Some Cheese to go with the GOP's Whine and BS on Stryker

by: LiberalLucy

Tue Oct 28, 2008 at 10:41:45 AM EDT

Tell me, which number is greater -

$4 Million or $35 Million

Even if you survived the public education system under Dubya's No Child Left Behind policies, you know that $35 Million is almost ten times as much as $4 million. 

So why hasn't Nick from Right Michigan and the rest of the whiny Michigan GOP done their math?

Probably because the truth hurts. 

Nick's latest post moaning and groaning about Jon Stryker's $4 million spent on Democratic races is just absurd. 

If we want to complain about individuals spending massive amounts of money in politics, let's take a trip back down Memory Lane to Election Cycles Past and Present, shall we? 

Dick 'Amway Guy' DeVos dumped a record $35 million into his 2006 ultra-conservative gubernatorial run, and the only reason we probably know about is because of campaign finance laws. 

Most of the uber-rich Republicans make their donations courtesy of the old fashioned shell game. Stick one part into Foundation A, two parts into Trust B, and top it off with another part into Vaguely-Named Organization C. Anyone else feeling dizzy yet?

So Stryker's got money, good for him. At least he's distributing it out in the open, where the transparency process is in full bloom, and takes a step towards leveling the playing field. 

Maybe the GOP just hates the facts - when that playing field is leveled and the battle is over the issues, progressives generally win, and we all know how much Republicans hate progress! 

(Jump below for the rest of the fun!)

Tim Walberg Fundraiser at the Amway ATM

by: Flatwheel

Mon Jun 16, 2008 at 11:11:41 AM EDT

WEST MICHIGAN FOR WALBERG... Doug DeVos, J.C. Huizenga, Mike Jandernoa and Steve Van Andel are hosting a luncheon fundraiser TODAY... June 16th at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids from noon to 1:30 p.m. For more information and to RSVP contact Sandra Baxter at (616) 803-0496 or email her at SandraBaxterE@aol.com.

I don't see Dick's name on the invitation, but you gotta think Amway Guy will be there (or at least send a check).

Tell me again why they're the party of business?

by: Eric B.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 12:25:10 PM EDT

Amway Guy, via Blogging for Michigan and seconded from MIRS, on renewable portfolio standards:

What really makes me worry is the widely peddled notion that the Renewable Portfolio Standard is an economic development tool. The logic here is that just having an RPS will encourage firms that build wind turbines and other equipment related to renewable energy to locate in Michigan.

But let's remember, we know that such investment decisions are made based on economic fundamentals regarding the skill level of the labor force, the regulatory climate, the tax burden, cost of electricity, transportation infrastructure, and other factors. If an RPS is on this list, I've never heard of it, nor does it make any sense to put it on the list. In fact, it is more likely that an RPS would be listed on the CON side of the ledger than on the PRO side.

There's a con side to this, alright.

But, of course, Amway Guy doesn't know anything about the relationship between capital investment, RPS, and alternative energy -- it has nothing to do with spending millions on humiliating political failures, muscling local officials into letting you fly your foreign-built helicopter into quiet residential areas, or inheriting companies built off snookering greedy suckers with the sign "Soap for sale" hung out front.  Who do we know that is familiar with this relationship?  The answer is below the fold...

DeVos holiday greetings more politics than pleasantries

by: Iamthedecider

Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 12:41:00 PM EST

by: Luke Canfora

Wednesday (12/19) at 16:50 PM

Amway chief Dick DeVos, the 2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate, has sent holiday greetings to supporters that read much more like a campaign announcement than a Christmas card.

In the one-page, Dec. 13 e-mail entitled "A message from Dick DeVos," he highlights state budget shortfalls and tax increases as problems and solicits ideas from readers, saying "we need to get all the good ideas we can, 'cause we can't count on them coming out of Lansing." The e-mail disclaimer said it was paid for by the DeVos for Governor campaign committee.

DeVos also attacked Gov. Granholm and legislators who voted for tax increases during the recent legislative session. "The Democrats were even successful in getting a few misguided Republicans to go along with them on the hike in state spending and increased taxes," he wrote, "and so it became law."

Granholm defeated DeVos for governor in 2006 by a margin of 56 percent to 42 percent. Granholm painted DeVos as a strong supporter of President Bush and his policies, and maintained that as head of Amway, DeVos outsourced 1,400 jobs from Michigan to China.

DeVos wrapped up his year-end message with a holiday greeting to those of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths, saying: "To all our Muslim friends, we wish you a successful Eid Al-Adha," the festival honoring Abraham's sacrifice to Allah.

"The story here isn't that DeVos is running again," said Joe DiSano of Main Street Strategies, a Democratic political consultant  in Lansing. "That's a foregone conclusion. The real story is if DeVos will have a primary challenge. I see another DeVos candidacy splitting the GOP in half and metro Detroit Republicans finding a candidate to challenge DeVos."

