Did you hear what that bastard Chavez did now?

[markam]

Donated $3.2 million (by way of Citgo) to the Jerry Lewis telethon. Not only that, but the son of a bitch has donated over 8 million just this year to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

I swear, if we don't invade soon, that man is just going to keep doing those terrible charitable actions.

However, I am sure that Halliburton donated 3.3 million just to top Chavez. Those Halliburton boys have true hearts of gold.

[Gman]

1. OMG! The bastard!

Something must be done. I'm sure he plans on once again pushing his socialistic-Islamofascist agenda this winter by selling discounted heating oil to the poor. He must be stopped.

[varkam]

2. Oh my god.

Does Chavez's insidiousness know no bounds? 'Merka is a land of freedom. If we want to have our citizens ravaged by Muscular Dystrophy, well it should be our Gawd given right to choose that. He hates us for our freedoms. :sarcasm:

[theanarch]

3. "Have you no shame...

...Pres. Chavez, at long last, have you no shame?":blush:

[AtomicKitten]

4. RFJ Jr helped lay pipeline for Chavez's gift of cheap gas to poor Murikans

Bastards, both of them.

[IndianaGreen]

13. I always knew that Kennedy kid was trouble!

Why can't he be self-absorbed like normal rich kids, like Jenna Bush for example?

[LynneSin]

37. The Delaware oil came thorugh a democrat in our state whose

wife is Venezuelean and has contacts in the government.

Someone needs to gather these 2 up and get them to their local re-education camp

:sarcasm:

[neoblues]

5. I'm Surprised Dumbyer's Handlers...

haven't had George Jr. and maybe even the "real" President, Cheney, make donations and flaunt them in the press.

Well, not so surprised now that you point out that Chavez has donated in the millions--there's no way our "leaders" would donate that much (unless there was a way to have it come out of the government's own coffers--so that it ends up added to the gigantic public/national debt just like everything else they do), and they'd never want to be "shown up" by someone like Chavez.

[a la izquierda]

6. Jay-sus, what ARE we going to do with him?

I wonder what Pat Robertson thinks of this.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. How could Chavez do such a terrible thing?! ...

No wonder Pat Robertson wants him killed...

[Submariner]

28. If we had listened to Pat and killed him immediately this tragedy

never would have happened. The Horror.......the Horror...the Horror........

[marmar]

8. I'll take their "dictator"...

over our dictator any day.

[silverweb]

35. I'll second that!

:thumbsup:

[Yupster]

9. I didn't know he had

that kind of money.

[driver8]

10. He needs to stop these actions or answer for his crimes. I am sure that

there is a "coalition of the willing" just waiting to take him out.

[IndianaGreen]

11. Nuke the commie pinko Chavez! Gawd wills it!

How dare he spent oil profits on poor sick children! What kind of pinko commie message does that send to the American people? Next thing you'll hear is some liberal fellow travelers demanding that Big Oil puts some of its large profits into programs helping the poor!

We all know that Jesus loved the rich and hated the poor! Arrrgh!

[lostnfound]

12. A cheap publicity stunt; he probably earmarked it for "Ignite" software

and merely wants to avoid estate and gift taxes

[bleever]

15. Come on, who would do something that low?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032406L.shtml

Oh.

[PresidentWar]

14. What a nazi appeaser!

pppppbbbltltlbtltgbtlhbtltbtlltltlt

[SlavesandBulldozers]

16. Does his evil know no bounds?

When will this madman stop? Who will stop him? Who Lord?

[sandnsea]

17. Jerry Lewis is the enemy of the disabled

And charitable organizations are just bureaucracies that exist for the benefit of the director and to funnel money to business. I just found that out yesterday. So I guess this means Chavez isn't a defender of the poor after all. Tsk tsk, what a shame.

[tandot]

18. That bastard...he probably killed Kenny, too

Giving money to the poor and needy...no wonder the Republicans hate him!

[Alizaryn]

19. Tee Hee

[Auntie Bush]

20. Impeach the dirty bastard!

If Bill can be impeached for giving away some sperm...He should be impeached for giving away all that dirty money...and to the poor no less. That dirty old man!

[StrictlyRockers]

21. Heartless! Terribly insensitive!

[leesa]

22. Dirty Commie!

[buddhamama]

23. the frickin' horror

of it all. that bastard has a lot of nerve.

