Guard Documents aren’t all they’re forging

Someone on an anti-spam mailing list that I’m on forwarded this email to the list today with the comment that it looked like “Spam from eager followers of the incumbents.”

The truth is a different matter, though.

—– Forwarded message from Agenda For America —–
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Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:51:02 +0200
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:51:02 +0200
Message-Id: < [redacted]>
To: “[redacted]” < [redacted]>
From: Agenda For America
Subject: OREGON WILDERNESS PLAN DEMONSTRATES BEST OF BUSH POLICY
Sender: Agenda For America
X-Folder: Default
Status: RO
Content-Length: 3455
Lines: 69

September 16, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: mailto:agenda@cheneybush.com
Story: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1095163344112791.xml

OREGON WILDERNESS PLAN EXEMPLIFIES BEST OF BUSH POLICY
Senator’s bravery in the face of public opinion earns him award; new
Forest Service mascot unveiled

The Bush campaign is awarding its first annual “Healthy Forestry”
award to Senator Gordon Smith, R-OR, for finding a way to convert
19,000 acres of prized wilderness into a highly valuable tree farm.

Converting the partially burnt Siskiyou “roadless areas” to tree
farming, despite 70% public opposition to “old growth” logging, will
mean not only the creation of several dozen temporary jobs, but also
will guarantee that the area will never again be subject to “old
growth” and “roadless” restrictions, and will remain forever open to
logging regardless of public opinion.

Sen. Smith has announced that to make this happen, he will attach a
“rider” to a disaster relief or other “must pass” Senate bill,
requiring that the Siskiyou area be logged immediately and replanted
with thousands of timber trees, bypassing Nature’s slow, inefficient,
and unprofitable process of recovery. The rider will also stipulate
that it “shall not be subject to judicial review by any court of the
United States"–thus preventing ecoterrorists from using the courts
to interfere with the health of the forestry industry. (See
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1095163344112791.xml
for more information.)

OLD PROBLEMS, NEW SOLUTIONS

Even some ecoterrorists acknowledge that burnt old-growth trees can
be hazardous to wildlife, as their rotting limbs can easily fall on
innocent elk or deer. But the agreement ends there. By stubbornly
refusing to let burnt old-growth forests build jobs, ecoterrorists
have made it increasingly difficult for the forestry industry to turn
a profit from America’s last few bits of nonproductive landscape.

Sen. Smith was inspired in devising his rider by the earlier, 1995
“salvage rider,” which for one year allowed virtually unregulated
logging to occur on wilderness lands throughout the Pacific Northwest.

By again moving the issue out of the courts, Sen. Smith’s rider
suggests a way to bypass such opposition in a more permanent way: a
“rider” that will open not just one region, but the entire
federally-controlled National Parks System, for selective logging use.

The amount of useful acreage in Yellowstone and Yosemite alone, for
example, would more than equal the contested areas of the Siskiyou.
Such forests aren’t quite as valuable to either the timber industry
or to ecologists as those in the Siskiyou, but logging our National
Parks would mean replacing many smaller, time-consuming local battles
with one bigger one more likely to be won.

To popularize this idea, the Bush campaign has unveiled a new mascot
for the USDA Forest Service: Smokey the Log. Smokey the Log is a
replacement for Smokey the Bear, as bears have no use and are
therefore not appropriate in the modern forest-use context. On a
recent canvassing tour, Smokey the Log collected numerous signatures
in favor of logging our National Parks and received endorsements from 
Congressional Candidate Jim Feldkamp and former Oregon governor
Victor G. Atiyeh.

—– End forwarded message —–

Now, if you go to cheneybush.com and click the image to see the larger one and look at the status bar you’ll see that the link goes through to the President’s site… as though this site were actually owned by the Bush campaign. In fact, the site looks like the President’s:

Why do that? Because the material linked to within the spam email is a carefully worded parody. They think that some people will be slightly incredulous and so go up a directory or two to seek confirmation that this really is done by the Bush/Cheney 04 team and those people will see what they expect: The Bush/Cheney website.

