A Salute to the Aleuts (and Two Cheers for Maine)
Neither is accepting subsidized Citgo heating oil from Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez.
The stand (HT Blue Crab Boulevard) by some Aleutian villages in Alaska is the more remarkable of the two, because it’s obvious that they are making a financial sacrifice by doing so:
….. yet a few villages are refusing free heating oil from Venezuela, on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president “the devil.”
The heating oil is being offered by the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush’s nemesis. While scores of Alaska’s Eskimo and Indian villages say they have no choice but to accept, others would rather suffer.
“As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don’t want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us,” said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon. “Even though we’re in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make.”
Your humble servant went to the USA Today 2004 red-blue county map, looked at where the Aleutian Islands are, and zoomed in. I’m not positive, but it appears that the Aleuts went blue in 2004, which, if true, makes their stand all the more impressive.
Maine has Democrat John Baldacci as governor and two of the three least conservative Republicans as senators, but the same AP article, at its second page, indicates that the Pine Tree State will not listen to Chavez’s overtures this year:
Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to buy discounted oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar arrangement.
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Previous Posts:
- Sept. 30 — How Bad Have Things Gotten inside Venezuela?
- Sept. 16 — Whatever Happened to the Greed (when Chavez engages in it)?
- July 18 — Venezuela: This Is Why Early Assessments of Political Leaders are Important
- July 13 — Citgo’s US Retrenchment: Strategic Reaction by Hugo Chavez, or a Strictly Business Decision?
- May 16 — The Hugo Chavez Gas Price Hike?
- April 29, 2006 — When Is Someone Going to Criticize Venezuela’s Oil Greed?
- Sept. 18, 2005 — Quote of the Day on Venezuela
Yes those benevolent foreign democratically elected leaders are a terrible menace…it just shows how reprehensible republican acts are that they need to bad mouth caring for the poor.
Comment by madmatt — October 10, 2006 @ 10:16 am
It is great that they gave chavez the finger. but you are wrong to think it makes it more impressive because they come from a *blue* area. if dems in the same situation were to make the same stand it would not be impressive?
Comment by james — October 10, 2006 @ 11:47 am
#2, your comment was edited to meet the standards of this site without sacrificing meaning, and to fix a problem I am having with contractions and apostrophes on edited comments.
The fact is that the people falling over themselves to get the cheap Chavez heating oil have been blue state Dems (Dodd of MA, for one). So it would be easy for a Blue voter to take the heating oil and put a finger in the eye of *evil* George Bush. But the Aleuts did not. Hence the salute.
Comment by TBlumer — October 10, 2006 @ 12:44 pm
#1, please:
- Chavez is NOT benevolent — see the previous Sept. 30 I just linked in the previous posts list.
- Almost everyone except dictator-enabling Jimmy Carter believes, at a minimum, that the last election had so many irregularities that the outcome is not credible. (spare me the obligatory refs to Bush- Gore 2000 Florida and Bush-Kerry Ohio 2004, please)
The purpose of Chavez selling subsidized heating oil is to subvert US foreign policy. If Republican congressmen and senators tried the same thing during a Dem admin, the 527 Media outrage would be of earthquake proportions.
Comment by TBlumer — October 10, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
I wonder if the virtual salutation on your weblog will do anything to help those people stay warm this winter.
Maybe you should start passing around the hat? It’d be a good cause.
Comment by n. nescio — October 10, 2006 @ 4:22 pm
Greater bloggers than I are working on that very thing.
Comment by TBlumer — October 10, 2006 @ 4:32 pm
Umm…Actually the Aleuts, as Native Americans, hold a special place in US Government procurement policy. Native American owned businesses (i.e. Gov’t contractors) have a status equivalent to the SBA 8(a) program status, except that not only can contracts be sole-sourced to them, but there are no financial restrictions as to the size of the contracts they can get.
I think this was a business decision. Sorry to rain on the parade - the tribes continue to vote Democratic party.
