Call for Comments Causes Congressional Site Crash
Several Congressional websites experience server overloads after President Barack Obama urges Americans to contact their representatives regarding the debt-ceiling.
In this March 20, 2010, file photo Rep. Paul Ryan testifies before the House Rules committee as it meets to discuss health care legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington. Ryan's site was down after a server overload on Tuesday.
AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File
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President Barack Obama on Monday night asked the American people to speak out about the debt-ceiling crisis, and they listened.
His call for comments sent unusual amounts of traffic to Congressional websites, causing a majority of those sites to crash on Tuesday, many remaining down, as reported on Politico.
More about the crash:
- Where it all began: Continuing to disagree about how to fix the nation's debt problem, President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner voiced their opinions in quite the "dueling" debate, the Washington Post reports.
- Phonelines also swamped: CNN reports twice the usual volume of callers on Tuesday —sometimes with 150 to 300 callers on hold for their congressman — and a high volume of e-mails commenting on the debt-ceiling crisis.
- Hitting home: As of 5 p.m., U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner's (R-Menomonee Falls) website continues to greet visitors with a "site unavailable," message; Both U.S. Rep. Ron Kind's (D-La Crosse) website and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Janesville) site were down for part of the day, but seem to be working again.
- Conversations also exploding on Twitter: A Washington Post blogpost details a number of hashtags being used to address Congress.
