Mrco Island "We're beginning to look like Key West around here."

Derelict vessels seem to be everywhere and recently Marco area residents have noted three abandoned sailboats in this area.

Capt. Jack Moran of SeaTow approached the one near Keywadin shortly after its grounding. He offered to pull the boat free and explained his fee.
The owner refused and tried to free it himself, but failed. Now, the boat will go into the legal process for removal.
"We can get them out of there, but it takes time and costs money," Moran said.
One person quipped, "We're beginning to look like Key West around here."
Mitts Mravic, a local resident and a lieutenant with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), said he would "like to say that we've got a good handle on" the abandoned and derelict vessel problem in our area.
We don't have a problem like Key West, but in addition to three sailboats aground in the waters near Marco, and two more boats aground near Goodland, there are currently 28 derelict vessels (DVs) in Collier County waters.
"Right now we have two in the criminal process," Mravic commented.
Most of the 28 DVs are small boats that have been derelict quite a while - partly because it has been impossible to identify the owners and partly because the system to remove them has not functioned efficiently.

Changes
But that is all changing as a result of new personnel as well as increased cooperation and coordination among the state, county and local governmental and law enforcement agencies.
Pamela Keyes began at the county Coastal Zone Management Department less than a year ago.
"She's made it possible for us to go back and take care of stuff (DVs) that's been there for years," Mravic explained.
Also, about six months ago, representatives from the FWC, the Collier County Sheriff's Office, Naples Police Department and Marco Police Department met to develop a process through which they would be able to work together on DVs.
Today, they all use the same procedure, communicating and coordinating on all cases.
When an officer on patrol discovers a possible DV, or when a call comes in to any one of the agencies reporting a possible DV, that agency takes the lead and the others support. An officer places an 8 ½-by-11-inch orange sticker on the boat, notifying the owner that the boat must be moved. That officer also notes VIN and other vessel identifiers.
If the owner is identifiable, a letter is sent to the owner, allowing 30 days to remove the boat. If the owner does not show diligent action toward removing the boat, the owner may be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor. Following final disposition of that legal action, the boat will be removed by the county at the owner's cost.
Here the law shows its teeth. If the owner does not pay for the removal, the Department of Motor Vehicles will be notified and the vessel owner will be prohibited from registering any vehicle in Florida - either sea going or land going, boat or car - until the costs for DV removal are paid.

Marine salvage
The Collier County Coastal Zone Management Department (CZMD) contracts with a marine salvage service to remove the boat. It will be taken to a marina, the engine removed, made environmentally sound, and disposed of - or possibly dismantled.
Mravic explained that the process takes time and can be drawn out by the defendant in court, or made difficult and slow if the owner is not easily identified.
"Sometimes, the boat has no identifiers on it. We can't track anything down."
He added that "some people remove the registration and cut the ID number off. Then, we work real hard because we know that guy intentionally did it."
Keyes expressed the two-fold objective of the CZMD as well as many residents' concerns regarding derelict boats.
"Not only are they an eyesore, but they are also a huge environmental problem."

Fantasy Fest Events 2007

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Annual survey finds Chicago is the most popular destination for Labor Day 2007

Asphalt Over Sand: Priceline.com Finds Labor Day Travelers Are More Attracted To Big Cities Than Beaches

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blame it on the recent rains, the storms, or maybe the sudden temperature dip in some parts of the U.S. Whatever the reason, big cities are out-polling the beaches in priceline.com’s (Nasdaq: PCLN) 5th annual survey of the 50 most-popular destinations for the upcoming Labor Day holiday.

To compile its list of the Top 50 Labor Day travel destinations, priceline.com looked at a sampling of more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the September 1-3, 2007 period. Because the survey is based on actual booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes its annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of Labor Day travel trends.

Priceline.com also said it still has plenty of last-minute airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises available for Labor Day getaways. Visit www.priceline.com for full details.

Chicago was the big winner in the Labor Day 2007 survey, with the Millennium Park and North Michigan Avenue areas coming in #1 and #2 in popularity. New York City followed up with the next 4 spots on the list for its Upper Midtown, Midtown East, Soho and Midtown West neighborhoods. Las Vegas and San Francisco neighborhoods rounded out the top 10 spots on the list.

Beach areas weren’t totally shut out on the list. San Diego took six spots on the list, the highest total of any individual city, while other areas making the list included Waikiki, Key West, Virginia Beach, Hilton Head and San Juan. For most Americans, Labor Day is a long weekend, so almost no overseas international destinations made the list, with the exception of London.

Destinations recording the biggest gains in popularity over 2006 include Jersey City (+20 spots to #23), St. Louis (+19 spots to #12), New York’s Midtown South area (+19 spots to #30) and San Diego’s East County (+14 spots to #18).

