~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&source=hp&q=homeless&pbx=1&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l0l10219l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=f3bbea57e2dabdbc&biw=1147&bih=630

Twittering One

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Nov 16, 2011, 12:19:07 PM11/16/11

to

Struggling during holidays:
'This is about our neighbors'

By Jill Cowan
Bakersfield News, California
November 15, 2011

This holiday season may be the toughest yet for charities working to
help the hungry and homeless.

Community service leaders say they expect record demand for aid this
year, while the down economy has also made crucial donations harder to
come by.

"The pressure feels very heavy for this time of year," said Louis
Gill, executive director of the Bakersfield Homeless Center.

Still, organizers of many upcoming events say the giving spirit is
alive in Kern County, and they don't plan to turn anyone away -- no
matter how many people ask for help.

Clay's Restaurant, which will hold its 21st annual free Thanksgiving
dinner Wednesday evening, anticipates 2,000 hungry guests, almost
twice as many as last year.

"We'll probably be moving and shaking all day," said Clayton
Hollingsead, third-generation owner and manager of Clay's.

(more)
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x357051760/Struggling-during-holidays-This-is-about-our-neighbors

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

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Nov 18, 2011, 11:29:58 AM11/18/11

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Family Service Association to operate Bucks PA shelter, replacing Red
Cross

By Bill Reed
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
November 15, 2011

The largest emergency homeless shelter in Bucks County will have a new
operator on Jan. 1, when the Family Service Association (FSA) replaces
the Red Cross.

The agreement, announced Monday, concludes a five-month search by the
American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Operating the Bristol
Township shelter did not fit the Red Cross' mission of disaster
preparedness and relief, officials have said.

The FSA, based in Langhorne, has been involved with the shelter since
it was established 25 years ago.

"We have a family health clinic here," FSA chief executive officer
Audrey Tucker said after meeting with the shelter's staff, which will
be retained. "We will be expanding the case management program."

(more)
http://articles.philly.com/2011-11-15/news/30401796_1_homeless-shelter-bucks-shelter-fsa

Twittering One

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Nov 18, 2011, 11:54:38 AM11/18/11

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Ohio Homeless shelter to host thank-you dinner --

Shelter resdients given 7 days,
Better than none, to turn life around, before they must leave

By Leonard Hayhurst
Coshocton Tribune, Ohio
November 17, 2011

COSHOCTON -- The Francis E. Meredith Second Chance Homeless Shelter is
hosting a pre-Thanksgiving dinner to give thanks to people who have
given back.

Case Manager LeVahn McVay said the dinner Friday is open to the
community, but it primarily is targeted as a thank you event for the
volunteers and businesses who have donated time, money and resources
to the 10-bed shelter since it opened Sept. 6.

Additionally, people who have stayed at the shelter also are invited
to come back and share their success stories. McVay said of 14 people
who have stayed at the shelter, 13 have found housing or employment.

McVay said they expect about 100 to attend, including State Sen. Troy
Balderson. Monetary and food donations have made the meal possible,
and volunteers will help cook and serve. Much of the help comes from
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, where the shelter is housed and the
dinner will be.

(more)
http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20111117/NEWS01/111170301

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Nov 21, 2011, 12:14:13 PM11/21/11

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Dear Heather Mac Donald:

The less issue of magnitude here is the FINGERPRINT issue regarding
NYC foodstamps. I starved and got broken bones during the time before
I got foodstamps, in April 2010, when I was disabled on crutches.

The really important issue here is the one you rail against regarding
admission into a NYC homeless shelter; this you are very very WRONG
on.

But I do agree with you on the fingerprint issue; to enter a shelter,
you must be printed, as well. I would like to see this fingerprinting
used to help applicants overcome barriers for recertification, if they
lose their critical paperwork, as the case when their property is
lost, stollen, or damaged in torrential rains.

_____________________
Quinn’s welfare war
Driving to undo vital reforms

Heather Mac Donald
New York Post
Op Ed
November 17, 2011

...
The city’s huge shelter system should be a last resort, not a first
choice, when an individual tires of a crowded apartment or contentious
roommates. The proposed diversion rule merely strives to ensure that
scarce tax resources are spent on the truly homeless.

(more) http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/quinn_welfare_war_HbaJAIy9N2xBIwgxXvBQDM#ixzz1eMR0hY52

Message has been deleted

Twittering One

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Nov 21, 2011, 12:30:21 PM11/21/11

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> (more)http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/quinn_welfare_war...

Who actually WANTS to live in a place with BED CHECK at 9:15; a
bathroom shared with other people screaming at you to GET OUT,
matresses with rips & at risk for bedbug contamination; wakeup calls
at 6 AM; out of the dorm by 9 or 10 AM, no execeptions except a
medical pass; snoring; crowded loud hallways outside your dorm;
mandatory Public Asssitance meetings/hearings; mandatory work program
requirements; case workers breathing down your face at least once
weekly; a TV room that plays only local channel 7 news; security
guards at every corner; expulsion for intoxication; mandatory bag
check & metal detector each time you step outside for air.

Etc.

Who wants THAT?

Twittering One

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Nov 21, 2011, 12:40:04 PM11/21/11

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Judge rules in favor of NYC Chelsea BRC Shelter,
After protracted legal battle in Manhattan

BY WINNIE McCROY
Gay City News, NYC
November 16, 2011

After more than a year in court, the lawsuit between a group of
Chelsea residents and business owners, the City of New York and a
local homeless service provider has been resolved. In October, the
judge denied a request by the Chelsea Flatiron Coalition (CFC) to
close the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) 328-bed shelter on West
25th Street by ruling that the shelter was operating legally. She did
not, however, rule on challenges to a local law limiting shelters to
200 beds.

