Free Republic

St. Patrick's Day is Saturday, but for the first time in 44 years no street parade will celebrate Irish heritage in San Antonio. “What it comes down to, we can't afford it,” said Terence Peak, president of the Harp and Shamrock Society, which organizes the popular downtown event. Its absence once again raises irksome questions about a controversial parade ordinance passed by City Council in 2008. The law, challenged by critics but upheld in courts, adds fees for police and barricades for most processions except for a few. The city covers the costs of police for the Diez y Seis...

The New York Giants on Tuesday will be showered with confetti and greeted by throngs as they are feted with the city’s most storied honor: a parade through its Canyon of Heroes. But all the fanfare — the parade this week is the fourth since 2000 to honor a sports team — has touched off anger and unease among some returned Iraq veterans, who are eagerly awaiting their own recognition. “Everybody recognizes that the Giants deserve a parade,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. But, he added, “If a football team gets...

MYFOXNY.COM - New York City will throw a parade Tuesday morning for the New York Giants to celebrate their Super Bowl title. The victory parade will travel through the financial district's Canyon of Heroes. Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/new-york-giants-super-bowl-victory-parade-2012#ixzz1lZJBD5iA

More arrests, more destruction, more annihilationists by the occupy destroy movement exalted my the media and left wing goons. Thousands of arrests, rapes, rape tents, murders, arson, Jew hatred, the stuff of left wing lunatic love. But the enemeida despised, slandered, and smeared the pro-America Tea Party, million of peaceful activists, no arrests, no crime, no racism.... and the media's knee jerk hatred of the good for being the good. From coast to coast the #owsoccupiers were on the warpath when the new year rang in. Target, America. In New York: Some 800 Occupy Wall Street protesters began the new...

Americans won't be seeing a huge ticker-tape parade in New York City anytime soon for troops returning from Iraq. It's not clear if veterans of the nine-year campaign will ever enjoy the grand, flag-waving, red-white-and-blue homecoming that the nation's fighting men and women received after World War II and the Gulf War. Officials in New York and Washington say they would be happy to help stage a big celebration, but Pentagon officials say they haven't been asked to plan one. Most welcome-homes have been smaller-scale: hugs from families at military posts across the country, a somber commemoration by President Barack...

Man who placed bomb on MLK Day parade route sentenced to 32 yearsDecember 20, 2011 | By Michael Martinez, CNN A 37-year-old white supremacist, Kevin William Harpham, was sentenced Tuesday to 32 years in prison for placing a bomb-laden backpack along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington, in January, the U.S. Justice Department said. Harpham, an unemployed electrician from Colville, Washington, pleaded guilty in September to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to commit a federal hate crime. Shrapnel in the "improvised explosive device" contained anticoagulant to...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anti-Wall St protesters plan to join New York City's Halloween parade on Monday and although several people have been arrested at recent rallies for wearing masks, demonstrators will have a free pass for the holiday. New York state has a law that bans masked gatherings and police have enforced the rule at protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality, which set up camp in a park in the city's financial district on September 17. But the law, dating back to 1845, allows people to wear masks if it is for "a masquerade party...

So, what happened to you in the early debates? Rick Perry: "A debate is an eight-ring circus, and you have a minute to talk. Sometimes it can be hard to explain your position on a host of issues. I readily admit I’m not the slickest politician nor the smoothest debater." Do you feel as if the other candidates have been ganging up on in the debates? RP: "When you come into the fray and you’re leading in the polls, you’re going to get attacked by everyone. I get it. I’m a big boy, and I know how to play that...

One of tractors at a collective farm. Small number of them are said to be operated mostly to show them off to visitors.

First Place Winner In Bessemer, Michigan’s Fourth of July ParadeJim22 August 26, 2011 6:11 pm Vintage John Deere Tractor and Vintage Manure Spreader

In previous years, Republicans have worked the parade route, but this year they will not be allowed to take part. The parade is organized by local unions, which said Wisconsin Republicans "have openly attacked worker's rights." Wisconsin politics — which hasn't been pretty of late — has made its way into a local Labor Day parade. The organizers of the Wausau Labor Day parade announced they would not let Republican lawmakers take part in the Sept. 5 display. The parade is organized by 30 local unions. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: In a statement, [Randy Radtke, president of the council,] added...