Priceline's Top 50 Destinations for Labor Day 2007

Rank 2007      Neighborhood                    Rank 2006  Yr/Yr Change

1              Chicago, Millennium Park,              2          +1
              Loop & Grant Park Area
2              Chicago, North Michigan Ave/           4          +2
              River North Area
3              NYC, Upper Midtown/Central Park South  1          -2
4              NYC, Midtown East                      7          +3
5              NYC, Downtown/Soho/Financial District  5           0
6              NYC, Midtown West                      6           0
7              Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity South        NA          NA
8              Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity              3          -5
9              San Francisco, Union Square West       12         +3
10             San Francisco, Union Square East,      11         +1
              Embarcadero
11             San Diego, Coastal Area                8          -3
12             St. Louis, Downtown                    31         +19
13             Boston, Copley Area                    15         +2
14             Seattle, Downtown                      9          -5
15             San Diego, Downtown & Harbor Island    13         -2
16             Vancouver                              14         -2
17             Boston, Downtown/Charlestown           16         -1
18             San Diego, East County                 32         +14
19             San Diego, Point Loma/Shelter Island/  21         +2
              Old Town
20             St. Catharines, Niagara Falls          19         -1
21             Montreal                               22         +1
22             San Antonio, Downtown/Riverwalk        17         -5
23             Jersey City                            43         +20
24             Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity North        NA          NA
25             Chicago, O'Hare Airport Vicinity       23         -2
26             Oahu, Waikiki Beach Area               NA          NA
27             Beverly Hills/West Hollywood           NA          NA
28             Philadelphia, Downtown                 34         +6
29             Las Vegas, Convention Center/UNLV      18         -11
30             NYC, Midtown South                     49         +19
31             Hollywood                              NA          NA
32             Orange County, Disneyland Area         26         -6
33             Austin, Downtown                       27         -6
34             Atlanta, Downtown                      NA          NA
35             San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf       NA          NA
36             Boston, Brighton/Brookline             35         -1
37             London, Mayfair/Soho                   NA          NA
38             Monterey/Pacific Grove                 36         -2
39             Oahu, Waikiki Marina Area              NA          NA
40             Virginia Beach                         30         -10
41             Markham (Ontario)                      37         -4
42             Washington, DC, White House/Downtown   33         -9
43             Toronto, Downtown                      24         -9
44             San Diego, Mission Valley              NA          NA
45             New Orleans, French Quarter            40         -5
46             San Diego, Coronado                    NA          NA
47             Orlando, Universal Studios/Sea World   38         -9
48             Key West                               NA          NA
49             Hilton Head                            47         -2
50             San Juan                               20         -30

NA - Did not appear on last year's list.

Obama's right on Cuba

The candidate's call to end the U.S. ban on travel and remittances to Cuba should go even further.

Los Angeles Time editorial
Saturday, August 25, 2007

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, determined to cast himself as the Democratic presidential candidate most open to new ideas on foreign policy, raised plenty of eyebrows recently when he proclaimed that he would be willing to meet personally with such rogue figures as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. But that was nothing compared with the opinion article he published Tuesday in the Miami Herald saying Cuban Americans should have unrestricted rights to travel and send remittances to the island.

The other Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who portrays herself as the experienced foreign policy realist next to Obama's cowboy diplomat, wasted no time in rejecting Obama's proposal. Her campaign released a statement saying the U.S. stance toward Cuba shouldn't be altered until a post-Castro regime cleans up its act. Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani, meanwhile, said Obama's plan would only strengthen Castro's oppressive government.

The astonishing thing here is that after the U.S. has tried for nearly 50 years to force a regime change in Cuba by way of economic embargo with no success whatsoever, Obama is one of the few presidential contenders who dares to suggest that it's time to try something different. Some might consider Obama's move courageous given the political power of Florida's Cuban American community, which helped put George W. Bush in the White House in 2000 and has cheered his efforts to tighten sanctions on Cuba. But the minority of Cuban immigrants who vote Democratic is deeply divided on the travel ban and would like to be able to send more money to relatives at home, so Obama may not be staking out such a bold position after all.

Regardless of the political implications, Obama is clearly right -- the only problem is, his proposal doesn't go far enough. The travel ban should be lifted for everybody, not just Cuban immigrants. It is the height of irony that Americans can freely travel to countries such as Venezuela and Iran, which represent genuine threats to our security and economic interests, but not to Cuba, whose government is a threat only to its own people.The ban has done nothing to weaken Castro, but it does keep U.S. tourist dollars out of the hands of Cubans, who might be less inclined to heed their regime's anti-U.S. propaganda if Americans were helping to raise their standard of living.

The U.S. shouldn't lift all economic sanctions on Cuba until the island's regime makes progress on democracy and human rights, but policies such as the travel ban and limits on remittances are simply counterproductive. Score one for Obama.

Gloria Estefan performs live in Key West

Artwork for the cover of Gloria Estefan's new CD "90 Millas." The Westin Key West is scheduled to be the broadcast site for a taped "Despierta America" television show that is to feature several songs sung by Gloria Estefan. "Despierta America" hosts Fernando Arau, left, and Raul Gonzalez, are to be in Key West Aug. 25 to videotape most of a three-hour show that is to air Monday, Sept. 17.

KEY WEST, Florida Keys – Latin diva Gloria Estefan is scheduled to perform several songs from her upcoming CD release, “90 Millas” (“90 Miles”), live in Key West Saturday, Aug. 25, during videotaping of Univision network’s “Despierta America” morning television show. According to "Despierta America" producers, the singer’s performance is to be a facet of the production from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sunset Pier at the Westin Key West Resort & Marina, 245 Front St. The public is invited to watch Estefan and the rest of the show for free. Key West is situated just 90 miles from the Cuban coast and on the CD Estefan revisits the Cuban music of her roots. Recorded entirely in Spanish and set for release Sept. 18, the 14-track set is led by the single "No Llores," (“Don’t Cry”) featuring guitarists Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano, and percussionist Sheila E. Hosting the show from Key West are to be Fernando Arau and Raul Gonzalez, two of the hosts from the morning show. “Despierta America” airs weekdays in South Florida on Channel 23 and is the Spanish-language broadcast version of such network morning shows as ABC’s “Good Morning America.” It also airs on 61 other Univision Television Group-owned television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets as well as Puerto Rico and on cable television in Mexico and some parts of South America. Producers have been coordinating with the Monroe County Tourist Development Council to facilitate the taping. The show is to air Monday, Sept. 17, from 7 to 10 a.m. Schooner Liberty, docked in Key West Harbor, and the Westin’s Sunset Key Guest Cottages are to be the backdrops for the show. Segments to be featured include performances by acts from Key West’s nightly Sunset Celebration, the Westin’s bartender creating a signature "Gloria" cocktail and a singing contest where aspiring artists take their turn at the microphone to belt out a famous Estefan tune. Additional segments focusing on Keys activities also are to be featured, including a visit to the Pirate Soul Museum, a kayak excursion with Lazy Dog Charters and a snuba session that combines scuba diving and snorkeling. The resort is to have food and beverages available for purchase by the audience during the taping. “Despierta America” is the second production of a network morning show in the Florida Keys this summer. On July 5, portions of the “The Early Show” were broadcast live on CBS to kick off that network morning show’s Great American Vacation series.

