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Hacker raises Bush's hackles
From: William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 16:00:24 -0500
http://www.upside.com/News/39f74caa0.html Upside New England October 26, 2000 12:00 AM PT by Geoffrey James BOSTON -- Al Gore might not have invented the Internet, but George W. Bush has a track record of completely misunderstanding the power of the Web. Bush's ineptitude in this area emerged early in the campaign, when Massachusetts resident Zack Exley posted a satirical website that, among other things, contained a faked-up picture of Bush snorting cocaine. Political satire is a major New England tradition, but Exley wasn't thinking about that when he noticed in April 1999 that the Bush campaign had foolishly neglected to reserve www.gwbush.com. (Bush mistake No. 1.) Exley quickly reserved the name, made it a copy of the official Bush website and added a few cosmetic changes -- such as turning "Paid for By the Bush for President Campaign" into "Paid for by Filthy Rich Texas Oilmen." Exley's motives were more a matter of jest than of politics. "I thought it would be fun to try to confuse a national election committee," he explains. Satirical websites, of course, aren't exactly uncommon. For example, for the past few years www.whitehouse.com has been the URL of a pornography site featuring members-only areas like "Hollywood Hooters" and "Teen Buffet." Clinton, unlike Bush, evidently knows when it's wiser to let sleeping sites lie. Bush wasn't so savvy. Soon after Exley populated his site, the Bush campaign responded by sending him a "cease and desist" letter complaining about the use of their content. (Bush mistake No. 2.) Having displayed the stick, they then held out the carrot and asked whether Exley would consider selling the website. (Bush mistake No. 3.) Exley, annoyed at the strong-arm tactic of the cease and desist letter, asked for $350,000. "I was just yanking their chain," he says. "I would have taken a few hundred dollars for it." Wouldn't give up Bush responded by attacking Exley personally at a May 21 news conference in Austin, Texas, calling him a "garbage man" (he's actually a freelance programmer) and saying "there ought to be limits on freedom." (Bush mistake No. 4.) You'd think that Bush would have learned his lesson, but Bush then asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to declare the Exley's site a political action committee, which would make it subject to federal regulation. (Bush mistake No. 5.) That would mean Exley -- who was pretty much your average semi-employed hacker -- would have to spend thousands of dollars on bureaucratic red tape. Predictably, Bush came out looking like a bully trying to squelch free speech, resulting in coverage of Exley's site in USA Today and the New York Times. The Bush campaign then tried to spin the story, claiming the site contained links to pornography. (Bush mistake No. 6.) That accusation, however, turned out to be false; the links the campaign cited were to parody sites that contained no graphic images. To make matters worse, it's not clear whether Exley's page ever contained those links in the first place. "The Bush campaign knows I never linked to pornographic sites," says Exley. "It's slander." The result of all this free publicity was that George W. transformed www.gwbush.com from a minor annoyance into one of the most heavily visited sites on the Web. Exley seems a bit bemused by the fuss. "I never wanted to be some sort of free-speech hero," he says. However, once Bush had (in Exley's opinion) shown his true colors, he considered it his duty to point out not only the allegations of drug usage in Bush's past, but the governor's dubious war record, as well as his acceptance to Yale and Harvard Business School despite bad grades. "At first I just thought the most I could get out of this was a good story to tell my friends and maybe a couple hundred dollars," says Exley. "But now that Bush has turned my site into one of the most popular political publications on the Web, I feel I have a responsibility to tell the truth about the guy." Whether or not you agree with Exley's assessment of Bush, it's interesting to see that the candidate was so completely unaware of the dynamics of Web marketing. If Bush had played it cool, his campaign could have picked up the site for a pittance. As it was, Bush might as well have been seen wearing a T-shirt with Exley's URL on it. For what it's worth, here are a list of satirical sites that didn't have the benefit of Bush's personal attention: Bushoncrack.com GWBush Art Unauthorized Bush (Sr.) Bio Bush is the Antichrist The Bush Body Count GeorgeBush2000.com LittleGeorgeBush.com BushCampaignHQ.com Bushlite.net GeorgyBush.com BushSuckz.com Bushsucks.com And, while we're at it, let's not forget the other guy: AllGore.com NoGore.org Algore-2000.org GoreWatch.net And, hey, don't forget to vote! *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- Hacker raises Bush's hackles William Knowles (Oct 27)