Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

August 30, 2008

McCain's VP pick: Oil drilling more important than polar bears

Censored News, reader comment:

McCain's Vice Presidential's selection Palin Would deny Indigenous Rights
Praying to Four Winds

Gov. Sarah Palin is not prepared to be Vice President. She reversed Dirk Kempthorne, US Secretary of the Interior, decision listing polar bears as an endangered species. This youthful appearing governor ignored pleas of both Native People and environmentalists amid her fears of annoying oil barrens. The Governor's actions deny a way of life for American Indians, falsely believing an opposite action would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts.
We don't need to punch more holes in pristine lands, nor to make our few Indians homeless. Citizens agree it's time to fight against global warming, not add to it.
Palin's pushy fundamentalist Christian views coupled with Texas bible classes would bring havoc to classrooms across Texas, which we do not need. Palin is not good for the Nation; she's not been tested. If we look back historically, it was the fundamentalists who led the worse blight on our Nation -- genocide of the Native People.
In Alaska she has taken just such a position.
This candidate's short history reveals scary positions, at great risk to Alaskans; and if the country should elect her, she's not ready to lead us. The women of this nation would be denied not bettered.
-- Kenneth
In the news:
In May, Palin said she would sue the federal government after it declared polar bears an endangered species. The Anchorage Daily News reported, "She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts ... Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said."
Response from Center for Biological Diversity:
"She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading, and both are unbecoming," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. ... "Even the Bush administration can't deny the reality of global warming. The governor is aligning herself and the state of Alaska with the most discredited, fringe, extreme viewpoints by denying this."

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