Does Your Truth Ever Feel Weak And Unimportant?

-by Decay

Palin was into Bridges to Nowhere before she was against them

I live in a bubble. I never watch TV, and haven't for years. I get all my information from the net and books, magazines, etc. My parents, sister, and brother (and their families) get all their information from TV. They believe Fox. They're all born-again Christians, or children of them. And most of them are very sweet and kind people.

When I first found out that Palin didn't sell the jet on eBay, and that it was sold at a loss, I researched it and came to the conclusion that McCain had repeated a lie he'd been told by Palin.

My sister called me to tell me that it was great that Palin would sell the plane on eBay, what a tough one she is, "we love her", etc.  (My family doesn't believe in abortion for any reason, just like Palin.) When I pointed out that the plane story was untrue and backed it up, there was silence, then some small talk about a cousin, and the call was over.

She hated me for saying that, and I assume still believes that the plane story is true; I'm a liberal dissembler.

If I can't get the plane story refuted, and the refutation agreed to, I have no hope on bigger issues. Iraq, economy, health care. The TV will be on and Gibson will set up the slow pitch and Palin will hit 
the whiffle, and McCain will grin.

My mother always uses the slag against Obama that he wants socialized medicine, so we'll have to wait for months to get an operation, or even see a doctor. "Like in Canada, where I saw this thing on the news where a lady needed this operation on her liver, and she couldn't get an appointment..."  When I point out that since my father was in the service, my parents get military health care, which is a big form of socialized medicine, that our whole family is lucky they have that plan, I get stares, silence. Nothing.

My sister told me once that she didn't care what Bush did, she'd vote for him no matter what because of the 44,000,000 dead babies. She's a one-issue voter-- abortion. She bought Bush's scam. She's the person who is invigorated by SP, and will start canvassing her town, spreading 
the plane story across back fences and in the market. She's on a mission from God now. (I might add that my sister was valedictorian of our High School.)

And here I am in this bubble of the internet. Not owned by Big Media... yet. I felt like I was in a bigger world, free to discover and be intelligent and make informed decisions, to help change things. But 
right now I feel like I'm on an island, surrounded by sharks. My truth feels weak and unimportant.

I've written my family off, as far as making a change. And I have to keep on living in my bubble, expanding it, looking for clues, being as smart as I can be.

Maybe one day the world will be the bubble.


UPDATE FROM HOWIE: MORE INFO FOR DECAY'S SISTER

A.P. has been a strong McCain backer but even that organization couldn't sit back and wacth the lies pouring out of the campaign about Palin's supposed heroism in stopping the infmaous Bridges to Nowhere. A.P. debunked the lies today. Of course, whether or not it will matter to folks like those described above... nah.

A new ad from John McCain's presidential campaign contends his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, Palin was for the infamous bridge before she was against it.

THE SPIN: Called "Original Mavericks," the ad asserts the Republican senator has fought pork-barrel spending, the drug industry and fellow Republicans, reforming Washington in the process, and credits Palin with similarly changing Alaska by taking on the oil industry, challenging her own party and ditching the bridge project that became a national symbol of wasteful spending.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton came back with fighting words. "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere," he said.

Burton said McCain would merely carry on supporting President Bush's economic, health, education, energy and foreign policies, and that means "anything but change."
THE FACTS: Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor.

McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state.

"I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she said in her convention speech last week.

That's not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with the money.

But that crazy Palin and her family! I think folks sympathize with her because they feel like they know them-- from every Jerry Springer Show they've ever watched. I don't know if Keven is on the up and up or not, but... I guess we'll find out in seven months.


UPDATE: EVEN FOX CAN'T ABIDE THE PALIN LIES

OK, Decay's family doesn't read socialist media like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, or Newsweek, but... he said they believe Fox. Unless they only believe the 30 second propaganda spots on Fox, they may have learned something about the whole Palin deception thing. Yesterday Chris Wallace slapped McCain lobbyist/campaign manager Rick Davis around... on Fox.