Ah, but they had to register the thing.

whois cheneybush.com
[Querying whois.internic.net]
[Redirected to whois.gandi.net]
[Querying whois.gandi.net]
[whois.gandi.net]
% GANDI Registrar whois database for .COM, .NET, .ORG., .INFO, .BIZ, .NAME
%
% Access and use restricted pursuant to French law on personal data.
% Copy of whole or part of the data without permission from GANDI
% is strictly forbidden.
% The sole owner of a domain is the entity described in the relevant
% ‘domain:’ record.
% Domain ownership disputes should be settled using ICANN’s Uniform Dispute
% Resolution Policy: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
%
% Acces et utilisation soumis a la legislation francaise sur
% les donnees personnelles.
% Copie de tout ou partie de la base interdite sans autorisation de GANDI.
% Le possesseur d’un domaine est l’entite decrite dans
% l’enregistrement ‘domain:’ correspondant.
% Un desaccord sur la possession d’un nom de domaine peut etre resolu
% en suivant la Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy de l’ICANN:
% http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
%
% Date: 2004/09/16 20:10:11

domain: CHENEYBUSH.COM
owner-address: Support and Commitment, Inc.
owner-address: 55 W. Maiden St.
owner-address: 10027
owner-address: New York
owner-address: New York
owner-address: United States of America
owner-phone: +1.2128831023
owner-e-mail: info@cheneybush.com
admin-c: SAC25-GANDI
tech-c: AR41-GANDI
bill-c: SAC25-GANDI
nserver: ns7.gandi.net 217.70.177.44
nserver: custom2.gandi.net 217.70.179.35
reg_created: 2003-11-24 16:16:49
expires: 2004-11-24 16:16:49
created: 2003-11-24 22:16:50
changed: 2003-11-25 23:34:31

person: Support and Commitment, Inc.
nic-hdl: SAC25-GANDI
address: Support and Commitment, Inc.
address: 55 W. Maiden St.
address: 10027
address: New York
address: New York
address: United States of America
phone: +1.2128831023
e-mail: info@georgewbush.org
lastupdated: 2004-08-16 19:58:55

person: GANDI Auto Register 4.1
nic-hdl: AR41-GANDI
address: GANDI
address: 38 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth
address: F-75003
address: Paris
address: France
phone: N/A
e-mail: support@gandi.net

Now, notice the info@georgewbush.org address there? So, we ask who runs that site:

whois georgewbush.org
[Querying whois.publicinterestregistry.net]
[whois.publicinterestregistry.net]
NOTICE: Access to .ORG WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in
determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the PIR
registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry
for informational purposes only, and PIR does not guarantee its
accuracy. This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree
that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no
circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise
support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than
the data recipient’s own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume,
automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of
Registry Operator or any ICANN-Accredited Registrar, except as reasonably
necessary to register domain names or modify existing registrations. All
rights reserved. PIR reserves the right to modify these terms at any
time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

Domain ID:D40002830-LROR
Domain Name:GEORGEWBUSH.ORG
Created On:06-Nov-2000 11:52:23 UTC
Last Updated On:12-Mar-2004 22:05:52 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Nov-2007 11:52:23 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R39-LROR
Status:OK
Registrant ID:1EEBA9C84ABC129A
Registrant Name:John Wooden
Registrant Organization:Chickenhead Productions
Registrant Street1:PO Box 150184
Registrant City:Brooklyn
Registrant State/Province:NY
Registrant Postal Code:11215
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.7186614862
Registrant Email:johnwooden@yahoo.com
Admin ID:1EEBA9C84ABC129A
Admin Name:John Wooden
Admin Organization:Chickenhead Productions
Admin Street1:PO Box 150184
Admin City:Brooklyn
Admin State/Province:NY
Admin Postal Code:11215
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.7186614862
Admin Email:johnwooden@yahoo.com
Tech ID:1EEBA9C84ABC129A
Tech Name:John Wooden
Tech Organization:Chickenhead Productions
Tech Street1:PO Box 150184
Tech City:Brooklyn
Tech State/Province:NY
Tech Postal Code:11215
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.7186614862
Tech Email:johnwooden@yahoo.com
Name Server:B.NS.INTERLAND.NET
Name Server:C.NS.INTERLAND.NET
Name Server:A.NS.INTERLAND.NET

Now the truth comes out. This site is not run by Bush/Cheney ‘04 as the writers and proprietors would have you believe. It is run or at least hosted by the same people who brought you the explictly labeled parody sites of georgewbush.org and whitehouse.org.

So, if you get spam like you see above, dig a little deeper. You’ll probably find some dirty tricks people behind it.