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Glenn Beck

America Lacking Energy Vision; Libertarian Candidate Discusses Energy Policy; Obama`s Judgment Called into Question; School Backs off about Religious Art Project

Aired June 05, 2008 - 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, good news. Seven new oil refineries are finally being built. Bad news: they`re all being built in Iran. Why is it that Iran and the rest of the world understand energy independence and America doesn`t?

Plus, Obama`s friend and former fund-raiser Tony Rezko convicted of multiple felonies, spurring more questions about Obama`s judgment. I`ll explain.

And Hugo and Hollywood. President Chavez turns Venezuela into an oppressive police state with controversial new laws. So where are all the celebrity buddies now, Hugo?

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America. I`ve got good news, and I`ve got bad news for you. Let`s start with the good news.

The president has decided to invest over $23 billion to build seven new oil refineries. That means by 2012, oil and gas production will increase by more than 1.5 million Barrels per day. The president feels that due to the limited refining abilities, this will make the country energy independent if we build them. That finally is vision.

Now the bad news. That comes from the president of Iran.

Here`s "The Point" tonight. The rest of the industrialized world understands the need for energy independence. Why are we still hopelessly in the dark? Here`s how I got there.

France has invested in nuclear energy. Europe is building 40 new coal plants. China is opening a new coal-fired plant every two weeks. And they`re currently building the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. I can`t fire up a barbecue in this country without Congress throwing a hissy- fit.

For some unfathomable reason, our leaders in both parties in Washington would rather wag their fingers at oil companies and CEOs and place our country`s future in the hands of foreign dictators. You need to understand, we, the people, don`t control the supply and cost of our own energy, and neither do the oil companies.

Ironically, there is an endless supply of innovators right here in America that are dying to solve this problem. But Congress keeps putting them in handcuffs.

Oil companies want more domestic drilling. Industry wants to implement coal-to-oil technology. But permits to open new refineries and nuclear power plants so tied up with red tape, and over a trillion Barrels of untapped oil lies just in the shale of the American West. That is three times the largest oil reserve in the world. It would keep America energy independent for 167 years. We would answer to no one but us. Feds aren`t going to let us do it.

We can`t build any more oil refineries here. Meanwhile, they are springing up around the Middle East and Europe like they`re Starbucks.

Most of the world hates us. Don`t we remember this? Yet our leadership would rather rely most on those who like us the least. I don`t get that.

Tonight, America, here is what you need to know. This is just a hypothetical here, but what if things went south and we got into a confrontation with -- I don`t know, let`s say Iran or somebody else in the Middle East? Do you think that we`re going to continue getting oil from them at any cost? You know, so we could fuel our end of the fight? Of course not.

That`s why nations around the world are going solo with their own energy supply. They are planting their flag in deep oil reserves right now. Any other plan is insanity.

But even in times of peace, America is still not the master of our own energy domain. That has got to change. This is no longer a question of if. It is when. And when is right now.

Byron King is an oil industry analyst and editor of "Outstanding Investments."

Byron, China, coal plant, new one every two weeks. Russia, tax cuts for their oil companies to get them to explore. Europe, new coal fire plants, 40 of them coming online in the next couple of years. Everybody gets -- gets this but us.

BYRON KING, EDITOR, "OUTSTANDING INVESTMENTS": Everybody gets it but us, Glenn, you are exactly right. The very first item on the agenda of president of Medved -- of Russia, his very first item on the very first cabinet meeting was to implement a new ship-building program to develop offshore oil resources for Russia. They`re going to completely convert their ship-building industry towards building ice breaking ships and offshore platforms.

Russia gets it. And like you said, China. Actually, it`s more than one every two weeks. One point last year it was one every three days. They get it. This is a 50-year plan.

BECK: So tell me about this, Byron, because it seems to me that the only one that really cares about global warming is us. Everybody else -- I mean, Europe is building coal to oil. Germany is building coal to oil. Everyone is doing this except for us.

Is global warming -- are we the only ones?

KING: Well, global warming is a 50-year problem, 100-year problem, 500-year problem. It`s a complex problem. Maybe it`s -- maybe it`s a huge problem downstream.

