Free Republic

Have you ever gone shopping, to a movie, or to get gas and on the corner is a panhandler with their cardboard sign claiming that they are homeless, starving, a Veteran, need money, etc? Do you ever see that many of them look well fed, actually semi-clean and work the same street corner, freeway off ramp, or shopping center exit? Why does the city allow these vagabonds to beg for money on the corners? Does Salt Lake City have no pride? Panhandlers not only work the interstates and shopping centers, but also work over people out on the streets. If...

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Friday afternoon said Occupy NOLA protestors who have camped out in Duncan Plaza across from City Hall for the last two months must immediately begin to clear the park. "I am asking them to leave right now," Landrieu said. "Any time after this may see enforcement."While acknowledging the protestors' rights to freedom of speech, Landrieu said it is against the law to be in the park between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. and to have tents, kitchen equipment and electrical utilities in the park. "I am giving notice on behalf of the city of...

For supercommittee, failure was an optionBy KEITH CHROSTOWSKI - The Kansas City Star Updated: 2011-11-22 Well, they’ve blown it. Failure was an option. The 12 supercommittee senators and representatives announced Monday they couldn’t come up with a spending, taxing and deficit reduction package. Thanks for wrecking everyone’s Thanksgiving. The stakes for the long-term health of the economy have just grown more dire. America’s reputation for leadership has just taken another hit. An agreement would have provided a bracing contrast to the struggles in Europe over the debt crisis there. It would prove to the world that the United States can...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ynd8kDk5Dw&feature=related A former resident of the USSR the most liberal country in existence confronts the useful idiots of Occupy other people's money.

The Greek debt crisis may steal the show at the G20 summit but anti-capitalist protest voices are getting louder on the sidelines. Thousands of demonstrators against corporate greed and tax havens have taken to the streets of the French seaside resort of Nice and other resorts along the coast. The French Riviera is world famous for its rich and exclusive spots. Today much of it has been transformed into an exclusion zone by a massive ring of security, especially around the summit venue in Cannes. Crowds are being kept away from the main commercial centre. Security has been stepped up...

MONTREAL - Over the past few weeks, leftist activists invaded public spaces in all major cities across Canada, beginning in downtown Toronto. Their actions were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment in Zucotti Park. There are, however, a few differences. American protesters are outraged by: The widening gap in wealth between the poor and the rich, to the benefit of the 1% of the most fortunate. Bank bailouts with public money. The impoverishment of the middle class. The drop in the home values. Growing poverty. Increases in health insurance premiums. The phenomenal public deficit. None of these problems...

An Occupy Boston zombie march shut down streets in downtown Boston yesterday afternoon as the spooky procession invaded Beacon Hill. The Halloween protest of 30 to 40 people began on the Common and went past the homes of Emerson College and Northeastern University’s presidents and U.S. Sen. John Kerry. Police were called to the march at about 12:40 p.m., as the group marched along the sidewalk on Hereford Street, then onto Massachusetts Avenue, officer Eddy Chrispin said. The protest also caused a brief lockdown of the Federal Reserve building on Atlantic Avenue, Fed spokesman Tom Lavelle confirmed. The building locked...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4fPuRzHaxU More of occupy other people's money!

I take it all back. There is something positive going on down in Dewey Square: The trust-fund hippies are finally getting some reality-based education. And guess who is giving them this lesson in the school of hard knocks? Not their precious professors, but the indigenous bums, street drunks, junkies and assorted other deinstitutionalized, as they used to be called. If you missed yesterday’s Herald, you didn’t see some of the most priceless quotes of the month, from Steph’s comrades down at the local Obamaville. Here’s one from a 36-year-old protester describing the “homeless” who are trying to protect their turf...

Wir sind die 99 Prozent! Wir sind die 99 Prozent! Wir sind die 99 Prozent! Wir sind die 99 Prozent! Wir sind die 99 Prozent! Wir sind die 99 Prozent!

A video about the occupy wall street bums. CAUTION! SCARY PHOTOS w/Nudity and violence! Viewer discretion advised!

All over america, bums illegal aliens Islamic Jihadists moochers pedophiles drunks addicts anarchists and other low life bottom feeders who make up the scum of society have been rallying and demanding the end of capitlism and freedom and in place a socialist dictatorship. Their unacceptable demands include a 20$ minimum wage, the collapse of our system, environmental laws, open borders, government restrictions on constitutionally guaranteed free speech/press and gun ownership and solidarity with Islam. With few exception the police have been quiet and done nothing when these gatherings spread into private property and/or become violent. Nudity, drug activity and public...

