There wasn’t enough space for the dancing Ewoks. I hope that’s OK with you. Thanks for all your support and uplifting of the Disembodied Head of Dick Devos.

Before I wander off into that good night, I wanted to ask you all to take care, be well, and work to make this state and country a better place, especially by reaching out to folks across the aisle. We have some huge problems. They didn’t magically disappear last night and solving them is going to require all of our skills (and money – how about $30 million for renewable energy, Dick?). As long as we have them, the threat of replacing ineffective government with truly terrible government remains very real.

This site will now become a drifting hulk of information. The information stays because is is information about a man who is only about 1% less rich and probably 0% less committed to some really scary things.

(try Dood Abides & Jesus General for similar fun)

Kommiserate at Kommunist HeadKwarters 

In a time of darkness, when Hope seemed to have gone out for a pack of smokes and ended up on a boat to China, when television seemed to have become nothing more than an ad delivery service, when the most flawed candidate in the history of our state seemed like a credible threat, well, in those days the people of Michigan finally got a chance to have their say.

Vote, people, and get your friends, relatives and total strangers to do the same.

Michigan’s future isn’t for sale.

UPDATES GALORE:

Ominous music to hum on Election Day!

Kos Posted with a Kattle Kart o’ Komments!!

Michigan Liberal with a … multitude of meh???!!!

Let’s have a big TV-Land welcome for everyone’s favorite ad buying billionaire, Hollywood Dick Devos! It’s time to meet our celebrity guests. If you don’t have time to click the links, you are encouraged to mouse over them. Also, please don’t wonder why almost everyone who is speaking for Dick DeVos is either from out of Michigan or is in his family – it’s bad manners!

President George Bush: Although Dubya has been persona non seeya on behalf of Amway Dick this campaign season (’cause the Dickster said “you stay the hell away, Toxic George“), never forget that the DeVos family was the #1 contributor to Bush/Cheney 2004.

VP Deadeye Dick Cheney – see above, and don’t turn your back on him – he’ll rob you blind!

2008 Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani – if DeVos manages to buy a miracle, what’s the over/under on DeVos quitting to run as Rudy’s VP in 2008?

Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family – Dick & Betsy love themselves some far, far right causes and few more than that of the Reverend of Right who focuses on the family as he defines it like a killer laser of intolerance.

Fundraiser and Felon Jack Abramoff – It’s unfair to single out Dick for taking Jailhouse Jack on his Potomac River Cruise aboard his yacht Enterprise because really, what powerful Republican didn’t get down with Abramoff?

Dealmaker, Cashtaker, Lawbreaker Tom DeLay – Tom sez thanks: “RAD (Restoring American Dream PAC, founded by Dick DeVos) has played an essential role in maintaining Republican control of the House of Representatives in both 1998 and 2000.”

Evil Genius Karl Rove – Hey, Dick & K-Street are “just friends“!

CEO Superstar Lee Iacocca – Lee lives in California and although his “turnaround” of Chrysler involved a heady infusion of taxpayer dollars, he’s always willing to fire up the charm if the price is right!

Billionairess Betsy DeVos – My Billion-dollar Baby-doll has been told to keep quiet … at least until after the election! I love her, scary eyes and all!

Kos-posted!

There I was: hovering high above the Michigan interWeb like a proud but disappointed eagle when a fast-dodging mourning dove alerted me to this post by some bird-watcher guy. A bird watcher? With a political opinion? Hello in there, Mr. Red-breasted Nuthatch. Let’s leave politics to the politicians … and the soap guys.

Anyway, I have to stay on the move, carrying my message to Take Back Michigan (except for the Republican Legislature and Supreme Court) to a state weary of my ads and face. Since the Bird Man of Michigan was silly enough to license his little book report about Dick DeVos as Creative Commons, I’ll post it here followed by my devastating response! Also a video from The YouTube.

michigan – get out and vote for granholm!

I don’t write much about politics here, although I follow it closely and with some passion. In case there are any undecided Michigan voters reading this, I feel it is my civic duty to provide some info on the Michigan gubernatorial race between incumbent Jennifer Granholm and her Republican challenger, Dick DeVos.

