It's been a banner year for anti-Scientology activism. Since February and the rise of Anonymous, an internet-spawned group dedicated to exposing the abuses and criminality of this MLM scam masquerading as a church, several significant things have occurred. More media coverage, for one. Exposure of Scientology lies for another. Deep research into available financial records, so that the IRS will have its job made easier if and when they decide to move to revoke Scientology's tax exempt status.

But the one main thing that has happened this year, is the rising up of former victims; speaking out about their horrific lives within the cult.

Fear has kept them silent for years; fear of Scientology intimidation, of having their lives disrupted, fear for family, friends and pets. But that fear has diminished, as the cult tries frantically to identify and silence over 9000 people wearing Guy Fawkes masks, their resources are spread thin. And these victims, these ex-members know that Anonymous has their backs, as well as a large number of other ex-members no longer willing to stay quiet.

The most serious damage that our current president has wrought over the past eight years has been to the Constitution and to its' balance of powers. His actions, along with the inaction of congress and the collusion of the Supreme Court has focused more and more power in the hands of a single human being, making of the presidency an office more fit for a King.

Many have commented that in this election cycle we've seen the Internet come of age as a primary tool for political organizing. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to fully employ radio to channel his message to the people while Adolph Hitler used the same medium to destructive effect. John F. Kennedy was the first politician to fully realize the importance of television as a means to construct a sense of national identity. People like Jerry Falwell used television as the supreme vehicle for demagoguery and group think. Someone like Barack Obama will be the first president that emerges out of the Internet Age, and we should question what are the ways that the new medium can foster both the use and abuse of power.

The Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF for short.  It is a little-known branch of Scientology's elite corps of followers.  However, it is where the elite go when they have fallen from the Church's good graces.  It is also one of the more controversial policies the Church has, and is (like nearly all of their policies) cloaked in the right to practice religion.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them..."

--Karl  Popper  

More below the fold.

As I watched Lanny Davis lying through his teeth on Larry King last night, I had a strange feeling of deja vous. Today I realized that George Stephanopoulos had triggered the same feeling in me the other day when he was floating the idea that Hillary would consent to being Veep. And now I know why.  I was a member of a religious cult for a couple of years in the early 70s when I was in college, and Lanny and George remind me of weak cult types, like many I knew back then, like myself. Thus the deja vous.  

In my cult back in the 70s, there were plenty of Lannys and Georges. Larry G was a Lanny. He was never one of the golden insiders, but was a loyal worker bee, always striving for acceptance and praise form the great leader. His greatest thrill was to be ordered by AK to sweep up her poodle's crap or run errands for her. It was the same with Garry N and John F, Bill, W and many others.  When you look back, most of the members shared this uneasy status, never knowing when they were going to get a cookie or get their head chewed off. A very few had the golden insider status. And it was most instructive to us all when two of the golden insiders were knocked from their pedestals and humiliated worse than any of us. Anyone who's been involved with or studied cults will be familiar with these tropes.

Paul Krugman has written another column where he attacks Obama's supporters.  For a man who claims he wants a strong liberal Democratic party in power, why does he continue to demonize those who are working to achieve this end?

Oh, by the way, if you live in Albuquerque's 18th state senate district, your local anti-gay politician, State Sen. Mark Boitano (R), is a cult member with a violent past. Clearly New Mexico has the shocking story.

The brother of Brian Boitano, the figure-skater, the senator has tried to outlaw gay marriage. He's also one of a generation of politicians groomed by the Reverend Moon, Washington Times publisher, to enter politics and expand Moon's clout. I discovered that Boitano, a family values type, once shot a gun at a car to stop a group of ex-Moonies from moving on with their lives.

Cross posted at a Arevolutionofone.net.

Beyond the pure insanity of a nutty cult leader having the influence that Reverend Moon has, there are so many things so very wrong here I hardly know where to begin. But I'll force myself to start with what's been in the news recently. And I'll do it briefly because, as I've said before, this topic has been discussed to death in the corporate media. And now that I think about it, it's not that it's been discussed so much, but how it's been discussed, as an endless 20 second loop, that's the problem.

Have you heard of "The Family"?  Well you had better start finding about them.  This secretive religious group seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill.

