I can hardly wait to leave this place

Doorbell rings last night. I answer, there's a young woman who tells me she's asking for support and donations for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Coalition. She sounded convincing, answered all our questions, and had the proper ID from the City of L.A., so we gave her a small donation. She said this donation would specifically go toward their Child Homeless work.

Here's more about the LAHSC:

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has launched a ground-breaking citywide canvassing campaign to help eradicate homelessness by raising support for nonprofit homeless charities and building awareness in the community about the crisis of homelessness in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Coalition was founded June of 2005, and in this short time has raised over Two Million Dollars to build new shelters in Los Angeles, specifically benefiting homeless women and children.

. . . Currently, all donations made to LAHSC are directly given to our Coalition Partner, Los Angeles Youth Network, to aid them in their services and help in the building of a fourth shelter. LAYN allocates 93% of their funds directly to their services, and 7% is spent on overhead (management & fundraising). Click here to view Form IRS 990 YEAR 2006. (Note: pdf file)

And just to put a fork in O'Reilly and call him done on his rant to Ed Schultz about there being no homeless vets:

BO: They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? So if you know where one is, Ed…

ES: Well, actually…Now, wait a minute…one in ..

BO: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it. Is not there.

O'Reilly was complaining about John Edwards' statements about homeless vets. Well, Bill, here are some statistics:

• In 2006, approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night—an increase of 0.8 percent from 194,254 in 2005. More veterans experience homeless over the course of the year. We estimate that 336,627 were homeless in 2006.
• Vets constitute 40% of the homeless population.

And here's Edward' response to O'Reilly:

“Tonight, 200,000 brave veterans will be homeless, and they will sleep in shelters, on the streets, under bridges, and on grates – and Bill O’Reilly doesn’t think there is a problem. For someone who spends a lot of time shouting about patriotism, you would think he would be outraged by the treatment of our homeless veterans. How many more will it take before we wake up and solve this crisis?

“These are the facts. Today, one out of four of our nation’s homeless are veterans, and a recent federal government study found that a third of our homeless live in places ‘not meant for human habitation.’ This is a serious moral failing of our government and our nation. Our veterans have done everything we have asked of them and more, and it’s time we honor our sacred contract with them.

"While George Bush and Bill O’Reilly continue to ignore our homeless veterans, the American people, whether we are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, must speak out and stand up for those who have stood up for us. We must do everything we can to solve this terrible problem – and we must begin by reaching out to these men and women who are suffering – not pretending they do not exist. After our veterans have served our country honorably, isn’t one homeless veteran one too many?”

Indeed. And O'Reilly?

Bastard.