I deliberately steer clear of Citgo gas stations because they are owned by Venezuela, i.e. Hugo Chavez. After Chavez came onto American soil, insulted America, and called President Bush the devil, you may also want to consider buying your gasoline somewhere other than Citgo, too, so as to not line Chavez’ pockets any more than they already are.
From the Citgo company website:
The company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
And note this January 2006 article from USA Today about the influence Chavez has on American gasoline consumption:
But in fact there’s nothing ordinary about Citgo. One of the USA’s largest refiners, Citgo is a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). As such, it ultimately belongs to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, an avowedly anti-American leader who counts Fidel Castro among his closest friends and mocks President Bush as a “genocidal murderer.”
The question of Chávez’s influence over Citgo was highlighted by the company’s recent provision of 25 million gallons of subsidized home-heating oil to poor people in the northeast USA. More than 100,000 households in four states should eventually benefit from the low-cost heating aid.
But some worry that Venezuela’s ownership of more than 6% of U.S. refinery capacity gives Chávez, a former paratrooper given to wearing red berets and military fatigues, the power to cripple as well as comfort.
As Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated, any disruption to the nation’s refining industry instantly increases gas prices. What if Chávez, who periodically threatens to curtail oil shipments to the USA, closed Citgo’s refineries?
“He’d only have to do that for 90 days, and he’d destroy our economy,” worries Matthew Simmons, a prominent energy investment banker. “He actually has our livelihood in his hands.”
Others who are suggesting that you might want to purchase your gasoline elsewhere:
The independent observers branded the 1984 Nicaraguan election as free and fair. The Reagan Administration, knowing that the pro-Contra parties would lose, encouraged them to boycott. That was their problem. That election was more fair than that of 1990 when a sham “peace process” yielded the simple ultimatum; get the Sandinistas out or pay.
As I said, had Chavez been so awful and unpopular and the people all for the coup, the coup would have been an irresistable force, particularly with Bush an enthusiastic supporter. The military surely would have preferred backing the will of the hegemon (and the military aid, training, ties and junkets etc), along with that of the people, rather than throw it all away over matters that could easily be solved post-coup.
In Haiti, the Bush administration was able to easily overthrow Aristide despite the massive support he maintained and this was expressed through the election of Rene Preval this year to the shock and horror of many responsible for the Haiti policy. All they needed were some paramilitaries, economic warfare and the existence of cracks in Aristide’s support base.
As for conditions in Venezuela, the elite did continue to run the country into the ground after 1989 and then, during the Chavez era, there was the coup attempt and the attempt to sabotage the economy to get rid of Chavez. By the way, the second action should have been enough to get rid of Chavez if indeed he was as unpopular and awful as claimed. Right now, things are improving thanks to high oil prices, people like to say.
Of course they never mention these oil prices when the issue of PAN-ruled Mexico is brought up as it would show how embarassingly anemic growth is in that country, an embarassment of a regime whose only policy is to send as many people as possible to El Norte.
Who are the so-called enemies that the media in the US supports and how can these enemies supported by media harm the United States and its national security? And I am not talking about its right to rule other countries here, I’m talking about the security of the average citizen.
It figures you throw the anti-semitism canard, well, I just look at things objectively here. It is wrong when AIPAC is under a spy probe, that American politicians and members of the administration go to the great AIPAC rally and pledge their undying faith to AIPAC and to Israel, which is, dare I say, a foreign country.
This is bipartisan, with that Pelosi even saying that the alliance with Israel will be “forever and ever”, no matter what. Then there was Clinton who went to some meeting in Canada who vowed to pick up a rifle, to fight and die for Israel when he wouldn’t even fight for his own country’s army.
Israel and the United States are seperate countries, never forget that. Remember that Netanyahu said on Sept 11, 2001, that the attacks were “very good”. Beware any relationship where the partner benefits from your misery. Israel certainly counts as such a partner. It’s about time that this so-called eternal friend, who bombed the USS Liberty and strafed its lifeboats, is treated like any other country and is judged on criteria other than some religious heresy (Darbyism) that worships it as a God’s instrument on Earth, or as representative of a sacred people who were wronged in the Holocaust, seen as a sort of crucifixion of a people who rose again in 1948 to judge the living and the dead.