“On October 14, 2011, Judge Joan A. Madden issued a ruling on the case
and denied CFC’s petition. The court did not strike down the local
law, as BRC and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) had
requested, and rejected their argument that the facility was three
separate shelters,” wrote City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn in a
November 3 email (addressed to “Dear Neighbor”).

“However, the court held that BRC could proceed with the facility
because DHS had properly invoked the Camp LaGuardia exception (which
permits DHS to open two shelters of up to 400 beds). The court also
held that the Board of Standards and Appeals had not acted arbitrarily
with respect to the zoning issues raised by CFC.”

In the case of Chelsea Business & Property Owners’ Association v. City
of New York, the CFC had petitioned the court to stop the BRC from
opening a 328-bed “transient hotel” at 127 West 25 Street.

(more)
http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2011/11/16/news/doc4ec3fa1fbf0fd710336727.txt

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=d1g4d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4391l7703l0l8484l8l8l0l3l3l0l94l311l5l5l0

HVAC

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Nov 22, 2011, 5:50:44 AM11/22/11

to

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Nov 23, 2011, 12:33:53 PM11/23/11

to

Homeless families living in cars

CBS News
November 22, 2011

(CBS News) Eight months after a heart-wrenching story about homeless
families living in economy motels, Scott Pelley brings "60 Minutes"
cameras back to Central Florida to document another level of
homelessness - kids and their parents living in cars.

Pelley's report will be broadcast on "60 Minutes," Sunday Nov. 27 at 7
p.m. ET/PT.

Pelley's report last March helped generate more than $4 million in
donations for the homeless in Central Florida. Beth Davalos, who runs
outreach programs for the families of homeless students in Seminole
County, used some of it to purchase clothing, pay for motels and set
up food banks.

But it goes only so far. In the stagnant economy, many are remaining
homeless longer and still more suddenly find themselves joining their
ranks, reduced to living in the family car.

(more)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57329841/homeless-families-living-in-cars/

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=d1g8d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3406l5875l0l6516l8l8l0l3l3l0l203l687l2.1.2l5l0

Twittering One

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Nov 23, 2011, 12:26:27 PM11/23/11

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New England Homeless shelter gets ready for busy winter

By Richard Vernalls
Worcester News, MA
November 22, 2011

WORCESTER’S winter homeless shelter is opening up and launching
appeals for hot drinks, volunteers’ time and mobile phones.

Every winter, the Worcester Night Assessment Centre opens its doors as
a shelter.

This year, for the first time, it will be based at the YMCA in Henwick
Road, St John’s.

It was previously based at the Maggs Centre in Deansway.

With room for 24 homeless people who would otherwise be using one of
the city’s doorways or alleyways as a bedroom, it will be much in
demand, according to Donna King, St Paul’s Hostel projects director.

“We’ve got a bigger problem this year,” she said.

“We did a rough sleepers count recently and there are more people who
will need our help this year.”

An overnight count by St Paul’s Hostel, the city council and Worcester
Community Housing in Shrub Hill, Lowesmoor, the city centre, Diglis,
St John’s and Pitchcroft found 17 rough sleepers.

The centre is open from 9.30pm until 7am from now until March 11,
2012, and is staffed by St Paul’s Hostel workers and volunteers.

(more)
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/9376328.Homeless_shelter_gets_ready_for_busy_winter/

Twittering One

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Nov 23, 2011, 12:41:25 PM11/23/11

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Feeding homeless in public raising concerns yet again

By Ashley Archibald
Santa Monica Daily Press, CA
November 23, 2011

Santa Monica — During the holiday season, big meals and shopping
dominate the American psyche, filling up advertising pages with the
new thing to buy and the delicious recipes to attempt on family and
friends.

When those two things mix on public streets, however, it can cause
friction.

Business owners in Downtown went to the City Council in November for
help with what they see as a growing number of meal services for the
homeless in the busy shopping district.

The meals are provided by UCLA Food Not Bombs, Campus Crusades UCLA
and Santa Monica Homeless Outreach, according to Debbie Lee, vice
president of Downtown Santa Monica Inc., the nonprofit that runs the
Third Street Promenade for City Hall.

They set up on the street and attract between 75 and 100 people,
Kathleen Rawson, executive director of Downtown Santa Monica Inc.,
told council members.

"It just gets larger and larger because the word has gotten out that
these things are happening," she said.

(more)
http://www.smdp.com/Articles-local-news-c-2011-11-22-72994.113116-Feeding-homeless-in-public-raising-concerns-yet-again.html

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=d1g8d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3406l5875l0l6516l8l8l0l3l3l0l203l687l2.1.2l5l0#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&source=hp&q=homeless&pbx=1&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l0l2704l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=65769b7f407de200&biw=1154&bih=606

G=EMC^2

unread,

Nov 23, 2011, 12:52:14 PM11/23/11

to

On Nov 23, 12:26 pm, Twittering One <mournenwo...@aol.com> wrote:
> New England Homeless shelter gets ready for busy winter
>
> By Richard Vernalls
> Worcester News, MA
> November 22, 2011
>
> WORCESTER’S winter homeless shelter is opening up and launching
> appeals for hot drinks, volunteers’ time and mobile phones.
>
> Every winter, the Worcester Night Assessment Centre opens its doors as
> a shelter.
>
> This year, for the first time, it will be based at the YMCA in Henwick
> Road, St John’s.
>
> It was previously based at the Maggs Centre in Deansway.
>
> With room for 24 homeless people who would otherwise be using one of
> the city’s doorways or alleyways as a bedroom, it will be much in
> demand, according to Donna King, St Paul’s Hostel projects director.
>
> “We’ve got a bigger problem this year,” she said.
>
> “We did a rough sleepers count recently and there are more people who
> will need our help this year.”
>
> An overnight count by St Paul’s Hostel, the city council and Worcester
> Community Housing in Shrub Hill, Lowesmoor, the city centre, Diglis,
> St John’s and Pitchcroft found 17 rough sleepers.
>
> The centre is open from 9.30pm until 7am from now until March 11,
> 2012, and is staffed by St Paul’s Hostel workers and volunteers.
>

> (more)http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/9376328.Homeless_shelter_ge...
>
> ~ * ~
> More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search...