The corporations benefitting from their Native American owned status (did I mention that not even half the employees in such companies are Native Americans?)will of course vote for whomever is giving them contracts. Hint: DoD.
Even companies like LMCo and NG complain about these guys.
Comment by KC — October 10, 2006 @ 4:38 pm
Correction: Alaskan Native Corporations have even more privleges than Native American owned corporations, which I believe hold 8(a) status.
Either way, it’s a business decision.
Comment by KC — October 10, 2006 @ 4:52 pm
“makes their stand all the more impressive.”
Yes, because it’s established fact that any person with progressive leanings LOVES Huge Chavez!!!
Frankly, his style of governance more closely resembles the current Bush administration.
Elected by coup, (haha), crime and corruption in gov’t, electoral fraud, human rights violations and removing checks and balances from gov’t by concentrating power.
I’m not sure why he and Bush aren’t buddies, frankly.
Comment by Angryflower — October 10, 2006 @ 5:11 pm
#7 and #8, I did not suggest that the tribes would change their voting pattern, only that they are smart enough not to give a thug free PR. And thanks for the info on their favored biz status.
Comment by TBlumer — October 10, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
#9, ….. (yawn) …..
Comment by TBlumer — October 10, 2006 @ 6:26 pm
So blue state folks are incapable of patriotic acts? I think some democrats have actually fought and died for this country. Maybe at least one or two.
As for slamming folks in the northeast for taking what they can get: There are some issues in addition to the business issues mentioned above. In Alaska there is not only no state income tax but the state actually gives money to each citizen each year from the “permanent fund”. Such is not the case in blue state northeast US where folks on small or fixed incomes are crushed by the cost of living there and could use any help they can get, even from a Commie.
Comment by jeff — October 11, 2006 @ 1:20 am
i’m not a fan of chavez at all, but before getting all finger pointing at the horrible dems, let’s remember that it’s this administration that buys 1.5 billion barrels of oil from chavez led venezuela each year. so taking it at a discount seems a reasonable financial move.
Comment by james — October 11, 2006 @ 5:24 am
#12, no putting words in my mouth; you know I didn’t say that, and bleep you for trying to pretend that I did.
Blue state dem politicians have been notorious for undermining foreign policy by doing things that GOP politicians would be crucified for if they did them to Dems, e.g., visiting Baghdad to whip up sympathy for the mass-murderer Saddam for before the war, giving Chavez cheap PR points, etc.
Blue state pols also oppose getting oil out of ANWR, etc., wind power in Cape Cod, etc., and then complain when energy supplies get tight and/or expensive. THEY are the ones who are hanging fixed-income folks in their districts out to dry.
Comment by TBlumer — October 11, 2006 @ 9:54 am
#13, the Aleuts can see thru the tactics of a Castro wannabe. One would expect the same from others, except they seem to LIKE the Castro wannabe.
Comment by TBlumer — October 11, 2006 @ 9:56 am
but you didn’t reply to my point — this administration buys 1.5 billion barrels from chavez every year. so why the condemnation of the blue states that get it at a reduced price? i don’t see the same condemnation for the bush administration for buying it at full price.
Comment by james — October 12, 2006 @ 7:46 am
#16, Because it’s a non-point. The admin doesn’t buy the gas, US consumers do, from a company called Citgo that until a few years ago operated like a real company. This is a market economy, not a command economy. Chavez is using his command clout to among other things undermine the market economy.
Comment by TBlumer — October 12, 2006 @ 8:53 am
actually, it’s the admin that has the agreement with venezuela called “agreement for energy cooperation between the DOE of the USA and the ministry of energy and mines of the republic of venezuela” http://www.fossil.energy.gov/international/Publications/mou_venezuela.pdf.
if this administration had any real problems with taking chavez’s oil that agreement would go out the window.
instead the administration is using the only people actually making a stand for their own politicaly gain, while they continue to let the oil roll in.
Comment by james — October 13, 2006 @ 9:26 am