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I haven't for years. Hit 'im where it hurts: his wallet.

While boycotting Citgo is the best way to start, it isn't enough. People need to be made to understand that no matter where they buy their gas, some of it is coming from Chavez. Steps need to be taken to change that.

We know it's serious when even the NY Daily News is telling him off. As for buying from Citgo: hell no!

The only way to hurt Citgo's bottom line is to consume less gas. A boycott would be mostly symbolic, since there's nothing to keep Citgo from selling their gas to the "other guys" who will happily sell it to you, the consumer. Having said that, I still derive some pleasure from NOT buying Citgo gas...

Not only Americans. This morning in the Chilean newscast they were saying that Hugo is risking Venezuela's seat on the Security Council, and apparently the ambassador in Chile made some comments as well - I just haven't been able to find them.

As I drove home from work last night, passing every Citgo station on the way, I could only think when hearing that rant at the UN the other day that Chavez was channelling the ghost of his nearly dead mentor spewing the anti-imperialist platitudes that "La Barba" would like to. Watching the fallout from this is very interesting. Does Chavez have any shame at all to know what an absolute buffon he appeared to be at that forum? Sadly, I don't think he has a clue and will continue his path of destruction and destabilization until he is taken out one way or the other. At least more people are aware of him now than before.

something to ponder:

Boycotting Citgo hurts american service stations and american workers not el burro. Most of the Citgo stations are not necessarily owned by corporate. They are primarily independent stores that purchase gas from Citgo under a franchise agreement. It does not affect el burro in the least. the only thing that affects el burro is for the price of crude to drop due to less demand.

All Citgo really does here in the US is refine crude oil then re-sells it to company owned station and franchises. The workers in the refineries are american. venezuela gets their money from having the us subsidiary purchase the crude at an inflated price thereby causing windfall to el burro and less potential tax liability to the US subsidiary.

the reality of service stations, is that they don't make any money off the sale of gas (contrary to the misconception of the public). The service stations' profit margin on gas is nominal since they usually have to add county, city, state and federal taxes into the price. The service stations (and this money goes to the owners, not venezuela) make all their money selling the crap out of the quickie marts...i.e., beer, cigarettes, etc.

something to ponder...

Mike,

Granted. But perhaps these American service stations should consider buying their gas from someone else.

Strangely enough, Charles Rangel, one of fidel's pals, criticized Chavez for his remarks:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/21/chavez.ny/index.html

"You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, scolded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

It's not that easy Val. All the oil companies have franchise contracts with renewable options usually at the option of the oil company. They could sell the station, but then whoever buys it ends up with the franchise contract. It's not easy for these little guys to up against the massive oil companies.

The real way to make hugo suffer is for the US to find oil from a different source and for the price of crude to drop. Imagine how nice if crude dropped back to the 10-30 dollar range. Hugo would lose billions each day.

I do my part...I drive a PT Cruiser rather than a SUV ;-p

Mike is somewhat correct, but having pitched Citgo in the past (we didn't win the business) I learned a lot about the company. Citgo does not operate a single gas station in the US.

They are all owned and operated by independent businessmen and middlemen called jobbers. They aren't even required to buy Citgo/Venezuelan gas and Chavez has said he is going to stop supplying many of the U.S. stations anyway.

As someone else noted, petroleum from Venezuela will always be a part of what we consume as long we are consuming petroleum. Even if we ban the importation of Venezuelan petroleum that petroleum will go elsewhere in the world to meet demand and we will get petroleum from elswhere. In other words the dynamics of the market are not affected in the slightest. That's why any sabre rattling about cutting us off or of us cutting him off is nonsensical.

That being said I don't usually buy gas at Citgo. Perhaps if enough people stop doing it the owners will change the name on the outside of the stations but that's about all we can hope for. A purely symbolic victory.

The fact is the world needs petroleum to run on and most of the petroleum is controlled by enemies of the United States. It's a crappy situation but one we have to manage.

Here's a link to a spreadsheet listing vendors and the country of origin for their crude. check out Exxon.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil%5Fgas/petroleum/data%5Fpublications/company%5Flevel%5Fimports/current/data/import.xls

Of course it's only valid for the time period stated.

And Mike is also right about discovering new American reserves. If we do that or if we are able to cheaply exploit the canadian oil sands it could force the market price of oil to drop to levels from 3 or 4 years ago. This would hurt the other petroleum producing countries. It would really hurt Chavez who is wasting so much of his country's wealth right now.

