For some bizarre reason, the offiical Bush/Cheney re-election website is configured to intentionally deny access to overseas visitors.
NO FOREIGNERS ALLOWED
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So in the computer-related election story of the day, it appears that the Bush-Cheney site has cut itself off from the world outside the U.S. (via Frankenstein). Chris, a sensible fellow who generally admits his lack of computer knowledge, blurts... Read More
*snort* Assholes, but what else is new?
Not such a bizarre reason - WashPost: "The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has barred people outside the United States from viewing its Web site following an electronic attack that took down the campaign's Internet address for six hours last week, according to computer security experts."
On the one hand, '"I've never heard of a site wholesale blocking access from the rest of the world," said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the SANS Internet Storm Center, which monitors hacker trends. "I guess they decided it just wasn't worth the trouble to leave it open to foreign visitors."'
On the other hand, 'Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at Finland-based F-Secure Corp., also could not reach the site from his home in Finland. But he questioned whether denying access to foreign visitors would make any difference. "I don't see any other reason why they'd do this other than to try and avoid problems coming from people who probably don't really have any desire to see the site to begin with," he said.'
Akamai has had past DDOS problems, though I don't know what their previous solutions have been. When they had trouble hosting Al-Jazeera, they dropped the contract.
If we're really concerned about people outside the U.S. being unable to see the site, people could mirror it, and the BBC story claims that "The site can still be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. [...] Readers of the Boingboing weblog also found that viewers could get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name."
If you're worried about Akamai's political tendencies, search with Akamai in "Employer/Occupation" and leaving all else blank.
(BTW, who else loves the FEC website? especially with opensecrets.org down at the moment.)
See the links in the sidebar on this page for alternatives to georgewbush.com
It should be noted that when I was in Hong Kong earlier this year, I was also unable to access BC04.