More today on the asshattery from the Arsehole Of The Universeâ„¢. You might recall from yesterday’s post that the chickendoves down at TO’s Silly Hall have decided, in their infinite wimpdom, that it would be a grand jolly idea to yank the yellow “Support Out Troops” ribbons off all the city’s firetrucks and ambulances.

Yeah, those ribbons. The ones that send the antiwar (read “anti-military utopian, la-la-land-dwelling”) crowd into fits.

The same boneheads that amongst other things, keep the wheels of TO’s homeless industry greased to the tune of over $100 million a year want to get rid of them. Their reasoning for such full-blown fiddlyfriggery were thoroughly astonishing:

The reason? It depends on who you talk to. And there are lots of contradictions.

Some say it is because it was not brought to council for proper approval, others say protocol was not followed. Another reason given is it was a one-year project.

But many City Hall sources tell me it has everything to do with some complaints from a few anti-war citizens who have the ear of some leftist councillors — and felt the ribbons were in support of the war in Afghanistan and not just in support of the troops.

‘IN CONVERSATIONS’

“It was a decision I made in conversations I had with the two chiefs,” said city manager Shirley Hoy, who was good enough to return a call yesterday on this and own up.

Several members of council did not extend the courtesy. Having said that, Hoy, though, still attempted to dance around this by saying it was a “one-year support program” and that the decision was made to remove the decals when the vehicles were scheduled for “regular maintenance.”

Surely, Shirley, every vehicle is not going in on the same day for repairs?

Well, it looks like their buffoonery has come back and bitten them on their little peacenik asses. Right quick…

Councillor Frances Nunziata said yesterday she would call on council to extend the yellow ribbon campaign after receiving calls from veterans who were “outraged and insulted” after reading a Sun report about the decals being removed from the emergency vehicles.

Mayor David Miller expressed support for Canadian troops but refused yesterday to intervene in the local battle that has erupted over plans to take yellow ribbon decals — a sign of support for the troops — off 170 fire trucks, 147 ambulances and 25 of that department’s emergency response cars and SUVs.

Well, isn’t that just cute? He supports the troops, as long as he doesn’t have to take a stand on anything.

Dear Dave,

NEWS FLASH, you little socialist weasel: if you support the troops, that means actually DOING something about it! You never have any problem with throwing your office’s weight around when it comes to one of your little Lefty feel-good, do-nothing projects or causes, do you? But when it comes to standing up for the very men and women that put their asses on the line to earn all the freedoms that you take for granted, you tuck tail and do dick all like the good little sniveling Leftist lapdog that you are. Yeah, you talk, but talk is cheap:

“There are calls from people saying, ‘Why are you expressing support for the war in Afghanistan’? My perspective is that troops — once they are put in harm’s way — everybody has to support them,” said Miller, whose uncle served in the British and Canadian navies.

SO WHY THE HELL AREN’T YOU SUPPORTING THEM, DAVE?? Without men like your uncle, men like you and your anti-military playmates are an evolutionary dead end, you little shit! Get off your worthless, no-balls-havin’ ass put a stop to this bullshit! You say that you support our troops, I say PROVE IT! Put the damn things back and leave ’em there until our troops come home.

Looks like de Tocqueville was right about people in democracies getting the government they deserve… 🙄

At least not everyone in TO is a blathering idiot:

“When you have families already living in anticipatory grief, it’s a bit of a slap in the face,” said Katherine Hodgson-McMahon, executive director of the Toronto Military Family Resource Centre.

As usual, “Scrawler” Joe Warmington nailed it:

GET A SPINE, MR. MAYOR

I dare you, Mr. Mayor!

I dare you, David Miller, to vote against the Canadian troops today.

And if you do, I then dare you to resign in disgrace and dishonour.

I would then dare you to face the families of the 57 soldiers already brought home in flag-draped coffins. Shame on you for even letting this get this far!

Amen to that.

