The Bird catches Darrell Ankarlo butt-smoochin' Sheriff Joe again, relates the latest on the MCSO's Honduran scandal and introduces candidates vying for Candy Thomas' job

These MCSO big shots made their case during an "informal meeting" of the Supes. The Bird's blogging Siamese twin, Feathered Bastard, posted the presentation document forked over by PIO Poulos — and it's a humdinger.

The thing starts with the sort of pabulum you'd expect from a Peace Corps pamphlet. Stuff like, "Transnational cultural diversity is a reality for both agencies." And, "With the sharing of cultures also comes the sharing of problems." The doc makes the stunning revelation that some illegal aliens in the United States are from Honduras, and that some of these are involved in crime! (No duh, Dagwood.) Then it persists in this Hendershott-size pant load that MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is a Honduran gang.

Don't take this talon-bearer's word that this is elephant caca. Read what the flippin' FBI has to say on its Web site:

"MS-13, which started in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, has an estimated 8,000-10,000 members nationwide, mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran Americans but also including Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants."

The MCSO presentation reads like a cover-your-ass move necessitated by the initial reporting done in January on this subject by both Feathered Bastard and The Bird. The MCSO also trots out the pic of the Guv with the Hondurans, and slyly mentions that it gave a presentation in June to Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, though this plumed penman wonders if this is true. (Wilcox reportedly has been out of town and unable to comment.)

The bottom line for all the Supes is that they've been snoozin' on duty, allowing Arpaio a free pass.

In the February 4 document, the MCSO stated it has used $28,809.35 in RICO funds and $5,252.46 from the Sheriff's Office budget. As The Bird's already demonstrated, these figures are grossly inaccurate.

What did the Supes know and when did they know it?

The above-mentioned discussion of the $4,000 posse gift to the MCSO, and all this stuff about donating MCSO computers to Honduras should have pricked the Supes' ears and got them asking questions. That is, unless they knew all along about the Honduran-RICO mess, just as Arpaio maintains.

ANKARLO KISS-ASS

Sheriff Joe can always count on ultra-conservative KTAR lip-flapper Darrell Ankarlo to wipe Arpaio's fanny clean with his kisser, even when Joe's been caught with his paw in the RICO cookie jar.

The Bird heard Arpaio growling on KTAR the other day as Ankarlo lapped it all up. Nothing new there. Ankarlo's been an unabashed Joe buttlicker since the hate jock arrived in Phoenix. Even the stink of corruption does not deter him from puckering up to Joe's geriatric hindquarters.

Basically, Ankarlo played Stepin Fetchit to Nickel Bag Joe, letting the geezer cop shoot off his mouth about the training of Honduran police by MCSO deputies, all paid for by the county and RICO money.

"What's 30,000?" asked our spendthrift sheriff, snarling that he's answerable to no one!

Joe justified the Honduran enterprise by claiming that the MCSO has received "millions of photos for our facial recognition" — whatever the hell that means. The number of photos cited by Joe has fluctuated wildly from 1 million to 5 million. Here's a news flash, dunderhead: There are only 7.5 million people in Honduras. So, what, have they photographed all the little old ladies and kiddies, too?

Arpaio always begs off when asked to explain what he's talking about, mumbling some malarkey about the situation's "sensitivity."

The money-shot of this Ankarlo-Arpaio love-fest was Ankarlo's query to Arpaio, "Did one penny of my tax dollars pay for this trip in any way, shape or form?"

Ankarlo was suggesting the nearly $34K in RICO money was a non-issue if there were no "tax dollars" used. Arpaio's response was chock-full of toejam.

"First of all, it was RICO monies . . . We were using that money — $30,000, which is nothing."

Ankarlo followed up with, "Not one penny other than RICO money was used: Yes or no, Sheriff?"

"Well, I don't know, there may be a couple of dollars here or there," Joe fumbled. "But if there was, it was not significant."

"Is that hundreds, thousands, do you know?" wondered Ankarlo.

"No, no, no," insisted the crotchety top constable. "The majority of the money was the RICO money. I don't know if we spent a few bucks otherwise. I doubt it."

Check it, peeps: RICO money is our money! It's money that comes from asset forfeitures from criminals doing bad stuff, and it's supposed to go for specific law enforcement needs — not so MCSO goons can use the excuse of training some other country's cops as a reason to vacay in Honduras on the county's freakin' dime (plus whatever else may be going personal-business-wise down there for any of these Deputy Doofs).

Ankarlo, of course, was clueless that county tax dollars were obviously used to pay for this Honduran adventure.

But the wing-nutty blowhard did correctly note the parentage of the Honduran story.

"Having seen the firestorm," said Ankarlo in a windy wind-up to a softball Q. "And, again, it's no love lost between you and New Times. New Times hates you, and I doubt you even have great aspirations to ever be a reporter for that organization. [Huh?] So New Times comes out, they expose it. And then KTAR, Channel 12, others pick it up."