The floodwaters in Iowa all flowed into the Mississippi River, and now it's a floating hazard running downstream, encountering levees throughout the Midwest and breaching them. 19 levees have thus far been compromised in Iowa and Illinois. This is going to play out all week, and Bush is back from his European vacation vowing quick action.
This is a disaster, but it's largely a property disaster. Towns on the river are not surrounded by water on all sides, and deaths have been thankfully minimal. Most reasonable people would see this and be happy that this is not the challenge residents faced on the Gulf Coast. Rush Limbaugh sees it and can only see color.
Limbaugh: I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois—I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property…I don’t see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don’t see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don’t see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don’t see a bunch of people doing everything they can…whining and moaning—where’s FEMA, where’s BUSH. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.
How it must feel to be so aggrieved that any opportunity to denounce blacks as lazy is taken.
Now I could go ahead and debunk all of Rush's lies. The devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf was orders of magnitude above anything we've seen this decade. Nobody in New Orleans shot at cops. The lurid stories of rape and murder and gang warfare weren't true. But there is no point, really. Because all we're seeing here is a stone racist, convinced of his own biases, assured of his beliefs in how Heartland Americans are real Americans.
These next eight years of a biracial President are going to put him over the top. Who, by the way, filled sandbags in the Midwest over the weekend. I guess John McCain isn't a real American, then.