Recant Update: Per CJ’s investigating it seems Zach Hensel may just have an Obama-hosted website at the same server which used to host a precursor to the Obama fight the smears site, which does not connect the sites to Obama’s campaign – yet. Strange coincidence that all these anti-McCain sites all existence on one server, but that is not proof of anything.  My bad.

Major Update: Hold off on my title and post for a while as Johnson contacts the person who seems to be the owner of the sites (Zach Hensel) and may be redirecting these sites to Obama servers. I get the feeling this guy may have been roped into the Obama dirty tricks corpse, but we can wait for a response.  What little there is on him is interesting:

I was a University of Illinois student when he ran rip shod over downstate Illinois despite being the one primary candidate then willing to question Bush’s (and Clinton’s, Kerry’s, etc) assertions about Iraq. I was also in Boston doing research during the DNC and saw the enthusiasm of the few, young Obama volunteers that were around at the time. I started hoping he’d buck convention and run for President ASAP right around that time–just before he spoke at the convention. His speech, in contrast to almost every other Dem running safe at the time, cemented that thought for me.

I still say he would not have access to Obama’s servers without permission.  More possibly here and here. Stay tuned.  – end update

Obama is in sheer panic mode over the Palin selection if he did what Charles Johnson has clearly shown he just did:

Sarah Palin’s veto gave gays the same rights as married couples in Alaska.

A vote for McCain/Palin is a vote for gay marriage.

Interesting. There’s nothing else on the page. This sure looks like the work of the dastardly right-wing anti-gay attack machine, doesn’t it?

…

Well, well. “Obamadefense.com,” eh?

And what happens if you enter obamadefense.com on your browser’s address line?

Why, you’re redirected to none other than FightTheSmears.com, the official Barack Obama site that’s supposed to be defending him against smears.

Johnson knows is computer and communications systems as do I, so let me translate for those of you who don’t speak network IP geek. Obama’s websites are clustered on dedicated servers in order to handle the massive amount of traffic his site generates. Each server has a Internet Protocol (IP) address. Between his media dumps and the community blog with tens of thousands of posters no server in the Obama suite is doing anything but serving the Obama campaign. Those IP addresses belong to computers for his campaign. 

So when Johnson notes that this new smear site is running on a Obama campaign computer resource it is damning and irrefutable evidence the Obama campaign is behind it. The server was probably separated off from the main server suite to host just this trash (and I am sure others). But the techno-neophytes on the Obama campaign don’t realize that an IP address tracks to an owner. Nothing goes on those Obama servers from anywhere else than the Obama Campaign geeks.

In essence, and in actual legal terms, the smear site is hosted on an Obama campaign run computer. They ‘own’ the server and its content. Johnson just caught Obama trying to secretly stab his woman opponent in the back. How is that for equal pay (back).

Update: Johnson notes at the end of his post that he has not ‘proven’ Obama’s campaign is behind the smears. Yeah, well it depends on your criteria of proof.  That is my claim, not his. What CJ has shown is proof enough for an investigation by law enforcement (who won’t be called in on this case in any event). To be fair, Johnson is right – I have not proven the IP addresses are tied to the Obama campaign. But knowing how large sites isolate their servers and SW from other users and their customers (who can bring their sites down with traffic, infect their code with viruses, etc) it is impossible to see a scenario where the IP, and code running on that IP, are not completely under control of the Obama Campaign.

If the Obama camp wants to prove me wrong – have at it.

 

Tags: 2008 Election, Dirty Tricks, Obama