A couple of my images made the Wall Street Journal slideshow about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill hearings on Capitol Hill as well as one on the WSJ Photos of the Day Blog.
A couple of my images made the Wall Street Journal slideshow about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill hearings on Capitol Hill as well as one on the WSJ Photos of the Day Blog.
“Somebody who wants to burn their passport, well, let’s help them along. “
SCOTT BROWN – Republican senator of Massachusetts and co-sponsor of the Terrorist Expatriation Act, a bill that would allow Washington to revoke U.S. citizenship from people suspected of providing support to terrorists.
LINK TO TIME MAGAZINE
Demi Moore, spoke at a briefing on Domestic Sex Trafficking of Children, in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.
Published in People Magazine.
Mother Jones story about how Goldman’s ex-mortgage exec. Daniel Sparks told Congress he didn’t expect a group of financial products to fail. Internal documents suggest he knew otherwise.
Read the story here: Did Goldman’s Ex-Mortgage Guru Lie Under Oath?
The Goldman Sachs Hearings on Capitol Hill
8:30 a.m. Arrived early for a 10:00 hearing. There are already 15 or 20 photographers and a slew of writers and TV already in the room. Thankfully it is a bigger room than the one that held the Toyota hearings a few months back. First thing is to get laptop space set up and stake out a spot in front of the table for the first images if the witnesses as they arrive and settle in.
9:00 a.m. The waiting begins as photographers mingle and make small talk. I make a few images of the stack of exhibits before they are passed out to the Senator’s positions. There is a lot of talk about how this is going to be a long day. There are 3 panels of witnesses. The first has 4 executives that either work for or did work for Goldman Sachs, including whiz kid Fabrice Tourre who, as Dana Milbank of The Post says, “is fast becoming the poster boy of the financial crisis, a Michael Milken for the current times.” The SEC recently filed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and the 31-year-old Frenchman who calls himself Fabulous Fab. The second panel has the CFO and the Chief Risk Officer. The final panel has the money shot: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
9:45 a.m. I am in the middle of 30 or so photographers waiting for the first panel to arrive. I ask Melina Mara from The Washington Post if she thinks this initial scrum is worth it. Does anyone ever get a great photo from this ritual? She says it is normally hit or miss. You just have to be ready in case something happens. What that is, I am not sure.
9:50 a.m. I am feeling impatient and unconvinced. Besides, everyone will have whatever shot I get just from a different angle. So I decide to take the advice of many a great old photographer. “If all the photographers are in one place, go someplace else.” It also dawned on me that we, the photographers, were the picture. If this was the CEO I might feel differently, but this was a panel of 4 executives that either work or did work for Goldman Sachs. I extracted myself from the crowd to look for a better vantage point of the whole scene.
As I got out of the crowd, I noticed that 4 protesters had shown up at the back of the hearing room dressed in convict clothes and carrying signs. I moved in and was one of only about 3 or 4 of the group that did since the rest did not want to lose their positions at the table. Already I have a photo that most who are there do not. Cool.
10:00 a.m. The first panel arrives and I get the shots of the mass of photographers enveloping the 4 witnesses.
10:02 a.m. The gavel falls and we take our places for the opening statements by the committee chair and the swearing in of the panel.
10:46 a.m. Now, just to give an idea of how long this could go, we finally get past opening statements from the Senators and we are to the swearing in of the first panel. Of course I spent most of this time working up the first photos and transmitting to both ZUMA Press and my Photoshelter archive. One of the things I like most about Adobe Lightroom is that I can do two different exports at the same time and then do two uploads at the same time from Lightroom while I walk away and return to shooting.
I shoot the swearing in and return to the workspace to transmit that photo.
11:00 a.m. – 3:25 p.m. Yes you are reading that correctly. FOUR AND A HALF HOURS of questions and not too many answers from the FIRST PANEL! That is over four hours of shooting. I am trying hard to anticipate good reaction or facial expressions. I shoot for a while and then transmit. Then back to shooting.
We get to move around a bit during the testimony, which is good. It gives the opportunity to try for unique (as they can be) angles and work to clean up backgrounds.
The problem is that as tedious as this can be, you hate to leave since you never know when there may be a heated exchange between a frustrated Senator and a witness who is tip-toeing around a question. Which happened almost every 5 minutes with the first panel.
There were times when I was sure that Senator Levin was going to blow a gasket. It was particularly fun to hear the Senator use the word “shit” so many times in a hearing. He was quoting the Goldman Sachs email transcripts that said things like: “Look what your sales team was saying about Timberwolf: ‘Boy, that Timberwolf was one shitty deal,’ ” Levin quoted. “They sold that shitty deal. . . . How much of that shitty deal did you sell to your clients?”
