Wednesday, February 16, 2005

"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses"...nor Internet Service!

Since we're running into trouble for referencing material that wasn't the fruits of our own minds, all credit for the title of this entry goes to St. Mathew...who got his inspiration from God-the-Father-and-Source-of-All-Things. [Trust me...if they send me a "cease and desist" letter, I'm going to jump!]

Well, details are sketchy, but word has come to me from the volunteer who is maintaining the web site for www.TulsansForElectionIntegrity.com, [the issue PAC formed to defend Councilor Mautino and me], has received a threatening letter from the Tulsa World. As such, they have given us 24 hours to pull all offending links to their site, or they will pull us from their server.

Part of our entrenched, battle weary mindset makes us want to strike back at the craveness of this private business. But upon further reflection, they are just another citizen (corporate in this case) that is in the way of the Lorton's and their agenda. As such, it serves no one for us to trash them for protecting their business from litigation surrounding a fight that is not theirs'.

Because the TFEI site is integral to our efforts to use alternative media to quickly respond to recall efforts and more importantly, to raise money and register volunteers, we'll most likely comply for now.

But if anyone knows of an affordable service provider that would throw a letter from an overly arrogant media outlet into the trash "like yesterday's newspaper," let us know.

More as things develop.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was not Matthew a collector of taxes for the city of Rome? He was to fill the purses of Rome with the taxes he collected. Even though we are not in Rome we do as the Romans did.

The recent events show the lack of power of individuals in a republic form of government that leaves to the neighbor the maintenance of stability in their governing. We are witnessing the dirty tricks that are possible with a purse of taxpayer gold, held beyond the sight of those who have labored for it. The “good old boys” hold the filled purse of gold and will empty it to replace councilors who do not say yes when their names are called in the meetings.

In their “dirty tricks” they will cut off all communications between the councilors for recall and their constituents.

It is time to rally around a just cause before the citizen is subdued again under the control of a demanding bureaucracy that has no intentions of represent the citizens.

In the fog of all this turmoil may peace go with the councilors who want to help the voters in their districts. Even though they are of the minority they will be long remembered as the leaders of the present.

Anonymous said...

"As such, they have given us 24 hours to pull all offending links to their site, or they will pull us from their server."


I'm confused. Does this mean your website and blog, and the TfEI websites are on Tulsa World's Servers???

Now I'm wondering if the City of Tulsa's webservers are supported by the WPC? or, vice-versa.

Any other ISP would completely ignore Bair's letter, lest they be homed in Tulsa.

GoDaddy.com (yes, the Super Bowl ad of fame) is a good low cost provider.

Anonymous said...

Use HostingMatters.

They're the blog host to the stars (Instapundit, BuzzMachine, LittleGreenFootballs, etc.)

They know a thing or two about the 1st Amendment and how it applies to the web.

Anonymous said...

Problem solved. You can read about it at http://jacklewis.net/weblog/archives/2005/02/tulsa_world_v_b.php

Anonymous said...

Jack Lewis, you just won my traffic, and my website if I ever get around to it. (I'll pay, though).

Pretty dare consciencous of you.
My thanks as an outsider. (you know, regular person of no particular significance other than coughing up taxes).