Bush bans anyone from outside the US from visiting his webpage..

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I noticed this yesterday after somone posted the link to the spoof www.georgewbush.org webpage. I tried the official page but found it was dead..

but now it seems that anyone living outside the US (or somone with a non-US IP address) will not be able to visit Bush's homepage.. not that you would want to but there you go...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3958665.stm

of course, with a proxy based in the US you could see it.. but what kind of reasoning could they possibly have for doing this...

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"PROMISE NUMBER ONE TO ALL AMERICANS: We'll be taking care of that furriner problem once and for all soon."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

The pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers.
Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis.
On 21 October, the George W Bush website began using the services of a company called Akamai to ensure that the pages, videos and other content on its site reaches visitors.
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.
He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week.

Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. From the BBC link above.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

any canadians confirm this

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

what's the page?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

www.georgewbush.com

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.georgewbush.com/" on this server.

Jesus. This is so lame.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I have full access. "Whatever it takes"??? Wtf!

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I can view the page just fine here from Toronto.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Party or walk for the president?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

HOLY SHIT "VOTE BUSH AND I'LL NUKE THE FUCK OUTTA EUROPE - WHATEVER IT TAKES"!!!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

We (Non Canadian?) foreigners will just have to access it through anonymizer.com or somesuch shame-covering proxy server usually used for accessing paedo-sex or terrorism sites.

What great PR.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.georgewbush.com/images/BC04/headers/1bck.jpg

here's a test. who sees this image as broken?

hahaha:

Warning: getimagesize(http://www.georgewbush.com/images/BC04/headers/1bck.jpg): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden in /home/ilx/dev/stable/boardfunctions.php on line 1463

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG, they're CHARGING for yard signs!!!

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Pre-emptive defense against flooding from overseas IP addresses? Except that that's stupid, foreign IP space doesn't really have near the en masse bandwidth as US-based networks and most of the "botnet" flooding activity come from within the states anyway, the Yakutsk State sophomores only have indirect control.

Actually like Jack says "why would you want to" so that seems to me to be a good enough reason (in a federal mindset, remember I work for these motherfuckers all day) to do it I guess. Netcraft's assumptions are pretty on point.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

403ing requests does not stop massive amounts of junk packets from hosing their pipe

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha ha ha ha
http://www.georgewbushstore.com/images/601_6015.gif

oh, and these are aesthetically pleasing, though message-wise abhorrent.
http://www.georgewbushstore.com/images/301_2210.jpg

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Is George W Bush behind the "Boycott the NME" scam?

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I did not know they were just 403ing people? from Netcraft it sounds as if they are blocking all inbound from foreign addresses. flooding pipe vs. actually DoSing content server = give me pipe flooding any day

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

What about the currently-overseas Americans studying or working who are going to vote by post/internet - oh yeah, they're probably commies if they dare leave the US and will be voting Kerry.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I can testify that it's getting blocked from Japan. But they never sent me my absentee ballot so I'm getting disenfranchised regardless.

― Laura E (laurae55), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm accessing it from ethiopia with no probs

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

This is all very odd. It's definitely no go from the UK.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the article on slashdot has much more in-depth discussion, no offense to ILE.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure it filters (naively) probably based on a reverse dns lookup.

laura.notahooker.jp = blocked
laura.notahooker.japan-internet.com = not blocked

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Slashdot is full of idiots. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"

― sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm (ex machina), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm, i may have to take that back abt being able to access, the office has a us ip address so will have to see what happens when i go home.

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Sie haben nicht die erforderliche Berechtigung, um die Seite anzuzeigen.
Möglicherweise haben Sie nicht die erforderlichen Zugriffsrechte, um das Verzeichnis oder die Seite anzuzeigen.

Wenden Sie sich an die Website, indem Sie eine der auf der www.georgewbush.com Startseite angegebenen E-Mail-Adressen oder Telefonnummern verwenden, wenn Sie nicht die erforderliche Berechtigung haben, um dieses Verzeichnis oder diese Seite anzeigen zu können.

Sie können auf Suchen klicken, um nach Informationen im Internet zu suchen.

HTTP-Fehler 403 - Verboten
Internet Explorer

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't explain why they've done this, but I find it deeply sinister.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It's just so lamely small-minded. Like Bush's campaign budget can't deal with overseas traffic. I mean, has any other website ever done this, except for maybe licensing reasons?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

You do realise these people are crazy, right?

― Ally C (Ally C), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Käyttöoikeutesi eivät riitä tämän sivun tarkastelemiseen
Sinulla ei ehkä ole valtuuksia tarkastella tätä kansiota tai sivua.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jos sinulla pitäisi olla tarkasteluoikeudet tähän kansioon tai Web-sivuun, ota yhteyttä sivuston järjestelmänvalvojaan käyttämällä sivuston www.georgewbush.com kotisivulla olevaa sähköpostiosoitetta tai puhelinnumeroa.
Voit valita Etsintäsivu-painikkeen ja etsiä tietoja Internetistä.

HTTP-virhe 403 - Käyttö estetty
Internet Explorer

This is kinda too stupid to be funny...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

according to someone on metafilter, it works fine if you drop the www from the address, though. is this true?

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

No.

― Laura E (laurae55), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

If (and I'm not saying it is) a case of geographic mumblejumble you may wanna try someone in one of the following countries who probably can connect:
We would wanna try somone in:
ANGOLA
ANGUILLA
ANTARCTICA
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
BAHAMAS
BARBADOS
BERMUDA
BOTSWANA
BOUVET ISLAND
BURUNDI
CAYMAN ISLANDS
CONGO
CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE
DOMINICA
GRENADA
GUADELOUPE
HEARD AND MC DONALD ISLANDS
JAMAICA
LESOTHO
MALAWI
MARTINIQUE
MOZAMBIQUE
NAMIBIA
PUERTO RICO
RWANDA
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
SAINT LUCIA
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
SOUTH AFRICA
ST. HELENA
ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON
SWAZILAND
TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
UNITED STATES MINOR OUTLYING ISLANDS
VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH)
VIRGIN ISLANDS (U.S.)
ZAMBIA
ZIMBABWE

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Du har ikke rettigheder til at se denne side
Du har måske ikke tilladelse til at se denne mappe eller side med den angivne legitimationbeskrivelse.

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Hvis du tror, at du skal kunne se denne mappe eller side, skal du prøve at kontakte webstedet via en e-mail-adresse eller det telefonnummer, der kan være vist på www.georgewbush.com-hjemmesiden.

Du kan klikke på Søg for at søge efter oplysninger på Internettet.

HTTP-fejl 403 - Forbudt
Internet Explorer

Erm - this is stupid, George!

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The money excuse seems weak. As of 10/20 opensecrets.com says the Bush campaign had $139mln cash on hand and finished 2000 with 7mln cash. Assuming they come in close to 2000, I think that would pay their ISP bills.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe Theresa Heinz Kerry owns GWB's ISP?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm in south africa and it's not letting me in.

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

That reminds me of "I've fallen, and I can't get up."

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm in south africa and it's not letting me in.
So it's not ARIN wide, oh well.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

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