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January 29, 2006
Bridge over troubled oil?
Sometimes, I am not cynical enough. When I wrote about Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's publicity stunt (supplying discount oil to "help America's poor") earlier, I wasn't quite getting the entire picture, and I overlooked a key player. Today's Inquirer, however, was nice enough to supply a clear picture -- showing five faces beaming in "celebration" of the Chavez propaganda coup. The caption: Celebrating the heating oil shipment in West Oak Lane were (from left) home owner Geraldine Shields, Felix Rodriguez of Citgo, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy 2d, and Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez.Here's more from the story: As a small crowd waved U.S. and Venezuelan flags, a clutch of politicians and officials gathered on Shields' lawn to celebrate the deal, brokered by U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa) and a nonprofit energy cooperative.Huh? A Kennedy stepping out of an oil truck in Philadelphia and beaming for a publicity photograph? What's going on? The CEC [Citizens Energy Corp.] operates as a non-profit corporation but despite Kennedy’s personal wealth, which is reported to be in the millions of dollars, he receives compensation from his charitable endeavor of $400,000 a year based on CEC financial reports from 2003 (the last year upon which such reports were available).Hey, I wouldn't mind being a small player at 400K a year! I mean, if you come from a millionaire family and you want to help the poor, every little bit helps. I'll let Tim Worstall have the last word on the Kennedy-Chavez op: A nice piece of political theatre for Chavez, of course. But that’s however many millions of $ that the poor Venezuelans are giving to the vastly richer Americans. Not really, on the face of it, a clever thing to do.A Kennedy? But why Philadelphia? I hope none of this has to do with Chaka Fattah positioning himself to run for Mayor of Philadelphia. How can I be so cynical? After all, aren't these dictators and millionaires only trying help the poor? posted by Eric on 01.29.06 at 08:49 AM
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» No blood for oil from Philadelphia Will Do
Okay, I touched on this last week, but I don't think I really expressed the sheer awesomeness of it: Low-income families are getting cheap oil from a crazy man who hates President Bush. (Is it a rule that all... [Read More] Tracked on January 30, 2006 11:27 AM |
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