Who Givs a Crap News

The hospitality staff of the USA breath a collective sigh of relief....

Hotelier Leona Helmsley dies at 87

BY JOSEPH MALLIA

10:45 AM EDT, August 20, 2007

Billionaire hotel owner Leona Helmsley, who was nicknamed the "Queen of Mean" for her treatment of employees and who was jailed for tax evasion, died Monday at age 87 at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn.

The cause of death was heart failure, said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein.

She was notorious for a statement attributed to her during courtroom testimony, when a former housekeeper said she heard the hotelier say: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

Helmsley denied having said it, but the damage was done.

Years before her death her name and face had disappeared from advertisements and Web sites for Helmsley Enterprises, a Park Avenue company she ran with her late husband Harry. Its holdings included the Empire State Building and numerous hotels.

Leona Helmsley's latter-year obscurity came after years of derisive front-page stories that depicted her as a tyrant in the workplace.

She was tried in 1989 on tax evasion charges, and disgruntled employees testified that she terrorized both menial and executive help at her homes and hotels.

She was also the target of a gay discrimination suit brought in 2003 by an ex-hotel manager; a jury award of $10 million to the fired manager was later reduced to $554,000.

A Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans in September put her at #117, with a personal fortune of $2.5 billion.

Newsweek - link

All I can think of saying about this epitome of evil hotelier is, thank bloody god she never made it down here.

Kudos to 915 the fab restaurant on Duval St.

From Florida Keys online (link)

KEY WEST’S NINE ONE FIVE EARNS RAVE REVIEWS AT NEW YORK CITY CULINARY EVENT

Executive chef Chris Otten, right, has a conference with staff prior to dinner. Photos by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau Chris Otten positions finishing touches on Roasted Mango Tartlet desserts. Crispy Skin-on Yellowtail Snapper with Baby Beets and a Tarragon Aioli was one of several entrees. Chris Otten, left, nine one five restaurant owner Stuart Kemp address Beard Foundation patrons.

NEW YORK CITY -- Executive chef Chris Otten and owner Stuart Kemp, of Key West’s nine one five restaurant and wine bar, earned widespread accolades after showcasing their sophisticated, innovative cuisine for 80 members of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Thursday night. The nine one five team prepared a Key West seafood-themed dinner at the Beard House, an internationally recognized culinary center that was home to the late James Beard, chef, author and teacher widely acknowledged as the father of American cooking. The event was funded in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. An invitation to cook at Beard House has been called by food experts “the culinary equivalent of earning an Academy Award nomination.” For the hors d’oeuvres and five-course dinner required by Beard guidelines, Kemp and Otten chose their menu specifically to showcase the subtle, succulent flavors of local seafood. Dishes included crispy skin-on yellowtail snapper with a tarragon aioli, seared Key West grouper over parsnip puree, and butter-poached Florida Keys lobster with thinly sliced beef tenderloin. "It was incredible,” said Beard House maitre d’ Lauren Baladan following the dinner. “Everyone was raving about it.” Attendees included Peggy Katalinich, a member of the Beard Foundation and food director of Family Circle magazine. “The chef let the flavors come through,” said Katalinich, who recalled interviewing James Beard himself at the house years earlier. “He didn’t have to masquerade and hide the basic flavor.” During the dinner Kemp, a 19-year Key West resident who opened nine one five in 2003, oversaw service of the six wines that accompanied the dinner. Otten cited the excellent work of his team as a crucial factor in the dinner’s success. Surprisingly, he said, preparing the Beard dinner was less stressful than a typical night at the restaurant in Key West. “Within the restaurant, there’s so many more menu items and people come in at different times -- but this was all one menu that goes out at all one time,” he said. “The plating was very easy, we were all very organized and it went very smoothly.” One of Key West’s most highly acclaimed restaurants, nine one five is located in a restored Victorian mansion at 915 Duval Street. Standout offerings include flavorful tapas-style dishes, indigenous seafood prepared with a unique twist and an extensive wine list with an international flair. For more information on the restaurant click here.

Dean Update

Statement as of 5:00 am AST on August 15, 2007


...Dean moving quickly westward with little change in strength...

Interests in the Lesser Antilles should monitor the progress of
Dean.


For storm information specific to your area...including possible
inland watches and warnings...please monitor products issued
by your local weather office.


At 500 am AST...0900z...the center of Tropical Storm Dean was
located near latitude 12.2 north...longitude 44.2 west or about 1170
miles...1880 km...east of the Lesser Antilles.


Dean is moving toward the west near 18 mph...30 km/hr...and this
motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.


Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph...85 km/hr...with higher
gusts. Some strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours.


Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 50 miles...85 km
from the center.


Estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 mb...29.53 inches.


Repeating the 500 am AST position...12.2 N...44.2 W. Movement
toward...west near 18 mph. Maximum sustained winds...50 mph.
Minimum central pressure...1000 mb.


The next advisory will be issued by the National Hurricane Center at
1100 am AST.


$$
Forecaster Beven

Higgs Beach, Key West.

Someone needs to explain this to me. Higgs Beach, last time I checked, was/is a public beach. The current uproar over it is based on the fact that the local KWPD find it seemingly impossible to rid it of the bums and other assorted stinky folk from hanging there day and day out.

The mayor of Key West has figured that if the City takes over the beach/park it can be turned into an area for children and locals to use. This is his logic.

OK, point 1. It is a beach. It is already available for use by children and anyone else. The only reason they don't use it is due to the presence of the bums.

Point 2. The kids, already have a park, Astro Park, 25 feet from the beach which last time I was there is in perfect condition, all shiny and new looking. There are Boccie courts across from Astro for more adult type fun, and of course, the beach itself.

