Gideon Polya, “Sarah Palin – an awful record. Why Sarah Palin is unfit to be Vice President”, MWC News, 3 September 2008.
Sarah Palin – an awful record. Why Sarah Palin is unfit to be Vice President
Several days ago the North Pole became an Island for the first time in human history and thanks to man-made global warming due to greenhouse gas pollution supported by Alaska Governor and McCain running mate Sarah Palin.
Alaska is one of America’s states most threatened by man-made climate change (others notably including Florida, Louisiana and Texas) and only in this Orwellian world (war is peace, ignorance is strength, slavery is freedom, 2 plus 2 does not equal 4) can you understand why a dangerously anti-science, pro-Gun, pro-Oil, pro-Creationism climate sceptic with an appalling environmental record could become Governor of Alaska and potentially become Vice President of the United States of America with a finger on the nuclear trigger.
There is a long list of reasons why Sarah Palin is unfit to be Vice President of the US but one of the most fundamental is her support for the Bush Asian wars that have been associated (so far) with about 4 million under-5 year old infant deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan alone (1.2 million Iraqi infants deaths under Sanctions, 1990-2003; 0.6 million Iraqi infant deaths in Occupied Iraq, 2003-2008; 2.1 million infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan, 2001-2008; see MWC News ) – 4 million reasons why pro-War Sarah Palin, a mother of 5 children and shortly to be a grandmother, is utterly unfit to hold any public office, let alone the Vice Presidency of the US and a heart attack away from having her finger on the nuclear trigger.
Sarah Palin’s record on (A) the environment, (B) science-based risk management, (C) human rights and (D) violence and avoidable human deaths is utterly appalling and is summarized below (for detailed links to primary sources and Sarah Palin quotes see “Top Ten most disturbing facts and impressions about Sarah Palin”; Sarah Palin’s awful environmental record ; and “20 reasons why Sarah Palin is unfit to be vice president of US”).
A. Sarah Palin’s awful record on the environment
1. Palin opposes the endangerment listing of polar bears (Palin is suing the Interior Department on Alaska's behalf in reaction to the Feds' decision to list the animals as threatened; polar bears hunt on ice floes and the Arctic ice is melting catastrophically due to anthropogenic global warming).
2. Palin supports shooting wolves from the air (Palin opposed federal legislation to end Alaska's policy of allowing people to shoot wolves from airplanes).
3. Pro-oil Palin has supported oil and gas exploitation in the acutely threatened Alaskan wilderness and elsewhere (she wants to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and to expand offshore drilling).
4. Climate sceptic Palin rejects human responsibility for global warming (a man-made phenomenon that is acutely threatening the Arctic, the Alaskan tundra, the biosphere and billions of people around the world).
B. Sarah Palin’s awful record on Science and Science-based risk management
1. Palin supports the teaching of Creationism in schools (Creationism being flagrant anti-science nonsense).
2. Palin supports the teaching of “Intelligent Design” in schools (Intelligent Design being a Creationist Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing).
3. Palin (BS in journalism from the University of Idaho) is a climate sceptic (rejecting an overwhelming global scientific consensus that global warming is substantially due to pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases from land use and fossil fuel burning).
4. Palin’s anti-Science stance has meant that she has ignored crucial areas of rational risk management relating to the avoidable deaths of millions of Americans and overseas American subjects (see below).
5. Palin’s Bush-ite policies depart from rational, science-based risk management (the Arctic is melting and yet climate sceptic Palin ignores overwhelming international expert scientific advice about the Climate Emergency that the world is facing e.g. see the Climate Emergency Fact Sheets of the Yarra Valley Climate Action Group).
C. Palin’s awful record on human rights
1. Palin supports the death penalty for Americans (ignoring the “right to life” and the reality that numerous innocent Americans are killed by the State each year under such laws).
2. Palin opposes pro-choice laws for women (she is totally opposed for abortion even after rape and incest).
3. Palin is anti-gay in opposing same sex marriage and benefits to same sex couples.
4. Palin is linked to abuse of Indigenous Rights (Palin supports the Bush Administration which has refused to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and her running mate McCain has been involved in the dispossession of Indigenous Americans on behalf of the Coal interests).
5. Palin is complicit in the gross violation by the oil industry of the Alaskan wilderness (lands sacred and crucial to Indigenous Peoples).
