & Imperial transit station to just past 17th to get a look at the clutch of homeless that live under the I-5 bridge, where it crosses over Commercial Street.

Under I-5 – Commercial & 19th Street – San Diego

Walk For The Cure In San Diego 2010

        The same day I was at Lindbergh Field, a weekend-long walk for the the cure (breast cancer) event was wrapping up in the area of PETCO Park. There were hundreds of backpacks spread out on the parking lot so I managed to grab a few shots before my trolley arrived.

Backpacks Belonging To Walk For The Cure Walkers

Near PETCO Park In San Diego, CA

San Diego International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim

        I went to the San Diego International airport today to see if I could get a glimpse of some TSA agents and perhaps even get some shots of them patting down some travelers. No such luck. Without a ticket, I was only able to get to the very fringes of the security checkpoints.

The Calm Before The Storm

        As I strolled through the airport, I realized that I haven’t been to an airport for almost three years. I really need to travel more, here in San Diego and around the world. Anyway, being at the airport today, less than one week before the busiest air traveling day of the year made me think I should return next weekend for some real photographic fun.

TSA Agents At San Diego International Airport

        I suspect that any employee at Lindbergh Field will have much less free time than these three over Thanksgiving weekend.

Taking A Break At Lindbergh Field

        The giant piece of art and the chairs above are in terminal 2 at the San Diego International airport. Another idea I had was to shoot the scene above over and over with different people in the chairs each time. The boldness of the art, the reflection on the floor and a mixture of travelers using the chairs at different times of the day over the course of a long time could generate an interesting theme.

La Mesa CA Soap Box Race Cars

        I found a few more photos from the La Mesa Kiwanis sponsored soap box derby I attended last weekend. If you would like to see my first post about the derby, with more photos and commentary, click here.

The First Racer Of The Day

        Kiwanis really does a lot to help bring joy into the lives of kids by making things like a soap box derby race possible. My dad was in Kiwanis when I was growing up so I have fond memories of my family and I enjoying things like spaghetti dinners, Christmas parties where the kids would all get presents and even getting to march in a parade or two, all thanks to Kiwanis.

The Nuts And Bolts Of A Soap box Racer

        Pulleys and cables are the mechanical method for steering and applying the brakes. The brake is a rubber tipped pole that is pressed down onto the road, very similar to how the Flintstones stop their cars.

Soap Box Car Racing Down The Hill

        According to the La Mesa Kiwanis website, there will be another soap box derby in March of 2011 at the same location as this one, in front of La Mesa middle school so come on down and support the kids by cheering them on and purchasing Kiwanis provided hamburgers, hot dogs and sodas.

Body Jewelry And An Arm Tattoo

        On the San Diego trolley earlier today I saw a fellow passenger happened to have a tattoo accentuated with body jewelry. Of course I’ve seen tattoos and body jewelry before, but not combined together like this. I didn’t even ask him to pose his jeweled tattoo for me, he just had it up there, begging to be photographed.

What’s In My Eye?

        You may have noticed that my last few posts have been a little… Light. What I mean is that my words have lacked substance, even though the photography for the stories has been amazing and has kept me eating steak. This post is no different, and I’ll tell you why.

        I am working on an article that will show, in plain site of god & man why agents of the United States government have come to believe that American citizen photographers, people holding nothing more than a camera in their hands are approached by said agents as possible terrorists. It’s going to be huge, and the timing is perfect. After all, the HUNDREDS OF INCIDENTS in which private security guards and actual cops have approached photographers, because the authority figure thinks the photographer might be a terrorist must stem from some sort of training or knowledge right? Well, I found the source for this lunacy, and am ass-deep in writing the article to expose it. Stay tuned!