[Greyhound]

24. Where's the "we hate Chavez" club this morning?

without their input this thread cannot be "fair and balanced".

[StraightDope]

25. Where?

Hopefully at FreeRepublic where they belong!

:evilgrin:

[Tiggeroshii]

27. Um. Was that government money?

He's spending a valuable portion of his gdp on another nation's disabled? Shouldn't he be working on feeding his own people first?

[Finder]

29. MDA is a global charity. n/t

[Greyhound]

39. He is. That's a big reason they love him. It is also important to build

goodwill internationally, especially here. He knows shrubCo. will, one way or another, be gone soon and we are a valuable friend.

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stockholm]

68. Yes, International Solidarity is truly an awful thing

Damn you Chavez, damn you to hell :sarcasm:

[KKKarl is an idiot]

26. When is he going to learn

he cannot just make a mockery of our freedoms. Lets give him his money back & tell him we will not stand for your commie notions that we can be bought with money. Only rich white Americans that control companies like Halliburton can buy us.

[bobbie]

30. Excellent post markam

Top notch...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. Jerry Lewis?

Ain't that guy French?

Birds of a feather..

[eppur_se_muova]

32. Oh the humanity! ... say, it is humanity, isn't it? n/t

[Straight Shooter]

33. Well, that does it! I'll never have a kind word to say about him again.

:D

[KansDem]

34. BASTAAAAAAAD!!!

He's a disgrace to Corporatism, Capitalism, and Cronyism!

[LynneSin]

36. You know what that idiot Chavez also did

Sold millions of dollars of heating oil at a greatly reduced cost to the state of Delaware to be distributed to low-income families.

He did it with like 8 other states too - oddly enough, all blue states

go figure

[PresidentWar]

38. What's next? Cheap oil to poor people??

Oh wait....he already did that.

BASTARD!

[No Exit]

40. Thank God WE don't have to live in some banana republic under

a guy like that!:eyes:

[proud patriot]

41. Gosh darnit whatever shall we do

:scared:

[WinstonSmith4740]

42. The bastard!!

Didn't he also try to send aid to the Katrina victims? From what I understand he tried sending water, food, etc. but the ship was turned around when it reached our waters. Oh well. At least Junior did a fly-over.:sarcasm:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

43. Of his own money, or taxpayers'?

The latter does not strike me as a necessarily praiseworthy action.

[Greyhound]

44. Is there anything Hugo Chavez could do that would be, in your opinion,

praiseworthy? I'm just asking because you seem to come down regularly against him in these threads.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

48. Convince me that he was going to leave power willingly someday.

As and when his people want him to. Introducing term limits, for example, would completely satisfy me.

As I've said before, I think that if he were to die of a heart attack tomorrow, his legacy would be largely (although not wholely) positive; the reason that I don't like him is that he appears to be trying to set things up so as to remain in power even as and when he no longer has popular support, and that he's willing to use unfair means to maintain such support.

Spending taxpayers money for what is essentially personal PR does little to reassure me about his commitment to a fair democracy.

[ProudDad]

49. "Donald Ian Rankin" should read John Dean's book

From your posts, you appear to be an Authoritarian Follower.

http://www.amazon.com/Conservatives-Without-Conscience-John-Dean/dp/0670037745

Mr Chavez rules with the backing of the vast majority of his people. He also is a true altruist and enemy of the most evil, un-progressive force in the world today -- corporate capitalism.

I'd take a government run by him or Castro over the fascist, un-democratic system here in the good ole' us of a...

Viva Chavez...

-----------------------

FYI, it's out of the state owned oil company's profits. Thank Bushco for the extra bucks Sr. Chavez has to play with!!!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

53. Ludicrous.

You may think corporate capitalism is evil and unprogressive, but to suggest that it's the *most* evil, unprogressive force in a world containing communist countries, military dictatorships, Islamic theocracies, countries run by warlords, etc, or that opposition to it is ipse facto good, just makes you look foolish.

To criticise the US for being undemocratic while saying you prefer Castro in the same sentence isn't *quite* self-contradictory - it could be that you prefer Castro even though Cuba is far less democratic that the US (i.e the US is certainly one of the thirty healthiest democracies in the world today, and probably in the higher end of that by many measures; Cuba is a dictatorship), but it's pretty close and certainly doesn't increase my respect for your judgement one whit.