The Family’s most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes – knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family  reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs.

Maybe some of you know this already, but I found it shocking that this hasn't been more widely reported.

Barbara Ehrenreich writes today in the Huffington Post that Hillary Clinton has been an active member and participant in "The Family," since 1993. The Family is a cult-like organization that worships Jesus, but refrains from the word Christian. Their recent membership includes, or has included, James Inhofe, Ed Meese, Rick Santorium, and John Ashcroft.

In yesterday’s (March 5) local paper (Denton Record Chronicle) a regular column by Lenore Skenazy appeared with this title:

Sen. Obama’s feel-good wave doesn’t appeal to all  

Here's the link

I am getting irritated with so-called journalists who keep spreading this ignorant meme.

Ms. Skenazy makes the case for her superior ability to rise above the Obama hysteria by being one of two of her friends who has not succumbed to the messianic Obama cult.

“People look at him and say, ‘Oh, he’s our savior,’ so I hesitate to say in front of other people that I don’t get that great warm feeling when I look at him,” my friend Marla confessed the other night in her kitchen.

It was such a relief to find another cult member.

The cult of the “he’s smart, he’s nice, but I’m not convinced he’s the Messiah” voter.

Your eyelids are getting heavy.  You WILL follow me below the fold:

Several people have asked why I haven't written a diary recently; in light of all the things going on, I've just been somewhat overwhelmed, bombarded with new and astonishing developments on a weekly basis. Things are beginning to move at an amazing rate, like the cartoon snowball that starts out tiny, and winds up picking up horses, people and towns as it hurtles downhill growing bigger and bigger.

Is Barack Obama’s candidacy a cult of personality?  I had hoped that someone else has taken a stab at this but given the lack of good explanations for Obama's popularity (even Doonesbury is taking shots) I will hazard to make the argument that no one seems to be making.

As Obama said, the claim of this being a cult of personality is ludicrous.  You do not get the endorsement of all the major newspapers in the whole state of Texas by being likable.  There is something else at work here.  

What is Barack offering?  He offers a great plan for America (Read it here).  He also offers hope.  Why is that so important?  Because over the past 7 years the only thing that has been offered to the American public is fear.  

Let me make a modest claim.  I think we need to thank George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for setting the conditions that have made Barack Obama a phenomenon.  

Remember FDR when he said the only thing we had to fear is fear itself.  Well the Republicans do not have the shiny, hopeful smile of Ronald Reagan to support their fear agenda anymore.  All they have is the frown of George Bush and Dick Cheney.  All they have to offer is fear itself.

People of Daily Kos,

While many of you here deny that you are a member of a cult, I freely embrace it.  I can say without hesitation that I only feel safe and happy when part of a mindless, ant-like collective that follows its leader without questions or complaints.  

I really don't know what the problem with that is.   But apparently some of you take umbrage at being called part of a cult.   Weird.

Well, let me set you straight about a few things below the fold.

Full disclosure: I am a strong Obama supporter, and I believe a Hillary Clinton nomination for the Democratic Party would not be in its best interest.  BUT I really feel like Hillary is getting a raw deal from some people, including many on this site.  My apologies in advance for the length of this rant... I hope you bother to read it... I'm just a rather frustrated Obamaniac...

The Justice department and the FCC may need to step in soon to stop the MSM from actively causing violent civil unrest.

Meme, schmeme, it's a slur that should not go unchallenged.

I awoke the morning to a newspaper with more than one columnist discussing if Obama's campaign is a cult.

Sorry if this has already been commented on here, but I want to share my shock at the question.

More below.

Cults!

http://www.dailykos.com/...

John Edwards!
by ____Name Erased______ [Subscribe]
Thu Sep 27, 2007 at 01:17:53 PM PST
John Edwards! John Edwards Edwards Edwards!

EDWARDS!

JOHN EDWARDS!

More after the flip...

iowabosox's diary :: ::
John

EDWARDS!

John EDWARDS! John Edwards! JOHN Edwards!

John...Edwards!

Think this will get recommended? It looks like it meets all the criteria to me.

It' certainly not the first time the accusation of cult has been thrown around at Dkos!