Merry Christmas . . . Feel Free To Stiff The Homeless

In the past, the Post has done its most just in time for Christmas to make you feel less guilty for stiffing panhandlers. Here they are again, gleefully reporting State AG Andrew Cuomo’s crackdown on the United Homeless Organization plastic water jugs that are all over town, at tables where volunteers ask you to give up a penny for the homeless:

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed suit yesterday, charging the United Homeless Organization is a scam run by con artists who pocket most of the change they collect — hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

. . .

UHO founder Stephen Riley and director Myra Walker take a big cut of the money to fund personal shopping sprees at the GameStop, Home Shopping Network, Bed Bath & Beyond and P.C. Richard, as well as their monthly cable bills, legal papers charge.

Riley, a beefy 60-year-old, shamelessly used the donated dollars — which are supposed to be used to “feed the homeless” — to pay his Weight Watchers bills.

Voters, Like Sniveling Little Adolescents, Most Hate Hypocrites

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips*:

As a billionaire in one of the dining capitals of the world, he can eat anything he wants. But he is obsessed with his weight — so much so that the sight of an unflattering photo of himself can trigger weeks of intense dieting and crankiness, according to friends and aides.

His food issues have become New York City’s. Although he has described his battle against unhealthy foods as common-sense public policy that will shed pounds (and save lives), many of his targets overlap with his own cravings.

“I like a Big Mac like everybody else,” he confessed the other day, explaining the city’s warts-and-all approach to fast food. “I just want to know how many calories are in it.”

Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit” by asking waiters for food without added salt.

But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.

Not even pizza is spared a coat of sodium. When the mayor sat down to eat a slice at Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern on Staten Island recently, this reporter spotted him applying six dashes of salt to it.

And then there’s the concept of Asshole-In-Chief:

When he does not like the food, he rarely holds back. After dining at Blue Smoke, Mr. Meyer’s barbecue restaurant on East 27th Street, the mayor told Mr. Meyer, “I just don’t like it.”

Mr. Meyer tried inviting him back, but the mayor would not budge. “It never feels good when somebody tells you they don’t like your restaurant, but it’s nice when a politician does not pander,” he said, adding that the mayor has heaped praise on Union Square Cafe.

*In fact, Thompson should consider making this a slogan of sorts, e.g., you think it’s OK to suspend term limits just this once, but consider the deleterious long-term effects . . .

You Never Want To Be “That Guy” . . .

. . . who overstates his own sweatshop life story:

Queens City Councilman John Liu adamantly insisted Sunday that he worked in a sweatshop as a child, despite denials from both of his parents and two of his mother’s longtime friends.

1300 Women In Connecticut Can’t Be Wrong!

Buried in the reaction to Cintra Wilson’s gratuitously obnoxious Critical Shopper piece about J.C. Penney in today’s Public Editor column is this admission exposing the Thursday Styles section for the sleazy high-end advertising vehicle that it is:

Wilson told me she usually writes about “obscure stores that don’t exist outside of Manhattan,” and she thinks of her audience as “1,300 women in Connecticut and urban gay guys in Manhattan.” She said it was “kind of provincial of me” not to realize how big The Times was and how her audience would expand when she reviewed a store like Penney’s. She said she also thought she hit a raw nerve with people already disposed to think of The Times as disconnected and unsympathetic. “It was dumb on my part not to see this coming,” she said.

But give bonus points to Wilson for ripping on Connecticut ladies in the process . . .

That’ll Teach Them

Inasmuch as birds can “learn,” the City plans to teach them:

“The serious dangers that Canada geese pose to aviation became all too clear when geese struck US Airways Flight 1549,” Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday in announcing the aggressive plan.

“The incident served as a catalyst to strengthen our efforts in removing geese from — and discouraging them from nesting on — city property near our runways.”

Federal wildlife officials will be dispatched to net and euthanize the molting birds over the next few weeks at 40 city parks and other locations near LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.

In addition, the Port Authority will train and arm supervisors to shoot the birds in an emergency situation.

Over the past six years, more than 1,200 geese have been netted and gassed on nearby Rikers Island in an effort to reduce the population and potentially dangerous collisions with planes.

But after a bird strike forced Flight 1549 to land in the Hudson River, there were calls for tougher measures.

Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said the city will contract with the U.S. Agriculture Department to round up the geese and share the cost with the Port Authority.

“They have experience at Rikers,” Skyler said. “They know how to do it as humanely as possible.”

Geese will be targeted at Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Fort Totten.

I expect to see the numbers killed the next Mayor’s Management Report . . .