Connecticut Approves the Use of Venezuelan Heating Oil

New York Times ^ | Feb 28, 2006 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[liberallarry]

Connecticut has given social service agencies permission to supply low-income residents with discounted heating oil from Venezuela, whose energy aid program for the needy has rankled the Bush administration...
...Venezuela, the fifth-largest foreign supplier of oil to the U.S., has been supplying millions of gallons of heating oil at a 40 percent discount to poor Americans and free heating fuel to homeless shelters...
...In Washington, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee for oversight and investigations, have voiced concern that the oil deals are ''part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy'' toward the United States.

[liberallarry]

That's a really lame response on the part of the Republicans. They'll have to do better.

[ziggygrey]

So what? They are selling us their oil on the cheap. Sounds OK to me...

[xcamel]

The vastness of space has been viewed to it's ends, but the depths of stupidity have yet to be plumbed.

[moonman]

Let's piss some other oil producing nations and maybe soon we may have $0.99 a gallon fuel at the pump. The Republicans should say thanks.

[liberallarry]

Sounds OK to me...

Sounds ok to me too...which is why the Administration should graciously thank the Venezuelans for helping us take care of our citizens and many global obligations.

[Michael.SF.]

THANK YOU HUGO!!!!

Gosh, and some people think that you are not a nice man. But hell Jimmy carter said you won fair and square!! All of those who accept this know that you have nothing but the best interests of the USA at heart!!

/sarcasm

[Northeastern_Realist]

Well Chavez sure showed us.

[winner3000]

I have no problem accepting cheaper oil from Hugo just because his ego is so huge that he wants to needle Bush. His people are probably scratching their heads trying to figure out why he's throwing cash at Americans when Venezuelans are struggling and their infrastructure literally crumbling. Any cash Hugo spends is cash that's not there to help sustain his regime. Meanwhile, I'm happily continuing my boycott of Citgo.

[jveritas]

Since Connecticut has the highest income per capita in the nation and has a lot of Limousine millionaire liberals, I suggest that these hypocrites Limousine millionaire liberals who wage class warfare all the time should go ahead and help the poor in Connecticut with their oil bill. One of the most disgusting thing about liberals is their utter hypocrisy

[speedy]

Chavez is like an adolescent punk. But in all honesty, the welfare cases getting this oil are already owned by the Rats anyway, as are the people who support the action. Although this program dishonors those who participate in it, it probably doesn't really hurt anything, and as far as I can tell it isn't illegal. But for those of us who pay our own way through life, boycott Citgo.

[Cicero]

If Hugo wants to give a little foreign aid to America, why not? Must the money always flow the other way?

Frankly, the rich oil nations SHOULD be helping out the poor. What passes for "charity" in most of the Arab countries, unfortunately, is helping suicide bombers and building madrassahs to spread the violence.

There are poor people even in Connecticut, and a little cut-rate oil for them is very nice.

Thanks, Hugo! Just don't expect us to vote Communist next time we go to the polls.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Never mind that.

Lets get these places to start reselling that fuel to the rest of us... Pump the pimp dry!

[frankiep]

Yep. And those same scumbag liberals will be the very first ones to scream that we can never, under any circumstances, drill in ANWR.

[SuziQ]

Joe Kennedy's Citizen's Oil here in MA is buying oil from Venezuela as well. I keep seeing Jim Delahunt's name associated with this, but I believe it is Citizen's Oil that's distributing this.

[Michael.SF.]

would you say the same thing about buying cheap rum from Cuba?

[not2worry]

Any idea if we are inspecting the containers the oil is coming in on and who is manning the deliveries?

As with anything in life, including the UAE port deal, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

It's not like he's putting American workers out of jobs, here. This ain't a Wal-Mart and China situation. I think Chavez doesn't understand Liberal American Entitlement Society.

• The beneficiaries already expect the government to supply their needs. Chavez just helped us with the bill.
• The beneficiaries are vastly to the left of center; there isn't any candidate Chavez could possibly sway them to that they wouldn't have voted for anyway.
• The beneficiaries, at least most of 'em, wouldn't know Hugo Chavez from Juan Valdez. The rest of em, they think Chavez is the guy with the beanie cap and beard who's so popular on T-shirts.

Chavez, welcome to US politics, and thanks for the free oil. Sucker.

[solitas]

Blumenthal said he was giving a legal opinion and didn't want to discuss the politics of the program.

This is called "seeing which way the wind blows".

Has that detestable shays vented his sphincter on this yet?

[Tailgunner Joe]

Autocrats and Activists: How Chávez and Castro Use Citgo Oil to Mobilize U.S. Leftists at Home