Reverend Moon

Back in March I asked if Reverend Moon is one of the investors in Neil Bush's educational software company, Ignite! For one thing, Neil had been touring with Rev. Moon late last year. Also, Moon has enjoyed a long relationship with the Bush family, having given the Bush parents up to $10 million. Now it turns out that a foundation tied to Moon is donating towards Neil's business.

(BusinessWeek) The stars haven't always aligned for Bush, but at times financial support has. A foundation linked to the controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon has donated $1 million for a COWs [Ignite's "Curriculum on Wheels"] research project in Washington (D.C.)-area schools. In 2004 a Shanghai chip company agreed to give Bush stock then valued at $2 million for showing up at board meetings. (Bush says he received one-fifth of the shares.) In 1988 a Colorado savings and loan failed while he served on its board, making him a prominent symbol of the S&L scandal. Neil calls himself "the most politically damaged of the [Bush] brothers."

A story making the rounds is that Barbara Bush donated to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, so long as some portion of the funds were spent on software provided by Neil Bush's company Ignite! As Josh Marshall points out:

Back on the question of how Barbara Bush donated money for Katrina aid and 'earmarked' part of it for the purchase of educational software produced by Ignite!, the company her son, Neil Bush, to bag money from international potentates, tycoons and crooks. Taxprof's got a post on a subject I've been curious about. George and Barbara Bush -- like a lot of other folks investment for non-economic reasons -- are actually investors in Ignite!

Bill O'Reilly has once again whipped up phantoms of a phony "War on Christmas." And Jerry Falwell has joined in the hysteria too. But we wonder, if Bill is really such a champion in defense of Christian values, why isn't Bill raising a stink about how Jerry Falwell and much of the Religious Right are in bed with Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- the cult leader who claims to have replaced Jesus Christ as the Messiah??? This dangerous cult-leader even led a campaign to "tear down the cross" in churches around the country. If this isn't a profound and disturbing threat to Christianity in America -- what IS???? Think about it. One of the most powerful men in America, a billionaire owns the Washington Times and the UPI, and who has poured hundred of millions into the Rightwing Propaganda Machine, claims to have replaced Jesus Christ? And he runs a cult that is downright sacrilegious and perverse! By the way, Moon bailed Falwell out of debt to the tune of $2.5 million. And he has paid the Bush parents up to $10 Million. Members of Congress even crowned Moon in a special coronation ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Building! And now Neil Bush is on tour with Rev. Moon and the Moonies! Why aren't you on the case Bill -- if you care so much about protecting Christianity??? WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???

John Gorenfeld writes: 

"Those who stray from the heavenly way," the owner of the flagship Republican newspaper the Washington Times admonished an audience in Taipei on Friday, "will be punished."

This "heavenly way," the Rev. Sun Myung Moon explained, demands a 51-mile underwater highway spanning Alaska and Russia. Sitting in the front row: Neil Bush, the brother of the president of the United States.

[...]

Moon, reviled in the 1980s as the leader of a group that separated young recruits from their families, says he is the Messiah. His far-flung business empire includes the UPI wire service, Washington, D.C. television studios, a gun factory, and enormous swaths of real estate, and he donates millions to conservative politics. In 1989, U.S. News & World Report linked his group to the Heritage Foundation and other conservative organizations. "Because almost all conservative organizations in Washington have some ties to [Moon's] church," wrote reporter John Judis, "conservatives ... fear repercussions if they expose the church's role."

Larisa Alexandrovna writes for Raw Story:

The government liaison of the Washington Times foundation, Gary Jarmin, raised money for his lobbying efforts by targeting senior citizens with “scare letters” on Social Security and Medicare, and has been operating some six organizations from what appears to be a drop box in Alexandria, Virginia, RAW STORY has learned.

The letters are sent from the American Federation of Senior Citizens, a group Jarmin founded with his father-in-law, Marvin Mondres. One such letter aimed at frightening seniors is signed by Mondres, the “Honorary Chairman” of AFSC, while other letters are signed by Jarmin.

Jarmin, an ‘operative’ of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the secretive and powerful head of the Washington Times, United Press International and the Unification Church, booked the room in a Senate office building in which the Rev. Moon was crowned Messiah (Washington Post). Jarmin was also responsible for the invitations that misled congressmembers into attending Moon’s coronation.

TIME's cover story is on the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Hey, why did they leave out Reverend Sun Myung Moon???

After all, Moon has paid the Bush parents up to $10 Million...he's the biggest backer of the Rightwing Media Machine... he's the owner of the Washington Times and UPI...he helped bail Jerry Falwell out of debt to the tune of $2.5 Million ... he has his representatives in several Rightwing think tanks, media outlets, and the major Religious Right group, the Council for National Policy...Moon went on a tour to African-American churches around the country ... and one of his groups is encouraging African-American churches to remove their crosses...

And...can any of TIME's top Evangelicals boast, like Rev. Moon,  that they were crowned by members of Congress in a coronation ceremony?

When it comes to Bush scandals --- this a perennial favorite of mine -- the Bush Family and Reverend Sun Myung Moon. John Gorenfeld writes:

Here is how Rev. Moon, Washington Times owner and self-declared Messiah, manages to appear in the second paragraph of a Washington Post story about huge donations, while remaining almost completely invisible as a major Bush patron. Writes private investigator Larry Zilliox:

The list of donors found at the Bush 2005 Inaugural Committee web site includes a maximum $250,000 donation from the Washington Television Center. http://www.inaugural05.com/donors.

The Washington Television Center is a Unification Movement Closely Associated Entity controlled by Moon through a series of shell and operating companies

When will the unholy alliance between the Bushes and Reverend Sun Myung Moon become a full-fledged scandal? Why aren't supporters of the religious right aware of Moon's pervasive influence over so many of their leaders and organizations?  Here is the latest by Moon Watcher John Gorenfeld:

This wintry season, as the faithful continue to receive alarming reports from the news that Republicans are all that stand between them and the outlawing of Christmas itself by hordes of secular humanists, the two presidents Bush have endorsed a powerful conservative interest group specializing in removing the cross -- not from schools or courthouses, but from churches.

Rather than the traditional egg hunt, this group, calling itself the American Clergy Leadership Conference, sponsored a nationwide "Tear Down The Cross" day for Easter, 2003. Last week, leaders in this radical cause presided over a Washington prayer breakfast featuring messages of thanks from the presidents. Former Senator Bob Dole came in person.