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Donkey Added to Controversial Billboard

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By Tiffany Craig Special Assignment Reporter

M30o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Donkey Added to Controversial Billboard

Published: Fri, October 19, 2007 - 5:14 pm
Last Updated: Fri, October 19, 2007 - 7:29 pm

Tiffany Craig

A controversial billboard in Baldwin County will be tweaked, a little. Right now, the sign says "DON'T BUY GAS FROM THIS ASS" and has a picture of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holding up a Citgo sign. Citgo is a subsidiary of the state-owned Venezuelan Oil Company.

Billboard owner John McCombs says he refuses to support Chavez and won't buy anything affiliated with him. "I don't trade with somebody that's Anti-American! They called Condoleezza Rice, Missy! Did you know that? They told all the gringos to go to hell! That's the four letter word instead of 3 letter word and they called my president the devil."

Workers at the BP station near the sign at I-65 and County Road 287 complained about the 3 letter word. They said kids shouldn't have to see profanity on the side of the road. They also believed that customers might confuse one gas station for another.

An official with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Department says there's nothing they can do. They checked the obscenity laws in Alabama and the sign is legal.

The story got national attention and the owner tells News 5's Tiffany Craig that he's willing to compromise. McCombs says in the next week or two, he plans to add the backside of a donkey over the 3 letter word.

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Hmmm America is buying crack and gas at record prices, and latino countries are invading and stocking with automatic weapons and submarines. This can’t be good.

Posted by shutoutmexico on 10/31/07 - 9:35 pm • Report Abuse .

Hugo Chavez IS anti American and anti-white. So is Philipe Calderon of Mexico. So is Bush. So what do they have to fear from one patriotic billboard? Nothing if you paintwash it for them!

We need gas, so if we can get it anywhere, I wouldn’t rule it out, but maybe we could point out the attitude of this joker Chavez and it would harm his public relations. Shouldn’t all trade deals be made in the interest of gaining our own advantage if competitive and increasing a bond when friendly?

Posted by shutoutmexico on 10/31/07 - 9:33 pm • Report Abuse .

In an unabashed form of declaring things, Hugo Chavez and his Energy Minister Rafel Ramirez announced that they are not worried since the OPEC Dream is that of $100 US Dollars per barrel of OIL. So if you add communist ineptitude plus outright stupidity at official levels of management of a corporation which has nothing to do with communism, on the contrary much to do with global marketing and financial expertise with savvy induviduals that move in financial circles and know how to behave themselves in public but then again you have a horde of corrupt personages instead, the end result is low productivity making oil prices rise. The oils pricing scale upwards has nothing to do with “strategy by the chavista” government since it is simple a compensation of having stupid people managing a natural resource highly needed in a developing world.
The natural and nationalistic response as Mr. McCombs has done is to post a national and patriotic feeling of his to all this issue very well summarized in saying “not to buy gasoline from this “jackass” of Hugo Chavez”.

Posted by Soldier of Democracy on 10/31/07 - 3:36 pm • Report Abuse .

Esteemed forum members thank you for your cooperation and feedback on this issue of the billboard which has opened an incredible source of information among us, and one is also grateful to the TV5 WKRG TV station for hosting this forum. That is one way of “Exporting Democracy” where we can all participate.
As I comented to another journalist contact of mine that Mr. John McCombs hit the “tip of the iceberg” in a manner of speaking since there is a lot more ice to chip at or more cloth to cut if you prefer.
VENEZUELA now produces 753,000 barrels of oil LESS than the 3.2 Million Barrels a day it was producing five years ago.

Posted by Soldier of Democracy on 10/31/07 - 3:35 pm • Report Abuse .

Soldier of Democracy,
Thank you for the correction. The 1960’s date was dredged up from my fading memory due to a relative of mine being one of the “foreign devils” who left Venezuela just prior to the nationalization.

Also your other data is correct and your input is appreciated. Thank you again!

Posted by Leonidas on 10/31/07 - 10:23 am • Report Abuse .

