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Glenn Beck

Fred Thompson Enters GOP Race; John Walsh Weighs in on Fight Against Child Molesters; Hillary Clinton Blocking 9/11 DVD Release

Aired September 06, 2007 - 19:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Fred Thompson makes it official, Hollywood style.

FRED THOMPSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m running for president of the United States.

JAY LENO, HOST, NBC`S "THE TONIGHT SHOW": All right.

BECK: Meanwhile, the other candidates take part in, yes, another debate. Will Thompson finally start paying attention to these guys?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe we`re up past his bed time.

BECK: Plus, 21 persons busted for soliciting underage sex in a major sting operation. We`ll talk with "America`s Most Wanted" John Walsh.

And from the Wild West to my wild show.

PETER FONDA, ACTOR: Here we go.

BECK: I square off with Hollywood legend Peter Fonda.

All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America. Last night we had what the media calls the fifth debate between the Republican presidential candidates. I like to call it the worst reality show on TV.

The funny thing is most reality shows eliminate contestants. Last night, the Republicans added one more.

So here`s the point tonight.

With 15 months to go before the election, I`m already ready to hang myself. I am. And here`s how I got there.

The president of the United States, he`s the leader of the free world, and thoughtful debates should be a part of the process to help we, the people, determine who gets the job. We`ve got serious life or death issues facing our country, and we need to hear from potential candidates that are viable candidates and their potential solutions. That`s the thing: should we be hearing from those who realistically have a shot at the job?

Instead, we`ve been subjected to the aisle of misfit toys. Just because you actually, you know, can be a part of the process doesn`t mean you should be part of the process. I`m sorry. I love you guys, but, Tom Tancredo, Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, thanks for playing, guys. Here`s a copy of the home game.

So where does that leave us? That leaves us with Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. These guys are certainly better, but are they the best we`ve got, really?

One man who could possibly do the Republicans some good finally made his candidacy official last night on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Former senator and actor Fred Thompson officially joined the race as of 12:01 this morning.

During his chat with Jay, Thompson made it quite clear why he chose to appear on late-night TV last night instead of joining his pals on-stage in New Hampshire. Here`s what he had to say about the value of these debates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LENO: To someone who watches these debates...

THOMPSON: I don`t...

LENO: I must admit that little 30 seconds.

THOMPSON: I don`t think much of them. You`ve got ten guys or however many show up, you know, with you know, 30-, 40-second sound bites. It`s not designed to enlighten the American people. It`s more designed for the people who are putting the debates on.

And you run from one to another to another to another. And that`s all well and good. I`ll do my share, but I don`t think it`s a very enlightening forum, to tell you the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Based on that answer alone, I like him. I do. But do I trust him? Is he the guy? Do I trust him? Do I trust the other guys to tell me the truth? Not yet. I don`t know if you feel this way, America, but I don`t trust any of them yet.

Tonight, here`s what you what need to know. Debates are valuable, but they will be a lot more valuable when they`re down just to the two nominated candidates. Of course, once we get down to the -- to the final two, that`s when they start arguing about each other and start fighting about not debating when we actually want to hear from them.

Until that time, I hope the candidates start saying what they mean and meaning what they say. Please, stop playing politics; take a risk. Tell me the truth; tell me how you really feel. Maybe then you`ll get my vote.

Mary Matalin is a conservative strategist and former White House adviser.

Hello, Mary.

MARY MATALIN, CONSERVATIVE STRATEGIST: Love the shirt, Glenn. Looking hot.

BECK: Well, I know.

MATALIN: Real men wear pink. You`ve got a narrow stance there, boy.

BECK: It`s fuchsia.

MATALIN: Fuchsia.

BECK: So Mary, we have Rudy, Fred, Mitt. Do these, in my book...

MATALIN: John. John McCain.

BECK: No, he`s -- he`s out.

MATALIN: No, he`s...

BECK: He`s out.

MATALIN: Well, I`m just saying in terms of elevating the debate or having -- trying to have a substantive one, he`s been the most rational and consistent on the war.

BECK: I will tell you, he was good last night. The problem is -- I mean, he even came in afterwards and said, "You know what? Here`s the thing on the border issue. We misjudged how much the American people don`t trust their government right now, so we have to show them that we`ll secure the boarder and then we`ll get the rest of it."

You know what? I`ve got to tell you, John McCain has been wrong except for the war almost every step of the way for years.

MATALIN: I`m saying -- I don`t write any of the top-tier guys out until they are out. Because the chatterati (ph), just because the chatterati (ph) has declared that it`s too late for Fred to get in or John is out, no -- not one single voter literally has heard what they`re all about, because they haven`t seen them in any of the debates. There haven`t been debates. You`re exactly right about that.

