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Republicans Government The Internet Politics

Bush Website Blocked Outside N. America 1797

acey72 writes "The BBC News are reporting that George W Bush's re-election website (don't bother if you aren't in the USA) is blocked to people accessing it from outside the USA. Netcraft spotted the change on Monday, and have a report on the matter. Oh well, at least John Kerry's site still works for us outlanders." At least some Canadians can access the Bush campaign site, but Europeans cannot (without going through a U.S. proxy).
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Bush Website Blocked Outside N. America

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:01AM (#10641763)
    though it's a little off-message [georgewbush.org].
    • by Ford Prefect ( 8777 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:12AM (#10641959) Homepage
      ... though it's a little off-message.

      So's the .co.uk site: http://www.georgewbush.co.uk/ [georgewbush.co.uk]

      Seems that Dubya's put on a bit of weight, too. :-)
    • by turnstyle ( 588788 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:24AM (#10642140) Homepage
      Google cache [64.233.161.104] and Archive.org [archive.org]
    • Dead Letter Office (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rev063 ( 591509 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:15AM (#10642944) Homepage
      Funny story about the georgewbush.org domain:

      It seems like some of the Bush campaign staffers have accidentally sent emails to colleagues at name@georgewbush.ORG instead of the correct name@georgewbush.COM. Fortunately, the georgewbush.org mailserver had a "catch-all" mailbox in place, and you can read the contents of this "Dead Letter Office [georgewbush.org]". There are some gems in there, like memos intended for Karl Rove, a weekly report from "Pennsylvania Evangelical Outreach", and even apparent evidence of illegal suppression of black votes (check out Caging1.xls).

      Interesting ... very interesting.

      • by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:30AM (#10643146)
        It seems like some of the Bush campaign staffers have accidentally sent emails to colleagues at name@georgewbush.ORG instead of the correct name@georgewbush.COM.

        An illustration of how everyone wants ".com", no matter how appropriate. I could joke about how politicians are for sale and thus should be in .com, but really, it's just dumbing down the whole naming system. Another I've noticed is "moneyfactory.com" for the mint; which I believe is rather definitely part of the government and thus should be a .gov. By all means, get the .com too (it's only $10) before it gets squatted by a porn site, but set it to redirect to the real .org site.

        But I realise this has as much hope as Linux being called "GNU/Linux", or media differentiating between hackers and crackers.

    • by ponxx ( 193567 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:23AM (#10643032)
      Off-message? so is the .com ...

      at least it claims that Bush's foreign policy is based on:

      ------
      The strategy has three pillars:

      - We will defend the peace by opposing and preventing violence by terrorists and outlaw regimes.

      - We will preserve the peace by fostering an era of good relations among the world's great powers.

      - And we will extend the peace by seeking to extend the benefits of freedom and prosperity across the globe."
      -----

      Hello??? Have I been living in the same universe as these guys??? All three pillars involve "peace"? What happened to preemptive war, the axis of evil, not caring what the rest of world think, etc. etc.

      I guess the site must have been hijacked by some crazy flip-flopping communists democrat freaks ;).
  • by xThinkx ( 680615 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:01AM (#10641771) Homepage
    How much of a solid foreign policy this guy has.
    • by TAGmclaren ( 820485 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:12AM (#10641951)
      How much of a solid foreign policy this guy has.


      You got modded troll, but I think it's a fair comment. The man's invaded Iraq, invaded Afghanistan, and at length talked about the importance of alliance support.

      Why shouldn't the rest of the world see what's on his website? If Iraq's important enough for him to invade, it's important enough for him to spend a few extra $$$ for the people of Iraq (and the RoW) to see what his re-election policies are.

      The other thing that shits me about this is that it is setting a nasty precedent for the web - and this is a high profile site. I'd hate to see a whole lot of other sites all around the world taking this approach to blocking foreign access. It would ruin the 'net.
      • by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:33AM (#10643190) Homepage Journal
        Iran has endorsed [indystar.com] Bush for President.

        Your sig is incorrect, sir. Here is the full quote, not truncated by the Associated Press [turkishpress.com]:
        "
        It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.

        "We have not seen any good coming from the Democrats, so we won't be happy if the Democrats win," he said.

        So, you see, Iran's government simply considers America "the Great Satan" no matter who wins on November 2. I suggest you change your sig so you look less misinformed in the future.
  • by deragon ( 112986 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641774) Homepage Journal
    Works from Montreal, Canada... Are we considered the 51st state? Can we vote? :)
  • Non-US Simulation (Score:5, Informative)

    by Big Mark ( 575945 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641778)
    Not in the US? Here's what you're missing!
    Access Denied

    You don't have permission to access "http://www.georgewbush.com/" on this server.
  • At last (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641781) Homepage Journal
    Now he can safely discuss security issues!
  • Forum abuse perhaps? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641784)
    Does it have a forum, or a feedback system? It could be that they were getting a lot of, ahem, abusive messages from non-US citizens and decided this was the best way to curb them. Has anyone actually asked the admins?

    Either way BFD. Political websites are almost entirely content or truth free. Why bother reading them?
  • Not Surprised (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) * on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641785) Journal
    Given the previous attacks by Cyber-Terroists (eg: those few odd groups protesting the RNC) I'm not surprised. If they limit the connections to US only it'll be alot easier to track them down.
  • Stupid. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TheSpoom ( 715771 ) * <slashdot@@@uberm00...net> on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641786) Homepage Journal
    Does anyone see this as anything other than stupid? I mean, he's blocking all overseas absentee voters, and he's not exactly making himself look good to the rest of the world. Of course, come to think about it, he really hasn't done that in the past either. ;^)
  • Proxy (Score:5, Informative)

    by seizer ( 16950 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:02AM (#10641787) Homepage
    For those of us with non-US IPs, and who still have some hankering to actually visit the site, then Proxify [proxify.com] will let you view. Be warned though, it shows NSFW text ads as well.
  • Fine. (Score:5, Funny)

    by MadFarmAnimalz ( 460972 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:03AM (#10641788) Homepage
    Then he's going to get blocked on my site in reply.

