A small, largely overlooked article by the Associated Press was published this week that really should have gotten more attention. The headline said flatly:

ExxonMobil nets $10.9B

The world's largest publicly traded oil company announced that first-quarter profits for 2008 climbed 17 percent to $10.9 billion, "the second-biggest U.S. quarterly corporate profit ever".

According to my calculater, that is more than $121 million in profits EVERY DAY, or $5 million EVERY HOUR, or $84,000 in profits EVERY MINUTE.

The latest polls show that the No. 1 issue on Americans' minds is rising oil and gas prices, even ahead of the presidential race, war in Iraq, or global warming. Gas prices are affecting everyone, and those on fixed incomes or living in poverty are being hurt the most.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil is basking in near-record profits. They must be laughing all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.

It's time to clamp down on the oil giants. How can people be forced to pay $3.60 or so per gallon -- up more than $1 a gallon in only a year -- while ExxonMobil is netting $10,900,000,000 in profits in just three months?

Average citizens are being forced to choose between buying gas or food; food prices are soaring, jobs are being cut, businesses are going bankrupt -- all of the economic strife that has been impacting our natino is now being exacerbated by soaring gas prices.
Our government ought to be ashamed of itself for letting ExxonMobil and other oil corporations rake in such obscene profits while the rest of the country is suffering and sacrificing. It's unconscionable and yet the situation continues. ExxonMobil's record quarter was the previous one, netting $11,700,000,000 at the end of 2007.
The higher the price at the pump, the higher the profits.
OK, I know economics are complicated and higher prices and profts are not a direct, simple, cause-and-effect relationship. But you can't deny the connection. It's time to stop making excuses and start taking action. If Bush won't do it, and I doubt Mr. Oilman will, hopefully the next president will do something. He or she will, but only if it's politically expedient.
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Marc Dann is sworn in as Ohio Attorney General

More sad news, this time involving Ohio politics:
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is making a mockery of his office. He campaigned on a strong ethics and moral platform, blasting the corrupt Ohio Republican era and the Tom Noe scandal to help himself get elected.

Now the 46-year-old married man admits to having had an affair with a 28-year-old employee. In addition, his "roommate" and longtime pal, director of General Service Anthony Gutierrez, was found by investigators to have used his office to intimidate and a harass women employees and was fired by Dann.
It's pretty clear that Dann is doomed, despite asserting he won't resign. Elliot Spitzer also said at first that he wouldn't resign. Dann won't have a choice in the long run. His political career is kaput. It was notable that when he faced the press on Friday, his wife wasn't at his side as they are for most fallen politicians. He's really out there on his own now.
I think the Dann controversy proves that people in high positions, whether in government or religious office, are held to a higher standard. Even in this crazy mixed up world, most people expect reasonably high moral values from their leaders.
No one is perfect but those whose jobs are a public trust should know that they will be held accountable, and that with the internet and camera phones and video cell phones and text messages and email records, there are few secrets anymore.
Toledo, Ohio
May 4, 2008