It's official Fl SB1992 has been signed by the governor

Yepper, despite our fantasy that our esteemed Florida Gov. might veto this exercise law gone wacko, it is now legitimately law gone wacko as the Governor has just signed it into wackiness. You can read the 11 page bill analysis here if you care to. Be prepared to see court cases related to this one. Note: As we previously posted the increased penalty provisions for those who run over those of us who ride causing death and severe ouchies has, as we knew they would be, stripped out of the bill. Be advised this is a government website and goes down on occasion.Add to Technorati Favorites

National HIghway Transportation Safety Administration off the record

(Nicole R. Nason took over as N.H.T.S.A. chief in 2006. (Photograph by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) Cute for Tyrant wouldn't you say?

In our never ending quest for accurate information that affects not just us a motorcycle riders but the public at large we ran across this little item from the New York Times. Though it was published in 2006, we haven't yet seen anything to contradict it. Below are some excepts and your can read the whole article here.

"If you want to know something as simple as who heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, don’t bother to ask the safety agency’s communications office. Without special permission, officials there are no longer allowed to provide information to reporters except on a background basis, which means it cannot be attributed to a spokesman."

"It seems that Ms. Nason has adopted a policy that has blocked virtually all of her staff — including the communications office — from providing any information to reporters on the record, which means that it can be attributed.

As an alternative I was told I could interview Ms. Nason on the record (instead of the expert on the subject of my article). I declined, failing to see how her appointment as administrator — she was trained as a lawyer — made her a expert in that subject.

When I said I would like to talk to Ms. Nason on the record about her no-attribution policy, she was not available.

The agency’s new policy effectively means that some of the world’s top safety researchers are no longer allowed to talk to reporters or to be freely quoted about automotive safety issues that affect pretty much everybody.

“My God,” said Joan Claybrook, who was N.H.T.S.A. administrator from 1977 to 1981 and is now president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. Given that N.H.T.S.A. is the leading source of automotive safety information in the United States, its researchers are public officials and people are entitled to “know what information they have, whether it is on paper or in their heads,” Ms. Claybrook said."

So I'm just guessing here o.k. and you determine whether or not this guess has any validity.

But unless a news organization can question a government agency,Whose employee salaries we pay, as to how they arrive at the data they release to the public or any inconsistencies in the data how can they report on the data accurately?

I suppose Associated Press or some other news agency could transform itself into a research organization and attempt to replicate the outcomes arrived at by the government sponsored research. Or maybe they could engage in a little investigative journalism and find out why we can't ask people who work for us questions?

Alas, even news organization have to watch the bottom line. So I'm thinking it probably just easier to parrot whatever some government agencies put out and call it news. Then the public will read it and call it fact.

Now as redundant as this may seem because we do end a number of our post with this little query, does anyone remember how we got into IRAQ??? Damn, wouldn't a little investigative reporting before the fact instead of after been helpful in shaping the publics perception of the TRUTH?

You know don't you, oh hell I'm sure you do, that legislators take this regurgitated parrot talk and turn it into laws don't you?

Oh hell, maybe now days the Truth is off the record too.Add to Technorati Favorites