Thursday 5 March 2009

Oil or life?


Sarah Palin picked an Anchorage judge to fill the latest vacancy on the Alaska Supreme Court despite efforts by a conservative Christian group to convince her to do otherwise.

Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen, of Anchorage, was chosen over Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, of Palmer.

What's going on? How come Sarah didn't go for the judge in her neighbourhood? Eric Smith was the favourite of the Alaska Family Council - a Christian pro-family, anti-abortion group.

Morgan Christen was on the board of Planned Parenthood in the mid-1990s. Planned Parenthood is on the opposite side of a Palin-supported bill to require girls under 17 to get parental consent for an abortion.

Eric Smith was executive director of the public interest environmental law firm, Trustees for Alaska. The group currently is on the opposite side of Palin over the listing of Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered.

Sarah's pro-life credentials are well known, she opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Her anti-environment credentials are also well known, with two lawsuits against the government over the listing of polar bears and beluga whales as endangered species. She took her governor's hat off to support the controversial dumping of toxic waste from Pebble Mine into the waters of Bristol Bay. Let's not forget that she wants to drill for oil and gas in ANWR.

What does the selection of a pro-choice judge to the Supreme Court over a judge presumably pro-life, pro-environment say about Sarah Palin?

The way I see it, Sarah is more pro-oil than she is pro-life.
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7 comments:

Tim Lindell said...

Eric Smith is not pro-life. The Alaska Christians didn't want either of the candidates, they wanted Palin to force the AJC to give more candidates, something Palin has no power to make them do.

regina said...

Videmus Omnia,

I've changed the text a little bit. It's easy to assume the judge was pro-life given the support he received from the Alaska Family Council.

Thanks for the clarification. I suppose his pro-environment credentials speak louder than everything else.

Anonymous said...

very interesting!


-L.

Anonymous said...

Funny Gryphen's blog is reporting that...
"The head of the Alaska Family Council -- a Christian pro-family, anti-abortion group -- on Wednesday sent an e-mail to thousands of people asking them to urge Palin to pick Smith, not Christen."
She chose oil instead of Life. Period. You can try to spin it, but she is in bed with big oil. And no I wouldn't waste my money reading "Sarah Palin takes on big oil" b/c that's a crock...

Anonymous said...

You wrote, "The way I see it, Sarah is more pro-oil than she is pro-life." You see it most correctly. I am an Alaskan who has been very involved in our pro-life movement for five-years now. Sarah Palin ISN'T pro-life and she never has been in her actions. She merely only throws out a few pro-life word tidbits here and there to keep most of the pro-life people who aren't really paying attention happy. In action, she's pro-abortion. It is very, very frustrating to be in the pro-life movement in Alaska - Sarah Palin has given us more work to do, won't help us do it, even thwarts us in our attempts to pass legislation. Yet because so many big wheels in the Alaskan pro-life movement are feminists and feminist supporters, the truth about Sarah Palin's pro-abortion record remains hushed.

Anonymous said...

Eric Smith is much more pro-death than Christen and the "Christian pro-family" group that is spreading this and promoting Smith is related to the "Alaska Pride" White Nationalist group that has started a lot of smears against Palin. Just because they claim to be Christian doesn't mean they are.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I wonder if my assessment of Palin as a hypocrite with no real values is too harsh-- perhaps she really is sincere about some cause, and a pro-life one seems plausible-- and then I read things like this. Another shining example of Christian Right values.