Politicians in Italy, India, and elsewhere have been caught playing video poker and even watching pornography during key government hearings. In most cases, their excuses are real groaners.
In India, no fewer than three politicians from the conservative Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party have been filmed or photographed watching pornographic video clips during sessions of parliament. Other people, including those in the general public, have called on them to resign.
The offending legislators all insisted that they shouldn't be expected to resign. Why not? Because they "didn't enjoy it." One of them said that he was trying to turn off his phone at the time. Yeah, right. That was like the motorist who slows down after he sees a cop car turn around and head his way—as if he expected witnesses to forget what they saw.
In Italy, parliament member Simeone di Cagno Abbrescia was caught "browsing through pictures of escort girls" on his government-issue iPad two years ago. He said, "[I was] looking at my e-mail messages when a window popped up. We received the iPads only a month ago and my fingers slipped as I was looking for the news pages." Ironically, this incident occurred during a no-confidence vote. We're sure that his constituents had no confidence in his excuse.
Thailand Member of Parliament Pongpan Sunthornchai gave a similar excuse. During an important debate on the transport costs of rice, Sunthornchai was caught looking at pictures of women in swimsuits displayed on his iPad. His excuse, according to the Bangkok Post, was that he "pressed the wrong link and accidentally got sexy pictures. Then the wrong link again, and got more raunch (sic). He tried again and again, and he kept getting sexy photos. It was all so confusing." He then said he wanted to return his iPad.
We don't think the problem was with the iPad. Perhaps it's Sunthornchai that needs to be returned, but not to office.
In France, members of Parliament have been filmed or photographed making on-line poker bets, playing chess, reading pornographic cartoons, and on-line shopping on their i-Pads and smartphones.
In the United States, Florida State Senator Mike Bennett came up with an excuse that might just be believable. Maybe the guys in India, Italy, and Thailand can learn from it.
During a senate debate on an ultrasound and abortion bill in May 2010, Bennett became "bored" and turned on his government-issue laptop computer. At one point in the debate, a speaker was heard to say, "I'm against this bill because it disrespects too many women in the State of Florida." At that moment, Senator Bennett was filmed looking at a group photo of four (supposedly) topless women on his laptop.
We use the word supposedly because, if you zoom in on the photos, it appears that at least one of the women was wearing a top. A black bar across their tops makes it difficult to tell. The resolution of the black bar doesn't match the resolution of the photo, so it's clear that the bar was added after the image of Bennett viewing it was taken.
Here were Bennett's excuses:
1. He had turned on the laptop to check his email because "I was sitting there, bored as they were debating the abortion bill."
2. He can't help what people send him.
3. The email message containing the photo supposedly told him what he was "missing" at a class reunion.
4. He thought the message had something to do with the bill he ignoring to check his email. (Hmm. How does that square with excuse #3?)
5. "I had no prior knowledge as to what the emails would contain and when the contents of one was discovered to be less than appropriate, it was promptly closed."
Although Bennett had said publicly that a senate debate over a bill related to ultrasound and abortion was too boring to hold his attention, he was somehow reelected in 2012.
In national news, the debate on whether the United States should go to war with Syria wasn't interesting enough to hold U. S. Senator John McCain's attention for three hours. Here is McCain's excuse for playing video poker during the hearings: (Click here.) In effect, he said that he was fascinated by the debates, but he got "just a little bit" bored and began playing video poker. McCain quickly changed the focus of the subject by adding, "The worst part of it was, I lost!"
If he had been that quick with excuses in 2008, he could have gotten elected President of the United States. Then he might have gotten just a "little bit bored" with his finger on the nuclear button and forget that he was not holding a video game device.
In the United States, Florida State Senator Mike Bennett came up with an excuse that might just be believable. Maybe the guys in India, Italy, and Thailand can learn from it.
During a senate debate on an ultrasound and abortion bill in May 2010, Bennett became "bored" and turned on his government-issue laptop computer. At one point in the debate, a speaker was heard to say, "I'm against this bill because it disrespects too many women in the State of Florida." At that moment, Senator Bennett was filmed looking at a group photo of four (supposedly) topless women on his laptop. We use the word supposedly because, if you zoom in on the photos, it appears that at least one of the women was wearing a top. A black bar across their tops makes it difficult to tell. The resolution of the black bar doesn't match the resolution of the photo, so it's clear that the bar was added after the image of Bennett viewing it was taken.
Here were Bennett's excuses:
1. He had turned on the laptop to check his email because "I was sitting there, bored as they were debating the abortion bill."
2. He can't help what people send him.
3. The email message containing the photo supposedly told him what he was "missing" at a class reunion.
4. He thought the message had something to do with the bill he ignoring to check his email. (Hmm. How does that square with excuse #3?)
5. "I had no prior knowledge as to what the emails would contain and when the contents of one was discovered to be less than appropriate, it was promptly closed."
6. "I cannot control what individuals may send me and am disappointed that at a time when there are major issues impacting Florida, an insignificant issue such as this receives any attention."
7. Three seconds after the photo popped onto the screen, he says, he closed the image.
In national news, the debate on whether the United States should go to war with Syria wasn't interesting enough to hold U. S. Senator John McCain's attention for three hours. Here is McCain's excuse for playing video poker during the hearings: (Click here.) In effect, he said that he was fascinated by the debates, but he got "just a little bit" bored and began playing video poker. McCain quickly changed the focus of the subject by adding, "The worst part of it was, I lost!"
If he had been that quick with excuses in 2008, he could have gotten elected President of the United States. Then he might have gotten just a "little bit bored" with his finger on the nuclear button and forget that he was not holding a video game device.
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