Protest + Nick Xenophon Awesomesauce
As you should know the new raid is coming on on THIS Saturday the 21st of November, for the first time in a while Sydney and Melbourne have come together to have a simultaneous raid in both cities, for epic win, extra lulz, and more caek.
The route for Sydney is as follows:
1100 - Assemble at Belmore Park, near Eddy Avenue/Central Station.
1200 - Move to Central exit on opposite side of road, flyer.
1230 – Proceed to Hercules Street.
1400 – Leave Hercules Street to Greek Street.
1500 – Arrive Greek Street.
1630 – Disperse.
AND NOW FOR A NEWS UPDATE
Ladies and Gentlemen, haven’t the last 24 hours been packed with epic win? South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon spoke to Parliament about a large amount of correspondence he has had with a number of ex-Scientologists in Australia and as a result he declared he feels Scientology is a criminal organisation and is in need of a Senate inquiry. The video of this can be found over here for parts one and two. Don’t like watching videos? Here’s the entire Hansard transcript of his speech. And now the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has expressed ‘concern’ over the allegations Senator Xenophon has lodged and wishes to see what Xenophon has to say before committing to any form of inquiry.
This epic piece of win could serve to see the downfall of the Church in Australia, which would drastically contract LRH’s view that ANZO would be the first completely ‘clear’ region in the world. Not only that, but the only reason that Scientology is considered tax-exempt in the UK is because they’re registered as tax-exempt in Australia. A little convoluted, I know, but if they lose religious status here, then in England they’re very much on shaky ground.
Over to world news now, and Mark Headly’s book Blown For Good was released recently and it details his experiences as he left the Church, he also appeared on Coast to Coast AM radio in the USA for an amazing three hours. The interview can be found here: 1, 2, 3.
More fallout from Tommy Davis’ ragequit during an interview with (American) ABC’s Martin Bashir has arisen as America’s the ‘Today Show’ featured a brief segment on the issue, top stuff. The video is available over on Mark Bunker’s blog here.
Back to Senator Xenophon for a moment, good old Cyrus Brooks has been back to his best (or worst rather) when it comes to dealing with the media in the fallout of the macabre allegations Xenophon has laid against the Church. He basically stated that he was being pressured by ex members of the Church and that all the allegations are clearly false, but they still take them seriously (what what?).
Plus he says that ex-Scientologists are as non-credible as ex-spouses, talking about their former partners. Interestingly, when high-profile Scientologists were speaking to the media in the last few weeks in the US, the first the the Church did to try and discredit them? “Look, the ex-wives of these men are still Scientologists, and listen to all the awful things they have to say! How can you trust these horrible ex Scientologists when the people who knew them best say that they’re bad people?”
Scientology, you can’t have it both ways. Either former spouses are credible, or they’re not.
Cyrus also states the Church would cooperate with officials in an investigation, although he refuses to explicitly state ‘we would welcome an investigation’. To wrap up, WhyWeProtest has a situation room about the whole thing over on their forums where you can look at all the delicious goodness of links gathered to worldwide media reports on the subject. A little closer to home, we have our own situation thread.
We strongly encourage everyone to call, email or write a letter to every federal Senator and MP to support an in-depth investigation into the crimes of the Scientology organisation. You can find Nick Xenophon’s contact details here to send him a thank-you for bringing up the issue in Parliament, and from there you’ll find info on all the other representatives. And if you’re too lazy to do that, then at the very least join the FaceBook group and spread the message far and wide.
See you on Saturday.