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Glenn Beck

Was Hostage Situation Victory or Humiliation for Britain?

Aired April 05, 2007 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GLENN BECK, HOST: The 15 British soldiers have been released by Iran, but is this victory or humiliation for England? Here`s the point tonight. Quiet diplomacy equals appeasement equals our destruction, and here`s how I got there. There are two very different articles in British newspapers today. One of them is in "The Guardian" and it read the U.S. can learn from this example of mutual respect. The other, an op-ed appearing in "The Daily Express" had just one word, humiliated. This is a clear example of how the world is split between denial and reality.
Our survival depends on our ability to grasp reality, and we better grasp it pretty soon. The first side of the argument basically is an endorsement of quiet diplomacy. This is what people like James Baker, Henry Kissinger or this week Nancy Pelosi have been calling for, to sit down, face-to-face, in negotiations, with our enemies in Iran and Syria regardless of what they have done. I`m not sure if these people actually believe we can trust the other side as honest partners in peace, even though they are talking about wiping whole countries off of the map, and they refuse to denounce terrorism. If that`s the case, then that is appeasement and dangerous denial.

The other side views this whole British sailor crisis and the overall way the west has been handling the situation in the Middle East as a PR victory for our enemies. Humiliation for us, which normally, you know, humiliation, I could care less about humiliation. However, what you have to understand is humiliation is a driving force in the way some of the people in the Middle East view their lot in life. Our leaders need to look to the past for guidance on how to govern in the present. Maybe we should read a little Theodore Roosevelt who said walk softly and carry big stick. Ronald Reagan, can somebody start to quote him. He preached peace through strength. Those two people alone changed the world for the better.

Neither side in this war wants more war. We don`t want to believe that there is evil in the world. We don`t want to believe that there are armed madmen out there who want to destroy us and our children, but you know what? The reality is there are. Seems to me we are once again dividing ourselves. The lines are being drawn now between appeasement and strength. That principle we all agree on is peace.

Now the question is how do we get there and that`s what separates us, but as long as we agree on principles and simply disagree on policies, then coming together shouldn`t be so difficult, providing we look to history for the answer. So here`s what I know tonight. Reagan, Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, they were right. Chamberlain was wrong. What I don`t know. When have we ever negotiated with evil, with Stalin or Hitler, to name just a couple, and had it work out in our favor? Will our combined government ever learn that lesson?

Joining me now Robert Hunter. He is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and John Ingham. He`s the man who co-wrote the op-ed piece titled "Humiliated" for "The Daily Express" in London. John, let me start with you. The mood on the streets of England today, got to believe people are excited that the soldiers or the sailors have come home, but is there an underlying feeling at all that maybe trouble is on the horizon?

JOHN INGHAM, DAILY EXPRESS: I think everybody in Britain is delighted that the British hostages have been released, but make no mistakes they were hostages. They weren`t able to go. They were freed when Iran decided they would free them. People are delighted that they have come out of that.

However, there`s also a feeling that we`ve been humiliated because the Iranians took our sailors and our royal Marines. They paraded them on TV. They used the sole woman prisoner, made full propaganda capital out of her and they -- they then -- Ahmadinejad released them only under his terms after using a press conference to rehearse all the ills perpetrated by the west against the Middle East.

BECK: OK.

INGHAM: To tell Britain off about his values and so on.

BECK: Let me go to Robert. Robert, I really don`t care about humiliated. You know, I want to live in peace. I want to raise my family. Humiliation usually doesn`t play a role, but understanding the Middle East, humiliation plays a huge role there. How can you possibly say that this is a win for us when it is being projected through their PR campaign as such a huge victory for them, and it makes us look weak?

ROBERT HUNTER, FMR AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, why do we have to accept that characterization? Humiliation is what you -- no. Humiliation is what you choose to see it. This was a victory first for common sense and secondly, for cool-headedness on the part of the prime minister.

BECK: You are looking at that, Roger, Robert, you are looking at that as a westerner. I`m asking the question as a view from the Middle East.

