Tues 10:56a edt 90,160 & Wexler’s Office Explains Issues with Petition Count

(@11 – promoted by buhdydharma )

I just heard from a colleague who spoke with a senior staffer at Wexler’s office.  In her words here is the explanation:

Okay, just got a call from a senior staffer at Congressman Wexler’s office. They, indeed, were aware of the problems with the counter yesterday. I am pretty much a moron when it comes to website technical issues, so the best way I can explain it is that they were having a huge spike in traffic and having issues with the server. They actually had to switch servers as a result – twice –  and in the process had to reset the counter which caused the error in the numbers. They way he described it and the timing and the actual numbers he provided matched exactly what we were witnessing – the sudden jump to over 100,000 and then the drop to 83,000. Later, there was another jump and subsequent drop when they had to repeat the process.

But, he is confident that it is all accurate now and running smoothly again. I know everyone is excited (and concerned) and while I think it’s good to keep an eye on things, the constant refreshing and checking most likely is putting strain on the system. They are using a reliable professional database and have multiple backups for the data. He explained as well that he personally scanned the list of names/email addresses and didn’t note any glaring discrepancies or duplicates and, again, is confident that the number currently displayed is accurate.

Bottom line, Congressman Wexler is committed to this and no there is no conspiracy or sabotage.

We spoke as well regarding Rep. Wexler’s interest in impeachment and he will be addressing the issue and providing more information on his plans this Thursday so stay tuned. They understand the challenge we are facing with the “media” and urged us to keep doing what we’re doing. He assured me that as far as the congressman is concerned, this is not going to fade away next week. So, keep putting it out there, encourage others to sign up.

Last count of the “night.” Something strange is going on with the site because the count was higher at 7:27p – 90,235 – than it is now.  Not sure if the site is under attack.  Be curious to see what Wexler’s office has to say in the morning.

At 5:27p the count was 88,953.  Two hours later it was 90,325.  That’s 11.43 signers per minute.  

I don’t have time to calculate, but it looks like the votes are increasing by over 20 a minute.  The site is also loading faster again.  I called Wexler’s office and they said they had done server upgrades over the weekend.  Maybe they did more today.  At this rate it will be 100,000 easily by morning, maybe sooner.

Wow!  I told somone last night around 1:30a that I expected it to hit 70,000 by mid-day today.  This happened overnight!!  Wexler must be overjoyed.  I heard last night that the response to him personally for doing this has been overwhelming.  He is being treated like a rockstar!

Update:  I saw Dave Lindorff and John Nichols on a panel this afternoon in NYC at a presentation of The Culture Project’s “The Question of Impeachment.”  Dave was awesome, but Nichols stole the show when he said that there will soon be 6 Dems calling for impeachment hearings! So all of the forwarding and cajoling we are all doing with this petition will have an impact.  Our goal is to convince the entire Judiciary Committee this is imperative.  Liz Holtzman emphasized that for impeachment to work it must be bipartisan so please do not hold back from contacting your Rep even if s/he is Republican.  

The message that I got today was that IMPEACHMENT CAN HAPPEN, but it will take a lot of work and it doesn’t happen overnight.  Holtzman who has been through it before remembered that things really started to happen February – July.  So let’s gear up and get ready to make it happen in February!

They will have a podcast of this afternoon’s performance up sometime tomorrow.  I strongly recommend it – this panel was amazing – Dave Lindorff, Liz Holtzman, Scott Horton, Marjorie Cohn, and John Nichols.

********

They will have a podcast of this afternoon’s performance up sometime tomorrow.  I strongly recommend it – this panel was amazing – Dave Lindorff, Liz Holtzman, Scott Horton, Marjorie Cohn, and John Nichols.This is a drive by diary, but I hope I will be forgiven because I am busy organizing an impeachment event in NYC for Wednesday (more on that later).  I am hoping everyone here has signed Rep. Wexler’s petition and if you haven’t please go to Wexler’s Web Page and read his powerful oped and watch his video and SIGN.  We hit 50,000 just before midnight last night – Wexler’s goal was 50,000 – let’s multiply that tenfold and show his colleagues what the American people want.  Wexler needs our help to help us.  I have seen skepticism and cynicism that he is doing this as a campaign ploy.  I can’t tell you how I know, but I can verify that he is 100% committed to this and has been working on it since November 7th, the day after Dennis Kucinich introduced his motion of privilege.  Please do whatever you can do to gather signatures on this significant petition.  This is what will get us impeachment hearings.  

Also, if you can please go orange for a moment and recommend Dave Lindorff’s new diary, we should be able to build this further if it remains on the recommended list for the afternoon.  Dave is participating in a performance of “A Question of Impeachment” at The Culture Project today and I doubt he will be able to babysit the diary.   The Culture Project is an amazing series that has been happening in SoHo.  Check out the podcasts of the panel discussions – some really great stuff by incredibly knowledgable people.