Happy Thanksgiving -- from Venezuela

Of the nine major oil companies - currently rolling in windfall profits - that were asked by Congresss to donate some of their record-setting revenues to the poor of America who wil be beset this winter by as much as a 75% increase in heating oil costs, only one stepped up to the plate.

Citgo.

Yes, Citgo has announced that they will offer fuel at discounted rates in Boston as early as this week, said a statement posted Friday on the company's website. "The first phase of the program, in Boston, will offer up to 4.5 million litres of heating oil at accessible rates, representing $10 million U.S. in savings for those sectors," the statement read. Heating oil will be sold later in the Bronx, one of New York's poorest boroughs.

Now, who owns Citgo? Citgo is a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and they are following up on a promise by President Hugo Chavez to help poor Americans cut energy costs.

Now, I have no illusions that George W. Bush and his administration give a royal damn about the poor in America (when's the last time you heard ANYONE in Washington talk about the lost city of New Orleans?), but the irony of this hemisphere's most demonized elected president filling the shameful void of our own corrupt corporate culture is well, priceless.

Way to go, Hugo. Chingate, Pat Robertson.

P.S. Maybe that should be "this hemisphere's 2nd most demonized elected president..."