Odds and Ends
According to news from Fox23 in Tulsa, two top executives of Chesapeake Energy, based in Oklahoma City, gave $500,000 each to Club for Growth.net and Americans United to Preserve Marriage in the last weeks of the Brad Carson/Tom Coburn Senate Race. The money was used to run ads painting Carson as a liberal who would support gay marriage. If only!
Alberto Gonzales has been named by Bush as his choice for US Attorney General, the post being vacated by John “Cover Her Breast” Ashcroft. Gonzales penned the famous 2002 memo advising the Administration that in the new war on terror some of the provisions of the Geneva Convention concerning questioning of enemy prisoners had been rendered quaint and obsolete. Some suspect that this contributed to the weakened US policy on torture and led to the mistreatment and scandals at Abu Ghraib. Expect Mr. Gonzales to be a rigorous advocate next year for extending the provisions of the Patriot Act giving a wartime president privileges to suspend privacy rights and normal detention procedures.
Speaking of detention, 550 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives have been kept at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for three years now without any charges brought against them. A Supreme Court ruling in June allows them to challenge their detentions in federal court. The Bush Administration says they should not be allowed any legal help in filing those challenges.
W’s brother Jeb has said that his state, Florida, does not need a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Is anyone listening?
The worldwide Anglican Church continues to pressure the affiliate US Episcopal Church to “express regret” over the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson, who lives openly gay with his male partner. Sorry, no can do!