Because the television news industry has decided to take the weekend off for a wake

Let's report some actual news, shall we? Today we're focusing on the midwest floods. Here's some video taken by "citizen journalists" -- you know, people who are documenting events while the news industry holds its wake.

Downtown Cedar Rapids:

Another city drowns, and the Bush Administration does nothing

Another city. More images of men hauling sandbags. More families driven from their homes in boats to be deposited in emergency shelters with nothing but the clothes on their backs. More images of Michael Chertoff spouting platitudes like "When officials tell you to leave, leave."

The floods in the Midwest have been going on for a month, and the first steps in a disaster declaration began only yesterday.

It isn't just black people and the white poor being ignored by the Bush Administration anymore. These are the farmers growing the corn that's fed to cattle and used to make ethanol. These are the very white heartlanders that Republicans have been using as campaign props for a generation. And even they are seeing the government that's supposed to work for them turn its back on them.

This is what smaller government looks like. This is what happens when you leave everything to the states and the states are too overwhelmed to handle disasters on their own. This is what happens when you shovel money into the pockets of military contractors and the defense industry and run trillion-dollar defcits. This is what happens when you elect someone you think you'd like to have a beer with instead of someone with a half a brain in his head who's oriented towards problem-solving.

That John McCain, who promises more of what we've endured for the last eight years, is even competitive in this fall's presidential race shows how the Democrats have failed in demonstrating to the people now trying to rescue their belongings that programs like federal disaster assistance and Social Security and Medicare are the product of the very liberalism that Republicans have derided for a generation. With a wide swath of swing states now under water, and $4 gasoline, and skyrocketing food prices, and a dwindling job base, and foreclosures up 48% this year, it's hard to imagine Republican supply-side, feed-the-rich policies as being anything but completely discredited.

And yet, there's John McCain, with a tax plan that once again shovels even more cash into the pockets of the wealthy (when DOES that stuff start "trickling down", anyway?); a tax plan widely derided by economists as being -- dare I say it? -- McSame.

I would hope that by now American voters have begun to do the math. Meanwhile, the Cedar River is expected to crest today at 32 feet -- a full eight feet above yesterday's projections.

Katrina 2: Where is the media?

A good-sized swath of America's heartland is under water, and you'd never know it from reading the newspapers or watching the news. Via Warren Street at Blue Girl, Red State comes this on-the-scene report from Le Grand Orange:

Darrell in Iowa writes:

I am in Mason City.  Our levees broke Sunday morning.  Flood stage is 7 foot and waters are now at 19 feet.  Hundreds of homes and businesses are underwater.  The City's water plant was flooded and the entire city of 30,000 is without potable water.  A couple of hours ago the main electric substation flooded and failed and much of the city is without power.  People remain in flooded homes.  Early tonight I saw people wandering the streets not knowing where to go.  There are entrie areas of the city with NO emergency personnel on hand.

NOBODY from the outside has come to help.  Our local first responders are exhausted and overwhelmed.  Small rural towns downstream tonight are being devasted.  Levees everywhere are failing.  Calls for help in these small towns have been unmet.  Portions of our local guard are in Iraq.

The homeland has been left unprotected and people are suffering horribly.

"Darrell in Iowa"'s updates are here. Obviously someone chastised him for drawing parallels with New Orleans and complaining that the National Guard was not there to help. That seems a shame and uncalled-for. That Iowa was similarly left to fend for itself in no way diminishes what happened to New Orleans three years ago -- a tragedy that continues to this day. This gets back to that unfortunate concept of "a patent on suffering" -- that there is only so much empathy to go around. That our government is letting white communities drown as blithely as it did black communities should tell us that it isn't even about race -- it's about a fundamental contempt for EVERY American not in the Bush Family Circle.

As for the National Guard, complaints that the Guard just isn't there isn't a knock on Our Fearless Troops™ it's a knock on their Commander-in-Chief, who has sent them off to fight in a war based on lies so that he doesn't have to institute a draft.

The fact of the matter remains this: that once again, a section of this country is flooded, and the attitude of the Federal government is "Fuck you...you're on your own." This is what Republican policies look like. This is what making the government so small you could drown it in a bathtub looks like. This is what the domestic consequences of a war fought on the cheap look like. And it isn't over yet:

A dam near the Wisconsin Dells resort area broke on Monday, sweeping away some homes, as torrential rains caused more flooding across parts of the U.S. Midwest, authorities said.

No deaths or injuries were reported, though residents living beside a few rain-swollen rivers in central Wisconsin were urged to evacuate, the Columbia County Sheriff's office said.

The failure of the Delton Dam on Lake Delton caused mudslides that swept away a few homes. The water rushed to form a new tributary to the Wisconsin River, which eventually empties into the Mississippi River.

Police issued a warning about debris swept into rivers from collapsed buildings and roads.

Other dams in the Wisconsin Dells region, which is famous for its scenic lakes and resorts, were also threatened by a series of drenching storms in recent weeks, authorities said.

Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency in 30 counties in the southern half of Wisconsin. Similar declarations have been made in recent days in Iowa and Indiana, with flooding also affecting parts of Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

"This is an area that's been bombarded with rain over the weekend, anywhere from 5 to 10 inches, and you're dealing with saturated soils. So any rain that falls becomes run-off," the National Weather Service's Pat Slattery said.

Nearly one-third of Iowa's 99 counties were experiencing flooding, according to Gov. Chet Culver.

Flood damage estimated in the tens of millions of dollars were being added to recent storm damage in Iowa, including a tornado that flattened the town of Parkersburg two weeks ago.

The water treatment plant Mason City, Iowa, was swamped this weekend by the Winnebago River, three of four bridges in the town of Charles City were swept away by flooding of the Cedar River, and the town of New Hartford was evacuated.