This are the shocking scenes that have led some people to accuse the Occupy Wall Street protesters living rough in New York's financial district of creating unsanitary and filthy conditions. Exclusive pictures obtained by Mail Online show one demonstrator relieving himself on a police car. Elsewhere we found piles of stinking refuse clogging Zuccotti Park, despite the best efforts of many of the protesters to keep the area clean. The shocking images demonstrate the extent to which conditions have deteriorated as demonstrations in downtown Manhattan enter their fourth week.

Two men who appeared to be homeless argue loudly near the cable car turnaround on Powell Street, accusing each other of stealing a panhandling spot. A man approaches lost tourists, offering to give them directions - after which he'll demand payment. Several panhandlers crowd the sidewalk in front of the Walgreens up the street, jostling for space to catch shoppers. The two scenes play out within blocks of each other on a recent morning during the peak of San Francisco's tourist season and the beginning of the convention season. And it is angering the businesspeople and hotel owners who make...

DELAWARE, Ohio - Kids don't stop being hungry on weekends. Many depend on free lunches served on weekdays during the summer at more than 1,500 sites throughout Ohio, but Saturdays and Sundays can be days without a guaranteed meal. This summer, six of those sites will try to fill kids' bellies over weekends through a two-year national pilot project. Andrews House, a community-services center here, is the only central Ohio site offering the weekend meals. "They become dependent on the school cafeteria. It's an important source of nutrition for them," said Don Chenoweth, executive director of Andrews House. "Some families...

It’s hard to believe, but it seems that the clueless owners of the commercial buildings in downtown Berkeley and on Telegraph are pressing on with their campaign to ban sitting down. It appears that their proposal is still on the fast track for passage in mid-summer, in that convenient sweet spot when most students and many other residents are out of town and the Berkeley City Council can do its dirtiest deeds relatively unnoticed. Since there are already many well-organized opponents, passing an ordinance like this would be a guaranteed recipe for disruption: certainly demonstrations, possibly calls for boycotting businesses...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 16) -- Betty Sugiyama was rushing to catch a train for a shopping trip when authorities say the unthinkable happened: A homeless woman leapt from a bench and shoved her onto the tracks. Witnesses said the woman then calmly returned to her seat as Sugiyama writhed in pain on the tracks with a cracked skull. The 84-year-old Little Tokyo resident died soon after, and the suspect was arrested on murder charges. A sister of Sugiyama who witnessed the attack remained stunned Tuesday that anyone would want to kill her friendly younger sibling, a Japanese-American who had grown...

Ray Stevens - Throw the Bums Out

What a blatant false insult!  Fruhlinger obviously doesn't know the difference between hobos, tramps, and bums!The three are not the same!Hobos are not bums!Bums are not tramps, and tramps aint hobos.Hobos have pride. Once an active Hobo, now a proud "Hobo at Heart".Yes we have the "wander lust" and we love to travel and see this great country of ours from time to time via rail and road. But we work and aint "bums" as Fruhlinger calls us." ...a real hobo will work for his stuff. He's not looking for a free handout. He wants no problem  from anybody, and he'll give no...

Amid growing dissatisfaction with federal employees, a group of younger, web-savvy feds are planning to march on Saturday in defense of their coworkers on the sidelines of Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity." Organizers of the "Government Doesn't Suck March" (their choice of words, not ours) were inspired in part by last week's Washington Post poll that revealed widespread negative perceptions of federal workers. "We hear it day in and day out: the government sucks, federal employees are lazy and their positions are redundant," said march organizer Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop, a social networking Web site for public servants.

If being homeless had an upside, you might suppose that at least it's free. Except it's not — not if you want to stay at most Central Florida shelters. For years, the region's shelters have charged small fees to those who spend the night — in part to offset their own costs, in part to encourage people to get a job and move on. But in the worst economy in decades, even the homeless are getting poorer, with many struggling to come up with as little as $2 to $10 a night. "How can you charge someone who doesn't have...

Since Mayor Gavin Newsom took office, he and the city of San Francisco have spent more than $1 billion on the homeless. But is it helping? This year, the city spent $150 million on health care and social services for its estimated 13,500 homeless on the street or in city-funded housing. That comes to about $11,000 per person. The city has spent another $176 million, mostly in federal funds, on permanent housing for the homeless since 2004. Newsom said at a recent Chronicle editorial board meeting that since implementing his Care Not Cash program, the city has taken 12,000 people...