The moment the rich 1% have to pay taxes to feed the poor it will be
Tang time. TreBert

Twittering One

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Nov 23, 2011, 12:54:25 PM11/23/11

to

~ * Happy Thanksgiving to All ~ !

After Thanksgiving, we'll move on & take a systematic -- but highly
idiosyncratic! -- look at each of our 50 states, beginning with the
Letter A!

... & we'll keep plodding along until January 31, 2012, when the US
Homeless Census takes its accounting.

~ Twittering LSTOO & Folly IAG
Twitter @Lettersnow
http://www.countrywhatnotgardens.com/stockimages/photos/canadian-goose-websized.jpg

Wiselya...@yahoo.com

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Nov 25, 2011, 11:11:37 AM11/25/11

to

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Nov 28, 2011, 12:02:55 PM11/28/11

to

> (more)http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2011/11/16/news/doc4ec3fa1fbf0fd7...
>
> ~ * ~
> More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=...

Exactly HOW currupt or STUPID is the NY Daily News?

Look what their EDITORIAL Page wrote about the BRC Chelsea Homeless
shelter in Manhattan, back in July 2011 [The NYC Courts have now ruled
this shelter is legal, see above]:

"Sometimes, New York City judges just go missing. Most sensationally,
Judge Joseph Crater walked out of a midtown restaurant in 1930 and was
never heard from again. Today's candidate for the back of a milk
carton: Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden."

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/judge-joan-madden-trashed-justice-withholding-ruling-homeless-shelter-late-article-1.155982

Twittering One

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Nov 28, 2011, 12:10:28 PM11/28/11

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COLORADO

Denver engages in a street struggle a
As number of homeless sleeping downtown continues to rise

By Jeremy P. Meyer
Denver Post
November 27, 2011

Every night, Randy Stotts and four other homeless men head to the only
place they feel safe — a patch of hard ground near the end of the 16th
Street Mall where steel buffalo roam. Stotts and his friends bed down
in sleeping bags and blankets near the bison sculptures between
Larimer and Market streets — preferring the elements over a night in a
shelter.

The men are a visible reminder of the increasing number of homeless
people, a problem that is growing despite a city initiative started
six years ago to end homelessness within a decade.

Though few could have predicted the economic crash that kicked people
out of jobs and homes, Denver government and business leaders now are
divided over how to solve the growing homeless problem.

(more)
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_19419187

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=d1g8d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2266l4344l0l5813l8l8l0l3l3l0l157l548l2.3l5l0

Twittering One

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Nov 28, 2011, 12:17:39 PM11/28/11

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CONNECTICUT

UConn Docs Offer New Shoes, and Healthy Feet

By Uma Ramiah
Connecticut Mirror
November 23, 2011

Dr. Vinayak Sathe peered closely at the swollen foot.

"Can you move your ankle up and down? Good. And can you move it
sideways? So just swelling right? And how far up does it go, like up
to here?"

Sateh, a foot and ankle surgeon, was working as part of a team
providing free, pre-Thanksgiving foot care in New Britain. For a fifth
year, staff from the New England Musculoskeletal Institute at the
University of Connecticut provided the podiatry screenings -- and new
shoes -- to homeless people in central Connecticut.

That foot belonged to Electa Mackinnon. Mackinnon lives at the
Friendship Center -- a homeless outreach program and shelter where
Sathe and other health professionals arrived Tuesday night with an
arsenal of new shoes and boots. Sateh gave her a quick foot checkup
before she was fitted for a pair of those shoes.

"Since I'm a diabetic and I have not seen a podiatrist since I became
a diabetic, he wanted to check my feet and make sure I didn't have no
sores or cuts or ulcers starting on my feet," she said.

(more)
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/14599/uconn-docs-offer-new-shoes-and-healthy-feet

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=homeless&oq=homeless&aq=f&aqi=d1g8d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2266l4344l0l5813l8l8l0l3l3l0l157l548l2.3l5l0

Twittering One

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Nov 28, 2011, 12:36:05 PM11/28/11

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DELAWARE

The economic downturn's new face of poverty
Evidence of tough times emerges across all three of Delaware's
counties

By MOLLY MURRAY, ESTEBAN PARRA & DOUG DENISON
The Delaware News Journal
Nov. 27, 2011

The worst economic downturn since World War II is evident across
Delaware, from Wilmington neighborhoods to the homeless tent cities
popping up in the shadows of million-dollar homes near the state's
beach towns.

Evidence turned up earlier this month in a wooded corner of Cape
Henlopen State Park north of Rehoboth Beach, where state park rangers
ordered the removal of a cluster of tents and cited some homeless
residents for illegal camping after complaints from the public.

"We've actually done it a couple of times: in mid-September and then
maybe mid-October and again a couple of weeks ago," said Capt. Steve
Savidge, regional ranger for the Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Control.

(more)
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111127/NEWS/111270347/The-economic-downturn-s-new-face-poverty?odyssey=nav%7Chead

~ * ~
More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...

