NARA Goes Online

TeachingMachines writes "NARA, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, has gone online. NARA's self-described mission is 'to ensure ready access to the essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience.' A very relevant site for the times, with transcripts and images of the most politically important documents of the United States. Included are the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Check out the list of available documents. The site is pretty large, with some incredible exhibits, and even an image of the original Magna Carta. Definitely worth a look."

Comments

Re:Fantastic!

[KDan]

They have been able to get to those documents in public libraries for a while. Access is not enough, they also have to 1) know they exist, and 2) give a damn.

Anyway, It's a shame they're not posting up all the declassified US govt documents that are coming out and linking Cheney and Rumsfeld to all sorts of evil shit... Now that would be worth having online on a reputable site, so that we don't have to go by the word of journalists anymore, but can see for ourselves all the evil shit that has been going on...

Daniel

Re:But who watches the watchers?

[MsGeek]

Considering the choices they have made from the National Archives so far, they are pretty much showing our history warts and all. The Dred Scott decision is there, as is the Censure of Joe McCarthy and Pres. Teddy Roosevelt's Corrolary to the Monroe Doctrine. I didn't peruse the site at length, but those certainly don't fall into the "rah rah look at how great we are" category.

I look forward to seeing transcripts from the Nixon tapes there in the future. And transcripts from the Iran-Contra hearings. And so on. And so on.

This is a good start. At long last I can say that the Feds got something right here.

Good Site but It's Sad

[sepluv]

First I would say this site is a very good idea. I do not think people should judge it as a "propoganda machine" yet. It certainly does not look that way to me. It uses some bad HTML and does not validate (even the homepage has invalid HTML) but it is not bad (and /. is probably worse). I have not looked at it all but it seems very comprehensive and interesting from the perspective of a non-USAn.

I am not in the US but I must say that I think the US Constitution is very well written and a great model for any nation (even if I may not totally disagree with small parts). I just read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and it it is well-written, timeless (i.e.: still applicable) and looks like the authors really cared about democracy and wanted to start a true democratic republic where the people had the power (and were not controlled by a government but had ccontrol over a truly democratic congress).

However, the more I read of the Constitution, the more it seems that the modern governments of the USA try to break every rule (just go through them) it sets (to the extent that I believe many countries are far more democratic). Something I did not know that is interesting is that it seems to implie that the USA government is not allowed to have a permenent army but when attacked the citizens may form one for a short period (hence the right to bear arms, I guess). Throughout it really does put the citizens control, but, I guess, it did not work...

Re:Good Site but It's Sad

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

It's easy to lodge claims against the U.S. government when you don't actually cite an instance of the government breaking "every rule."

Re:Good Site but It's Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

First, this is an archive of historic documents, why do you worry that it will be interpeted as a "propoganda machine"?

Also, the Constitution does not, in any way, forbid a standing military. In fact the US (under the Consitition) has always had some form of standing military and primary role of the President is to command the military. The right to bear arms is often interpted as a counter balance to the military; the idea being it is harder for the military to take over if the populace is armed.

I do not agree that the government is trying to break the Constition. The Consitition is always being tested and reinterpeted in its application. Today there are very reasonable worries about government infringment on rights. But there have also been times in the past when the constitional rights came under great strain (such as the Civil War).

Re:Fantastic!

[skillet-thief]

The fact that the documents in line only go up to the 1950's is a sign.

But no! Hang on! The sixties are coming soon!

When the 60's doc get on line, that's when the revolution is going to happen!

Re:Voting Records of Reps

[vtechpilot]

You are on to something very important here, almost nobody know how their elected officials voted on past bills, and fewer still know how they intend to vote on upcomming bills. Personally I would like to create a service (for free hopefully) that would allow people to sign up for email based updates about their representatives. When they sign up, their email address is associated with thier officials. Then whenever a vote occurs, an email is sent out with a summary of the bill, and how their representatives voted. Hopefully the idea is that people would be better informed as to wether or not a given official is really representing their interests, and perhaps question whether or not they want to re-elect that person. Hmm, maybe I can get a grant from the government to do this....

it doesn't matter

[zogger]

--those documents have no relevance to reality anymore. The executive, judicial and legislative branches ignore them, they are almost completely corrupt and compromised now, the cops and military just take and follow orders, any orders. We have a theoretical constitutionally based representative republic, in reality, we have a totalitarian technofuedalistic autoaucracy that is a blend of socialism and corporatism, that runs on crimes, bribery, blackmail, state organized "terror" and massive bureaucratic malfeasance and indifference.

