Uploads from Viewminder

I Could Feel the Love!

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:12:20 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Flickr Survivors...

I'm kinda likin' what I see over here.

It fits what I do a lot better.

And it feels good.

A Place Where Your Photographs Aren't Buried In Techno-Color Clutter

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:26:28 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

I wanna stay positive and creative.

There's no use sticking around someplace as an artist that offends your aesthetic vision and gives you no option to 'make it right.'

Viewminder was born on Flickr.

And Flicker just gave Viewminder wings.

Since it's already been shown that 90% of Flickr users don't like the 'New Coke'...

I mean... 'New Flickr'...

there is coming a great dispersal of a lot of wonderful people, fantastic artists and creative souls to alternative sites all around the world.

Like the lost tribes of Israel they will wander here and there... like refugees... memories of the Flickr that once was will bind them to each other... whispered discussions on the ruin of a great and beautiful thing by the actions and the arrogance of those whose names will cease to be mentioned much after the gravity of what they've done becomes known.

An uproar among artists is one thing...

when the Yahoo stockholders lose faith in their management team there will be consequences.

It will be too late because those that create will have blown around the world like pollen on the wind...

'remember that place' they will say... 'remember the good times that we had there'... and they will seek news of those they had known but whose paths they haven't crossed in so long.

They will disperse among the many sites more welcoming to their vision than the one that was run into the ground by the masters who were entirely out of synchronicity with the masses.

Nothing lasts forever.

And I am coming to accept that Flickr as we knew it is gone and it will never return.

It was the birthplace of so many good things... images and ideas flowed freely and without restraint...

People created images that created a community and that community unfortunately had no say in the future of the place that their artistic minds called 'home.'

So they go and they wander and they seek the comfort of what was but they will come to accept that they will never find it.

A revolution has come where the many of the masses will rise up and say 'what did you do to my favorite photo sharing website you fuckrs?'

There will be grief and sadness and lamentations of a thousand sorts...

all of the confusion, turmoil and pain of an ideological apocalypse.

It wasn't about 'change' and our resistance to it... it was about the lack of respect for the people who created Flickr itself.

The true nature of the moment sets in...

'WE made Flickr.'

'WE WERE FLICKR.'

And as we move here and there to the distant regions of the internets we should with all the ferocity of great and strong friendships and all of the respect that those deserve... we should embrace in one last hug and challenge each other to take a solemn vow...

WE WILL DO BETTER.

Massive FAIL

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:35:18 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

If you wanna spit your beer out of both nostrils head over to Flickr's 'The Help Forum' where many soon to be ex Flickr users are venting their frustrations in the deafening silence of a response from either Flickr or Yahoo.

The consensus is that Flickr tanked this one big time and a lot of people are moving to or opening up accounts on ipernity.com...

which looks a lot like Flickr used to and shows photographs in a more classy and elegant way... not like a pile of different sized bricks all squeezed together.

They also have a tool that lets you upload your pictures from Flickr in batches of 180 at a time.

Flickr's been filled with bugs and glitches and slow as hell all day.

Maybe that's because of all of the bandwidth getting used to move pictures to other sites or the volume of angry complaints going to Flickr on the 'Help Forum.'

I don't know.

I've signed up for an account at Ipernity and I'll explore it over the next few days.

If Flickr keeps this format I have to find another place to share my photographs because I just don't think this fits.

You guys have always inspired me and this place has always felt like a community.

But the reality is that we never 'owned' anything here.

The look of our community changed drastically in a moment without us even being prepared for it with some warning.

I don't know why... but I feel betrayed.

And I shouldn't.

I should just take my pictures somewhere where they 'fit.'

Complaining to the 'Help Forum' on Flickr here someone put it like this...

'I feel like my family album just got destroyed in a fire.'

I feel you man... I really do.

You know I wanna stay positive and be inspired and create whatever it is that I create in a community of people who do the same and appreciate the details that I appreciate too.

You and Flickr always felt like 'an old friend.'

And quite honestly, that old friend Flickr is dead.

Look at this screen shot above and read between the lines.

The community is outraged.

When the staff at Flickr has to remind us that 'personal attacks against Staff or other users will not be tolerated'...

well... you gotta figure that there's a LOT of outrage.

I miss my Flickr.

And I'll miss you guys.

I've always felt the love and I still do.

I'll be around... but if something drastic doesn't happen in Flickerland over the next few days more and more of my time, my photographs and my attention will be elsewhere...

probably on Ipernity.

I miss seeing you guys the way that I used to see you.

And Flickr... RIP.

You were a good friend.

I'll miss you buddy.

www.ipernity.com/viewminder

tHE nEW fLICKR ~ It's All About the Pictures

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:04:20 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

I dunno...

I took a screen shot...

I'm not sure it makes my pictures look good.

The 'new' Flickr sucks so much I might as well be looking at porn!

It's Turtle Season ~ Another Turtle Saved!

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:13 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

It's turtle time on the roads alright...

driving home from the computer store with my daughter she said 'lookout for that turtle!'

I swerved a little and made sure the car passed over him without the wheels hittin' him.

Stopped... put the hazards on and backed up...

A car came up real quick and almost finished him off but I made the point and the driver thanked me and blocked traffic for me.

This one was on a four laner and you gotta be so careful how you stop to catch 'em.

Usually people are like 'what are you doing' until they see you pick the turtle up and then they just smile.

I threw him in the back of the car for the short ride to the lake by our house...

stopped and grabbed all of my daughters and we went and set him free.

His new home doesn't have so many roads by it and he really seemed to like it.

More than he liked me...

this one was a 'hisser' and a 'scratcher' but he calmed down once we set him free and he kept comin' back up and lookin' at us.

I don't know why the turtles love to cross the roads this time of year.

It's got something to do with boy turtles and girl turtles I think.

They're everywhere though.

Try to give 'em a brake...

and if you stop to rescue one you be really careful and keep your eyes out for traffic.

You'll score some true turtle karma.

The Turtle Saving Song

NEW FLICKR SUCKS BIGTIME!

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:31:21 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

I Love Turtles

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:15 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Yesterday It seems that the Red Eared Sliders hatched on the little lake by my house.

We found this little guy sittin' there.

Probably 20 to 25 of his brothers and sisters made it out of the nest that day.

Not too many of them make it... because they make great snacks for the bass, the bullfrogs, the birds and the snapping turtles that live in the lake.

I like to catch them when they're that little...

take them home and fatten them up...

let them get just a little bit bigger and set them free in the lake again.

The kids love it too because anything 'miniature' is just cute.

I like to think of him as 'another turtle saved.'

Because I love turtles.

A Television Interview with Viewminder as a Kid

Today We Begin a Journey

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:53:00 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Last July 14th my daughter and I decided to see how many of Chicago's finest used bookstores we could hit in a day.

To 'weird it up' just a little bit I decided to go barefoot and see how many of the stores would kick me out.

None of them did.

It was a really fun day.

Always one with an appetite for adventure I found a rare two volume set of the complete expedition journals of Lewis and Clark.

They were quite expensive but I could not resist and perhaps it was my being barefoot while I negotiated the price with the proprietor that led us to come to terms favorable to moi and led to me becoming the owner of these amazing volumes.

I knew that because the books were special that I had to come up with some rather unique way of reading them.

I couldn't just read them like any other book.

I felt like I had to read them in a way that 'put me there' so to speak.

