{"id":3195,"date":"2019-02-15T08:09:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T13:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2019-02-22T06:54:13","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T11:54:13","slug":"the-promise-for-michigan-government-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3195","title":{"rendered":"The Promise for Michigan Government Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"412\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/JPA175_fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3196\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/JPA175_fixed.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/JPA175_fixed-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I\n can tell you that the cartoon this week is not partisan, but that&#8217;s \nreally for you to decide. On the surface, it&#8217;s me quoting the current \nDemocrat leader directly and without comment, then dinging the two \nprevious Republican leaders. But I had a deeper aim. It all started with\n Governor Whitmer&#8217;s state-of-the-state address this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As\n far are &#8220;state-of&#8221; speeches go, it was pretty standard fare&nbsp;\u2014 a laundry\n list of goals and intentions. For an editorial cartoon, that&#8217;s really \nnot much to work with. But the one point that really resonated with me \nwas her promise (and I heard it as a promise) to make the executive and \nlegislative branches accountable to the freedom of information act \n(FOIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\n occurred to me that the disasters Michigan has faced in the recent past\n have all been made much, much worse from leaders trying to manage and \nhide information: Flint Water crisis, Detroit schools, campaign finance \nlaws, Larry Nassar, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And\n while former Governor Rick Snyder former Senate Leader Arlan Meekhof \nare obviously not solely to blame, they were certainly among the least \ntransparent leaders Michigan has ever had. And that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m calling \nthem out on&nbsp;\u2014 not their party affiliation, but their actual record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So\n let&#8217;s make a point of remembering the FOIA part of Whitmer&#8217;s address. \nBecause often the one making the promise turns into the worst offender. \n(&#8220;Drain the swamp&#8221; anyone?) If the governor is ambitious enough to \npromise transparency, we need to be ambitious enough to hold her \naccountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can tell you that the cartoon this week is not partisan, but that&#8217;s really for you to decide. On the surface, it&#8217;s me quoting the current Democrat leader directly and without comment, then dinging the two previous Republican leaders. But I had a deeper aim. It all started with Governor Whitmer&#8217;s state-of-the-state address this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andrewheller-com","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}