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Nov 29, 2011, 6:56:55 PM11/29/11

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On Nov 29, 1:37 pm, Twittering One <mournenwo...@aol.com> wrote:
> FLORIDA
>
> 'Help Keep Warm' dot.org collects sleeping bags for homeless
>
> By YVETTE C. HAMMETT
> The Tampa Tribune
> November 23, 2011
>
> Last year, Ricki South and her small band of volunteers managed to
> raise enough funds to purchase nearly 900 sleeping bags for the
> region's homeless.
>
> This year, she's shooting for 1,000. But, as usual, the collection is
> off to a slow start, said South, who founded helpkeepwarm.org to
> provide a small amount of comfort to those living on the streets.
>
> Bulk order sleeping bags have gone up from $5 each to $7 each, plus
> shipping, this year, so, it will be a bit more of a challenge.
>
> "I'm hoping to get 1,000 bags. Last year, we were just shy of that,"
> South said. "Really, I'm hoping to get that many and go to at least
> five counties. I'd like to get into the St. Pete area, because of the
> large homeless population there."
>
> Helpkeepwarm.org started in 2007, a year after South lost her husband
> to alcoholism.
>

> (more)http://www2.tbo.com/news/community-news/2011/nov/23/brnewso14-help-ke...
>
> ~ * ~
> More 2011 Homelesss Holiday Hype ...https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search...

Twitty NYC Mayor Florida governor both billionaire GOPers would not
buy one sleeping bag. This Friday I will use my credit card and buy
5 . I have slept on the shore of Revere Beach,and when it went below
40F it was no fun. Bert

ala

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Nov 29, 2011, 7:59:05 PM11/29/11

to

"Twittering One" <mourne...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:e7c3d9a5-4692-4a41...@h21g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

FLORIDA

>Governor Rick Scott Says ‘I Care Completely’ About Homelessness After
>He Proposed Cutting All Funding For Homeless Programs

>By Tanya Somanader
>Think Progress
>Nov 28, 2011

>In a state that is near the top of the national chart in food
>insecurity, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) took time this holiday to pass
>out Thanksgiving dinner to about 1,000 families at a shelter in East
>Naples.

It's a good thing he's not president then

http://www.truth-out.org/if-republican-were-president/1318598286
If a Republican Were President ...
Friday 14 October 2011
by: Robert Scheer, Truthdig | Op-Ed

If a Republican were president, there would be millions of properly coiffed
middle-class Democrats and independents at those Occupy Wall Street marches,
and no questions asked as to what they really want. With 25 million
Americans unable to find full-time work, 50 million whose homeownership
dream has turned into the nightmare of foreclosure, and an all-time high of
46.2 million -- including 22 percent of our children -- living in poverty,
the call to throw the bums out would be compelling.

But the protest signs in a nation headed by a Republican, though surely
gussied up a bit with ad-agency savvy, would be the same as they are now:
Stop catering to the top 1 percent who get ever wealthier, and focus on
helping the 99 percent who are hurting. To accomplish that, we need a
moratorium on bank-ordered evictions, along with a government-funded program
to aid the underemployed that is as robust as the trillions spent to save
the Wall Street swindlers who caused all of this trouble.

Instead, we're left with a Democratic president who sooths our rage with
promises of decent-paying jobs that in actuality are being vigorously
exported from our shores by the president's top corporate backers. That
absurdity was marked by Barack Obama's choice of Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of
General Electric -- a company that has shifted to foreign countries
two-thirds of its workforce and 82 percent of its profits -- to head the
president's job creation council.

Obama has failed not because he is a progressive in the mold of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt but because he is not. He has blindly followed the lead of
George W. Bush in bankrupting the nation by throwing money at Wall Street
while continuing to fund wildly expensive and unneeded wars.

Meanwhile, the Republicans divert public attention from their culpability in
destroying a sound federal financial regulatory system and gifting Wall
Street crooks with a platinum get-out-of-jail-free card. To listen to the
GOP presidential candidates, the banking meltdown was caused by everyone
except the bankers.

The next time you meet up with Republican apologists, ask them if they ever
heard of Phil Gramm, whose name is on the legislation that offered a blanket
exemption from government regulation for the bank-concocted "securitization"
of home mortgages into the collateralized debt obligations and credit
default swaps that are at the heart of the world's economic crisis. And if
you meet ex-Sen. Gramm himself, ask him if he still thinks we are "a nation
of whiners" for thinking there is a crisis, as he asserted when he was
heading the John McCain presidential campaign.

OK, it would be worse if McCain had won and Gramm were his Treasury
secretary instead of being a super-compensated exec of the Swiss-based bank
UBS, which American taxpayers bailed out. And, yes, the fact that Gramm is a
supporter of his former student Rick Perry for the GOP presidential
nomination is a reminder of just how dangerous the Republican alternatives
are. But there is also some value in the clarity afforded by having visible
villains occupying the White House.

Let me confess that I gagged on those words as soon as they were written.
Clarity is not power, and the prospect of a Republican presidential victory
by, say, Mitt Romney is just too unnerving. Romney's economic program is
Orwellian in form and substance: The candidate has asserted that our economy
is in trouble because "President Obama has vastly expanded the regulatory
reach of government." Hogwash. It is because he hasn't.

Romney's proposed foreign policy is even more irresponsibly wrong. He has
revived the neoconservatives' discredited Pax Americana rhetoric, which got
us into the Iraq War and returned military spending to highs reached during
the Cold War. Romney laid out his obsession with U.S. military dominance in
a South Carolina speech last week; he said he would increase the size of the
military by 100,000 members. He later thundered to cadets at The Citadel:
"This century must be an American century. America leads the free world, and
the free world leads the entire world. God did not create this country to be
a nation of followers."

ala

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Nov 29, 2011, 8:06:40 PM11/29/11

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"Twittering One" <mourne...@aol.com> wrote in message

news:a1177605-2771-4cf6...@cc2g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...

