Navy says No to Citgo (sort of)

Not on my base!

After Venezuela's president called the U.S. president the devil, Henry McCurdy wanted to see Citgo removed as the company providing gasoline for a station on the Navy base in Millington.

Citgo is a subsidiary of a government-owned oil company in the South American country of Venezuela. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been a fiery critic of President Bush, whom he called the devil during a United Nations speech in September.

Sounds great. Shortly after Chavez's disgusting visit my Citgo gas card met it's destiny with the bane of all credit cards--the scissors. Interestingly, when calling to cancel the account the customer service agent didn't balk, he just said, "I'll take care of it". I was halfway let down, expecting a fight with a Spanglish-speaking person yelling "Viva Hugo" in between barbs about neocons or somesuch. Maybe the employees of Citgo in America are being told to lay low--no PR is good PR?

That brings us back to the Navy fuel contract. Mr. McCurdy succeeded in getting the Citgo signs removed,

However, Citgo will continue to provide gasoline to the stations, including Millington's. Citgo's competitively bid $60 million-a-year contracts to supply the Navy Exchange with gas run through 2010, according to Phil Garcia, a spokesman for the Navy Exchange Command in Virginia Beach, Va.

Yeah, that'll show him.