NHTSA lets Toyota off with a wrist slap

$16.4m would be a lot of dough for most folks, but Toyota isn't among them. Having made something in the range of $52 billion last year, its little wonder that Toyota agreed to pay the fine in exchange for not being required to admit guilt.  If only the taxpayers could levy a fine aginst NHTSA.

More troubling still, I don't believe sentiments such as mine are getting adequately publicized.  The article below is the only one I've come across that criticizes the "punishment" Toyota received for allegedly covering up safety defects.  I was unable to access the comments, and when I tried to link up with Twitter, my tweet appeared on my home page, but I could find no evidence that it was published.  Worse yet, several other efforts to tweet about this issue were - as far as I can tell - unsuccessful.  What gives here?  Hopefully,  just a glitch.  Problem is, a pattern of strange "glitches" is emerging with regard to my efforts on Twitter, and government censorship on the Internet - not to mention blogger allegations that Toyota deletes negative posts in China via so-called "e-PR" agencies - has become a hot topic.  But I'll reserve further comments on that issue for a future post.

Right on for the Motley Fool tellin' it like it is:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/04/20/toyotas-shameful-wrist-slap.aspx