Point 3. Once the city has control of the beach, the same useless cops who cannot maintain a bum free zone now, will be attempting this apparently overwhelming task again.

And finally, this non event is going to cost the city (that means YOU!), approximately $500,000 PER YEAR!!! to maintain.

I am obviously missing something here. Why are we going to spend a half million bucks a year, on something that is already there and requires nothing more than a clean up, and bum removal?

I am sure that if a call was put out, any number of locals would be happy to show up with a paint can and scrubbing brushes to clean up the area, paint some new murals and generally give it a spruce.

The only thing preventing locals from utilizing this particular beach are the bums and the perverts which the Key West Police Department refuses to deal with. What do they spend their time doing?

They don't seem to ever arrest anyone for actual crimes, like mugging, robbery and other violent acts. They do spend an awful lot of time arresting inebriated locals attempting to get home, or strippers doing, well the things you expect from strippers.

How about they put on some of those nice purple gloves and do their bloody jobs at Higgs.

Who the F*ck is This Guy??

From the Perez Hilton Celbutard Site.....

Some People Don’t Do Drunk To Well

PerezHilton reader Hannah ran into Channing Tatum in Key West, Florida, this past weekend.And, ewwww. Ewww!!!

His drunk frat boy days are long gone. Boy is rusty. His sweat looks like piss and if he’s face was any more red, we’d swear we were looking at his asshole.

Speaking of Channing. What the heck happened?

Wasn’t he supposed to be the next big thing???

Too much drinky. Not enough box office!

Posted: August 13, 2007 at 11:24 am

White House aide Rove resigns.

Top White House aide Karl Rove, seen by many as the brains behind George W Bush's presidency, has said he will resign at the end of August.

"I just think it's time," Mr Rove said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, adding that he was quitting for the sake of his family.

Mr Rove has worked with Mr Bush since 1993 when he ran for Texas governor.

As Mr Bush's chief strategist, he is seen as instrumental in delivering election victories in 2000 and 2004.

There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family
Karl Rove

For this he is highly regarded by Republicans, but at the same time equally reviled by Democrats.

"Obviously, it's a big loss to us," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino told the Associated Press news agency. "He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed."

"He will continue to be one of the president's greatest friends," she added.

Mr Rove has been accused of underhand political tactics since his teenage years.

As a student, he invited Chicago vagrants to turn up for free beer at a plush reception for a Democrat state candidate - an incident he later described as a "youthful prank" that he regretted.

He has continued to be dogged by controversy.

Last month, the US Senate issued a subpoena against him as part of an investigation into the sacking of eight federal prosecutors, but Mr Bush ordered him not to testify, citing executive privilege.

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
KEY DEPARTURES

Karl Rove, chief political strategist, leaves 31 Aug
Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, quit after 2006 mid-term elections
Andrew Card, chief of staff, quit March 2006
Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defence secretary, quit March 2005
Colin Powell, secretary of state, resigned after President Bush's first term, Nov 2004

SURVIVORS FROM 2000

Dick Cheney, vice-president
Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, was national security adviser in first term
Alberto Gonzales, attorney general, was White House counsel

Mr Rove was also investigated in connection with the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame, though prosecutors decided he should not face any charges.

Mr Rove told the Wall Street Journal that he had first floated the idea of leaving last year, but had delayed his departure when the Democrats took control of Congress.

He said he took a final decision to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told aides that if they stayed after the end of August they would be obliged to stay in the administration until Mr Bush's own departure in January 2009.

"There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family," he said.

He said he expected Mr Bush's current poor ratings to improve, and that conditions in Iraq would get better as the military surge continued.

A Republican had a good chance of winning the 2008 presidential election, he said, because Democrats would choose the "fatally flawed" Hillary Clinton as their candidate.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6943814.stm

Bums? Thats Putting It Mildly.

Weary of the homeless encampments, fights and filth that have kept families and tourists away from one of the largest beaches and parks in the city, the mayor wants to reclaim Higgs Beach — but first the city has to own it.

Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson will start that process Aug. 21 when he officially asks Monroe County officials, at a City Commission meeting, to give the park to the city to use, maintain, patrol and improve.

The area has long been under county control, and has been the subject of a hot-potato debate over whose resources should be expended to enforce laws there and maintain the park.

"The ultimate goal is to turn that into a world-class park," McPherson said Thursday, envisioning a small miniature golf course, and separate play areas for children of different ages. The building that currently houses Salute restaurant also would be owned by the city, and McPherson said he would love to see the high school culinary program use it as a student-run restaurant.

The cost of owning the park would run the city about $500,000 per year in law enforcement and maintenance, but, McPherson said, most of that money still would come from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council as part of a beach restoration and maintenance program.

"It would basically be a break-even situation," he said, adding that city resources already are being used to enforce laws, remove homeless people and stop fights that frequently break out at the picnic tables that line the beach.

"We have a huge park that we can't use," said business owner and father Jim Gilleran, calling the situation "absurd."

He said a committee of concerned residents has started circulating a petition asking for the removal of the picnic pavilions to discourage loitering by homeless people during the day.

Although strict laws govern what can be done to remove homeless people from an area, McPherson said he would like to see a nonprofit foundation eventually lease the park from the city so it could enact rules that would be a deterrent to loitering, such as charging families a dollar to "rent" the pavilions for a day.

"There are things other places have done that are possible if a nonprofit runs the park," McPherson said.

I am weary of the homeless in general. Having been homeless on several occasions during my life, I feel no qualms at all about voicing my feelings towards them.

For some reason the bums on Higgs beach have decided that their stinking, drunken, filthy dirty lives should be shoved in the faces of everyone and anyone who has a bath once a week or more. They have been left alone by the authorities for so long that they now feel that the BBQ pits and Tiki huts are their own.