HUNTER: I`ll tell you. Ahmadinejad knows that we do carry a strong stick. He does know that we have the strength. He does know the way Churchill said that the power is with us. This is not Nazi Germany. This is some small country that can get clobbered by the west. He backed down. He backed down against the combined might of the west and against I was surprised to say it, but the resolute strength and calmness of the British prime minister, so I think it`s a victory for common sense, victory for diplomacy. It gives us a better basis if we Americans watch what Blair did to get what we want, to face down this crumb bum Ahmadinejad and get peace in the bargain. We can get it all.

BECK: John, let me go back to you. You live in England and England is a much different place than the United States is right now. You are already feeling -- what I think Robert may be missing and we`ll come back and maybe you can respond to this, what I think he may be missing is this isn`t a war with Iran. This is a war on the west, the entire west, from a crazy group of people that believe in a global Islamic society and government and you in England are already seeing signs of this where you can`t teach the holocaust now in schools. Isn`t this something that you need to look at and say, wait a minute, this isn`t about a little country in the middle of the Middle East. This is a whole philosophy that we`re fighting?

INGHAM: Well, yeah, I smiled when I heard Robert describe Iran as a little country. I don`t think that`s right at all, and he was talking about how we did have the power. We were powerless. We could not send our troops in to rescue them. There was talk of rescue missions. We didn`t even know where they were holding them so it`s -- in America, as you`ll recall, from your Iranian hostage crisis, you sent in a rescue mission and it failed badly. I lived in America then, and we didn`t want to go through the same hostage crisis that you did. Now --

BECK: You didn`t, your prime minister got them out. You got them out. Robert, a lot of people will say -

INGHAM: But at what price though?

BECK: A lot of pressure from the inside. Let me ask you this.

HUNTER: The Iranians have been under pressure for months now, the forces that are out there picking up their people in Iraq, cutting off their funding through the banks, squeezing them. This guy was out there trying to get some piddling little PR thing, it didn`t work. He had to back down.

BECK: I doubt he views it that way. Robert, we have Thatcher. She would have moved. Churchill would have moved. Reagan would have moved.

HUNTER: Moved what. Moved what?

BECK: It would have looked a little more like the-- would have moved troops. Would have looked a little more like the Falklands at least in a show of strength.

HUNTER: You mean Iran is the Falklands. Look, Churchill was a person who was prepared when Hitler went into the Soviet Union, an evil country to say if Hitler invaded hell I would say nice things about the devil. He also was a guy who said better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.

BECK: Absolutely.

HUNTER: He got his way at moments of crisis because he knew when to use the military and when not and this is a time where it would be a mutual disaster to try to go and attack Iran. I mean, Blair knows it. Bush knows it. Everybody knows that. The question is Blair faced down Ahmadinejad, and he had to put the best face on it he possibly could.

BECK: Robert, John, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. I just want to make a point here because it`s always twisted on anything I say. I am not for war. I am not for attacking Iran. I agree with Robert it would have been the worse thing we could have done but there`s a difference between the illusion of strength and attacking.

Iranian TV broadcast an interview with President Ahmadinejad with a delegation of Christian leaders from America just last week. Shockingly, the benevolent president wasn`t shy about offering advice to President Bush. Remember, this is a PR war in the Middle East for the Middle East. This now, this clip, is something you are not going to see on other networks in America. That`s why we call it missed by the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I advise the president not to take the decisions while angry, when he`s angry.

Because decisions taken when a person is angry usually are not good decisions. And also change the circle of his counselors, advisors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: He sure seems like a man of peace, doesn`t he? By the way, programming note. I`ll be speaking with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the radio program tomorrow. What is her feeling on the recent crisis? We`ll find out tomorrow on the radio. Coming up. A new study reveals that illegal immigrants may actually be a burden to the taxpayers. No. So what is the government doing about it? Well, I`ll tell you a GOP`s immigration reform plan that is sure to please no one.