Energy -- energy is a problem right now. Energy is the problem tomorrow morning when everybody wakes up. Global warming, you know, we can talk about that a lot but, you know, that`s a long-term, centuries long problem.

BECK: Brazil building ships. Russia is building ships. If I`m not mistaken, Brazil has most of the world`s deep-sea drilling ships right now. We are so far falling behind.

KING: Glenn, that`s a great point. Brazil has made a commitment to explore its deep offshore. There are only so many ships in this world that can explore and drill in those areas.

We`re talking 5,000 feet of water and more. We`re talking ships that are the size of an aircraft carrier. They`re 900 feet long, 200 feet wide. They weigh 80,000 tons. They can drop a drill stream 40,000 feet. Brazil has three-quarters of the ships in the world under contract right now.

BECK: So, here`s my question, though, Byron. Can -- can we be the America that we even are today in ten years, if we don`t act now while the rest of the world is claiming these resources?

KING: Oh, not at all. Not at all, Glenn. We are losing valuable times. You know, some things are happening faster than we know.

The airline industry at the prices we see, in six months you will not recognize the airline industry in the United States or the rest of the world. In a few years, this country could transform radically in a very, very unpleasant direction for, I think, most peoples` view of this.

BECK: Byron, thank you very much.

KING: Thank you.

BECK: I don`t understand what the disconnect is. And I mean, energy independence, why isn`t America showing the same common sense as -- I hate to say it -- as Iran is?

Bob Barr is a former Republican congressman from Georgia and current Libertarian candidate for president.

Bob, I have to tell you. I wouldn`t want to be Barack Obama or John McCain or you. I wouldn`t want the job right now, because whoever takes this job, if you can`t get things rolling, you`re done.

BOB BARR (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, we`ll get things rolling in a Barr administration. And I`ll tell you who will be our energy czar, and it`s going to be Glenn Beck.

BECK: Yes, right. See, that would be the problem, Bob. Seriously, how could you possibly get the red tape cut? How could you possibly get these nuke plants -- I said yesterday in a story, the Yucca Mountain project, 20 years of paperwork and the government still hasn`t decided if they`re going to accept the application. Come on.

BARR: I read a book just a few months ago by a gentlemen named Lee Iacocca, "Where Have all the Leaders Gone." That`s what it`s going to take, Glenn. It`s going to take leadership. We don`t see it with the establishment status quo parties and their candidates. It`s going to take innovative thinking. It`s going to take bold action.

There are a lot of thing that a president can do to get the ball rolling. Some of it requires legislation, but there`s absolutely no excuse whatsoever for the lack of leadership on this issue.

BECK: How do you -- how do you fast-track coal to oil, for instance?

BARR: Well, first of all, you start removing the disincentives, some of which can be done by the president through powers that the president has. Some of it you do through appropriate appointments. You put people other than just bureaucrats who want to do business as usual in key positions as they would be in a Barr administration.

And you call Congress into session. And one thing that I would do as a Libertarian president, as opposed to a Republican or a Democrat president, is go up to the Congress and talk to both sides. You know, it`s absurd. The system we now have has become so poisoned with partisanship, you have a Republican president who talks only with Republicans. You have a Democrat president who talks only with Democrats.

At best, you`re reaching half of the lawmakers up there. It`s a system doomed and destined for failure.

BECK: You know what, Bob? They`re going to do whatever the hell they want anyway. I was reading "The Wall Street Journal" today. Everybody says that this cap in trade thing, "Oh, don`t worry." I talked to so many people on Capitol Hill this week: "Oh, don`t worry. The thing is dead. Don`t worry about it." Really?

Then why in "The Wall Street Journal" today were they talking about companies like GE that are spending -- I mean burning the midnight oil like crazy, trying to get this cap in trade bill more favorable to companies like GE? They`re -- they are spending just tons of money trying to -- in special-interest money trying to get Congress to change this bill. Why would they do that if it`s not going to happen?