Bush, Amway and Blackwater - A series you won't want to miss.

by: LiberalLucy

Mon Oct 29, 2007 at 13:00:00 PM EDT

One of Michigan's own sons has been pulling together a series that not only will you not want to miss, you could also argue that as a voting population, we cannot afford to miss. 

DHinMI, a political insider who now lives and works in Washington D.C., has written a thoroughly researched and well written series called 'Bush Authoritarianism: Blackwater + Amway = GOP' over on DailyKos. 

There's a reason so much attention has been paid the DeVos/Amway and Prince/Blackwater conglomerate both here in Michigan and nationally. Partisanship aside, it's a fascinating study in the power of seemingly limitless wealth and what happens when that wealth conjoins with a strict religious-based agenda, the power of a military for hire, and direct access to one of the most powerful government officials in the entire world. Some might say it's the making of conspiracy theorists, others might remind you there's a reason conspiracy theories exist.

Regardless of where you are in your beliefs, I highly suggest you check out the series listed chronically below.

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4
 

Your US Tax Dollars At Work

by: DianeS

Tue Oct 02, 2007 at 08:44:12 AM EDT

From the LA Times:

WASHINGTON - Blackwater USA, the private security contractor under scrutiny for its role in a deadly Baghdad shootout last month, has fired 122 of its armed guards in Iraq since it started protecting U.S. diplomats there three years ago, congressional investigators said Monday.

The firings, most frequently for weapons-related incidents, amount to about 15% of Blackwater's current workforce in Iraq. None of those fired has been subject to any legal proceedings or other sanction, the investigation found.

The detailed allegations, which the committee said were backed by thousands of documents, depict a security firm that almost routinely opens fire in Iraq's streets, occasionally attempts to cover up its transgressions and is frequently protected from censure and prosecution by its State Department overseers.

The memo describes incidents in which Blackwater guards eagerly rushed to battles involving U.S. soldiers; plowed their armored trucks into civilian vehicles for no apparent reason; and left scenes of violence without assisting wounded civilians.

In the 15-page memo, Waxman's staff says State Department officials ignored misconduct by Blackwater. And in one high-profile incident, the memo says, State officials were directly involved in making sure that a Blackwater employee who had been accused of killing an Iraqi guard while intoxicated was flown out of the country less than 36 hours after the Christmas Eve shooting.

"Even in cases involving the death of Iraqis, it appears that the State Department's primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments to 'put the matter behind us,' " the memo said.

If you're scratching your head right now and wondering what this all has to do with Michigan politics, and a reminder for those who are already aware:

Today's committee hearing -- which will include State Department Iraq policy coordinator David M. Satterfield and several other senior State officials -- is also expected to question whether Blackwater has been awarded security contracts in part through political ties to the Bush administration.

According to the congressional investigators, Blackwater won more than $1 billion in contracts from 2001 through 2006, including $593.6 million in 2006 alone. The memo alleges that more than half of the total has been awarded "without full and open competition," and notes that relatives of Blackwater founder Prince have been major Republican contributors.

Prince's brother-in-law is Richard DeVos Jr., former chief executive of Amway Corp. A former Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, DeVos has donated more than $160,000 to the Republican National Committee and Republican congressional committees.

Amway attracted widespread attention in 1993 when it paid President George H.W. Bush $100,000 for an address to the company's distributors. At the time, the speaking fee was one of the largest ever paid to a former government official.

Dick DeVos Campaign Whitewashed Wikipedia

by: MichiganCaucus

Sat Aug 18, 2007 at 01:02:05 AM EDT

A new tool on the Web reveals that the Dick DeVos for Governor campaign made a dozen changes to a Wikipedia article about the soap heir by adding sympathetic comments, changing poll results, eliminating references to critical websites and wholesale removal of unflattering text.

The tool, Wiki Scanner, was developed by graduate student Virgil Griffith to reveal the identities of the computers used to make edits to Wikipedia.  It has revealed edits made by the CIA, the FBI and even the Vatican. And, Wiki Scanner has isolated a dozen edits made by someone at the 2006 gubernatorial DeVos campaign.

In one incident on June 1, 2006, the DeVos campaign simply deleted three paragraphs (shown below) which pointed out his refusal to disclose his personal tax statements.

==Tax statements for 2006 candidates== 
- Granholm and her husband earned about $178,000 last year in [[gross income]] and paid $35,000 in state and federal taxes, according to published 2005 tax returns.[http://www.mlive.com...] 
- 
- DeVos has not disclosed his personal tax statements. Without releasing actual documents, it is unclear whether Devos will have any conflicts of interest as governor. A conflict did emerge between the [[Amway Grand Plaza Hotel]] in Grand Rapids of which DeVos is a partial owner, due to some conferences the state government has held there. [http://www.freep.com...] 
- 
- Michigan Democratic Party chairman Mark Brewer and the Granholm campaign have criticized the DeVoses for not releasing his tax returns. DeVos campaign spokesman [[John Truscott]] said voters are more worried about the economy than what's being paid in taxes.[http://www.mlive.com...]