But this is -- there`s a lot of states that are going to be playing early on in this process that make it still wide open.

BECK: You know, Mary, I don`t know if anybody else feels this way, but I actually look at the field that we have. I mean, all -- even all of them on the -- on the stage last night, believe it or not, including Ron Paul, and I look at al of them, and I thought, you know what? We have never had a field this deep with this many good candidates that just aren`t robots.

However, at the same time, I wonder, do we have a guy who will tell me the truth who is well spoken, who has the fire in the belly to do a couple of things: one, shoot the bad guys in the head, and, two, shrink the size of government?

MATALIN: Right. Right.

BECK: Do we have that guy? Have you seen that guy yet?

MATALIN: Yes. And this is why I`m for Fred. I`m not -- I`m not paid. I`m not an adviser, I don`t do this for a living, but Fred is...

BECK: Well, yes you do. Technically, you do.

MATALIN: No, I publish books for a living, as you well know.

BECK: Yes.

MATALIN: And I`m a mommy and actually have a normal life. But Fred answers the question I want in a conservative candidacy, which is his first principals are. Is this the -- whatever the function is? Is this the role of government? If it is the role of government, what level of government?

And then the next set of questions, is government able to do this? Are they doing it competently? Is there accountability?

When he was in the Senate, this is -- nobody paid attention to this, but when he held all the investigations and hearings on mismanagement, on structural inadequacies and he put in place suggestions that save billions and billions because they`re still saving billions of dollars. Government at the -- you can go to Fred 08 and look at it.

So yes, there`s a role in store (ph) for government. But, the rest is -- you know what, Glenn?

BECK: It`s not.

MATALIN: There are -- there are rooms full -- well, would he shoot the bad guys? Is he a security first and we go -- and is he for preemptive?

BECK: Mary, I have to tell you, I have to tell you, I watched the debate last night. Mitt Romney, I haven`t ruled him out in my book, but I have not seen that. I`ve got it in me, I`ll do it!

But Rudy Giuliani, I believe that guy will keep us secure. I really truly believe in the stuff I talk about on the air every day...

MATALIN: I know.

BECK: ... that we`re running out of time. We need a guy who`s not going to make suggestions that will -- you know, is this the role of government or not? We need a guy who`s going to take the bull by the horns.

MATALIN: Oh, Glenn, you know that`s not what I`m saying. When you -- if you prioritize what is the role of government, what is the No. 1 function of government. It`s to keep us secure.

So if you have a guy who knows what the priorities of government has to be, they won`t be all distracted by these things that people try to throw on the agenda and all the other special interests.

And I`m just saying he`s been inside enough to know where those levers are. But his first priority -- and, if you saw him on Leno, you heard it - - is, we do -- A, we don`t need to make any apologies. The Americans shed more blood to save more people and free more people than anybody else in the history of the world, basically. So no apologies for that. But we have to do it for own security.

But we have to do what we have to do in Iraq, but he knows and understands that, whatever happens in Iraq, if we could make it worse, we could make it way worse by a precipitous withdrawal.

But that`s not the end of the problem. These guys, as you`ve been talking about, all week, and into next week in Denmark, and Frankfurt, all over the world, this is a global problem. It doesn`t -- we didn`t create it. It`s not going to go away, when Iraq is fixed one way or another.

He has been working on these intelligence and security issues for all of his -- most of all of his adult life. So that`s his No. 1 priority.

BECK: Let me -- let me switch gears here for a second and just talk about the debate last night.

MATALIN: Yes.

BECK: Did you see -- did -- the candidates were laughing at Ron Paul, and I -- you know, I`ve -- I`ve done my fair share of making fun of Ron Paul, in the appropriate forum on my radio show. Oh, we laugh at him for hours.

However, in -- as a candidate sitting there in that debate, the guy is a libertarian. He was probably closer to the idea of the Founding Fathers than any of the other guys on stage. What he`s missing is what the Founding Fathers said we have to be a religious, virtuous, and moral people for these things to work.

Do you think it was right for the candidates just to belittle and laugh him off, or should they explain -- you`ve got good points on some of these things?

MATALIN: You know, strategically, you`re right, because the Republican Party, conservatism, whatever, particularly activists, are a broad panoply of conservative thinking. From the Libertarian to the -- across the panoply, as I just said.

For -- I am a quasi-libertarian like you to the extent that they`ve attached to the first principles to the founding documents and all of that.