And it's you, not me, who's following - and blindly following, judging by your post - an increasingly (not yet very, but slowly but surely growingly so) authoritarian ruler.

[Solon]

50. If you don't know that their already ARE term limits...

then really, how is your opinion to be valued? Here I'll give a hint, the Constitution of 1999, which Chavez pushed for and was finally approved through referendum introduced term limits, a president can only be elected for 2, 6 year terms. Chavez ran for his first term under this constitution back in 2000, and now is up for his only re-election(under this Constitution), so save this particular criticism till 2012, OK?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

55. There *are* but Chavez has stated his intention to remove or ignore them.

He's said that he intends to stay for 25 years.

And I hope you'll acknowledge that I've said not that I think Chavez has done something wrong yet, but that I think he's going to. Your "save this criticism until he does" strikes me as missing the point - I am saying that I think he is *going to*, and that's a perfectly legitimate form of criticism.

[BrotherBuzz]

59. LOL, he not did state that!

The AP story that circulated in the United States got it WRONG! A little scrutiny of the Associated Press report about Venezuela provides a lesson in how the English-language press often gets the story wrong. Take the first sentence: "President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years."

No, such a referendum would not be about "whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years." A referendum would be about whether Chavez would be permitted to run every six years and –in the event that he were to continue winning elections– serve multiple presidential terms. The AP report's opening sentence makes it sound as if such a referendum would do away with elections in Venezuela, as if its intent would be to grant Chavez a new 25-year term in office.

[Solon]

71. Where did he say that?

I know some of his supporters want to remove the term limits through, I believe referendum, but also Chavez has threatened to support this IF his opposition tried to boycott the election. This I think, was a master stroke, the opposition has flat out REFUSED to participate in the Democratic process in Venezuela, Chavez doesn't what that, he wants a LEGITIMATE opposition to fight over him for votes, instead of using bullets and bombs. Does Chavez really care that there is an opposition? I doubt it, what he seems to have a problem with is the fact that that same opposition seems to have no qualms in violating the Venezuelan constitution and laws to try to get their way.

[Greyhound]

51. Upon what, exactly, do you base your suspicion on? He has gone to

great lengths to reassure his cabinet, the congress, and the people, that he is committed to following Venezuela's Constitution.

They don't have term limits and the only reason we do is that our politiwhores continuously misuse and abuse their power and positions to maintain their fiefdoms. Our legislature refuses to address the cause and so we get idiocy like term limits and mandatory minimums, that mask symptoms and create their own new problems.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

54. Some things about Chavez that make me nervous:

:-Projects like the one in the OP, spending state money for what is essentially personal propaganda.

:-Talking about establishing a militia, which would in practice probably be loyal to him personally, rather than to the state.

:-The military coup he planned in 1992

:-The allegations by the state-paid Cuban doctors who defected that they were being required to campaign for Chavez - I don't give total credence to these allegations, but I think they're much more likely to be true than not.

:-His claims that he is going to remain in power for 25 years, despite the existing (I suspect toothless) laws on term limits.

:-His use of state powers to broadcast propaganda.

:-His hampering of journalistic freedom

:-His concentration of power in his own hands, and hostility to independent oversight.

:-The form of his dismissal of his opponents - he refers to virtually everyone who opposes him as being "against the people of Venezuela", "representing interests", etc. This attempt to dismiss all criticism as not merely misguided in nature but illegitimate in source worries me.

:-His support and admiration for Cuba & Castro, an out-and-out dicatorship. Ditto for his invitation of the former military dictator (and American legion of merit holder) Jimenez to his inauguration.

:-His attempt to present himself as being on the side of the people, against the rest of the government - this worries me that it may be the first step towards setting aside the rest of the government. The rate at which he shuffles his cabinet worries me for the same reason.

That's far from proof that he's not committed to democracy, but it's enough circumstantial evidence to make me bet against it.

[markam]

57. Come on now

Describing him like that makes him sound like Bush, and we know that nobody is that bad.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

58. Don't let lack of perspective fool you.

There are far more world leaders worse than Bush than better than him, as anyone paying Belarus, most middle Eastern countries, China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, North Korea, Myanmar, most of Africa, etc, etc as much attention as they are America would know.

I don't like Bush one little bit, but compared with many other heads of nations he really isn't all that bad. There are almost probably more worse than better than him, by a considerable way. He just appears extra bad to those in the first world because we hear so much more about him.

