\n
Several years ago I got an interesting communication, from someone within the Missouri state bureaucracy, telling me to ask for a specifically titled internal \u00a0Memo.<\/span><\/p>\n I did \u2013 and got stonewalled.\u00a0 I reached out to a couple of friendly legislators.\u00a0 They heard a lot of excuses but never saw the Memo.\u00a0 I reached out to a friend in the Department of Social Services who looked into the matter and said “You really don\u2019t want to see that.”<\/span><\/p>\n Yeah, they knew that wouldn\u2019t stop me.<\/span><\/p>\n It turned out several good people about the state received similar communications referencing this Memo.<\/span><\/p>\n Well, due to problems with two antiquated computer systems not talking to each other, Missouri had accidentally charged the federal government for more food stamps for more people than our state actually distributed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately, internal systems caught this error in a bit less than seven years. Our state owed a few hundred million dollars to Washington.\u00a0 And, several years of routine reports on Missouri food stamp use were very wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n I remain convinced that without that \u2018leaked\u2019 invitation to track-down that Memo the state might never have admitted its mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n As anyone who has talked their ways through the halls of the Capitol in Jefferson City knows, the Missouri legislature survives on caffeine, free food and gossip.\u00a0 No high school in Missouri can propel gossip faster than our Capitol.\u00a0 Though much of that noise is unsubstantiated and unflattering, virtually every item in state government speeds up the stairways long before the information becomes public.\u00a0 (This includes a long list of sexual hijinks by elected folks.)<\/span><\/p>\n The state bureaucracy is not much better at keeping secrets.\u00a0 People talk.\u00a0 They talk when they\u2019re angry, when they\u2019re happy or when the week has a Tuesday in it.\u00a0 True, no one is forced to listen but, then again, no one was forced to buy Fifty Shades of Grey (but millions did).<\/span><\/p>\n So it is with amusement that I listen to President Donald Trump claim that the \u2018real crime\u2019 was the leak about National Security Advisor Michael Flynn\u2019s call to one of his favorite Russians.\u00a0 No sir, the crime was what General Flynn said and promised.\u00a0 The leak exposed his crime.\u00a0 Without the leak the crime might have always remain unpunished.<\/span><\/p>\n Without leaks how would we have learned about massive spying campaigns on fellow Americans?\u00a0 Or President Richard Nixon\u2019s treachery?\u00a0 Though messy, leaks are a vital safety valve.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope they don\u2019t stop.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh yes, I was in the Capitol this Tuesday:\u00a0 interested in some grade B+ gossip?<\/span><\/p>\n Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member<\/em><\/p>\n\n Several years ago I got an interesting communication, from someone within the Missouri state bureaucracy, telling me to ask for a specifically titled internal \u00a0Memo. I did \u2013 and got stonewalled.\u00a0 I reached out to a couple of friendly legislators.\u00a0 Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-driving-change"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZWUT-jv","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}