After long and thoughtful consideration and an iron willed discipline to resist cracking them open I came up with a plan.

I noticed that the journey of discovery that Lewis and Clark would undergo started on May 14th 1804.

It came to me right then and there.

I would wait until May 14th 2013 to begin reading The Journals of The Expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Exactly two hundred and nine years later to the day.

And I would read the journals as they were written.

One entry each day... that day's entry... on that day.

I would be able, I supposed, to ponder the journey and the significance of the words journaled in a deeper and more meaningful way.

I would be a member of that expedition over the more than two years that they took to travel more than eight thousand miles.

Today my friends marks the first day of that adventure.

The first entry was rather short...

it begins...

'Monday May 14th 1804

All the preparations being completed, we left our encampment. This spot is at the mouth of the Wood River, a small stream which empties itself into the Mississippi, opposite to the entrance of the Missouri. It is situated in latitude 38'55'19" 6/10 north and longitude from Greenwich 89'57'45". On both sides of the Mississippi the land for two or three miles is rich and level, but gradually swells into a high pleasant country, with less timber on the western than on the eastern side, but all susceptible of cultivation. The point which separates the two rivers on the north, extends for fifteen or twenty miles, the greater part of which is an open level plain, in which the people of the neighborhood cultivate what little grain they raise. Not being able to set sail before four o'clock P.M., we did not make more than four miles, and encamped on the first island opposite a small creek called Cold Water.'

~

I've waited since July 14th 2012 to read this entry.

Ten months to the day.

And here on the day that the expedition set off I'm led to wonder just what Lewis and Clark were thinking starting such an epic journey at 4 P.M.?

I mean... what... a couple of hours of drifting in the current and you gotta find an island and set up camp for the night.

I dunno dudes... I may have just waited until May 15th to shove off.

But that's just me.

And I wasn't there.

But in a way I guess I'm going to be.

Discussing this with my oldest daughter in the car this afternoon we both thought it would be interesting to keep a journal of our own as we participated on the journey ahead.

A new project was born.

This is my first entry in the 'Journal of Viewminder: Expedition Member on the Lewis and Clark Expedition'...

'May 14th

Man... it rained like crazy all day. Almost all day actually. Everything was soaked and Lewis and Clark kept discussing whether or not we should actually leave today.

By four in the afternoon me and most of the crew were all ready to just call it a day and leave the next morning... but nooooo... Lewis was all like 'I said we were gonna be leaving today and we're leaving today.

Which was really dumb because we got like all of four miles until we had to stop for the night and set up camp on some swampy mosquito infested island in the middle of the river.

I figured maybe I could sneak back and spend the evening in the bars at St. Louis and somehow maybe walk back by the morning... if I got lucky I might be sleeping in a more comfortable bed if you know what I mean.

'Cept Lewis had us camp on an island and I didn't feel like swimmin' across that river.

We didn't see anything cool anyways and I think it was a stupid idea to leave today.

I can't wait to see some Indians.'

~

I had to figure out why they left so late so I started to look into it.

It was raining that day and maybe that had something to do with it.

Starting off on such an adventure at four in the afternoon though...

there's gotta be a story behind that.

My daughter suggested we post our journal on Tumblr and maybe she's on to something.

I'm really looking forward to this whole adventure unfolding and I think it'll be a lot of fun for all of us.

Looking out the window I thought to myself 'this was how it was on the day that they left and I'm going along with them.'

How cool is that?

I've waited a long time for this day...

to open Volume One right where the epic roadtrip without roads began and here I am.

I'm excited.

I'm going on an adventure.

If my daughter gets the Tumblr site going tonight...

maybe we'll take you with us.

Bon Voyage!

Next Year

Rotten Finco Drops the Bomb

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:02 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Rotten Finco and the Convicts tore it up at the Live Wire Lounge on Friday night.

That night tore me up a little too.

You know those nights where you're still out when the sun comes up?

That shit'll whack me for a week.

I hope you had a wicked weekend and you letcher freak outta the box good.

It was nice out.

I can feel the good times to come.

Summer's gonna be good to us.

Friday-Love Chitown Style

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:37:45 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Good gahd it's finally Friday!

Are you feelin' the Friday-Love?

What a freakin' week.

I'm telling you.

Life is some crazy shit.

I can't wait to let my freak outta the box this weekend.

Lookout Chicago!

Friday-Love!

Dead Souls

Chris Bernhardt ~ BMR4

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:13:51 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

I got a chance to check out BMR4 and shoot Chris Bernhardt up close at Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago on Saturday night.

They sounded pretty sweet and Chris was makin' that acoustic bass sing up there.

I don't know what it is about the LED lights that they use at Andy's but they always do the strangest things to my shots.

I could never use flash but man those lights are a challenge!

I've been beaten by those lights half a dozen times.

Thanks for the great show Chris!

I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend gettin' your freak on in Springtime Chitown!

You can check out BMR4 HERE and if you ever get a chance you should check these guys out live!

Strange Bedfellows

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:12:44 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

The events that night in the parking lot changed me forever.

I used to look at things as so much more 'black and white.'

'The police were good' I thought.

And 'our government existed to serve and protect the people.'

There was a certain bliss in living with that ignorance.

One night shattered that and life itself would never be so simple again.

I knew that anyone could go bad.

I'd seen that before.

But the systematic coverup I was witness to...

that whacked my reality big time.

Since then I've made quite a few friends who happen to be cops.

I'd say that in my experience about half of them are an honor to the badge.

The other half...

you'd be shocked that they're nothing but another street gang bunch of thugs...

only they hide behind those badges and blue uniforms.

And they're authorized by the state to carry guns and use deadly force.

I don't think anything's ever offended me so much as seeing that bullshit up close.

It was like some fog was lifted and I saw what went on 'behind the curtain.'

That shit really shook me up.

I'm talking about people who've not only got no problem murdering someone...

but they've got the understanding and the means to get away with it.

There's more than a few people in prison who've been sent there wrongly convicted of crimes these guys have done.

They know how to pull it off.

The only thing that they really fear are the half of the cops who wouldn't tolerate that stuff.

The problem is that in some departments the ratio's pretty skewed.

Like Deadwood.

The whole place is filled with bad apples.

The stories I started to hear were unbelievable.

Witness intimidation.

Planting drugs.

Lying on police reports.

Giving false testimony.

And of course...

firebombing the garbage dumpster in front of my office.

I saw that one with my own eyes.

Or that phone call I got about the Police Commisioner's federal conviction for selling a couple of kilos of the white stuff.

The same guy that owned the bar that installed the illegal poker machines.

The ones that were all gone when the county went to raid his place because Iron Fist supposedly got tipped off and told him he'd better get rid of those things fast.

And I heard Iron Fist was pissed.

Not because his Police Commissioner had an illegal gambling operation going on in his town...

but because he'd kept it a secret from him.

Iron Fist kept secrets.

You didn't keep secrets from him.

There's some dark shadows on the other side of that 'thin blue line' and I'm telling you that I hope you never see them.

They get away with way too much.

They get away with murder.

The corruption is so endemic to the system that I have no faith at all that it can ever be eliminated.

There's a secret code.

If you've ever gotten a ticket and the cop thought you were an asshole all he had to do was to make sure that when he stapled your drivers lisense to the paperwork was that he put the staple through your picture.