And it`s never too early for a little presidential prediction. Tonight my picks, and really my history with these sorts of things are spot on, really, I promise. Plus, Al Gore is now getting a hit from both the left and the right. I`ll tell you why his global warming campaign is starting to cool off in tonight`s "Real Story."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right. The people who work on my program are a lot of things. They`re loud, dandruffy, some of them are Canadian, but I have to admit they are all really good at their jobs. However, according to a study from the Heritage Foundation, low-skilled workers in this country, a group that includes 50 percent of illegal immigrants, are actually a huge burden on the American taxpayer. The report calculates that for every dollar unskilled workers pay in taxes, they receive $3 in government benefits. That`s Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, other welfare programs. I`m kind of hoping that the White House and Congress took that into account during their closed-door meetings about a new immigration overhaul package, one that will give illegal aliens a so-called path to citizenship. To me, in reading it looks a little more like path to higher taxes. Joining me now is Texas Congressman Td Poe and Robert Rector. He is a senior research fellow of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation. Robert, let me start with you since this study really came from you guys. It`s not specifically about illegal immigration, but you say that that played a significant role in your findings. Why?

ROBERT RECTOR, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Sure. What we look at are all households headed by high school dropouts and what we find is it really doesn`t matter whether you have an immigrant or non-immigrant or it`s a legal immigrant or an illegal immigrant, they all take in a whole lot more in benefits than they will ever pay in taxes. Each of those households is costing the taxpayer around $22,000 a year. One way to think about it --

BECK: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Say that again.

RECTOR: Each household headed by a high school dropout costs the U.S. taxpayers about $22,000 a year. That`s benefits in excess of taxes paid. Each immigrant that you bring in that doesn`t have a high school degree, whether it`s legal or illegal, is during the course of his lifetime going to cost the taxpayers about $1 million, that`s benefits in excess of taxes. They are fantastically expensive and no one is really paying attention to this.

BECK: Let me go to Ted. There are two plans out now. One is from the House and one is from the GOP and if I can, put them up on the screen. Let`s put them up side by side. Let`s start with this. Family preferences versus employment needs. The House bill gives preference to families seeking to reunify. The GOP plan says the visas are based on merit. What does that mean, Ted?

REP. TED POE (R) TEXAS: That means that when a child is born in the United States, for example, of parents that are illegal, those -- all of that family can come into the United States. That`s family reunification. In some cases though, Glenn, it includes about 200 other individuals get to come into the United States.

BECK: OK.

POE: The merit plan means they have to sort of earn the right to stay in the United States.

BECK: So, in other words, you`ve got to be able to show that you can have a job, that you`re a skilled worker, et cetera, et cetera.

POE: Correct.

BECK: OK. Now the next one is we`ve got 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. The House bill requires applicants to return home and pay $1,500 in penalties. The GOP plan requires applicants to return home and apply for a green card and pay penalties of up to $10,000. There`s no way this is going to be passed, Ted.

POE: The GOP one will not pass.

BECK: Right.

POE: The GOP one basically says you`re here illegally, go home, get in line like everybody else that wants to come to the United States.

BECK: Yeah.

POE: And the other plan is, well, you can buy your -- you can buy your way to the front of the line with a little money.

BECK: OK. The next one is border security. House bill says that we should have 11,600 new border patrol agents and the GOP plan calls for 18,300 new border patrol agents but I don`t see anything about a fence or anything else in this plan. Am I wrong?

POE: You are correct in your assessment. The fence bill passed. Of course, there is no fence yet, but one plan -- the House bill calls for a lot more border agents, but also it calls for more interior agents to track down people who stay in the United States past their visas. That`s the better bill.

BECK: Tell me, I`ve assumed I kind of understand the thinking in Washington. Why don`t we separate security and what we do with people here that are already here? Why don`t we solve the security issue first instead of tying this together in one nice package? Why don`t we separate and take care of the country first and then say, OK, let`s have a debate now on what do we do with the people that are here in.

POE: Too much common sense, Glenn, you know. Can you never hold public office, I don`t think. This is the same type of procedure we went through in the `80s, had this inclusive package about border security, what we do with the illegals and all it did, when it passed, no border security and increased illegal immigration in the United States.

BECK: OK.

POE: We ought to deal with each one of these separately and the first course is dealing with the border security.

BECK: Robert, the guest worker program, you say this is going to make things much, much worse.

