Always, The Cheap Shot

We take a break from campaign financing to check in with our favorite corporate cheerleader, who today characteristically demonstrated the unconditional love he has for his fellow American citizens. Patriot Rush Limbaugh today sneered

Now, the New York delegation in Congress, they got some good news today when they learned that Obama and Eric Holder are indeed looking at an alternative place to hold the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial. Again, Detroit or Washington are the two places I would go. Detroit would be much better chance for a jury of his peers. In Washington, Holder and Obama could drive by the trial every day and check out the $200 million a year in security. In Detroit, even if some terrorist blew some things up, depending on where they did it, you wouldn't know. So that's another reason for maybe considering Detroit for this.

I come not to bury Rush but to praise him. He appeared to be on to something, noting "Detroit would be much better chance for a jury of his peers." And according to arabdetroit.com, Michigan is second only to California as the state with the largest number of citizens of Arab background. Reportedly, Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans, which may be the third largest ethnic group in the state of Michigan. And Dearborn, just west of Detroit, is a hotbed of Arab-American culture. None of these thoughts appears to have crossed the mind of Limbaugh.

Not all of these individuals are Muslim and even of those, most would not be sympathetic to the mastermind of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. Nonetheless, the prominence of Arab-Americans in the greater Detroit area would represent a pool of jurors who either would be more sympathetic- or perhaps more objective- toward KSM than would other Americans. And such a prospect, even advanced as a joke, would give Rush an opportunity yet again to paint President Obama and Democrats as sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

But citing statistics or referring to the rich cultural heritage of the greater Detroit area, even if it would help Limbaugh make his case, would mean indulging facts. Unfortunately, these simply are not something that he and most of his listeners are partial to.

Instead, Rush took the easy way out, as his dittoheads evidently prefer, by declaring "in Detroit, even if some terrorists blew some things up, depending on where they did it, you wouldn't know." Why cite statistics, emphasize facts, or make any kind of reasonable argument when prejudice will do? If there is an opportunity to smear a city with a lot of poor people and minorities (blacks, in the case of Detroit), it's an opportunity not to miss. Especially if the middle class gets swept up in his stereotype. And especially if the only recourse is to give even passing attention to facts which, in the conservative fact-free zone, is anathema.