Chicharron Chavez stated at the U.N., after waving Noam Chomsky's book like a preacher's Bible, that he regreted not having met Chomsky before he died. Chomsky, a 77-year-old curmudgeon, is still alive. Chavez also made the sign of the cross before the U.N. while calling Bush the devil, even though he claims to be an evangelical Christian. The sign of the crosss is traditionally Catholic and not evangelical. This amounts to phony showmanship on his part.

I used to work for a refiner/marketer up north. I am impressed at how well informed babalusians are about the gasoline business.
there's so little i can add.
competing with "shitgo", as we used to call it, was difficult because they're only interest was getting their name out there. their jobbers would buy gas from anybody and because of that they always had low prices.
it looks like the free market will take care of the Citgo brand.
One thing we can concentrate efforts on is putting pressure on the state to get another vendor to sell gasoline on the florida turnpike since citgo currently has the contract.that would be a political statement for sure that will not take money out of anybody's pocket.

Don't Have to worry about CITGO here soon --- they're pulling out Oklahoma and several Midwestern states

conductor, Mike,

they just found a whopper of an oil reserve in the Gulf. Now we just need to keep the moonbat tree huggers at bay so that we can tap into said reserve and then tell hugo to go fuck himself.

And Im STILL not buying any Citgo gas.

Back in April '06, I posted a little blurb on this blog re Chavez v. ExxonMobil, because Exxon refused to pay Chavez' royalty tax hike and instead sold its interest to Repsol, a Spanish oil outfit. While Exxon still has oil interests in Venezuela and has been considering litigation against Chavez, I applaud it for standing up to the indio twit, when everybody else bent over to Chavez' boot, and paid the tax increase.

Then 2 months ago, I drove from MIA to Orlando and noticed that all along FL's Turnpike there were nothing but Citgos in the rest areas. In Orlando, I found more of them than I normally see in Miami ~ and I drove all over for about 2 days. Don't know who is responsible for contracting oil suppliers along the state roads, but maybe someone can look into it. I don't buy Citgo, and I discourage everyone I know from buying Citgo, REGARDLESS the arrangement they might have with vendors or jobbers. It's an indrect support for Chavez. Forget it.

We might want to start with the U.S. government. They have Citgo gasoline in their military bases...

The ones of us in FL, can write to our congressmen, senators, governor, and so on, and let them know how unhappy we are with citgo, and why. Senator Martinez is the major supporter of that new reserve they found in the gulf and is the senator pushing for them to be able to drill there.

As Americans we do need to cut back on how much gas we are using. We are financing our enemy worldwide against us. It really doesn’t matter if its chavez, iran, iraq, the list goes on.

This would be the time to actually join with the tree huggers and overall decrease the amount of gas we as Americans use. This drop in price means something was scaring the oil companies already, and they seemed to sense they needed to lower it for their own profits to continue. The president really doesn’t have any control over the price of gas unless he releases our reserves and floods the market. And with what’s going on in the world, that’s the last thing we need. Our reserves need to be kept at maximum levels, in case of an all out world war, and the oil producing countries decide to shut us off. I agree with a few of the posters that we do need to hit them where it really hurts in the wallet, and the only why we are really going to do that is less oil consumption.

I don’t normally buy from citgo anyway, but I to will make damn sure I don’t buy any now. Just to make me feel better about where my money goes, and how it is re-spent.

Some simple math, save 2 gallons a week, x 300 million American’s = 600 million gallons a week, x 52 weeks, = 31,200,000,000 gallon a year. This actually would be every easy for us to do. But will we do it, or will we just sit here and bitch about it.

tb2tb,

I drive a 4 cyl Izusu.

Its amaazing the liberties that we offer to any comemi*erda that enters our Country. Does anyone believe that President Bush can walk into a meeting in Caracas or La Habana and speak as this comem*erda did about thier Dictators?
As for those jerks in Harlem. Who were they?
Why the same old PINKOS of yesteryear. Wish they would move to Cuba and exchange thier space here with Cubans who desperately want out of castros paradice. OH............how wonderful to be a commie living in the United States. Mira que estos berracos son guapo.

I found this on another blog,

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

This is our fellow Americans fighting against America. This lib had to brag about how they are already ahead of us. I suggest everyone read this.

Val, cool, now skip a couple of trips and save another 2 gallons a week.