RECTOR: Oh, it`s incredibly expensive. The House plan over 10 years would bring in an additional four million so-called guest workers. In reality they are guest workers for life with citizenship and access to welfare. Those individuals, each of them would cost about 22,000 a year in benefits over taxes. The total cost of the guest worker program in the House bill, over the first 10 years, would be about a half a trillion dollars.

BECK: OK, guys. Thank you very much.

Let me give you an update here on a couple of men, three men in particular that I believe are America`s first political prisoners and it ties into this story. Gilmer Hernandez, Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. They are U.S. border patrol agents. T hey are serving time for doing their jobs. They are victims of our government`s inaction and thus political prisoners. It is time they stop paying the price. Back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: OK. I know we`re a year-and-a-half away but it`s never too early to make election predictions, kind of. This actually -- I`m going to make my first predictions. I`m going to go out on a limb here. The first one is that Kevin Federline, will not, I repeat, will not be the next president, maybe vice president, but definitely not the president of the United States.

Joining me now Jonathan Martin from the politico to tell me which of my predictions are right and where, as usual, I`m dead wrong. You know, this actually, Jonathan, has come from the talk about who has raised a certain amount of money this year, and I was looking at Obama and Clinton, and it really screams at me that Obama has just this -- I mean, people want this guy to win, where Clinton is really the established, you know, the well monied everybody owes you a favor kind of candidate.

If I had to say today who is going to win, and this will probably change down the road, I would say that getting the nomination would be Clinton, and she would pick Obama as her vice president, but I`m split between my head and my heart because I don`t think that when it really comes down to it, that Hillary Clinton m is electable. I just don`t think people like her. Am I wrong?

JONATHAN MARTIN, POLITICO: I don`t think, Glenn, that your scenario is too far off. There`s no question that the two of them are a formable duo. Both have raised stunning amounts of money across the country, and, you know, Obama has got a lot of new folks who are taking an interest in his candidacy. As you mentioned Senator Clinton has got an extensive network across the country that her and her husband have cultivated for decades so they would be a very, very tough combination. There`s no question. As for your sort of hypothesis though, my question would be this, Glenn, does she want to have a vice president who would overshadow her potentially in the White House?

BECK: I`ve got to tell you. She would need somebody like that. I was thinking about Obama because, again, my head says that it would be Hillary Clinton that will get the nomination, but my heart, my gut tells me that`s not going to happen. And it`s Obama that would get it, but he would need to get somebody that had some seasoning to him, and I can`t imagine him going to anybody who is currently running for president. He strikes me as the kind of guy that would want to go outside of Washington.

MARTIN: Right.

BECK: And somebody who is plain-spoken.

MARTIN: I can see him going two ways. I cam see him going with sort of what Bill Clinton did in 1992 which is picking Al Gore which was actually as somebody who was very similar, both southerners, both Baptists, both moderates.

BECK: Yeah.

MARTIN: And the point was we are outsiders. We`re a new generation. We`re not part of the old guard. The other model being the 2000 model Glenn, where President Bush picked Dick Cheney because he was part of Washington, he was seasoned. He did have a lot of experience so I can see Obama sort of going either way, keeping with the fresh outsider theme or picking a more wizened hand here in Washington.

BECK: OK, real quick, I want to go to the Republicans, I say today it`s Rudy Giuliani and his vice president pick would be Mitt Romney to balance him on moral and ethics and also he`s a great fund-raiser and a great speech giver, Mitt Romney is. However, I have this theory that Giuliani is Marty McFly. He said, you know, Marty McFly is in "Back to the Future" said you calling me yellow? And that`s what Giuliani did by saying, wait a minute, hang on just a second, stay away from my wife. Don`t make fun of my wife and Biff has become Hillary Clinton because you know she will go after him. Ten seconds, quickly right or wrong in.

MARTIN: I think your partially right. But important point, the Democratic race is much more settled. The GOP race is still wide open Glenn.

BECK: Great, thanks, John.

Back in a minute with "The Real Story."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, welcome to "The Real Story." This is where we try to cut through the media spin and figure out why a story is actually important to you.

American soldiers, especially those fighting in Iraq, get our government`s unwavering support. After all, if they`re willing to make the ultimate commitment to us, the least we can do is have their backs when under fire, right? Not so much. Remember, it`s America 2007.

