Though Chris Floyd (American Moscow Times columnist and author) and I from Empire Burlesque are not the most interactive Kos and Booman members and relative newbies – we were struck by the call from STOP George in his diary "ACTION ALERT: Qwest, ALONE, says, “No!” to domestic spying." enough to buy the name thankyouqwest.org on Thursday.
As the technical end of the partnership, my idea was to create an quick WordPress (Open Source) site that would not only centre as a point of praise in the form of posting ‘thank you’ comments (such as thankyoustephencolbert.org) but also act as a links clearinghouse for the netroot buzz on Qwest and the NSA story. I was able to purchase the name and get the site up within hours.
Within a day (last night) I was on the phone with Newsday technology staffer Richard J. Dalton Jr.- who interviewed me on the site for a half an hour. He couldn’t quite get over the fact he was speaking to someone in Holland who was not American. There are a number of us who participate in the progressive movement online that don’t carry the same passport and I suppose we all have our own reasons.
Then lo and behold I woke up this morning to find the stats full of links from the NYT’s where we were included in an article on former Qwest chief Joseph P. Nacchio, and the rapid turnabout of his reputation since it was revealed that he refused to play ball with the NSA.
One blogger even created a Web site, www.thankyouqwest.org, praising the company for its decision not to cooperate with the government’s surveillance plan.
And it the interview appeared in Newsday.
Bloggers also have expressed their support, and Richard Kastelein, a Web designer based in the Netherlands, created thankyouqwest.org, which commends the company as the only holdout and declares: “Qwest customers are safe.”
Kastelein said he started the site “because it’s about time someone stood up. Qwest has had a lot of bad press during the past few years and its fair share of problems. But they certainly deserve kudos for not buckling under to the heavy-handed tactics of the Bush administration.”
Kastelein’s praise and reference to “bad press” capture the two faces of Qwest: the defender – of privacy – and the defendant – in securities litigation.
Earlier the site was also covered in the Salt Lake Tribune
“By Thursday afternoon, a Web site had gone up called thankyouqwest.org, which encouraged visitors to contact the company’s chief ethics officer to express their appreciation for so-called “NSA-free” phone service.”
And in Seattle’s The Stranger who bill themselves as Seattle’s Only Newspaper.
That Didn’t Take Long. This new web site thanks Qwest for not turning over its customers’ phone records to the NSA
As neither Chris nor I expected the site to have think kind of impact – he didn’t do the copy… I did which is why it’s not in the more prosaic style associated with Empire Burlesque. He’s going to do a rewrite sometime today (I hope).
At thankyouqwest.org, we make it clear where the ‘roots’ of the idea for the site came from.
Members of Daily Kos formed an action group to push people to recognize the gravity of Qwest’s action.
This site is part of that action.
I know some at don’t agree with giving Kudos to Qwest due to alleged poor service and prior business problems but as orthogonal put it oh so well in the action thread.
Who cares why Qwest stood up?
I DON’T CARE why Qwest, in the face of what had to be enormous government pressure, didn’t cave in.
I’m JUST GLAD they did the right thing.
If I have to put up with some MINOR INCONVENIENCE to keep my SACRED LIBERTIES, that’s a small price to pay.
The Founders pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to secure those rights for all Americans. I think I can at least put up with an unresponsive DNS server.
These are our rights, our children’s POSTERITY we’re trying to protect. Many Americans have given their lives for these rights.
If we don’t reward Qwest for taking the right stand, we’re telling the neo-cons and the world that America prefers having a dial tone over its LIBERTY.
The neo-cons are watching to see which we care about more. We need to show them we stand for Liberty, or we’ll just encourage more of their encroachments.
As for the blogads? We decided to put them in to drive up our numbers and make our current advertisers happy, yes. And its also good for blogads in general.
Like most ‘almost’ A-list bloggers, we operate at a loss and blog for the love of it with the feeling we are part of the solution on the path to political change in the United States. Which is not only important to the majority of Americans, but also to the world. The current American Republican government is doing everything it can to dismantle American democracy internally and internationally vis a vis ignoring International Law. And it is creating a disastrous situation in the Middle East that resonates for all of humanity.