EAST POINT, Ga. - Video showed chaos unfolding in the city of East Point on Wednesday morning as hundreds of people waited for their chance to get federal housing assistance. Aerials from above the East Point Housing Authority showed a large group of people congregating around police cars and causing a scene as several people handed out applications. Mobs of people surrounded police cars, and FOX 5 has learned workers were handing out applications to the crowd, but they would only do so with police presence. Those in the crowd would receive an application, then fill it out and wait...

Wearing the Message: 'Don't Feed Our Bums'Source: Wearing the Message: 'Don't Feed Our Bums' | NBC San Diego Controversial stickers being sold in Ocean Beach have been joined by hats and t-shirts. "All over, all over. People are coming from out of town to buy these stickers," business owner Tony Chavez said. On Newport Avenue, business is booming for The Black Head shop, at least for a few items in particular. They're down to their last couple hats and t-shirts and of the 3,000 stickers with the same message, not one remains. But the message they bare is more than...

Ocean Beach has always had a thing for bumper stickers. “Coexist” is a popular one. “Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Mind” is another. And there’s this classic in counterculture bravado: “U.S. Out of O.B.” Now, a new sticker is raising eyebrows and tempers along the community’s main commercial drag, Newport Avenue, causing some to wonder what’s happening to the scruffy town’s legendary “live and let live” vibe. “Welcome to Ocean Beach,” the sticker reads. “Please Don’t Feed Our Bums.” A homeless controversy in O.B.? Yes, and it started, of all places, in a head shop. That would be...

A tourist in Hawaii spends an average of $200 a day for a hotel room, meals and entertainment. But there's another class of visitors given room and board, full health care benefits and more for just $3 a day. It's not a luxury vacation package — just homeless benefits courtesy of Hawaii's taxpayers. At the Sumner Homeless Men's Shelter in downtown Honolulu — less than a mile from Honolulu Harbor, where luxury cruise ships are docked — shelter operations assistant Alfred Ho'opi'i tells guests to line up for their lunch. "The majority of people that I can see here are...

Brad Cain was in a bad mood. On Friday, his fifth day at Haven for Hope, he was scheduled for three hours of mandatory motivational classes, a requirement that caused him to lament the loss of his time not spent at a job off campus moving furniture. “This whole deal, getting in here, has cost me 100 bucks,” Cain said. “How can I be working if I'm doing workshops?” Later, he said, “My biggest problem right now is I've already got this locked in my mind, and you're wasting my frickin' time.” Cain had other complaints, bemoaning an uncomfortable bunk...

Not satisfied with the new health care arrangement, 54 million uninsured people are running for Congress to get a piece of the government's Cadillac health care plan. Frank Tuscan, a lard taste tester for the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain, said he will be running on the Keg Party ticket and added that his sense of duty to the country is the driving force behind his candidacy. "How can I serve my country if I am not in ship-shape health," Tuscan said as he guzzled a ladle of lard into his corpulent body. "Once I have my third bypass, I can...

CHICAGO -- They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too. Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right? Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between...

Okay -- So The Feds are going to cut the salaries of Wall Street Executives that receive TARP money by 90%presumabley until the companies pay back the TARP funds and/or become profitable! Great. I have no problem with that, other than the unintended consquence of chasing away your top talent. Be that as it may, the government pays the piper, the government calls the tune. Ah, but shouldn't that principle should be equally applied to Congress?!! Congress told us that the $750 billion stimulus package was absolutely necessary to create jobs and that unemployment would reach no higher than 8%....

LOS ANGELES — A homeless man was arrested and charged with arson for starting a tiny blaze in August near the spot where a gigantic wildfire erupted several days later, killing two firefighters, homicide detectives said Monday. Babatunsin Olukunle, 25, is the strongest lead to date in the arson investigation stemming from a fire that destroyed 89 homes, burned 250 square miles of national forest and killed two firefighters when their truck plunged off a road. It was one of the largest fires in Southern California history.

Heather Mac DonaldThe Truth About Policing and Skid Row Summer 2009 proved that poor people’s best friend is the LAPD, not homeless advocates. 28 September 2009 The homeless industry on Los Angeles’s Skid Row lost its final shred of legitimacy this summer. Three murders and their aftermath exposed the advocates’ opposition to assertive policing as dangerous, hypocritical posturing. Los Angeles officials should reorient their funding priorities in light of the lessons of the summer of 2009. For 25 years, Skid Row constituted a real-world experiment in the application of homeless-advocate ideology. The squalor that engulfed the 50-block district just...

