Chavez' Surprise for Bush

[cal04]

Offering to Sell Cheap Oil to America's Poor
by Juan Gonzalez

Worried about the skyrocketing cost of gasoline and heating oil this winter? Well, Hugo Chavez, the firebrand president of oil-rich Venezuela, wants to help. Chavez, a former army officer twice elected president in huge landslides, has become a target of the Bush administration for his radical social policies.
Last month, right-wing evangelist Pat Robertson openly urged his assassination.
But now Chavez is firing back at Bush and Robertson with a surprise weapon - cheap oil for America's poor.

In an exclusive interview yesterday, the Venezuelan leader said his country will soon start to ship heating oil and diesel fuel at below market prices to poor communities and schools in the United States. "We will begin with a pilot project in Chicago on Oct. 14, in a Mexican-American community," said Chavez, who was in town for the United Nations sessions. "We will then expand the program to New York and Boston in November." The first New York neighborhood in the program will be the South Bronx, where Chavez was to speak today as a guest of Rep. Jose Serrano. The Venezuelan leader revealed details of the new oil-for-the-poor program during a wide-ranging interview at the upper East Side home of his country's UN ambassador.

"If you want to eliminate poverty, you have to empower the poor, not treat them as beggars," Chavez said. During the hour-long interview, he also blasted the Iraq war; accused Bush of trying to kill him to reassert U.S. control over Venezuela's oil; offered support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina; and lampooned the UN as out of touch with the world's poor. Echoing his favorite American writer, radical linguist Noam Chomsky, Chavez warned that "Americans must reorder their style of life" because "this planet cannot sustain" our "irrational" consumption, especially when it comes to oil.

Much of what Chavez said he has expressed before.But his novel oil-for-the-poor idea in this country is sure to make him an even bigger target of the Bush administration. Those who scoff at this as a publicity scam should think twice.With the price of oil at record levels, the Chavez government is swimming in cash. Those sky-high fuel prices are bound to have a drastic impact on low-income neighborhoods here, especially since Congress redirected much of this winter's usual energy assistance program for victims of Hurricane Katrina.


rest of the article
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0918-24.htm

[TriMetFan]

1. If President Chavez

starts helping the poor of this Nation, I think you are right that the Bush Nazi team will try and kill him. They (Bush and Co.) don't want the poor to have any say.

[Seansky]

2. this is a very interesting article

so many amazing things are happening (good and terrible ones) that no wonder no one can even pretend to predict what is next.

Txs. for sharing it.

[Skink]

3. I'm sure the Bush family will manage to shake him down.

[rodeodance]

4. Congress redirected much of this winter's usual energy assistance program

for katrina victims.

I am all for helping the South but geech, Is the US so broke that this means there is no assistance for the rest of the poor?

.....Those sky-high fuel prices are bound to have a drastic impact on low-income neighborhoods here, especially since Congress redirected much of this winter's usual energy assistance program for victims of Hurricane Katrina.........

[starroute]

7. AccuWeather is predicting a cold one

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/promotion.asp?dir=aw&page=winter_energy

Northeast U.S., Heavily Dependant on Heating Oil, Faces Severe Winter
Significantly Colder than Normal Temperatures Expected

AccuWeather.com's long-range forecasters warn that winter 2005-2006 will be an especially cold one for the northeastern U.S., a region that is heavily dependent on heating oil. An early start to the cold weather will create additional demand for oil, which has seen significantly higher prices this year.

AccuWeather forecasts that just about all of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River will average at least one degree below normal over the three-month winter period of December through February. The greatest departure from typical winter temperatures will occur in the Northeast from Maine to Washington, DC, with average temperatures of two to three degrees below normal in much of the region. Heating oil consumption is therefore likely to be well above normal.

An early start to winter will further pressure heating oil supplies. AccuWeather meteorologists forecast that temperatures will be consistently below normal beginning in November.

[Kagemusha]

5. The oil will be impounded for dumping practices of course.

Of course.

[rodeodance]

6. nominated

[springhill]

8. Radical Noam Chomsky?

That makes him sound dangerous instead of the voice of sanity in a world of insanity.

[cassiepriam]

9. can they help us get a free press and elections too? nt