Sheriff Obama To Clean Up Town — On the First Day

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The Obama campaign has released Barack Obama’s plan to reform Washington — a plan they say he will enact on his first day in office. Some of it goes a good bit further than the measures Democrats in Congress have enacted, some of it is short on details. Regardless, he definitely has his heart in the right place. Highlights from a fact sheet sent out by the campaign:

Closing the revolving door: No political appointee in an Obama Administration would be able to lobby the executive branch during the remainder of the Administration. Huge change from the current way of doing things.

Ending the abuse of no-bid contracts: Admirable, but no details given.

Stopping the influence of lobbyists: President Obama would issue an executive order banning lobbyists from giving gifts in any form to executive branch employees.

Ending politicization of the federal government: Tougher enforcement measures in the Hatch Act.

Cute/nutty stuff: Obama would not sign any bill without giving the public an opportunity to comment on the White House website for five days. Cabinet officials would be required to host national broadband town halls. And there’s this sort of Big-Brother-for-federal-employees thing: “Obama will require his appointees… to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet as the agencies debate and deliberate the issues that affect American society. Videos of meetings will be archived on the web, and the transcript will be available to the public.” American citizens can watch in person as bureaucrats do their jobs?? How incredibly boring and ripe for trouble.

Disclosure on earmarks and tax breaks: President Obama would ensure that tax
breaks to special interests and all congressional earmarks are posted on the Office of Management and Budget’s website.

No more political operatives with sweet jobs: “Obama will issue an Executive Order requiring that political appointees possess relevant professional qualifications and experience related to the core mission of the agency for which they are nominated.”

You can read more about Obama’s plans for corruption, oversight, etc. at this campaign web page.

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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.

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