In the tradition of the Lincoln/Douglas Debates, Coalition for the Constitution hosted a Debate on Impeachment between Republican Bruce Fein (pro-impeachment) and Democrat Michael Tomasky (anti-impeachment). The Debate was held on January 15, 2008 at 7pm, at the Carrboro Century Center in Carrboro, North Carolina and was moderated by UNC Professor of Leadership and Public Policy, W. Hodding Carter III, and hosted by Orange County Commissioner Moses Carey.

http://coalitionfortheconstitution.com

In the tradition of the Lincoln/Douglas Debates, Coalition for the
Constitution hosted a Debate on Impeachment between Republican Bruce Fein
(pro-impeachment) and Democrat Michael Tomasky (anti-impeachment). The Debate
was held on January 15, 2008 at 7pm, at the Carrboro Century Center in
Carrboro, North Carolina and was moderated by UNC Professor of Leadership
and Public Policy, W. Hodding Carter III, and hosted by Orange County
Commissioner Moses Carey.
 
http://coalitionfortheconstitution.com
 

As layoffs and prices rise, Big Oil posts record profits
By Bill Van Auken
2 February 2008
Amid growing fears that the US economy is sliding into recession, accompanied by both mounting layoffs and an increased assault on the living standards of the working population, the big oil companies once again posted record profits.

ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil conglomerate, announced Friday that it had broken its own previous record for the highest corporate profit ever, raking in a staggering $40.6 billion last year, up 3 percent over 2006.

The profit taken in by this single company amounted to more than the gross domestic product recorded in two thirds of the world's nations, placing the company midway between Ecuador and Luxembourg, while its total sales-more than $404 billion-top the GDP of 120 countries. It is more than the entire amount spent by the US federal government on K-through-12 education.

The second-largest US oil company, Chevron, posted $18.7 billion in profits for the year, up 9 percent over 2006, while the No. 3 firm, ConocoPhillips, took in $11.9 billion-an actual decline over 2006, due to its loss of oil concessions in Venezuela.

For its part, Royal Dutch Shell reported an annual profit of $27.6 billion, a record for European companies.

Profits for the fourth quarter-which saw oil prices briefly top $100 a barrel-rose at a staggering rate. Exxon Mobil saw its profits for the last three months of the year climb 14 percent; Chevron, 29 percent; ConocoPhillips, 37 percent; and Shell, 60 percent.

The big three American oil companies recorded combined fourth-quarter profits that amounted to $10 million an hour for every hour of every day.

These massive windfall profits were the result not of increased productivity on the part of the big oil companies, but rather the spiraling of oil prices driven in large part by rampant speculation.

"The story all over oil land is one of declining production that has been more than offset by record oil prices," Robert Van Batenburg, head of research at New-York-based Louis Capital Markets, told Bloomberg News.

Meeting in Vienna Friday, OPEC oil ministers rebuffed pleas from President Bush to increase production in order to bring down prices. The ministers countered that the real source of the price increases was uncontrolled speculation, with investors fleeing a weakened dollar for the greater security of oil stocks.

The same price rises that have filled the coffers of big oil have had a devastating effect on the living standards of average working people. According to the US Labor Department, gasoline and home heating prices rose 29.4 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, the Energy Department predicts a 38 percent rise is heating costs this winter over last winter, with average families paying $551 more for heating oil over the course of the current fiscal year.

A recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed 70 percent of the respondents saying that the spiraling cost of gasoline and heating oil constituted the single greatest economic factor affecting them directly. Under conditions in which tens of millions of workers are dependent upon cars to get to work, gasoline is a basic necessity, with rising prices forcing families to cut back on other essentials. Many analysts have attributed a significant share of the fall in consumer spending to the impact of high fuel costs.

For the poorest sections of the working class, the choice is one of "heat or eat" under conditions in which home heating assistance programs are running out of funds in many states. Low-income families spend on average 15 percent of their income on home energy bills.

Gouging at the gas pumps has pushed gas prices up past the $3 mark, meaning that many minimum wage workers are compelled to spend a quarter of their income or more just to fill the tanks of their cars.

While the vast majority of the population is confronted with these imposed sacrifices, the profit bonanza enjoyed by the oil companies has paid for obscene levels of compensation for the leading oil executives.

ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson, for example, took home nearly $22 million last year, while Chevron's Dave O'Reilly's chalked up a total compensation package of $31.6 million the year before and James Mulva of ConocoPhillips took in nearly $15 million.