Dick DeVos scares me. His strongly religious and ultra-conservative support/activism scare me. His rabidly pro-business agenda scares me, in no small part because it threatens the environment.

In a vignette of the race, Grist provided insight into some of the anti-environmental organizations and initiatives supported by DeVos. It quoted a Sierra Club rep, who said “Almost nowhere else do you see a more striking contrast between a stellar, hard-won environmental record and an anti-environmental agenda.”

You can read DeVos’s environment plan yourself (PDF). It is 7 pages (with big pictures) that, like most of his “plans,” are full of platitudes and generalities and lack specifics. In contrast, you can read about Granholm’s past accomplishments and environmentally-related press releases. Granholm is endorsed by the Sierra Club, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and Clean Water Action. A coalition of environmentalists is campaigning for Granholm.

At Wikipedia, you can read a summary of the race. You’ll notice a few tidbits about DeVos:

• Many of DeVos’ critics, including some conservatives, propose that his leadership of highly controversial Alticor, the parent company of Amway and Quixtar, the world’s largest multi-level marketing organization, should disqualify him from holding public office at all.
• He supports the teaching of intelligent design in science classes.
• In an interview, DeVos said he would be thrilled if Roe vs. Wade was overturned.

Also at Wikipedia, you can read about Amway/Alticor’s heavy Republican leanings, and more ominously, the DeVos preoccupation with the dominionist political movement (scroll down a bit); the DeVos foundation is one of the single largest donators to specifically dominionist political groups in the U.S. (Dominionism is a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism that seeks to establish specific political policies based on religious beliefs — read more here).

CREEPY! How about his theoretical strength, as a businessman? The Michigan Liberal sums up some key points on how DeVos has actually failed at business and quit other elected positons:

• When Dick DeVos became President of Amway, in 1993, Amway reported estimated retail sales of $4.5 billion. By 2002, sales had mushroomed by $0.00 to stay flat at $4.5 billion. Adjusted for inflation, sales at Alticor/Amway while the company was led by Dick DeVos actually fell by 19%.
• In 1990, DeVos was elected to the State Board of Education. He left two years into an eight-year term when he had missed about a fifth of the meetings and responsibilities at Amway demanded his attention.
• In 1996, then-Gov. John Engler appointed DeVos to the Grand Valley State University Board of Control. DeVos resigned four years later after missing 16 of 27 meetings. Business and his 2000 school voucher campaign were keeping him away.

This man should not hold political office. He’s not qualified and his ambitious plans are doggedly focused on jobs with few details on how he would carry out any of his initiatives. Granholm has struggled with a crisis in the auto industry and a contentious Republican legislature. I think she could have been more effective, but she is head and shoulders better than DeVos, who would be ruinous for Michigan. Vote for Jennifer Granholm on November 7.

Speaking of heads, for a biting, humorous, but informative look at DeVos, visit The Disembodied Head of Dick DeVos.

My response

Nuh-uh!

The photo

The picture used above is titled “blessings of peace“. Here are a bunch of pictures of Michigan’s Bird of Peace, the mourning dove.

DH1

From a hometown called “Run When You See Me Coming” here’s Quixtar – The Land of ill Will – on Dateline.

Kos-posted and Michliberalized! In a watchy mood? How about watching Holland Rep Peter “Share the Bomb” Hoekstra’s collossal A-Bomb Bollocks!

Get down on the Gold Digger, Dick DeVos Remix and YouTube it up if you’re a true sports racer … and remember: if you want to be flash, fear the man with all the cash!

Shout out to Ze Frank!

Kriss-Kross-Kos

What have they done to MY newpaper???!!!

Greetings Comrades! Today is a glorious day for all by my proclamation! All will be happier, wealthier with whiter teeth on Chairman Dickie Amway China Magic Sign Day! Actually, none will be wealthier or have whiter teeth except Chairman Dickie and the party leaders, but all will be happier in our great wealth and not mind if their own teeth crumble for lack of health care.

The crack team at CHUDD has produced these patriotic and inspirational signs that all soliders in the Dick Devos Army of Cultural Devolution are requested to display with proud immediacy alongside the mandatory picture of Chairman Dickie, their Amway China Collectible Bear and their Amway Dick Action Figure with karate job-chopping action!