They throw bottles and other garbage at anyone walking by, and god help you if they decide to demand money from you. They have sex in full view of the kids in the park across the path, and trust me nasty does not begin to describe it, but by the time the 'cops' appear naturally there is no sign of the offenders. They shoot drugs. They scream and yell at each other and anyone else in or out of earshot.

I find it incredible that there are apparently 'strict laws' governing how to get rid of these scum bags. I am going to look them up, because I simply do not believe that this kind of behavior is not more illegal that removing these 'people'. If I decided to set up shop there and hurl insults at passers by, I wonder how long it would be before a disturbing the peace arrest would ensue.looking them up

Little Shits Shoot Tourists.. ok not so shitty

A 20-year-old Boca Raton woman was shot in the back with BB gun pellets that left welts on her back. Two teenagers, who police questioned and then released to their families, told officers they bought the realistic-looking weapons for $28 at a Duval Street store that opened on the Fourth of July. Key West State of the Arts owner Chris Robinson said his store adheres to federal law, which prohibits selling BB guns to anyone under 18 without their parents being present to give permission. He also said he reported a break-in with $1,000 of merchandise stolen soon after opening day.

This would not be much of a story, except for a couple of points. These idiot kids had taken the orange safety tips off the ends of these guns. In doing so they put themselves in direct line of fire from the Key West police department, *cough, cough* marksmen. An incident a few days ago on Stock Island, where a man brandishing an air rifle was subdued by not the Sherrif Dept, who were too busy (?), but good old KWPD has no doubt stressed their unusually incompetent talents to breaking point. He is very lucky to have survived. As are these kids. But then neither of them were in a vehicle, so they were luckier than you would first think. Read on.

Anyone who has been here more than a few years will not have forgotten the famous KWPD vs Pick-up truck shoot-out, in front of Sloppy Joes. The details are a bit fuzzy, but as I recall there was a slow speed chase between ALL the members of KWPD and a young couple in a pick-up. Eventually this farce, sped its way at all of 10 mph, down Duval Street, where the local SWAT (I kid you not) had set up a road block of sorts. Well, and here is the birth of a legend, apparently one member of this genius squad thought they saw a gun in the cab of the truck, and so the cops let 'er rip. Several smoking guns and bullet riddled walls later, it was discovered that among about 100 rounds fired, not a single one had hit the cab of the truck!

And so the legend of the safest place to be when stopped and fired on by KWPD is in your vehicle, was born.

Heres the rest of the BB story. Its amazing to think that the Tattoo Shops are still not allowed to open but this shit is happily sold alongside shiteous Tshirts and throwing knives.

The business was planned to be predominately a custom T-shirt shop, with a small offering of air guns, Robinson said. But they were an instant hit, with the first dozen selling out the first weekend, he said, adding that now he barely can keep them in stock. "They've pretty much taken over the store," Robinson said, explaining kids use them to play the equivalent of dodgeball, and the end of Government Road is a popular battleground. "I certainly understand [the Police Department's] concerns and know this is certainly controversial, but we don't sell to kids. "This is a sport," he said, "a hobby and no more dangerous than football or baseball." What can you shoot, legally? "Targets, that's about it," said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin, adding that if anyone shoots a person, an animal or property, they could face criminal charges. Officers did not charge the two suspects in the Petronia Street shooting, and reports didn't say why they released the 13- and 14-year-olds to their families. "If you shoot someone with a BB gun, you could be charged with battery or aggravated battery, but it's difficult, because being a law enforcement officer, if a misdemeanor offense doesn't occur in your presence, you have to refer it to the State Attorney's Office," Herrin explained, speaking in general because she was not familiar with the Key West police case. Hannan's father told officers he initially saw the kids firing the BB guns at power lines, but then turned to see the guns pointed at them from behind a fence that separates Petronia Street from the Robert Gabriel public housing apartments. That's when his daughter was hit in the back, he said. Hannan declined medical treatment, but officers said she was very upset, and remarked that her family, who have been coming to Key West for 10 years, is reluctant to return after the incident. Robinson said the majority of his customers are local kids ages 12 to 17, who purchase the guns with a supervising adult, of whom the store requires an ID.

Scumbags of the world, Unite

Fred Phelps Is Coming

Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 10:27:54 AM
Rev. Fred Phelps at one of his protestsThe Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., plans to stage protests at funerals of victims of the 35W bridge collapse to state that God made the bridge fall because he hates America, and especially Minnesota, because of its tolerance of homosexuality.

The church and its pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps, have become notorious over recent years for their claim that the attack of 9/11 was an act of God's vengeance and their determination to make that case at the funerals of U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq.

In a press release issued the day after the bridge collapse, the church called for protests at the funerals and outlined its feelings about the relationship between God's plan and the sins of Minneapolis and Minnesota, which it calls the "land of the Sodomite damned."

Reached at the church, Shirley Phelps Roper, who is both the daughter of the pastor and one of the attorneys for the church, said that America, and Minnesota especially, have alienated God by its tolerance for homosexuality, and that the bridge collapse was an act of God's vengeance. She said:

"The bridge stood in place by the word of God and it fell by the word of God...Each of these little events is just a harbinger of the coming destruction of this American experiment. We are delivering the final call of the doomed nation."

She said, as they have done for years, members of the church would stand "lawfully and peacefully on the public right of way" near the funerals and "put in the air words of praying and instruction and warning."

The signs that the protesters will wave will read:

"God cast down the bridge... Thank God for 9/11... America is doomed... God hates fags... God hates fag enablers... God hates Minnesota."

500 Years of Female Presence in Art

This is quite stunning.

A Short Break.

Quite brilliant I think.

Cay Clubs and Other Parasites

As if they didn't have enough problems not paying their current bills, or even beginning projects they have invested millions of dollars in, Cay Clubs plan for world domination shows very little sign of slowing down. Naturally no one in town will do anything until the time for noise making is way past, and then we will see the wailing and gnashing of teeth typical of our noisy but completely useless local 'activists'. Pitiful, really.

