CANADIAN POLITICS:

TALES FROM JULIE'S MATTRESS- ACT 2:

As of yesterday yet another federal Conservative luminary has fallen in the "Couillard affair". Bernard Côté, a Québec Conservative advisor was asked to resign by Public Works Minister Michael Fortier when it became known that he had been involved with Couillard last spring. At that time Couillard was acting of behalf of property developer Groupe Kevlar (even though she was not registered as a lobbyist), and Côté had access to federal government business that Kevlar was bidding on.

The whole affair actually gets more amusing week by week. It turns out that Couillard was being considered as a Conservative candidate herself, and that she made a $1,000 donation to the party in March 2007. Apparently the cheque bounced. Now this takes some gumption. It is one thing to have the lights come on in one`s head and realize that the real money is in politics rather than in organized crime (or are they really the same thing). It is quite another to piss off Sneaky Stevie as well as `Mom' Bouchard. Perhaps the Kevlar Group is into fashion wear as well as property development. It would seem appropriate. As a little afterthought, yesterday the federal government finally got around to removing Couillard's "designated person" status that would allow her basically diplomatic immunity on travel. Ooops. I guess one can't accuse the Conservatives of rash action. Slow but steady. Slow but steady.

Anyways, here's the story from the CTV Network.

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Conservatives' troubles increase over Couillard
The federal government's headache over former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier's relationship with his ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard, who has ties to organized crime, just got a little more painful.

Bernard Cote, a top Quebec advisor for the Conservatives, was fired by the party on Tuesday after it was revealed he dated Couillard while she was vying for at least one multi-million dollar Public Works contract for property developer Groupe Kevlar Inc.

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier dismissed Cote on Tuesday after receiving a call from a Quebec reporter asking about a link between Cote and Couillard.

Fortier told The Toronto Star that Cote was in a conflict of interest and should have recused himself from all dealings that affected her, but he failed to do so.

Fortier told The Star that Cote, who was a special assistant in charge of his Montreal office, offered his resignation on Tuesday, and he accepted.

According to reports, Cote and Couillard dated briefly in the spring of 2007.

The former real estate broker and property manager ran unsuccessfully for the Progressive Conservatives on two previous occasions.

Commons hearings
Meanwhile on Tuesday, a House of Commons public safety committee heard that the RCMP was aware of Couillard before the scandal erupted over her relationship with Bernier.

On Tuesday, Raf Souccar, the RCMP's assistant commissioner for federal and international operations, appeared before the committee examining the affair.

He did not specify what the RCMP knew about Couillard, or whether any information had been passed on to the government.

Bernier stepped down on May 26, hours before Couillard revealed he had left classified briefing materials in her apartment in mid-April.

Poll: 66 per cent feel Bernier affair an important issue

The committee is trying to determine the extent of the security breach. Bernier and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said they will not participate, although Couillard is expected to make an appearance next week.

Former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya told the committee that Bernier is being held to a lower security standard than a bureaucrat would be.

"What I wanted to bring to the committee ... is that there is a double standard," he told CTV's Mike Duffy Live Tuesday.

"There is a standard well established for federal employees, where we have procedures, we have policies to execute a security clearance, and how you behave after you obtain that security clearance.

"It is very obvious to me, with the information obtained, that there is a different way to proceed with an elected official. And alternatively, they do carry some of the most sensitive information the government has."

CANADIAN POLITICS:

THE MINISTER AND THE "BIKER CHICK":

There is a tactic that works the majority of times if you want to "get away with something". It's called "brazening it out". In the anarchist world Stuart Christie became famous for this when, during a plot to kill the fascist dictator Franco, he tried to smuggle explosives across the Spanish border. No sneaking across the mountains at midnight for him. He crossed the border in full Scottish regalia, playing his bagpipes, with the explosives hidden under his kilt. The assumption was that no Spanish border guard would ever look under the kilt of a Scotsman, knowing what is usually there. That depended upon a really inflated estimate of the worldly wisdom of the average Spanish border guard. Ooops ! Or at least that's the way the legend goes. No nuts, just bombs. Ore maybe really big nuts and bombs besides. Another term for this, taken from old Edgar Allen Poe stories, is "hiding something in plain sight". Needless to say Christie got caught, and his imprisonment under Spain's fascist regime is another story entirely.

Our dear sweet beloved comrade leader Stephan Harper here in Canada has adopted the "brazening it out" tactic as perhaps his one and only response to the ever-repeating cycles of scandal that sweep up against his minority government. Yeah, it works, but only because his opposition is so feeble. The term for his attitude is "hubris" and the term for what he is heading for is the Greek Goddess "Nemesis". As Molly has said before here Sneaky Stevie is no fool. He knows exactly how to play the various factions in his party, even if said factions may be no more swift than his Liberal opposition. He holds together a coalition that is naturally fissionable by its very nature, throwing bones to the various wings of his Party as needed to satisfy their hunger. He sits and he waits and he plots in hope of getting the exact and proper time to head to the polls, to get a majority and to implement his full program -the nature of which he never directly states. A consummate politician of there ever was one. Molly tips her rather faded Easter bonnet to him.