BARR: They`re already doing what they always do, and that is trying to game the system. And Senator McCain, for example, on this carbon cap in trade is right there in the thick of it. This cap in trade, where companies would be -- there would be targets set that are unrealistic in and of themselves. The cost would be humungous, up to a trillion dollars over the next several years.

And the companies would be able to trade like trading cards their caps to pollute a little bit more or a little bit less. And can you imagine, Glenn, the new bureaucracy over and above the bureaucracy that we already have that will be necessary under this McCain bill?

BECK: No. It will be -- it will be awful. And by the way, thank you for calling the McCain -- it is not -- it is not that he`s in the thick of it. He`s one of the flag bearers of this thing.

BARR: Right.

BECK: He is a nightmare on cap in trade.

Bob, thanks a lot.

BARR: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: Now, America, make sure you tune in tomorrow. I`ll have Bob Barr back. He`ll join me for a full hour. We`re going to talk more about energy independence, what we have to do to fix our struggling economy. How do we bring principles, values and common sense back to this country?

Coming up, Tony Rezko, friend and former fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, has been convicted on federal corruption charges. Obama`s response: "Well, it`s not the Tony Rezko I knew." Boy, doesn`t that sound familiar? I`ll explain, just a second.

Plus, Hugo Chavez` new controversial spy law quickly turning Venezuela into a police state. Rising strong concerns from its civil rights group. Wow. What a great guy. But Danny Glover knew that...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Over the past two and a half years, 6,000 people have died as a result of increasing violence on our border with Mexico. That is more than all combat deaths in Iraq for the entire war.

I`ve got news, America. There is another war raging, and our leaders in Washington are ignoring it, and it is getting much, much worse. We`ll have more on that in just a bit.

Now, when it comes to friends who get into trouble or get you in trouble, Barack Obama sure knows how to pick them, doesn`t he? I mean, after deliberating for 12 days a jury in Chicago -- in Chicago finally convicted Tony Rezko on 16 counts of corruption.

For those of you who are still drunk on Obama claiming victory as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, let me sober you up a bit. Not only was Tony Rezko a close personal friend and confidant of Barack Obama but Rezko raised $250,000 for Obama`s campaign, which he has now donated to charity.

When he heard about the conviction, Barack Obama issued a statement that said, and I quote, "I am saddened by today`s verdict. This isn`t the Tony Rezko I knew." Really? He didn`t -- OK. He didn`t know that -- he didn`t know that his, you know, friend and fund-raiser was a corrupt thug. He didn`t know that his pastor and spiritual advisor was a black liberation radical. He didn`t know that one of his Middle Eastern guys was in bed with Hamas. Is this guy, like, the worst judge of character ever?

Forget about the skeletons. Obama has real-life human beings in his closet, and they`re a little sketchy.

If Obama gets elected, I don`t think I like the character of the people that will be sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom. Maybe it`s just me.

Jonah Goldberg is the editor of "The National Review" online, author of "The New York Times" best-seller, "Liberal Fascism."

My mother used to always say show me your friends, and I`ll show you your future. Based on what we know about some of his friends, what does our future look like with President Obama?

JONAH GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "LIBERAL FASCISM": Well, look, the Barack Obama you`re describing is not the Barack Obama I know. The Barack Obama I know...

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... he is going to make the ocean levels sink.

BECK: Oh, sink. That`s right.

GOLDBERG: Cats and dogs are going to sleep together. Everyone`s going to be happy. And I really think that you should be ashamed of yourself for practicing the politics of division.

BECK: See? This is the deal. You can`t point any of these things out without being, you know, a practitioner of the politics of division and the same old, same old.

I mean, he -- he took months to say that, "OK, all right. That pastor guy, I should get away." Now it`s been what? Four or five days since he was away from his pastor and he just this week said, "That`s old news. I`ve already left that church."

Right. Here`s the problem. We`re starting to build up this track record here whether either you have to take him seriously, which is really damning, or you have to assume he`s lying, which is really damning. You can`t keep saying, "That`s not the Trinity Church I knew. That`s not the Jeremiah Wright I knew. That`s not the Tony Rezko I know. That`s not the Father Pfleger I know."

