http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm

Published on Monday, May 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
by Jeff Cohen

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.

And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.

So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.

Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job, you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical alternative to filling up our cars.

So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in Venezuela.

Jeff Cohen is an author and media critic (www.jeffcohen.org)

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Chavez is opposed to the FTAA!! Could be a Friend.

Chavez is also distrustful of Bush!! Could be a Smart Guy.

Bush tried to overthrow a duly elected President of a Democracy in South America. Are we paying Bush to do THAT?

I think Bush needs to "stand down", grab his suitcase and Laura and head south...oops....he might run into Chavez....head north to Canada perhaps.....naaaah, they won't want him....then to the Ranch and Live Out His Days in Peace there....ooops....no, the Mom is there....or he could go to Baghdad where he has friends...ooops....no, the Shiites overthrew his puppet Mayor of Baghdad today, Timini the Weeny....or to London and hang out with Tony for awhile.....oooops....no, the Brits are wising up....France perhaps, Paris is always lovely....oooops....no, he sent his buddy Bill Clinton there to tell the French how "stupid they were" to vote down the EU Constitutation while trying to raise money for Tsunami Victims.....oooops:

I think Bush is surrounded.