unwieldily=unwieldy

Here's a thought. Cancel cable, quit eating out and live within your means.

Chavez should be boiled in that free oil.

Chili_DOg: I agree 100% with you. I know life happens but a ton of these people get themselves in this situation by not budgeting, working, or whatever. I was able to work, go to college, and live on my own without any help. Am I now paying off loans? Yes, but I'm also in a job a love and only hard work and planning got me here.

Not some communist dictator who suppresses free speech, opposing opinions, and basically jails anyone he wants.

Idiot, he should sell it and invest money in his citizens. They need it more than USA's citizens, most of which should learn to budget.

@taney71: ''Not some communist dictator who suppresses free speech, opposing opinions, and basically jails anyone he wants.'' Yep, Bush uses Patriot Act all the time. Damn, he's a capitalist. But description suits him well, too.

Now tell me what the difference. Both suck.

Wait, it's illegal to even buy anything from Cuba, but it's okay to take charity from Venezuelan dictators? This is just bizarre.

@chili_dog: Point well taken.

This isn't about helping people. He doesn't care *why* there are Americans who can't afford heating oil. All he knows is that there are people who can't, and that immediately means the US fails its citizens. This is his way of showing us capitalist pigs how his system is better than our system.

@chili_dog: fuck you, i heat with oil, don't have cable, cook at home, and just got smacked with a bill that was $263 dollars more than my average bill. for 6 weeks of oil (hopefully). i bet a nickel your gas bill wasn't that high. i don't need your lectures.

@dwayne_dibbly: Cuba doesn't provide the US with oil. The day that Cuba has something we want, the embargo will be declared a relic of the past and US dollars will once again flow freely - communist regime or not.

@taney71:

Hey, did you pay for your own oil? and how much was it back then?
My bill is $325 every 4-5 weeks.
My rent is $625, commuting is $89, medication and doctor co-pays are approx $70 a month, plus food shopping, utilities, etc.

How about realizing not everyone lives in the same city and state you lived in? And that oil has increased to a ridiculous amounts?

@drgirlfriend: It hasn't helped us get better cigars.

Hmm. Struggling to pay heating bills or living in Venezuela. I'll take struggling to pay heating bills thanks. That doesn't mean that I am not totally bitter about our huge electric and gas bills to keep from freezing. My solution beyond insulating more, wearing three layers of polarfleece and wool socks is to move somewhere with a more moderate range of hot & cold over the year. Now that is on my short list of things to do.

It's great that Hugo Chavez is giving the poor some relief, since he is part of the reason why oil is so expensive today. His chest-pounding about cutting oil supplies to the U.S. if he didn't win his stupid referendum to make him a more powerful dictator helped drive up the cost of oil.

Just curious... what's the value of 100 gallons of heating oil?

@ShortBus: $3.57 a gallon here, so $357.

@ShortBus:
same here.
put at 63 degrees for about 4 hours... and then down to 58 at night... lasts about 4-5 weeks at my place.

Shouldnt they be using the money gained from selling that oil to someone else to help their OWN people?

@humphrmi: Yeah, lets go invade Venezuela to liberate their people (and oil supplies).

(1) Geothermal (ground source exchange) will pay for itself quickly if you pay that much for oil.
(2) Chavez isn't the the reason petroleum costs so much, but its costing so much is what keeps that limp dick in power.
(3) Let's all apply for his free oil. Even if we don't need it or can't use it. Maybe an oil company will give us a kickback or something this the coupon without a purchase. The idea being, of course, to cost this son of a bitch as much as we can. There's a possibility that he'll brag that x number of Americans needed it, but so what. If everyone can steal $357 from this dick, let's do it. If it makes you feel better for stealing from him, give the $357 to some other Latin American charity.

@chili_dog: Bwahhaha... so says the guy that lives in the middle of the desert.

@forgottenpassword: Actually, they do. As much as I hate the jerk, he really is helping the poorest of his people. His problem is they way that he goes about it, in that he hurts the people that aren't the poorest of his people. He's only able to do this, of course, because of the price of oil. Helping the poor poor people isn't justification for his antidemocratic behaviour.

@DallasDMD: You know, we do want their oil; it's stupid to deny it. By we, I mean the whole world. And the thing is, we don't want to steal it; we want to make them suckers rich by paying them for the oil. Which is what we're doing now. Except them suckers is Chavez.