You people must wonder about the committment of your government to stopping terrorism. These administration officials, tightly bound to Israel, even wrote in a manifesto their desire for a 911-type event one year before it happened. The reason; an excuse to attack Israel’s enemies. They want terrorism, they need terrorism and so is it a shock that the intelligence estimate says that the administration is increasing the threat of terrorism?
Remember when Ariel Sharon took power in Israel in 2001? There were no suicide bombings at all up until then in the second intefada. There were over 300 unarmed civilians gunned down in cold blood by the Israelis in the name of “restoring the deterrence power” after they fled from Lebanon, and of course because of the ultra-stingy “generous offer”, Clinton’s brutal betrayal of Arafat who was promised that he would not be blamed if Camp David, that he didn’t want to attend, failed, etc.
Anyway, what did Sharon do? He cut off the links between Israel and Palestinian Preventative Security in order to end the mechanism designed to prevent attacks in Israel. He then attacked Preventative Security personnel and Palestinian police, and bombed police stations and prisons. Then he waited anxiously for the parade of suicide bombers.
Whenever the suicide bombings stopped for a time, Sharon would send a missile into a car with a prominent Hamas or Islamic Jihad leader. He had to keep them going. The payoff was 2002’s brutal “Operation Defensive Shield”. Had Milosevic done such things in Kosovo, Belgrade certainly would have been wiped out.
That election was more fair than that of 1990 when a sham “peace process” yielded the simple ultimatum; get the Sandinistas out or pay.
Even the Carter Center, puppet to leftist thugs, said the 1990 election was completely clean and fair.
In Haiti, the Bush administration was able to easily overthrow Aristide despite the massive support he maintained and this was expressed through the election of Rene Preval this year to the shock and horror of many responsible for the Haiti policy.
Nobody overthrew that thug Aristide. He simply didn’t lift a finger to save the psychopath. Why SHOULD we help him? He’s useless to us and an embarassment to the world.
We shouldn’t be protecting thugs. Aristide was overthrown by popular revolt and good for him.
Who are the so-called enemies that the media in the US supports and how can these enemies supported by media harm the United States and its national security? And I am not talking about its right to rule other countries here, I’m talking about the security of the average citizen.
When you’re revealing intel operations that have zero impact on Americans, you are openly and blatantly supporting the opposition.
It figures you throw the anti-semitism canard, well, I just look at things objectively here. It is wrong when AIPAC is under a spy probe, that American politicians and members of the administration go to the great AIPAC rally and pledge their undying faith to AIPAC and to Israel, which is, dare I say, a foreign country.
Again, feel free to hate the Jews. You won’t be alone on the left.
Israel and the United States are seperate countries, never forget that. Remember that Netanyahu said on Sept 11, 2001, that the attacks were “very good”.
Again, thanks for the virulent anti-Semitism. We know the left is bad about that. Tell us next about how Jews were warned not to be at work that day as well.
These administration officials, tightly bound to Israel, even wrote in a manifesto their desire for a 911-type event one year before it happened.
Mis-representing what was said — but you’re an anti-Semite, so it’s expected.
There were over 300 unarmed civilians gunned down in cold blood by the Israelis in the name of “restoring the deterrence power” after they fled from Lebanon, and of course because of the ultra-stingy “generous offer”, Clinton’s brutal betrayal of Arafat who was promised that he would not be blamed if Camp David, that he didn’t want to attend, failed, etc.
Yes, the offer Israel made was “stingy”. You seem to believe that lengthy responses cover up just how much you hate the Jews.
Whenever the suicide bombings stopped for a time, Sharon would send a missile into a car with a prominent Hamas or Islamic Jihad leader. He had to keep them going. The payoff was 2002’s brutal “Operation Defensive Shield”. Had Milosevic done such things in Kosovo, Belgrade certainly would have been wiped out.