The next cop that pulled you over knew right away that some other cop had a problem with you.

Because you had staple holes there on your license.

On your face.

That's the kind of shit that they do.

That's the 'code.'

One thing that they do better than anything though is to stick together.

'Professional courtesy' they call it.

In Chicago givin' another cop a ticket for DUI is an instant career dead end.

The older cops with more experience know how it works.

The young guys get sucked into it in order to prove themselves.

And to survive.

You gotta tow the line if you want backup to help you out in a timely manner when you call for it.

It's almost a rite of passage.

You don't pass the test...

you're gonna get your ass kicked on the streets or worse...

and no one's gonna drive really fast to help you out.

You'll be on your own.

Over the years the cops have developed an 'us or them' mentality.

They become jaded about the way it all works...

they socialize amongst themselves and the women who they call 'holster sniffers.'

They start to hate the legal system...

the judges and the prosecutors...

and then all of the sudden they're one of the 'bad apples.'

You hear about them every once in a while...

either they're busted by the feds or they're turned on by the guys around them because they pissed someone off.

You got no idea how bad it is really.

Not until you start hearin' what's going on 'off the record.'

You'll never sleep as well as you did before you heard the stories.

What makes it all worse is when corrupt politicians start to use the police as a 'personal army.'

That only makes everything dirtier.

The cops know that they're gonna get away with so much more when the guys above them are corrupt too.

That's the way it went in Deadwood.

Iron Fist used the police like they were his own little militia.

If he had a problem with you then you had yourself a problem with the cops.

And keepin' Iron Fist happy took precedence over 'law and order' any day of the week in Deadwood.

You got old Iron Fist pissed off at you that'd be a real quick end to your career in 'law enforcement.'

While Iron Fist ran the place the town was known as a really desirable place to live.

You didn't put a 'for sale' sign in front of your house if you wanted to sell it when he was in charge.

The old man would never tolerate that.

He had a list of people who wanted to live there and him and his cronies would figure out who they were gonna let buy your house.

They didn't want any 'undesirables' moving in.

And by 'undesirables' I mean black people.

Iron Fist thought that 'for sale' signs on people's homes made him look bad.

Dude should have been a cult leader the way he operated.

If you went around 'the system'...

and some people did because they felt that Iron Fist's little policy was cutting their profits on the sale of their homes...

Iron Fist would send the cops out late at night and snatch that 'for sale' sign right out of your front yard.

The guys I talked to said 'Secret Squirrel' was always up for the job.

He was the guy that drove around with the trunk full of machine guns.

The Village was sued in federal court for the practice by real estate agents and the Village lost on First Ammendment grounds...

but they still kept doing it.

Iron Fist reduced the police to commonon thievery.

For a lot of them I think that was the line that they'd first crossed into the corruption that soiled the place.

Kind of like a little 'initiation' into the way things were done in Deadwood.

They wanted to make damn sure no 'undesirables' were ever hired on to the police department too.

They asked applicants to provide a picture of themselves with their applications.

You better not have a dark complection if you wanted to get a job there.

The thing that really made everything so corrupt was that the Chief would always end up with a big old bag of dirt on Iron Fist...

just as much as Iron Fist'd end up with a big old bag of dirt on the Chief.

The relationships never seemed to last too long because Iron Fist knew the game better than any of the clowns he'd make Chief.

He'd take 'em down before they really became a threat.

When Skeevy left there to run another department it wasn't too long before the feds were all over his ass.

It was Skeevy who'd installed the guy that'd become the next Chief...

'Chief Hotdog.'

The one I sent the 'nutcracker' letter to.

Where I told him 'I was gonna squeeze his balls until they popped.'

The letter I had to read in front of the jury with all the good stuff blacked out.

Man I really thought I was gonna be charged with some serious felonies for that action.

Even my lawyer said he was worried about it.

'You don't go around writing that kind of stuff down' he said 'say whatever you want but you don't write letters like that and send them to the Chief of Police signed with your name.'

Fortunately the statute of limitations has run out on that one and I ain't got no problems that way.

I really tortured poor Chief Hotdog...

got inside his head and fucked with him big time.

The way I saw it he deserved it.

I mean... he was the boss... and he coudda done something to make things right for me and my family.

He was given the chance to do the right thing.

They all were.

But when he came out lying to the media about what happened that night and defended the actions of his street thug cops I knew I was goin' after his ass any way I could.

Right after the case against my wife was thrown out Chief Hotdog resigned.

Of course The Kid said it had nothin' to do with the bungling of that case...

and insiders said it was because he didn't do really well at fundraising for The Kid politically...

but I didn't care.

He was just one more corrupt motherfucker that I had in my crosshairs that went down in flames.

Whatever it was it ended his career.

The department went without a Chief for a few months and everyone speculated on who was gonna be named Chief Hotdog's successor.

I was shakin' the place up with allegations about the use of the contaminated well but that was all kinda behind the scenes...

the media or the feds hadn't picked up on it just yet.

When The Kid appointed the new Chief, me and The Mole both let out a collective gasp at the same time.

He appointed a woman who used to run the water department.

Terry Stewbauer.

I couldn't believe it.

It was such an obvious payoff and anyone in the know could see that right away.

It was blatant.

The Kid wasn't just 'ball-less' he seemed to be brainless too.

That was the first time I knew I really had those assholes and I knew I had them good.

They knew the feds were comin' sooner or later because I wasn't letting up and appointing Stewbauer as the new Chief of Police was a sort of premptory strike.

They wanted to keep her quiet and they wanted to keep her loyal...

put her on the 'short leash.'

I think she was scared shitless about what was comin' down the line and thinkin' about makin' a deal herself with the federales.

The Kid appointing her as the new Chief was probably a confidence builder for the woman.

She was working part time as a detective for the department before she was appointed Chief and I'd heard she wasn't a bad cop.

But she knew the truth about the use of the contaminated well and I knew that in appointing her that The Kid was hoping she'd never tell that truth to anyone.

Especially the feds.

I heard that her husband was a convicted drug dealer who was sitting in prison at the time she was appointed as the new Chief too.

She couldn't have been a very good detective if she didn't know that the old man was dealin' drugs out of her house.

Or she was a very corrupt detective.

Take your pick.

She was working as the Chief of Police in Deadwood when she was indicted on something like twenty three felony counts by the US Attorney.

She had to surrender her gun and her firearm owners identification card to the feds right after that.

Deadwood gave her a paid 'leave of absence' so now she gets paid for doing nothing.

Except takin' a fall for Iron Fist and his crew and keeping some serious secrets.

Of course they're paying her legal bills too.

I can't believe they get away with that shit but they do.

If I was a reporter I'd tear 'em a new one over that story.

I guess that made her the second Chief of Police that I'd end up takin' down in a row over this whole thing.

The Mole once pointed out that 'fucking with you doesn't seem to be a really good career move.'

We shared a good laugh over that one.

I was makin' enemies there almost as fast as I'm known to make friends.

And I was using the enemies of my enemy pretty effectively too.

That's why I'd reached out to Congressman Bobby Rush.

Krista'd made the introduction.

I'd read that when Rush was first elected to Congress that Iron Fist was pretty pissed off that now a black man would be representing Deadwood in Congress.

He was quoted in the newspapers saying that he wanted to secceed from the congressional district because 'there was no way that that man could represent the white ethnics of Deadwood.'