== UPDATE ==

It seems that TO’s city council has proven that you actually can count on them to do the right thing. Whenever they’re cornered like rats in a trap, that is…

City councillors voted unanimously today in favour of keeping the “Support Our Troops” decals on fire trucks and ambulances. The issue became a political hot potato after Mayor David Miller backed a plan by fire and ambulance officials to have the stickers removed, starting in September.

As most of you know, I wouldn’t live in the Centre Of The Universeâ„¢ if you paid me (ane yes, there have been offers). It’s too big, too noisy, the air stinks, there are way too many panhandlers (speaking of panhandlers, did you hear about Mike Strobel tripping across the Shaky Lady again?) and it’s got one of the ugliest shorelines I’ve ever seen.

But the absolute worst thing about Toronto has to be that they keep electing idiots like that socialist scumbag, David Miller and his hypocritical henchmen. The latest mealy-mouthed asshattery from this bunch is described by the TO Sun’s Joe “Scrawler” Warmington. I know I don’t usually reprint entire articles, but this shitheadery really needs to be seen to be believed:

City order burns troops
Pulling fire, ambulance ribbons is wrong
By JOE WARMINGTON

Our brave troops will still be fighting in Afghanistan this September even if the magnetic ribbon support decals on Toronto Fire trucks and ambulances won’t be.

The city has ordered the Support Our Troop decals to be removed from all fire trucks and EMS vehicles on Sept. 4, the Sun has learned.

The reason? It depends on who you talk to. And there are lots of contradictions.

Some say it is because it was not brought to council for proper approval, others say protocol was not followed. Another reason given is it was a one-year project.

But many City Hall sources tell me it has everything to do with some complaints from a few anti-war citizens who have the ear of some leftist councillors — and felt the ribbons were in support of the war in Afghanistan and not just in support of the troops.

‘IN CONVERSATIONS’

“It was a decision I made in conversations I had with the two chiefs,” said city manager Shirley Hoy, who was good enough to return a call yesterday on this and own up.

Several members of council did not extend the courtesy. Having said that, Hoy, though, still attempted to dance around this by saying it was a “one-year support program” and that the decision was made to remove the decals when the vehicles were scheduled for “regular maintenance.”

Surely, Shirley, every vehicle is not going in on the same day for repairs?

Later she admitted the support ribbons did not meet “certain corporate standards” for the city.

Maybe we can arrange to give the troops over there some parking tickets and send over a bylaw officer to make sure they are complying with the smoking rules? Corporate standards! What the hell are they talking about?

The whole thing is outrageous but at least now we are on to what this is really all about. They should just say it. This is the politically correct leftist crowd getting their way — at the expense of our amazing troops in the battle of their lives. This has got to be a moral victory for the Taliban.

The guys really on the spot here are Fire Chief Bill Stewart and Ambulance Chief Bill Farr. Two very good guys who essentially answer to council and to senior administration and have their hands tied. Also, there is no way the paramedics and firefighters in this town would approve. I know many and their respect for the troops is unwavering.

While Chief Stewart said the decals “did not meet corporate standards … and the corporate policy must be adhered to,” decals or no decals he also emphasized “we certainly support the Canadian troops.” He said firefighters have had fundraisers and other initiatives to show that.

If they do, no political pressure from some leftist anti-war activist should be able to stop that.

Shame on anybody who is messing with that. Like it or not, this country is at war and it’s imperative we support the men and women doing the heavy lifting every chance we get. Hoy told me the decals were put on a year ago and were to be removed at the end of one year. No one else indicated this was the plan.

If it was, it would be unprecedented in Canadian military history. Imagine if they’d put up yellow ribbons during World War II for just the year 1942? There is at least one veteran upset about this.

“I can guarantee that no one on city council has ever served in the Armed Forces but they are always eager to jump to the front of the line when a Forces photo opportunity comes along and shout that they support the troops,” said Don Ashfield.

“City council can vote approval to bump their pay, pad their expense accounts and attend many meetings where free food is given, but Support Our Troops? Never.”

