Phillips: Federal government is watching us on Facebook

It is buried toward the end of his weekly report, but Rep. Don Phillips, R-Kimberling City, says the federal government is watching us on Facebook. He also gives us some insight into the Department of Revenue controversy by referring to it as "headline grabbing." Exactly.

The concealed carry drama continues in Jefferson City!

It was without a doubt an eventful week at the capitol, however, most legislative efforts took a back seat to the headline grabbing aftermath of the Dept. of Revenue investigation for copying and sending source documents to the federal government.  Brian Long, the Director of the DOR, resigned on Monday in the wake of all the turmoil surrounding the scandal.  Also, the DOR budget has been threatened to be eliminated from license bureaus unless the copying is stopped.

 The House and the Senate continue to have investigative hearings and the State Auditor has launched an audit of DOR.   One thing that makes sense is removing the CCW license from the license bureau and give that responsibility to the Sheriff’s that issue the permits to begin with--that’s likely to happen.

The copying of documents is believed by many to be associated with the Federal REAL ID act which the MO legislature passed a law in 2009 to opt out of the anti-terrorism initiative.  HB787 passed the House already and would require DOR to immediately stop the copying process and destroy any documents already copied. I’m a co-sponsor of that bill. The Governor’s knowledge of DOR’s illegal actions is up for determination.  Hopefully, he’s not so disconnected with such a crucial state agency that something of this magnitude went on without his knowledge or the knowledge of one of his staff members.

Along these same lines, the Highway Patrol has admitted it was a mistake to send 163,247 names of Missouri citizens with concealed carry permits to an investigator for the Social Security Administration in conjunction with a social security fraud investigation. On two occasions the names were sent on a computer disk. Investigative hearings continue being conducted by the General Assembly.

Now, one thing that gets lost in the discussion is that the feds have most of our information already on hand.  Every time we purchase a firearm, we fill out paper work that’s sent (or electronically submitted) to the federal government. Our birth certificates and social security numbers are on file and don’t forget the gift we gave them in the form of facebook. No greater voluntary surveillance tool is there for any interested party than facebook. So, our personal information isn’t exactly secret. The real issuethough is the breakdown of trust in our state government, including the Dept. of Revenue, the Highway Patrol, the Attorney General’s office and the Governor. We need to do everything possible to see that history doesn’t repeat itself. I believe proper steps are being taken and accountability is being demanded.