Sources
If you'd like to see what antitrust scholars say about the Microsoft case, read the text of the Supreme Court's U.S. v. Lopez decision, or check out a law school's Web site, then look up www.findlaw.com, a searchable legal database that has plenty of useful information the nonlawyer can appreciate. You'll find links to the complete text of court decisions and federal regulations, law journal articles, and mailing lists for legal academics.
"The national total of ditchweed eradicated compared to the total number of plants seized is 99.28 percent."
-The Vermont state auditor, in a damning report finding that almost all of the "marijuana" seized through federally funded eradication efforts is wild-growing hemp, which is generally not psychoactive ("State Auditor's Report on the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program," available from the Office of the State Auditor, 133 State St., Montpelier, VT 056335101, 802-828-2281)
What would a user-friendly government agency Web site look like? (Hint: It wouldn't be run by the government.) And how can you find which political candidates and causes have gotten money from your boss, hairdresser, or poker buddies? Run by a 17-year veteran of the Federal Elections Commission, www.tray.com/fecinfo allows sophisticated searches of FEC databases that in many ways are more informative than the searches you can bang out on the FEC's own computers. It absolutely trumps the agency's own feeble Web site (www.fec.gov), and lets you, rather than some member of the D.C. press corps, decide which political funding shenanigans are worth looking into.