Organizers of Wausau's Labor Day parade say Republican lawmakers aren't welcome in this year's event. The Marathon County Central Labor Council sponsors the September 5th parade. The council includes about 30 local unions from the Marathon County area. Council president Randy Radtke says they choose not to invite elected officials who have "openly attacked worker's rights" or did nothing to intervene.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A former Navy operations specialist is organizing what is believed to be the nation's first military contingent of active-duty troops and veterans to lead a gay pride parade. Sean Sala says the group will march Saturday in San Diego's parade, the nation's fifth largest.

It’s a fun, yet quiet community, just west of Tampa, Florida. It is probably best known as the home of the Safety Harbor Spa. Safety Harbor was the site of a small Fourth of July parade that can only be called perfect homespun Americana. Residents lined up on Main Street in rows that were, in some places, 15 and 20 deep. Some sat in lawn chairs while others stood and all were sincere as they paid their respects to the July 4th date as well as the flag. Patriots, one and all stood to salute the colors as they passed....

A float set to role down the streets in Oak Creek and Racine was supposed to honor those who died on 9/11. The good intentions of one firefighter sparked a controversy. Members of the youth group at Parkway Apostolic Church in Oak Creek have completed cleaning up and rehabbing the 9/11 float, but that float almost didn't have anyone to March with it. The 9/11 remembrance was originally built in 2002 by Lt. Mark Gorniak of the Oak Creek Fire Department and appeared in the parade back then. he thought it was time to bring it back, but he quickly...

Apparently thousands turned out for the Gay Pride Parade in Salt Lake City, Utah today. I am not sorry to say I was not among them. Men in speedos, drag, and diesel dykes don't appeal to me. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against these people, just not very accepting of their behind closed doors lifestyle. As a straight white, conservative, Christian male I feel I would be horribly out of place cheering on people with pierced nipples in tights with visible outlines of "packages."

Rep. Anthony Weiner a no-show at New York City Israel Day parade amid Twitter photo scandalBY Reuven Blau DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, June 5th 2011, 3:18 PM Rep. Anthony Weiner ditched the Israel Day parade for the first time in years as the ballooning boxer brouhaha continues to dog him. Several of his fellow Democrats and political rivals questioned why the congressman was nowhere to be seen. "It has become a huge distraction," said former city Controller William Thompson Jr., a likely Democratic mayoral contender. "It has become a circus. Every answer raises another question." U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg...

Today is the wonderful, splendorous, life-celebrating Israel Day parade down Fifth Avenue. I go every year and I love it. The nazis go also and try to bring down the happiness and ebullience, but they are like so many gnats. No one cares. The NY Post is running a special section on the Israel Day parade. AFDI/SIOA took the back cover -- the ad that Seattle Metro, San Francisco BART, and NYC Transit, cowards that they are, would not run. NewspaperadTEXTONLYfinal-5 Here is other fantab parade stuff with an unhappy ending: the Obama administration refused to let this man in...

This video comes courtesy of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which was a little surprised to see a White House aide claim the need for secrecy when it comes to a proposed Executive Order on transparency. Barack Obama wants more transparency on political contributions from executives at government contractors, but apparently his staff believes in “transparency for thee, opacity for we” in the West Wing. Here’s Daniel Gordon attempting to explain that there isn’t any irony at all in invoking executive privilege over their efforts to promulgate an unprecedented intrusion into political thought in the private sector:

Cherry Blossom parade might be nixed if there's a shutdown By Michael O'Brien - 04/06/11 12:38 PM ET The National Cherry Blossom Parade may not take place if there is a government shutdown, the Obama administration cautioned Wednesday. Among the government operations and services that could be closed would be national parks, which includes the site of Saturday's parade in Washington, D.C. A senior administration official singled out the parade during a conference call Wednesday morning hosted by the Office of Management and Budget. Federal agencies have sought to identify which employees and services would be furloughed if lawmakers can't...