[WEB4LIB] www.gop.gov

[Jeff]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2000, Charles P. Hobbs wrote:

> http://www.microtimes.com/209/indwarren209a.html
> 
> How does a private, political party get a ".gov" site, anyway?

The RFC's have been obsoleted at least twice, but see RFC2146:
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2146.txt>

Also, <http://www.nic.gov/cgi-bin/new-domain> seems to properly reference  
RFC2146. Enforcement is the question.

As to what loophole the GOP made use of, or if there was even a loophole
for them to use, I don't know. I haven't the time to read the RFC at this
moment. I'm involved in others that are more relevant to my tasks at hand.

Another item worth noting is the number of currently grandfathered .gov
domains. I can't recall if there was a grace period afterwhich the
grandfathered domains would be terminated.

Follows is the WHOIS record for gop.gov:

-=- begin whois -=-
USHouseofRepresentativesRepublicanConference (GOP-DOM)
1010 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515    Domain Name: GOP.GOV
   
Status: ACTIVE
Domain Type: Federal Exception

Technical Contact:
Schomaker, Bruce W.  (BWS)
(703) 847-0922 (FAX)(703) 847-0662
BRUCE at KCT.COM

Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Mullen, Edward G.  (EGM)
(202) 225-0197 (FAX)(202) 225-5117
ED.MULLEN at MAIL.HOUSE.GOV

Domain servers in listed order:
NS.CAIS.COM 205.177.10.10
NS2.CAIS.COM 199.0.216.222

Record last updated on -Mar-71.
-=- end whois -=-

If the federal NIC is anything like NSOL, or using the same software for
whois, don't trust that "-Mar-71" date with extreme certainty.

enjoy,

-jeff

-- 
Jeff Godin
Network Specialist
Traverse Area District Library / Traverse Community Network
jeff at tcnet.org