roundtable: What "THOMAS" Says About Revolutions

roundtable: What "THOMAS" Says About Revolutions

What "THOMAS" Says About Revolutions

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Fri, 24 Feb 1995 13:27:09 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 13:27:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: What "THOMAS" Says About Revolutions
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950224132406.20090C-100000@access2.digex.net>


----------------Original Message Posted in Multiple Lists----------------- 
------------------------Republication Authorized-------------------------- 
  
FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age       
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE                    
Vol III, Issue No. 4 (116 lines)                          February 27, 1995
    
     
                  READ THIS ISSUE OF FINS TO CONSIDER:      
                                                             
                *   The case of "THOMAS," a revolution within revolutions
                                          
                *   Gingrich's unilateral defiance of Congressional rules
    
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CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP": 
What "THOMAS" Says About Revolutions
By Vigdor Schreibman 

     What revolutions are all about, as the one designed by Thomas Jefferson
in 1776 revealed, concerns a breakdown in the old order--legal, moral, and
practical--and the invention and introduction of a new order of things under
unilateral power [Fins-SR3-10]. Judgments about revolutions are difficult,
as a result, because the underlying norms and rules of conduct are violated
and the incoming scheme remains ill-defined and ill-structured.

     Arthur S. Miller, (late) professor emeritus of law at George Washington
University described how the rule of power dominates contemporary reality. 
In his criticism of America's legal system, Miller states, "We must accept
the harsh truth that law is Thrasymachusian - the will of the stronger.  It
has always been so, although legal philosophers have argued to the contrary."
The rule of power is central to the "information revolution" [Fins-NC2-09]. 
Just the other day a Federal Court rejected an antitrust pact between the
U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft, affecting the technology used on
more than 50 million computers.  District Judge Stanley Sporkin said if he
approved the deal "the message will be that Microsoft is so powerful that
neither the market nor the Government is capable of dealing with all of its
monopolistic practices" according to a page 1 story in The Washington Post
Feb 15, 1995.  Perhaps, this rule of power is nowhere more evident than in
the conduct of Speaker Newt Gingrich and his colleagues surrounding
development of "THOMAS," the latest system for electronic public information
access enhancement [Epin, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 9], which also includes a power
play that is now unfolding to abolish the Government Printing Office (GPO).

     THOMAS was introduced by the Library of Congress in January, following
directions issued by Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich, after the elections last
November, but prior to the end of the democratic control over Congress. 
Librarian of Congress, James Billington testified Feb 21 before the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative branch that THOMAS was part
of a $60 million undertaking by the library to be funded under a partnership
with private industry, to digitize a vast portion of the library's Americana
holdings that would then become a kind of feedstock for industry development
of value-added information products. At the same hearing it was also revealed
that Gingrich was behind an attack against the GPO, principal guardian of the
vast holdings of public information owned by the American people that LC
wants to digitize for use by private industry.  Testimony by Rep. Bill Thomas
(R-CA), chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, followed consultations
with the Speaker, according to Thomas, who urged zero funding for the GPO,
and the agency's immediate abolishment.  On Feb 24th, the Subcommittee held
a recision hearing and voted to recommend zero funding for the Joint
Committee on Printing, without a vote by the authorizing Committees and
disregarding objections by all the Senate members of the JCP.

     THOMAS was developed and implemented by the Library of Congress, in
direct contradiction with the mandate of the GPO Access Act that Gingrich co-
sponsored in the 103rd Congress [Government Printing Office Electronic
Information Enhancement Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-40, 107 Stat. 112 (June
8, 1993)].  GPO Access established in the Government Printing Office a means
of enhancing public access to a wide range of Federal electronic information.
The Act directed that the system of access be made available to depository
libraries "without charge," but authorized the Superintendent of Documents
to charge reasonable fees for use of the system by all others.  This was
designed to maintain the policy of free access through depository libraries,
while establishing a cost recovery strategy in keeping with the budgetary
restraints demanded by "conservative" members of Congress.

     FINS has learned through trusted technicians familiar with the case that
LC "was approached 2 weeks before xmas to launch the [THOMAS] service, and
has had staff working "day/night, saturdays, everyday except christmas" to
get things going."  The technician told FINS that LC was using a "*large*
RS6000 ... dedicated purely to running Thomas.  These machines are quite
expensive ... I think we are talking over a 100,000 dollars. Staff is
obviously spending a great deal of time on this..."  THOMAS was developed
independent of the Depository Library program managed by the GPO, to which
LC belongs but with the use of GPO data.  However, LC has refused to pay GPO
for use of its data, as the law requires, the Public Printer has testified.

     GPO previously offered, as a part of the Depository Library Program, to
assist in "accomplishing your goal of distributing Congressional information
electronically to the American public free of charge," as disclosed in a
letter sent by Public Printer, Michael F. DiMario, to Speaker-Elect Gingrich
dated Dec 8, 1994 [Fins-PI2-01].  Gingrich implicitly rejected the offer of
assistance by the GPO, but has offered no explanation of why the offer was
rejected, according to Linda Kemp, Staff Director of the JCP.

     Finally it appears that in taking all these acts, Gingrich and Thomas
have entirely disregarded the various Committees of the U.S. Congress with
primary jurisdiction over these matters, according to a knowledgeable Senate
staff person.  Sen. Hatfield (R-OR), chair of the Joint Committee on the
Library, will hold a hearing March 6, 1995, to look into these concerns, a
Senate staff person told FINS.  In addition, all Senate members of the JCP--
Hatfield, Stevens (R-AK), Cochran (R-MS), Ford (D-KY), and Inouye (D-HI),
have sent a letter to Rep. Thomas questioning his actions on behalf of the
JCP to abolish the GPO, without the approval of the JCP or the approval of
Senate members of that Committee, who exercise control over such matters.

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