RUSH: Here’s Andy in Manhattan. Andy, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. It’s nice to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Thank you, sir. And I also want to thank you for voicing your opinion against the Ground Zero mosque. I myself am a 9/11 hard hat and we have been fighting this thing tooth and nail since it started, and it seems all our elected officials have abandoned us and let us down. So now it’s basically down to us blue-collar workers coming together pledging not to do any work on that site. So that’s what I’m reduced to, Rush.
RUSH: Somebody called yesterday and made mention of this possibility, that the people who are going to build it might just refuse to.
CALLER: Well, you see, I’m not putting any faith in the union leadership. As you know, they can be easily swayed. So what I’m doing is I’m a construction super in New York. I’m going around to all of the big construction sites because I do all the big work in New York City and I’ve been going up to the guys, I’ve been talking to them, and Rush, it’s unanimous. These guys will rather sit home than lift a hammer or a nail that contributes to constructing this insult, this dagger in the heart of the 3,000 families that are suffering and have to relive the suffering if this thing actually goes through.
RUSH: This is happening all over the country. In New York it’s over the mosque. In California it’s over this. In Arizona it’s over immigration. In Missouri it’s about healthcare. Everywhere, all across this country there are people feeling outrage and defiance exactly as you are. You know the White House reaction to you, Andy? ‘We dismiss you. The people in Missouri, Arizona, dismissed. It doesn’t mean anything. What you think doesn’t mean anything, Andy.’
CALLER: I know. It’s like you said earlier. They’re going against the will of the people. This guy Scott Stringer and Mayor Bloomberg. You know what? I would love to ask Mayor Bloomberg if it was his daughter that perished in one of those buildings, would he feel the same way today? Would he have the same opinion? Would he be so generous about just letting anyone come in there and desecrate the memories of those lost?
RUSH: Why should that be the standard? He was the mayor, for crying out loud! There are 3,000 New Yorkers and New Jersey, Connecticut people dead. Why should he have to know any of them personally in order to be morally correct on this? I mean, I get what you’re saying, but why should he have to know anybody who personally perished? I don’t know anybody who personally perished and I’m still outraged by it.
CALLER: Rush, I was at the Winter Garden when we rebuilt it right after 9/11. The Winter Garden was a smoldering ruin, and four months later we reconstructed the whole entire thing, and I was there with Pataki and Giuliani and Bloomberg and they promised that they would rebuild this site and here it is a decade later. It’s barely, it’s barely being built up right now as we speak and now they are going to allow a mosque a stone’s throw away.
RUSH: Right, and guess what year they want to start construction on the mosque?
CALLER: Oh, the finish date, it’s classic. Go ahead. You tell them, big guy.
RUSH: 9/11/2011.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: 9/11/2011. That’s when they either want to start it or finish it. I’m not sure which.
CALLER: That was their finish date. They actually switched it, and they actually switched the name from ‘Cordoba Initiative’ to ‘Park51’ because of the connotation —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — of them building mosques on conquered lands.
RUSH: It’s the start date is 9/11/2011. That’s when they want to start building the mosque, 9/11/2011.
CALLER: It’s crazy.
RUSH: I’m not making it up. Andy, thanks so much for the call. As for Bloomberg, don’t forget when the Times Square bomber was caught. Don’t forget Bloomberg said, ‘Oh, this guy is obviously upset about health care. He’s obviously a right-winger ticked off about health care, some silly social thing.’ It couldn’t possibly have been an Islamist or jihadist, the Times Square bomber. ‘No, no, no! It had to be somebody ticked off about health care, had to be some right-winger.’ This building, by the way, is the only building on that block that does not have landmark status. That’s why the vote of the Landmarks Preservation Commission was, well, interesting, fascinating. It’s the only building on that block that is not landmarked.
It’s is not landmarked so they can go ahead and build the mosque. They want to start construction 9/11/2011. The mosque will be done first. The mosque will finish before, as I said, the Freedom Tower. I’m not making it up. There are 29 buildings on that street, 23 of them have landmark status. The other six are pending. The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to deny landmark status to the building that will be torn down to become the mosque. It… (interruption) How can…? How can anybody deny what the ramifications are? Looking at it rationally I’ve learned that trying to explain the irrational rationally is only going to frustrate you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We go to Indianapolis. This is Jim. I’m glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. How you doing?
RUSH: Very well, sir, thank you.
CALLER: Yes. The reason I called are just some thoughts on building of the mosque there in New York. I’m an ordained minister in one of the larger evangelical church organizations in the United States, and one of the things we’ve run into over the last, oh, 15, 16, 20 years roughly is when we go into some of the larger cities sometimes, we run into real problems on zoning and problems in building new churches in some of these areas because some of the cities and even the suburban areas are afraid of losing a tax base — and, you know, any church that goes in, including this mosque, is a tax-exempt entity. When it goes in and takes control of this building, this is going to make this building — or once it turns it on and builds a mosque — it’s going to become a tax-exempt area. They are not going to pay any taxes on that, and I would imagine this is going to be built in one of the more expensive areas and probably tax-heavy, lucrative areas of New York City. And it just seems kind of odd in the evangelical churches we run into a lot of — and it’s not every city, but in a lot of places — real problems in building because of this. They really don’t want us a lot of times, and yet it seems as though the City of New York is just bending over so far backwards to get this mosque and they are going to probably lose quite a bit of money out of the tax base. I’m wondering why they are so anxious to do it. Is there a… Well, you know, just a thought: A kickback coming there somewhere we don’t know about?
RUSH: Well, you know… (sigh) All I can do is play a sound bite. Grab audio sound bite number 28. This is this afternoon in Washington. At the Department of Justice the Attorney General Eric Holder held a press conference to announce that they have charged 14 American citizens with providing aid and support to the Somali-based terror group al-Shabaab. Here is a portion of what Holder had to say…
HOLDER: Members of the American Moos’lim community have been and continue to be strong partners in fighting this emerging threat. They have regularly denounced terrorist acts and those who carry them out. There needs to be more recognition of these efforts and of the losses suffered by the Moos’lim community here and around the world. Many of the victims of terror attacks by al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups are innocent Moos’lims. They are innocent Moos’lims.
RUSH: So that’s as good an answer to your question as I can give you. There’s a curse here of political correctness that has pervaded — and, of course, you’re evangelical, and to many you’re a hate group. You’re the hate group. Evangelical Christians, you’re the hate group. I mean, you’re pro-life. ‘You’re against a woman’s right to choose. But these Muslims, I mean, they’re unfairly discriminated against.’ So here’s a press conference to announce that they’ve charged 14 American citizens with providing aid and support to a Somali terror group called al-Shabaab and Holder thinks his major thrust, major point here is to praise ‘the American Muslim community [who] have been strong partners in fighting this emerging threat.’