A spokesman in the mayor’s office said he “didn’t know anything about this.” Same goes for several other councillors — all of whom did not return calls.

Yeah, sure!

Scott Marks, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association, said the reaction of members ranges from some who are not too worked up to others who are outraged. It was the association who designed and paid for the decals on the fire trucks — the EMS ones were paid for with taxpayers’ money.

More than a month ago pressure was brought to bear by Now magazine, which quoted specifically Councillor Janet Davis. “I do connect the Afghan mission to the Support Our Troops sticker. That is where our troops are being killed,” she told Now reporter Andrew Cash in May.

“Not only does this not communicate a City of Toronto policy, but it also sends a political message about a public policy matter that is quite contentious. And we shouldn’t be using public funds for it.”

‘A POLITICAL MESSAGE’

But if we are going to be by the book about public money at City Hall, let’s not start at the expense of the at-risk troops — 57 of whom have died in battle.

This is not the issue to try to show corporate precision and integrity. Try doing it when you are quietly voting yourselves an 11% raise.

Whatever you think of this, a decision has been made to have those decals removed. “I think it’s crazy,” said one firefighter. “We sent over a video to the troops to show them these ribbons on the trucks. I hope they know we still support them.”

Perhaps this is not over yet. It’s actually up to you. This might be a time for us to collectively speak up. If there is public reaction against this nonsense, maybe we can turn this around and they will leave those decals right where they are — and leave them there until every member of our Canadian Armed Forces is back from this conflict and not a moment before.

Our troops will still be fighting in Afghanistan in September and if we make enough noise perhaps those decals supporting them will remain on the side of our municipal emergency vehicles.

Got an opinion of your own on this subject that you’d like to share? By all means… 416-338-0338…

Let the bastards know just how you feel.

…when the Grits are working themselves into a lather, doing everything that they can to try to nail the closet door shut before their little osteological embarrassments have the chance to form a chorus line and come kicking on out for all the world to see like a regiment of revenant rockettes. 🙄

That’s right; the McSquinty Lieberal$ are once again raiding the public piggy bank in a mad rush to keep the rest from us from knowing… well, how they abused the piggy bank before…

TORONTO — The Ontario government spent another day in court yesterday arguing why its legal bill for fighting an autism treatment lawsuit should stay secret, which means even more money has been wasted on lawyers rather than helping kids, the opposition said.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice heard arguments about a request under the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to reveal how much the government spent defending against a lawsuit filed by parents of autistic children.

Yeppers, boys & girls. The grits are blowing a buttload of your tax dollars on lawyers to keep you from knowing how much they spend on lawyers.

Whaddaya call a hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start. (rimshot here)

Same old, same old, same old … Grits make promise. Grits break promise. Grits waste more money breaking promise than they would have spent keeping it. Grits then blow even more money covering their asses. And every cent of it is, of course, your money and not theirs. Meanwhile, the Grits of McSquinty — who loves to cry poor to Ottawa — show off their lack of common sense by using the annual surplus to buy votes instead of paying down the debt.

Ontario’s Liberal government has “institutionalized” the habit of spending surplus funds at the end of the fiscal year instead of applying the extra cash to the provincial debt or deficit, Auditor General Jim McCarter said yesterday.

In his first pre-election review of the Liberal government’s fiscal plans for the next three years, McCarter said the government has been creating lists of candidates who could receive year-end grants long before the end of the fiscal year.

[…]

“The combination of such revenue surpluses (and) the tight timelines involved in these year-end spending decisions . . . has resulted in a significant reduction of the normal accountability controls over these transfers.”

Pay down the debt? Are you nuts? That’s the kind of thing Mike Harris would do! When the hell are people in this province going to get it through their heads that Liberal$ (of any stripe) just plain can’t be trusted with the public purse??

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until October.

Holy bejabbers, Batman; you’d think that even the Grits would learn sooner or later. Booted from office for being frequent frolickers in financial fiddlyfriggery, you’d think that these boneheads would have figured out by now to keep their hands the hell out of the cookie jar.