>FLORIDA

>Milton church to open as cold-weather shelter for homeless

>By Louis Cooper
>Pensacola News Journal
Nov. 29, 2011

why the hell is it even cold in Pensacola?

those homeless will be proteesting soon
http://www.truth-out.org/climate-change-often-unacknowledged-contributor-increased-violence-and-authoritarianism/1318276701
Links Between Climate Change and Increased Social Unrest Unacknowledged
Friday 14 October 2011
by: Michael Busch, Truthout | Interview

In many respects, 2011 has been marked as much by the mayhem of nature as it
has by the upheavals of men. Although challenges to political authority have
captured the imaginations of millions and produced exciting tremors of
revolution across the continents, Mother Nature's increasingly ferocious
response to the heavy environmental footprint of industrial production will
likely be judged the most profound source of social change around the world
in the years to come.

From the Japanese tsunami, which triggered the worst nuclear crisis since
Chernobyl, and the extreme drought that currently threatens the lives of
millions in the Eastern Horn of Africa to the wildfires, hurricanes and
periodic flooding that have decimated both coasts of the richest country in
the world, anthropogenic climate change is increasingly - and undeniably -
at the core of politics and society everywhere in the world.

"Tropic of Chaos," Christian Parenti's excellent new book examining the
intersections among climate change, neoliberal economic policy and the
spread of political violence, argues that the convergence of these threats
to international security has set our world along a course that will result
in a broken planet characterized by catastrophe, conflict and xenophobic
distrust. That is, unless meaningful action is taken immediately to reorient
international relations away from this disastrous trajectory.

I recently spoke with Parenti - who has for several years been a visiting
scholar at the City University of New York Center for Place, Culture and
Politics and is currently a visiting professor of sociology at Brooklyn
College - about his book, the future of climate wars, the failures of
leadership in Washington and at the UN to combat environmental degradation
and what can be done to avoid a world driven by the politics of natural
catastrophe.

Michael Busch: I wanted to begin by briefly touching on the book's title
and, more importantly, discussing the theoretical concept that largely gives
shape to the book's narrative arc: what you refer to as the "catastrophic
convergence." Would you give us a sense of what you mean by each and talk
about how they informed your research and analysis?

Christian Parenti: The "tropic of chaos" is less important than the
"catastrophic convergence." The tropic of chaos is more of a play on words
that refers to the conditions in the Global South, which is that belt of
post-colonial, underdeveloped, over-exploited states that mostly lie between
the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. So, it's sort of a name
for that region of the world.

The "catastrophic convergence" is the driving thesis of the book, the
argument that climate change doesn't just look like tornadoes, floods and
droughts. It also looks like religious violence, ethnic pogroms, civil war,
state failure, mass migration, counterinsurgency and anti-immigrant border
militarization. And so, climate change rarely works on its own. Usually, it
arrives in the Global South on a stage preset for crisis. The forces that
have preset that stage are militarism and radical free-market
restructuring - neoliberalism. Cold War militarism and now the War on
Terror, have flooded the Global South with cheap weapons and men trained in
the arts of assassination and interrogation, smuggling, small unit attacks
and terrorism. Neoliberalism has created increased poverty, increased
inequality and a tattered and stressed social fabric. As a result, it leads
to less social solidarity. It damages and degrades traditional economies.
And it makes more populations more vulnerable to sudden weather shocks,
extreme climatic events like drought and flooding, which are due to
anthropogenic climate change kicking in hard. And it is combining with these
two preexisting crises - militarism and inequality/poverty - and the three
of them are meeting in this catastrophic convergence and articulating
themselves as increased violence. That can be religious violence, ethnic
violence, sometimes class-based violence. Sometimes this is expressed as
chaos and relative or outright state failure.

But in the Global North, the catastrophic convergence presents itself as a
renewed emphasis on building up the incipient police state that exists in
many western European countries as well as the United States. So, we now
have a reengagement with the discourse around border militarization, a
reanimation of the xenophobic discourse that goes with those policies, which
are increasingly articulated in environmental terms - there's an
environmental crisis; there's not enough to go around; immigrants need to be
rounded up; everybody needs to sacrifice some civil liberties; the border
needs to be militarized. If climate change pushes chaos and state failure in
the Global South, it creates authoritarian state hardening in the Global
North, at least in its earliest stages.

MB: You offer compelling evidence that although the American popular
discourse is largely primitive and backward when it comes to the politics of
climate change, the US military sees the challenges very clearly and informs
to a great degree its doctrine on counterinsurgency. You argue that this
gives life to "the politics of the armed life boat." Can you talk more about
how the US military is responding to climate threats and what you understand
to be the prospects for survival in the armed life boat?

CP: The militarized response in the United States takes place in the
military but also at the state level in the development of a green
xenophobia. They aren't necessarily connected, but they fundamentally
produce the same thing, which is a hardening of state policy. The military -
to its credit - takes climate science very seriously. It does not question
the validity of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC)
Fourth Assessment Report, which is the last one to be published, the one
that was attacked because it had a few footnotes that were wrong. And they
were wrong. There was stupid, arrogant stuff around those errors, but the
errors and their correction in no way change the conclusions of the IPCC's
Fourth Assessment Report. The military takes the report seriously unlike,
say, the Republican leadership in the House or many other elements of the
American political class.

