In preparation for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the city of Charlotte, NC has begun planning changes to its bus and light rail lines to minimize disruption for the city's roughly 730,000 residents. Rush Limbaugh was not fooled by the ostensible practicality of this measure, and yesterday instead labeled it an attempt by Democrats to obscure “the kind of people who go in and out of the bus station.”

Though Rush reads on-air the fact that the city's primary bus and rail station is located a mere five lanes from the site of the convention, he goes on to insist that the real reason for the move is because Democrats want to obscure the cameras' view of “their voters,” half of whom, he claims, “live at the bus station.” Because the city's main bus and rail hub is located directly across the street from the convention center, it's more than plausible that the security perimeter - remember, the President of the United States will be in attendance - will engulf the transit center.

The Charlotte Observer reported:

“One of the DNCC's top priorities is to minimize impact on Charlotteans' daily routines during the week of the convention,” [Charlotte Area Transit System chief executive, Carolyn Flowers] said.

The Charlotte Transportation Center is the nerve center for the city's rail and bus service. It's not only a start-and-go point for thousands of uptown workers, it's also a hub for switching buses. It is adjacent to the CTC/Arena light-rail station, which probably would be temporarily closed as well.

As the Observer reported, the transportation center of Charlotte will likely have to be moved because of its immediate proximity to the arena:

Changing traffic patterns and roping off a security perimeter around the location of a nomination convention site is absolutely not a new practice. Take the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul Minnesota, for instance. In 2008, The Star Tribune published a map of the “no-traffic zone” around the Xcel Center:

The “no-traffic zone” designated by the city of St. Paul in 2008 stretches over a number of city blocks surrounding the arena, as the perimeter around the security perimeter around the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte likely will.

Projecting his own ugly stereotypes about the poor onto an otherwise mundane exercise in logistics is just the latest installment in Rush's multi-volume history of attacking the poor. Last summer in response to a report on children facing hunger while classes were out of session, Rush suggested they “dumpster dive” for food. He's also cast doubt on the statistic that one in 50 American children experience homelessness every year, calling the idea “bogus,” and positing to his listeners, “Would somebody tell me the last time you saw a kid sleeping under a bridge?”