So I don`t know strategically why they would be as dismissive as him. Also, he said a very -- it might be narrow, but a deep set of followers.

And, you know what? Just in general. I know there`s too many, and they don`t all really belong in that tier. But to put yourself out there like that for the express purpose of getting some ideas across, although it may be aggravating to us who are trying to find something else, I admire people like that.

What I find more aggravating is that the sponsors of these debates can`t figure out a way to make it work so it can be enlightening for us.

BECK: Well, Mary, thank you very much. I`m going to go look up the word panoply or whatever it was.

MATALIN: Panoply, Mr. Fuchsia.

BECK: Love that. Thanks a lot.

All right. After watching last night`s debate, I am still convinced Rudy Giuliani is the candidate who will fight the war on terror the way it needs to be fought. This does not come easy for me.

You know, this is the guy who kicked the Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat out of New York City in 1995, six years before 9/11. I say Rudy Giuliani is the candidate who will stand up to our enemies, tell them to get the hell out or we`ll shoot them in the head. Tell me where I`m wrong. Go to CNN.com/Glenn and vote note.

Coming up, police on Long Island bust 21 men for soliciting sex with teens over the Internet. Now we`ve got them. What do we do to keep them behind bars? John Walsh will be here next.

And a computer hacker takes full control of an American nuclear power plant. Yes, you heard me right. Scary details, tonight "Real Story".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You would think our nuclear power plants are safe from terror. Think again. A computer hacker took full control of an entire nuclear facility right here on American soil. Details in just a minute.

But first, the Internet is an amazing thing. It is -- it is something that is free. It is open. It allows you to connect with all kinds of people. The trouble is, if you`re a sexual predator, the Internet is free. It`s open and provides access to all kinds of people, including our children. Fortunately, this is a problem that`s getting more and more attention.

Today, New York police announced a major crackdown on the Internet pedophiles, and they hauled in 21 men accused of trying to solicit sex from teenagers.

Even television news shows are getting into the action. The NBC series "To Catch a Predator" has proved that exposing low lives and the catch gets high ratings. But now many people have serious questions about the methods of that show.

One man who has been on the front lines to keep our children safe is the host of acclaimed "America`s Most Wanted", John Walsh.

Hello, John.

JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Glenn, nice to see you.

BECK: You know, I was having a conversation with somebody yesterday, and we were talking about the guy in New York at Times Square that lured a 20- -- a 20-year-old in. He was wanted in two different states for touching 12-year-olds. He killed her, put her underneath the bed here in New York City over the weekend.

Now you`ve got these 21 guys that have just been busted. What is it going to take to keep these guys behind bars?

WALSH: Well, I think this awareness, you and I talking about it, and all this attention to pedophiles, particularly pedophiles and the Internet, has woken up legislators. It`s woken up judges. It`s woken up cops. And things are changing. You know, last year, President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection Law.

BECK: Is it being -- is it being implemented?

WALSH: Unfortunately, it`s, first of all, the Justice Department said there are 690,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States. Those are the convicted ones; 100,000 of them are in noncompliance.

The marshals are out there arresting these guys. The FBI is out there helping to look for them, but Congress hasn`t funded them yet.

I would assume when I stood in the Rose Garden next to members of both sides of the parties, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, that the Adam Walsh Child Protection Law would be funded, that we would be saddling up to go out and get these 100,000 guys.

So it hasn`t been funded, and -- but I think the laws are changing. Most of these laws need to be implemented on a state -- on a state level. People are becoming aware. I don`t think they still have figured out how big the problem is.

Ten thousand pedophile priests. You and I talked about it one time. Ten thousand pedophile priests. I was raised in the Catholic Church. I went to Catholic boys` school, and now the final report comes out. The Los Angeles diocese almost went broke last month. "Los Angeles Times" (sic) settled $660 million worth of suits and payoff money and 25 pedophile priests in that -- in that diocese alone.

At least people are starting to say these creeps are out there; we need to keep them in jail longer.

BECK: There`s -- I don`t -- I don`t know of a soul that says that this isn`t a problem. Not a soul.

WALSH: Exactly.

BECK: And yet, you touch a 12-year-old, you`ll go to jail for three years. What are we doing? What about one strike, you`re out? Forget about everything else. One strike, you`re out.

WALSH: I`m on the same side that you are. I can`t be objective. I`m the father of a murdered child. A 6-year-old boy that was murdered.

We`re not talking about the guy that urinated at Mardi Gras. We`re not talking about the 17-year-old boy that had consensual sex with the 14- year-old girl and they know each other.

