NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Senator Hatch's Office Claims Missing Amendment "Just a Coincidence"
Senator Hatch's Office Claims Missing Amendment "Just a Coincidence"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000847.html
Earlier today I noted ( http://j.mp/k6dxoP [Lauren's Blog] ) the
sudden disappearance of (and associated back-end server error pages
relating to) archival material on Senator Orrin Hatch's site, the day
after a "Salon" author called attention to the Senator's past support
for allowing persons not born in the U.S. (such as Arnold
Schwarzenegger) to become U.S. president ( http://j.mp/mOUz1d [Salon] ).
The Salon article noted the conflict of this position, supported by
many in the GOP at the time, vs. the currently still very much alive
"birther" movement and other efforts to even more tightly restrict
presidential candidacies. A Salon follow-up article today also
mentioned that Hatch's office didn't respond to their original query
yesterday on this topic, but added that the Senator's office since
then has now claimed that the missing material is simply a
coincidence, resulting from a site redesign issue that just happened
to take place between Salon's queries about the amendment yesterday,
and my noticing the missing pages and visible database errors this
morning ( http://j.mp/kgrKmf [Salon] ).
Hey, coincidences can happen, right? Just really bad timing. Or good
timing, depending upon your point of view. I'm not a gambling man,
and am only an armchair statistician, so I'll let the ersatz-Spocks in
the readership calculate the odds.
In any case, here's a little free SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
advice for Hatch's Web site designers. Standard good practice when
cutting over a new Web site isn't to use the equivalent of a fire axe,
that leaves important links not only failing to reach appropriate
pages or redirects, but instead lead to pages of back-end database
errors that would seem as cryptic as hieroglyphics to most viewers.
Accurately or not, the latter technique gives the impression of what
we might call "Web site 'get the stuff offline fast!' panic
redesign" -- or in the UNIX/Linux world the "rm -rf *" school
of damage control (don't try that one at home, kids).
Just a remarkable coincidence. OK, let's take them at their word.
And if the good Senator is still willing to publicly stand behind his
earlier words that so directly conflict with birther sentiments, more
power to him, and then of course my apologies for casting any
aspersions on his character or motivations, irrespective of the
impression given by his site's sudden, coincidental, and quite
dramatic perturbations.
Perhaps the Senator will now be one of President Obama's staunchest
and most vocal defenders against birther nuttiness, and the Orrin
Hatch Web site (new and improved, with suspicious broken links all
eventually neatly repaired) will trumpet Hatch's support in this
regard for all the world to see!
It's a good day in Washington D.C., after all!
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com