6. Palin is complicit in the horrendous consequences of illegal and war criminal Bush Asian wars (e.g. 4 million under-5 year old Iraqi and Afghan infant deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories).
7. Palin fervently supports the “right to life” of the Unborn but not the “right to life” of Born American infants (e.g. 160,000 avoidable American infant deaths under the Bush Administration) or Born American Empire infants (notably 4 million under-5 year old Iraqi and Afghan infant deaths).
8. Palin ignores horrendous child sexual abuse in America (US studies indicate that 25% of US females and 10% of US males experience childhood sexual abuse).
D. Palin’s awful record on violence, war and active and passive killing
1. Palin supports gross de facto military violation of the “right to life” of foreign Born Infants (Palin and McCain support Zionism and Bush’s imperialism that is so far associated with post-invasion under-5 infant deaths totalling 0.2 million (Occupied Palestine), 0.1 million (Occupied Haiti), 0.2 million (Occupied Somalia), 0.6 million (Occupied Iraq) and 2.1 million (Occupied Afghanistan) (estimated as of September 2008 using data from the UN Population Division) and post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths) totalling 0.3 million (Occupied Palestine), 0.1 million (Occupied Haiti), 0.3 million (Occupied Somalia), 2 million (Occupied Iraq) and 3-6 million (Occupied Afghanistan).
2. Palin supports the Bush Administration War and Domestic policies yet 20,000 under-5 year old American infants die avoidably each year due to the warped priorities and policies of the Bush Administration (8 x 20,000 = 160,000 under-5 year old American Born Infants will have died avoidably under the Palin-supported Bush Administration).
3. Palin ignores the horrendous over 50 million infant excess deaths down to the US ove the last half century or so (Palin supports Bush, McCain and both past and continuing US wars on desperately poor countries around the world; of about 80 million 1950-2005 avoidable deaths in countries occupied by the US in the post-1945 era, over 50 million were avoidable under-5 infant deaths).
4. Palin supports gun ownership and is a life-long member of the National Rifle Association (Americans kill about 30,000 Americans annually with guns; 8 x 30,000 = 240,000 Americans will have been killed by Guns under the Bush Administration).
5. Palin is pro-War, pro-Zionist and supports violent occupation and colonization of foreign lands (Palin supports the pro-War and pro-Zionist policies of McCain and Bush that involve the violent invasion, occupation, devastation and colonization of foreign countries; using estimates from the UN Population Division, UNICEF and top US medical epidemiologists one can estimate the following carnage in the ongoing, Zionist- , Bush-ite and neo-Bush-ite-promoted Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide - post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 2 million, and 3-6 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.1 million, respectively; refugees totalling 7 million, 4.5 million and 4 million, respectively).
6. Palin ignores horrendous avoidable death of 1 million Americans annually under Bush (Palin ignores the horrendous avoidable deaths of about 1 million Americans annually from causes ranging from gun-deaths to refusal of medical assistance due to warped Republican policies).
7. Pro-Oil and pro-Coal Palin ignores huge American deaths from particulate pollutants (about 166,000 Americans die each year from particulate pollutants).
8. Pro-Coal Palin ignores huge American deaths from coal-based power generation ( Palin is a pro-Oil and pro-Coal climate sceptic and ignores the horrendous deaths of 49,000 Americans annually from the pollutants from coal burning-based electricity generation).
9. Palin supports “business as usual” and expanded carbon burning that may kill over 6 billion people this century according to top climate scientist Dr James Lovelock FRS (Palin supports “business as usual” and expanded logging, drilling, coal mining, gas and oil industries and ignores the urgent advice from top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen and his colleagues at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York: “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm”).
In addition to the above, there are “the usual” assertions of conflict of interest, incompetence, spin and related political shenanigans involving Sarah Palin (e.g. the “Bridge to Nowhere” affair) – however I won’t even bother going there because such things are the accompaniment of all but the most saintly politicians.
The most serious complaint by far against Sarah Palin is that she is complicit in the Bush War on Terror that in horrible reality is a cowardly and racist War on Asian, Arab, Muslim and non-European Women and Children and which in Iraq (1990-2008) and Afghanistan (2001-2008) alone has been associated with about 4 million under-5 year old infant deaths – 4 million reasons why Sarah Palin is utterly unfit to be Vice President of the US and indeed is unfit to hold any public office.