You can look at them one by one like tiny jewels or as a cavalcade of delight! It is suggested that for extra Magic Happiness, to listen to patriotic songs!

Jobs to China! More jobs to China!

Kos-posted

Attacking the Interweb, One Blog at a Time

Kommie Kittie reports that Dick Devos has placed 20,000 ads – second in the Nation among all candidates! Good, but not good enough! I must spend more, more more! She also reports on Triscuit’s attacks on my old football coach for having a memory. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you have a memory, you can’t be a modern Republican!

Christine Barry has a list of Republican Party Faithful Under Indictment or Convicted and the $100 One Breath Challenge.

Wacko Zacko has fallen into a poll-induced coma and has yet to get his links o’ the day up for today This just in! In the Official Amway Guy poll of 1 likely voter, I WIN* with 100% of the vote – in your FACE, pollsters!! (*+/- 100%)

Over at the Pound Puppies Fan Club, Cordelia Lear is outraged over Saul’s latest pack of lies tying Granholm to people she doesn’t even know and Devos to people he gives money to.

Liberal Lulu says we should fight for our children. I would, I would, it’s just that my face is so deep in the Trough of Tax Breaks that I can’t see them any more!

I can’t figure out what, though. Frankly, it’s kind of creeping me out the way The Billionairess keeps walking around the mansion with a distant look in her eyes, a little half smile on her lips sing-songing “It’ll soon be over now, it’ll soon be over now.”

Rochelle Riley – Rochelle? Is that French? Can we get a deportation order here? – anyway “Madame Rochelle” has written a column titled Don’t forget Betsy DeVos that I hope everyone will skip reading and immediately write an outraged letter to the editor about.
Rile-em-up Riley says that my billion-dollar babycakes was once a nationally known Republican strategist (chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party for two terms, member of the Republican National Committee and a delegate several times to Republican National Conventions) who state political observers once thought would someday make a great governor. Saulius Maximus responds to that with “She’s someone who would make a great candidate, a great leader. But I don’t see that as a real or practical option.” He does a nice job of delicately skirting the central issue: That Betsy DeVos terrifies even the Republican Party and must be kept far, far away from the media spotlight.

The Columnista then quotes Gil Zeigler, founder of Republicans for Granholm as saying that if Dick DeVos wins “I think she’ll be a very, very powerful first lady. I think he’s too extreme. I think the DeVoses are too extreme. They’re part of the group that has taken the party to the far right, and that’s not what our party was.” Gil, you’re just sore because Betsy played harder ball than a moderate like you could take.

I think the bottom line here is that a lot of people think that Rochelle’s bottom line is true:

Being first lady might be Betsy DeVos’ only chance to push Michigan to be more conservative, friendlier to families and corporations, and more dedicated to educating children in quality schools, even if those schools are private. So we should pay attention to every Betsy DeVos opinion, past or present.

Because if her husband wins, Michigan could have its first Team Governor.

Team Governor? Do I still get to use the stamper thing on the bills??

Ode to Dick DeVos by His Disembodied Head

I don’t like to brag, and I don’t like to boast,

But speaking of mansions, I have the most.

I’ve got lots of cars, boats & yachts from a dream,

And if you want to talk planes, well I have fourteen!

My money’s from Amway, Alticor and Quixtar,

It’s multi-level magic that has taken me far!

I’m the richest to run for Michigan’s high seat,

and my spending on ads just cannot be beat!

If elected as Governor, I won’t take a penny,

but don’t ask me for plans, ’cause I haven’t got any!

My strength is in secrets and vague accusations,

and sending Michigan jobs to far foreign nations!

If you vote for DeVos I can promise you true:

Tax breaks for the rich, higher taxes for you!

###

Lifestyles of the Rich & Infamous is an exclusive look inside the swanky life of Dick Devos with guest appearances by Gorgeous George Bush, Jailhouse Jack Abramoff and Tricky Tom DeLay! It was made by the Michigan Democrats but you and I know that they’re just jealous!

Kross-posted to Kos