A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

So, Hugo Chavez thinks that he has won some kind of propaganda victory as a result of this:

Now that Hugo Chavez has finished his anti-American rants at the U.N., he's beginning a program of rewards for America's poor. The Venezuelan president was at a Harlem church Thursday, making good on a pledge to help low-income families in New York purchase deeply discounted oil.

[. . .]

Last year, the Venezuelan president offered up to 8 million gallons to needy New Yorkers in the South Bronx. Only 1 million gallons were actually delivered because of delays in launch the program and a mild winter, but that program is now expanding to all five boroughs.

President Chavez visited a Harlem church Thursday to roll out what many are calling Part II of Chavez's oil gift.

Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, has earmarked 25 million gallons of discounted fuel for low-income New Yorkers this year.

Of course, the manifold problems with this ridiculous scheme have already been noted. Chavez evidently isn't even competent at being a populist.