Esteemed Mr. Leonidas, please allow me to clarify the nationalization date of the oil industry in Venezuela. If memory does not fail me it was during the year 1975 by the then President Carlos Andres Perez. As a result a Venezuelan corporation was formed to handle such astronomical incomes and industry. Only an experienced public manager of impeccable record was chosen as its first president of PDVSA. Gen. Rafael Alfonzo Ravard. CREOLE, SHELL and most large oil companies operating here in Venezuela had schools within the company camps with very good teachers, forming the future generation of oil management or relay generation. It all went well before Chavez “threw a pipe wrench” into the industrial gears of the industry. Recall that PDVSA was No. 2 in the world after Saudi Arabia�s ARAMCO, according to FORBES.
Most of those 22,000 ex oil workers that Chavez fired are working in Canada or in the USA due to their profesionalism and mysticism for doing a good job, contrary to what Chavez is doing in employing a bunch of monkeys to do the same job with countless industrial accidents and loss of production.

Posted by Soldier of Democracy on 10/31/07 - 9:49 am • Report Abuse .

Southeasterner(?),
You posted on 10 24 07:

“In 1999 we had no way of knowing Chavez was a little crazy. It really wasn’t until 2002-2003 that we really understood what he stands for...As far as foreign companies not being able to operate retail in Venezuela; Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil all have retail station networks that account for over 20% of the market.”

Are you referring to the retail market in Venezuela? If so, do you know where their products are refined and the extent of their control (partnership) by PDVSA? I may be mistaken, but do not recall seeing retail outlets of those companies in Venezuela. I do recall purchasing fuel from Caropven and Lagoven which were formerly Sinclair and Shell before being nationalized by the Venezuelan government during the 1960s. The 7-11 chain has discontinued its marketing of the Citgo brand.

Posted by Leonidas on 10/24/07 - 9:12 pm • Report Abuse .

southeasterner, with all due respect, an embargo of the importation of crude oil from “unsavory” sources would severely restrict supply given that the greenies have precluded utilization of our own reserves. The issue of retailers is a different issue altogether. All foreign companies are excluded from the Venezuelan retail market. Also, Ch�vez has only been in power since 1999 and that suggests that any 10 year contract between Citgo and US retailers prior to that year is soon due to lapse.

Posted by Leonidas on 10/23/07

In 1999 we had no way of knowing Chavez was a little crazy. It really wasn’t until 2002-2003 that we really understood what he stands for. Try keeping a small business going for 5 additional years with a boycott of your products. In the world of service stations we live by the week not by the month or year.

As far as foreign companies not being able to operate retail in Venezuela; Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil all have retail station networks that account for over 20% of the market.

And yes I know we cannot just boycott Venezuelan Crude because Americans today could never make the same kind of sacrifices our older generations did.

Posted by Southeasterner on 10/24/07 - 7:33 am • Report Abuse .

On the purchase of weapons by Chavez, as if he was going to war agaisnt the USA, is only a measure to bully Colombia and any other nation that in the very near future oposes his revolution. I don�t know what is more dangerous here, an AK-47 Assaul Rifle factory to arm any nut that wants to take pot shots “drive by” style at any Imperialistic image or the nuclear reactor in Iran. Both are dangerous. I remind you once again that Chavez sells URANIUM to Iran and North Korea, since there is a whole mountain of it here in Venezuela.
Chavez suffers from ABS among other psychyatric profiles and mental deformities. The submarines are mainly to be used to smuggle cocaine. Take US Ambasador William Brownfield word for it whenb he said that more than 300 TONS of drugs pass through Venezuela. In more than one occasion a Venezuelan vessel, navy and merchant has been caught with drugs on board trying to smuggle wuite few kilos into the USA or Europe.

Posted by Soldier of Democracy on 10/24/07 - 7:27 am • Report Abuse .

Thank you"Mr. Leonidas” for the enlightment you are giving to “Mr. OG Paralegal”. I read that this issue of the billboard is extending to many areas of national and international current events present and past. It�s good hat “Mr. Leonidas” brought up Kennedy on this forum, since I was so embarrassed with that “DIAL JOE FOR OIL” that the main intention was to embarrass the Bush Administration in its initiative to act on a national emergency that many Americans were literally freezing to death “quietly” because the Federal Office in charge of emergencies only acts as far as I know only on HURRICANE victims. Please correct me if I am wrong.Anyway Joe Kennedy must have his uncle JFK and his father Bobby having a fit in their graves for allowing himself to sell himself to Chavez for $235,000 a year job forsaking his government job that only paid him $125,000 a year. Helping the needy in the USA is simply a measure to embarrass the whole US Government. - People in Caracas live like a “chicken coop style” of shanty homes one on top of the other and with all the waste and garbage going downhill.

Posted by Soldier of Democracy on 10/24/07 - 7:13 am • Report Abuse .