18 Comments:

 Aly said...

that's so Gross!! this is the most PUKE-filling initiative that I've ever heard of, specially if you visit their website and check their aims of not buying gas from terrorist countries (Middle east countries!!)

It sounds like driving another terroristic crusade, nazism, or zionism campaign!!

9:01 AM

 

 Andu said...

I thought no one believed in this "war on terror" crap anymore? Bah, stupidity has shorts legs and won't neither get far nor last long, remember the "freedom fries"?... plus, anyone who knows anything about world crude oil supply and distribution know that this "TFO" must be either as large as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil together, or know absolutely nothing about where the crude for gas they are selling was actually pumped.

10:41 AM

 

 Tom Gara said...

if it means less money going to people like the Saudi Royal family, I am all for it.....

it would likely be in the best interests of the actual people of the middle east that their entirely corrupt and dictatorial leaders (ie Saudi, Iran) were not propped up by giant buckets of oil money pouring into their bank accounts every minute...

12:43 PM

 

 Emir said...

Boycott the oil coming from Middle East because it's pumping money on terrorist's bank accounts ????

Then they should go and get it from Venezuela :))))))
Im sure Shavez will grant them a special discount :)))))

2:07 PM

 

 Aly said...

Come on Tom, the point is in the slogan of the initiative itself, "Terror-Free Oil Initiative is dedicated to encouraging Americans to buy gasoline that originated from countries that do not export or finance terrorism!!"
meaning that they've put everybody from that region in a bucket called TERRORISM!! this is so dangerous from a mean that, you might expect an ignorant dude going through such website, going out of his house to kick his muslim neighbour's butt, because he looks like a mid-eastern or just because he's a Muslim.
and then having an initiative to stop financing for example the Saudi royal family or any regime is something impossible, because in such countries you can never track the fundings, and you can never know how such money ends up in their accounts, but the only loser in such cases are the people themselves. similar to what happened in Iraq
and don't forget that the Saudi royal family in specific are business partners with the Bush family, and a lot of other American political figures including Hilary Clinton's Kraft.

2:49 PM

 

 Asha said...

The saddest part is the question that is asked on the home page "Would you drive more to fill up with fuel that has not originated from the Middle East?"

In this era on global warming - I can't believe that combating terrorism by driving longer distances is actually being discussed.

The ignorance of this "initiative" is mindblowing. Its sickening for so many reasons.

3:16 PM

 

 Pierre said...

Hey, cut them some slack, they'll be losing business soon since George Bush promised to reduce America's oil addiction by 20% in 10 years...

Someone on CNN made a good point - this might be one of the great State of The Union speeches if the President actually IMPLEMENTS what he's promised. Going by his track record..... ummm... enough said.

4:33 PM

 

 Jesse said...

now, now. even ignorant people from bumfuck nebraska deserve to have their tastes flattered by the companies they give money to. this is marketing's democratic principle.

consider this ad text by Rolex in a recent edition of Newsweek International:
There are people who believe that the world moves forward on the back of inspiration and ideas. For them, a day is more than 24 hours. A day is an opportunity to make something happen - to make a positive difference. They are the people who believe that making a contribution matters. And they find it impossible to go about their lives any other way. These are the same people you'll often find wearing a Rolex. Not because they have to. Because it's who they are.

6:03 PM

 

 Dody G. said...

he..he..most of US oil come from Venezuela, Canada and Nigeria.

7:16 PM

 

 Asha said...

Yes Dody, however the initiative seeks to 'punish' companies that import oil from the middle east - even if its just a little.


http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbblpd_a.htm

7:48 PM

 

 T-rent said...

If I ever own a car, itll be bio-diesel.

Mmmmm, french fries.

9:12 PM

 

 Tom Gara said...

(long comment - got carried away...)

I don't mind the idea of boycotting products coming from "unfriendly" companies or countries. It's a nice nonviolent way of choosing not to support the people you consider to be bad in one way or another.

This is tougher with consumer products because the people making and selling the products are mostly not enemies at all - just people living under nasty regimes, or working for bad companies.

In the case of oil - its a heavily "state" based product, and provides the backbone of a bunch of seriously nasty governments. Nasty to their own people, nasty to the broader world. Not just in the Middle East - the curse of huge petroleum reseves has screwed people from Turkmenistan to Nigeria.

It is largely the fault of us in the Western world, the overwhelmingly disproportionate users and purchasers of oil, that the people in such a wide arc of countries have ended up living under varying forms of corrupt repressive dictatorships.

Its time we took some responsibility for this, and started actually considering how we "vote with our wallets"every day. I am absolutely in favour of this kind of thinking entering in the mainstram - even if the particular initiative we are talking about is targeted at ignorant semi-racists (I think it is).

Where does this stuff come from? Who makes it, and where does the money go? These are questions that the people of the western world have not really asked themselves over the last 200 years of colonialism, cash crops, and now, commodities booms.

If given the choice to buy Iranian gas or Canadian gas, I'd buy Canadian. I'd also choose to buy a wireless router made in South Korea rather than Israel. And I don't really understand what is wrong with that.

9:24 PM

 

 Asha said...

I'm all for choice. Educated choice. Fair trade or organic or non conflict, etc.

But, as you mentioned Tom, in my opinion, this case is not a good example of choice. Nigeria, Venezuela and others aren't exactly poster countries for fairness of the income distribution of these oil revenues.

I don't think that using scare tactics enables choice, there is no attempt at education as part of this initiative. Its a sad example of opportunitism and there will be alot of $$ made in in the name of anti terroism.

Note - here in New York I haven't heard anything about this story. not on the major news channels that I watch (nbc, cbs, abc, etc) or in the papers I read.

10:33 PM

 

 Denver said...

I was going to criticize this ridiculous company, but checking out their blog I found the most amazing post ever.

Here's the most effective way of reducing pollution and taking away revenue from groups/countries that support terrorism.

Amazing Blog Post

11:15 PM

 

 Emir said...

Check out this page,
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
where you can see the list of US Crude Oil and also Petroleum Imports, per country, over last few months.

So if you take out SAUDI ARABIA from there, it means that more than 20% of the gaz stations in the US will be probably looking for another business : Tan Shops for exemple !!

8:33 AM

 

 Niek said...

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

10:41 AM

 

 Niek said...

If someone is dumb enough to buy something, some guy will be smart enough to sell it.

It's actually quite clever and some dude is laughing his ass off right now (all the way to the bank).

10:43 AM

 

 Anonymous said...

It is really a damn stupid idea. Only rednecks from Nebraska could come up with something like this.
They should sell BLOOD FREE OIL.
Those farmers from midwest use more oil than a country like Belgium for only their big ugly cars. They should go back to their roots and use horses and cows if they do not want to use oil.

5:22 PM

 

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