Watergate veteran and Vanity Fair contributor calls for bipartisan hearings investigating the Bush presidency. Should Republicans on the Hill take the high road and save themselves come November?

Carl Bernstein is not pulling any punches.

I was lucky enough to attend a speech by Bernstein a few weeks ago. The topic was on the use of anonymous sources, and the audience was mostly journalism students. He went into his dissatisfaction with the current administration at points, but not in any great length or depth. You could tell he had much to say on the subject, but he did not feel it was the right time to unleash. This is Carl Bernstein unleashing. There is a reason this man is one of the great heros of journalism, and it extends far beyond the work he did with Bob Woodward.

That being said, this article notes at the bottom that he has written a biography of Hillary Clinton which will be coming out next year. If I had to venture a guess, he is going to get attacked as an ideologue pining for a Clinton run in 2008. I don't think that is a fair assessment, but its likely to be widely accepted.

Bernstein: Senate Hearings on Bush, Now

Now Verleger favors what he calls a "prospective gasoline tax," which would allow the country four years to get ready to do the right thing. Congress would enact a stiff tax of $2 per gallon, to take effect in January 2009, with further increases of another dollar in each of the following three years. To cushion the blow, the Treasury would borrow against the expected tax revenue to buy back the public's gas guzzlers (defined as vehicles getting fewer than 25 miles a gallon) at their 2004 value.

Verleger estimates that this program could reduce U.S. oil consumption by almost 2 million barrels per day in the program's first year and as much as 10 million barrels per day by 2020. At a stroke, that would reduce the power of the OPEC cartel and America's vulnerability to turmoil in the Middle East. As a bonus, it would also reduce emissions that contribute to global warming and increase employment in the auto industry as all those gas guzzlers are replaced.

There's one big problem with Verleger's idea. It's too sane. America likes roaring down Thunder Road, playing chicken with the oil cartel.

Why Gas Prices Are Too Low (washingtonpost.com)

LONGMONT, Colorado (AP) -- A man who said he bought a device that allowed him to change stop lights from red to green received a $50 ticket for suspicion of interfering with a traffic signal.

No green light for driver with traffic signal gadget - Apr 18, 2006 - CNN.com

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Kyle MacDonald had a red paper clip and a dream: Could he use the community power of the Internet to barter that paper clip for something better, and trade that thing for something else -- and so on and so on until he had a house?

Man using Web to barter paper clip for house - Apr 17, 2006 - CNN.com

I suspect, and I've said this before, that sooner or later the nuclear powers will resort to genocide to deal with problems like the Sunni Triangle. But not any time soon. If Bush was really the fascist liberals make him out to be, I could almost support him -- I mean, if he had the cold, Roman will to just erase the tribe that's annoying us in Iraq. But unfortunately he's nothing like that. He's about lies and failure, not cold, clear Imperial will.

Gary cracks me up.

This Ain’t 1864, Bush Ain’t Lincoln, We Ain’t Winnin’ - By Gary Brecher - eXile - Issue #235 - War Nerd

The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, which says it has no affiliation with the government, was formed in 2004. Since then Samadi said some 52,000 people have signed up to be involved in possible attacks.

The Sunday Times of London, quoting unnamed Iranian officials, reported Iran had 40,000 trained suicide bombers prepared to strike western targets if Iran is attacked.

Oh jee.

Iranian group signing up potential martyrs - Apr 16, 2006 - CNN.com

There is a Cold War precedent for targeting deep underground bunkers with nuclear weapons. In the early nineteen-eighties, the American intelligence community watched as the Soviet government began digging a huge underground complex outside Moscow. Analysts concluded that the underground facility was designed for “continuity of government”—for the political and military leadership to survive a nuclear war. (There are similar facilities, in Virginia and Pennsylvania, for the American leadership.) The Soviet facility still exists, and much of what the U.S. knows about it remains classified. “The ‘tell’ ”—the giveaway—“was the ventilator shafts, some of which were disguised,” the former senior intelligence official told me. At the time, he said, it was determined that “only nukes” could destroy the bunker. He added that some American intelligence analysts believe that the Russians helped the Iranians design their underground facility. “We see a similarity of design,” specifically in the ventilator shafts, he said.

Its a little off topic but wow, this is under Ramenki, the neighborhood where I lived in southwest Moscow. There are air ducts popping up everywhere, entrances into sides of hills (now converted into a private auto repair shop), and supposedly you could fit 50,000 people down there for a long time, and deliver them there from Moscow's 'Metro 2', the government system that runs in parallel to the main metro. There's very little english press coverage of this.

THE IRAN PLANS: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?

Well, slapping Iran with sanctions could very likely prompt Mr. Ahmadinejad and company to cut oil production in retaliation. Once upon a time, a drop in production from one OPEC member could be absorbed by the rest of the cartel. But today's global oil market is so tight, there is little spare capacity left. Any drop in production from a supplier can quickly send the price of oil soaring. "There's no shock absorber left," says Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. "That leaves us with zero options when it comes to leverage against these oil producers. Why do you think Hugo Ch�vez is so emboldened? Why do you think Ahmadinejad is saying, 'Go ahead, make my day?' "

Energy Impasse - New York Times

An Impossible Place To Be
Panama's mythic Darién Gap—a 10,000-square-mile swath of jungle on the border of Central and South America—has swallowed explorers for centuries. Today, guerrillas, drug smugglers, poachers, and jaguars rule this vast no-man's-land. Our explorer spent six weeks trying to penetrate Dari�n's heart of darkness, but the Gap still fiercely protects its secrets.

The inpenetrable jungle where no road runs, separating North and South America.

Panama's Darien Gap | Outside Online

Woodward's testimony in a two-hour deposition Monday would mean that another White House official told a reporter about Plame before Libby revealed her identity to Miller. A spokesman for White House adviser Karl Rove told the Post that Rove did not discuss Plame with Woodward.

Rove or Cheney?

Bob�Woodward: My CIA leak source was not Libby - Nov 16, 2005