Whether or not Chavez is one is something I'd suggest waiting until we have the perspective of history on both of them to judge on.

[ProudDad]

63. TOTAL BULLSHIT

by body count alone, the deaths caused by this fascist little prick in the White House, bush leads the pack. Then add his shredding of the Bill of Rights, his pampering of the very rich with resources taken from the very poor...

SHIT, what the color is the sky on the freakin' planet you live on????

----------------------------------------------------

I think Mr. Benchley's back under another persona...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

64. Lets take some points from that and look at them.

"by body count alone, the deaths caused by this fascist little prick in the White House, bush leads the pack."

Not a good measure of how bad a political leader is, because it's immensely biased in favour of leaders of small countries. Bush is the president of the US; when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold - a far more meaningful, although obviously impossible to measure, statistic would be body count as a fraction of some "potential" body count.

But even looking at this, you're wrong - the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed about 4 million people in the last 8 years; that puts the (various) leaders there far ahead of Bush.

And if you're trying to calculate total body count attributable to Bush, have you looked up how many people Saddam Hussein and the Taliban killed, divided those numbers by 24/3 and 5/5 respectively, and subtracted them, or have you just (as I suspect) added together all the people killed in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of Bush's invasions, and assumed that the populaces of those countries would have been immortal had he not invaded? I think both invasions were clearly mistakes, but they were considerably many of the other wars currently or recently being fought around the world, especially in Africa, they compare favourably as decisions.


"Then add his shredding of the Bill of Rights"

Bush's attitudes to both the civil liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights, while deplorable, is positively saintly compared with those of a great many other rulers.


"his pampering of the very rich with resources taken from the very poor..."

Here you may (or may not) have the germ of a point - it's very difficult to meaningfully compare first-world and third-world economies, but certainly his economic policies are more regressive than those of any other first-world nation. However, even the poor are far, far better off under them than they would be under the policies of e.g. the nominally redistributive Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, etc, etc, etc.


So you see, if you'll actually think about the measures you're talking about, rather than just assuming that the things you hear about most are the most important ones, you'll see that Bush, while a worse leader than most other Western ones, is *far* better than most non-western national leaders.

This is precisely what I mean about needing perspective - you're so used to attacking Bush that you desperately *want* him to be not merely a bad leader but the worst leader in the world, and that has severely clouded your judgement.

Imagine how you would feel if you (with all your current opinions and standards)lived in Myanmar, say, or Iran, and you heard someone claiming that your government was not as bad as America's.

[ProudDad]

65. Benchley's back

Damn...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

67. Tell me,

Is that supposed to be a rebuttal, or just a gratuitous insult? Are your manners usually this poor, and is the content-to-insult ratio in your posts usually this low? I'm aware that it's impossible for you to provide a decent rebuttal to my argument, because no such exists, but simply insulting me and hoping I won't notice the difference is no substitute for doing so - if you couldn't bare to admit that you've made a fool of yourself then you should just keep quiet.

And are you seriously accusing me of being a retread or a sock-puppet, or just of having views similar to someone else's?

Bush is *not* the worst leader in the world, or even slightly close to it, as even a very cursory study of many of the others would reveal. Calling me names won't change that.

[ProudDad]

70. Define worst?

He's CERTAINLY the most hypocritical "leader" in the world.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

73. I would define worst as "The one you would least like to be ruled by".

As to hypocricy, I would argue that e.g. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe compares extremely unfavourably with even Bush, as do many others.

[ProudDad]

69. First I want to apologize for my ad-hominum attacks

Then I want to respond to your posts in a rational manner.

What your posts exhibit is the logical error called a "red herring".

-------------------------------

I voiced my opinion that bush is more evil than Castro or Chavez. That their systems were, in my opinion, potentially more democratic than the system we have in the U.S.

-------------------------------

You responded with the following logical fallacy:

There are many evil dictators out there who've killed many more folks than bush (per capita) or who are nastier, etc.

Therefore bush isn't all that bad.

-------------------------------

This sort of activity shows either an untidy mind or a desire to propogandize one's own opinion to the exclusion of dialogue.

It's also the kind of illogic that drives folks nuts...

Sorry for going nuts...

:crazy: :shrug:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

74. You've completely misunderstood.

I'm *not* arguing that "Bush isn't all that bad", *except in comparison to other national leaders* - an incredibly low standard, because most non-western nations are either dictatorships or extremely corrupt democracies.