Cay Clubs will soon own Southernmost Restaurants, a Cay Clubs spokesman said. The restaurant group owner says otherwise in the latest chapter of a summer-long debate.

“Cay Clubs exercised their option to extend the closing date,” says Chris Brown, a marketing and advertising manager for Cay Clubs, via e-mail. “The new date of closing of the purchase of the A&B [Lobster House] property is scheduled for Sept. 24, 2007.”

Frank Rego, vice president of operations at Cay Clubs, said the acquisition and all other business operations were running smoothly, even though the company was going through a “slow period.”

“We're not going out of business,” he said. “We're not in trouble.”

Gene Smith owns the leases of Turtle Kraals and Half Shell Raw Bar, both of which are city-owned. He owns A&B Lobster House and marina complex outright, which includes Alonzo's Oyster Bar, White Tarpon and Berlin's Cocktails & Cigars. Smith said his lawyers stopped hearing from Cay Clubs' lawyers.

“I assume that things didn't work out for them,” he said.

Smith enjoys managing the properties, but said he will sell if presented with a good deal. Any such deal, though, has stalled, he said. Whoever takes over the leases for Turtle Kraals and Half Shell must maintain them as restaurants and cannot transform the property at all without approval from the Key West Bight Board.

The A&B area, including a marina, is more open to development, but Smith said he hopes any owner would give credence to locals' wishes related to any changes.

“If we had more people following the wishes of the city, we'd be a little better off,” he said.

“We're not here to do anything negative,” Rego said.

Good news for heroin addicts everywhere, the war on drugs is going along fairly similar lines as the war on terror, and to show what a simply fabulous job Prezzy Bush is doing in Afghanistan, the AP reports that the country is on track for a record setting opium harvest. Junkies across the globe tried to mobilize a party of sorts but it kind of fizzled pretty quick.

Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan’s poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world’s crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.

Excellent job.

Prepare the Vomit Bag

The Gordon and Hillary Show: stiff upper lips mandatory
Source

By Tom Baldwin
The London Times
Friday, August 3, 2007

Such is the emotional incontinence of so much American public life it was perhaps inevitable that the subject of Gordon Brown’s dead daughter would be raised — not once, but twice — when he visited the US this week.

President Bush was first out of the traps, at a Camp David press conference where his overfamiliarity with “Gordon, the humorous Scotsman” swiftly descended into rambling about how he was interested in a family which had “suffered unspeakable tragedy”. Mr Brown replied stiffly, thanking his host for a “compassionate” remark.

Then came an NBC Nightly News interview where the Prime Minister was asked more directly how he coped with the death of a newborn daughter and the cystic fibrosis diagnosed in his younger son. “I don’t really talk about it,” said Mr Brown, before muttering something about being a good father.

Neither the President nor NBC meant any harm, explained one of those political strategists that proliferate in Washington. “They probably thought they were doing Brown a favour in getting him on to a personal narrative and life experience.”

The idea is that if you can hear a politician’s pain, you might think he will feel yours. So Mr Bush has admitted being a recovering alcoholic whose “Goodbye Jack Daniels, hello Jesus” moment propelled him into the White House. John McCain rarely goes a full day without mentioning how he was tortured at the hands of the Vietcong.

John Edwards spent much of his 2004 presidential campaign talking about his dead son — and a good portion of this one going on about his wife’s breast cancer. Barack Obama has turned his life story into two books and a political movement.

Yes, birds do it, bees do it, even educated “OEs” (that’s Old Etonians, to those of us who didn’t go there) do it — with David Cameron making more references to his disabled son than might be deemed strictly necessary.

But, as America discovered this week, Mr Brown definitely does not do it. And nor, usually, does Hillary Clinton. These two politicians, hard and serious to the point of being brittle, have much in common. Both are emerging from the shadow of a troubled, even jealous, relationship with more charismatic partners in Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Both have had to wait an awful long time for a chance to succeed them. And both have sometimes received bad advice that they will not get the top job unless they lighten up and show a more human side.

The difference is that Mr Brown is now Prime Minister and Mrs Clinton is not (yet) President. As such, he appears to have lost some of the self-doubt that once afflicted his sombre style.

It was noticeable that, even as Mr Brown was deftly side-stepping invitations to discuss deeply personal matters in America this week, Mrs Clinton was getting into a lather over a “grossly inappropriate” article in The Washington Post about her cleavage after some recent sartorial diversions from her standard-issue Hillary trouser suit.

No matter how well her angry response plays with women Democratic donors, who swiftly received an e-mail from her campaign urging them to “take a stand” against the pettiness of American political culture (ie, send money now), she should not have risen to it.

While her husband can scarcely open his mouth without natural empathy dribbling from its corners, Mrs Clinton’s efforts to display emotion appear stilted and artificial. Her autobiography, Living History, is one of the most sterile pieces of literature ever written. Look at this from her similarly hygienic website: “The promise of America was very real as Hillary was growing up. She learned that no matter who you are or where you’re from, if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could provide a good life for your family.” Yuck.

Her friends insist that she is a big bag of fun in private but, even if that is true, it does not exactly come across in public. Mr Brown’s aides used to say the same about him and, occasionally, would buy him some leisure wear or issue a list of his top pop tunes on the ground that this sort of thing seemed to work for Mr Blair. It was mutton and lamb: Mr Blair looked comfortable in a Christian sort of way wearing jeans, and he really had been in a rock band; Mr Brown just looked weird.

As Prime Minister, however, he has put a stop to such nonsense. And so far, at least, the voters seem to like it. His strength is his strength.

The same is true of Mrs Clinton, who could learn from Mr Brown’s current popularity. In all three presidential debates this summer against her Democratic rivals, she has come across as the candidate with the experience, toughness, knowledge and intelligence needed to lead America. Her worst moments have come when she tried to laugh, giving off a scratchy clicking noise from her throat.