    What's George W. Bush's IP? Anyone know?
  • why bother? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jeffery ( 810339 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:03AM (#10641797)
    people actually read the lies on any politicians re-election or election web page? i'm a bush fan, but i've taken a look at both bush's and kerry's web pages, and they are both so full of crap it's unreal. so honestly, who cares if you can't read lies? go on a search (google) for the truth, and make up your own mind on what you believe to be true, not what you are told is truth.
  • by Gentoo Fan ( 643403 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:04AM (#10641812) Homepage
    Geez, at least put up a sensible message like "To reduce traffic load non-US visitors will see blah blah blah". Despite the fact that non-Americans aren't voting you should at least have some half decent PR.
  • by themesb ( 684888 ) <themesb AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:04AM (#10641824) Homepage
    But how will Tony Blair know what to do next?
  • I bet (Score:5, Funny)

    by StevenHenderson ( 806391 ) <stevehenderson@NOspam.gmail.com> on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:05AM (#10641826)
    I bet that the Saudis still have access to the site. I mean, he has to get campaign contributions somehow, right?
  • nyud.net:8090 works (Score:5, Informative)

    by W2k ( 540424 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:05AM (#10641836) Journal
    Though I've never felt the need to visit Bush's re-election website, it seems to be quite available through Coral [nyud.net] even for us europeans. Dog slow, though.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:06AM (#10641855)
    I live in Guam, and I can't access the site either. It's a US territory, so the citizens aren't allowed to vote in presidential elections, but it's still part of the US and, as it happens, I'm from VA so I'm eligible to vote. Although by absentee ballot wouldn't be counted until after the results are tallied anyway, so what's the point.

    Not that I'd vote for Bush. Or Kerry. May they both Rot in Peace.
  • This one works (Score:5, Informative)

    by abdulwahid ( 214915 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:07AM (#10641873) Homepage

    Well, the hackers will never think of using this one https://georgewbush.com/ [georgewbush.com]

    • by glesga_kiss ( 596639 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:34AM (#10643223)
      Funniest thing I've seen in ages!! Not only does it allow you in, it eats up their CPU to put the page through SSL!

      Out of the three video steaming formats, which of them allow you to put them on repeat? ;-)

      I've got a whole lab of hosts sitting here doing very little for the next wee while...

  • Yawn (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BrK ( 39585 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:08AM (#10641879) Homepage
    So what?

    There are already enough anti-Bush people that will take ANY change as some sort of big fuck-the-world gesture from the Bush camp. And of course despite that fact that nobody knows for sure WHY this has been implemented there will 1000 conspiracy theories posted, and dozens of pro-Kerry propaganda garbage as well.

    Until there is enough information to actually discuss the topic with facts I'm not really interested...
  • by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:09AM (#10641902) Journal
    Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision was taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November.

    Sadly, a link was then posted to Slashdot, increasing costs and traffic.
  • haha ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by phoxix ( 161744 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:09AM (#10641905)
    Bush uses Microsoft IIS + ASP [netcraft.com] and only recently has switched to Akamai

    Kerry uses LAMP [netcraft.com] and has been on Akamai for sometime now ...

    We already know which IT dept has won ...

    Sunny Dubey
  • by YetAnotherName ( 168064 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:10AM (#10641925) Homepage
    ... why not visit this list [aliveproxy.com], which includes country of operation.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:12AM (#10641955)
    They're actually only blocking georgewbush.com, not the IP 65.172.163.222 which the domainname points to.

    So http://65.172.163.222 works fine abroad.

    Silly ISP.
  • by TopShelf ( 92521 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:14AM (#10641999) Homepage Journal
    I'm in Indianapolis, but I work for a Swedish company so my net traffic looks like it's coming from Sweden. "Access Denied"!
  • by jasoncart ( 573937 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:17AM (#10642042) Homepage

    When setting up a site on Akamai you have to set the origin (I've done many of these!).

    This still works, ripe for a DDOS... origin.georgewbush.com [georgewbush.com]

  • by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:36AM (#10643255) Homepage
    This from the same campaign that applies loyalty tests to people who want to hear the President speak in person. Not a Bush supporter? Go away. This is a brilliant way to keep the President in an echo chamber of his own cheering. He never gets to be challenged, and when it finally happens after years of Yes Men behavior, we see what happened in the debates. He was not prepared to be challenged.

    So this web site nonsense is probably more of the same. "Non Americans? Who needs 'em!"

  • by sugar and acid ( 88555 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @11:38AM (#10643280)
    This could backfire. There is something like 3 million or more americans eligible to vote living overseas. Normally the vote turnout is low (30% or lower) due to the extra trouble of having to do an absentee ballot, and heavily slanted towards the republicans due to the large number of military personal that are stationed overseas. Interestingly there has been a massive upswing in voter registration and requests for absentee ballots for overseas voters due to how close the last election was, and how important overseas votes became (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6342710/ [msn.com]). Expect a large increase in overseas voting this election, and so a need by the candidates to attract that vote. So it isn't really smart to actively snub those voters by blocking them from your website.
  • by gelfling ( 6534 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @12:05PM (#10643732) Homepage Journal
    I have my hands over my ears and I'm screaming. I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you
  • by sigemund ( 122744 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @12:09PM (#10643782)
    What about the American Citizens who live outside of the United States? Why should they not be allowed to view Bush's campaign site? What about the soldiers in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Korea?

    More votes for the opponents, I guess . . .

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