At some point either he`s right and he`s just, as you said, the worst judge of character ever and he`s a kind of guy to actually go through a brothel and say, "Those aren`t the women I knew." At some -- or, or he`s lying and, in fact, he`s a product of the Chicago corrupt political machine.

BECK: Right. Well, I mean, here`s the -- here`s the thing, Jonah. Everybody is saying that, well, Chicago, this is the way you do business in Chicago. Well, it`s the way we do business in Washington, too, and that`s not a good thing.

He says that he is a different kind of politician. If I take him at face value, he really wasn`t that involved in his church. He was really kind of there because it was a, you know, kind of a thing that helped him with the social network and helped him get involved in town. The second thing is, Tony Rezko. He was only really involved not really friends. Didn`t do anything wrong, et cetera, et cetera. But that`s the way politics are. You`re involved with people like that in Chicago. Those aren`t good things in a president.

GOLDBERG: That`s right. What also undermines the case, as you mentioned, it undermines the case that, as Obama has said repeatedly throughout the last 18 months, that he`s going to go to Washington and he`s not going to play the same old game. He`s not going to cave in to the status quo and all these sorts of things.

BECK: Right.

GOLDBERG: There`s no evidence that he is a reformer coming out of Chicago. It`s not just Tony Rezko. It`s everyone around him.

BECK: Right. I want to -- I want to show you some things that I found on the Internet. And I don`t know if you`ve noticed this. But if you look at the art work and even we have a picture here of one of the people that worked in his office. I think it was in Houston. Look at the art work here.

This is Soviet art. This is revolutionary art. And here`s one of his campaign workers with a Che flag. Socialism is cool right now. Right or wrong?

GOLDBERG: Oh, well, unfortunately, I don`t think it`s ever been uncool for people on the left. It`s a very strange thing. You know, Hugo Chavez is very popular. Che Guevara is very popular. Castro is still very popular.

And a lot of these posters that we see for Barack really come from the sort of liberation theology, left-wing sort of...

BECK: I know.

GOLDBERG: ... where he`s a messiah-like figure. His own volunteers are told to go around. They`re not supposed to talk about the issues. They`re supposed to talk about how they, quote, "came to Obama." The same way people talk about coming to Jesus. There`s a lot of strange stuff going on.

BECK: Holy cow. Jonah, I`m out of time. If you don`t mind hanging on, because I do want to bring up the celebrities in Hollywood, how socialism is cool and the dictators that they love. How do you do this with Hugo Chavez and the news coming out about him this week?

But coming up next, while I told you about Wisconsin`s student a while back, they were suspended for using Christian images in an art project. Remember? And they -- they got a zero on their art project. Well, we have a follow-up that I think has a happy ending that you`ll like.

Plus, an exclusive look at the behind the scenes of my road show tour. What a special guest I promise you you`re not going to see anywhere else. It`s a Glenn Beck exclusive later on, on the program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: A while back I told you about a Christian student in Wisconsin who was punished for including a Bible verse and a cross in an art class assignment. The school said it was a violation of its policies against the inclusion of blood, violence, sexual connotations or religious beliefs. Love it. One of these things doesn`t belong.

Well, the kid got a zero for the assignment, and then he got the Alliance Defense Fund involved. David Cortman is a senior legal counsel for the fund.

David, there`s been a decision in this. Tell me about it.

DAVID CORTMAN, SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL, ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND: Thanks for having me, Glenn.

BECK: You bet.

CORTMAN: It is actually pretty interesting the way it came about. We set a hearing with a court, and the night before the hearing was to take place, we got a phone call from the district legal counsel, basically saying they wanted to settle the lawsuit.

BECK: How would they going to -- what were they going to use for a defense for this?

CORTMAN: Well, what`s incredible about this story is, is that their pleadings, the briefs that they filed with the court said that they have a right to control whatever students say in the classroom. And if they have a policy that prohibits religion, no one not even the court or the students should question that. Holy cow.

Isn`t this -- if I remember right, isn`t this the same school that has, like, a Buddha in one of their classrooms? The teacher is Buddhist and has a Buddha there?

