Open thread

You have to check out the new trailer for Spider-Man 3.  Cool!  That page also has links to several other teaser trailers and clips.

I’m glad someone is going after them.  “Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”  It’s an interesting lawsuit.  I’m not sure it will accomplish much, but we’ll see.  Good or bad chances aside, someone needs to make sure those people are held accountable for their actions.

A good place to start since Americans were being hit with more tax increases and charges while businesses were getting more credits and breaks (you know, like billions of dollars for the oil companies so they could drill on public property, that stuff that belongs to we the people, and those companies that have been reporting record-breaking profits for years).  “Democratic leaders this week vowed to make the alternative minimum tax a centerpiece of next year’s budget debate, saying the levy threatens to unfairly increase tax bills for millions of middle-class families by the end of the decade. The complex and expensive tax was designed to prevent the super-rich from using deductions, credits and other shelters to avoid paying the Internal Revenue Service. But because of rising incomes, the tax is expected to expand to more than 30 million taxpayers in 2010 from 3.8 million mostly well-off households in 2006.”  Anyone out there ready to start screaming about the Democrats wanting to immediately increase taxes?  Anyone?  I seem to remember hearing a lot of that from the right just before the election.  I hope they do for fuel and business, but this seems to show they’re trying to stop it from happening to the little guys.

Weekend Cat Blogging #75 is now available.

In case you’re not keeping up with it, don’t forget to keep checking NASA’s Cassini-Huygens site for updates on Saturn.  The photos are spectacular.  For instance, take a look at this one (includes video) of a “swirling hurricane-like vortex at Saturn’s south pole, where the vertical structure of the clouds is highlighted by shadows,” or this one (check out the hi-res version!) of the rings “awash in subtle tones of gold and cream in this view which shows the outer B ring, the Cassini Division and the inner part of the A ring,” or even this one (again, check out the hi-res version!) of the rings as demonstrates they’re “populated with microscopic icy particles.”  They’re all fantastic, and more and more photos are being sent back all the time.

Do you not feel?  It’s simple and meaningful.  Just go read it.

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