. November 23, 2005 SouthAmerica: Here is President Hugo Chavez response to George W. Bush's Insults. **** Bloomberg News âVenezuela's Chavez to Discount Heating Oil in Bostonâ Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has begun a program of discounted heating fuel sales for low-income customers in Boston, following up on promises to help the poor throughout the Americas. The fuel will be sold for 60 cents to 80 cents less than prevailing retail prices, according to Felix Rodriguez, president of Citgo Petroleum Corp., the U.S. refining and marketing business owned by Venezuela's state oil company. Citgo will sell 12 million gallons of fuel through two nonprofit groups, he said. ``Oil companies have to help people,'' Rodriguez said at a ceremony in Boston that was carried on state television in Caracas. ``Business isn't our only issue.'' With these sales, Chavez is jumping into a debate that has raged in Washington over what oil companies and the government should do to help consumers hurt by record fuel prices. Chiefs of the biggest U.S. oil companies were asked earlier this month at a Senate hearing to justify their record earnings, and lawmakers have said oil profits should go to fund home heating aid. Chavez, who led the opposition to the free trade agreement that President George W. Bush offered at a summit in Argentina this month, pledged in August to help Americans cope with rising energy costs. ``We want to help the poorest communities in the U.S.,'' Chavez said. ``There are people who die from the cold in winter in the U.S.'' Citgo is working with U.S. Representatives Edward Markey and Bill Delahunt, Democrats from the Boston area. Citgo is planning a similar program to sell 8 million gallons in New York, according to a statement from Representative Jose Serrano, a Democrat who represents the South Bronx. The Northeast accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. heating oil consumption. Congressional Proposals Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, has sponsored a bill that would tax profits when oil is above $40 a barrel and rebate the money to taxpayers. The Senate rejected the measure last week 64-35. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has asked oil companies to donate 10 percent of their profits to help families pay heating bills. The world's five biggest publicly traded oil companies earned a combined $33.4 billion in the third quarter. The total value of the discounts Citgo is offering in Boston may reach $14 million, Rodriguez said. Up to 40,000 households will receive help. Citizens Energy Corp., run by Joseph P. Kennedy II, son of Robert Kennedy and a former Congressman, is one of the nonprofit groups working with Citgo in Boston. The other is the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance. Chavez's Pledge The planned Citgo sales in Boston and New York don't yet come up to the pledge Chavez made in August to offer poor people in the U.S. 66,000 barrels, or 2.8 million gallons, of heating oil a day. Citgo may expand its program, according to a statement from the company. Sales of 66,000 barrels a day would represent about 10 percent of the refinery capacity that Citgo controls in the U.S., Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said in August. Citgo owns all or part of eight refineries in the U.S. and sells fuel through 14,000 filling stations under the Citgo name. Wholesale heating oil in Boston was $1.7263 a gallon today, up 19 percent from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average U.S. household this winter will spend 27 percent more for heating oil than it did last winter, the U.S. Energy Department said in a Nov. 8 forecast. .
How about Chavez vs. Bush or President Chavez vs. President Bush. Your title of this thread is revealing.
. December 9, 2005 SouthAmerica: Today, Hugo Chavez (the Venezuelan president) has a better reputation with the people from South American countries than the American president - George W. Bush. ***** AP â Associated Press - December 9, 2005 âVenezuela OK study on doubling outputâ Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez toured Uruguay's only oil refinery Thursday and agreed on the first steps of a proposed multimillion-dollar expansion that would double output at the facility. Chavez visited the La Teja refinery on the outskirts of Montevideo with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez and signed a contract for the project study phase, the first step of the proposed deal that would to give Venezuela another site for processing its heavy crude. A Uruguayan delegation led by Vazquez and state energy officials joined Chavez and his entourage at the plant, which dates from 1937 and processes 50,000 barrels a day. Authorities talked ambitiously of doubling that refining capacity by 2010 or 2011. Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil have begun efforts on several joint energy initiatives as left-leaning presidents in all three countries have stepped up regional business ties. Chavez's visit here came on the eve of a Mercosur summit at which Venezuelan is seeking fully entry into the Mercosur trade bloc that already includes South America's two top economies, Brazil and Argentina. Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is No. 3. Uruguay, with no proven hydrocarbon reserves, imports all of its oil and natural gas while Venezuela currently sells fuel under preferential deals to dozens of Latin American and Caribbean nations. Chavez, a strong critic of U.S. free-market economic policies in Latin America, has used Venezuela's vast oil wealth to lobby for support in the region and for his brand of socialism. Uruguay, strapped for cash after a deep 2002 economic crisis, has welcomed Venezuelan initiatives to provided needed funding for the refinery expansion. Uruguayan and Venezuelan officials also signed deals for the Venezuelan state oil monopoly to invest US$7 million in the development of a Uruguayan ethanol project, and to study a joint cement project between the two nations. .
Surely you are not advocating the policies of Chavez? If anything at all, the only thing companero Chavez will achieve is the complete collapse of the Venezuelan economy and society. Some promise, aye?
What exactly are these insults from Chief Chimp GWB that Chief Chimp HC felt need to respond to? Just wondering.