HUGO CHAVEZ IS NOT A COMMUNIST DICTATOR!

He's a *socialist* *president*. As in, he got elected. By the people of Venezuela.

Also, it's no-where near Cuba - I don't know why people are getting the two countries confused. Don't you do geography in the US?

Oh wait, never mind...

@DallasDMD:

Yeah, lets go invade Venezuela to liberate their people (and oil supplies).

Not sure what you mean by that comment, I said Chavez is a dictator and contributes to rising prices of oil with his stupid proclamations. Calling Chavez a dictator != saying we should invade Venezuela.

Frankly I think besides suppressing free speech and trying to power-grab his position for the rest of his life, he's a first-class dufus... he doesn't have the diplomatic skills of a shit-covered rat. He'd have to get three promotions to get to be an asshole. But that doesn't mean I think we should invade Venezuela.

This is funny how people bitch about free oil. If you are too good to take it then don't. Hugo Chavez might be an evil dictator but at least he is doing something our Government is not.... helping AMERICANS. The Government will first help out IRAQ and their citizens before they give us a break. Yeah yeah I am sure Chavez is doing it to be a smart ass but, if it benefits the people that can't afford it or have a hard time, why the hell not? Me I live in sunny SW Florida so this doesn't affect me, but if it was available to me... you're damn right I will take the free oil.

38% of his country is living below the poverty standard
He has 9% unemployment rate. No health care except in the cities. 23% infant mortality rate..
The lists goes on and on. He should trade oil to Cuba for Medical Doctors.

@humphrmi: USA cannot afford to invade anything.

Iraq and Afghanistan are costing an arm and a leg.
National debt is going up, up, up.

Maybe the government should take BUDGET course.

Oh and for the people that say Chavez is the cause for high OIL prices...Why would he sell the OIL at a fraction of the cost of what the Arabs do? That wouldn't make any sense. If he can get as much as the Saudis Why not? We're the dumb ones driving the BIG SUVs to go to work.

I read this and thought "who the hell needs heating oil?" then I remembered I live in hawaii and some places get really cold. Not sure what is worse...ultra high cost of living but not having to be freezing some times, or being freezing sometimes and then paying an extra 300 a month a few months of the year.

@CuriousO: Its not fair to say everyone is dumb for driving a SUV. I need one ofr work, i haul equipment around all day and a car would be too small. I cant get a truck becasue its electronics and if it rains it would ruin it. Sure, there are some people who drive huge cars and SUVs for no reason other than becasue they have the right and the means to do so, but there are far worse things.

@CuriousO: The price of oil is market driven, and Chavez drives up the cost of oil by fabricating plans by the U.S. to invade Venezuela and then pronouncing that he'll cut oil supplies as a "counter attack", which drives the markets crazy and pushes up the price of oil worldwide.

For a communist, he's very good at manipulating capitalist markets.

@humphrmi: Like Bush has any diplomatic skills... Chavez is showing off. His main goal is to boost his popularity in its own country. It's a way to show people, that grass is not necessary greener in US. He's corrupt. But so is US political arena. Only it's not as obvious, because US politicians are a bit better at keeping their faces.

The state of moral in politics forbids any judgment on ''should we invade another country?''. One corrupted guy does not have the right to decide to invade any other corrupted guy's country. Especially when lives are at stake.

We should go back to ancient Greece's way of voting for war, if you vote for it, you have to go to it. Mandatory.

p.s. Maybe I'm a language nazi, but situation in Venezuela cannot be called communism. Wrong definition.

@xtc46:

Yes you are right. If you need to drive an SUV for work or because you live in the mountains and have more than four kids than definitely or work related. I meant it for those people that have one kid and have a five mile trip to work. Those are the people that I always hear complaining about gas. The people that do not NEED to drive an SUV.

What's corrupt called in this country?

Answer- a Lobbyist

:-)

@chili_dog: On the surface your comment would be valid. But when you really look at what is happening with oil prices and who it affects, it changes things.

I can afford the fact that my heating costs have doubled in the last three years. I can just make changes in other areas of my life. The old lady that lives across the street is one deep freeze away from ending up on Joe Kennedy's commercials.

Your right, there are some lazy bastards that want everything for free. And then there's the ones where three years is an instant and who were blindsided by the sudden overwhelming increase in one of the things that keep them alive in the winter.

