Stick it to BushCo and buy gas at Citgo

[Check12]

Bush and the house of saud can go cheney themsleves!!

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.

[jean]

1. here's the link to this article at Common Dreams

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

[Check12]

6. Thanks!

I read the post on a Portland blog and did not know the origin

[jean]

8. it's so good I had to send it to all my people and needed a link - thanks

for posting the article. Interesting, since it was written pre-Robertson assassination fatwa.

[K8-EEE]

2. Snopes Wet Blankets This.....

I was actually EXCITED to find that Citgo Gas was at 7-11 store in an area that I'm in once a week, however, snopes dismisses this whole idea. I can't believe that it makes NO difference though. I would rather buy more CITGO, less Saudi. They claim it's all sort of mixed up.

Wondering what everybody thinks of this?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/saudigas.asp

[Check12]

4. Snopes spoke before the announcement

That Chavez has made an arrangement to provide lower cost gas for hospitals and poor communities. You can not argue with supporting a leader who gives a crap about the poor people in our country.

[BrewerJohn]

9. Well, the Snopes article seems to have two main points

First, that the claims of "0 barrels" of ME imports for the listed companies are inaccurate. They cite figures of Citgo imports from the ME for one particular month of about 1.8 million barrels. Stop me if I'm wrong, but that's a rather small amount of crude by comparison with other importers.

Second is the idea that if a selective buying campaign were really successful, the increased demand would cause the "good" companies to import more to meet that demand. It's hard to argue with that from economics. But I look at this as a personal choice issue anyway, and am under no illusions that we can bring down the system by anything less than refusing to buy petroleum products altogether. I just want to support the people of Venezuela rather than the Saudis, as long as I'm buying the stuff anyway.

I used the locater to find my closest Citgo station, and it's only 4 miles away! Going to start filling up there as soon as the needle goes down.

[satya]

11. YTD Crude Oil Imports from Persian Gulf, by company

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/summary2005.html

Thanks for the link to Snopes, which directed me to the EIA website. Although they caution that it's hard to determine the source of the gas you buy at the pump (output from various refineries mixed in pipeline, for instance), their data seem to support the "buycott".

I bought my gas at Citgo today; seems the lesser of the evils available now. I try to drive our biodiesel Jetta as much as possible, though.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. That's a cool idea. Kind of Global Exchange-ish

[patrice]

5. I will do this.

Also, Have you seen, Sierra Club is on-board with the Exxon boycott.

[thebaghwan]

7. I have been buying all of my gas at a 7-11 Citgo station for like 15 years

n/t

[Alcibiades]

10. Be sure to get a coffee with that

Because that's where they make their money. Gas station cappuccino. Yum!

And the 5lb bag of jerky. And a 64 oz soda to wash down the 5 lb bag of jerky.

[Check12]

12. Here is a link to the Chavez humanitarian gesture

Venezuela's CITGO to Provide Cheap Gas for U.S. Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Schools

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1738