I'm not making any claims about the absolute badness or otherwise of Bush, just about his quality relative to other world leaders.

I also note that, while you've restated what you think is my argument (although it actually isn't), and called in illogical, you still haven't provided a rebuttal.

My argument is, in potted summary, that most although not all other world leaders, including certainly Fidel Castro, govern far worse than George Bush.

Do you disagree? If so, why?


P.S. In "govern" I include how they achieved and hold on to poweras well as what do they do with it - a dictator who controls the press and forbids elections and political opposition is still a bad ruler, no matter how good their policies are.

[ProudDad]

75. I disagree about Castro

because I have been there. I have talked to people who like Fidel and people who don't. They are nearly all Cuban Socialists though.

I've seen how the day to day administration of events and decisions in Cuba are made by consensus of interested parties, not by fiat from any higher authority. I've seen how the people get more benefits from their government than we do here including housing, food and health care.

Fidel Castro has had to govern as a proponent of Socialism, a system of government in progress that's reviled by the capitalist class that owns most of the industrialized world. He and his people have been the victims of the most longstanding and egregious blockade in history by the world's super-power. The capitalist oligarchies have spared no expense in blocking any peaceful process towards building a viable Socialist state in Cuba.

He arrests a few dissidents. The press feels constrained to toe the "party line". Some people leave the country. How is that different from the good ole u.s. of a?

One difference is that the U.S. incarcerates a much greater percentage of its people than Cuba does. One difference is that Castro doesn't pretend that he's not a Socialist while all of the politicians here pretend that they're interested in democracy when their actions say something entirely different.

I'll take an honest "dictator" who truly cares about the people over the hypocrites we're stuck with here!

Can I prove to you that bush is worse than Castro. Probably not. I don't really care.

If the capitalist pigs in this world don't destroy the planet, future historians will prove me right.

[ProudDad]

61. What part of the N.E.D.

do you work for?

[Solon]

72. Point by point refutation...

:-Projects like the one in the OP, spending state money for what is essentially personal propaganda.

First, I don't see how this is relevant, the United States, and innumerable other nations do the same thing, whether its propaganda is a matter of personal opinion.

:-Talking about establishing a militia, which would in practice probably be loyal to him personally, rather than to the state.

You seem to read a lot into what amounts to a civilian defense force. Considering the threats Venezuela faces, I don't think this is a bad idea, quite the opposite in fact.

:-The military coup he planned in 1992

A coup that was essentionally bloodless, against a president so corrupt he was later impeached, removed from office, and his sucessor ended up pardoning Chavez.

:-The allegations by the state-paid Cuban doctors who defected that they were being required to campaign for Chavez - I don't give total credence to these allegations, but I think they're much more likely to be true than not.

If you don't believe it, why mention it?

:-His claims that he is going to remain in power for 25 years, despite the existing (I suspect toothless) laws on term limits.

I refuted this in another post.

:-His use of state powers to broadcast propaganda.

OK, this is funny, the Venezuelan government has ONE TV station and ONE radio station, and Chavez uses it for having a CALL IN SHOW, for crying out loud!

:-His hampering of journalistic freedom

Wow, Venezuela actually sets up an FCC like body, and you complain? But seriously, how many journalists in Venezuela are in jail? Oh that's right, NONE.

:-His concentration of power in his own hands, and hostility to independent oversight.

I don't know how immune from oversight a president can be when he can be subjected to a Recall at damned near anytime.

:-The form of his dismissal of his opponents - he refers to virtually everyone who opposes him as being "against the people of Venezuela", "representing interests", etc. This attempt to dismiss all criticism as not merely misguided in nature but illegitimate in source worries me.

Uh, all politicians do this, have you ever heard either Democrats or Republicans in this country? Not to mention that he actually has reason to say what he said, he wasn't the one who took control of the police in Caracas and tried to massacre people. Personally, I think he has been WAY TOO LENIENT on ALL the opposition.

:-His support and admiration for Cuba & Castro, an out-and-out dicatorship. Ditto for his invitation of the former military dictator (and American legion of merit holder) Jimenez to his inauguration.