That comment really pissed off Congressman Rush and I don't think he ever forgot it.

Or forgave it.

I remember thinking 'this guy will really be a help in nailing Iron Fist to the cross' and I was right.

Congressman Rush and I are not the kind of guys who you'd ever accuse of seeing 'eye to eye' politically but we had a common enemy in Iron Fist and that's all it takes in Illinois politics... or politics in general to gain a strong ally.

I remember the Congressman pulling me out of a big meeting saying that he wanted me to get in front of the cameras with him and talk to the press.

Right after he'd given the best political speech I've ever had the great pleasure to witness.

I'm telling you I swear he channeled the spirit of a baptist preacher from the deep south of the seventies on that one.

I think the Congressman wanted Iron Fist to see him with his arm around me there smiling.

Kinda like twisting the knife if you know what I mean.

I also remember the Fox News reporter with that tight sweater and the most amazing pair of tits I'd ever seen...

I thought it was pretty funny that I'm standing next to a Congressman with about a half a dozen tv cameras in my face blowin' the lid on Iron Fist and his dirty and despicable deeds and I can't take my eyes off of this woman's rack.

I'm usually not like that...

but damn... the combination of that sweater and her upper body were a work of freakin' art...

a thing of incredible beauty.

That moment was the closest I'd ever come to feeling a woman up on live tv.

I'm glad the Congressman did most of the talking.

When I watched myself on tv that night I looked like a really honest guy lookin' right into the camera like that.

Only me and God knew where I was really looking though.

And I blame the whole thing on God anyway.

That was not the work of some plastic surgeon...

and if it was, then it was God that gave him that talent...

so I still blame God and I think he'd be honored that I do.

I felt like dirt for thinkin' that way there though.

Iron Fist and his shenanigans killed people.

Innocent people that had no idea that they were drinking that cancer water.

There were so many people with cancer there at that meeting.

I shook their hands and I hugged them.

I looked into their eyes and I listened to their stories.

And it all got me even more pissed off at what those assholes did.

Yeah... there was a certain selfish satisfaction in the imminent crucifiction of the people who'd hurt my family...

but more and more I was beginning to find myself taking up the crusade to bring these guys to justice not just for what they'd done to me and my family...

but for what they'd done to the people that trusted them.

They had to pay for what they'd done and it seemed like I was the only one with the balls and the motivation and the understanding of the situation to keep driving them towards justice.

And now I had some powerful people on my side.

Rush had called Eric Holder, the US Attorney General from the meeting and told him what was going on.

Shit was getting stirred up alright.

I was excited.

I'd seen enough in that parking lot and in the days after to know that they were soul-less and corrupt and I wanted to show everyone that.

I wanted revenge ever since that night.

There was a battle going on inside of my soul by this time.

And I found myself slowly letting the whole concept of revenge go.

More than anything...

I really wanted justice.

And I wanted it for the frail thirty eight year old woman I'd just hugged who had cancer all over her body and was sick right there from all of the chemo...

I wanted justice for her.

They had no right to do that to another human being.

Iron Fist and his whole crew hadda go down for this.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

An Early Fall

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:17:27 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

I've never understood why the Illinois EPA and the Feds keep claiming that the officials in Deadwood 'only' used 'as little' as ten or twenty percent contaminated well water to mix with pure city water to provide the final mix of drinking water that the residents of Deadwood drank.

The media never questions those numbers or the government's methodology in coming up with them.

I'm telling you it's bullshit.

It's a snowjob.

'Drink your kool-aid and quit askin' so many questions.'

I was there from the beginning and I've seen it every step of the way.

Krista and I gave them documents that appeared to show that the numbers were often much higher than that.

But the government would 'average' the numbers to get them lower and it just didn't make sense to me.

When I scored these documents from the IEPA a lightbulb went off.

Whenever Deadwood used the contaminated well to provide any more than about thirty percent of the total drinking water for the village they were sucking water from the Cal Sag Canal.

Even at the twenty percent they admitted it looks like that canal water was making its way down people's throats and cooking up their macaroni and cheese.

Take a look at the first document I posted below... maybe you can figure it out.

The chemical everyone talks about in the well... vinyl chloride... that doesn't really have a scary sounding name as chemicals go... vinyl might be scary in the fashion world... and 'chloride' is something you find in table salt...

but vinyl chloride's some terrible stuff when it gets into the human body.

Just google it.

The smorgasboard of chemicals that are sitting in the bottom of that canal... that's some very scary stuff.

'Today, sediments on the river bottom are "among the most contaminated and toxic that have ever been reported." Only sludge worms inhabit the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, indicating that severe pollution exists. The Grand Calumet suffers from contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals, such as mercury, cadmium, chromium and lead. Additional problems include high fecal coliform bacteria levels, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids, oil and grease. These contaminants originate from both point and nonpoint sources.'

This shit makes the chemical in the Erin Brakovich story, hexavalent chromium, look like baby aspirin!

You don't wanna be drinkin water with that stuff in it.

You don't want your children drinking that water.

You don't even want your dog drinking that water.

I wouldn't even water my houseplants with it.

And the people of Deadwood were doing all of that.

And they were doing it for more than twenty years.

It's the cocktail of chemicals in that canal that's being completely ignored by the government in this case.

How come I can figure it out and I'm just a street photographer?

Why aren't the government scientists even discussing the possibility that the people of Deadwood drank this stuff for more than twenty years?

It's not because Iron Fist has the kinda power to keep that secret.

It's because the Illinois EPA and the Federal Government don't want people to know it.

Because if you knew that you'd know just how inept or corrupt those organizations really are.

You'd know just how much they fucked up.

That's why I don't think that they want you to know.

They were supposed to be looking out for us.

Instead, they let unsuspecting people drink death-water for a long time.

They messed up and people are getting sick because of it.

They just don't want you to know how much they messed up.

But Viewminder knows it.

And Viewminder knows what it means.

The people gotta demand that the government come clean in this case.

The people are going to have to fight for the truth.

They shouldn't... but that's how it's gonna be.

All of the documents below come from the Illinois EPA.

Their own documents appear to show that water from the Cal Sag Canal was finding its way into that well that was being 'secretly' used and that shitwater was coming out of the faucets of the residents of Deadwood.

In order to know the extent of it we need to know how much water that Iron Fist's scheme was pumping out of that well.

And from what I've seen and experienced so far, the only thing the government is doing is obscuring the truth.

It seems pretty easy to me... how much city water did they buy in the years they used the contaminated well... and how much city water are they buying now, after the IEPA destroyed the evidence... I mean the contaminated well?

The difference between those two numbers is pretty much gonna be your answer.

But that must be either too logical or too easy.

Children in Deadwood are dying.

And they're dying from afflictions that are more likely to be from that canal water than the vinyl chloride that found its way into Municipal Well Number One.

The government says that 'incidental contact' with that canal water is dangerous... just being splashed by it is bad for you.

But the people of Deadwood were showering in it, drinking with it and cooking with it.

It wasn't even treated with anything more than random and farsically inadequate doses of chlorine.

There's one thing for certain.

While the government fell asleep at the wheel, the people of Deadwood were drinking a deadly cocktail of chemicals every night before they went to bed.

And they were showering in it every morning when they woke up... letting it cover their skin... breathing in the volatile vapors that 'steamed' out of it.

And the whole thing started when they charged my wife with child endangerment and tried to take my daughter away from us.

