I’m not the only one who thinks the sudden drop in gas prices is suspiciously timed for the election.  “Three out of 10 Americans think the recent fall in gasoline prices is a result of domestic political factors, including White House and Republican Party efforts to influence the November elections. [. . .] The survey also showed that suspicions about the steep drop in gasoline prices over the past two months aren’t limited to the nation’s liberal strongholds. Sixteen percent of people who identified themselves as conservative Republicans, 26 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 29 percent of Southern residents think the plunge in prices is linked to the coming election or other political reasons.”

This is as un-American as our government gets.  During a public appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney at an outdoor public mall in Colorado, a man who chanced upon the visit turned to the veep and said, “Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.”  What happened?  He was arrested minutes later by the Secret Service for “assaulting the Vice President,” and they did it in front of his eight-year-old son.  No, I’m not kidding.  The charges were eventually dropped and the man is now suing for violations of his First Amendment right to free speech and his Fourth Amendment protection from illegal seizure.  I hope he wins and cleans the government’s clock.  [via Michael at Gay Orbit]

I and the Bird #34 is a practical hootenanny this time.  Go get your fill of birding from the bloggers who do it.

Carnival of the Vanities #212 is now available.  This carnival always has the best writing from the blogosphere regardless of topic.  There’s plenty of good stuff, so be sure to drop by and check it out.

The Skeptics’ Circle #45 has the best critical thinking you can find.  Go get your doubt on.

Scientists in Europe have discovered a new mammal that’s darn cute.  Oh, and it’s been more than 100 years since an unknown animal like this was discovered in the region.  It’s a little grey mouse and was found in Cyprus.

But Europe doesn’t get all the discovery glory.  A new kind of catfish was found in Mexico that is so unique it required a whole new family, genus and species.  I’m constantly amazed at how much there is still left to be discovered right here on our planet.  Let’s hope we don’t kill them all before we find them.

This picture is so cool.  That cat is perfectly camouflaged.

But how about an even better cat picture, this time of a jaguar sneaking into the US from Mexico.  The large predators have been gone from America for decades.  They’re finally making a comeback south of the border and are finally making their way back to our country, and the funny thing is they’re being caught on film by cameras meant to capture illegal aliens and drug smugglers.  Apparently, the large cats are “[u]sing the same clandestine routes…”  Let’s hope we don’t wipe them out and chase them off again.

We’re watching a new large galaxy form out in deep space.  How is it forming?  It’s the result of multiple collisions between smaller galaxies, and it’s happening right where we can watch it.  Check out the first photo in the article to see this fantastic event as it’s thus far been captured.

It seems Saturn still has more moons to be discovered in addition to two new rings we just found, and we now have evidence that some of the planet’s moons are responsible for forming more rings.