Last week I referenced a Bridge Michigan report indicating the proposed Michigan Democratic senate legislation to meet the requirements of Prop 1, did not go near as far as it should be going. The Detroit News editorial board agrees. Here are excerpts from their editorial today.
Voters were not ambivalent about the transparency ballot initiative. They passed Prop 1 last November with two-thirds of the vote, signaling their strong desire for lawmakers to be more accountable. There’s no defense for lawmakers offering up such a lame response.
The full disclosure of all trips, tickets, dinners, gifts and other perks, regardless of whether they come from a registered lobbyist or a “friend” with interest in the business of the Legislature, should be taken for granted as a first step toward transparency.
Likewise, the non-profit accounts maintained by elected officials have too frequently been used and abused to buy and sell influence. They serve no good government purpose.
Witness the investigations of former GOP House Speakers Lee Chatfield and Rick Johnson. Johnson was just sent to prison for taking bribes in exchange for medical marijuana licenses. Chatfield is under investigation for operating what prosecutors call a “criminal enterprise.”
In both cases, non-profit accounts play a major role.
Without including spousal disclosure, the transparency measures are useless. Assets and gifts an officeholder wants to hide can easily be shifted to a spouse to keep them secret.
I agree totally with the Detroit News. There must be something in the water or air in the Lansing area that prevents the legislature from disclosing how they receive support and prevents the MSU Board of Trustees from making public their records in the Nassar case. Two major state government entities think it is OK to hide things from the citizens they serve.
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When the Michigan Republican Party has less than $50,000 in its coffers with only a year away from the next major presidential election, a U.S Senate race, as well as the state legislature elections it is no surprise that the leadership of the party is being questioned. It is especially an issue when the Republicans in 2022 lost their control of both chambers of the state legislature.
Per the Detroit News last week, Daniel Lawless, a member of the Michigan Republican Party’s state committee, emailed a removal petition to other committee members, saying Karamo was “woefully behind” on fundraising and had “abandoned” a campaign promise of fiscal transparency. While Lawless said he agreed with much of her political philosophy, he added that Karamo is “not capable of leading the party to victory.”
“I ask that you take a moment to reflect and do what in your heart you determine is best for our party,” Lawless wrote in his email. “It is time to put our duty first, above personal affections and ideological purity.
“It is time to join me in calling for a vote to remove the chair by completing the attached PDF and returning promptly.”
The email from Lawless came a month after The Detroit News obtained internal bank records that revealed the party had about $35,000 in its accounts in August, six months into Karamo’s term as chairwoman. The total was millions of dollars behind where the Michigan Republican Party normally was in fundraising at that point before a presidential election, according to former party officials.
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Yesterday I read an article by conservative opinion writer David French. The title, Joe Biden Knows What He is Doing, caught me by surprise. Here are excerpts.
A good leader can’t overreact to any given news cycle. He or she can’t overreact to any specific report from the battlefield. And a good leader certainly can’t overreact to a negative poll.
I’ve long thought that politicians’ moment-by-moment reaction to activists, to members of the media and to polls is partly responsible for the decline in trust in American politicians. What can feel responsive in the moment is evidence of instability in the aggregate. The desperate desire to win each and every news cycle leads to short-term thinking. Politicians put out fires they see on social media, or they change course in response to anger coming from activists. Activists and critics in the media see an outrage and demand an immediate response, but what the body politic really needs is a thoughtful, deliberate strategy and the resolve to see it through.
No administration is perfect. Americans should object, for example, to the slow pace of approving each new weapons system for Ukraine. But in each key theater, Biden’s policies are fundamentally sound. We should support Ukraine as long as it’s necessary to preserve Ukrainian independence from Russian assault. We should stand by Israel as it responds to mass murder, including by supporting a lawful offensive into the heart of Gaza. And we should continue to strengthen alliances in the Pacific to enhance our allies’ military capabilities and share the burden of collective defense. And we should do these things while articulating a moral vision that sustains our actions.
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The Detroit Lions going into tonight’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders have a two-game lead in the North Division over the Minnesota Vikings. The Bears and Packers are at least three games back. The Lions appear to have caught a break, it that Minnesota QB, Kirk Cousins, appeared to injure his Achillies tendon in yesterday’s game against the Packers. Losing Cousins, one of the better quarterbacks in the league, will be tough for the Vikings to overcome, over the remaining season.
Tonight’s game is an opportunity for the Lions to show they are for real and one of the top teams in the NFC.
Feel free to share my blog or to sign up to receive it directly in your email. See the sign-up below the Video of the Day.
Quote of the Day: “Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of Hamas. On the contrary, the assessment of the entire security echelon, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet, was that Hamas was deterred and was seeking an arrangement. This was the assessment presented time and again to the prime minister and the cabinet by all the security echelon and the intelligence community, including right up until the outbreak of the war,” Post on X by Netanyahu, which has subsequently been removed. See my Onion of the Day.
Second Quote of the Day: “The buck stops here.” From a sign on the desk of President Harry Truman.
Orchid of the Day: Matthew Perry. He was able to overcome his demons to provide us with eleven years of his special character, Chandler, on Friends. He was smooth. In the end, the demons won.
Onion of the Day: Prime Minister Netanyahu for deflecting the blame from himself to his heads of the military. It is not a good time for him to play the blame game. He should have been studying Harry Truman.
Question of the Day: The U of M pulled its latest contract extension offer to Jim Harbaugh. Will Harbaugh bolt to the NFL following the end of this years college football season?
Video/Image of the Day: A tribute to Matthew Perry
Why does the political government resist transparency in their actions? Michigan is one of two states, I believe, that does not have to report their activities to the voters. The Michigan Press Association has been after the Michigan government to change the law but to no avail. Corruption like Chatfield’s will be common place until Michigan government changes