Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 02:09:44 -0400
  From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
  Subject: Republican Leadership's dot.gov Scam?
  
  [Note from Matthew Gaylor:  It seems that the US House of Representatives,
  Republican leadership conference has established http://www.gop.gov/.  A
  misuse of the domain name system which gives the impression of official .gov
  sanction when the site is really just a politics as usual, partisan site. To
  be fair the Republicans claim that their site is in Beta and that it is an
  official site due to their Congressional status.  I find much of this idea
  rather offensive and unfair to Independents and third parties who will not
  be afforded the opportunity to hide partisanship under a mask of legitimacy.
  Of special note is the use of a private ISP, Capital Area Internet Service
  (CAIS-DOM) to host the site.  Is this to bypass the congressional system and
  if so why?]
  
  Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 18:10:41 -0700
  To: farber@cis.upenn.edu (Dave Farber), freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor),
          State and Local Freedom of Information Issues <FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
  From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
  Subject: fwd: www.gop.gov  ??!!!
  
  I just received this from a friend.
  
  >Did you see that the Republican Party has established the domain
  >www.gop.gov?  I'm very surprised that a partisan group could have a .gov
  >domain.  I was also very disturbed by the fact that I couldn't get into
  >the site without accepting all the cookies that were being set.  Looks
  >like a bad precedent to me on both counts.
  
  1.  I wonder if this is really a Republican Party website -- as it's name
  certainly implies?  The InterNIC Finger gives no listing for it.
  
  [Note from Matt Gov't sites need to looked up on www.nic.gov]
  
  2.  I completely agree with the writer:  Who the hell is granting dot-GOV
  status to a @#$%^ political party?!
  
  3.  And if they're going to give ".GOV" status to the Republicrats (and,
  presumably, the Demopublicans), will they also give it to the Libbies, and
  the Peace & Freedom ... and the Flat Earth Party, and the 4th Reich, et
  al?!  Maybe this is the first step to making dog-GOV meaningless as a
  top-level domain.
  
  4.  When I attempted to go to it's home-page, I too, found that it tried to
  set two cookies -- which I refused.  Then it promptly died saying, "No
  Cookie! To access this site your browser must be accepting cookies."
  
  5.  Pretty damned arrogant no matter who's running it -- but especially if
  it really is the Repub Party.  (The Party of the People?  Apparently not
  unless the People let the Party set tracking/surveillance cookies ... and
  gawd knows what else!)
  
  --jim, Jim Warren; jwarren@well.com
  Contributing Editor & technology public-policy columnist, MicroTimes Magazine
  Also GovAccess list-owner/editor; 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062
    voice/650-851-7075; fax-for-the-quaint/650-851-2814
  
  [self-inflating puff: Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation;
  Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year);
  James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif
  founded InfoWorld; the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; etc etc etc.]
  
  And...
  
  From: Jim Warren <jwarren@WELL.COM>
  Subject:      Re: fwd: www.gop.gov  ??!!!
  To: FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
  
  Ahah!  The plot thickens.
  
  On the one hand, www.gop.gov -- by its dot-GOV domain-name -- pretends to
  be an official government site.  And from what those who've accepted its
  cookies say, it *says* it's an official site of an official caucus within
  the official House of the official Congress.
  
  However ... curiously, it appears that -- in spite of it's dot-GOV name --
  it's being run as a private operation through a private ISP, and definitely
  *not* through any official congressional system!  See the following, that
  just came in from a net-geek friend.
  
  --jim
  
  
  >A "WHOIS" on gop.gov didn't turn up anything at networksolutions
  >but I did find that the domain is hosted at Capital Area Internet
  >Service in McLean...
  >
  >Capital Area Internet Service (CAIS-DOM)
  >    6861 Elm Street, Third Floor
  >    McLean, VA 22101
  >    US
  >
  >    Domain Name: CAIS.COM
  >
  >    Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
  >       Network Operations Center  (CAIS-NOC)  domreg@CAIS.NET
  >       CAIS Internet
  >       1255 22nd Street
  >       Washington, DC 20037
  >       US
  >
  >       (202) 715-1300 -- NOC (703) 448-2091 Fax- - (703) 790-8805
  >    Billing Contact:
  >       Billing Office  (BO-ORG)  billing@CAIS.COM
  >       CAIS Internet
  >       6861 Elm Street, Third Floor
  >       McLean, VA 22101
  >       US
  
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  Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 14:17:16 -0400
  From: Matthew Gaylor 
  Subject: Republican Explanation of GOP.gov
  
  From: "Diamond, Richard" <Richard.Diamond@mail.house.gov>
  To: Declan McCullagh <declan@wired.com>, CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM,
          fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net,
          farber@cis.upenn.edu, freematt@coil.com, FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU,
          Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
  Cc: gnu@toad.com
  Subject: RE: Republican Leadership's dot.gov Scam?
  Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 11:52:44 -0400
  
  Most of the opposition to the domain name gop.gov seems to be based on
  misunderstandings. First, the web server for GOP.gov is physically located
  within the offices of the House Republican Conference. The private vendor
  you see in the WHOIS listing merely handles the DNS hosting (which is all
  that the WHOIS listing tells you). As someone pointed out already, it
  wouldn't really make a difference if it were outsourced to a private
  company.  I just want to point out that it isn't.
  
  Second, there are only two parties in Congress. The only "independents"
  (Virgil Goode and Bernie Sanders) caucus with either the Republican and
  Democrats. So, yes, whether you like it or not "Republican" and "Democrat"
  are part of the institution that is the U.S. Congress.  This top level
  domain reflects the institution. If the flat earth society can get a
  majority in Congress, they can have their own .gov -- but not until then --
  and that's what the RFC says.
  
  Third, although gop.gov currently only hosts information for the majority
  party in the House of Representatives, it may offer information from the
  Senate in the future.  That's one reason why it does not have "house" in the
  domain.  Another reason is simplicity -- www.gop.gov is easier to remember.
  If you want to complain about us not using hierarchical domain names, then
  start your complaint with the administration.  After all, "www.irs.gov"
  should be "www.irs.unitedstatestreasurydepartment.whitehouse.gov" if you
  follow that line of thought.
  
  Richard Diamond
  Office of the Majority Leader
  US House of Representatives
  www.freedom.gov
  
  -----Original Message-----
  
  >From: Jim Warren <jwarren@WELL.COM>
  >Subject:      Re: fwd: www.gop.gov  ??!!!
  >To: FOI-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
  >
  >Ahah!  The plot thickens.
  >
  >On the one hand, www.gop.gov -- by its dot-GOV domain-name -- pretends to
  >be an official government site.  And from what those who've accepted its
  >cookies say, it *says* it's an official site of an official caucus within
  >the official House of the official Congress.
  
  [snip]
  
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