We`re talking about the serious, level 3 sex offender, like the guy we caught last week. Richard Goldberg was a molester for whole -- his whole life. The guy they will put on the FBI`s ten most wanted tomorrow. Molested a child, got out of prison and molested again.

Those are the guys that need to be in jail for a long time. I think people have got to wake up and say I`m fed up with it, I`m sick of it, but I want to see the laws change.

BECK: And I think we are -- are saying that. But it`s getting -- it`s only getting more complicated. This guy in California, Jack McClellan, what do you do with him?

WALSH: I think that we know who he is now. You know, I`ve talked to literally thousands of victims of Catholic priests, when we never used to talk about it, Glenn. When they used to transfer them from parish to parish and move them around from state to state.

At least with this open dialog, with the mandate that there be a sex offender registry in every state and that they exchange information with the FBI and getting the funding that needs to be there for the Adam Walsh Child Protection Law, at least we can track creeps like this. At least we`re aware of them.

BECK: But I don`t want to get into -- look, did you see the movie "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise?

WALSH: No, I didn`t.

BECK: OK. Well, it`s future crimes, and it`s in the future and they can just sense that, you know, you`re going to commit this crime.

We pretty much know the intent of Jack McClellan, and I don`t want to get into future crime stuff and thought police, but there`s got to be a way to pull this guy off the street. There`s got -- isn`t there anything that you can do to even say -- do you even say you can`t -- we can`t scream fire in a crowded movie theater. Why can we say, "There are the hot kids over there"?

WALSH: Yes, well, you and I both live in a country where we have freedom of press, where we have freedom of religion. And I don`t believe you take the law into your own hands, and I don`t believe that you arrest somebody because of what they say.

But I do know one thing: that pedophiles are incurable. The psychiatric community says that. Not, they haven`t figured out a way we should be studying them.

And I say this guy is probably a ticking time bomb. If he hasn`t molested already, or he`s been lucky enough to not be caught, like the vast majority of them.

When they do pedophile studies, the guys will say -- you know, they tracked 500 pedophiles in Georgia, at Emory University. Those guys admitted to about -- I forget exactly the figure, 35,000 molestations over their life. But they said they haven`t been caught for 90 percent of them.

BECK: It is...

WALSH: This guy is a ticking time bomb. I think people -- I think it`s a good thing we`re talking about him, and people -- and he`s dumb enough to love the publicity. Somebody is going to get him someday.

BECK: John, as always, a pleasure, sir.

WALSH: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: New season of "America`s Most Wanted" starts this Saturday.

Back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right, guys, you know the story. You and your wife, your girlfriend, you go to rent a DVD. You want an action flick. She wants something with a bonnet. Somebody wearing a bonnet. You`re a man! Hold your ground!

But then you realize, "Wait a minute. By holding my ground I ain`t getting a little something-something." You know what I`m saying?

So you end up watching a Meg Ryan movie like "Kate and Leopold", where you just want to dig your own eyes with toothpicks.

Men are constantly having our DVD options ruled by women, and it`s time in this country that it stop. A recent report says the problem is a lot bigger than just date night.

According to "The Los Angeles Times" you can`t get the ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11". Not that I wanted to watch that on Friday. One woman won`t have it. Hillary Clinton is here name.

Cyrus Nowrasteh, he is the writer and producer of "The Path to 9/11".

Cyrus, Hillary Clinton is stopping this, really? Is that what`s happening?

CYRUS NOWRASTEH, WRITER/PRODUCER, "THE PATH TO 9/11": Well, that was what I was told by an executive at ABC, when I was constantly, every few months, requiring when is the -- when is the DVD coming out? And I was told, well, if Hillary weren`t running for president, this wouldn`t be a problem. I don`t know if you remember last...

BECK: Wait a minute, why would -- ABC is now making their decisions on what movies to release based on who`s running for president?

NOWRASTEH: Well, last year, there was a lot of controversy associated with the airing of this -- of this miniseries. It had to do with, you know, President Clinton`s legacy more than anything else.

BECK: But I don`t remember Hillary Clinton playing a big role in this one?

NOWRASTEH: No, but in Jeff Gerth`s book "Her Way", he talks about how, you know, involved, actually, she was quietly, because not only is it the ex-presidency`s legacy, but it`s her future run.

I mean, my feeling is, if they get it out soon, it`s not going to be a problem, because we`re not in the campaign season yet.

BECK: So what exactly -- I mean, what -- what is she afraid of? Just the connection between the miniseries and the book and the people are going to -- I mean, we do remember that they were in the White House leading up to 9/11. I mean, do they expect to us forget that?