The real story is, the military brass and the American government are often too often abandoning the defenders of our country, especially when they need us the most. Put yourself in the boots of a National Guard specialist. His name is Mario Lozano. You know that road by the Baghdad airport? They call it the most dangerous stretch of highway in the world. Well, that`s where Mario was guarding a checkpoint.

Off in the distance one night, he sees a Jeep speeding towards him. It was 50 miles an hour. He shined the lights in the driver`s eye, which is what he`s supposed to do. Then he fired warning shots, but they wouldn`t stop or even slow down. Now, again, put yourself in his mindset. The same thing had happened just a couple of days before, and it was a suicide bomber, an attack that took the lives of two American soldiers.

So what did he do? He did as he was instructed. He fired shots into the tires and the engine block to stop the Jeep. It worked, but two of those bullets also went through the windshield, wounding one soldier and killing an Italian intelligence officer. Intelligence officer from Italy, they had just rescued a prominent Italian journalist who was being held hostage, but what happened is they failed to contact the U.S. authorities to let them know that they were coming.

U.S. investigation was conducted. They found that the specialist did absolutely nothing wrong. No disciplinary action was taken. That seems fair. It seems just. It seems logical. However, Lozano now has been indicted by the Italians who are filled with political outrage. They are trying him now in absentia.

This is the worst part of the story: The U.S. now is refusing to send a team to defend him. That`s not just unjust. It`s shameful. We don`t send our sons and daughters into harm`s way for our own government to turn their backs on them in their time of need. Talk is cheap, even when it comes from Uncle Sam.

Those in uniform need -- no, I take that back -- they deserve action. If not our own government, who is going to defend those who have so selflessly volunteered to defend us? You know, it`s like the wrongly prosecuted U.N. or U.S. border guards who are currently serving as, I believe, political prisoners in their own country. Mario Lozano has been abandoned by the U.S., left hung out to dry for doing the right thing in the defense of his country and his brothers in arms.

Not only is that just plain wrong, it`s anti-American. It`s immoral. So once again, if the government doesn`t step up and do the right thing, it`s left to we, the people.

Dan O`Shea, the former coordinator of the Hostage Working Group at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, he was there on the ground during this. Dan, is there anything in the report that brings Lozano into question at all?

DAN O`SHEA, THE FRIENDS OF THE 69TH: Absolutely not. He was purely a soldier following the established rules of engagement, and as the report vindicated him. He did everything he was trained to do, the warning lights, warning laser, warning shots.

Car continued to proceed at a high rate of speed, and Specialist Lozano did what he was trained to do, which was take out a car he assumed, as did all the other soldiers, was another suicide bomber. And, for the record, the two soldiers that were killed two days prior were from the 69th, so his unit had just lost guys from their unit which, as you know, (INAUDIBLE) very dangerous, so they were already on edge and had just lost members of their battalion, so it just added weight to the whole situation.

BECK: Quickly, tell me why you think the Italians are doing this.

O`SHEA: Listen, the investigation was conducted in Iraq, joint U.S. and Italian investigation came to the same conclusion, which is really what the U.S. position is, that the matter has been settled. But for the Italians, it`s likely politics, and they`re the ones driving the train and making a big issue out of it.

BECK: Isn`t the widow of the soldier that died or the intelligence officer that died now in Italian parliament?

O`SHEA: As I have been told it, yes, she`s now an elected official in the Italian government. I don`t know the parameters, but she`s also driving this, in addition to other members probably that have an axe to grind, is how it`s being perceived.

BECK: So I believe our Constitution, I believe our founding fathers were brilliant. You know, there`s a reason why the Constitution starts with giant words, and they`re "we, the people." What can we, the people, do to help Mario out?

O`SHEA: Here`s the situation, you know? It`s not that the Army is not representing him. He has already counsel, but they are not going to send a team to Italy to defend him. They are going to hire an Italian defense attorney. The Pentagon`s going to pay for him to defend him.

But we look at it is, when you`re hired basically a public defender to defend a guy, when he`s an American soldier and deserves to be defended by American counsel, and, frankly, we`ve got some of the best in the business that are willing to step up to the plate.

