Yeah, the last post he made anywhere on FT was July 9, seven days ago.

I'll cut him some slack and wait a few more days before I dump on him. He may be on vacation, or have an unexpected illness in the family, or simply be swamped with his other duties, all perfectly valid reasons for being away from FT for a week.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect Ross to stick around long. I was shocked down to my socks that he even participated in this community in an official capacity at all, and I have been surprised at even the small amount of information we have gotten from him.

But it was inevitable that this experiment would end, because what we really want, no press secretary or public relations person can ever give, in any organization - a real dialogue with the people who run the place, some organization transparency, and genuine accountability for those in the org who break the rules. Even the local FSDs have limited power for such things. The only one who could ever really do it is John Pistole, and he has zero interest in engaging or placating the general public. Heck, he doesn't even give a rodent's posterior about flipping off Congress itself.

But kudos to Ross for sticking it out as long as he did, and although we didn't get much out of him, I really think he made an honest, good-faith effort to answer questions. He was simply too constrained by his agency's idiotic CYA rules. Since he was here in an official capacity, he couldn't even really express any personal opinions, if he had any, which may have deviated from his agency's official lines.

Oh, well. Stuff happens, somebody's got to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?