While they were poisoning all of the children in Deadwood.

We are never going to see the truth unless we demand it.

The only thing we're gonna see if we do nothing is a couple of low level water department clerks go to prison.

A 'fall guy' and a 'fall girl.'

A couple of 'heads on a platter' to calm down the masses and make it look like the government gave a shit.

Yeah... they lied on the paperwork... but there's people who hold a lot more responsibility for this who are just gonna skate on it.

I waited almost three years to see what the feds were gonna do.

And then they indict a couple of clerks?

For lying to them?

They could give a shit about you and your family being poisoned.

They don't care that thousands of people have been made into 'lab rats' by the political schemes of Iron Fist and his gang.

They're offended because they got lied to.

I didn't wanna hafta be the guy driving this thing.

But you know what?

Those people deserve the truth.

We all deserve the truth.

And we're not gonna get anything close to the truth unless we fight for it.

If we do nothing, we're never gonna know anything.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

Breakfast with The Mole

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:39:41 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Iron Fist wanted to put an end to the fued that he'd felt I'd started.

He knew how to play 'the game.'

Shit... he'd probably tell you that he owned 'the game' or that he invented it.

That wouldn't be an entirely inaccurate statement either.

The guy was smart and he didn't just have an iron fist, he had the brass tacks too.

I really hadda give him credit.

Sometimes I even admired him.

He called The Mole up one day outta the blue and told him to meet him at his favorite breakfast joint... The Counry Home... the one where NPR interviewed him when he announced his retirement.

Before he installed his idiot son as the new CEO of the 'family business.'

That's how he ran the place.

Like a business.

He told all the reporters that.

He was proud of it.

And even though Iron Fist had been runnin' the place for thirty-eight years... without ever having gotten a single 'no' vote from the trustees... Iron Fist knew it was time to call it quits.

The problem was that there were secrets to be kept.

Lots of 'em.

Secrets that could get a guy thrown in prison for a long time.

It wasn't like Iron Fist coudda just walked away from it all.

He'd have been indicted as soon as the next regime had a chance to look at all of the paperwork.

So Iron Fist retired with a year left of his term and he put his kid in his place.

It was classic 'Southside of Chicago politics.'

When NPR interviewed him over breakfast the reporter asked some of the locals how they felt about his plan to make his kid the next mayor.

The concensus was that as long as the tax rebates Iron Fist was famous for kept coming everybody was cool with it.

Nobody wanted to say anything that'd rock 'the money boat.'

Those tax rebates were the source of most of his political power and the thing that made him legend.

That and the really cheap water they sold the residents.

Water that Iron Fist boasted on more than one occasion was 'good to taste but not to waste.'

In the village newsletter in June of 2001... when he knew damn well that the people of Deadwood were drinking his death water, right next to a smiling picture of himself, Iron Fist wrote "we can save you a lot of time by saying that Deadwood water has passed all the tests prescribed by the EPA during the past year...the results were very favorable, and we have safe drinking water.”

He lied through his teeth and nothin's ever gonna happen to him because of it.

Because obviously, Americans, at least the one's in Illinois and particularly in Deadwood... they don't have a problem with their politicians lying and poisoning babies.

But when the Chinese sold contaminated milk we sure judged them for it.

At least the Chinese executed the assholes that killed those babies.

All of the trustees in Deadwood went along with Iron Fist's plan to make his son mayor... just like they always did.

They were just a bunch of 'rubber stamps.'

Iron Fist always got his way.

Always.

The Kid would be the 'keeper of the secrets' now.

He'd been in power for a few months now and I don't think he really even wanted the job.

But the secrets had to be kept and Iron Fist insisted that The Kid was the man to make sure of it.

The Kid had some big shoes to fill.

I don't think he ever had a chance.

You gotta earn respect... you can't 'inherit' it.

It just don't work that way.

The Kid was only mayor for a short time before I blew into town... and began blowing the town up around him.

Hey... I didn't start this shit.

Not by a long shot.

They fucked with my family... my wife and my kids.

All I wanted was for them to do the right thing... to drop the charges and to apologize to my family.

That's all I ever asked for.

My attorney hated when I'd say that... he reminded me often 'I don't work for apologies.'

I reached out to another mayor that I knew and asked him for advice.

He told me he woudda brought me into his office... along with the cops that arrested my wife and abandoned my kids... he'd have shut the door and dressed down those cops somethin' fierce right in front of me.

But then just like Iron Fist, he'd earned the position... unlike The Kid who was just given the office.

The Kid was an idiot... he couldn't see the writing in the wall even if it was writ large.

The Old Man... he knew better.

Politically he had this 'extra sensory perception.'

He knew that 'the problem' wasn't gonna go away.

The story was in newspapers in Africa for godssake.

The BBC was callin'.

It was time for Iron Fist to cool things off and put on the 'velvet gloves.'

He knew I was fishin' around town about the water...

the 'dirty little secret' that he wanted to keep hidden the most...

the one that could put him away for the rest of his life.

Iron Fist mighta been a 'simple guy' but he was too rich to spend his last days in federal prison.

He had a lot of money to spend and his days on earth were numbered.

Nobody doubted that he had the dough to buy his way outta anything.

Even a federal indictment.

Iron Fist wanted this shit to stop.

And he wanted it to stop now.

He'd worked too hard for his entire life to get rich.

I think he wanted to enjoy it... not deal with some woman's pissed off husband who his goons had arrested in some dark parking lot.

Iron Fist could see the writing on the wall... even if it was written in invisible ink.

When The Mole got to the restaraunt Iron Fist was sittin' at his favorite table.

'Siddown' he said... and old Iron Fist got right down to business.

That's the kinda guy he was.

Screw the pleasantries.

He said that he wanted 'the problem' to go away.

I was the problem.

He told The Mole to tell me that he was sorry for what they did to my family in that parking lot at the Superstore.

He said that things went too far.

Iron Fist said he was a family man and he really felt bad about it.

'The problem is' he told The Mole, 'if I apologize publicly to the guy he's gonna sue our pants off.'

He knew that The Mole and I were hooked up.

He knew that The Mole was a good friend of my Godfather.

And The Mole was more than a little nervous about being invited to breakfast with him because of it.

Iron Fist told The Mole to have me call him and he slid a piece of paper across the table with his cell phone number on it.

He was reaching out to me.

It was time to make a deal.

He wanted for us to meet.

Without lawyers or anything.

Man to man.

Everybody knew that The Kid wasn't runnin' the place.

He wasn't capable of it.

He didn't have the moxy that Iron Fist had and he never would.

The Kid was Iron Fist's puppet and this meeting proved it.

Iron Fist never let go of the reins.

He couldn't.

He had the experience to see that the wagon woudda gone out of control as soon as he did.

The Mole promised Iron Fist that he'd give me his number and tell me that the Fist was reachin' out... 'holding out the old olive branch.'

He wanted to make peace.

It's just that he didnt wanna hafta write out a check to do it.

With that piece of business over The Mole and Iron Fist started talking about old times.

It didn't take long for the subject to turn on the water.

Iron Fist layed it out to The Mole...

'I'm tired of those bastards (the EPA) comin' into my town and tellin' me what to do' he said... as if The Mole would understand the audacity of it all.

'Do you know what they wanted me to do' he asked The Mole.

'They wanted me to build some bubbler thing that woudda cost two hundred and fifty grand.'

