So it is that Big Oil rules Alaska-an enormous land mass with a tiny population of only 630,000, which is only two-thirds the number of people in Erie County.
All that money makes public services in Alaska very cheap, and the oil industry very popular. According to published reports, public opinion in Alaska strongly favors drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. Alaska public opinion generally favors exploitation of every natural resource. Though Alaska's workforce of a little over 300,000 contains only about 15,000 oil-industry workers, the majority of voters there like the idea of more drilling.
Earlier this decade, a person named Sarah Palin, who is married to a sometime oil-worker, was commissioner of natural resources in Alaska. In other words, she was in charge of Alaska's Office of Oil Affairs.
Now that she is the marquee candidate for vice president, Governor Sarah Palin is front-page news and the front-and-center story for everybody who wants to discuss teenage pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births, Down syndrome and the breathtaking pivot of the Religious Right-which until recently (about three weeks ago, to be exact) frowned upon and fulminated about sex education and out-of-wedlock births.
One cannot help but observe, however, that the longer we discuss Sarah Palin's uterus, the more likely it is that American politics will remain distracted from the central issue of this election: whether the lords of oil will continue to control the United States as surely as they control Alaska.
That is a important issue. But I consider reproductive rights an important health issue as well. :::link:::
The similarities between Palin and Cheney are eerie.
Both are oil people.
Both are secretive.
Both are vindictive.
Both surround themselves with cronies, and both consider loyalty to be the paramount qualification.
And both are frigging liars.
On the other hand, at least Palin can shoot well.