NOWRASTEH: I think they`re trying. And hoping that we`ll forget that.

BECK: Do you believe that, if you had made a miniseries on Katrina, and Bush were running, do you believe that ABC/Disney would have stopped the release of a miniseries on Bush and Katrina?

NOWRASTEH: No, I don`t think so. I think they would have -- it would have been pouring off the DVD shelves.

BECK: So -- so what -- what are you implying, exactly? I mean, what is the connection here between ABC and Disney and -- and Hillary Clinton?

NOWRASTEH: Well, you know, last year it was an unprecedented kind of vicious attack against the network and the studio. I think it was a bad experience for a lot of people there. I think they got a lot of calls from people in the industry who may be, you know, friends of the Clintons, as well as they got -- they got calls from people in Washington. There were five senators who were threatening to revoke Disney/ABC`s station licenses if they didn`t pull or recut the movie.

It was a -- it was a difficult experience, and I don`t think they want to go through it again.

BECK: Cyrus, thanks a lot.

Coming up next, I`ve got the "Real Story" on a computer hacker who took control of one of our country`s nuclear power plants. You don`t want to miss this one. Coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right, there`s a quick programming reminder. Next week, we kick off our special series, "Exposed: The Perfect Day for Islamic Terrorists." The perfect day is a series of coordinated attacks that kills as many Americans, creates as much chaos, as much as possible, quickly as possible. All next week, we are going to look closely at one of the areas where many feel we are the most vulnerable to this kind of attack. It is our schools. Please do not miss it. It is important that you see it, and you`ll understand why, next week.

But first, welcome to the "Real Story." All week I`ve been telling you about reports that the Chinese may have been responsible for recent cyber attacks on the Pentagon and British government. Now I want to tell you about another attack not too long ago. A nuclear power station based right here in the United States was infiltrated. Within a week of the attack, the hacker had taken almost complete control of the plant. It wouldn`t have been easy for him to shut off power for large portions of this one state from this one plant.

Fortunately for us, the "Real Story" is, the hacker was actually employed by the power plant. They didn`t think it could be done. But the ease of his attack has some pretty frightening implications. It turns out that a lot of our critical infrastructure in our country, little things like water supply, trains, oil, gas pipelines, use a software called SCADA. The problem is this software is old, I mean, really old, like pre-Al Gore inventing the Internet old. That old.

That means it was never developed with a thought that hackers might someday actually try to access it through an outside network. It also means it`s extraordinarily vulnerable. Am I the only one in America that saw the new "Die Hard" movie over the summer? One Department of Defense employee who now says he was misquoted and can`t speak to the press anymore told "Forbes" magazine, quote, "This is an Achilles heel for several of our critical systems. Nation-states," China comes to mind, "and terrorist organizations are definitely looking at this as an option, a weapon of mass disruption."

Boy, that would be pretty hard to screw that quote up, huh? Misquoted or not, and personally I doubt "Forbes" got it that wrong, the bottom line is, he`s right. Nukes and guns and biological agents might be frightening and really bad, but the biggest weapon, the easiest weapon in our enemy arsenal may just be a computer keyboard, because that`s the one weapon that will put us all on the same playing field. We`ll be back in the caves.

Johannes Ullrich is the chief research officer at SANS Institute. Johannes, the access to the power plants, easy for people like the Chinese to get into?

JOHANNES ULLRICH, SANS INSTITUTE: Probably, yes, like, as the researcher from IBM that you described, it wasn`t really too hard for him to get into. Now, he`s a professional, but the Chinese have professionals at the same level. So it shouldn`t be too hard for anybody.

BECK: Please tell me that it`s not true that some of these systems were actually created by the Chinese?

ULLRICH: Oh, yes, certainly. Try to find a system like a microchip that`s not built in China, so I think you`ll have a hard time doing that, and most of them are created by the Chinese.

BECK: Did you see "Die Hard," by any chance, the last one?

ULLRICH: Haven`t yet. I`ve heard about that, and I guess it`s covering some of that topic.

BECK: It is. The ending, they call it a fire sale. I don`t even know if that`s real industrial language, but they say it`s a fire sale, because everything must go. And the terrorists, what they do is they shut down the power grid, they shut down the traffic, they shut down the oil and gas, et cetera, et cetera. Is that what we`re talking about? And how possible is that?

ULLRICH: Yes, exactly. That`s sort of what we`re talking about here, and in particular shutting down traffic, shutting down power plants is actually sort of the easy part. It would be harder to destroy a power plant or destroy a traffic light or something to that effect, but just shutting things down is actually usually the easy part often in an attack like that.

