Gas BUY-cott

Arse Poetica has this today, and it ain't to shabby an idea:

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 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.

I'm joining in.

UPDATE:  Jack wrote this in the comments, and I wanted to highlight it and my response, because I'm all for open exchanges of ideas and substantive discussion:

Hugo Chavez? Gut check time, Chavez has disarmed his opponents, armed his supporters, and outlawed non-state approved media. You might like his rhetoric but he has cast his people into poverty and is a despot. Democratically elected? There was an election, but more Venezuelans were shot in the recent election than were in Iraq - care to guess if the dead were pro-Chavez?. Jimmy Carter (who does great things for Habitat for Humanity) might have endorsed the election, but his reflexive sucking up to Marxist despots isn't exactly the international seal of approval.

My response:

Jack,

This is twice in two days that I've written something which I've put up without a real understanding of the complete story behind it all. You'd think I'd know better by now.

The post yesterday I took down shortly after posting because I realized that I was trying to speak to a subject which I didn't have full knowledge of. This is another one of those cases, as Venezualan political plot-lines aren't something I know a particularly great deal about.

The intention, for me, comes from a good-hearted place which is this: I DO think the Bush Administration is so bedded with the oil industry that it is unhealthy for our democracy. If I can do a little something to help bring awareness to this issue, I'm happy to do it. It is on the same level as boycotting Wal-Mart for me. There are certainly positives from the Walton group, but I think the negatives far outweigh the positives. By boycotting Wal-Mart, I sleep better at night.

If you can point me to some good places to read some more about the criticisms of Hugo Chavez, I'd be more than happy to read them. As always, I appreciate your intelligent and civil disagreements with my writing. I'm glad I've got people like you reading my blog along with all my hopeless liberal readers.

And it's true: I am always happy to have people who disagree with me regularly read this blog and comment.  There aren't a lot of them (that I know of) but Jack is one of them, and I'm very happy to have him on board.  If he sends some information that I think is appropriate, I'll post it.

Comments

[Jack Diederich]

Hugo Chavez? Gut check time, Chavez has disarmed his opponents, armed his supporters, and outlawed non-state approved media. You might like his rhetoric but he has cast his people into poverty and is a despot. Democratically elected? There was an election, but more Venezuelans were shot in the recent election than were in Iraq - care to guess if the dead were pro-Chavez?. Jimmy Carter (who does great things for Habitat for Humanity) might have endorsed the election, but his reflexive sucking up to Marxist despots isn't exactly the international seal of approval.

[Dylan]

Jack,

This is twice in two days that I've written something which I've put up without a real understanding of the complete story behind it all. You'd think I'd know better by now.

The post yesterday I took down shortly after posting because I realized that I was trying to speak to a subject which I didn't have full knowledge of. This is another one of those cases, as Venezualan political plot-lines aren't something I know a particularly great deal about.

The intention, for me, comes from a good-hearted place which is this: I DO think the Bush Administration is so bedded with the oil industry that it is unhealthy for our democracy. If I can do a little something to help bring awareness to this issue, I'm happy to do it. It is on the same level as boycotting Wal-Mart for me. There are certainly positives from the Walton group, but I think the negatives far outweigh the positives. By boycotting Wal-Mart, I sleep better at night.

If you can point me to some good places to read some more about the criticisms of Hugo Chavez, I'd be more than happy to read them. As always, I appreciate your intelligent and civil disagreements with my writing. I'm glad I've got people like you reading my blog along with all my hopeless liberal readers.

[Jack Diederich]

Dylan, way to put me on the spot ;)
I'll dig up some links tonight and post a comment, as I recall Chavez only started consolidating absolute power about three years ago (barring news broadcasts and such). Before that he was a standard South American president - mostly rhetoric.

[Andrew Watkins]

Dylan,

It's posts like this, and the way you handle political discourse, that keep me (and I'm sure everyone else) coming back, and have made your blog one of my favorites. It's damnned impressive and intellectually honest to step back and respond like this, and I've seen you do it consistently whenever something new is brought to light.

I guess that's what some people would call a "judicious study of discernible reality" (see All that you need to know). It's not as common as it should be, and I appreciate it very much.

Chavez is a rough dude, and it's debatable how good he is for Venezuela. I wonder, though: does the fact that he's Marxist (or authoritarian) make him more of a threat to America than the Saud family's connections to Wahhabism? I've followed Chavez somewhat, and am still more comfortable buying oil from him than from a lot of the players in the Middle East.

I too boycott Wal-Mart, and despise what they stand for. There's nothing more evil than one-stop shopping.

[Dylan]

Jack - If you are gonna come 'round these parts and rouse rabble, you're likely to get put on the spot :)

Andrew - Thanks very much... I know enough to know that I don't know everything. And the reason that I love blogging is the substantive conversation, so I'm happy to be engaged.

[Jack Diederich]

I got around to it, recently back from a vacation so there was a lot of RSS to read and a few comments to make before I got around to clearing posts on my own blog ... and then finally putting together a "why Chavez is an asshole" post. long version here. For the short version I'll just say that Venezuela is an oil rich country. This means the government is in control of the natural wealth which leads to promises of favors and corruption. Chavez has been condemed by the international press (for banning independent press) and by the UN for firing everyone from the oil industry that didn't agree with him (the national oil is government property, so most people work for the government).

When the French and the UN castigate a despot, that is really saying something.

Check out the long version, it leads in with why a marxist autocrat is more likely to show up there than somewhere else (always unfortunate, but stuff happens).

Even if you or a reader thinks Chavez is the dog's balls, don't forget that buying Venezuelan gas (even if you could do it directly) wouldn't matter. Everyone that didn't care would just buy gas from someone else. In the unlikely event that enough people only bought Venezuelan gas it (V. gas) would get more expensive and other gas would get cheaper. As an upside Venezuela would make more money (at the purchasers expense - while the non-embargoers save money). Whatever you think of the Republicans favoring book burning and stifling of opponents they've got nothing on this guy who has actually banned broadcasters and killed his opponents (not the vague conspiratorial threats of DU.com, people are really dead, in prison, and many more intimidated)

As a short way of replying to Andrew's "it's debatable how good he is for Venezuela" I'll mention that him and his would likely be first on Chavez's list as counter revolutionaries for their bother of even considering non-Chavez options (well, just after me, but at least I'd go down shooting).

[eRobin]

I've read the same bad stuff about Chavez. Breaks my heart that he's a thug. But there's a Nation story I have yet to read (FROM APRIL). I'm starting to have my doubts about Obrador as well and that's even more painful.