The US Department of Justice has an excellent site devoted to requesting federal public records through the Freedom of Information Act. 

From www.usdoj.gov Freedom of Information Act site:

Like all federal agencies, the Department of Justice (DOJ) generally is required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to disclose records requested in writing by any person. However, agencies may withhold information pursuant to nine exemptions and three exclusions contained in the statute. The FOIA applies only to federal agencies and does not create a right of access to records held by Congress, the courts, or by state or local government agencies. Each state has its own public access laws that should be consulted for access to state and local records.

The US DOJ FOIA site contains reference guides and principal FOIA contacts for major government agencies.  You can access the USDOJ FOIA site at Freedom of Information Act .

The US Government Online Bookstore  offers all the published federal government publications that are available for purchase.  Publications are arranged by topic.

The 2005 CIA World Factbook  contains published facts and demographic data on other nations.   The World Factbook is updated every two weeks to keep the information current.

Information on foreign countries typically includes:
- Maps
- Country Background Information
- Geographical Data
- Population Data
- Government and Political Information
- Economic Data
- Communications Infrastructure
- Transportation Infrastructure
- Military Data
- Trans National Issues and Disputes

All US males over the age of 18 are required by law to register with the Selective Service.  The Selective Service Registration System allows public users to enter a male’s last name, social security number and date of birth to see if he is registered with the Selective Service.  This is a great way to verify that an 18+ year old US male’s last name, social security number and date of birth match up with Selective Service’s public records.

You can do your own Selective Service System searches online at Selective Service System .  This search is a free service at this time.

The Smoking Gun web site manages to obtain some notorious and some confidential public records through Freedom of Information requests and publishes the documents online.  Published documents  typically include public records, criminal records and court records of celebrities and other high-profile people. The Smoking Gun guarantees that all of their published records are 100% authentic and can’t be found anywhere else on the web.

The main page allows users easy access to featured documents; public record archives of past documents and a mug shot section.  You can access the site at The Smoking Gun .