WICHITA — A man and woman decided to give the phrase "dumpster diving" a new twist over the weekend, crawling inside one on North Waco so they could be alone. But while they were engaged in what Wichita police described as "an intimate moment," they were robbed by a man armed with a pocket knife. It all unfolded shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday in the 700 block of North Waco, police said, when the man and woman, both 44, crawled into a dumpster for privacy. A short time later, a 59-year-old man and his 64-year-old companion interrupted the couple inside...

It Appears Transients From All Over The Globe Converging On Bohemian Williamsburg -- And Residents Are FuriousPanhandling, Drugs Taking Over Parts Of Hip Brooklyn Neighborhood BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CBS) -- There's a neighborhood in Brooklyn that's known for being trendy and hip, but some residents say the Bohemian reputation is drawing a group of transient people from around the world known as "gutter punks" and it's now turning into a squatter invasion. And as CBS station WCBS-TV found out some are fighting to get them out of the neighborhood. Some call Northside Williamsburg along Bedford Avenue the new Greenwich Village, with...

As the school year sailed to a close last month, Arielle Figueras crossed the stage in her cap and gown and proudly accepted her fifth-grade diploma. Craig Dixon, 13, and his brother Nahjee Johnson, 8, outside an intake center in the Bronx. The next day, she was homeless. Arielle, a petite 11-year-old, and her parents, brother and sister packed their belongings and arrived at the intake center for homeless families in the South Bronx. Though they had been fighting with their landlord for months and their gas and electricity had long been shut off, they refused to leave their apartment...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about efforts to get a 4-year-old panhandler and his mom off the city streets. The column kicked off a spirited debate about our responsibilities to homeless children. Monday the woman, whose first name is Toni, was sitting on the sidewalk on Market Street with her son, Gavin, with a brown cardboard sign propped up behind them that said "Please help." But that's the issue. People have helped. Monday I spoke to Anna Samovol, who along with her co-workers in a downtown office gave toys and food to Gavin and bought a new winter coat for...

These politicians more and more prove the theory that the conservative and liberal movements needs to remove nearly every incumbent politicians holding office in 2010 including the Messiah, as every time we turn around either they don't uphold their own personal lives they way they claim, lying and cheating their own families as Ensign admits to doing here, which means they wouldn't think twice about screwing you and I, as it usually turns out they are. As does every single Liberal democrat out there, we know that as a fact. They wear infidelity and deviance proud and loud as a...

On the first night he slept indoors in more than 15 years, Jeff Latchaw tossed and turned and fretted. It was much too quiet. The mattress was too soft. Latchaw got in and out of bed, over and over. "Just having these walls around me, it's a huge adjustment," Latchaw said, waving his calloused hand around the living room of his tidy home in Natomas. "There's no open sky above me. No fresh air. No birds greeting me when I wake up. "At times I have thought about going back out and pitching a tent."

Mayor Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash program turned 5 years old this month. And although it has been successful in placing more than 2,500 homeless people in supportive housing, it continues to face a major criticism. Once in housing, residents have little incentive to improve their lives by attending therapy sessions, taking necessary medications or enrolling in job training. Few residents ever move on to live without government welfare and many of them "work" by panhandling on the streets. At its worst, the program only moves troubled individuals off the street and into a hotel room, bringing their problems -...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the national media made a headline out of every niggling trip a corporate CEO took in the company jet. The flames of public outrage were stoked as one editorial after another demanded to know how they could be so audacious, so wasteful, so negligent of shareholders' interests, when the companies they were supposed to be running were bleeding red ink, reaching out to the government for bailouts, etc. etc. ad infinitum. Remember the outcry to "throw the bums out?" But when the entity is the United States government, and the...

Frances Picker taught algebra for 35 years in the Fremont schools and never smoked before she was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in December. A slim 73-year-old with a magnetic smile, Picker copes as well as she can between bouts of chemotherapy that have robbed her of her hair. The ugly coda — the crowning insult, if you will — came when she went to renew her driver's license in mid-March at the Fremont DMV. It should have been no big deal. Knowing that the DMV has long lines, Picker made an appointment. But she had to stand in a...