The military runs scenarios of what the future will bring. What they see is
not so much an increase in conventional warfare between states as an
increase in humanitarian crisis, civil war, banditry, religious wars, state
breakdown. And they realize that the armed forces will be called on to
respond with various forms of low-intensity conflict: counterinsurgency,
direct intervention, humanitarian intervention, shoring-up allied states, as
well as increased training and advisory roles in these conflicts. The future
for them is essentially one of open-ended counterinsurgency on a global
scale as articulated through these various reports, some of them public,
some of them secret.

In terms of the ethics of the armed life boat, which would seek to manage
this crisis of a planet in decline and manage it through the use of force,
examples can be found on right-wing talk radio, which calls for expelling
immigrants, or in people like Deborah Walker, who I discuss in the book.
Walker describes herself as a northern Californian environmentalist. She's
also an anti-immigrant xenophobe and racist. And then there's the Federation
for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which I didn't address in the book
because I didn't know about it; it was only exposed after the book was
published, FAIR is the original anti-immigrant lobby group associated with
Garrett Hardin and others. It started a front group called Progressives for
Immigration Reform that was seeking to reach out to environmentalists and
progressives with a message of excluding immigrants, talking about the
carrying capacity of the country and making the case that immigrants,
essentially, should be repressed.

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Nov 30, 2011, 11:53:40 AM11/30/11

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ILLINOIS

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praises lawmakers for $4.3 million boost to
homeless shelters

By David Ormsby
Springfield Political Buzz Examiner
November 30, 2011

Chicago, IL) – The Illinois General Assembly on Tuesday evening
approved legislation that would restore $4.3 (million to emergency
shelter services for homeless Illinois citizens, drawing warm praise
from Chicago’s mayor.

“I applaud the Illinois General Assembly for restoring critical
funding to the Emergency and Transitional Housing program that
supports homeless services and shelters,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In October 2011, 2,919 interim shelter beds in the City of Chicago, or
98.2% of the total beds available, were already used.

"Providing a safe, warm shelter for homeless American citizens must be
a fundamental responsibility of a government and its leaders," said
Feigenholtz.

The legislature's restoration of the emergency shelter money also drew
applause from a leading homeless advocate.

(more)
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-chicago/mayor-rahm-emanuel-praises-lawmakers-for-4-3-million-boost-to-homeless-shelters

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Nov 30, 2011, 11:46:29 AM11/30/11

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IDAHO

Donations sought to help homeless families in Idaho

By Tammy Scardino
Idaho State Journal
November 20, 2011

POCATELLO — The number of children in Idaho who have no place to call
home is on the rise, according to a McKinney-Vento study.

In fact, the rate shot up by 4.3 percent in 2010 compared to 2004 when
only 1.6 percent of the population was categorized as homeless.

Just like the so called “face of homelessness” has undergone a
transformation over the last few years, so has the way that donors can
lend a helping hand.

The Home Partnership Foundation is challenging Idahoans to get
families off the street by supporting their online campaign titled
“Avenues for Hope Housing Challenge.” Monetary donations are now being
accepted online at www.avenuesforhope.org.

“Because of the economic downturn, the number of people on the brink
of homelessness continues to increase,” said Gerald Hunter, president
of the Home Partnership Foundation.

Local beneficiaries of the money include: The Oneida Crisis Center in
Malad, Pocatello Neighborhood Housing Services, Family Services
Alliance of Southeast Idaho and Aid for Friends.

(more)
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/article_0ece8876-1351-11e1-a86d-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1fCx9A09m

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INDIANA

Barbara Anderson,
Executive director, Haven House Services Inc., Jeffersonville
News & Tribune
Opinion, Letters
November 30, 2011

SOUTHERN INDIANA — Help for the homeless is appreciated

I would like to express our gratitude and humble thanks for all that
is done with us to serve the homeless of Southern Indiana.

Thanksgiving was as wonderful as our chili supper. It begins a season
of involvement and active participation with people who live at
Williams Emergency Housing Center. There are many. We have a little
one, 4 months old, and one who is 72, and 76, and others at all
various ages between.

It takes much to run the shelter and much is given. Thank you to the
volunteers who continue to be there for us continually to keep the
doors open.

Thank you to the many people who sent money, who brought food, who
brought clothing, repaired a kitchen, a bathroom, created a garden
with our residents, served as health advocates, brought needed
specialty items, who prayed with our residents or who provided
comfort.

(more)
http://newsandtribune.com/opinion/x1760884127/LETTERS-Nov-30-2011

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NEW YORK CITY, NY

NY City Council Approves Homeless Policy Lawsuit
The council voted 47-1 to file the lawsuit

By Andrew Siff and Melissa Russo
NBC News
Nov 29, 2011
...
Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond said his
agency was transparent about the new policy and violated no laws.

(more)
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/134678743.html

Alas, all true.
The laws need strengthening & revising in NYC Court.

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On Nov 30, 12:22 pm, Twittering One <mournenwo...@aol.com> wrote:
> NEW YORK CITY, NY
>
> NY City Council Approves Homeless Policy Lawsuit
> The council voted 47-1 to file the lawsuit
>
> By Andrew Siff and Melissa Russo
> NBC News
> Nov 29, 2011
> ...
> Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond said his
> agency was transparent about the new policy and violated no laws.
>

> (more)http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/134678743.html

>
> Alas, all true.
> The laws need strengthening & revising in NYC Court.

"Diamond said the $4 million yearly savings projected as a result of
the proposed policy change represents less than 1 percent of the
agency's budget [$800 million] ... [Quinn retorted] "With all due
respect, [a homeless shelter] is not that great a place to be."

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP638da14d09cd4084ab70fe2ac80f329b.html

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North Carolina Homeless families need help this Christmas

By Dedrick Russell
WBTV, NC
November 28, 2011

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A Child's Place has committed to help 371
homeless families this Christmas, but about 100 of them are in
jeopardy of not having a Merry Christmas.