Iron Fist was referring to a bubble aeration system... a device that would have eliminated the volatile chemicals from the well water and kept the people from being poisoned by it.

The whole concept infuriated him... someone else coming into 'his town' and telling him what to do was inconceivable to the old man.

Building that bubbler system that woudda got the vinyl chloride out of the drinking water would have added twenty bucks per resident to the water costs and Iron Fist just couldn't accept that.

Twenty bucks per person... a one time cost.

It wasn't like the village didn't have the money.

Shit... Iron Fist coudda paid for it with money he found in the back of his couch cushions... he gave his old college a million bucks to get his name put on a building there.

The money wasn't a problem at all.

Iron Fist just didn't like being told what to do.

What the Mole told me after the breakfast meeting raised my eyebrows.

If the EPA didn't know that the village was using the contaminated well to provide drinking water for the city then why would they even be discussing the aeration system with Iron Fist?

The EPA knew Iron Fist was tapping that well all along.

They'd been in bed together for a long time.

The documents that told me that came from their own files.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

Alone in the Middle

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:20:11 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Your government's let you down.

They were supposed to protect you from this kind of shit.

They were supposed to be there to make sure that the water that comes out of your faucet when you open it up was safe.

There's supposed to be an absolute relationship of trust there.

At the very least they fell asleep on the job.

I have no evidence to indicate that the officials at the Illinois EPA were anything but incompetent.

Except that scary phone call with Saavu.

And the way they seemed to always try to minimize what the officials in Deadwood did.

No one's accused them of taking bribes to look the other way.

No one's said they benefitted in any way from letting the people in that town drink poison 'slow death' water for over twenty years.

They were supposed to be looking out for you and your families.

As taxpayers we paid them billions of dollars that year to do just that.

I know that they've obfuscated the truth... I know they're a part of the coverup.

I knew that I couldn't trust them to do the right thing.

What I saw when the dust had settled after the intial story'd broke was a bunch of lame ass paperpushers looking out for themselves... trying to save their jobs... covering their own asses.

They weren't even pointing fingers... they were hiding their faces behind file folders and studies.

It was enough to make me sick.

It took me months to get them to do anything... and they only did that after we gave all the documents to an environmental reporter with one of the big newspapers and he had the balls to run with the story.

It was front page news.

A mayor who was once called 'America's Best Small Town Mayor' was at the top of a racket that was intentionally using a well, known to be contaminated to provide drinking water for the citizens of the town he ran.

He'd been doing it for more than twenty years.

And he ran that town with an 'iron fist.'

He'd said it himself.

It was a case of 'absolute power.'

A case of 'absolute corruption.'

'I know every curb, every sidewalk, every stormwater drain. I know all the dikes' he once boasted to a reporter... 'I built most of them.'

Old 'Iron Fist' knew that the residents of that town were being slowly poisoned by the shitwater coming out of Municipal Well Number 1.

He just didn't care.

He was the king and that water was good enough for the serfs to drink.

It was good to be 'Iron Fist.'

He knew everything... and he didn't believe those idiot scientists for a minute when they warned that really bad stuff could happen to people that drank that water.

Iron Fist knew better than all of them.

He always did.

He was always telling The Fall Guy to use more of it.

'Open up that godamn well and keep it open.'

Iron Fist knew exactly what was going on.

It's not the vinyl chloride that's the real boogie-monster in the water.

That shit's bad enough and it'll do horrible things to you.

It's an industrial solvent and it has no business in the human body.

That motherfucker deserves the death penalty if you ask me.

And the US Attorney doesn't even idict him?

He indicts the poor suckers who cowered underneath King Iron Fist for all of those years doing exactly what Iron Fist told them to do... and he calls Iron Fist 'Public Official A' in the federal indictment itself.

Didn't even have the balls to name him publicly... to shame him even?

They say Iron Fist's not fit for trial... he's too old... he's got Parkinsons disease and 'mild dementia'... he can't even participate in his own defense.

Even though I heard he just got his drivers license renewed.

He's gonna skate.

Enjoy his riches and retirement down in Boca Raton.

While someone's watching their mother die of cancer a pool of her own vomit in Deadwood.

There's not going to be justice here.

Your government doesn't want that.

You know why?

Iron Fist's got them by the balls as much as I had all those guys by the balls.

When the truth comes out... and I've already taken all of the steps to make sure that happens... you're gonna be looking at incompetence and corruption the likes of which will sicken everyone who's not already sick from drinking water from that contaminated well.

Iron Fist getting taken down would mean the government demonstrating all of the ways they failed us.

If I don't blow into a breathalyzer when they haul my ass down to the police station I'm gonna get arrested for DUI (Driving Under the Influence).

The government has no qualms about presuming I've been drinking if I don't blow into that tester... they'll 'presume' me to be a danger to the public and they'll charge me in a second... even if I don't give them any evidence.

But Deadwood avoided testing their municipal water supply for all those years by lying to the Illinois EPA and the US EPA about where it came from.

And Deadwood has the nerve to send out press releases saying that there was never any evidence of dangerous contamination in the water!

Because they made sure there was no evidence!

They NEVER TESTED that shitwater for any of the contaminants likely to be in it.

You ain't gonna find evidence of an invisible chemical you ain't looking for... unless people start dying unexplainably.

And the government itself makes sure at every juncture to say that there's no evidence that the water was dangerous.

Bullshit.

These people are fucking clowns.

That well was just over eight hundred feet away from the Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Scientists say it's one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world.

There are signs there that say 'incidental contact with this water may be dangerous.'

The government mandated that they be posted!

Forget vinyl chloride and hexa haka whatever that they're talking about in that well...

Those people were drinking water out of that canal for years.

Deadwood was bustin' at the seams with dirty little secrets.

That's just one dirty little secret even the fed seems to want covered up.

They can't even dredge the canal because the sediment on the bottom is so toxic that they'd have to dump it in a toxic waste dump and that'd cost a flippin' fortune.

Nobody talks about that.

But I know why the government is so stuck on saying things like 'only' twenty percent of the towns water came from the contaminated well... which is bullshit and Krista's got the documents to prove it...

because geologists have created a map that shows what's called the well's 'zone of influence.'

And on that map there are these circles that go around the well at various intervals... like elevation lines on a topographic map.

Each of those circles represents how far the water'd come from that got sucked into that well based on how many gallons were drawn from the well itself.

And if you go to the third circle... the circle that represents the 'zone of influence' for the well if it was providing thirty percent or more of the drinking water for the town... the Sanitary and Ship Canal goes right through it.

The people of that town were drinking untreated canal water from the most toxic body of water in the world for years.

And the state and federal government have no interest in that little factoid ever reaching the light of day.

Yeah... they'll indict a couple of clerks who had absolutely nothing more to gain from using the contaminated well than keeping their jobs... they'll make sure that they go to prison for 'lying to the government'.

But the government itself is lying to you.

Big time.

But it's not a crime for the government to lie to you and me.

It's only a crime if we lie to them.

Kind of a built in to the system 'double standard.'

I don't want to bore you to death with examples but this one's so stupid I couldn't believe it when I heard some doctors from the Center's for Disease Control (CDC) say it.

I was at a meeting with Congressman Bobby Rush and he heard it too.

The CDC was ordered to study the cancer rates in the town.

Congressman Rush, a cancer survivor himself, wanted to see if the rates of cancer would be found to be elevated.

