A strange gubernatorial election is unfolding in my home state of Michigan. Dick DeVos, the son of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos, wants to be our next governor. He's been spending millions of his daddy's dollars carpet-bombing the state with upbeat ads touting his record as a businessman and promising to turn the state around. Interestingly, his ads never mention a dirty little secret--namely, that he's a
Republican. Nor does the front page of
his website.
Speaking of his website, earlier today I ran across an interesting "Blog From the Trail" entry written by the DeVos campaign's Larry Ward. It's about the fine folks from Blackwater, U.S.A., which supplies mercenaries contract security personnel to the United States.
Given the bad publicity Blackwater has gotten, you'd think that DeVos would want to play down his association with it, but that's hardly the case. You see, the Son of Amway is also the Brother-in-Law of Blackwater. The firm was founded by Erik Prince, the brother of Dick's wife, Betsy. Blood is as thick as Blackwater.
There's more...
Now, about that blog post. It seems the DeVos campaign arranged for some of our state's first responders--as well as DeVos supporters--to visit Blackwater, USA, in North Carolina.
Ward's blog entry describes Blackwater as "a premiere [sic] military and law enforcement training facility," and as a place where our nation's first responders come to train. Let's hope they learn to shoot better than Ward spells.
What did Larry and his friends see on their little field trip?
Blackwater personnel performed demonstrations for our guests in SWAT Team tactical entry, K-9 Dog Training, driving skills, and dignitary protections services. We even had some time for all to enjoy the shooting ranges with Blackwater's firearms instructors.
Ward was quite impressed by the dog and pony show. Sounding like a gushing teeny-bopper, he wrote:
One thing for sure, I'm glad we have the folks from Blackwater fighting for and protecting our country. We all learned a great deal about what our first responders do to protect our freedoms. It was an amazing experience.
Left unsaid was Blackwater's Republican connections and high-powered lobbying operation, which have paid off the tune of more than $320 million since June 2004. That figure comes from U.S. government records that were obtained by The Nation in an article posted on that magazine's website yesterday. The Nation called Blackwater "a major profiteeer in the 'War on Terror'."
Profiteering, indeed. It seems that Blackwater took Uncle Sam to the cleaners:
A heavily redacted 2005 government audit of Blackwater's WPPS contract proposal, obtained by The Nation, reveals that Blackwater included profit in its overhead and its total costs, which would result "not only in a duplication of profit but a pyramiding of profit since in effect Blackwater is applying profit to profit." The audit also found that the company tried to inflate its profits by representing different Blackwater divisions as wholly separate companies.
And one might conclude that the DeVos family has a vested interest in George W. Bush's Iraq policy:
Blackwater, now one of the most prominent and successful companies providing soldiers in Iraq, was relatively unknown until March 31, 2004, when four of its contractors were ambushed and killed in Falluja....In the days and weeks that followed, company executives hired ultra-connected lobbyists and were welcomed by powerful government officials as heroes, allowing the firm to solidify its role in the Bush Administration's foreign policy apparatus.
More than 90 soldiers with ties to Michigan have died in the war that George W. launched nd the DeVos/Prince families profit from. So long as George W. Bush is in the Oval Office, there is no end in sight to that war. Or to Blackwater's gravy train.