BECK: OK, so you`re trying to raise money. And how do people get involved?

O`SHEA: It`s a simple Web site. And it`s internally, Mario`s unit, the 69th, National Guard and New York National Guard unit.

BECK: I`ve got 15 seconds.

O`SHEA: They`ve got the friends of the 69th. They`re going to raise the funds to support him, to pay for private counsel to go defend him, and that`s 69thfriends.org, where they can look up more information and send money to support Mario`s private defense.

BECK: Thank you so much, Dan, and we`ll stay in touch and follow this story.

O`SHEA: Thank you.

BECK: At this year`s Academy Awards, Al Gore got nothing by love, riotous applause for his efforts on behalf of Planet Earth. Well, unfortunately for Al, those days seem to be over. The real story is, Al Gore is still getting a vocal reaction during his appearances to warn all of us about the apocalyptic effects on, you know, the warming of the globe, but nowadays the cheers have been replaced with boos, and not just from the right, but from the left, as well.

As I give you this story, I`m going to try really hard not to gloat, but I`m not making any promises. Concordia University, it`s in Montreal, Canada -- remember, Canada, a university. They just gave Al Gore an honorary doctorate. And during his address, he was stopped twice by angry cries of dissension and disbelief from the crowd. Sacrebleu, in Canada, really?

Gore responded by saying, "I don`t know if you guys are from the left or the right wing." You know why that is, Al? Because both sides now know you`re full of bull crap!

Those on the left who do agree with the perceived immediate dangers of global warming think you`re a hypocrite. Not only does your palatial mansion use more electricity in a month than the average American home does in a year, but the meat-eater that he is also contributes to cattle emissions, which are infinitely worse than driving a fully loaded Hummer.

Now, that`s not my opinion. That`s the opinion of those crazy conservatives at the U.N.

Now, those on the right have long believed that, you know, something is going on with the Earth`s climate, but it`s impossible to deny that so much of Al Gore`s science is unsubstantiated and his doomsday language is just out of control and counterproductive.

Even the "New York Times" has said that Al Gore is writing checks that his research couldn`t cash. Usually the only thing you find out about Al Gore in the "New York Times," love letters.

Al, the world is onto you. Your self-promotional, politically motivated science fiction -- I say, forget, you know, the diet, grow the beard back, invite your old friends, Ben and Jerry, over for a little reunion. The jig seems to be up!

Chris Horner, he is the author of the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism." Chris, aren`t you absolutely shocked that the mainstream media didn`t pick up a story about protesters at Al Gore`s speech from the left?

CHRIS HORNER, AUTHOR: Well, wait a second. It took the "New York Times" about 15 months to pick up on the fact that his movie was pure science fiction before they found some scientists who were willing to say this, so I expect in another year or so they`ll figure out that maybe it`s worth reporting, because we`ll figure out -- in about a year, it will be almost 10 years since we`ve experienced any warming, Glenn. You have to remember that it hasn`t warmed since 1998.

Maybe on that anniversary that they will notice that, in fact, some college students jeered him. And the reason that`s odd is -- you`re noting he does tend to now speak only before reliably left-wing audiences, sure, but typically elites.

College students may come from the elite strain, but they aren`t yet there. They haven`t figured out that his agenda is really about other people. They realize they`d like to create wealth, and he`s going to make it quite difficult for them.

BECK: Let me go -- because you said it`s been 10 years, almost 10 years, been nine now since we`ve experienced any warming in the globe. Let me show you that we seem to have collective Alzheimer`s. From the "Washington Post," greenhouse doomsday, the year is 2035. Phoenix is in its third week of temperatures over 130 degrees. Holland is under water. Bangladesh has ceased to exist. This is not science fiction. It`s based on current projections.

At what point do the projections start to catch up on them?

HORNER: Well, when they assign years to them. I believe that article assigned 2035, so back then it was a long time in the future. Right now, remember, Al Gore has been saying for nigh on five years that we`ve got 10 years to live, so pretty soon, you know, those chickens are going to come home to roost.

BECK: I don`t know if you saw this, but in "USA Today," I think it was yesterday, the lead story in the "Life" section was scientists say it`s too late, it`s too late to turn this around.

