My friends and associates, Denny Hatch and Jim Overly, have been sending me links to articles about the “information wants to be free” mindset that’s been spawned by the Internet.

             Jim, a retired member of the State Department’s Foreign Service, helps monitor websites for the daily Government Policy Newslinks report. Denny is a direct marketing industry guru who writes Denny Hatch’s Business Common Sense, a webpage that’s read by an ever-widening circle of appreciative readers.

             One of the articles they sent to me, from Wired.com, seemed to hit the nail on the head. See Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business (Feb. 25, 2008). But see also the Los Angeles Times’ Free news online will cost journalism dearly (Dec. 26, 2007) and The New York Times’ Why you should pay to read this newspaper (Oct. 24, 2005).

             I re-read those articles yesterday (April 15) after a group of self-described “good government” groups sent letters that asked the House and Senate leaders to start posting committee votes on various congressional committee websites. They noted that roll call votes occurring in the House and Senate are published in the Congressional Record which is posted the following day on Thomas, the Library of Congress website that’s been operating since 1995.

             But getting information about votes cast in committees is a different—and very expensive—matter, they said.

             “Currently, other than visiting a committee’s office, timely information regarding recorded votes is available only for a fee by a few providers. Congressional Quarterly, for example, posts to a website available to subscribers the votes recorded during committee mark-ups within 24 hours after they are cast along with a synopsis of the mark-up at a cost of $4,215 per year. National Journal subscribers pay $2,000 to review votes and synopses of ‘key’ mark-ups and Gallery Watch emails its clients and posts to its site customized information about committee votes and proceedings within 48 hours at a cost of approximately $5,000 per year,” they said.

             The letter’s signatories included some major lobbying organizations with multi-million dollar operating budgets and can easily pay, and probably do pay, the subscription fees.

             They assured the congressional leaders who received their letter—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)—that they were only interested in sticking up for the “individuals, nonprofit organizations and small businesses whose interests might be affected by committee votes—who cannot visit committee offices and do not have the financial resources to pay private organizations to track this information.”

            We are drowned by the tears from these crocodiles. When news-gathering organizations like Congressional Quarterly and National Journal lose subscription revenue, they stop gathering news, they stop adding value to the information they collect with their analysis and interpretation, and ultimately they leave the news-gathering field altogether and create a vacuum that will be eagerly filled by “good government” lobbies. Do you really want your news about congressional voting behavior dished up by the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, the National Organization for Women, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the letter’s other signatories?

             If they were really interested in protecting the interests of the little guy, they would simply dip into their multi-million dollar treasuries and contribute a few dollars to gather information about congressional committee votes and post it on their own website. Their brethren elsewhere in the “good government” industry, with the help of a few sympathetic congressmen, are already doing this with the Open CRS website that exposes and distributes thousands of Congressional Research Service reports which are not otherwise available for public distribution.

Your tax dollars at work on the U.S.-Mexico border

            Millions of taxpayer dollars are allocated each year to help Mexico train and equip its military for drug enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the training (reportedly at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga.) and equipment, including assault weapons and night vision devices, has wound up in the hands of paramilitary groups that protect drug traffickers and engages in kidnappings on both sides of the border.

            The migration of U.S. funding from drug interdiction to drug smuggler protection is so bold, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said in a press release yesterday (April 15), that a paramilitary group called Los Zetas advertised its recruiting phone number on a publicly displayed banner that was hung from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Attn: Criminal justice reporters 

            Ordinarily, criminal aliens are deported to their native countries after completing their prison sentences. But what happens if their native countries won’t take them back? It turns out that, with no place to go, they are simply turned loose on the streets of America.

            An estimated 139,000 criminal aliens from eight countries—Laos, Iran, Eritrea, Vietnam, Jamaica, China, India and Ethiopia—are subject to deportation, but their countries won’t let them come home.

            Yesterday (April 10), U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Mike Castle (R-Del.) introduced legislation to impose sanctions against countries that refuse to take back their citizens who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S.

            Under their legislation, which copies a bill introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), visa applications from those countries would not be approved and all foreign assistance funds would be withheld.

            “There must be consequences for not respecting our rule of law. America is a land of opportunity, but it’s not a dumping ground for lawbreakers,” Rep. Dent said in a press release.

            The criminal alien population in U.S. prisons is thought to be substantial, possibly more than 8%. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were a total of 1,570,861 prisoners being held in state and federal prisons at the end of 2006.

Attn: Government reporters 

            Washington-based lobbying was a $2.79 billion industry in 2007, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog organization which calculated the amount from more than 42,000 disclosure reports that were filed for last year with the House and Senate. The amount was declared a “record,” surpassing the previous year’s lobbying expenditures of $2.59 billion by 7.7%.

            CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz described Washington’s lobbying industry—comprised of corporations, labor unions, trade associations and an endless array of advocacy groups—as “recession-proof.” At a time when the national economy is restricting, the lobbying industry is booming, she noted.  

            Meanwhile, six other watchdog groups led by the Campaign Legal Center urged U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) to immediately relinquish his seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Wynn, after failing to win his party’s nomination to seek re-election to his House seat, announced he would leave Congress to join the lobbying law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLC.

            In their letter, the six groups listed several dozen of Dickstein Shapiro’s lobbying clients that have a direct interest in legislation falling under the committee’s jurisdiction. To avoid conflicts, Wynn would have to recuse himself from any matters relating to energy, telecommunications, tobacco, construction, higher education, information technology, gambling, environmental issues, and pharmaceuticals. “It is difficult to believe that any direct or indirect action you might take in an official capacity as a member of this committee, especially as chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, would not affect the interests of clients Dickstein Shapiro represents.”

Attn: Assignment editors

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
U.S. offshore leasing is premised on a future of $30-a-barrel oil

U.S. Geological Survey
Holy cow! Where did all that oil come from? There’s 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana

Federal Trade Commission
Do Not Call Registry is made permanent, telemarketers to pay $54 per area code for list of telephone numbers that cannot be called

Government Accountability Office
Undercover purchases on eBay and Craigslist reveal a market for sensitive and stolen U.S. military items  Full report (35 pages)

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Calls on National Archives and Records Administration to waive $50 fee charged to veterans who seek access to their own military files

Attn: Washington correspondents 

            A Government Accountability Office report released yesterday (April 9) says that federal workers sometimes use their government-issued credit cards a little bit too liberally. In as many as 41% of the transactions involving purchases of goods and services below $2,500, basic internal control standards were not followed. And in as many as 48% of the transactions above $2,500, the agencies could not verify the purchases were properly authorized. 

            It would have taken a herculean effort to review every government credit card transaction during the 12-month period from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006, when over $17 billion worth of goods and services were charged by federal workers.  

            GAO auditors went to the five banks that process government credit card transactions—Bank of America, Citibank, Mellon Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank—and applied data mining technology to select a statistical sample.  

            The agencies were asked to provide documentation for the selected transactions to prove that the purchases had been properly authorized, and that the delivery of the goods or services went to an individual other than the cardholder who signed for it.  

            In their limited review, GAO investigators uncovered numerous examples of fraud and abuse. Government credit cards, GAO said in its report, were used to “subscribe to Internet dating services, buy video iPods for personal use, and pay for lavish dinners that included top-shelf liquor.” They even found a U.S. Forest Service employee who used a government-issued credit card to embezzle $642,000 over a six-year period, leading to an arrest and a 21-month prison sentence. 

            Much of the fraud and abuse is preventable, GAO said, but the General Services Administration which administers the credit card program claims it lacks the authority “to issue guidance and reminders encouraging agencies to document independent receipt and acceptance of items purchased with a government purchase card.”  

Synopsis * Full report (61 pages)

Old, broken down football players

Attn: Sports writers 

            The Congressional Research Service, in a report released yesterday (April 9) by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), says Congress needs to enact legislation to help retired National Football League players cope with injuries and disabilities that follow them into retirement. 

            The 144-page report examines the types and severities of injuries and health problems suffered by current and past NFL players, and concludes that their injuries are often ignored while they are playing and their disabilities are unacknowledged when they are retired. 

            The NFL and the NFL Players Association do not even collect data on the number or percentage of players who retire because of injury, the CRS report said. 

            According to the report, 1,052 players applied for “line of duty” or “total and permanent” disability benefits between 1993 and mid-2007. Of them, 428 were approved, 576 were denied, and 48 are pending. The approval rate for the decided applications is just 42%. 

            Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who requested the CRS study with Conyers, said the report “clearly demonstrates that the NFL and NFLPA need to make serious efforts to collect data on player injuries, and eliminate the conflict of interest by team doctors who place the financial interests of their teams ahead of players’ health.”

News tips: 

Global Exchange:
Cargill, Archer Daniel Midland lobbyists oppose farm bill provision that would ban importation of slave labor or child labor products 

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW):
FEC complaint filed against U.S. Term Limits for sponsoring ad in support of a U.S. Senate candidate 

American Academy of Neurology:
Diabetes in mid-life is linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Newspaper Association of America:
Newspaper-owned websites earned more than $2 billion in online advertising in 2007 

National Security Archive:
Air Force finally releases documents in 18-year-long FOIA legal struggle; report provides more evidence that nuclear weapons use was considered during Vietnam War 

U.S. Food & Drug Administration:
Hazardous levels of selenium found in samples of “Total Body Formula” and “Total Body Mega Formula”