Your disregard to reality makes a serious reply to you a waste of time and energy.
You hate Jews. We got it.
-=Mike
Netanyahu said that 911 was very good on live TV, apparently, to Judy Woodroof of CNN as the dust was still spewing over the battery.
The September 12 2001 New York Times reported that little indiscretion. Comparing this to the claim that Jews were warned in advance is absurd to say the least.
Israel’s offer was so stingy that it is the sort of thing that would help revive anti-Semitic stereotypes. It offered what is unprecedented in world history, two-dimensional sovereignty. The airspace belongs to Israel, the water belongs to Israel, not to mention the borders and the ports, all to be closed at Israel’s slightest whim. That’s more miserly than Scrooge.
Gunning people down because they didn’t accept the “offer” suggests that they knew that they were trying to mug the Palestinians and when the Palestinians refused to give up their money, the Israelis decided to take their lives.
Interesting that you say that these intel operations have no effect on Americans. Therefore, these are not important to American security and releasing info on them is not at all treasonous.
Those who release the info are in fact patriots as they help keep a watch on a government that thinks it can commit any crime in the name of the American people, without their consent. People like you may approve of such crimes, and perhaps there is a majority favouring such crimes, but at least people should know about them so that they can make up their minds on it.
Right now, we have the spectacle of Bush running openly on promoting torture. Though this is a sick spectacle, it is necessary to have this all out in the open.
By the way, you do accept that Israel is a foreign country, do you?
It’s amazing how much in the way of policy is completely out of play, completely pre-determined and immutable, despite its being completely insane. Sick religious extremism that claims that ethnically cleansing Palestine and setting up a Jewish armed camp there is a prerequisite for the Second Coming has done a lot of damage to the world over the years.
Hey Lee,
The Repubs tried to open ANWR to replace some of this third world oil dependency, but the Dems voted it down. Oil exploration in US territory has been all but shut down altogether by the EPA and their Democrat lackies. So, you think we should vote these morons into power? Don’t think so.
Third World oil dependency is a myth. What do you think these people are going to do with the oil, drink it? They have to sell it. If they sell it, it’s available and so this paranoid fantasy about the Third World destroying the US with oil is just that. I suppose that this is a case of projection; knowing what American governments do to the Third World and Arabs, etc, many just ask the question “What would I do if I was them”, and the answer would be “provide a smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud”, or “destroy their economy and everything else”. It’s a good thing that these Third World people aren’t as insane as that.
If there were such things as Arab neocons and if they ran the Arab world the death toll in the US would be far more than the 3,000-odd deaths of 9/11.
Please review my blog to see a boycott that I have started over Citgo. I’m working together with another organization that is also coordinating a boycott. Click here for more details.
as someone who does know what Chavez is, the moron selling his sould for discount heating oil should read what the “poor” in his own country get.
Political prisons, 17% food inflation, 30% unemployment, and permission to build homes in the streets from scraps.
sny moron who think This guy loves the poor, should stay quiet until after they learn about what goes down when this Chavez fuknut gets his way.
Start here, the only source being writen inside of Caracas currently.
Unlike the fake Propaganda blogs written in Cuba on the web.
But look at the idiots posting here who belive the Chavez propaganda. Oh yeah he loves the poor, loves to shoot themwith buckshot when they march perhaps
Start here newbs:
http://www.vcrisis.com
Check back in when you know more about this murdering fool.
and for those who think he just called bush names.
Try other quotes Loosely translated:
“he wishes he could have fought with General zapata against america ” told to Mexican media.
“If the Us Invades Cuba, Venezuela will not sit on their hands… and US blood will run”
My FAV – “Viva Iran! Viva Iran, togetehr with our brothers we will detroy the American Empire!”
Still think he doesnt hate you too morons?
“People in Venezuela are doing better than in 1989, in any case, when there were food riots and hundreds were shot down in the streets, under a previous Washington-approved regime.”
