more on Lieberman blames Rove-like tactics for Web site disruption

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Serge M. Egelman" <egelman () cs cmu edu>
Date: August 8, 2006 8:53:47 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: justin () talkingpointsmemo com
Subject: Re: [IP] Lieberman blames Rove-like tactics for Web site  
disruption

I've been following this and it's patently absurd that the mainstream  
media is eating up every press release from the Lieberman campaign as  
fact.  Nothing that has been mentioned so far clearly indicates that  
the site was broken into, much less by anyone affiliated with the  
Lamont campaign.  In fact the Lamont campaign offered to host  
Lieberman's site during the interim (a fact not mentioned in the CNN  
article).

Stranger, the error message on the Lieberman site (http:// 
www.joe2006.com) keeps changing every few hours.  Lamont posted a  
notice on his web site this morning denouncing the attack and calling  
for the perpetrator(s) to cease and desist.  Just recently the  
Lieberman campaign posted a message saying "We call on Ned Lamont to  
make an unqualified statement denouncing this kind of dirty campaign  
trick and to demand whoever is responsible to cease and desist  
immediately. Any attempt to suppress voter participation and  
undermine the voting process on Election Day is deplorable and has no  
place in our democracy."  This was posted hours after Lamont had  
already made such a statement, which leads me to believe that the  
Lieberman is just trying to bilk this for all it's worth.

However, prior to the aforementioned message on the Lieberman site,  
there was first a default message saying that the account had been  
suspended.  According to DailyKos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/ 
2006/8/8/181016/9275), Lieberman's provider's best plan costs $15/ 
month and allows 10GB of traffic per month.  Given this revelation  
and the initial error message, Occam's Razor would dictate that  
Lieberman's site simply exceeded its bandwidth quota.  What's even  
stranger is that in the CNN article, they claim the Lieberman people  
said they were victim of a DoS attack, and had to remove all files  
from the site to track down the perpetrator.  That simply doesn't  
make any sense.  Furthermore, the current message on the Lieberman  
site says that they do not have email connectivity.  According to the  
DailyKos article, their mail servers (SMTP and POP) are both responding.

Finally, Wonkette has posted a correction to the article saying the  
site was hosted by "2Dog Media."  The company had apparently written  
in to say that they hadn't hosted Lieberman's site in three months.   
They claimed that Lieberman's campaign manager had opted to host the  
site with a friend who would do it for very cheap (http:// 
wonkette.com/politics/top/breaking-last-post-partially-inoperative- 
lieberman-campaign-dumber-than-previously-thought-192948.php).

serge

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: Justin Rood <justin () talkingpointsmemo com>
> Date: August 8, 2006 8:13:44 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Lieberman blames Rove-like tactics for Web site disruption
> Reply-To: justin () talkingpointsmemo com
> Dave,
> I don't know if any of your tech-savvy readership has been  
> following the
> kerfuffle in Connecticut over the Dem primary -- Sen. Lieberman  
> charges
> shadowy Lamont forces "hacked" his web site; bloggers dig up a  
> growing pile
> of circumstantial evidence pointing to missteps by Lieberman's own  
> campaign
> -- but I would very much like to hear thoughts from anyone who has  
> been
> following this.
> Best,
> Justin Rood
> Reporter-Blogger
> TPMmuckraker.com
> http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/08/lieberman.website/index.html
> WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Officials with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's re- 
> election
> campaign blamed "dirty politics" and "Rovian tactics" for what they  
> said was
> an online attack on their Web site as Connecticut voters headed to  
> the polls
> Tuesday.
> <snip>
> The Web site, http://www.joe2006.comexternal link, has been  
> unavailable
> since Monday afternoon. Lieberman campaign manager Sean Smith  
> suggested that
> the campaign of the senator's primary opponent, Ned Lamont, or his
> supporters were responsible for the disruption. . . .
> -------------------------------------
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