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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:19 PM
Original message
Congressional Research Service Reports Leaked
Senators John McCain (R) and Patrick J. Leahy (D) have fought for transparency in government every year since 1998 by introducing bills to have these reports made public. The CRS, a branch of Congress is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act or FIOA. Though McCain and Leahy have supported an open government by introducing a bill trying to make the record public, the bill has been rejected each year.

Though the CRS reports are meant to be secret, selected reports have been leaked over the years to special interest groups who then use them to aid their agenda. In the meantime, the reports have been kept secret from the public. Until now that is.

Read the rest here: http://www.examiner.com/x-1172-Birmingham-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2009m2d8-Congressional-Research-Service-Reports-Leaked
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
1. REC THIS ONE UP, FOLKS! AND DOWNLOAD THOSE PDFS!
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ggould1 Donating Member (26 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:31 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. I hope they don't get pulled. nt
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BadgerKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:37 PM
Response to Original message
3. There needs to be a torrent. n/t
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:48 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. I wish there was. Awesome idea.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 09:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
28. Wikileaks is now directing people to piratebay for torrent downloads
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BadgerKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 10:24 PM
Response to Reply #28
30. I saw that on /. just now.
Edited on Sun Feb-08-09 10:25 PM by BadgerKid
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lostnotforgotten Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:46 PM
Response to Original message
4. That Is One Boatload Of Reports
eom
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
6. Damn. I wish the links were pdfs...downthemall would kick ass.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. I think they are PDFs. I've been downloading. What's downthemall?
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #10
14. It's an add-on for Firefox that will download files that are linked or embedded. You can get it
Edited on Sun Feb-08-09 03:13 PM by Pryderi
here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201

What is DownThemAll?

DownThemAll (or just dTa) is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want.
DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it's fully integrated into your favorite browser!
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Thanks, I just so happen to be using Firefox
And am downloading the extension now. Are you saying it will or it won't work with pdfs? Well I'll find out.
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:17 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. It will work for pdfs, but each of those links from wikileaks goes to a separate page and not the
pdf file itself.

Downthemall is a handy utility.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:21 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. I see what you mean now. Damn.
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 02:55 PM
Response to Original message
7. Maybe we could divvy up the work?
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. by subject or by month?
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. It's too overwhelming...there are thousands.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:06 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Maybe if everybody would take a month?
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:09 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. I'll bet they'll be taken down in less than a week.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. That's what I'm afraid of
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pmorlan1 Donating Member (763 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
18. Curious Report
I wonder who asked for this report in October of 2002?

Members of the U.S. Congress Who Have Died of Other
Than Natural Causes while in Office
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Wow
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snot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
20. k&r'd
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pmorlan1 Donating Member (763 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 05:00 PM
Response to Original message
21. Medicare Choice Report Gone
Looks like one of the reports is already gone -

RS: Medicare Choice, June 6, 2003
There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 05:01 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. I hope it's just because they're overrun
I've been getting some error pages because the site is so busy.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 05:05 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. I'm downloading random stuff that looks interesting and hoping for the best
I downloaded the bit on smallpox just before the medicare one and it's still there. I suspect that the medicare one might just be an error on wikileak's part. At least, let's hope so. It just seems if they were going to pull something, it would be something like homeland security stuff.
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 08:06 PM
Response to Original message
24. I hope some newspapers and reporters got them.
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benld74 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 08:16 PM
Response to Original message
25. Site is overloaded, I cannot get to anything
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 09:44 PM
Response to Reply #25
26. They've been having trouble on and off all day
Because of an overloading of visitors to the website. Keep trying. I'm going to keep downloading stuff a bit at a time when I can get back on. It'll probably slow down late tonight...well...I hope!
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 09:46 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. I just checked and am having no problems downloading PDFs
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
29. I'm downloading the entire thing as a torrent
You can get it on piratebay here: http://thepiratebay.org/tag/wikileaks

You must have a torrent application to get torrents. Right now it looks like it's going to take 1 day, 4 hours!

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OnyxCollie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-08-09 11:16 PM
Response to Original message
31. K&R. nt
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HamdenRice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-09 06:43 AM
Response to Original message
32. Every Congress person is entitled to them. IIRC, one leaks them all on a web site
Many CRS reports are unremarkable. It's kind of like the "answer guy" for Congress. If you have a question, you ask CRS and they answer it.

Although nominally secret, a huge amount of them are made public -- just not by CRS. "Leaked" may even be too strong a word. Many are simply published by various branches of government who get them.

Weirdly, for example, the State Department under Colin Powell published the infamous CRS report about Bush's planning to cancel or postpone the 2004 election -- which made me think there was a huge amount of infighting going on.

IIRC, there is one Congress person who feels strongly about CRS reports and maintains a site in which he publishes every CRS report he can get his hands on. If anyone knows who this Congress person is, please post his name in this thread.
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HamdenRice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-09 06:51 AM
Response to Original message
33. My fav title: "CRS: Executive Branch Power to Postpone Elections, July 14, 2004"
That was when Bush was behind in the polls and floating the idea of canceling the Bush-Kerry election.

The State Department published it on their website.
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BirminghamExaminer Donating Member (943 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-09-09 09:25 AM
Response to Reply #33
34. I've downloaded the entire lot of them
As a torrent. Yes, these things have been leaked for years, one at a time. Now they're all public as it should be.
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