3:25 p.m. As I said, you hate to leave, but at about 3:10 I needed food. So I took a quick break for lunch and of course when I returned I found that the first panel was done and I was about to miss the swearing in of the second panel. I managed to make a quick frame or two from behind the two witnesses as they gave their “I dos.”
This panel was not very exciting, but it did go by faster. It was becoming obvious that the Senators were getting more and more frustrated by the semantics and the non-answers as well as the answers they did get from the witnesses. The day was getting longer and longer and we still had the main event to come. The Goldman CEO.
There was a short recess in the action when the Senators needed to leave for a vote on the Senate Floor. This provided another opportunity to get something a bit different. The Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, David Viniar, was consulting with his legal team and the protesters came up as close as they could from the back of the room and filled in the background for a good frame.
5:00 p.m. As the session with the second panel was winding down, the Goldman Sachs’ CEO enters the hearing room with his entourage. Of course the photographers want to get photos of him but it was a bit surreal in a way since the hearing was still going on and all the photographers just herded over to where he was sitting. The Senators never missed a beat, and kept on asking questions through what was obviously a bit of a distraction.
5:17 p.m. The main event has arrived. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is sworn in and begins to answer questions.
5:17 – 6:15 p.m. I shoot the CEO for about an hour. I have had enough. All I hear over and over all day is “selling short,” “being short,” “being long,” “selling long,” long and short, short and long. Between that and the “please stand clear of the doors,” and “the doors are closing” mantra on the metro, I may never sleep again.
Over 1200 frames shot and 95 images sent to ZUMA Press and my Photoshelter archive. I am whipped. But it is nice to already see 4 images in a slideshow on the Wall Street Journal web site.
All I know from the day is this… The long of it was the day. Long and tedious but very interesting. It is always fascinating to sit through Congressional hearings. It is most often a learning experience.
That happened today. I learned about the short. The short of it is that the Wall Street types who work at Goldman Sachs and all the other high-end investment firms are all smarter than the average person. Way smarter. Smarter than the Senators who had a surprisingly good grasp of the concepts behind the financial markets.
The problem is that Wall Street types know that they are smarter. And because of that fact they feel they can get away with what they had for so long. They are smart enough to know that we will not notice and if we do, we won’t understand it anyway.
On my Sunday walk through Mt. Lebanon I passed by this garbage can and it made me sad. Big Ben was like a hero in Pittsburgh and now his shirt is like a fallen flag on the outside of neighborhood trash cans.
I am just surprised that no one is talking about Ben Roethlisberger’s head injury and brain damage. Frontal lobe injuries have a direct correlation with inhibition and have been said to have the same effect as “having a few drinks”. Then we absolutely watched Ben be serious and repeatedly concussed on the playing field which only compounds his brain injury. The people surrounding/handling Ben need to understand that he has had a serious brain injury and is certainly not making the same decisions he was making before that injury.
This does NOT excuse his behavior, but it might explain some of what may have changed and what to look for in the future. I don’t claim to know all the facts but I found it hard to watch Ben return to the field knowing what a huge risk he was taking of serious and permanent brain damage. Now it is shocking that the media is not covering this angle.
And no… I don’t have any theories on Tiger Woods.
Leslie McKee, CPO
McKee Organizing Services Inc.
Certified Professional Organizer® and Certified Family Manager Coach™
mckeeos.com
leslie@mckeeos.com
Helping busy people, simplify their lives, save time and enjoy life more!
412-341-8754
Sign Up for my FR*EE E-course
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The Tea Party Express rolled into Washington, D.C. for a rally on Tax Day. I should begin by saying that most of the gathering was civil, polite and having a good time. It is valuable to have a dialog in this country coming from all sides of an issue. Intelligent and constructive dialog is the basis of a strong democracy as is the right to criticize the government. But that being said, it never ceases to amaze me how closed-minded people can be ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUES.
Two examples that I was witness to were both sad and funny at the same time.
The first was at the morning rally at Freedom Square. Amid the protesters was a man walking around dressed at the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. He was carrying a sign bemoaning the fact that the FOX network was torturing America by broadcasting American Idol before Glee.
Seems simple enough, until a woman came up to him and began berating him for picking on FOX News (not what the sign said), and then saying he should be ashamed of himself for being unpatriotic because of his Uncle Sam costume. No matter how much he calmly and quietly tried to explain to her that he was not picking on FOX News and that he was dressed as the Mad Hatter, she would not listen and kept yelling at him. Obviously a case of not reading to get all the facts and not listening. The poor guy was as nice as he could be and said later that he hoped he did not ruin her day.
