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Iowa's Governor Terry Branstad Thinks He Doesn't Use E-mail

Posted by timothy on from the bizarro-er-and-bizarro-er dept.

Earthquake Retrofit writes The Washington Post reports the governor of Iowa denying he uses e-mail, but court documents expose his confusion. From the article: "Branstad's apparent confusion over smartphones, apps and e-mail is ironic because he has tried to portray himself as technologically savvy. His Instagram account has pictures of him taking selfies and using Skype... 2010 campaign ads show him tapping away on an iPad. 'Want a brighter future? We've got an app for that.' Earlier this month, the governor's office announced that it had even opened an account on Meerkat, the live video streaming app." Perhaps he's distancing himself from e-mail because it's a Hillary thing.

3 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Crooks Ignore Email and use Text Messages Instead! by McGruber · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Crooked politicians & public officials may receive email, but their actual communication is done by text messages... because they usually can hide their text messages from freedom of information act requests.

    Here's an example: In Georgia, fired Dekalb County School System Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson did all her business via text messages:

    WSB-TV: Lawsuit raises concerns about DeKalb Schools corruption (Dec. 4, 2012)/

    According to the article, the school district was willing to give 12 people their jobs back if the attorney withdrew an open records request for a copy of Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson's text messages.

  2. The Hillary email thing is a nonissue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Republicans are just trying to make something out of nothing. She has every right to delete email she sends and receives. Saying she doesn't is a slippery slope towards making all of us responsible for data retention wrt our own email. Standing up against the Republicans on this issue protects our privacy.

  3. Re:*sigh* by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wrong way around. People don't want smart people in the job.

    People want easy slogans and pipe dreams. They don't like people better than them in positions better than them. That's why "elitist" is an insult in politics today.

    People should stop over estimating their intelligence and their need to have their stupid opinions dignified.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.