HORNER: Right.

BECK: I thought, "Well, I should go buy the Hummer then."

HORNER: That`s when the schism starts in the movement, because at that point, the funding drives up. What`s the point? Remember, Glenn, we spent $5 billion with a "b" researching this that`s purportedly settled and now it`s too late. Why don`t we spend the money productively to help with adaptation, which is how successful societies have always dealt with something that they always face, climate change.

BECK: Chris, thank you. I want to leave you with one quick quote here. It is from "Discover" magazine. "We have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have," "Discover" magazine, 1989. Seems like the playbook.

That`s "The Real Story" tonight. And in the spirit of equal time, I want to give Al Gore a chance to respond, and I mean this sincerely. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE IMPERSONATOR: I want to talk to you today about global warming. We all know the dangers it presents, so I`m not going to try and scare you. I`m just going to present you with the facts.

Here`s fact number one. If you don`t act soon, the Earth will suffer many, many explosions! Deaths! It`s going to be Hell on Earth. Your skin is going to bubble. You`re going to burn alive, and you`re going to be dead, dead! So dead you won`t even believe how dead you are!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This message brought to you by the Committee to Keep Al Gore`s Ongoing 2012 Presidential Campaign Secret.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: What is Easter weekend really all about? I mean, because it hasn`t been over-commercialized by the people, you don`t really know what Easter is about. It`s not been marketed. There`s a few people that really understand Easter, because they`ve needed Easter so desperately. I`m one of them. Easter is really truly about the atonement. It is about forgiveness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Boy, how many people really even take the time to think about that? How many of us actually look at, you know, the Cadbury eggs and think anything else other than, mmm, chocolate, or look past the marshmallow Peeps to think about the real message of Easter?

On tomorrow`s program, we`re going to do just that, and I promise you that it`s going to be the sanitized, antiseptic kind of version of Easter that you`d get from a news program worried about political correctness, because this isn`t a news program. It`s my show. I`m not really worried about offending anyone, you know?

If you don`t want to hear a real discussion about the real meaning of Easter, tomorrow then probably would not be the show for you. It might be an assault to your senses, and I don`t apologize for that. I just want to let you know.

Tonight, however, I want to touch on what you just heard in that radio clip. And tomorrow on the radio, I`m just going to spend a full hour on just this, forgiveness. It is such a remarkably powerful gift, and yet so unbelievably hard to give.

I`m constantly touched by what happened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, you know, as a group of Amish boys stood over a body of a 13-year-old girl who had just been murdered in her classroom. The boys` grandfather took them each and looked them in the eye, and with a strong, steady voice said, "We must not think evil of this man."

Could you have done that? I don`t think I could have. Most people struggle with forgiveness every day. I have. If you`ve listened to me or you know anything at all about me, you know that I would literally be dead today if I didn`t learn how to forgive, and primarily forgive myself.

Christmas is the holiday that gets all the marketing dollars, but it`s this weekend that we need to look at. Remember that there would be no Christmas without Easter and its main gift of redemption.

Franklin Graham, he is Reverend Billy Graham`s son, he is the president of Samaritan`s Purse, this has got to be the most underrated or maybe most misunderstood holiday by the people who practice the holiday. Would you agree or disagree?

FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAMARITAN`S PURSE: Well, I think, for true believers, it`s not misunderstood. And, you know, it`s an exciting time for all Christians, because we celebrate a risen lord. The grave is empty. The tomb, he is not there. He`s risen.

And he`s alive. And, you know, if a person is willing to confess their sins and repent -- that means return from their sins -- and, by faith, receive Jesus Christ into their heart, into their life, that God will forgive us of our sins, and he will cleanse us of our sins, and you don`t have to work for it. You don`t have to pay for your salvation. It`s by faith.

You see, when Jesus Christ came, his whole reason for coming was for sinners, to redeem sinners. And he died for our sins. It was a sacrifice by God to God for our sins. And if we confess them and turn from them and invite them into our heart, into our life, he will forgive us, and we`ve got to obey him.

BECK: Franklin, I just have to thank you for making the people upstairs sweat a lot right now, I have a feeling. You know, there are a lot of people that are Christian that say the resurrection never happened, which I don`t even understand -- then what would be the point? I mean, then he`s just a really nice guy.

