Oiling The Palms

A few posts back I mentioned that Hugo Chavez, the incomparable president of Venezuela, had not only called the President of the United States the devil from the podium at the UN, he also called for the death penalty for the Chief Executive. It would be hilarious if it were not so intrinsically evil. I mean, last year we all heard great remonstrances against a TV evangelist who encouraged the assassination of Mr. Chavez. But judging by the way the media responded to Mr. Pat Robertson, one would have thought that Robertson, a mere leader in the evangelical church, had issued an astringent fatwa on Latin American decency. The relative silence in the major media in the wake of Mr. Chavez' many rhetorical offenses is disconcerting; for here is a man - aiming to succeed Fidel Castro among Latin American leaders - who denounces America at nearly every turn; a man who controls not merely a church but instead vast oil reserves. Robertson, by and large, is taken seriously; his rhetoric is declared dangerous to American security and interests. But Mr. Chavez' obscenities? Dismissed as the utterances of a whacko.

Mr. Chavez, as you know, is offering the neediest Americans home heating oil at massive discounts through Venezuela's CITGO. Such beneficence is an apparent attempt to free some of us from President Bush's alleged tyranny and oppression.

What startles me the most is that a former US congressman -- and yes, a Kennedy -- is leading the way in New England for Mr. Chavez' program. Massachusetts Democrat Joseph Kennedy, who is running TV commercials promoting his similar beneficence, is helping Americans by distributing discounted oil that belongs to a rather poor Venezuelan citizenry. This oil, as you know, is not Hugo Chavez'. It is the Venezuelans'. And yet Mr. Kennedy is willing to take it for his Citizens Energy Corporation, at significant savings, to add to his list of good deeds.

But you should read all of the Wall Street Journal op-ed about the affair posted at this link. It is quite revealing.

And now a little note about the commercial mentioned. I cannot help but laugh at the video of an allegedly 84-year-old woman yanking a bed frame into her kitchen so she could sleep near her kitchen stove. Such a fact is not at all funny: there is tragedy, sorrow, and tremendous need in many American homes. But what is amazing is that the film crew is making this woman drag her bed across her floor -- again!? -- in an apparent reenactment. Can you imagine? What the hell were they thinking as they shot this, and what is Mr. Kennedy thinking using this as a promo? My laughter is not born out of insensitivity. Just the opposite. I laugh with incredulity, at the absurdity of it.

It all borders on the surreal. Unfortunately, this is all too real.

(Recent reports, by the way, show that the Citizens Energy Corporation is filling homeowners' fuel tanks with Number 2 snake oil.)

©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.

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