CORTMAN: He does. And he has -- they teach you about Buddhism. They teach all different religions. But the minute we have something about Christian, Christianity or a Christian student, automatically, they discriminate against him and discriminate against him and have no tolerance for it. And that`s what`s happening.

BECK: So then he went to court. It was settled? What`s the outcome?

CORTMAN: Well, the outcome, basically, is that he has his paper now graded and was given a B-plus on the assignment instead of the zero he received. The policy was completely changed where they removed the religious prohibition, and now he and other students are permitted to have religion in their assignments.

BECK: OK. Does anybody have a problem -- are you going to have a problem if, you know, somebody talks about Allah in their assignment and everything else?

CORTMAN: Well, in this school, obviously not. Because they allow all religions except for Christianity, but it shouldn`t be. And that`s the point about private student speech. And what we see going on here is just typical of what`s going on all throughout the country.

BECK: Is there some kid that can`t even read the Bible at recess that you guys are working on?

CORTMAN: That`s right. We actually at ADF have started an entire legal department just to face discrimination against Christian students, and that`s all that we do. We`ve got a student in Tennessee. Listen to this. He`s reading his Bible on the playground during recess and is told he cannot do so because it violates the law by the school.

BECK: How -- how -- how is that -- what does that violate?

CORTMAN: Well, it`s not violating anything except for his rights, obviously. But the school comes out and says that the so-called separation of church and state, the establishment clause -- absolutely -- is the rule. And that basically says he`s not allowed to talk about his faith at school, nor sit and read a Bible, which is...

BECK: Well, if you have a gun or a Bible, don`t cling to them. I think we learned that. David, thanks a lot.

CORTMAN: All right.

BECK: Now, coming up next, violence along the southern border has reached levels only seen in war. What is it going to take for Washington to sit up and pay attention? Find out in tonight`s "Real Story." It is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Welcome to the "Real Story." I want to -- I want to start tonight with the border war. Since everybody else ignores it, let`s talk about it for a second.

In the past two and a half years, 6,000 people have been killed on Mexico`s side of the border. To give you some perspective on that, there have been 4,087 U.S. deaths in Iraq.

At least 40 people have been decapitated in Mexico so far this year. Deaths near or along the border are up 47 percent in the last 52 weeks, and Mexican troops are deployed in more than half of the Mexican states. Mexico seems to be on the verge of collapse, but nobody in the media or Washington even cares. What? What?

Remember, that`s because securing our border is all about racism and xenophobia. Not national security and sovereignty and modern-day slavery.

You know what "The Real Story" is? Mexico is turning into Bogota, Colombia. And when the battles are happening, just five miles from American cities, this problem is a problem for our country.

Here are some of the greatest hit that is I found from the past four weeks alone in some of the newspapers along the border. Twenty-five people were slain one weekend in Juarez including two police officers.

A Mexican drug gang dragged eight men, including three police officers, out of their homes and executed them. Mexico`s national police chief gunned down outside of his home. A Mexican drug gang killed a husband and a wife, both Mexican cops.

I -- I have pictures that I`ve been trying to show on the television show now for about eight months. I put them in my e-mail newsletter that goes out today. I can`t show them to you on TV. But they will give you a sense of the enemy that we are facing right across our border.

It`s the kind of stuff that used to see in Baghdad or in the Middle East until we took it seriously, and now this type of violence is down in Iraq. It`s already spilling over into the U.S. over that invisible line that separates our two countries. Eighty extraditions to the U.S. Mexican police chiefs have been asking us for asylum. The wounded themselves are dragging themselves across the border to receive medical care, which your tax dollars are now paying for.

Our border agents are coming under sniper fire. And did I mention the drug trade? You know what? If you`re out there smoking dope, I want to personally thank you for putting $12 billion a year directly into these murderers` pockets.

Of course, Congress is withholding $50 million that would help the Mexican government combat these gangs. I`m not sure if we should give it to them. I don`t know if I`d trust the Mexican government. And our government, I don`t think I trust them. We can`t even build a border fence because of our own environmental laws.

You know what, gang? Washington is never going to solve this problem, because they don`t want to. But as I told my radio audience today, I`m publishing the graphic photos of what`s really happening on the border. I put them in our newsletter today, because at the very least, you have to be aware of what evil we are facing along our border.

