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State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor
Everyone knows how boring a debate on a controversial abortion bill can get on the Senate floor. So it's no wonder that Florida State Sen. Mike Bennett took the time to look at a little porn and a video of a dog running out of the water and shaking itself off. From the article: "Ironically, as Bennett is viewing the material, you can hear a Senator Dan Gelber's voice in the background debating a controversial abortion bill. 'I'm against this bill,' said Gelber, 'because it disrespects too many women in the state of Florida.' Bennett defended his actions, telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator.'"
You liberal nerds are just jealous you don't have female coworkers sending you naughty pictures.
now available in SEC and Senator flavors.
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Risque or naughty, maybe. Still, the guy should have been paying more attention to his job.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Purely a setup. Notice how the presence of a black bar insinuates that it's covering something offensive? If you look at the picture, there's all fully clothed, the straps to their tops are visible, including the top themselves under and above the bar.
He's wrong for viewing pictures of girls in bikinis while on government time... but there is no porn here.
The saddest part is that the repercussions of these actions wouldn't be the same if he was browsing any other, not job related, content.
Then why is it important that he pays attention?
Why is it even important that he actually goes to the voting?
He could simply send a memo saying "This year I vote whatever [party leader name] votes" with the exact same result.
Everything else is self delusion.
Purely a setup. Notice how the presence of a black bar insinuates that it's covering something offensive? If you look at the picture, there's all fully clothed, the straps to their tops are visible, including the top themselves under and above the bar.
He's wrong for viewing pictures of girls in bikinis while on government time... but there is no porn here.
I disagree. If you zero reference the women from left to right, women one and three have no visible straps that would hold the top part of their bikinis up. While it's still possible they had something around their chests, I don't know what would be holding up so little material. I do agree that he was just opening up an NSFW e-mail sent him to him and it didn't look like he was "viewing" it as it seemed to be closed as soon as his brain registered what he was looking at. Three seconds and then closing the window is not really "looking at porn" in my book. Accident at best. Even Slashdot has embarrassed me at work.
My work here is dung.
It doesn't look like porn to me. It looks like art. I know it's hard to believe, but pictures with nudity are not necessary pornographic!
. . . but it looks like he might be telling the truth. The video doesn't let us see how long it was up or how he opened the picture, but when he closes the browser, you can clearly see Firefox's download window open. It certainly looks like he had opened the photo as an email attachment.
Plus, he's using Firefox. Are you guys really going to pick on him after realizing that?
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
That's primarily because they are in full lock down right now due to their deep minority status. Unity is their only hope for stopping the opposition, even on bills that the individuals disagree with the party on. When there is some wiggle room in the balance of power certain legislators are able to put their vote counter to the party because it won't matter. The democrats did exactly the same thing when they were backed into a tight minority in the 90s. Welcome to the game that is American politics.
Wait until the census comes out and the gerrymandering begins! Then we'll see some gamesmanship.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
"Bennett defended his actions, telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator.'"
She sent it in response to his "tits or GTFO" text message.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Do you call that porn?
Come on, folks. We've got bukakke, DP, water sports and more. That photo isn't more than R-rated.
Have gnu, will travel.
I am sorry, I know I am from Europe, where being topless is just the norm sometimes even in a park, but calling a picture of 5 topless women PORN is a little bit of an overreaction.
I am not saying, that everyone viewing your private crap behind you in congress, and watching this kind of crap on any meeting is right, but it is not PORN.
Besides, he is at work. How many of us looked at this article/video at work? Well, then I guess we cannot throw the 1st stone at him.
It looks like he opened up the mail and then closed it right away. That stuff happens, even at work. People have sent me NSFW things before without warning that I've opened up and -quickly- closed.
Also, since when is a row of girls wearing swimsuits (maybe a few are topless) 'porn'?
Give the dude a break.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
I'm hard pressed to imagine how listening to the senators from other districts is going to help him make a choice that represents his contributors.
FTFY. Really when it comes to abortion most people have their minds already fixed on a position... politicians even more so. This topic galvanizes people based on philosophy, religion, or affiliation lines. Like everyone else in the room he already knows how he will vote on the issue, and nothing short of the new "Mike Bennett Turnpike" will change his mind.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Speaking of Fark, I think this "News story" is somewhat beneath the standards of Fark.
