Some U.S. Senate 'open records' can only be seen in D.C. Don’t try to videotape anything at the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Senate, especially if the video is about “open records” available only at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. We recently asked Nancy Erickson, Secretary of the Senate, for permission to visit her office and create such a video:
We anticipate visiting your office for about two hours. During the first hour we will familiarize ourselves with the public access computers there. During the second hour, with your permission, we would videotape short sequences about the information that can be retrieved on those computers. We would like permission to videotape the screen on one of those computer terminals to help educate investigative journalists on how to use your system.
If possible, we would like permission to videotape one of your staff member’s responses to questions that we may have at that time.
In her reply (see below), we are disappointed that there is a longstanding policy that prohibits such filming. When we visit Hart Senate Office building in the near future, we’ll write about what records we can see there, especially ones that are not available anywhere else.
Both the Senate and House exempt themselves from Freedom of Information Act requests and create their own rules about access to information.
(from
watchdog.org)
Spreading the wealth via D.C. likened to a life-giving network
And the caption reads: "Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man, without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society."
Anyone else think it is just a bit ironic that the folks pushing to socialize health care use a quote from Thomas Jefferson about liberty? Obviously these people don't have much of a grasp on the concept.