Three non-profit organizations have just informed A Child's Place it
will not be able to help sponsor some families. The economy could be
to blame. That withdrawal is the reason why some families may going
without.

A Child's Place usually gives families food, clothing and a Christmas
gift during the holidays. The organization is really hoping the
community will be the Santa Claus for the families in need.

It takes about $75 per family to fill the void. Organizers say the
need this year has jumped about 17% compared to last year.

"The community can get involved," A Child's Place Exec. Dir. Annabelle
Suddreth said. "Whether they have time, whether they have money,
whatever it is they can invest in our children that food and the
clothing and wish list really add up for our children to have holiday
and share with their friends and not hide."

(more)
http://www.wbtv.com/story/16138624/homeless-families-need-help-this-christmas

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KENTUCKY

Lexington KY organizations taking donations of backpacks for the
homeless

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears
Herald Leader
November 25, 2011

People in Lexington who call the streets their home sometimes don't
have personal-care items such as a toothbrush, socks or lotion.

Even if they have those items, they often don't have anything to carry
them in.

Staff members at the Bluegrass Community Health Center in Lexington,
which receives federal funding to provide health care to the homeless,
have launched a project to provide personal care and cold-weather
items this holiday season, said nurse manager Donna Agee.

As part of the center's commitment to the homeless, the staff is
collecting donations of backpacks filled with personal-care and other
items. The staff will collect bags and supplies until Dec. 8 and
deliver them to the Catholic Action Center, which provides food and
other help for the homeless, on Dec. 9.

"It can make a difference for the people who call the streets their
home to have the dignity of personal-hygiene items and a backpack to
carry them in," said Ginny Ramsey, co-director of the Catholic Action
Center.

The items the community health center staff is collecting include: New
or like-new backpacks or duffle bags, hats or gloves, socks,
disposable plastic rain coats or ponchos, hand lotion, lip balm,
toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant and bar soap.

(more)
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/25/1972172/organizations-taking-donations.html

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LOUISIANA

New Orleans lays out plan to end homelessness
Associated Press
November 29, 2011

(AP) NEW ORLEANS — Struggling to deal with one of the nation's
largest homeless populations, New Orleans and federal officials say
they'll work aggressively over the next decade to end homelessness by
getting more people on the streets into homes.

On Monday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu laid out a 10-year plan the city and
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development hope will end the
homeless problem that has become chronic since 2005's Hurricane
Katrina. Social workers estimate about 6,500 people are on the streets
in the city. The plan calls for building more housing for homeless and
creating a 24-hour center in a downtown Veterans Affairs Department
hospital building.

The problem has grabbed new attention in the past three months as the
park in front of City Hall, known as Duncan Plaza, has become part
Occupy Wall Street demonstration and part homeless tent camp.

Melvin Powe, a 53-year-old unemployed laborer from New Orleans, is
among the homeless who call Duncan Plaza home now.

(more)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57332905/new-orleans-lays-out-plan-to-end-homelessness/

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MAINE

Maine Voices:
Myths serve as tool to scapegoat homeless, poor people

Many say Portland shelters are full of 'people from away'
-- but nobody moves here to live on the streets.

By Mark R. Swann
Portland Press-Herald
Opinion
November 7, 2011

PORTLAND — Not a single day goes by without someone asking me about,
or complaining to me about "people from away." There is a solidly
entrenched, pervasive myth that poor and homeless people from all over
America are flocking to Portland because we're "too generous."

This perception has been the subject of discussions among business
groups, neighborhood meetings and even in the mayoral race.

Preble Street has usually steered clear of these discussions because,
frankly, if a human being comes to our doors saying they're hungry and
they need food, or they're homeless and need a roof over their head,
or they're scared and alone and need someone to talk to, we're not
going to ask for a Maine state ID before we welcome them, feed them,
or offer them unconditional support.

That is our job; that is our mission.

(more)
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/myths-serve-as-tool-to-scapegoat-homeless-poor-people_2011-11-07.html

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MARYLAND

Is this how we end homelessness?
Advocate questions Baltimore city's commitment after homeless
activists are removed from park

By Lisa Klingenmaier
Baltimore Sun
November 28, 2011

On the evening of Nov. 19, Baltimore City authorities took swift and
decisive action on the persistent issue of homelessness.
Unfortunately, the action they took was not designed to improve the
lives of Baltimoreans who experience homelessness.

Instead, it was directed against 300 students and advocates who had
gathered at War Memorial Plaza to spend the night outside in
solidarity with those who go without reliable shelter. The second
annual sleep-out — "A Bench is Not a Bed" — was the culminating
activity of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

We hoped to stimulate a citywide dialogue about how a community can
work together to end homelessness and to demonstrate our ongoing
commitment after the symbolic events of the week had concluded.
Students distributed blankets and food to approximately 50 people who
joined us for the night — folks with no other place to go.

(more)
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-11-28/news/bs-ed-homeless-20111128_1_end-homelessness-experience-homelessness-homelessness-awareness-week

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FLORIDA

Pensacola Museum of Art exhibit aims camera, compassion at homeless

Slash Pensacola
December 2011

Pensacola Museum of Arts “Three Hots and a Cot” exhibit, by
photographer E.J. Manton, documents the everyday lives of Florida’s
homeless population in powerful black-andwhite photographs.

But the exhibit focuses much more than just a camera lens at its
subjects.

Clients served by the Faithworks Interfaith Ministries Network, Inc.
are crafting tote bags and other items from discarded billboards. The
program provides area homeless with training and skills and a paycheck
to help them get back on their feet.