But nooooo, not this bunch. For all their talk about scary conservatives, hidden agendas, a new Liberal party direction with a new leader and practically doing everything short of giving themselves a snot rubdown to look greener than thou, they’re still the same old, same old, same old (etc, ad nauseum) Librano$ that they ever were…

About $16,000 has vanished from a London federal Liberal riding association, triggering a police investigation.

The probe comes amid indications an official with the party’s Ontario wing offered a way to keep a lid on the issue.

[…]

“I’ve never encountered anything like this and I’ve been in politics since I was 13,” said Lois Jackson, a St. Thomas party member. [guess ya musta slept through Adscam, eh, Lois? -D]

Jackson is upset the riding executive has said nothing about the matter publicly, despite conducting a nomination meeting in April for which nearly 800 party memberships were sold.

St. Thomas police confirm they’re investigating a complaint about the missing funds.

“Quite a number of people have been interviewed,” said Const. Anders Nielsen. “The allegations are, in excess of $15,000 (has) gone missing.”

The Free Press has learned a high-ranking party official tried to solve the problem by offering to cut cheques for the missing money provided local officials agreed to take no further action and considered the matter closed.

A letter from David J. Pretlove, then interim executive director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario), offered to cover the missing funds.

That letter was given to the board in January by Suzanne van Bommel, then a member of the board and now also the party’s candidate in the riding for the next federal election.

Van Bommel said she presented the offer “on behalf of Mr. Pretlove.”

Pretlove is now director of finance and administration for the party’s Ontario wing.

Van Bommel is a former chief of staff for Steve Peters, the Ontario Labour Minister who holds the same riding provincially. Peters nominated van Bommel and sold memberships on her behalf.

Hey, relax, folks. I’ll just slide a little cash over in that direction and this can all just go away. Youse diddn’ see nuthin’. Hey, Dave; any chance I can get that in a nice plain brown envelope?

♪
A little ditty, ’bout Dave ‘n’ Su-zanne
Two Canadian Grits scammin’ folks the best they can…
♫

Every time they catch a serial killer, all the same questions get asked: How did they get like this? What makes them like this? And my personal favourite: Why can’t we identify them early on so they can be locked up BEFORE they kill a bunch of innocent people?

So why is it that most of those same people who ask those questions are now, with an embryonic serial killer in the grasp of the system, making nothing but excuses? If there was ever any doubt that Jasmine Richardson is fucked up beyond retrieval, it was banished by the evidence presented today:

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (CP) – A cartoon showing one person coating three others in gasoline and laughing as they’re burned alive was seized from a girl’s school locker just hours after her family was found stabbed to death, a jury heard Thursday.

Police and school staff discovered the cartoon during a frantic search for the girl after her parents and younger brother were found in their blood-soaked home in April 2006.

The drawing and testimony from the girl’s guidance counsellor came on the fourth day of the girl’s first-degree murder trial. The 13-year-old accused, who was 12 at the time of the deaths, can’t be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The 10-frame drawing starts off with four stick figures going for a walk as the sun shines. There are two clearly larger figures, a small third figure and a fourth labelled “Angry.”

The pencil-drawn narrative shows the fourth figure pouring gasoline into a sprinkler system, turning it on and drenching the others. The smallest figure is on a swing when it says, “Oh no, we’re covered in gasoline.”

The fourth figure then lights the gasoline and smiles as the others run around in flames and cry for help as their flesh is burned off.

The sequence ends with one stick figure lying on the ground. A caption reads “The Unimaginable Pain.” Two other smiling stick figures look on. A final frame depicts the fourth figure running off to a vehicle labelled as “Jeremy’s truck.”

The young girl’s co-accused and boyfriend at the time, 24-year-old Jeremy Steinke, faces the same three murder charges, but a date has yet to be set for his trial.

Well, there you have it. We finally caught a future Ted Bundy / Aileen Wuornos before she had the chance to rack up a double-digit body count and what are we told? Never mind who she is. Never mind that she’ll probably be out before she’s old enough to drink. It’s none of your business.

