Memory Jog - help please.

[soup]

Last year's election
reclusive secretive religious group - from England - I think
Tennessee? ties
major campaign contribution to Bush & possibly Martinez? (FL) - media? last minute ads?
questions about legality - foreign campaign contributions
questions about why would they even be interested - no outside contact - members not allowed to vote
quick flurry of news and then disappeared - resolved? or just lost?

---

That's it. That's what I can remember - sketchy at best. Woke up thinking about it and wondered if anything ever came of the investigation. Suffer quite often from information overload, and things get lost - that or I'm having more and more senior moments - which is just as likely. Can anyone help me here?

Even the name of the sect would help immensely. Brothersomething? Thinking it started with a 'B', but Brotherhood doesn't sound quite right. So frustrating...

Lost all my bookmarks when I upgraded Firefox a couple of weeks ago, so have nothing to go on. Hope someone remembers.

:argh: X( :banghead:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Not what you asked but

I inadvertantly upgraded Firefox last week and also lost my bookmarks. DRAT!

[soup]

2. Continuing OT

Very frustrating. My husband says I've got computer brain and rely too much on it. Definitely could be something to that. I use it to store everything, then when it's lost, so is the information.

I literally screamed and ranted and raved and grieved the loss when about 2 years of my 'memory' was wiped out. No way to rebuild all those references. I'm lost.

[Lancer]

3. Exclusive Brethren

Here's a link from St. Pete Times.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/01/19/State/Legality_of_political.shtml

[soup]

4. YES!!!

That's it! Thank you, Lancer!

:hug:

[Lancer]

5. My pleasure

I feel your pain about info overload and over losing bookmarks… grrrr

[soup]

6. something to go on...

from the article you posted:
>>George Smaragdis, spokesman for the FEC, said any money contributed by a foreign national and used to purchase advertising so close to an election violates a 1966 law designed to limit foreign intervention in U.S. elections.

The FEC could force the committee to return the contribution and impose fines or other penalties if it found a violation occurred. All complaints and enforcement actions taken by the FEC are confidential until they are concluded. Smaragdis would not confirm whether the FEC was investigating the matter.<<

Thank you again, Lancer. Without your help, it would have bugged me and bugged me until I'd finally remember - or just drop it. Then one night, weeks or months from now - I'd wake up at 4 a.m. and the name Exclusive Brethern would be in my head and I'd wonder why.

on edit: Brethren - not Brethern :crazy:

[Lancer]

7. I'm thinking that Smaragdis

gave us an answer right there—no investigation, end of story.

I remember pre-Google days when I would take lists I had made of "personal lost data" and go down to the public library to find answers. What a pain. I also have days when I can't come up with something and it bugs me to death. Google often comes to the rescue, but not always. Don't know how we managed without it. :)

[soup]

10. Going to dig a little bit more later.

But you're probably right. That's how I read the statement as well. "Won't confirm" = "fuggedaboudit"

Unfortunately, Google only works if it's fed and I didn't have much to feed it. (um, er secretive religious sect uh, campaing contribution - duh) Really appreciate your help.

Can't invest more time right now, stacks of hardwood flooring are awaiting our attention.

[rosesaylavee]

8. So these are Bush supporters, huh?

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1461155.htm

Cult politics: a glimpse inside Exclusive Brethren
The World Today - Thursday, 15 September , 2005 12:26:00
Reporter: Toni Hassan

**snipped**

The Exclusive Brethren is one of the strands of the Protestant family that developed a separate identity in the early 19th century. It's not the same as the Brethren or Open Brethren, though both groups share a common heritage, coming from John Darby and the Christian Plymouth Brethren.

Members of Exclusive Brethren shun mainstream society and modern technology as evil. The list of bans have included everything from preventing women from cutting their hair, to banning pets.

**snipped**

JOHN WALLIS: We are God's chosen, we are the ones… perhaps even more fundamental, that there is no others, but that's a bit of double talk, because they would never admit to that, but the fact of the matter is that we can only associate, eat, do business with any more than a third party.

**snipped**

JOHN WALLIS: Oh, easily. The Lord has moved on. That would be their way of explaining it, yes, the Lord moves. I think the basic problem is, their God is crazy. In fact, he's insane. In fact, you never know what he's going to do next. This is really the mortar that keeps the bricks together.

___________________________________________________________________

John Wallace, I take it, has escaped the cult and is answering a reporter's questions.

So. Whack jobs across the pond support our dear *resident too. Not surprising and less than comforting.

[soup]

9. Their God is crazy?

or they are?

Thanks, rosesaylavee!

They've been busy in New Zealand, too. Now calling them a "U.S. Evangelical group". For a sect that has no interest in the outside world or politics, they sure are making themselves known as otherwise.

--

POLITICS: U.S. EVANGELICAL GROUP STUMPS FOR NEW ZEALAND RIGHT

By Bill Berkowitz MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

OAKLAND, California, Sep. 12, 2005 (IPS/GIN) -- A little bit of U.S. "traditional family values politics" is shaking up the upcoming elections in New Zealand.

A secretive fundamentalist Protestant Christian church that contributed to President George W. Bush's re-election campaign in November 2004, and whose members are forbidden to vote, has injected itself into the general election scheduled for Sept. 17.

The future of New Zealand's military, the ban on nuclear ships and the country's relationship with the U.S. are all at stake in the election.

The church, which some have called a cult, is being charged by both the Green and Labor parties with spending more than $500,000 funding an anti-government leaflet campaign and supporting the conservative National Party.<<
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:uhyXSMdschEJ:www.globalinfo.org/eng/reader.asp%3FArticleId%3D39154+FEC+exclusive+brethren&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

Also found the site I had bookmarked originally because they were following the questionable campaign contributions to Bush and Martinez:
http://peebs.net/index.html

Thank you DUers. My sanity is rescued one more time. Now if someone could just save me from helping lay the hardwood floor in the living room today... Asking too much? LOL.