Happy Thanksgiving. Figured everyone would love this one...


Venezuela sending cheap oil to Massachusetts
Two nonprofit groups sign deal to aid low-income residents

Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Posted: 8:46 p.m. EST (01:46 GMT)



QUINCY, Massachusetts (AP) -- Thousands of low-income Massachusetts residents will receive discounted home heating oil this winter under an agreement signed Tuesday with Venezuela, whose government is a political adversary of the Bush administration.

Citgo Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, will supply oil at 40 percent below market prices.

It will be distributed by two nonprofit organizations, Citizens Energy Corp. and the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance.

The agreement gives President Hugo Chavez's government standing as a provider of heating assistance to poor U.S. residents at a time when U.S. oil companies have been reluctant to do so and Congress has failed to expand aid in response to rising oil prices.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts, a Democrat, met with Chavez in August and helped broker the deal.

He said his constituents' needs for heating assistance trump any political points the Chavez administration can score.

"This is a humanitarian gesture," Delahunt said, speaking after a news conference with Venezuelan officials and others outside the home of a constituent in Quincy who will receive heating aid.

Citgo is the Houston, Texas-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company and has about 13,500 independently owned U.S. gas stations.

It is offering Massachusetts more than 12 million gallons of discounted heating oil over the next four months, starting in December.

The two nonprofit organizations will screen recipients for financial need and cooperate with oil distributors that will make discounted deliveries to qualifying homes and institutions, such as homeless shelters and hospitals.

Chavez proposed offering fuel directly to poor U.S. communities during a visit to Cuba in August.

He has said the aim is to bypass middlemen to reduce costs for the American poor -- a group he argues has been severely neglected by Bush's government.

Chavez has become one of Latin America's most vocal critics of U.S.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty.

U.S. officials accuse Chavez of endangering Venezuelan democracy by assuming ever greater powers.

During a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, the U.S. government promptly recognized the new leaders, who were soon driven out amid a popular uprising.

Thank you Mr. Chavez

I buy all of my gasoline from Citgo.

Wow. The US receives aid from another country. What does that do to The United States' perception of itself? This whole Chavez thing is getting interesting...

It is getting difficult to take what you say seriously when you seem to have such a virulent hatred of the country you live in.

I hope you simply forgot the in your last post.

I think there is some truth to this, I don't think TomJoad is in the wrong at all.

Don't forget the amount of aid offered to America after Katrina. The UK sent over a million ready meals, for example.

More like virulent love...

Actually, I don't even know what is meant by "country." Do you mean the people? Do you mean the government? The land, the laws? What exactly do you think I seem to hate?


Yeah, I know. I think somebody posted a story once about how the U.S. refused a Venezuelan aid offer during the crisis. Whatever. Personally, I don't think we in the U.S. should be so proud that we can't accept humanitarian aid. I just wonder how much we should trust Chavez--it's not like we can really be THAT hostile towards him, it's not like he's Saddam or anything...

Don't you know that because the Government says he's BAD that means he must be BAD!?

It's not just the government.

Good to see class warfare is alive and well.

What do you mean? Is it class warfare to criticize the government? Do we have a ruling class in this country? I think it's all just a bunch of organizations working in their own best interests the whole world over. But there is no regular dude organization to push and pull on the balance of power...