Chavez to help 1.2 million families in US with fuel for heating.

[madfloridian]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4205560.html

"Chavez also announced that Citgo, the U.S.-based refining arm of Venezuela's state-run oil company, plans to more than double the amount of heating oil it is making available under the program to 100 million gallons this winter, up from 40 million gallons.

He said the oil will reach people in 17 states, including Indians in Alaska, some of whom were flown to New York for the ceremony and attended in traditional dress. They performed a traditional dance for Chavez and offered him a walrus figurine carved out of whale bone as a gift.

"This will go a long way for a lot of families," said Ian Erlich, a leader of the Alaska Intertribal Council who said many people struggle to afford heating oil where he lives in Kotzebue, Alaska, north of the Artic Circle.

Chavez started the heating oil program last winter, accusing Bush of neglecting the poor. Citgo says up to 1.2 million people will benefit this winter."

Also he warned Bush not to try to oust him again...

""If that were to happen, the price of oil could reach $200 a barrel," Chavez said, adding that he'd like to see a U.S. president "who you could talk with."

[eleny]

1. For a crazy clown person - he's being pretty nice

K&R

[Poll_Blind]

2. "Common Thug", eh? Pelosi's hyperbole is somewhere, far...

...beyond even that of the Kim Il-Jung school of rhetoric. Chavez, also guilty of using rhetoric, bears a closer, stinging but closer, kinship with the truth.

PB

[Nutmegger]

3. When ExxonMobile chips in, they'll put Chavez to shame. [nt]

[madfloridian]

4. Heh heh, are you holding your breath?

Wouldn't it be nice, though?

Chavez is setting an example of how these companies should act.

The way our so-called presidents calls other world leaders thugs and evil doers....I don't see too much room for us to condemn Chavez.

[Nutmegger]

7. I'm not actually.

It would be something to be proud of, that an American company is helping out the poor this winter with discounted heating oil. EM is not a good citizen. They are a greedy, corrupt corporation more concerned about money.

I agree. Say what you want about Chavez but he is doing this for America's poor which is more than I can say for EM and Bush Inc when they cut food stamps. :mad::grr::mad:

[madfloridian]

13. This administration cares nothing about its poor and needy.

They consider them a burden on society.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. With the obscene profits EM made from GOUGING us at the pumps,

they could well afford to help out the poor this winter and still come out ahead, don't you think?

[Bandit]

27. Exxon Mobile is not an American Company and pays no American taxes

Most large oil companies are world companies with offshore offices so they pay no regular American taxes... Just because they may have had their start here in America does not mean they have remained loyal to America..

[killbotfactory]

9. Thanks for the laugh

considering Citgo is only stepping in because US oil companies refused to help

[Rainscents]

5. People are going to need his help...

I hear, it's gonna be very cold winter and we are gonna need all the help we can get, and also, snow, we are gonna get record breaking snow too. Thanks you, Mr. Chavez for your help!

[Nutmegger]

8. Hi Rainscents!

It's good to see you here tonight.

:hi::pals::hug:

[Rainscents]

14. Hello Nutmegger!!!

Great to see yea too! Having a great night? I'm not feeling so good. I think, I maybe coming down with some sort of chest bug. Cough and my chest feels real heavy and hurts. :hi: :pals: :hug:

[eleny]

10. Where did you hear about the record snows?

Just wondering.

[Rainscents]

11. Farmers Almanac. They're 80-85% accurate.

[eleny]

17. Thanks - I was wondering if it was the FA

It's been years since I looked at a copy. :hi:

[Rainscents]

20. Back@you.

;) :hi:

[devilgrrl]

6. What. A. Thug.

:puke:

:sarcasm:

[madfloridian]

12. He offered money to New Orleans after Katrina. I heard he sent it.

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/3443.html

'Cowboy' Bush failed in Katrina evacuation - Chavez

"CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the U.S. government, on Wednesday called President Bush a "cowboy" who had failed to manage the Hurricane Katrina disaster and evacuate victims.
"That government had no evacuation plan, it is incredible, the first power in the world that is so involved in Iraq ... and left its own population adrift," Chavez said in a cabinet meeting broadcast live on television."