UPDATE: I found this YouTube video by way of The Daily Show Forum that shows the interaction between these two. (CLICK HERE)
Later there was the rally at the Washington Monument where a fan of President Obama was pleading with Tea Party members to give the President a chance. A plea that was also directed toward Democrats who voted for Obama that are now having second thoughts. This was an interesting moment with the two sides yelling at each other.
The thing I couldn’t help noticing was that the Tea Party supporters where not giving coherent arguments against what the man was saying. Instead they just kept repeating the talking points of the President’s opposition. When pressed to expound on their statements, most did not and simply went on to another talking point. Its was obvious that they had not formed their opinions from their own research. They where parroting the party line and repeating what they heard from their favorite talking heads.
I did find one other thing funny and curious. Washington, D.C. police chased off of the National Mall grounds a man who was selling “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and other banners of the Tea Party movement. According to one of the cops, selling things on federal property is not allowed. The part that was weird was he also said that they had asked Freedom Works, the organizers of the event, if they wanted him at the rally selling the flags and the Freedom Works representative said no.
So, Freedom Works does not want this man to practice capitalism at their rally and have no problem with the police and federal government dictating where someone can earn an honest living.
Seems to me to go against their beliefs about capitalism and having government interference with a person’s pursuit of a living.
More images from the Tea Party Rally in D.C. can be found in my Photoshelter Archive (CLICK HERE).
Check out Leslie on KDKA TV- Organizing Garage Sales!
It is always fun to do these KDKA segments, but this morning was a little crazy! Can you say TRAFFIC? With a water main break between me and the studio, I had more than garage sales on my mind this morning. I was just hoping to pull it all off! When I got there we went straight in to the studio and before I knew it, I was sitting with host Brenda Waters! All I could think of was “where is my lipstick”? But Brenda was gracious and I really do like the topic-so all in all it was a good morning. I was on the road and on to the next thing by 9:20 and it just feels funny that one day can take some many little turns!
I hope I got some useful information out there and let me know if you have any other tips or stories about garage sales!
From the KDKA TV Show on 4/13 at 9am:
Commit to getting rid of the items you no longer use or need! Price low and don’t bring anything back into the house! Call a donation pick up service for the day after.
Pricing is easier when you have a buddy! Price with room to negotiate. The price should be on top of an item, not on the bottom. As a general rule of thumb, price items about a quarter or third of what they would cost new.
Tag higher priced items individually; group lower priced items together on tables or in boxes that are labeled with a price. Some people use colored sticker to indicate price and at the end of the day when discounts are announced it is less confusing.
Do not accept checks.
Make sure to remember to get change in small bills and coins ($200-300) and have only one person handle the money.
Advertise! Check local rules about signage and advertising and post signs the week before and place an ad in the local classified. Use online advertising on sites like Craig’s List Garage Sale sites. Also use Facebook, even if you don’t have an account, your friends or children do! Post it and talk about the big things you are selling! Try to avoid scheduling on holiday weekends and remove posted signs when its all overJ Here is a resource for making great signs: sassysigns.com/
Make one entrance and one exit. Put the best stuff in front so that people can see it as they drive by. Place items so they are like with like-similar to a mini department store. Place the cashier in the back so shoppers need to pass through item for sale on their way.
Make arrangements for pets to stay with a friend. This makes the sale safer for shoppers who are afraid of animals and it protects the pets from shoppers who don’t know to properly handle your pet.
Everyone loves a “freebie”. Have a basket of little items to give to people at check out as a nice gesture.
10. Here are some resources for advertising online:
pittsburgh.craigslist.org/gms/
justgaragesales.com/
garagesalestracker.com/
yardsalead.com/
yardsalers.net/
yardsalers.net/
garagesalecow.com/
All these tips, links to sites and more can be found on our website at mckeeos.com and you can email or call 412-341-8754 to get a copy of our Top 10 Garage Sale Tips.
Leslie McKee, CPO
McKee Organizing Services Inc.
Certified Professional Organizer® and Certified Family Manager Coach™
mckeeos.com
leslie@mckeeos.com
Helping busy people, simplify their lives, save time and enjoy life more!
412-341-8754
Sign Up for my FR*EE E-course
Friend me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Link to me on LinkedIn
I have only been here a couple of months, but I am beginning to realize that you just never know what you will see around Washington, D.C.
I was walking from a meeting with Graph Paper Press guru Thad Allender an was heading to the White House for an assignment when I saw this group of guys heading my way. I have really been trying to always have my camera ready and I was able to gather a few frames of them.
You just have to smile, don’t you?