It may yet prove more difficult for Mrs Clinton, as she tries to become America’s first woman president, to win on qualities traditionally, if wrongly, associated with men. Some suggest there is a dysfunction between her core message of strong leadership and her core support among women. Mr Edwards’s wife, Elizabeth, has already effectively accused Mrs Clinton of behaving too much like a man.

Recent polls suggest otherwise: slowly but surely the seething resentment of those (mostly men) who regard her as some sort of Lady Macbeth figure appears to be diminishing while she has maintained high levels of support among women. Like Mr Brown, she does not need to pastel-shade her image to impress voters.

It could just be that on both sides of the Atlantic, we are ready for more serious leadership. We may not warm very much to Mr Brown or Mrs Clinton and they risk sending us all to sleep with a political style bereft of “narrative”. But at least we will know that those who turn the lights off and tuck us up are grown-ups.

Stampeding Congress, Again
Source

New York Times editorial
Friday, August 3, 2007

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has repeatedly demonstrated that it does not feel bound by the law or the Constitution when it comes to the war on terror. It cannot even be trusted to properly use the enhanced powers it was legally granted after the attacks.

Yet, once again, President Bush has been trying to stampede Congress into a completely unnecessary expansion of his power to spy on Americans. And, hard as it is to believe, Congressional Republicans seem bent on collaborating, while Democrats (who can still be cowed by the White House’s with-us-or-against-us baiting) aren’t doing enough to stop it.

The fight is over the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to obtain a warrant before eavesdropping on electronic communications that involve someone in the United States. The test is whether there is probable cause to believe that the person being communicated with is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist.

Mr. Bush decided after 9/11 that he was no longer going to obey that law. He authorized the National Security Agency to intercept international telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans and other residents of this country without a court order. He told the public nothing and Congress next to nothing about what he was doing, until The Times disclosed the spying in December 2005.

Ever since, the White House has tried to pressure Congress into legalizing Mr. Bush’s rogue operation. Most recently, it seized on a secret court ruling that spotlighted a technical way in which the 1978 law has not kept pace with the Internet era.

The government may freely monitor communications when both parties are outside the United States, but must get a warrant aimed at a specific person for communications that originate or end in this country. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the court that issues such warrants recently ruled that the law also requires that the government seek such an individualized warrant for purely foreign communications that, nevertheless, move through American data networks.

Instead of asking Congress to address this anachronism, as it should, the White House sought to use it to destroy the 1978 spying law. It proposed giving the attorney general carte blanche to order eavesdropping on any international telephone calls or e-mail messages if he decided on his own that there was a “reasonable belief” that the target of the surveillance was outside the United States. The attorney general’s decision would not be subject to court approval or any supervision.

The White House, of course, insisted that Congress must do this right away, before the August recess that begins on Monday — the same false urgency it used to manipulate Congress into passing the Patriot Act without reading it and approving the appalling Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, offered a sensible alternative law, as did his fellow Democrat, Senator Russ Feingold. In either case, the attorney general would be able to get a broad warrant to intercept foreign communications routed through American networks for a limited period. Then, he would have to justify the spying in court. This fix would have an expiration date so Congress could then dispassionately consider what permanent changes might be needed to FISA.

Congress was debating this issue yesterday, and the final outcome was unclear. But there are very clear lines that must not be crossed.

First, all electronic surveillance of communication that originates or ends in the United States must be subject to approval and review by the FISA court under the 1978 law. (That court, by the way, has rejected only one warrant in the last two years.)

Second, any measure Congress approves now must have a firm expiration date. Closed-door meetings under the pressure of a looming vacation are no place for such serious business.

The administration and its Republican supporters in Congress argue that American intelligence is blinded by FISA and have seized on neatly timed warnings of heightened terrorist activity to scare everyone. It is vital for Americans, especially lawmakers, to resist that argument. It is pure propaganda.

This is not, and has never been, a debate over whether the United States should conduct effective surveillance of terrorists and their supporters. It is over whether we are a nation ruled by law, or the whims of men in power. Mr. Bush faced that choice and made the wrong one. Congress must not follow him off the cliff.

The Total Perspective Vortex

Written by Christopher S. Putnam on June 14th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

Most people think of the "mentally disordered" as a delusional lot, holding bizarre and irrational ideas about themselves and the world around them. Isn’t a mental disorder, after all, an impairment or a distortion in thought or perception? This is what we tend to think, and for most of modern psychology's history, the experts have agreed; realistic perceptions have been considered essential to good mental health. More recently, however, research has arisen that challenges this common-sense notion.

In 1988, psychologists Shelly Taylor and Jonathon Brown published an article making the somewhat disturbing claim that positive self-deception is a normal and beneficial part of most people’s everyday outlook. They suggested that average people hold cognitive biases in three key areas: a) viewing themselves in unrealistically positive terms; b) believing they have more control over their environment than they actually do; and c) holding views about the future that are more positive than the evidence can justify. The typical person, it seems, depends on these happy delusions for the self-esteem needed to function through a normal day. It’s when the fantasies start to unravel that problems arise.

Consider eating disorders, for instance. It’s generally been believed that an unrealistically negative body image is an important factor in the self-abuse that characterizes anorexia and bulimia. A 2006 study at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, however, came to a very different conclusion. Here, groups of normal and eating disordered women were asked to rate the attractiveness of their own bodies. They were then photographed from the neck down, and panels of volunteers were brought in to view the photos and rate the women’s appearances objectively. The normal women, as it turned out, evaluated themselves much more positively than the panels did, while the self-ratings of the eating disordered women were in close agreement with the objective ratings. The eating disordered subjects, in other words, had a more realistic body image than the normal women. However, it is important to note that the study was based upon the broad concept of "attractiveness" rather than body weight specifically—while the eating disordered women may have rated themselves poorly because they felt "fat," their weight was a controlled variable and not the basis of the volunteers' assessments.