No offense, but do you know Geopolitics at all? Of all dictators in the world, Castro is probably the least evil among them. Not to mention that being in charge of the largest Carribean nation that stands between Venezuela and the United States is a HUGE bonus for Venezuela's security. Chavez views Cuba, and much of the rest of the Leftist governments of Latin America as a good counterbalance to traditionally right wing American Hegemony, especially in trade.

:-His attempt to present himself as being on the side of the people, against the rest of the government - this worries me that it may be the first step towards setting aside the rest of the government. The rate at which he shuffles his cabinet worries me for the same reason.

Holy shit, the guy presents himself as a populist, also, please bear in mind that the people of Venezuela aren't idiots, Chavez has traditionally presented himself as a man of the people, against the "OLD GUARD" not the NEW GOVERNMENT.

Let's put it this way, let's say during Clinton's presidency, the Repukes attempted a coup, with outright support of every major TV network. Now, let's say they failed, what do you think would have happened to Republican leaders? What about the Media that supported them? They all would be either dead or in jail, depending on how bad the attempt got. Think about it, Chavez ACTUALLY had a chance to seize absolute power when the coup failed, but instead, the conspirators were READ THEIR RIGHTS, for crying out loud. And you worry now? BTW: The media in Venezuela STILL have their broadcasting licenses, AFTER SUPPORTING A COUP, think about that.

[Jed Dilligan]

76. Never replies

when cornered.

But thanks for a great post!

[1932]

77. If helping the majority poor in the world is propaganda...

then I'd like to see much more propagandizing in the world.

[Anakin Skywalker]

45. You Are Just Pissed

he did not donate to the venerable 700 Club!

:)

[Nutmegger]

46. Oh no! TERRA! TERRA! TERRA!!! TERRRRAAA!!!

What kind of person would do such of a thing?

I get it. Maybe this is a cheap political PR stunt to get the whole world to love him just like the heating oil that was provided to America's poor during the winter.

I won't buy it!

[LittleClarkie]

47. Money can't buy me loooove....

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend
If it makes you feel all right
I'll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right
'Cause I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I've got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
but what I've got I'll give to you
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love
Ooh, can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love, no

[killbotfactory]

52. And THIS fruitloop is sitting on tons of OIL!

We can't trust this maniac, or the people he represents, to wisely sell this oi-- err.. I mean uh.. I mean, he's the next hitler! We must invade now! YELLOWCAKE!

[Greyhound]

56. LOL!

You had me for a minute, there. :D :rofl: :D

[Blue_In_AK]

60. Would you like to hear something else that bastard has done...

He has offered energy assistance to Alaska's native villagers. I can't believe the nerve of this guy.

"The irony of it.

Alaska, an oil-rich state with more than $34 billion in its Permanent Fund, more than $2 billion in its budget reserve fund, a budget surplus the past two years -- and thousands of villagers fearing another winter of costly heating oil bills. All that is ironic enough -- residents going cold in a land with so much oil and money. But it gets worse, or more embarrassing, depending on your perspective.

Several thousand Alaska villagers will benefit this winter from a new government-funded energy assistance program. Not the Alaska government, not the U.S. government, but the government of Venezuela. Yes, that South American nation led by President Hugo Chavez, friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro and fierce critic of President Bush. Venezuela, which provides cheap oil to Haiti and other developing nations, is adding Alaska to its gift list.

CITGO Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based refiner and distributor of petroleum products, will help pay for heating oil for rural Alaskans, just as it did last winter for 200,000 low-income families in U.S. East Coast states. Venezuela's national oil company, through a subsidiary, owns 100 percent of CITGO (it took over the company in 1990).

President Chavez, seemingly always looking for opportunities to one-up Bush, announced with great fanfare last winter CITGO's discounted heating oil program for residents of Boston, New York City and elsewhere along the Eastern Seaboard. The program delivered 40 million gallons of heating oil at 40 percent off the wholesale price. The glossy brochures and press releases called it, "From the Venezuelan heart to the U.S. hearths."

<snip>

The company also is talking about extending to Alaska a separate program to provide fuel to community facilities. It's part of CITGO's program to assist Native Americans. The nationwide target is to provide 5 million to 10 million gallons of heating fuel for Native Americans this winter. The company is also talking with tribes in Washington and Idaho and may add the Southwest to the program too.

<snip>

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/8162994p-8055863c.html

[TheWatcher]

66. INVADE!!!!!!!!!!!!! HITLER-LIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! DARK-SIDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:evilgrin: