The obviously relevant US government (since it's the one that ended slavery, fought the robber barons, passed the Civil Rights Act, recently passed health insurance reform, and has limited powers compared to other western democracies) imprisons 216,896 people[0], or less than 0.07% of the US population.
State governments are not "the US government". If someone says "the US government", they are either referring to the federal government, or need to do a great deal more research before speaking about US governance.
There are significant gaps in the racks, and ~16U are occupied by UPSs. The rest is a mix of fairly modern and legacy gear with a few external HDDs and a few 1U pieces of network gear. In a real datacenter, it would occupy perhaps 1.5 racks.
My arguments are backed by publicly-available evidence. Yours are backed by vague assertions by people who assuredly do not need you defending them. If they wish to convince anyone, they can release further evidence.
> My God, the audacity of OpenBSD developers, to ask for help powering this stuff!
Oh look, another strawman. Nobody believes requesting aid with an electric bill is unreasonable. It is the amount being requested that is shocking, and the extreme secrecy breeds suspicion.
> unrealistic expectation that they should know how every dime of their donation is going to be accounted for
This is done routinely by both for-profit and non-profit organizations. In fact, it's done routinely by individuals like myself.
> What I don't get is where people - presumably people involved in information technology - conclude that $20k/year is a lot of money to spend on electricity.
Where I live, that would pay for the equivalent of 10-11 120-volt 20-amp circuits running at 80% capacity (per electrical code) 24/7. Some googling suggests Calgary rates are similar, which isn't surprising. We both get most of our power from hydro.
State governments are not "the US government". If someone says "the US government", they are either referring to the federal government, or need to do a great deal more research before speaking about US governance.
[0] http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.js...