BECK: Didn`t this actually happen almost by accident? Didn`t we have an event in 2001, somebody was bouncing a worm around?

ULLRICH: There were a couple of events like that. Probably what you`re referring is the SQL Slammer worm that shut down a train line along the East Coast just by flooding the network with traffic. It wasn`t intended to do any damage like that, but just the accident, it caused damage very much like you`re describing.

BECK: And what are we doing to make sure that this is sealed up?

ULLRICH: Well, actually, the event you`re referring to with the IBM researcher trying to penetrate this power plant is part of the effort to fix these problems. Of course, you have to first find out where the problems are, you have to get an inventory of all of the systems you have now connected to the Internet that shouldn`t really be connected to the Internet and get them disconnected or secured.

BECK: I just want to ask real quick, I`m not giving away any information to the enemy, right? I mean, we`re not putting this out and everybody going, "Hey, wait a minute, that`s an idea." I mean, if you`re into this, you know this stuff, right?

ULLRICH: Oh, yes, because it has happened before. We had worms shutting down access to emergency rooms in hospitals. We had Navy stations being shut down or being unable to use the computer systems just by accident. And more recently, like the Chinese have penetrated the Department of Defense several times and such, so it`s not unusual.

BECK: Makes you feel really good. Johannes, thank you very much.

Now, there`s a new report out on the housing market that says pending home sales index is now at its lowest level in nearly six years. I heard that yesterday. I thought, "Well, that`s not so bad." I mean, I was a little surprised, quite frankly. I thought six years, that`s it? I thought things were really going to hell in a hand basket.

The "Real Story" is, it is. Once again, statistics don`t lie. Housing market liars use statistics. There are three big problems with this story that you`ve probably heard.

First, the only month on record that was worse than last month was September 2001. Gee, what was happening in that month? How many people do you know were buying houses in September 11th?

Second, the reason why last month was, quote, "only the second lowest ever" on the index was because the index was started in 2001. Kind of important information, don`t you think?

The third problem with the story is the source, the National Association of Realtors. What do you think, they might be a little biased? They want their prices to go up. There`s nothing wrong with that, but that`s kind of like hearing a story about how donuts are suddenly healthy for you and not being told that the study was written by Krispy Kreme.

For years, the Realtors Association chief economist, a guy by the name of David La Ray (ph), punched into work every single day and dutifully toted the company line in the media about how great things really are. I took the liberty of plotting the timing of some of his best quotes on a graph that show the decline in existing home sales. Watch this.

August 2005, he says, quote, "All of the doom and gloom forecasts of a housing debacle are just not only irresponsible, but also downright wrong." December 2005, "We`re really on track for a soft landing here. There are no balloons popping." January 2006, "Sales activity now at a sustainable level is likely to pick up in the months ahead." April 2006, "This will be the third strongest year on record." October 2006, "The worst is behind us." February of this year, 2007, "promises to be the fourth best year on record."

Oh, I really wish I could give you more of his greatest hits from this year, but, sadly, he`s left the company. Yes. Michael Panzner is a Wall Street trader and the author of "Financial Armageddon." You`re not going to scare me, are you? Are you a doom and gloom guy? Have you always been a doom and gloom guy, or is this new for you?

MICHAEL PANZNER, WALL STREET TRADER: I`ve always been a cynic, but I haven`t always been a doom and gloom guy, but now the numbers just add up in a very bad way.

BECK: OK, I`ve been reading and talking to Peter Schiff lately, who is kind of the same guy. You know, he`s been like, "I don`t want to believe this, but the numbers all point to it." He says that it`s going to be -- what`s coming is between the 1970s and the Depression, which is kind of a big span. Can you be more specific? What do you think is coming?

PANZNER: I lean towards the latter. I think we`re going to see another depression.

BECK: OK, well, no need to elaborate on that. Why do you think, and how soon do you think it`s coming?

PANZNER: Well, I think we`re starting to see early signs of it right now. The biggest, biggest factor behind all of it is the accumulation of debt. We`ve got this tremendous credit bubble which has started to burst, and history is not kind in the aftermath of such things.

BECK: Yes, the credit problem -- and I don`t think most people understand this -- the percentage in relation to our GDP is, what, $330 billion?

PANZNER: No, 330 percent, which is -- the last time we saw those sorts of numbers was in 1929, the year of the crash when we hit just under 300 percent.

BECK: Yes, and what was the percentage back then? It was...

PANZNER: It was about 290 percent.

