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Wikileaks Publishes $1B of Public Domain Research Reports
laird writes "Wikileaks has released
nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress. The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to abortion legislation. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress's analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year. Although all CRS reports are legally in the public domain, they are quasi-secret because the CRS, as a matter of policy, makes the reports available only to members of Congress, Congressional committees and select sister agencies such as the GAO. Members of Congress are free to selectively release CRS reports to the public but are only motivated to do so when they feel the results would assist them politically. Universally embarrassing reports are kept quiet."
The U.S. government is extremely corrupt.
The bad thing is, it's all legal.
A government does not have to be good, and rarely is. It only has to be good enough that the populace will tolerate it.
A government has to do much, much more than that.
It must be in compliance (and at times, enforce others' compliance) with the basic laws of economics, or it will starve first it's people, then itself.
It has to protect itself from outside influence (it must "keep the barbarians out of the gates"), or it will quickly find itself swamped and destroyed from within.
It has to attack part of it's citizenry to protect other parts, ie. it has to enforce the laws.
It has to attack people outside of it's jurisdiction to protect it's trade relations (in other words : it has to attack pirates outside it's borders or refrain totally from international trade).
And finally : It has to attack "outsiders" to protect it's citizenry, intrests and critical resources that may be in limited supply or not available domestically.
Fail on any of these and the government will die quicker than you can say "revolution". Unless you believe everyone is just "naturally good", in which case you should share with me me some of that stuff you're smoking ...
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Advisory_Board
http://rocknerd.co.uk