I had been planning on writing this for next week as a discussion point, but its come up a few times within the last few days and, well, here we go.

One of the things that we strive for is reputable, well-sourced comments. That might seem relatively simple, but in practice it is not. It would not be uncommon to see links to a news report about the results of some poll, but not a link to the poll itself along with the comment itself even showing that the person went that far. I feel this is important and gets to the basic reason:

Arguing over the interpretation of the interpretation of the data won't really get us anywhere. We need the raw data itself in order to evaluate and judge whether that interpretation of the data is right.

I hate to prove my high school English right, but the best sources are primary data, not secondary.

What I would like to do is to create a list of sources that we agree upon as "good". For example, the White House Historical Tables cover pretty much anything and everything you might want for the US national budget. I'm sure there are similar sources for Canada, UK, etc. Likewise, the IRS has their data which is useful for discussions about tax issues.

Now here's where I need the community's help - I'm a finance geek. I don't even know where to start in looking for a good source for other topics. Is there a good place to look up particular legal statutes/regulations? (Other than the SEC, which I'm familiar with). Perhaps a good, mostly non-partisan source for political matters?

Or, if there isn't a "one-stop shop" perhaps we look for two sources, one on either side of the aisle, that are pretty good, even with their tilt.

I think this sort of thing would help quite a bit, as well as allow people to answer their own questions.

Thoughts?