and because it's gigantic and very visible, it's an obvious target for people with political grudges

I really don't get what all the fuss is about. For starters, it's not lj's fault that a group of idiots decided to ruin things for everyone. I mean, when hasn't that happened on the internet? Lj is not alone in that capacity. And secondly, the site didn't just go down for no reason--they were attacked because they were providing people a place to speak freely when they were otherwise denied the ability to do so. Call me crazy, but I can deal with it going down for a few days if that is indeed the reason why.