There are so many examples it's a waste of time to list them. We have millions of people who already can read, they are fully aware of the concepts contained,they even go so far as to get arested to challenge laws, and it's a complete dismal failure for the most part. We don't have the critical mass numbers of those sorts of people. When the "fix is in" to the extent it is now,and with the levels of apathy we have and the obvious demonization efforts and mass psyops being used, there's nothing short of using number 4 in the list of "boxes" we have to effect any meaningful change. I'm sure you know which that "box" is, the list that starts with "the soapbox".

I am cynical and pessimistic of this nation changing to anything but "more" big brotherism. If there was even a 10% drop in the amount of money, time and effort put into entertainments like fictional TV, movies, music, sports, videogames, etc and put into honest awareness rising and activism,and if millions of people would just shun either working for "the man" or would engage in a universal massive "no" saying to illegal and unethical orders and edicts when they are given, then maybe, perhaps, but I have seen no reductions in that after watching and being a political activst for just at 4 decades now. Next year I'll hit my 4th decade exactly from when I started actually working politics and various issues as a major part of my life. In fact I'd say there's LESS activism and awareness now then back then, even with the tremendously easy ways we have to communicate and get information now. And the various so called laws passed recently, based on extremely coincidental reichstagg events timing? And the level of intrusive and manipulative technology available to governments,with any numbers of intelligent people perfectly willing to sell, maintain and profit from them, and their accumulated and planned accumulations of advanced and exotic weaponry along with just a massiveincrease in conventional weaponry they have spread out to police departments all over, and their obvious perfect willingness to use these devices and their human mercenary "assets"? Nope, I'm extremely pessimistic.

I'm not saying I have personally given up, but I will say I am heavy into what is in essence a plan B now, just personal survival basically, and I have been for around 6 years even moreso than in the years previous to that,and have been waiting for the second shoe to drop. We are one major so called "foreign terrorist" attack away from it being all over when it comes to ANY so-called born-with personal soverign freedoms or ANY honesty in government. And that second shoe drop could come this very year in my estimation.

Your questions show how much is already lost.

[Erris]

"Daddy, is it true you used to have the right to privacy?"

First the question won't be asked because the meaning of the word privacy will have been altered beyond recognition. You child will think they have a "right to privacy" and that it's worth dying for, but they will have no clue to what this means:

"Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The "right to privacy" is a diluted positively asserted thing which can and does allow unreasonable searches without warrent specified by the much more powerful limit on government action above.

"Daddy, is it true you used to have the right to see the evidence against you and defend against it?"

"Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Your child won't know what a Grand Jury is and due process of law has already been perverted so no such thing is needed. The secret court says you are a terrorist, knowing how they know would alowy you to hurt more people off to jail you go.

What's all this fuss over anyway? We stared at the Soviets and global destruction for 50 years without becoming a police state. China is still around. Now, becase some jackass in Afganistan manages to kill a few thousand people we panic?

What do we think we are going to stop? Terrorists WILL get their hands on nukes, they will take out cities and nothing can be done about it anymore than Israel can keep people from pipe bombing cafes. The world will go on.

The only thing we can assure is what kind of world that will be. We can become another slave state or we continue to offer hope to the world for a better tomorrow. If we get lazy and turn on each other not only will the terrorist have won, they will have been right.

Public docs... It's already been done.

[Flabio]

I'm involved in a project called bluemud.org, and we already have most of these documents available. Plus on bluemud.org they're searchable by topic, keyword, and publication date.

We have over a quarter million documents waiting to get filtered into the directory, of which about 1100 have already been processed and are available to the general public. The rest of them are being filtered as quickly as possible and for impatient people, they can be viewed by registering on the site.