Ten Step Pelosi Reform Program for New Dems

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It’s too soon to tell just how far the Dems are willing to go with their reforms. If they want to be taken seriously, however, they will need to take the following 10 steps.

1) Put Vice President Cheney under oath and get his secret energy meeting documents. They may show how the oil companies colluded in the war and what Bush got from them.

2) Find out who initiated the torturing of prisoners in the Iraq and Afghan wars and see to it that they are prosecuted and put in jail. That includes officials — civilian and military — in the White House, Justice Department, Pentagon, and on the battlefields.

3) Fire the military commanders and civilian officials who turned Saddam over to a death squad for execution.

4) Put Al Gore in charge of a new Congressional office to implement measures to reduce global warming.

5) Place former FBI chief Louis Freeh and current FBI head Robert Mueller under oath and order them to explain why they obstructed Congress in refusing to turn over to former Senator Bob Graham’s intelligence investigation their key San Diego informant who was renting rooms to 9/11 hijackers.

6) Summon the outgoing Saudi ambassador, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, and get the straight scoop on the Saudi spy network in the U.S. and its ties with Al Qaeda.

7) Subpoena former FAA chief Jane Garvey and order her to explain how come her agency got numerous warnings about an impending attack on 9/11 and did nothing about it.

8) Investigate and move to indict top FDA officials who approve drugs for one use and then go to work and allow Big Pharma to sell them untested for other uses.

9) Place a moratorium on all oil and gas leases on the public domain until an impartial investigation revises the crooked Interior Department leasing program and recovers the billions owed by the oil industry to the government.

10) Deny federal funds to any state or locality engaged in “privatizing,” i.e selling off this country’s public highway system.

And, finally, stop fooling around: Instead of “reforming” the earmark system, end it.

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Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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