Even though millions of inaugural revelers will pour into Washington this weekend, local panhandlers aren’t too hopeful they’ll get much change. “I expect to see less money than normal,” said Ruth Neary, confined to a wheelchair, at 15th and H streets NW. Like many Washington-area residents, Neary is considering not coming downtown at all because of the crowds and potential chaos. “Mostly people from out of town are scared of D.C. and its homeless people,” Neary said. “That’s why you don’t see much panhandling on the Mall.” Drew Sanders, who usually stands outside of Georgia Brown’s Restaurant near the White...

Corruption Chronicles Only half of the members in the U.S. Senate committee that screens among the most important presidential cabinet nominees—Secretary of Homeland Security—bothered to show up for confirmation hearings this week and only two Republicans participated. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee senators evidently had more important things to do than assure the right candidate will head the crucial agency that keeps the nation safe from foreign threats. Only nine of the panel’s 17 members found the time to ask Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary pick—Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano—questions, making the so-called confirmation hearing somewhat laughable. This is embarrassing...

Two news reports point to the clear and present danger the deteriorating situation in Mexico poses to our nation and our citizens. The first article, "U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars" appears in today's edition of the New York Times, while the second article, "Obama faces Mexican drug war" was published in the Washington Times last week, on January 2nd. In my judgement, the deteriorating situation in Mexico can be traced back to the relative ease with which the drug cartels were able to move people and narcotics into the United States because our nation's "leaders" have been...

This Christmas, many Americans did not get a chance to enjoy warm hot cocoa, presents and a good meal. Many were forced to sleep on the streets or in crowded shelters and missions. Throughout America many are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. But liberals, with their medeling and their compasion for those who are evil and degenerate are to blame for much of the homelessness on our streets. In the past several years, affordable housing units in particular, boarding houses have gone into decline. These places, flop houses, boarding homes, rooming homes, some just call them slums were...

Bad economy threatens traditional redneck Christmas.It’s a Christmas tradition. For the past 12 years, Leonard Pottsel, of Bellwood, would sneak into the glass jar that his old lady used as a makeshift Christmas fund and steal the hastily-collected money. Pottsel would then spend the money trying to wildly pick up local hoochies at neighborhood dives on Christmas Eve. He would also gamble wildly on sports and soap opera trivia. Pottsel is now worried that the poor economy will spoil yet another one of his family’s special holiday traditions. “It breaks my heart when I look at that painfully shallow jar...

Dozens of former employees of Republic Windows and Doors continued to remain at the shuttered North Side plant late Friday, saying they're being cheated. The ex-workers say they found out only three days before Friday's closing that they would be without a job. Some of them also learned they would not get the vacation they've earned to date or the insurance coverage they were promised. More than 200 union workers staged a sit-in of sorts until they they got what they say is legally owed to them. The union says company officials told employees they were closing shop because Bank...

Believe it or not, Rufus Terrill, owner of a downtown Atlanta bar named O'Terrills, has had it with the drug dealers, vandals, and other riff-raff that frequent the area around his business. So, he has done what any sane American man would do in this situation—build a robot out of a meat smoker to lay down the law. The "BumBot," as many of O'Terrills' patrons have dubbed it, is basically a meat smoker mounted onto a three-wheeled scooter. Armaments include a spotlight, loudspeaker, water cannon and an infrared camera. Plus, the whole thing is covered in rubber for protection. When...

City proposal targets aggressive panhandling Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:59 PM By Bobby Pierce THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Columbus' panhandlers might have to watch their step to continue soliciting in the city. Aggressive panhandling was the topic at a City Council public hearing tonight. Councilman Andrew Ginther moderated the testimony of 12 Columbus residents, as well as the deputy safety director, assistant city attorney and a police officer. “You can't simply throw panhandlers in jail,” Ginther had said last week. “Some are following people for blocks; in the University area, people feel badgered and threatened; they are coming up to people...

Ottawa’s Panhandlers’ Union has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the City for blocking access to a highway underpass where a youth was murdered. “The area in question is dark, dank and rank,” explained City Attorney Alfred Throckmorton. “Closing it off enhances public health and safety.” The suit describes the underpass as a “critical ‘dumping’ ground for the homeless community.” “These people have nowhere else to go,” said Union lawyer Amos Arrant. “So, one person was murdered. Unfortunate as this may be, putting up with an occasional murder is the price we may have to pay for preserving a traditional...