[PokeyJoe]

on your second point:

Saudi Arabia: "We are going to cut oil production before the presidential election"

translation: "We want somebody as Prez who is not going to force democracy on Arabs, or drill for oil in Alaska (competition don't you know) - somebody like Kerry"

$3 gas will just piss off people - and I expect John F'n Kerry to say something about "SUV madness" in the next couple of weeks when Saudi Arabia cuts oil production. (it hasn't happened yet)

and wouldn't you know. The most profitable models for GM and Ford are SUVs - and if petrol stays high, sales will lag in the SUV segment, and we'll see detroit laying off thousands of people.

Congress should change derivative gas formulas to a uniform standard instead of 15 gazillion formulas that makes GAS about 45 cents more expensive than it should be -(Thank YOU Heir Clinton).

[oceanview]

Bush could do a few things:

- open the strategic reserve for crude
- use an EO to put a temporary halt on the special blended gasoline EPA requirements so the gasoline market isn't as fractured as it is now.

I don't see him doing either of these things.