@homerjay: and before the word nazi's pound me with their petty hammers, I am aware of my spelling and grammar mistakes. :)

@chili_dog:
A+++
Even the worst political situation in the United States is nowhere NEAR the situation in Venezuela.
Now if W decided to try and keep himself in power the way Hugo has, then maybe the pro-Chavez folks in here would have a valid point.
Bottom line, this guy is a corrupt scumbag who is buying votes in the election of public opinion. Take the oil, if you really need it, but don't buy into his socialist garbage.

@chouchou: Maybe it is time for our gubmint to start cutting the cable, dining out and pedicures out if it's budget. We waste so much money on corporate welfare, pointless programs and wars.

@balthisar:

I agree with you, except that Chavez isn't "helping" the poor--that is a bit misleading--he's really just looking for the cheapest route to a vote.

By guaranteeing token services to those of modest means, he's able to effectively buy their votes. This is further regrettable, when you consider that a majority of the people in his country are in this position and he has no plans to change that.

@CuriousO: We readjusted our driving routine as some day to day situations changed. We found a way to keep our SUV in the driveway almost all the time and our gas budget suddenly went down. The only reason we don't ditch it is because we don't have the money right now to add to what we could sell the SUV for to buy even a decent used car. The thing is worthless now, nobody wants them. But changing makes a big difference. I just want to throw things at the soccer moms driving around in an oversized mega SUV with only them in the vehicle. If you have that much money you could buy a smaller car, they just don't care.

No different that selling out your info for a free silicon wrist bracelet, keychain, or whatnot. Personally I do not use heating oil.

Notice how only New Hampshire among all those Northeastern states is excluded? I guess they'd rather freeze to death than accept commie oil.

Live Free or Die indeed.

hmmm.... free is free, like a free buffet at a big lecture, take the food if you wanna, but you don't need to care about the message. Sure, you are helping a "corrupt president" in some way, but he is helping you survive and he is not demanding you to do anything in exchange. Sure theres the dignity thing, but when you are freezing and you are in a hole all alone, you probably have no dignity to begin with

I imagine that if you were to accept the offer of the free oil, the DHS would be camping on your front lawn, your phones and internet tapped and you would end up on all the do-not-fly lists.

I live in Florida. Though I do not feel the hearing oil pains you do, I heat my house using electricity. Given I don't have to turn it on all that often within a year, I feel the costs of using A/C for a better part of it.

For those of you who say "turn on a fan" or something like that, you obviously show your ignorance as you don't know what it is like to deal with humidity. So in short, everyone is hurt by rising costs at some point in the year though.

When I was living n Pennsylvania, we didn't just turn on the heat all the time. If you got cold, throw on a blanket. Want to feel warmer, make some hot cocoa. Unless you are elderly, heat is really a luxury just the same, it just makes you feel more comfortable.

To outset some of the costs though, we did have a kerosene heater which worked fairly well. To make good use of the heat, we would heat up soup or hot water for tea or hot cocoa. When you have less to work with, you tend to improvise.

@Tank: Lets see here. My Average Electric bill from May-Oct is $248 (per month). Out here in the desert we don;t use a furnace just a heat pump, so in Nov-Mar my electric averages $165.

No lectures here just a simple fact that many people don;t budget they just buy the new Blue Ray and plasma then cry to high heaven for a free handout.
@Weave: I;m gonna send you some astroglide so you can get into that Fit.

@chili_dog: Chili, you are aware a heat pump wont necessarily work in all situations right? Thats why most have an auxiliary strip or emergency strip to actually create heat. Of course that strip raises the energy consumption to the point that its not cost effective any longer.

On your average insulated slighty 5 year old house a heat pump wont manage 18deg outside and keep you toasty warm inside without some supplimental form of heating. Even here in west central Georgia, if its in the teens for several nights the heat pump runs non stop if you dont supplement it.

@CuriousO: Except the US government already spending close to 100 Billion, yes with a B on Social service, housing and urban development every year. To say the Government is not helping its citizen's just isn't true.

You may argue that you think they should help even more, the reality is if they spent EVERY penny of the military budget on social programs most liberals would still say it wasn't enough. Of course we'd be praying to Allah on a daily basis as well, since the government wouldn't be able to execute one of it's primary reasons for being - protecting it's citizens. A military force IS provided for in our constitution. Welfare is not even mentioned.

to quote the king of spain
[youtube.com]
"POR QUE NO TE CALLES?!"

just imagine is one of his people said that to him...he'd kill them. coward.