So the CDC was gonna get the statistics... and I pestered them on how they might do it.

I'd seen so much incompetence already that I presumed the worst from the beginning.

'Easy' the idiot from the CDC said 'doctors report newly diagnosed cases of cancer to the health department.'

That sounded good but I bothered him more about the methods that they'd use.

'The cases are reported by zip code' he said.

'Deadwood shares a zipcode with two other towns' I replied.

Two other towns that don't drink the water from the contaminated well.

The results would have been useless.

I could see that.

The CDC couldn't.

I told 'em that since the US Census was coming up maybe they could have the Census people... who'd be knocking on every door in the town of twelve thousand... ask a few more questions...

like 'do you or anyone who's ever lived here have cancer.'

They just gave me dumb looks.

No study would have been perfect... but at every turn the government seemed to obstruct the truth from being learned.

The truth is that the government agency that was supposed to protect us from this bullshit didn't.

Where's their trial?

Where's their judgement?

I doubt anyone at the Illinois EPA even got a sternly worded letter in their personnel file.

They messed up.

They let us all down bigtime.

And the people are gonna pay for it.

The CDC study said that cancer rates in the town were 'significantly elevated.'

But the government can't attribute that to the poisoned well.

It's freaking criminal incompetence.

Here's a good one for you government officials.

I found in my research on the internet that fish enthusiasts in town were talking since the mid nineties about how they couldn't keep tropical fish alive in their fish tanks in Deadwood.

Especially the fish in saltwater fish tanks.

Fishtanks filled with water from their faucets.

The fish hobbyists would test the water for nitrates and it was really high.

They couldn't understand why.

Nitrates shouldn't have been in that water at all.

They even published the nitrate levels on their forums.

You could see the numbers from fifteen years ago.

Unless you work for the government.

Then you couldn't see the truth if you ran right into it.

They were using a lot more than twenty percent contaminated water in their deadly blend of toxic tapwater.

There's a multitude of ways to figure it out.

But the government doesn't want you to know just how much.

Because that would show us all how much they failed us.

They'll just charge a couple of clerks with 23 felonies apiece and call it quits.

It looks like they did something that way.

You'll never know the truth.

Not the whole truth.

In the first trial of this whole affair my attorney was getting frustrated with the amount of information I would give him.

I was overwhelming the poor guy with my facts.

'It's the truth... that's reality' I'd say.

Finally he layed it out to me... 'look man... a trial has nothing to do with reality' he said.

I thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard an attorney say.

Time and watching that trial would prove me wrong.

That dude was brilliant.

Everyday the light of the truth is getting dimmer.

And everyday Iron Fist is sittin' down poolside in Boca Raton gettin' away with murder.

We're all suckers.

They say that we get the government that we deserve.

It's always hard to imagine that the people of Deadwood deserved this.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

The Tunnel at the End of the Light

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:59:09 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Have you ever been the sole possessor of information that could have a bunch of people put into prison for a very long time?

Psychologically it's not a very good place to find yourself.

After a while you start feeling kinda like you're walking around with 'bullseyes' all over yourself.

You realize that for a good number of people, life would be a lot easier if you were dead.

Once you come to that magnificently charming realization the next thing you gotta do is make it so that if anything happens to you, that the information isn't gonna die withya.

Then ya gotta get that out there to the people who might want you dead.

It's 'life insurance.'

The kind that keeps you alive.

It's better than the kind that pays off when you're dead... that should be called 'death insurance.'

I'd found myself right in the middle of this treachery one day and I didn't like it one bit.

One night as I was unlocking the front door of my house I wondered... if I took a bullet right now to the back of the head... would I feel it?

Would I hear it?

Would I see for a second blood and gore and pieces of my brains splattered on the front door in front of me before 'the lights went out?'

Would that moment be like when you turned off an old TV and the whole picture seemed to shrink down quickly to one tiny dot of light and then vanish?

What I knew scared me.

I'd been told enough times to watch my back.

That I knew who I was dealing with was scary enough... but as the scandal grew to incorporate more and more players who's names and faces I didn't know...

Man.

You couldn't know what it's like unless you've been there.

And my friend... you're gonna help me out right now.

There's only one last piece of the puzzle that I haven't shared with anyone.

And I'm going to share it with you.

Right here and right now.

Right here on flickr.

I've been avoiding the media for a couple of days now.

I really don't wanna be talkin' about this stuff on TV anymore.

The life I live 'behind the camera' is the one I really prefer.

There was one moment in the whole stinking rotten episode that scared the living shit out of me.

It made me drop the phone and it left me speechless and feeling pretty vulnerable.

After I'd figured out their dirty little secret I hadda figure out who in the hell I could tell about what they were doing... who could I tell that would do something?

I found out that the people who are supposed to make sure that water that we drink is clean and pure in this state is the Illinios Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).

On some of the documents that Krista and I had obtained through FOIA requests that she'd made there was the name of a guy at the IEPA.

I figured I'd start there.

Jesus I can barely type right now just recalling those moments.

The guy's name was Saavu.

It looked like he'd been sent out there to test the water supply a couple of times and it seemed like he might be a little familiar with the setup and the goin's on there.

I thought maybe I could trust him.

The first time I got him on the phone he sounded kinda funny.

You know I just couldn't put my finger on it but his demeanor was kind of odd.

When I told him the story he assured me that he knew what was going on and that they weren't doing anything wrong.

'Maybe he just didn't get it' I thought... maybe he just needed to see the documents we'd found.

Still... I figured he was the guy who could help bring all of this to light.

I guess I really didn't know the true meaning of the word 'treachery' but I was about to learn it real fast.

And it was gonna be a tough lesson at that.

I told Saavu that I had lots more information... and I told him I'd get back to him.

There were about six or seven more phone calls and I just couldn't understand why the guy from the IEPA was seeming to defend what these guys were doing.

Even I knew it was fucking murder... but Saavu just seemed to keep brushing it off.

I couldn't understand it.

The very last time I called the IEPA I was starting to get frustrated and a little pissed off.

Imagine calling 911 to tell them your house is on fire and they say 'we don't believe you... call back when you have proof.'

Yeah.

That's how I was feelin' here.

But things were about to take a dramatic turn my friend.

A very dark turn.

I figured out a few more things... and I thought I'd give Saavu one more call...

Maybe there was a little anger in my voice... maybe I sounded different to the receptionist...

When I asked for Saavu she said 'hold on a minute Joe.'

Joe isn't my name.

But it is the name of The Fall Guy... the guy who ran the water operation in town.

It also happened to be the name of The Snake... the guy everybody hated... The Old Man's head henchman... the one everybody figured was working with the feds first.

I was on hold before I could correct her.

When Saavu picked up the phone he sounded almost breathless.

'Joe' he said 'that guy keeps calling about the well.'

My jaw dropped and the phone fell to the floor.

I was scared shitless.

This was all getting way too crazy... I mean... it seemed insane is what it seemed.

Corruption makes for some strange bedfellows.

And you dear reader are the first I'm making this public to.

I've never even told the media.

I waited almost three years to see what the feds were gonna do.

When I realized they weren't going to do anything but indict a couple of lowly water department clerks and that they showed no interest in getting down to the truth about what happened in Deadwood... well... I figured I'd come clean right here to you.

I don't want to be the holder of this secret anymore.

