Lost in the noise and fury around Qwest’s battle for MCI, was the news that Qwest is handing out nearly $7 million in executive bonuses, including $3 million CEO Dick Notebaert. In addition to Notebaert’s $2.97 million, Chief Financial Officer Oren Shaffer got $1.68 million and Executive Vice President Barry Allen $1.1 million. I think it might be too early to hand these out. I don’t think Q is out of the woods, and it would be good to see a more stable performance from the company before the top dogs get their bow-wow-wow!