"That man, the king of vacations ... the king of vacations in his ranch said nothing but, you have to flee, and didn't say how ... that cowboy, the cowboy mentality," said Chavez, chuckling in a reference to Bush without naming him directly."

"The Venezuelan president, applauded by supporters for his self-proclaimed socialist revolution to fight poverty, has offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA has offered $1 million from its U.S.-based refinery unit Citgo for relief efforts."


All day I have watched the interchanges here, very threatening toward those who think he has a right to speak his mind since our country tried to overthrow him. I finally decided that we don't have a right to be too critical...after all it is our country which leased this so-called president on the world.

I listened to Carville on Maddow tonight. I do not like him at all. I keep remembering he was in Venezuela working the opposition to Chavez.

[bridgit]

15. Cult of Personality...

Cult of Personality ~

look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, i know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
I'm the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I'm the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your t.v.
I'm the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
I'm the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I'm the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your god's name
I'm every person you need to be
I'm the cult of personality
Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, i know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
I'm the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
I'm the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your t.v.
I'm the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
I'm the cult of personality
Like joseph stalin and gandi
I'm the cult of personality
Cult of personality
Cult of personality

Neon lights a nobel prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You me power in your god's name
I'm every person you need to be
I'm the cult of personality

:headbang:

[madfloridian]

16. Offered to lower oil to $50 a barrel when Bush turned down Katrina help

"You’d think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chávez’s behind. Not only has Chávez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chávez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, “not too high, a fair price,” he said—a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That would bring down the price at the pump by about a buck, from $3 to $2 a gallon.

But our President has basically told Chávez to take his cheaper oil and stick it up his pipeline. Before I explain why Bush has done so, let me explain why Chávez has the power to pull it off—and the method in the seeming madness of his “take-my-oil-please!” deal."

http://www.progressive.org/mag_intv0706

I felt like I had to have my say today about the way our Democrats attacked him. After all Bush has insulted the whole world...so they need to keep their mouths shut about Chavez and let him speak.

We were at a gathering today, and people there were chuckling about it and saying good for him. These were not just Democrats either.

[eleny]

18. I thought maybe it was a Thom Hartmann article

Sounded a little like him.

Nice to read your postings tonight on this whole matter.

[madfloridian]

22. It did sound like Hartmann...

I really felt odd about this today. I just had to say something.

[rinsd]

26. For all the bombast about how great a reporter Palast is

He leaves out a very key point about the $50 a barrel

That would be based on the signing of long term contracts....which at $50 a barrel would allow VN to add their heavy crude (which is not considered profitable when the price of crude is below $40 a barrel)

This is like the CA energy scam.

The price is jacked up and will get lowered when you are locked into long term contracts that are "saving" you money.

[countmyvote4real]

19. How far away is "The Devil" from "The Axis of Evil?" n/t

Oh Lawd, I already feel the rath of the mods. E.M.

[orleans]

21. if bush lets him do this program then bush is skimming off the top

...he's that much of a dick! in his mind no one gets nothing for nothing

[mom cat]

23. He kept some of my friends from freezing last year which is a hell of a

lot more than I can say for the devil.

[mmonk]

25. Such a thug. Helping America's poor. What a terrible

thing to do. We're trying to wean the poor off of help that might help them survive the winter. Such a leftist menace. And again he mentions our president. He should be told when he insults our president on our soil, he insults all Americans. He needs to observe Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and how they behave and rule if he wants to be our friend.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Bush will offer them excess sulpher as an alternative.

[Spazito]

29. Just imagine what he might do if he weren't a "thug" as stated by

some. Good for Chavez, his speech reflected how much of the world now sees bush, bush is the THUG not Chavez, imo.