You're gonna hold it with me.

The Illinois EPA was in on it.

The Illinois EPA was a part of the coverup.

Fucking bastards.

I couldn't trust anyone.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

It Was Supposed to be Pure

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:58:04 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

They knew that the water was deadly.

And they still let mothers come home from the hospital with their newborn babies and mix that water with formula.

They let school children drink it.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

It was their 'dirty little secret.'

They knew that a cancer causing chemical called vinyl chloride had contaminated the well because the Environmental Protection Agency had told them that in a letter 1986.

I knew there was deadlier stuff in the water before I'd even seen that letter.

That letter was the 'smoking gun' that I held in my hands.

I couldn't believe that we'd found it.

My hands were trembling as I read it.

We also had the letter that they wrote back to the EPA that year... the one where they said they weren't going to use that well anymore.

I had those fuckers.

And I had 'em good.

They were right in the 'crosshairs' now.

Justice was a comin'.

And it looked like justice would be comin' on an express train.

It was just a matter of figuring out who I could get to pull the trigger.

I'd sent 'em a letter... the one the judge would 'compliment' me on later... after he had to black out the entire body of that letter to not 'inflame' the jury... when we all had to go back into his chambers he'd said something like 'Mr. Minder... in all my life as a judge I have never seen a more obnoxious letter written to a public official.'

It was hard for me to hide my pride right at that moment.

I didn't really want His Honor to see me beaming.

I think the judge was referring to the part where I told the Chief of Police that 'I've got your nuts in a nutcracker and I'm gonna keep on squeezing them unless you do the right thing.'

I think I mighta said something about them 'popping' too.

It's too bad the jury couldn't have read that.

I think they would have got a kick out of it.

Trials are such serious business.

The jury really looked like they needed something to wake them up.

Freakin' letter nearly got me charged with 'witness tampering' and blackmail... even I knew it was pretty close to the edge of reason.

It's just that I've always been one to 'push it' you know?

I'd always found that when you're tormenting your adversary that getting them to visualize what ultimately was gonna happen to them long before it happened would kinda fuck with their heads.

Two books really helped me to defeat these guys... Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' and the US Army Special Forces 'Guide to Psychological Operations.'

Sun Tzu was the master of 'the nutcracker.'

I just never figured when I wrote the damn letter that the 'nutcracker' was gonna be about sixteen federal agents storming the place.

Since then I've learned a little about taking down corrupt politicians... it's a lot like playing pool... it's all about the angles.

And you gotta have balls.

Lots of them.

There's no telling how many documents they'd shredded in the days and nights before the feds raided the place and walked away with sixteen big boxes of their records.

Somehow I'd figured that they'd been tipped off... they knew that the raid was coming.

I was tipped off and I don't even throw big fundraising dinners for the Attorney General.

That's how I got to be leaning on the side of my pickup truck smoking a cigarette across the street from the water department when the raid went down.

I wanted them to see me see them get their asses handed to them on a platter.

I was there to see the 'perp walk' and I'd even brought my camera.

The feds brought a bunch of guys in those blue windbreakers that said 'Federal Agent' or 'FBI' or 'EPA' on them.

I think they wear them so they don't shoot each other.

They also brought a Blackhawk helicopter.

I think that was just for 'effect.'

Nothing says you're about to get your ass kicked like a Blackhawk helicopter hovering over your office really low... and that cool helicopter goin' 'thumpety thump thump' overhead just added so much atmosphere to the whole shebang.

It was a little 'shock and awe.'

It felt really good to watch.

I mean... I had a score to settle... I'd told them that... I told them that if they didn't do right that I would take them down.

I told 'em that I'd 'make it my hobby.'

I taunted them with it.

This was personal.

They fucked with the wrong guy's family.

And there I was... leanin' on my truck smokin' that cigarette right in front of their office when it was 'showtime.'

I felt like such a badass.

And man... that helicopter was so cool.

It was like a bonus just for me I thought... because I love that shit.

What a show!

I didn't know until the news reporters pulled up that I'd just witnessed history.

A television reporter told me that this was the first time that the EPA had ever executed a search warrant on another government office.

But then the whole scandal was one of epic proportions.

This was the biggest intentional poisoning of people ever perpetrated in the United States.

That whole 'indian blanket smallpox genocide episode' doesn't count because the British did that and it really wasn't the United States yet.

Someone told me that the lights at Village Hall were on late into the night for the three nights previous to the raid.

I have no doubt that they were havin' a shreddin' party.

It was too late for them to hide what they'd done now.

Krista and I had our own box of documents.

Documents that Krista'd obtained by sending a bunch of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to both the city and the EPA.

They knew the hammer was about to drop on 'em.

They had plenty of warning,

The Mole and I knew who the fall guy was gonna be long before the raid had even taken place.

We made sure that The Fall Guy had gotten the message a few days before the FBI and the US EPA busted into the place.

The Mole told The Fall Guy what was coming down and he told The Fall Guy that he'd better start to copy the documents that exonnerated him and start to cover his own ass or he'd be the one going to prison for all of this.

When the feces hit the fan it was gonna be everyman for himself.

Panicked perpetrators would be cutting deals with the feds... jumpin' in front of each other to be the first one to get the deal made.

The Fall Guy was gonna need those documents really bad.

Supposedly he finished making his copies just before the raid.

I heard it was a full file box worth of documents that he'd made copies of.

The paranoia was soon justified when The Fall Guy said that he couldn't be sure... but that it looked like 'that' box of documents wasn't carted out during the raid.

It appeared that the entire box had dissapeared from the Water Department the night before.

This shit just kept getting deeper.

From the series 'There's Something in the Water' here on Flickr... www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/sets/72157627041317913...

C2E2 Close Up ~ The Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:19:30 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

It's an amazing show...

filled with artistry of all kinds...

the artists...

the people who made their own costumes...

the beautiful prints and posters.

The girls and I rocked C2E2 this weekend.

'We WILL be going to this next year right dad?'

Friday-Love! ~ Kevin Weinstein Edition

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:23:45 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Oh yeah.

Can you feel it?

Can you feel the Friday-Love?

I went to the Chicago Photographic Society's meeting last night at Calumet Camera on Goose Island and listened to photographer Kevin Weinstein talk about his adventures and misadventures in wedding photography.

I popped Kevin while he was talking about the difficulty of taking people's pictures without having them pose.

I like to think that I helped him to illustrate his point.

Gahd it's Friday.

I don't know about you but I'm definitely feelin' the Friday-Love!

I got some killer plans this weekend.

I'm gonna go to C2E2 with the girls and take some cool pictures.

You know I've always hadda thing for Princess Leia.

Then I'm gonna have some 'big people time.'

Hopefully with a hot girl dressed up like Slave Leia.

I hope you got some great plans this weekend.

It's springtime.

It's time to feel the love!

Friday-Love!

Scars on 45 covers Friday I'm In Love

Springtime Chicago ~ Puttin' on the Fingerless Gloves

nobody@flickr.com (Viewminder) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:00:24 -0700

Viewminder posted a photo:

Yeah.

We've done it.

We've survived another brutal Chicago winter.

It's feelin' like springtime.

There's a lotta love in the city right now.

It's always like 'we made it.... we did this together.'

Brotherly love.

Soon as the weather warms up we'll all get back to shootin' each other again.

Enjoy the love while it lasts.

You Can Never Hold Back Spring