Like hell it isn’t. Ten years is it, and she won’t serve more than six. Then, she’ll be back on the same streets as my son. And she’s about the same age. My son has a right to be warned about this little psycho bitch.

Your kids have that right, too.

…that doing the right thing would ever be easy. London top cop Murray Faulkner has likely had that on his mind quite a bit lately.

To the surprise of no one, the parents of David Lucio have begun demanding a full inquest into how the case was handled (not that I blame them — if my son were killed, I’d want every damned detail gone over with an electron microscope) and Faulkner has likely spent some very self-critical time in front of the mirror lately. Now there’s a guy that I don’t envy…

The outraged parents of a former London police officer killed by another in a murder-suicide want an inquest into how police handled the case.

But while police Chief Murray Faulkner rejects that, yesterday — for the first time — he said he will ask an outside party to assess what happened and how police missed any signs of trouble brewing.

Just how formal such an outside examination would be, Faulkner couldn’t say. “I am not sure of the process yet.”

Now, before we all hop on the bullshit bandwagon and start pillorying Faulkner for “not knowing what to do,” let’s just pull the hell off the sanctimony superhighway, shall we? I don’t think there is any police chief anywhere on this continent, let alone in Canada, with any experience in a matter like this. The most senior female officer on the entire force — often referred to even now as a “rising star” — murders a former police superintendent, in what is looking more and more like a fit of jealousy, and then takes her own life, eliminating the possibility of a trial.

Contrary to what some arseholes will tell you, there’s one hell of a lot more to cops than going through life blindly following procedure and shining their badges in their off hours. These people have lives; wives, husbands, kids, bills, mortgages, hopes, dreams… you name it. Just like you.  And when they lose one of their own, it’s like a cold slap in the face that reminds them that every time they put on that uniform and walk out the door, they might not come back.  Their wives or husbands might have to carry on alone.  Their kids might have to grow up without a mom or dad.  Their parents might be left to endure the frustrations that torment David Lucio’s parents…

An angry Doug Lucio, father of the slain retired officer, contacted The Free Press to vent his frustrations. “She killed him. She murdered him — premeditated. Nobody’s saying that,” the father, 80, said.

Angry about the handling of the case, including what the public was told and when, the father insists discussion about the tragedy has been stifled.

“Out of discussion comes action plans. And out of action plans comes results,” he said.

“I will not tolerate this. (An inquest could) let people stop it from happening again.”

No, Doug, it wouldn’t.  I don’t blame you for being pissed; God knows you’re entitled (never thought I’d use that phrase).  But as much as we may wish otherwise, there are still some things in this life that we just can’t see coming, no matter how hard we try.  You’re absolutely right about one thing, though.  People aren’t being direct about what happened, so here it is:

That bitch murdered your son in cold blood.  Period.  She wasn’t any kind of a victim; she had no excuse. There was a victim here but it sure as hell wasn’t her. She was just as bad as some asshole that kills his wife because she’s leaving him.  In fact, she was worse.  Worse because she was in a position of authority and trust.

There you have it, for whatever it’s worth.  Getting back to Faulkner, though, the senior Lucio also has some other damned good questions that deserve to be answered:

Among other things, Lucio wants to know why Faulkner met with the family of Johnson — the shooter — but didn’t call he and his wife, the parents of her victim and a fellow although retired officer.

He also wants to know why police didn’t erase any public doubts about which of the two was the shooter — thus clearing Lucio’s name — when the truth was clear long before autopsy results were released five days after the shootings.

“They knew. So how come it just came out the day of his funeral (June 11)?” he asked.

Lucio described a dramatic confrontation with Faulkner at his son’s funeral Monday.

“I said to him, ‘You got a hold of (Johnson’s former) husband and you got a hold of her father.’ Then I said to him, ‘Why didn’t you call his mother and I?”

Face it, Murray.  No matter how you slice it, you owe that man some answers.