The Velvet Hammer

7-Eleven has made the decision not to carry fuel from Venezuela.

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.

Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez."

We live in a great country. Chavez need not be looking over his shoulder worrying about fatwah's being issued against him because of his mockery of our President at the U.N. No effigies of Chavez have been burned and there are no riots here in the streets burning Venezuelan flags and asking for his head on a platter.

We just use the pocketbook.

Update: This is getting interesting.Yahoo has a more comprehensive story on this in which Oil Price Information Service gives a different reason for 7-Eleven pulling their contract with Citgo.

"This has nothing to do with Chavez," said Oil Price Information Service director Tom Kloza. "They (7-Eleven) just didn't want to be tied to one supplier."