Obscenity has a new definition.

This is the new face of obscenity.

ExxonMobil just had the most profitable quarter in history, capping off what is also a record year for profits.

ExxonMobil recorded a profit of 10.7 BILLION dollars. That's Billion with a "B". They had a bigger year than Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

Read that again. THEY MADE MORE MONEY THAN SAUDI ARABIA.

Isn't oil supposed to be more expensive now? Shouldn't the oil companies be feeling the pinch of higher crude oil prices? We're certianly seeing higher prices at the pump, which obviously means that the oil companies were having trouble making a profit... oh, wait. NO THEY WEREN'T.

How can they get away with this kind of obvious profiteering? Well, for one, terrorists. No further explanation necessary. Terrorists. Also, Katrina. Also no explanation necessary. (Not that the average moron would listen to the explanation, they've been told that that's all they need to know, have another Budweiser and watch some NASCAR.) Never mind that their naked greed is threatening to throw the country into another depression; they've got their money, and that's all that fucking matters. By the time nobody can afford to drive a car except the obscenely wealthy, guess where they're going to be? In the driver's seat. Just like they are now.

Big Oil has decided that they can get away with this for a number of reasons. The biggest is probably the fact that Dubya (the Oil Baron's Fuck Buddy) has most likely used his influence at the highest levels of government to restrain what normal regulatory forces exist. In theory, anti-trust legislation exists to keep companies in a given industry (who ostensibly compete with each other) from fixing prices to enhance their own profits. I'm positive anyone at Justice who starts to make noise about investigating possible illegal collusion and price fixing in the oil industry finds their actions to be a career-limiting event at best.
And W even had the cojones to warn against price gouging in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Riiiiiight. Nudge nudge. Never misses a chance to promote his "fuck everyone but the rich" agenda on the backs of minorities who have lost everything.

But the best part is the FTC chairperson he appointed. Let's take two of the least trustworthy groups in the world (lawyers and oil company executives) combine them, and then appoint the result of that unholy alliance chairperson of the FTC, putting her in a position to be regulating the very industry she just came from. But I'm sure she was completely impartial and gave no preference to anyone she might have known at ChevronTexaco. Not even a little. Nope.

The man has no shame. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, he doesn't have to get re-elected now. And he'll just be setting up the table for the next slimy bastard that occupies the Oval office. (After all, it won't be a Democrat, after all, they support terrorism, and perform abortions on puppies for fun.) ugh.