Fred Burton is author of "Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent."

Fred, we are seeing things that are giving us signs that really bad, bad out of control crime is coming our way in places where it hasn`t arrived already.

FRED BURTON, AUTHOR, "GHOST": It`s a real problem, Glenn. What most people fail to recognize is the direct cartel interface with the criminal gangs inside the United States. Meaning the criminal gangs that contribute to all the violence and murders in our cities across America. That`s a direct cause and effect to the border situation. So it`s imperative that we secure our border.

BECK: But we`re seeing now, they`re putting heads on poles. I can`t even imagine trying -- just being a regular Mexican citizen, driving down to take my kids to school and seeing heads put on fence poles all the way along the street. That`s the kind of stuff that we`re talking about.

BURTON: Absolutely. In Juarez this year alone, we`ve had 470 people killed. There were six cops gunned down in one weekend of violence not too long ago. You have cops defecting, as you said in your beginning, so it`s really a bad situation.

We also have a tremendous corruption problem on our side of the border, Glenn. And this is something that we really need to try to get a handle on if we want to secure the border.

BECK: so what do you mean by we have a corruption going on on our side of the boarder?

BURTON: You have dirty cops, basically. And I hate to say it, having been a former cop and a federal agent myself, but you have dirty cops on our side of the border, so it`s like a swinging gate with the cartels being allowed to bring drugs north into the United States, and we are certainly contributing by letting weapons and stolen automobiles flow south into Mexico.

BECK: Tell me -- tell me about the list that you carry. You talked about it in your book "Ghost." Tell me about the list that you carry on you.

BURTON: In "Ghost," I chronicled my time when I was with the diplomatic security service when I was one of the first three counterterrorism agents assigned to global terror.

And I started putting together a list of terrorists going back to the early `80s. And No. 1 on the list was Imad Mugniyeh, who was a man assassinated by the Israelis on February the 12th in Damascus, Syria, and covert operation. And he was a Hezbollah thug, and this list I put together over the course of 12 years when I was with the diplomatic security service. And I chronicle this in my book "Ghost."

BECK: Fred, a couple of things. Thanks for all the work you do. You weren`t implying that all of our border security -- our Border Patrol are dirty.

BURTON: No, no.

BECK: By no stretch of the imagination?

BURTON: By no stretch of the imagination am I saying that, but I am saying this, that we do have a tremendous problem on our side of the border.

BECK: Yes.

BURTON: With corruption. And it`s not -- it`s not just local cops.

BECK: Yes. I got it. I think it also goes all the way to Washington, but maybe that`s just me.

Fred, thanks a lot.

Now, from a collapsing state to a police state. Friend of the show, Hugo Chavez, has decreed a law requiring Venezuelans to spy on their neighbors and forcing judges to spy for the government. Anyone who refuses to cooperate, four years in prison. That`s funny, because I thought Hugo Chavez called the Patriot Act dictatorial.

Let me ask you this question. Where are all of Hugo`s celebrity friends? I mean, remember his buddies Sean Penn and Danny Glover? Kevin Spacey, Naomi Campbell, just to name a few? These morons actually accused President Bush of being a fascist. They called Dick Cheney Darth Vader.

And then they flocked to guys like Chavez because, oh, no. Chavez cares about civil liberties and human rights.

Well, here`s "The Real Story," gang. This is the same stuff we saw with Mussolini and Fidel Castro. These celebrities don`t care about human rights. They just want to bash the United States.

The media and the liberal elite stood with Mussolini. They said he was the leader of the future. Instead of touting Cuba`s low employment and thriving economy, celebrities in "The New York Times" touted Castro`s revolution and promised that he wasn`t a communist dictator. Then, when Cuba`s TVs and cars and jobs all went away, 1961, Castro finally said, "You know what? I am a communist. I`ve been a communist since before I started liking girls." Then I believe Hollywood liked him even more.

Now, as Venezuela becomes a police state, you`re not going to hear a peep from Hollywood. Sean Penn said that we have a dictatorship in America. So what exactly, Sean, does that make Venezuela?