They also don`t understand the atonement, really, that it is so unbelievably life-changing. I mean, I was really on the edge of suicide and everything else. And when you really, really need it, when you really want it, it transforms everything to your core.

GRAHAM: Yes. The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whatsoever believe in him shouldn`t parish but have everlasting life. And Easter, the cross is about God`s love. Not only did Christ die on that cross, was he buried, but on the third day, God raised him from the dead. He is alive.

And, you know, if a person invites Jesus Christ into their heart, into their life, that Jesus Christ can make a difference starting right now this minute, in one`s life, he can cleanse you, forgive you, set you free. And this is a wonderful message of Easter. It`s all about forgiveness, God willing to forgive us of our sins.

BECK: Yes. The Amish, how do you get to a point to where you can -- I mean, here, you grew up with -- I mean, your dad is Billy Graham. Are you sure that you are at the point to where somebody could be killed in your life and you could look at a member of your family and say, "Forgive them"? Are you sure you could do that? Because I`m not.

GRAHAM: Well, you know, we don`t know until we come to that point, do we? That`s a tough issue. I would hope, and I would want to be able to forgive a person, and I would pray that God would give me that capacity.

BECK: Boy, it would take months on my knees for that.

GRAHAM: But it would be tough, no question.

BECK: Yes.

GRAHAM: It`s a tough deal.

BECK: Funny, we can learn a lot from the Amish and the way they behaved during that whole ordeal, which I think -- was it last fall that that happened?

GRAHAM: Yes, and that was a very sad incident. And my heart goes out to the families of those children and to the entire community. But, you know, the Amish did, they set an example, really, for the rest of the world.

BECK: Yes.

GRAHAM: And I admire them very much.

BECK: Franklin, thank you very much. Happy Easter to you.

GRAHAM: Thank you. Same to you.

BECK: We`ll be back in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Every once in a while, you know, everyone has a bad day, although rarely are they quite as bad as Tuesday was for Ohio firefighter Steven S. Cole.

A concerned parent called the police, complained that Cole was fondling and exposing himself. According to the police report, the parent was "visibly upset" due to, not only to his children being at the park, but numerous other children also at the park with their families. He said, quote, "You need to lock that pervert up."

Now, God bless the police, and I mean that, because not only do they have to deal with freaks like this, but also because they have to keep a straight face when they write the reports. This is the report. "As I approached the vehicle, I observed a white male wearing a blonde wig, dark sunglasses in the driver`s seat. I immediately called for additional units."

Listen, if you stumbled upon this guy, I think you`d be calling for backup, as well. By the way, black and white, red horizontal stripes all the rage this summer.

Now, I understand you have to take the picture, right? You have to get the general state of the guy as you arrested him. But do you have to leave the water balloons in? I think those are water balloons or this is the world`s worst breast enhancement surgery.

So how could something this ridiculous happen? I might be guessing at this, but I don`t think that this one was the first one of the day. But not only is this ridiculous, it`s not the only ridiculous mugshot of the week.

Michael Edward Thompson, he`s from North Carolina. He`s hit a lot of attention, at well. He was arrested by Circuit City for inhaling vapors. He had a plastic bag and a can of spray paint and he was getting high at 7:00 in the morning. Yes, nothing like the smell of spray paint in the morning to get your motor running.

How exactly did the police know what he was up to? Yes, not sure exactly, but luckily we have all that CSI forensic technology to try to detect exactly what happened. Story doesn`t say, but the only thing that would make this better is if he tried to deny the charges.

And, amazingly, this isn`t the first one of these that has popped up. A couple of years ago, Smoking Gun also found this guy, which I love the way this guy looks, you know? I`m glad the paint wasn`t red or it would have looked like he just bit the head of a poodle off. But maybe it`s just me.

All right, you can e-mail me at GlennBeck@CNN.com. And on the radio tomorrow, Condoleezza Rice will be joining me about the state of the world and how Easter fits into the world of the secretary of state. And also, "The Passion" set to Pink Floyd, don`t miss it on the radio show tomorrow. See you then.

END