[mhx]

Well it might be jumping to conclusions a bit... web sites are often down on the weekend for maintenance, etc.

If it stays down for days, there might be something to it.

[newberger]

web sites are often down on the weekend for maintenance, etc.

Government sites down for the weekend???? What have you been smoking?

[cripplecreek]

I'm wondering where the evidence that the government took it down rests.

[SBD1]

DNS Lookup: spp.gov A record
Generated by www.DNSstuff.com at 19:38:37 GMT on 20 May 2006.
How I am searching:
Searching for spp.gov A record at f.root-servers.net [192.5.5.241]: Got referral to A.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM. [took 49 ms]
Searching for spp.gov A record at A.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM. [216.55.155.29]: Got referral to NS1.ITA.DOC.gov. [took 74 ms]
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS1.ITA.DOC.gov. [12.156.194.10]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS2.ITA.DOC.gov. [170.110.214.3]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS2.ITA.DOC.gov. [170.110.214.3]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS2.ITA.DOC.gov. [170.110.214.3]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS2.ITA.DOC.gov. [170.110.214.3]: Timed out. Trying again.
Searching for spp.gov A record at NS2.ITA.DOC.gov. [170.110.214.3]: Timed out. Trying again.

Note that these results are obtained in real-time, meaning that these are not cached results.
These results are what DNS resolvers all over the world will see right now (unless they have cached information).

SBD

[Prime Choice]

web sites are often down on the weekend for maintenance, etc.

While it is true that sites typically go offline for brief periods during the weekend, it is highly unusual for them to be offline the entire weekend. And it is odder still to have their DNS records just disappear. That's simply not done in the net.world.