You know, it`s easy for people like Danny Glover to sing Chavez`s praises when he`s financing, you know, Glover`s movies, but do you ever notice that these Chavez fans live here and not in Venezuela? Is that -- is that because they`re afraid they might be forced to spy on their neighbors and live under a real dictator or what?

Jonah Goldberg, editor of "National Review" online, author of "Liberal Fascism," joins me again.

Jonah, we were talking earlier that socialism is cool. A listener actually sent me this hat. It`s cold in here. Anyway, that socialism is cool now. These celebrities flock to people like Chavez. Why? Are they just stupid? Are they -- do they know what they`re doing? Do they know who they`re embracing?

GOLDBERG: To a certain extent, yes. I think they don`t care. This is where I think you`re actually wrong. I bet you anything within the next six weeks you`re going to see Sean Penn and all these guys -- that Kennedy guy running the ads, you know, about getting free oil from Chavez, all that stuff is going to continue. They`re all going to say he`s still a good guy. We Americans, we don`t understand, because we don`t, you know, appreciate what a hero he is.

BECK: Well, you know what?

GOLDBERG: Castro has been spying on his own people for 40 years. That hasn`t stopped Danny Glover and those guys from saying he`s a hero.

BECK: And this is really what they did when they came back and saw Stalin`s Russia. They came back, and they made excuses. They said, "OK, yes, he`s slaughtering all the business people. He`s slaughtering all of the farmers, but he has to to be able to be able to get this economic system to work."

GOLDBERG: Well, you`ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Yes. You can tell a lot about people by their heroes. It tells you something about how Che Guevara is so popular among the sort of campus left, about how Castro remains popular.

And it`s interesting. The most famous cartoon that "National Review" ever ran was back in the 1960s. They had a picture of Castro saying, "I got my job through `The New York Times`." Because Herbert Matthews wrote these slavishly sycophantic profiles of Castro, saying what a hero he was.

And what was funny about that, 30 years earlier, he wrote the same kind of profiles about Mussolini. There`s something about these dictatorial regimes and terrorists, too. Yasser Arafat is a good example. That you get these sort of men without chests, as C.S. Lewis would call it, who worship men of conviction, men of power, men that are really willing to get things done for the side of progress. And it`s really very disturbing when you think about it.

BECK: You know, this is one of the reasons why Obama bothers me so much. Because the left, as much as they say they don`t, you know, that, you know, Dick Cheney is Darth Vader and everything else, it`s -- it`s just that they don`t like their policies.

They`re willing to go to an actual dictator on the left. They`re willing to, because I mean, I`ve, you know, read up on the press and Mussolini, and I read a lot in your book. They -- they just think it needs to be the right dictator. They`re willing to do anything if it`s the right leader.

GOLDBERG: Well, there`s also this aspect of sort of bravery on the cheap. It`s very easy to drive around the United States with bumper stickers saying "Bush is scary," because Bush isn`t scary.

But, you know, in Saddam Hussein`s Iraq, I don`t think anyone drove around in cars saying, "Uday and Qusay really scare me." You know, it`s precisely because we don`t live in a dictatorship that all these people get away with saying that we do.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: And it`s -- it`s -- fine. Free speech. But that doesn`t mean these people are courageous for doing it. Like you are for that hat.

BECK: I`m going to have to tell you, I can`t think of anybody, Jonah, that, you know, you`d be afraid to speak out about. You know, here in America.

GOLDBERG: Well, if you can wear that hat, you can do anything.

BECK: You got it. Thanks, Jonah. That`s "the Real Story" tonight.

Now, with all the crazy dictators around the world, it`s time to get prepared. All this week, we`ve been doing a special series in my free e- mail newsletter about preparedness. You know, how you and your family can be ready for anything during these uncertain times, but you can only get it signing up now at GlennBeck.com. It is absolutely free. You also get those border pictures in tonight`s edition.

