Dick Devos: A Bit Presumptuous?
So Dick Devos, the annointed nominee for the Republican Party for Governor here in Michigan has gotten maybe a tad bit presumptuous with his purchasing of web domains. MichiganLiberal has the full story, but here's the list of domains Prince Dick has purchased along with links to the Whois information (matching his son's address):
governordevos.com
devosforsenate.com
devosforsenate.net
devosforsenate.us
devosforpresident.com
devosforpresident.net
devosforpresident.org
Wow, can this guy be any more full of himself? He hasn't even made it past the primary and party nomination yet and he's thinking he can call himself "governordevos.com"? I mean, come on!
I had the honor of dealing with Operations for the Granholm Transition Team, and I didn't buy the GranholmTransition.org websites until day one after the general election, and Dick Devos has already bought GovernorDevos.com?? Give me a break!
The MichiganLiberal site referenced above also has a great running conversation on the legality of buying sites for election to obvious federal positions without using a federal candidate committee to do so. It may even be a felony (albeit a minor one) for him to have done so. Shame on the DeVos family for trying to buy their way into office!
posted by Ray @ 4:45 PM
12 Comments:
Well, I can see where it makes Governor ... Senator ... President DeVos look a little presumptive, but I have to say that if I were running for Gov, I would certainly consider acting to protect my potential domain space and I would advise a client to consider doing the same. Domain squatting is so prevalent these days.
What's most telling is the fact that Mr. DeVos is already casting his eyes toward higher office (including the Oval Office).
In his effort to cover all his base's, it seems he neglected to register:
www.DeVos_surpeme_freakin_ruler_of _the_univers.com
...fortunately it's still available.
www.devos4governor.com is free.
His next purchase I think will be www.DevosForGod.com
What makes you so confident it was Devos' organization that did this? All of the addresses that appear under "whois" are based in Emeryville, California. It could have been somebody who doesn't like Devos who did this, also.
Ooops, sorry, I ought not point out the obvious. After all, those eeeeevil Republicans would steal candy from babies if the cameras weren't watching.
Registrant Name:Richard Devos Iii
Registrant Street1:126 Ottawa
Registrant City:Grand Rapids
Registrant State/Province:MI
Registrant Postal Code:49503
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.6164594500
Look it up
Okay. To be precise, anonymous:
devosforgovernor.org = "Registrant ***************@windquest.com"
governordevos.com = "Admin Email.......... windquestgroup@gmail.com"
devosforsenate.net = "Admin Email.......... *******@myprivateregistration.com"
devosforsenate.us = "Registrant Email: **************@gmail.com"
devosforpresident.com = "Admin Email.......... *******@myprivateregistration.com"
devosforpresident.net = "Admin Email.......... *******@myprivateregistration.com"
devosforpresident.org = "Registrant *************@myprivateregistration.com"
My point here is this: Only the first registration is legitimate. The other ones are hiding behind anonymous e-mail addresses and could have been created by anyone. Anybody can create a "presidentgranholm@gmail.com" account and register a domain for it and Republicans would be calling this a constitutional crisis (albeit a minor one).
If there's sleazy politics to be played, the tracks have got to be covered better than this.
The addresses in California are for Yahoo, located in Sunnyvale...so arguing that the tech contact is in Cali and that makes it illegitimate is kind of silly.
The indictable point is the Registrant name of 'Richard Devos Iii'. That's because Yahoo domain registration only allows ONE entity to exist for each account name. You can't have two "Richard Devps Iii" under their account system. This was the same account that registered devosforgovernor.org as was registering the domain names I published.
Also, how legal is it to have the windquest group being the registrant and contact for the site? Isn't that potentially an illegal contribution to the DeVos campaign by a corporate entity? Isn't this kind of what DeLay was indicted for?
I'm not voting for Devos (I'm another ex-suburbanite who can't return home because the current Michigan government hasn't made a climate worth creating jobs for ex-Michiganders to come home to). I'm just pointing out the big hole in your argument here. If the non devosforgovernor.com domains were legitimate, they would all have @windquest.com e-mail addresses. Anyone can attach any random name to a registration record, just fork over the cash/credit/PayPal funds. The gmail accounts used in the non devosforgovernor.com domains give it away that it likely wasn't somebody in the windquest group.
i find it funny that you're being presumptuous about DeVos being presunmptous...
More here:
http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4960
Look at the dates of the original registrations. Many occured back in 2004. So you are saying that someone not connected with Dick DeVos did this before anyone knew Dick DeVos was running for anything?
Second. There is a pattern. The registrations and dates of registration point to Richard DeVos III - That's "Rick" DeVos, Son of Son of Scamway:
http://www.grmag.com/features/11-03/11-03.htm
He registered his own blog using the same information:
flyoverblog.com
and also registered a domain in his own name the same day:
rickdevos.com
If the DeVos campaign is not connected, why were some of the domains registered on the same date by the same person using the Richard Devos III contact information to register the domain name that is now used by the DeVos campaign for its website:
devosforgovernor?
The DeVos campaign is not denying this.
The evidence is overwhelming.
Ray is right.
The detracting posters are wrong.
Face the facts.
It is always a good catch to find candidates and their families engaged in what appears to be felonious conduct. Whether it was Amway/Alticor/Windquest/Scamway and Rick DeVos the 3rd or Doug DeVos, it is a criminal violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act to use corporate resources to do anything for Dick Devos. Just like Dick faxing his original campaign organizational statement in from the family ski compound in Aspen to Windquest and apparently Windquest to the Secretary of State, criminal violations of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act. Minor violations? Maybe, but remember this is the family business that paid the largest criminal fine in the history of Canada, over $100,000,000 for cheating on import duties of some sort. Fortunately the citizens of Michigan do not need to wait for Secretary Land or Adulter General Cox to take action agains the Amway/Alticor/Windquest/Scamway criminal enterprize as there are several county prosecutors who have the jurisdiction necessary. It should get fun later on this year. It is a good thing the DeVos family enterprizes are not publicly traded because shareholders usually take a beating when management is exposed violateing the law.
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