Atlas owns a 60% stake in a joint venture with India’s Reliance Industries to exploit the Marcellus shale gas deposit in Pennsylvania

It means Chevron has chosen to follow ExxonMobil and Shell, by entering the burgeoning US industry for shale – a rock deposit that produces natural gas.

Chevron will pay $3.2bn in cash and its own stock, and will also take over $1.1bn of Atlas’ debts.

via BBC News – Chevron buys Marcellus shale deposit owner Atlas Energy.

State Attorney General Tom Corbett and Republican colleagues from across the country vowed yesterday to challenge the health-care reform legislation approved by the U.S. House in a narrow vote Sunday night.

Corbett, a candidate for governor this year, has a strong political motivation to attack the Democratic legislation in advance of the May 18 primary election.

But the original basis for his threat, first made in December, has evaporated.

In a statement issued yesterday, Corbett said he will file a lawsuit “to protect the citizens of Pennsylvania,” whose rights, he said, “will be violated” by the law. He added that he believes courts will find the law “unconstitutional.”

Later, Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley could not say what part of the legislation violates the Constitution, adding that “specific claims” for the suit are still being developed by his boss and attorneys general from at least 10 other states.

Corbett and 12 other Republican attorneys general threatened to sue in late December, after the Senate passed a version of the legislation that promised $100 million in Medicaid assistance for Nebraska.

In their Dec. 30 letter to congressional leaders, the attorneys general cited that issue as the basis for their lawsuit.

But the Senate is expected to ratify the House legislation this week, and it doesn’t include the Nebraska promise.

That has the attorneys general shifting tactics.

Five of them – from Virginia, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas and Utah – issued statements yesterday complaining that the legislation infringes on the rights of citizens by requiring them to purchase health insurance.

via Corbett & Co. to sue to block health-care law | Philadelphia Daily News | 03/23/2010.

Corbett thinks citizens of a state need protecting from President Obama’s centrist health care reform bill after candidate Obama won 55% to 44%, while touting health care reform with a public option. Sheesh.

Why, if gays are allowed into the military, Chambliss said, soon the armed forces will allow all sorts of other things.

Like what?

“Alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art,” said Chambliss.

“If we change this rule of ‘Don’t Ask, Dont Tell,” he asked, “what are we going to do with these other rules?”

via Chambliss: Repealing DADT Would Open Door To ‘Adultery’ And ‘Body Art’ In The Military | TPM LiveWire.

Yes, because as we know, straight military men do like or engage in teh:

• drink
• adultery
• playing of pranks, jokes,  becoming fast friends or identifying with concentric organizational units as close to extended family
• tattoos

WTF planet is Chambliss on?

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master’s thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as “detrimental” to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.” He described as “illogical” a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.
[...]

During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell pursued at least 10 of the policy goals he laid out in that research paper, including abortion restrictions, covenant marriage, school vouchers and tax policies to favor his view of the traditional family. In 2001, he voted against a resolution in support of ending wage discrimination between men and women.

via Va. Candidate McDonnell Says Views Changed Since He Wrote Thesis – washingtonpost.com.

McDonnell says he has changed. I have a hard time believing that this 34 year old has become an enlightened 54 year old supporter of working moms. I wonder if he voted for McCain and his working mom VP nominee Sarah Palin.