Good points made by all on the subject; ultimately, we MUST stop importing foreign oil from ANY source to ensure no "People's Republic of Chicken" or "iSSlamickey Republic of Turdistan"
can have us - no pun intended - over a barrel. I quit buying from Citgo years ago. I also drive my '02 VW Passat 4 cyl. very carefully - believe me, it hurts, as I like speed - and have managed to squeeze as much as 35 mpg out of a tank. It's doable.

Question: With all the coal we have on the ground, why is production of synthetic gasoline from coal not being pushed? The Germans did it in WWII using the Fischer-Tropsch process and building synthetic gasoline refineries such as the one at Leuna. This option must be considered, indeed implemented, as we transition to other forms of energy. It should be made a part of a national initiative for energy independence, with the requisite safeguards covering issues of safety and pollution, but regardless of squeaking from radical tree-huggers who help make us vulnerable through their constant mindless, solution-devoid obstructionism.

This isn't a huge deal, but encourage all your college-age friends and acquaintances to join the group I created on facebook. It's called:

"No Citgo, No Chavez, No Problem."

Let's see how many young people are actually willing to get behind this thing.

hugito chavez the little mouse that opened his mouth...I already thought he was an asshole for prolonging the cagastro oppresion of Cuba with free oil while many Venezuelans live below the poverty level...after his performance at the UN it is apparent that he is a hypocrit and an idiot too...free speech and all, he's entitled to his private opinion...but he doesn't represent the Venezuelans well...he must be giving the average Venezuelan migraines...if Venezuelans could criticize him freely, without great bodily risk, wouldn't that be something...he's a chip off the old stupidista block

What retailer in So.Ca. sells his gas I dont have a cigo station near me and I have'nt seen one either. If it sells here it must be under a differnt name. Hugo is a shithead. He has shown the world what a classless ass he is. The Chilean President Was on Charlie Rose last night. She showed herself well, even if you don't agree with her. He should take lessons from her.

Amigos, I would love nothing better than to cause pain and discomfort to this Pompous-Ass Idiot. That being said, i am not sure that this boycott makes economic sense. Discuss the following amongst yourselves:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

“Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline — and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."

-------------------------
While I am more than happy to stick it to that little monkey Hugo, in the end the economic effect of this boycott would be pretty much non-existent, and it apppears to be nothing more than an exercise in futility.

AHA! BUT I won't be paying Chavez for M&Ms! OR HOT DOGS! Therein lies the knowckout blow.

I buy at QuikTrip!

The other oil companies buy their gas from Arab countries which use them to fund terrorism. The companies buy them indirectly from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and even Libya through distributors. Even officially, 4% of Libya's oil goes to to the US. 3% of US oil comes from Colombia, the most bloody violator of human rights in Latin America. Saudi Arabia gives its profits to the "royal family" (eg Bin Laden).

This is far worse than a democratically elected Venezuelan president who conflicts with the Bush administration over globalization.

The area I live in Eastern Pennsylvania has the highest unemployment in the state. All the jobs are going to Mexico and Latin America because people are getting paid 1 an hour for a job that would pay a US worker 20$ an hour.

The first time I heard Venezuela criticized on the news, it was CNN saying Chavez spoke at an "anti-American" rally in Argentina. Then she cut over to a reporter actually at the protest. He said, no, the protest is not anti-American. They like the American people. This is an anti-globalization protest, and the people are protesting the system that gives them horrible working conditions. Van Sustren, the CNN moderator replied, "Anti-globalist, Anti-American, whatever," totally ignoring the fact that the reporter said they were not anti-American!

The corporations who move to Venezuela don't like it now that the government is regulating them to make them pay decent wages. And if Latin American countries paid people decent wages, Mexicans would not be pouring across the border, and jobs would not be pouring out of America.

If Chavez has a conflict with Bush and the corporate news about globaliztion, that's fine- our country would be better off without it.

I am in 100%
Support the boycott, go to http://citgoboycott.org

Please US America educate yourself about the world. For lack of information, we draw some very incorrect conclusions.

MR. Rako:

Easy with generalizations. Your statement about "Colombia as the bloodiest human rights....." makes it seem as though the entire country is the way.

All jobs are not going to Latin America. Easy with using the phrase "Mexicans pouring across" it sounds racist. And by the way, immigration to the US is not causing jobs to go overseas.

You are correct about the media making false assumptions and fixated on a view, regardless of the facts. CNN was out to belittle Chavez...it makes us wonder how much the media does this about other issues, countries and people.

Finally, the latest revelations of facts shows this Citgo movement was all wrong. Study the situation first and then organize with a well-thought out and objective cause.

www.thesubjectivetimes.blogspot.com

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