Norm Coleman Accused of Faking Website Crash

The campaign of Republican Quasi-Senator Norm Coleman has been called out over its claim that a surge of tens of thousands of voters crashed its website Wednesday. From Fox News:

ST PAUL, Minn. (FOX9) -- The Norm Coleman campaign said a searchable database of disenfranchised voters crashed the ColemanForSenate.com website on Wednesday. The Al Franken campaign told FOX 9 the crash was faked, pointing to an explanation on mnpublius.com.

Now, as (alleged) hoaxes go, this isn't even the best one in this election. Had Coleman shown up to a press conference with "I'm good enough, I'm strong enough, and doggone it, people like me" carved onto his face, that would have been something.

But there is an amusing side to this story. From mnpublius.com:

They're completely lying. Here's why:

1. colemanforsenate.com has handled much, much more traffic before. (Note that each "visitor" generates numerous "hits.") Why is it a problem now?

2. Their website has been configured to point at the IP address "1.1.1.1," which goes nowhere. This isn't a mistake. They also set the "time to live" on that for only 600 seconds, which means when they choose to switch it back, most servers should only take 10 minutes to refresh. It's an intentional move so they can manage their timing of the switchover. Most records like this have a much longer time to live. In short, they have configured their website to intentionally point at nothing. This does not happen by mistake and it is clear what they are doing. Reporters: ask any IT professional.

3. It's extremely fishy that Ryan Flynn is posting what appears to be an internal administrative IP address instead of the Coleman for Senate website. On the post on MDE, click on that Coleman for Senate link. It goes here:

Oh, do go on!

They actually do go on, for a lot longer than that, and all they've managed to do is make me want to knock Al Franken's books on the floor and stuff him in a locker. And I'm a Democrat.

Does it really matter at all? Are federal election judges going to consult Coleman's website to see how many pissed-off Republicans there are in Minnesota? No. So, give it a rest. Or, STFU, if you prefer.

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