Pornographic email scandal roils Pennsylvania politics

[marmar]

from the WaPo:




PHILADELPHIA — Over the past 15 months, beleaguered Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has released a steady stream of messages retrieved from a state email server that show state officials and employees trading pornographic, racist and misogynistic messages.

There are jokes about rape and sexual assault, photos mocking African Americans and other minorities, and insults leveled at people because of their weight, their sexual orientation or their religion. At least two state Supreme Court justices and numerous officials in the office of the attorney general have been caught in the scandal that has been dubbed “Porngate.”

A small sampling: A photo of a pantsless woman on her knees performing oral sex on a man is captioned “Making your boss happy is your only job.” A picture of a white man fending off two African American men while carrying a bucket of fried chicken reads “BRAVERY At Its Finest.” The sender of the email that shows a group of men engaged in sex included this message to friends, “How friggin gay are you?”

“When you see these emails .?.?. it’s just a swamp of misogyny, racism, homophobia and white privilege. It taints everybody, especially in the judicial branch,” said Bruce Ledewitz, associate dean of academic affairs and a law professor at Duquesne University School of Law. “Some of these things are really disgusting. You get the impression that every white male office holder in the state is a creep.” ...................(more)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pornographic-email-scandal-ripples-through-pennsylvania-politics/2015/12/26/fc411a76-a374-11e5-b53d-972e2751f433_story.html

[Orrex]

1. Run them all out of office and start over

Of course, I'm already hearing it said locally that Kane is simply doing this to deflect attention away from her own troubled office, as if that cancels out or justifies the hideous culture festering in the halls of our fine state.

[Vinca]

2. I heard one reporter commenting on this a little while ago and she said

the emails are pretty boring because it's pretty much naked woman after naked woman after naked woman. LOL. I had no idea Pennsylvania was such a wild and crazy place.

[Amishman]

3. PA politics is a moral vacuum, corrupt on both sides with little hope of improvement

The only difference on our ballets is a choice of whose pocket your politician is in.

[marble falls]

4. I've heard PA described as Pittsbugh and Phillidelphia with Alabama in the middle.

[beemer27]

5. People sometimes forget-

It is very easy to get rid of these pigs. DON'T VOTE FOR THEM! And don't vote for the people who are appointing people like this to positions of power. We already have the power to rid out government of people who shouldn't be there. It is the vote. The whole problem is to get the word out, and get the voters to actually vote. We must get everyone out for elections, and let them know what is at stake.