The Bush Administration really is running government like a business.

But the information at the NHTSA, a taxpayer-funded agency, belongs to the American people. This Rove-droid has no right at all to bottle it up.

Somebody told this crowd that "transparency" means they should be invisible.
Bet they all show up on payday, however.

The market works!

Good thing the media won't cover this non-story. Look -- Hillary used an accent!

Is this new NHTSA lockdown policy in preparation for upcoming "bridge collapse" lawsuits?

Ah, Major Major from Catch-22 has been appointed to lead NHTSA - One may always see and interview him in his office, whenever, he is not there. Quite a slit trench, they have built for him.

My tax dollars are well spent on the qualified professionals in our federal bureaucracies, NHTSA and NTSB being some of the best and most useful. For all these bozo Bushies, however, I'd really like to get my money back!

Al and egbert haven't showed up because they are not allowed to troll about this issue.

[The regulars tire of the trolling. So...bye-bye, Al]

D'oh! So much for my peremptory strike.

"Since there are different points of view on any issue . . . ." On the issue of whether you're an incredible pinhead, Al, it's unanimous.

And the NHTSA's director is a woman. That's different than a "he." Just FYI.

Is this new NHTSA lockdown policy in preparation for upcoming "bridge collapse" lawsuits?

You got it. And the mine collapse lawsuits.

I can't wait for a Dem admin just so we can finally find out all the crap that they've been doing to us for the last 7 years.

ah, kevin, still living in your pre-9/11 post-FOIA neverneverland. don't worry, daddy will protect us.

Well, it isn't like the U.S. government works for us or anything...

Did the administration forget about this dept? This has been SOP since Hansen(sp?) at NASA gave pressers. Try getting an FOIA request from any bureau.

Ban Al now. We weary of his antics.

About the new director:

"She was also the Deputy Director of Communications for the House Impeachment Inquiry,..."

My, but these people take care of their own, don't they?

NHTSA is good at internal message discipline. Years ago I subcontracted on a safety video for them. When you meet with NHTSA people the first thing you learn is they forbid the word "accident" as in "auto accident." "Crash!" they say. "It's a automobile crash, not an accident."

Not such an odd idea really, but I was somewhat amazed that they hadn't spent years brainwashing the rest of us on that concept in their Public Service Announcements.

Huh? What did Al do?

Al was being a jerk and troll i.e. he was acting like normal. I am hoping this means all of the other trolls (Egbert, ex-liberal) will be deleted also.

Kevin: Disgusting, of course. But it's also remarkably typical for this aspiring Totalitarian regime -- "par for the course". And it would indeed be unintentionally humorous, if it weren't so utterly malignant and out of control.

The Bush-Cheney brand of Fascism, it's increasingly evident, operates strictly "by the book". There's clearly nothing "inadvertent" about the police state mentality exhibited by loyal lackeys of the Bush Reich. To the contrary, their conduct has been officially CODIFIED -- in brazen defiance of Americans' Constitutional rights -- since at least 2002:

White House Manual Details How to Deal With Protesters
[Washington Post]

Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any. A White House manual that came to light recently gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's public appearances around the country.

Among other things, any event must be open only to those with tickets tightly controlled by organizers. Those entering must be screened in case they are hiding secret signs. Any anti-Bush demonstrators who manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by "rally squads" stationed in strategic locations. And if that does not work, they should be thrown out.

But that does not mean the White House is against dissent -- just so long as the president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a specific system for those who disagree with the president to voice their views. It directs the White House advance staff to ask local police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade route."

The "Presidential Advance Manual," dated October 2002 with the stamp "Sensitive -- Do Not Copy," was released under subpoena to the American Civil Liberties Union as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of two people arrested for refusing to cover their anti-Bush T-shirts at a Fourth of July speech at the West Virginia State Capitol in 2004. The techniques described have become familiar over the 6 1/2 years of Bush's presidency, but the manual makes it clear how organized the anti-protest policy really is. ...

"It isn't hard to be a humorist when you have the whole government working for you." -- Will Rogers.

So THERE, Jon Stewart!

And MORE of the same:

White House Declares Office Off-Limits
[The Washington Post]

The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers.

The claim, made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House's own Web site. As of yesterday, the site listed the Office of Administration as one of six presidential entities subject to the open-records law, which is commonly known by its abbreviation, FOIA. ...

[It must be "nice" to have the unconstrained ability to just make it all up as you go along, eh?]

Is this new NHTSA lockdown policy in preparation for upcoming "bridge collapse" lawsuits?

Interesting thought -- VERY interesting! I think you may well be ON to something.

In all seriousness, rank-and-file employees of a company should never comment to the press about issues related to their organizations. However, the press office should be talking to the press because that's their job.

Federal employees need to be constantly aware of the careful balancing act. They have a lot of freedom to do what they please in their own time, but they have to avoid the appearance of trading on their position within the government to add authority to their statements. NHTSA experts can probably say, "As an expert in this field, I feel the highway infrastructure situation looks like X." However, they can't present themselves as, "As an NHTSA official, I can tell you that our agency has determined X."

In short: the policy is 1/4th good sense (never talk to the press. ever. trust me. no good can come of it) and 3/4th Bush-era bullshit.

Kevin I like your post and it would be great if one of the candidates could pick this up and confirm the numbers in a more detailed manner. They could then present these stats to the American people (a la Ross Perot) and it would be a great political move. It's hard to attack the facts on the ground.

For a lame-duck presidency, the Bush administration sure is acting like they plan on ruling our freedom-loving nation for a long, long time, far after January 2009 when Bush and Cheney, by law, are required to exit our White House.

Neo-con Republicans are nothing more than fascist totalitarians, intent upon destroying everything in their path, including our democracy.