> I reside in France and, somehow, I'm identified as a French user when
> accessing websites.
>
> A friend asked me to test http://www.georgewbush.com
> <http://www.georgewbush.com/>
>
> Now, guess what ? I get an error 403, telling that I'm not allowed to
> view the site, both in Netscape 7.02 and IE6. Nothing to do
> with cookies
> (I allow them) or with the firewall settings (I'm the network admin
> person, so I know what kind of political vocabulary filtering
> we have :
> none).
>
> In other words, I'm denied the right to access relevant information.
> This is a very serious breach of my rights as an individual.
>

Christian my friend, you are taking this way too personally and your
emotions may be getting the best of you on this one.  Last week, the
"International Communality" was believed to have been running a DoS attack
on the RNC.org and the georgewbush.com web sites and knocked them offline
for several hours.  Had you tried to get to the site last week, you would
have also been unable to access these sites because of the actions of the
very same "International Community".

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/news/37693.html

Had the International Community not attacked the web sites, I am sure you
would have access today.  Unfortunately, the "solution" to this attack is
rather drastic and it blocks access for Americans abroad who are not
technically savvy.  Those who are can still see the web site through proxy
services like the one mentioned in the article, www.proxify.com.

So I cannot agree with your contention that this is "blatant disrespect" for
the international community.  The real issue is with the blatant disrespect
of a few in the international community who want to breach the rights of
Americans to access relevant information in their home country.

Kindest regards,

Mark Wonsil

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