BECK: Yes, that`s perfect. And here`s another piece of information that maybe you can help me out on. I didn`t know this until today. Something called the BIS, which is guess is the central bank for the planet, it`s the central bank of the central bank.

PANZNER: Right.

BECK: They issued a warning. What was the warning that recently came out?

PANZNER: Well, I think they essentially made the argument that credit conditions were as bad as they were prior to the `30s, which if you consider that here`s a bunch of straight-laced central bankers, as you noted, the central bankers` central bankers, and these guys just don`t come out and make these kinds of statements willy-nilly.

BECK: Yes, Greenspan never came out and said, "Panic!" He never said anything like that, because that doesn`t lead to good things.

PANZNER: No.

BECK: What is the big sign that we should be looking for that would prove that somebody like you is on the right track?

PANZNER: Well, I think we`re already seeing it. We`re seeing it in the housing market. We`re seeing it in credit markets. I mean, the whole economy, the global economy, for that matter, functions on the back of credit. And one by one, we`re seeing different markets seize up, and that is certainly a negative sign.

BECK: OK, Michael, thanks a lot. That is the "Real Story" tonight.

Up next, actor and movie legend Peter Fonda, got a new movie out. He`ll be here to tell me whether "3:10 to Yuma" is worth the price of admission. I mean, what do you think he`s going to say? Don`t go anywhere. He`s coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know, when it comes to cowboy boots, it takes a certain man to be able to pull it off. You`ve got to be cool, you`ve got to be tough. Quite frankly, you also have to learn how to ride a horse, and I feel safe to say I`m not one of those guys.

Peter Fonda, however, is. His newest movie, "3:10 to Yuma," Fonda is taking on the Wild West.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down, now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don`t think I`ve ever seen a horse explode. That`s like a Jerry Bruckheimer horse chase. Joining me now, the one and only Peter Fonda. Hi, Peter, how are you?

PETER FONDA, ACTOR: Fine, Glenn. How are you?

BECK: Very good. The western -- we haven`t been making westerns. I like them every time they come out. Why did they disappear, and now why coming back?

FONDA: It`s a very strange thing in Hollywood. They have little axioms, like baseball movies don`t make money, westerns don`t make money, and then every now and then, something like "Unforgiven" comes along and knocks them right out of the park. But it`s a great way of telling a story. I found that in my own life. My first film I directed was a western. If we talk about the present in a past tense or a future tense, we can get away with talking about what`s happening without making somebody decide which side of the film they`re going to take.

BECK: Oh, no, no, no. Is it a message movie? Is it going to make my head hurt? I don`t want a message movie. I just want to go in and just have a good movie, that`s all I want. Just popcorn!

FONDA: You know what, Glenn? You`re going to be able to watch the screen and not take your eyes off it. It`s just an amazingly well-done film.

BECK: That`s a very good answer, but not the question. Is it a message movie?

FONDA: No, no, not really, other than the conflicted characters. They talk about what happens with characters anywhere, and the wild shooting in the streets and abstract stuff, it could relate to Iraq, but it`s not a message. That`s the idea. It doesn`t make you decide one ideology versus another.

BECK: OK. Are you similar to the character that you play at all? Do you see any similarities?

FONDA: No, not really. In fact, they messed up my hair to make it all gray. It was terrible, Glenn. And it started out with a kind of blue tinge to it. But otherwise I really enjoy playing this kind of a guy, this kind of a character, and getting into it.

BECK: You come from an amazing family. I mean, your father, obviously, Henry Fonda, then you, and then your daughter all acting. You had kind of a -- you know, you had a rough go of it growing up in a famous family. What was your reaction when your daughter said, "Dad, guess what I`m going to do"?

FONDA: Well, she didn`t say it quite that way, Glenn. She said, "Dad, I want to be an actor." And I said, "Don`t you ever say that again." "Dad, it`s a verb, not a noun." "Where are you going to study acting?" Ended up she went to NYU, so I suggested -- and you saw the results.

BECK: How is your relationship with your daughter? I don`t know if you are comfortable going down this road, but I know your father didn`t even say that he loved you until his death bed, is that true?

FONDA: Basically. He wrote it in a letter to me. I directed him in a film called "Wanda Nevada," and he put it down in a letter, which was fabulous. And my daughter, I adore her. I really admire her work a lot. I admire the fact that she really understands it is a verb, it`s working, and she goes for it.

BECK: Did you have a hard time not having a model, per se? I mean, did you have a hard time being that dad that you wanted to be when you didn`t have that kind of dad?