A politician otes to invade our personal privacy? Zzzzz. A politician sides with corporate interests against the public at large? Zzzz. A politician makes a stupid incorrect statement about sciences, history, geography, or technology? Sometimes interesting. A politician is caught with his pants down in some way? ZOMG NEWS!
Leave that line of thinking with cable news and tabloids.
Bennett is a Republican. His Republican Party would send us all to jail for watching porn at our own jobs. Indeed, Florida Republicans would have us all locked in stocks and publicly flogged by some priest for it, if they got the theocracy they're working on.
--
make install -not war
His job is to vote yes or no. It's actually not a hard job. I'm not certain he needs to or should be paying attention to do his job well. The R behind his name implies he's going to vote against abortion. It's not his responsibility to listen to the other side of the aisle and all their arguments. His job is to vote the way he thinks the people who put him there want him to vote.
whether or not these guys should be paid so much to do such an easy job is up for argument.
Just breasts.
Bloody puritans.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
You allow users?
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
What happens on the floor is not debate. It is a series of speeches for the consumption of voters. The actual debates happen in committee rooms as the bills are marked up (not written; that happens sans debate) and in the halls as favors and votes are traded. This seems to be true of every legislative body in the US above the town hall level.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Hi,
It goes against any emotional bone in my body, but i have to vigorously defend a politician.
By borrowing the headline unchallenged, /. is participating in a witch hunt. Even on this site i suspect several readers not to look at the material and to remember just the headlines. I hereby petition Slashdot to change the headline to "State Senator falsely accused of Looking At Porn On Senate Floor".
CU, Martin
Point #1: There is no porn here. The women depicted, even with a blackout bar, are obviously wearing bikini tops. The blackout bar is an obvious attempt at misleading.
Point #2: The senator obviously opened something which he immediately closed. This has happened to everyone who has ever used a computer. You are sent something, you open it, and it turns out to be something not-safe-for-work.
Point #3: For those saying he should be doing his job, you are all guilty. Everyone, admittedly or not, has read email on their mobile device in a meeting or has, at one time or another, thought about something other than work while on the clock. To suggest that because this guy is a senator that he should be super-human to something of which we are all guilty is complete flamebait.
Good grief, cut the guy some slack.
I am Jack's smirking revenge.
You allow your users to send and receive *.zip files?
Oh, don't get me started on annoying ultra-paranoid email administrators and their obsession with blocking every goddamn file type known to man.
Seriously, I'm so sick of it. I don't know how many times I've seen this email exchange between developers and clients:
Email #1: Can you send me your configuration file so I can try to determine what's wrong?
Email #2: Can you send me the file again, but this time change the file extension because apparently the mail server blocks XML files.
Email #3: Okay, one more time, but this time zip the file. Apparently changing the file extension doesn't work, because the mail server sees the contents as XML and blanks it all out.
Email #4: That didn't work either. You're going to have to send it one more time, but this time zip it and change the file extension of the zip file.
Email #5: Praise $deity, it finally worked.
Grrrr.
Can you list off these numerous filibusters? And quoting Obama doesn't count.
For 7 months the Democrats had a filibuster proof majority, meaning the Republicans could not filibuster any bill/motion even if they wanted to.
The oft cited cloture stat is next to meaningless as cloture and filibuster are not directly linked.
A filibuster is a tool use by the minority party to prevent a vote. Which as already pointed out was impossible for Republicans to do without Democratic support for at least 7 months.
Cloture, on the other hand, is a tool use by the majority to close off further debate. This could be because of a filibuster or simply because they just don't want to discuss the matter further.
And if you want to talk about improper actions taken in the Senate, the Democrats win this round hands down. To protect their filibuster proof majority and to help push their agenda forward, they violated the rules of the Senate which they themselves demanded previously by allowing the interim Senator from Mass. to continue to vote even after Brown had won the seat. The rules of the Senate clearly state that in the conditions present at the time newly elected Senator Brown was legally permitted to hold his seat and vote the day the election was completed and he was recognized as the winner; and the Senate rules specifically don't even require State certification. The Dems actually held several votes after the election in Mass. and prior to them recognizing Brown (at least 17). Previous, the Republican majority had recognized Democrat winners of special elections the following day, even when important legislation was on the floor.
Of course you could also extend the improper actions to the very appointment of a interim Senator to fill Kennedy's vacant seat since the Dems had to change a law THEY PUT IN PLACE just a couple years before to even do that. But I guess that was on the state level and not the federal so that's ok.
Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!