Cross-posted at Eclectablog.
Nearly 35,000 Detroiters converged on Cobo Hall last Wednesday to claim one of the 5,000 applications for federal aid set aside for people in poverty, giving Rush Limbaugh a chance to mock "Obama's America."
Here's video from the Associated Press:
Via the Detroit News:
They came by foot, wheelchair, bicycle and car. About six left by ambulance after tensions rose and people were trampled, according to a paramedic on the scene. One unfortunate soul got his car booted.Detroiters were trying to pick up 5,000 federal assistance applications from the city at Cobo because Detroit received nearly $15.2 million in federal dollars under the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, which is for temporary financial assistance and housing services to individuals and families who are homeless, or who would be homeless without this help.
People in wheelchairs and others using canes were being leaned on by people too weak to stand. Emergency medical technicians on the scene said they treated applicants who were injured during the rush to get inside the venue.
Referring to the line-up, Limbaugh called it part of "Obama's America" and jeered at uneducated Detroiters who live their lives on very little money.
From Crooks and Liars comes the Limbaugh audio:
There's a transcript available at Limbaugh's webpage entitled "Detroit's Model Citizens Line Up for Money from Obama's Stash."
After spending several minutes playing cherry-picked interviews with people who seem ignorant about the source of the funds, Limbaugh describes all Detroiters and those seeking federal assistance like this:
Dumb, uninformed, shockingly, saddeningly stupid, the model citizen for Barack Obama and the Democrat Party ...There you have it, model citizens in Obama's America. "I don't know, it's coming from Obama's stash. He loves us!" That's exactly what Obama wants these people to think. And this is what socialism gets you. If these people think it's bad now trying to get money, wait until Obama fully enacts everything in his plan.
Wednesday's gathering was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how joblessness and the home foreclosure crisis have pushed people from the lower and middle ends of the economic scale to seek help wherever they can.
Michigan leads the country in unemployment levels. Across the state, 15.2 percent of Michiganders are without jobs. In Detroit, it's even more dire with 27.8 percent.
"It's probably the worst hunger crisis we've seen in our history," said Anne Schenk, spokeswoman for Detroit's Gleaners Community Food Bank, the state's largest food bank, serving five counties in southeast Michigan.