FONDA: You know, I hope I didn`t overcompensate in a way. You know, I love my children very much, and I did everything I could to be with them. But the life of an actor is so incredible. You can`t take your whole family with you on the road sometimes. It`s just too dramatically different for them.

BECK: Peter, very good. This movie is getting tremendous reviews, and I wish you the best of luck.

FONDA: Thanks, Glenn. Thank you very much.

BECK: You bet. "3:10 to Yuma," make sure you go see it. Now, time for today`s "CNN Hero."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT PEDRAJA, "YOUNG WONDER": The doctor came in and just said, "You have leukemia." And it was devastating, horrifying and scary. All I knew about cancer was that both my grandparents have died from it.

Well, I was in the hospital, and I was watching the TV, and a Hispanic girl died because she couldn`t find a marrow transplant match. You`re most likely to find a match within your own ethnicity. I`m half-Hispanic, and I decided to change it because it could affect me, too. I said, "Mom, I want to do something, let`s have a bone marrow drive." And she said, "What?" And I said, "Yes, we`re going to go drive for these bone marrow donors." And then it turned into driving for donors.

Hi, my name is Pat Pedraja, I`m 12 years old, and I`m trying to sign people up for the national marrow registry. It`s our responsibility as a human being to watch out for someone else.

Driving for Donors is a 30-city national marrow drive. We sold advertisement spots on the (INAUDIBLE) and raised close to $100,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What Patrick is doing is something that it comes from inside him. It`s something that`s very personal to his heart. My sister died of leukemia because she could not find a match within the Brazilian community. Seventy percent of the cases, you do not find a match with your brother or sister. You have to find a match in the national registry.

PEDRAJA: If you sign up to the registry, it`s just a cheek swab. And then you know that you could be the one to save a kids` life.

And you are going to be on the registry until your 61st birthday, which is a really long time away. Here`s your card. If you ever move or anything, just call it. And this is -- you are now a number.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

PEDRAJA: I don`t need a bone marrow transplant myself. I`m in remission, and I feel fine, but I still have cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a 12 year old, he`s showing that each one of us can do so much to save other people`s lives.

PEDRAJA: People don`t know that it`s such a big issue, and that people are dying each day, and I want to change that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Dennis Saunders is a 59-year-old career peeping tom who spent the last five years in prison for a crime of just secretly videotaping his 45-year-old neighbor and her teenaged daughter. He was released from prison on August 25th, and now he wants his porn collection back. Not any porn collection, mind you, but more than 500 movies and 250 magazines, which he says is worth about $25,000. Wow, must be antique porn. He`s now actually suing the police department that confiscated the collection when they first arrested him back in 2001.

Joining me now is his attorney, Jon Rankin. Jon, that`s quite the porn collection, huh?

JON RANKIN, ATTORNEY FOR DENNIS SAUNDERS: Well, it is on the extreme end of things, yes.

BECK: I mean, $25,000, that`s good. You know, there`s a whole bunch of titles here. And I`ve looked through some of them. One is "Lover Caught on Tape Volume Three." Would you understand that if you didn`t see one and two?

RANKIN: I imagine it`s pretty self-explanatory.

BECK: OK. Then there`s "Horny Hairy Girls Volumes One through Tree," "Seattle Hairy Girls Volumes One, Two, Four, Five and Six." I was wondering, do you have any idea what was wrong with "Horny Hairy Girls From Seattle Three"?

RANKIN: I don`t know. It just didn`t make it onto the top ten list.

BECK: Is this -- the Maxell video head cleaner, is that a porn?

RANKIN: No, that`s a maintenance device, actually. I don`t think you`d get much satisfaction from it.

BECK: All right. So a lot of people are saying that, if he doesn`t get his porn back, hey, you know, he could peeping tom again. We wouldn`t want that to happen.

RANKIN: There`s some truth to an assumption that, if he stays at home and watches porn, he`s not looking through other people`s windows.

BECK: Yes. Isn`t that kind of like just saying, hey, the alcoholic, you know, just give him the booze there in the house, otherwise he`s going to have to go out to a bar and drink and drive? I mean, he`s got a problem clearly with sex.

RANKIN: Well, he does. And he`d be the first to admit that. He`s done a lot of work during his time behind bars to deal with that problem.

BECK: Sounds like it.

RANKIN: Confront that problem, and hopefully live his life a different way.

BECK: Got an idea. How about we give him his porn back, but we keep the porn in prison?

RANKIN: Well, of course, he wouldn`t be too happy with that outcome.

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: I was willing to negotiate, but you`re apparently too hard- headed for me. Jon, thank you very much.

RANKIN: Well, remember...

BECK: From New York, America, good night.

END