You moron, you mean when it was 30 bolivares to 1 dollar? Now its 3300 to one dollar? You mean when inflation was 6 % when its now 17+?
Dont speak when you aparently dont know shit about what goes on there.
yeah this is better life with these people in charge, you idiot.
http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/&/images3/venezuela/fire_their_guns_long.jpe
http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/&/images3/venezuela/wounded_woman.jpe
Nobody was ever arrested and witness said the shooters were not local and thought to be cuban.
All I know is that the IMF gave orders that the poor be subjected to more “belt tightening”, Carlos Andres Perez gleefully accepted, people complained, and Perez had them killed. This in an oil-rich country. Shameful.
At least Venezuelan today has sovereignty, and is not obeying sharks like the IMF. Indeed, they helped get Argentina out of a jam, causing great anger as those sharks at the IMF had Argentina just where they wanted them and to see them escape the trap like that is sort of like when Rick in Casablanca paid off that woman and freed her from having to spend a night with Captain Renault.
Perhaps you are mad that people who are not white are having some say in running things. That’s your problem. The chickens have come home to roost.
Some of you just don’t understand the situation at hand. By boycotting LOCAL gas stations, you are doing absoluetly nothing but running Ol’ Ma and Pa out of business.
“…Third World oil dependency is a myth. What do you think these people are going to do with the oil, drink it? They have to sell it. If they sell it, it’s available and so this paranoid fantasy about the Third World destroying the US with oil is just that…”
I respond: Chavez doesn’t need U.S. oil business with China and India’s ravenous growing need for oil.
Perhaps, U.S. oil corporations should lower their prices as indicative of their “patriotism.” Yeah, right, sure they will. The hungry parasitic bastards that initiated the war in Iraq in order to steal another sovereign nation’s natural resources, OIL, predicated on lies such as weapons of mass destruction and non existing Al Qaeda links.
3,000 plus dead American soldiers. Mission Accomplished, indeed, Moron-in-Chief.
“…as someone who does know what Chavez is, the moron selling his sould for discount heating oil should read what the “poor” in his own country get. Political prisons, 17% food inflation, 30% unemployment, and permission to build homes in the streets from scraps…”
I respond: What a crock. The truth is that the legitimately elected president of Venezuela, whom the CIA & Christian fundamentalist Ayatola Pat Robertson would like to assassinate, uses his country’s oil profits to help Venezuela’s poor, hungry and illiterate as well as American poor who have been ignored by the Moron-in-Chief and U.S. bloodsucking corporations who, by the way, prefer to export American jobs overseas and leave U.S. citizens unemployed. How patriotic.
The following link informs as to President Hugo Chavez’ use of his country’s oil profits in favor of his country’s poor.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/thecontrarian/archives/2005/11/hugo_chavez_res_1.html
“…Yesterday, President Chavez, whose popularity at home runs to over 70 percent despite an aborted Bush-backed coup more than three years ago, announced he would send 45 million litres of petrol to the US state of Massachusetts to be sold at deeply discounted rates to America’s poor…
…Chavez is a common figure of hatred on the right because his government has unambiguously taken the side of Venezuela’s poor, pumping money into such basic services as food aid, health clinics and education in the barrios. The country’s elite and middle classes have finally been asked to start paying taxes and, obviously, they resent him for it…
…Chavez has also decided to put his nation’s oil wealth at the service of his fellow citizens, rather than allow a few plutocrats to control the industry for their own enrichment, as was previously the case. This offends the moral sensibilities of Bush, who has spent his entire life enjoying the sponsorship of rich men trying to ingratiate themselves with his pappy and who were happy to bail him out of all the businesses he bungled.
Now Chavez is showing Americans how to govern with genuine fairness and justice. While their own president tries to game the system and direct billions of US taxpayer dollars to his buddies in the Texas gas and oil industry, especially the Halliburton corporation (which has now got its snout into the hurricane reconstruction as well as in Iraq), Chavez is becoming a genuine statesman…”