Studies into clinical depression have yielded similar findings, leading to the development of an intriguing, but still controversial, concept known as depressive realism. This theory puts forward the notion that depressed individuals actually have more realistic perceptions of their own image, importance, and abilities than the average person. While it’s still generally accepted that depressed people can be negatively biased in their interpretation of events and information, depressive realism suggests that they are often merely responding rationally to realities that the average person cheerfully denies.

Lear's Fool speaks wisdom disguised as madnessThose with paranoid disorders can sometimes possess a certain unusual insight as well. It has often been asserted that within every delusional system, there exists a core of truth—and in their pursuit of imagined conspiracies against them, these individuals often show an exceptionally keen eye for the real thing. People who interact with them may be taken aback as they find themselves accused of harboring some negative opinion of the person which, secretly, they actually do hold. Complicating the issue, of course, is the fact that if the supposed aversion didn’t exist before, it likely does after such an unpleasant encounter.

As one might imagine, these issues present some problems when it comes to treatment. How does one convince a depressed person that “everything is all right” when her life really does suck? How does one convince an obsessive-compulsive patient to stop religiously washing his hands when the truth of what gets left behind after “normal” washing should be enough to make any sane person cringe? These problems put therapists in the curious position of teaching patients to develop irrational patterns of thinking—patterns that help them view the world as a rosier place than it really is. Counterintuitive as it sounds, it's justified because what defines a mental disorder is not unreasonable or illogical thought, but abnormal behaviour that causes significant distress and impairs normal functioning in society. Treatment is about restoring a person to that level of normal functioning and satisfaction, even if it means building cognitions that aren’t precisely “rational” or “realistic.”

It’s a disconcerting concept. It’s certainly easier to think of the mentally disordered as lunatics running about with bizarre, inexplicable beliefs than to imagine them coping with a piece of reality that a "normal" person can’t handle. The notion that we routinely hide from the truth about ourselves and our world is not an appealing one, though it may help to explain the human tendency to ostracize the abnormal. Perhaps the reason we are so eager to reject any departure from this fiction we call "normality" is because we have grown dependent on our comfortable delusions; without them, there is nothing to insulate us from the harsh cold of reality.

Faith-based initiative backfires

Mental-health and addictions-treatment professionals are wary of spiritual interventions, which they associate with one religious brand: the conservative Christianity of Bush partisans.

By Christopher Ringwald
The Christian Science Monitor
Thursday, August 2, 2007

Once upon a time God, with some federal funding, was going to do so much.

In his early years, President Bush promoted funding for faith-based groups in order to blast social problems with the power of religious belief by unleashing the "armies of compassion." Bush predicted that his faith-based initiative would be his great legacy. And it does send an estimated $2 billion to religious charities.

But the campaign, ignored by Congress and challenged in court, has dropped off the White House talking points. After a brief mention in the 2006 State of the Union address, it was left out entirely this year.

The initiative did leave another legacy: It gave spirituality a bad name in social-service circles. Sad, since spiritual or religious beliefs and practices help millions of people recover from addiction, mental illness and criminality. Unlike other social services that provide a generic good, such as housing, rehab programs often invoke spirituality as the very means of recovery. But after six years of faith-based talk and funding by federal agencies, mental-health and addictions-treatment professionals are wary of spiritual interventions, which they associate with one religious brand: the conservative Christianity of Bush partisans. In reality, the spirituality of treatment and recovery ranges much more widely, from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to meditation, group confession, or yoga.

Bush wanted to fund social services whose key ingredient is faith, either in the program itself or as part of the treatment. Congress never signed off. So federal officials reached out to church groups and explained how to apply and win federal funding by keeping their services "faith neutral" or free of proselytizing.

And that's the hitch. If a program promotes one faith to its clients, the government cannot fund it given the First Amendment ban on congressional "establishment of religion." But if such a program sheds its religious character to qualify for public money, how important was that faith in the first place?

There is a solution. Addiction and mental-health programs can assess new clients for their spiritual and religious histories and interests and then tailor treatment accordingly. Courts have ruled that so long as a program offers a client "a genuinely independent choice," religious freedom is preserved. In March, the federal Bureau of Prisons recognized this distinction when it revised a proposal for private operators of "life skills" training programs. Those that offer a religious track would now have to provide a secular one as well.

In the addictions field, clinicians seem less and less interested in accommodating spiritual interests, given their discomfort with the current faith-based climate. They also know that judges in New York, Wisconsin, and other states have ruled that publicly-funded treatment cannot push AA only and must offer alternatives. Good idea, except many counselors now skip spiritual topics entirely to avoid any possible church-state conflict. Never mind that most clients are at ease with the topic and, in surveys, say they wish programs attended more, not less, to their spiritual needs.

Given this inattention, the real constitutional danger is denial of that other First Amendment right, free exercise of religion. For example, when psychiatric patients were in institutions, there were chaplains on staff who could attend to their needs. Now, living in group homes or supervised apartments, many clients have no recourse to religious activity, due to the indifference or uncertainty of administrators and staff. In interviews, ex-patients around the country told me they were never asked about their spirituality during years of treatment.

The answer is to guarantee freedom of, as well as from, religion. According to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, "Spiritual assessment should, at a minimum, determine the patient's denomination, beliefs, and what spiritual practices are important to the patient." That's often done when you register for heart surgery at the hospital; it's much less likely if you're checking into a psychiatric unit.

Clinicians can easily incorporate spirituality into treatment. Simple, cost-free measures help, such as a list of volunteer visitors from local congregations. Atheists or spiritual-but-not-religious people can be offered alternative assistance. The key is to help people develop the strengths and methods best suited to their history, situation, and choice. Ignoring spirituality is the most dogmatic approach of all.

Christopher Ringwald is a journalist and a visiting scholar at The Sage Colleges. He is author of "The Soul of Recovery" and "A Day Apart."