Many corn and soybean acres were under water in Midwestern states, hurting farmers' prospects after a wet spring that had already delayed planting in many places.

Iowa and Illinois alone produce one-third of U.S. corn and soybeans, usually the world's biggest harvests of those crops.

And that's another side note: What happens to the prices of gasoline and meat when the crop used to make ethanol and feedstocks for farm animals are under water? If you think food and gasoline prices are high now, just wait till these shortages work their way through the system. Jimmy Higgins at Fire on the Mountain has some thoughts on this. Photos from yesterday in Cedar Falls, Iowa can be found here. And over at Culture Kitchen, a reminder of just who was laughing and posing with a cake (that was never eaten, just thrown away, like everything -- and everyone -- else used in Republican photo-ops) the last time floods devastated an entire region of the country.

Where is the so-called President? Where is the national media? Is trying to perpetuate the myth that John McCain is a popular, likeable maverick so taxing to the news organizations that they have no time or resources to cover what's happening in our own country?

This is what a finely tuned tin ear sounds like: The Sequel

On a day in which most bloggers are asking our readers to donate to help those who lost everything in Tuesday night's storms, He Who Must Not Be Named is asking you to giv HIM some turkee:

Blogging Is Hard Work

Sort of anyway. It does take a lot of time. One time consuming part of the "job" which I left off the original fundraising post is dealing with the community. While the comments section has largely become a world in and of itself, it still takes up quite a bit of my time. People regularly question whether I read the comments, and the answer is that I do read most of them. I don't get up in the morning and see what I missed overnight, but generally throughout the day I keep track of what's being said.

While I don't do active moderation, I do try to gently nudge things one way or another at times and of course there are posts which need to be zapped fairly frequently, which I do if I see them. And when the kids squabble people sometimes email Dad to step in to stop the fighting.

But, admittedly, mostly I read the comments because they're fun, informative, and entertaining. Commenters provide a check on me when I write something stupid, and of course provide me with lots of material which I liberally borrow and steal. While it's an incredibly time consuming part of what I do, it's also the most rewarding. If not for comments I would've gotten bored with this blogging stuff a long time ago. Not really sure why bloggers without comments bother.

Thanks to all who have contributed to FEBRUARY FUNTASTIC FUNDRAISING so far. People have been very generous. The soft push will continue until my birthday, when there will be cake, and then the begging bowl will go back into hibernation for a long time. Haven't yet taken in as much as Obama has, but it's not over yet!

As for OUR readers HERE?

You know what to do.

Help out your fellow Americans

On Tuesday night, I was over at Hoffmania's Super Tuesday chat, where Monkeyfister was popping in from Memphis every now and then -- as electrical power permitted -- just to let everyone know he was all right, living as he does in the heart of the area hit by Tuesday's ferocious and unseasonal tornadoes. It was a rare first-hand glimpse for those of us living in states not ordinarily affected by tornadoes of the terror these storms cause in those who live in the Midwest.

While the so-called president is offering prayers instead of real, concrete help (because God forbid Blackwater should sacrifice a few dollars to Americans whose homes have been destroyed, it's up to the rest of us to prove that what Barack Obama said in 2004 was right -- that we are not red states and blue states, that we are all Americans, and while we may at times be a dysfunctional family, we are part of the American family. And just as we reached out to the people of New Orleans, it's time to reach out to the people of Tennessee and environs who lost their homes and loved ones.

I'll let MF tell you how you can help:

Whilst we're waiting for George's Promised Prayers to roll in, down here in the Tornado-Stricken Mid-South, I might recommend some DIRECT HUMAN INTERACTION.

This Is My Best First Start To Help My Region.

As Scout Prime is to NOLA, I am, suddenly, to the Mid-South area (I LIVE here, and was Live-Blogging these horrible storms all night), and have started to get the help-ball rolling down here. Some of you know where I work. I started a Food Drive there today for the Mid-South United Way Food Bank.

As the area affected is so broad and detached, and everyone in the Country was distracted by politics last night, as yet, there is no central assistance hub set-up. So, at the link, above, you'll find the two agencies with the broadest radius to help the area right now. Both take DIRECT donations.

A small-blog swarm on that post (or this comment) would be greatly appreciated by more people than just me. I can't describe how wide-spread the damage is down here. It's enormous. The Media, per usual, is only just now waking up to the situation, after their Super-Duper-Let's-All-Wet-Our-Pants-Together- Tuesday Political Hangover. Like NOLA, these are REALLY poor folks down here, and have nothing, and nowhere to go.

A short post about this at YOUR Blog, linking either to my post, above, or directly to the two Orgs mentioned in the post above, would sure be a big help, and would be greatly appreciated by many people who are relying on help. They are all that we have right now.

I just donated a deer's worth of ground venison, along with the 100 pounds of rice and quart-sized ziplock bags that they said that they needed at the United Way Mid-South Food Bank, when I phoned them this morning. Their pantry is BARE, and I'll be loading them up with all the potatoes, rice, veggies, bags, and other staples that I can fit in my truck tomorrow.

This is serious Red State country, and a flood of help from the DFH Left would REALLY make a big difference in a number of good ways.

I thank you all in advance.

Click Here for more about what's going on down here. It's all that I am writing about right now. Help is needed.

Your humble peer,

Monkeyfister

So please....kick in what you can, and if you have a blog, please join the blogswarm and show your fellow Americans, some of whom may only hear about us when talk radio talks about those mean and irresponsible bloggers, what we can do as a group.

MF will be providing regular updates, so for the straight story about what's going on in the aftermath of these terrible storms, this is where to go. and if you'd like to see what this storm looked like first hand, go here.