The sewing stations will be set up in PMA throughout the E.J. Manton
exhibition, through Dec. 30, and the clients will be working, sewing
and creating every day during regular museum hours. An Interfaith
Ministries client (above) sews a tote bag created from discarded
billboards. The bags (below) start at $8.

(more)
http://www.splashpensacolabeach.com/news/2011-12-08/Coastal_Life/PMA_exhibit_aims_camera_compassion_at_homeless.html

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MINNESOTA

Viewpoint:
Even in suburbs, homelessness a concern
We do have homelessness; it just looks a bit different than in urban
areas.

By Jen Peterson
South Washington County Bulletin
November 27, 2011

In honor of National Hunger & Homelessness Week in mid-November, I’d
like to share a bit about homelessness in Minnesota and specifically
in Washington County.

Some people are under the impression that since they don’t see people
sleeping under bridges or because they don’t see lines of homeless
people waiting outside the shelter that we must not have any homeless
people in Washington County.

The reality is that we don’t have homeless people lining up at a
shelter because there is no homeless shelter in the county. We do have
homelessness; it just looks a bit different than in urban areas.

Homelessness in the suburbs shows itself in different ways. Many times
people without a permanent home of their own end up “couch hopping”
day to day or “doubling up” for short periods with friends or family.

They sleep in their cars in 24-hour store parking lots and they “camp
out” at the local campgrounds, but not for a vacation. If they are
lucky, they are able to tap into county services or a church network
for a short-term motel stay or some other temporary housing.
Sometimes, people will staying in or return to an unsafe or abusive
relationship simply to have the roof over their heads.

(more)
http://www.swcbulletin.com/event/article/id/19499/group/homepage/

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MISSOURI

City of Springfield goes to court to shut down camping area for
homeless people

New Life Evangelistic Center has defied city officials for more than a
week

By Linda Russell
KY3 News
November 16, 2011

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- City officials asked a Greene County circuit judge
to order New Life Evangelistic Center to stop letting people camp in
tents and vehicles behind its Veterans Coming Home Center near
downtown.

New Life Evangelistic Center, headed by the Rev. Larry Rice, has been
letting homeless people camp in the fenced parking since about Nov. 8
in defiance of city officials who say the parking lot isn't zoned for
overnight camping.

The lawsuit against New Life Evangelistic Center was filed late
Wednesday afternoon. The city says it's seeking preliminary and
permanent injunctions and a temporary restraining order against the
parking lot camp.

"The City of Springfield has issued two letters to Larry Rice and
NLECI stating that use of the property as a campground violates the
City's zoning for that property. The City has no other enforcement
option other than to file these peitions and rely on court action," a
city news release says.

(more)
http://articles.ky3.com/2011-11-16/homeless-shelters_30408144

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FLORIDA

Pensacola Waterfront Mission needs $600,000 to finish new location
-- Recent $50,000 gift from Wal Mart Foundation helps narrow gap
From original $5 million goal

By Thyrie Bland
Pensacola News Journal
December 5, 2011

The Waterfront Rescue Mission has about $600,000 on its Christmas wish
list.

That's how much money the mission needs to finish a $5.38 million
project for homeless men on West Herman Street.

The shelter is slated to open between April and June. It will replace
a 65-bed facility in downtown Pensacola.

The $600,000 will go toward renovating a building on the West Herman
Street site for a Day Resource Center. It will have a learning center,
computer lab, library, laundry facility, and mail and phone center.

There also will be space at the center for service providers to meet
with the homeless about their needs.

A 124-bed shelter is under construction on the property. There also is
an administration office on the site.

(more)
http://www.pnj.com/article/20111206/NEWS01/112060314/Mission-needs-600-000-finish-new-location

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Dec 8, 2011, 1:30:56 PM12/8/11

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NEW MEXICO

Our View:
A ray of hope during the winter

Las Cruces Sun-News
Opinion
December 7, 2011

Winter has come to Las Cruces and southern New Mexico, with bitter
cold temperatures and one of the rarest of all sights, a snow-covered
desert.

While the winter storm has been a joy for students who get to sled
instead of study and a headache for drivers, it represents the most
dangerous and challenging time of the year for our homeless community,
and the dedicated workers and volunteers who serve them.

At the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, about 35 people are braving
the cold in a cluster of tents dubbed "Camp Hope" that has gone up on
city land adjacent to the homeless shelter.

It is, to be sure, an imperfect solution to an intractable problem.
And, we're not sure yet if it is a permanent or temporary solution.
But for now, it's a step in the right direction.

City administrators have agreed to let the encampment remain in place,
despite questions over whether it was an authorized use of the land
under that parcel's zoning.

(more)
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-opinion/ci_19485487

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OKLAHOMA

Tulsa shelter gets needed donations

By Kevin Canfield
Tulsa World
December 7, 2011

As a child, Clara Perkins never wanted for a meal, shelter or love.

But she knew there were children out there who weren't so lucky,
because her mother, Vitace Boevers, a Tulsa County Emergency Shelter
worker, told her so.

She "impressed on us how fortunate we were," Perkins said, "and we
knew we were."

All these years later, children are still in need, and Perkins, 81,
still can't help but think of them. So, with dozens of other Oklahoma
Home and Community Education members, she is doing something to assist
them.

The organization on Wednesday will present the shelter with 92 sets of
children's pajamas, 74 tote bags and 26 laundry bags - all handmade.
The giving won't stop there: OHCE also is providing boxes and boxes of
blankets, socks, hats, stuffed animals and books.

"A lot of kids today, they don't own pajamas. They don't even know
what pajamas are," said Linda Johnston, director of Tulsa County's
Social Services. "It's a very rare day when we have a child in our
shelter that has pajamas."

(more)
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20111207_16_A2_ULNSlr217494