But Stevie is too smart for himself. Every "victory" that he gains over his feeble opposition merely reinforces his illusions of invincibility and spurs him to repeat the same pattern over and over. What Sneaky Stevie doesn't understand is that you can win very victory and yet lose the war. Not that he has any great alternatives. He sits on top of a mass of loose cannons, any one of which can explode at any time. He can tighten the screws as much as he wants on the religious right in his Party- within limits, of course-, because they will vote for his Party irregardless. What he cannot do is assure the personal morality of his more business oriented supporters. The whole idea is almost a contradiction in terms. Sooner or later some great and grievous financial impropriety will surface If he doesn't go to the polls soon enough, an impropriety sufficient to sink his electoral chances with a cynical(and rightfully so) electorate will happen. But for now we have merely personal scandals.

Maxime Bernier is the latest Minister of Foreign Affairs down Ottawa way. "Foreign Affairs" is such an apt term. Basically under Harper it consists of either making excuses for being screwed by the government of the USA or denying that such screwing exists. At the same time it consists of screwing everyone else that the US government feels should be screwed. The soap opera nature of this is obvious, and truly vigilant "politics watchers" are advised to make up a flow chart of the screwers and the screwees. Bernier has been criticized for his incompetence before in his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, though Molly doubts that he is really any more incompetent than any other Minister in any other position. Our political system is hardly a meritocracy.

What has tripped up Bernier is his choice of bed-partners (and worse - arm candy). Some time ago he was raked across the coals in the national press for showing up at an official function with his then girl friend Julie Couillard at an official function. What was the problem ? Well, it was last August. The "dog days of summer" have a meaning. Slow news days kiddies. Seems that Couillard was showing a little too much tit and leg at this appearance. No doubt the "source" of the press leak was some sort of parliamentary wives's club.

The whole matter came and went with all the substance of a politician's promise even though the "meat" of the matter was just as available 9 months ago as it is today. This May our ever-enterprising journalistic corps finally woke up to who Julie Couillard is. Love that Johnny-on-the-spot investigative reporting. If you want the full story it is available HERE in an article in the Montreal Gazette. The basics of it are as follows.

Back in 1997 Couillard married a Quebec biker named Stephane Sirois, a member of the 'Rockers', associated with the Hell's Angels, after having previously dated a man that then boss of the Quebec Hells Angels Maurice Boucher suspected of being a police informant. The Hells put pressure on Sirois, and said that he could either marry Couillard or continue with his association with the gang- but not both. Sirois chose Couillard. It wasn't a complete divorce from his previous associates. Sirois later rejoined the Rockers after his divorce from Couillard after two years of marriage. Sirois also went on to become a major informant against the Hells in subsequent trails. Couillard, leading an apparently charmed life, also "went on" from her biker associations to link up with much more serious organized crime- ie the Conservative Part of Canada.

What Molly finds amazing in all of this is that it should generate surprise. Is it really a surprise that bikers and their associates should be part and parcel of the same social circles as up and coming lawyers ? Uhhh....don't you party with your business associates ? Is it really surprising that conservative lawyers like Bernier are part of such social circles ? The Jesus Saves stuff and kids' hockey on Saturday night clips are only for the rubes. The reality is considerably different. No surprise whatsoever.

What is sad about this whole affair is that the so-called "opposition" tries to make hay about this connection with the underworld as if it was a matter of a "threat to national security". Blahh,blahh, blahh, phewww. That's the sound of yet another of Molly's hairballs. Say duh. The connection between the "legitimate organized crime" of government and the "illegitimate organized crime" of illegal gangs is a constant throughout the history of most countries. This is NOT a "threat to national security". It is actually a window into how our ruling class operates in the real world despite their public protestations of "morality". Here comes the obligatory anarchist rhetoric.... "national security" is a threat to the "personal security" of those the politicians rule.Its absence is our own security. No government means no great and grievous thieves. Simple crookedness is business as usual for our political class.

But who really deserves a "genius award" in all this sordid mess ? Certainly not Bernier, who has visibly demonstrated that an erect penis is larger than a brain in his case. Certainly not Sneaky Stevie who merely pushes the same old arrogant buttons that have served him so well. Any monkey could do that. Certainly not the feeble opposition (do they have much to hide themselves ?) who chatter about "national security" when there is a great and obvious other issue. No...Molly tips her faded Easter bonnet to Julie Couillard here and now. This woman lives an obviously charmed life. She skated through many years of suspicion by a biker gang who dismissed her as a "slut". This is one smart "slut". She had the intelligence to know the obvious. When you are in doo-doo with one gang- link up with a bigger and nastier gang. There is NO bigger and nastier gang in our country than the one that Couillard has presently linked up with. Any hit man taking up a contract on her now would have to be obviously deranged because he would be caught from the get-go. How much money compensates for 25-n0-parole ? There never was such a life insurance policy. Molly votes for Julie as our next Prime Minister. She certainly has more intelligence than the present contenders.