On other days the DeVos campaign kept itself occupied by deleting the link to the Democratic hit site "WhatYouDontKnowAboutDick.com" and deleting a photograph from the Wikipedia entry and replacing it with one more flattering.

To see all the DeVos edits, click here: http://wikiscanner.v...

Looks like the Amway Guy really does sell a better soap, er, whitewash!

Next up? Alticor/Quixtar edits to Wikipedia...

Follow the Money: The 2006 Citizen's Guide to Michigan Campaign Finance is Out

by: LiberalLucy

Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 12:16:06 PM EDT

Political campaigns in Michigan raised and spent over $192 million in the 2006 election cycle. Data and analysis for the record-breaking campaign spending are compiled in the 2006 Citizen's Guide to Michigan Campaign Finance, released today by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

Campaigns for state offices, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state representative, state senator, state board of education, elected university boards and the judiciary, totaled $134.8 million. State candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives raised $19.3 million and the Stabenow-Bouchard U.S. Senate race cost $19.1 million. Committees that supported or opposed the various ballot questions raised another $19.4 million.

The gubernatorial campaign totaled $78.9 million, more than twice the cost of the 2002 gubernatorial campaign. It included $35.5 million in self-funding by Republican challenger Dick DeVos, the fourth highest total ever for an American gubernatorial candidate and the most ever by a Republican. The campaign also featured $18.1 million in candidate-focused issue advertising that was not reported in any campaign finance report. The Michigan Democratic Party sponsored $12.8 million of that total, while DeVos supporters spent $5.3 million. The Michigan Campaign Finance Network collected issue ad spending data from the public files of state broadcasters and cable systems.

Amway Guy Seeking to Deceive Florida Voters

by: SoberOakland

Mon May 07, 2007 at 23:25:21 PM EDT

Using the same overpaid spin doctors that guided his failed 2006 gubernatorial campaign, DeVos is now busy trying to convince the voters of Orlando that they really do want to pay more money for the Amway Arena.  The Orlando Sentinel reports:

The Magic have released a new poll claiming 75 percent of residents think the Magic's paltry contribution to the team's proposed new arena is adequate and fair. This sharply conflicts with a Sentinel poll two weeks ago in which 70 percent said the Magic need to pay more?

What explains this? The Sentinel hired Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, an objective survey group that had no stake in the outcome of the poll. The Magic paid the Republican consulting group OnMessage Inc.

The firm's web site notes that founding partner Brad Todd produced advertising for a Michigan gubernatorial run by Dick DeVos, the son of Magic owner Rich DeVos. The younger DeVos was trounced by Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm.  He earlier had served as president and CEO of the Magic.

OnMessage is not objective analyst of public opinion. It is hired to mold opinion and run campaigns.

People of Flordia:  Beware of the Amway Guy.

Michigan's Extreme-Right Mega-Millonaire Mercenary

by: LiberalLucy

Sun Apr 29, 2007 at 10:33:49 AM EDT

For one Michigan man, the War of Bush/Cheney/Haliburton Oil was his golden ticket to massive wealth and an extraordinary level of influence and menacing power. Meet Erik Prince, born and raised in Holland, Michigan, and one of the country's most dangerous men.

Prince, son of Holland industrialist Edgar Prince and an ex-Navy SEAL, tapped his inherited wealth in 1996 to found a little-noticed North Carolina security firm that would become Blackwater USA. 

Family connections helped. As brother to former Michigan GOP chairwoman Betsy DeVos and brother-in-law to her husband, 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, Prince had access to Capitol Hill power brokers.

But his business plan did not crystallize until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With the U.S. decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, a changing military looked to the private sector to complete a variety of missions.

Blackwater was in prime position to capitalize.

Truscott Lies - Again

by: Abominable Robot

Fri Feb 02, 2007 at 15:27:35 PM EST

WOODTV reports that Johnny Truscott had been lying the whole campaign about Amway, its ads and its involvement in the DeVos campaign.

From the story:

[Also in today's release, Alticor admitted last fall's advertising campaign was in response to political ads during the governor's race criticizing the company.

"Alitcor launched an advertising campaign in Michigan in response to political ads criticizing the company by opponents of former Alticor president and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos," the statement read. "The 'I Am Amyway' ads featured employees talking about the company and were well received in the marketplace."

That's a completely different statement than one issued in September 2006, when DeVos campaign spokesman John Truscott said "there was absolutely no connection between the campaign and the Amway ads."]

DeVos' All Children Matter > Howie Rich's ALG

by: Rayne

Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 02:43:06 AM EST

Wish we'd have know this in early/mid-summer last year, but we go after the Head with the info we have and not the info we want.  Turned out the way it was supposed to...but we still have an educational opportunity in front of us.