Some ideas on just how "public" public servants' communication is have been raised here.
I have to concur. ALL documents produced by a public official operating an email system on public time and in pursuit of public policy (e.g. a White House official) should be subject to scrutiny and should not be considered as that person's private property. (deltorto@aol.com)
I'd like to take this a bit further. The new emerging technology of global networking is a means for previously uninfluential citizens to take back control of our governments. Is it just me, or does it seem like the US version is way out of control? Growing uncontrollably like a cancerous tumor? As a citizen of this country I am vehemently irate at public servants who use their positions and influence to thwart their own laws (e.g. Congress is exempt from many laws it passes). There seems to be a real undercurrent of stonewalling everywhere, and the insideous attitude that the public is not who you serve, but who you mislead to get more money or power. Why shouldn't every budget of every federal agency be public knowledge? I could see where MY TAX MONEY is being spent. Why shouldn't I be able to determine what any given US public official (elected or unelected) is doing on a given day? What a given agency is accomplishing? Because its impractical? Because it's not my business? HAH! It is not only practical, but will eventually happen. Imagine if all this information were stored in a single unified public database...! As accessable as a library book? Imagine the horrors we would uncover! (Interesting: technology will greater polarize the distinctions of "public" and "private" information.) The possibility of greater control over tax money is here too. Some presidential candidate (I forget who, Perot?) suggested having a box on the tax form that would allow constituents to direct money directly to the federal deficit. Of course, in today's atmosphere of complete fiscal irresponsibility and obfuscation such an idea is completely meaningless. But in the government of tomorrow, we will have must broader control over directing where our tax money will go. Imagine that I was required to spend a certain amount of money on government services (my total taxes) but that I could redirect the actual amounts to agencies (in broad categories) that serve me best. Suppose that even *private companies* could compete for this money on my tax form! It would almost be as if the federal government didn't even exist--our government would be nothing but a method of reallocating money in the most efficient way possible. (Hm, I think I'll give $0.001 to the NSA this year, hehe.) Regarding inefficiency, note the sheer obstacles that "whistleblowers" encounter in our government. Most are lucky to just be demoted. Others are harassed and threatened and fired, or worse. All this for potentially saving money and making an organization more efficient! We need to elevate the whistleblower to heroic status, and encourage every member of the US population to be one if possible. I'm not advocating paranoia or violent revolution, just that we increase our vigilance by increasingly exercising our rightful control with the aid of fresh technological developments. - - -
FRONTAL ATTACK ON THE PUZZLE PALACE by Lance Rose
Since that time, the NSA has steadily cast a pall over public use and knowledge of cryptography, and generally regulated the limits of privacy in this country. It has done so with 40,000 or more active employees, and funding not readily discernible from inspecting Congressional budget lines.
40,000? Is this for real? Does anyone know how this would compare to FBI or CIA? Also, does anyone have a clue on the black budget? The author seems to hint here that while it is not "readily discernible" it might be inferrable. There were a lot of files maintained by the FBI on suspected communists during the McCarthy era. I wonder what delicious little morsels have been squirreled away in the bowels of our massive behemoth? Esp. with the scarily massive capabilities of archival possible with today's storage technologies...