One virtuous reference librarian we know put many, many hours of work into organizing access to U.S. government data in a more usable form, so for help with that we recommend stopping first at the St. Paul Public Library. It is really excellent. We have not seen all such sites, so we can't vouch for that, but it certainly is a good site by any measure. Our last advice about governments, as data sources or as power centers, is a more philosophical version of how we began. Governments are not good, or evil.
Governments are mixed, both good and evil, all the time.
They are products of many mixed up people, who are also usually trying to do some good in their lives, but can still cause considerable harm when they make mistakes, or put career advancement above the general welfare. We stress a tolerant approach to this problem at Ground Zero because government's role in creating wars is so profound, we may become cynical. But those who would end war also learn, sooner or later, that institutions serve some essential functions too. So we cannot eliminate governments, no matter how much easier that might make an end to war, but rather we should reform them so that they kill less, and less often. Same goes for data.