A friend sent me the following:
 
 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 
>  herehttp://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) 



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]