Coming up next, an exclusive look behind the scenes of my road show comedy tour. What? We`ll show you what goes on behind the scenes. Stick around. That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: See, that`s where everybody gets screwed up on. They say, "We`ve got to be pursuing solar." Yes. Yes, we do. No. The cleanest energy is nukes. No, no, it`s not, but we should be building nuclear energy power plants. The cleanest is hydroelectric.

Can you even imagine building a hydroelectric dam at this point? Can you imagine? Aah. The horned toad trout. The buck-toothed bunnies. You`re going to wreck the habitat of the yellow-tailed swallow. That`s exactly what they`d be saying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Hey, on tomorrow`s program we have Bob Barr, presidential candidate for the Libertarians. I`m going to talk to him about some of that stuff here. And then I go on tour for nine days.

We do a comedy show a couple of times a year. This is the next nine days, nine different cities. It starts Saturday in Atlanta. And the best part of my job is going and meeting you. The worst part of this is that I have to travel with people like John Bobey. He`s one of our writers on the program.

Here`s a quick look at him from our past tour of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOBEY, WRITER: A lot of guys would stop at two bottles of wine and feel they`re creative enough. I said, you know what? I want to be a third bottle more creative.

BECK: For every page of a script done, you get a candy bar.

BOBEY: If at all possible, we should have -- we should give popcorn to the audience. Because based on my experience, popcorn really just brought something extra to the show. Most of us...

BECK: Could you just help me make the show better in material?

BOBEY: Butter makes it better.

If I could find a woman that I like as much as this cake, I would marry her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: You have no idea -- you have no idea what it`s like. And there he is, traveling with John Bobey from the Upper West Side.

John, let me ask you a question. What exactly is the process of writing a show for -- a comedy show for me?

BOBEY: Well, Glenn, I spend months, blood, sweat and tears churning out pages and pages of high octane, no-miss comedy, and then I send it to you. And you ignore it.

BECK: Yes.

BOBEY: And then about a week before the tour, we meet again and we just throw all that stuff away and write something brand new.

BECK: Yes.

BOBEY: And then the day we leave, you ignore all the stuff we just wrote. And on the plane we write it again.

BECK: Yes. When we say we, when you say we write it again...

BOBEY: Well, I mean, granted it is you, but I feel that, as you know, I create an environment where funny things happen.

BECK: Yes, yes. I haven`t been laughing at that, because all you do is travel with me and eat. That`s all you do.

BOBEY: Well, I think it`s not just -- it`s feeding the process. It`s not feeding me. It`s feeding -- you know...

BECK: May I ask you -- may I ask you a question? When you got into the plane with me the first time that we went on the tour -- and this is really. I mean, these are candid shots. These are not set-up shots. When we first went on tour together we, I think, got to Long Island. And you said almost with a tear in your eye, my gosh, I love this country.

BOBEY: Well, I do, Glenn. As you know.

BECK: Yes.

BOBEY: Well, I grew up in the suburbs and I`ve lived in New York for 15 years or so. So it`s not -- I don`t get released back into the wild all that often.

BECK: So you know, the reason why he said he loves this country, because this is what he said. Dead serious. Look. It`s a Jiffy Lube next to an Applebee`s. What a great country.

BOBEY: That`s fantastic.

BECK: Yes. No. You got to get out of this city more often. I`m only doing it because I`m trying to bring you back into the real world. That`s the only reason why you travel with me.

BOBEY: I love to travel with you.

BECK: Of course you do. You eat steak and do nothing else. And by the way, tell me, because I don`t know the comedy writer world here in New York City.

BOBEY: Obviously.

BECK: But -- but writing for me...

BOBEY: Right.

BECK: That`s got to be a good sign your career is...

BOBEY: I`ll be honest with you. My career was not in the best of shape before we got together. And now, after two years...

BECK: Right.

BOBEY: ... of basically every day writing what a socialist Barack Obama is, you know how some people, when they go to med school, they have to go to Mexico or Paraguay?

BECK: Yes.

BOBEY: I`m going to have to write, like, patter for "Good Morning, San Juan" or something.

BECK: I have a feeling that`s true. And you should probably be sending out your resume soon.

All right. We have a great time on the road. But truth is, favorite part is you. Getting to meet you, hear your stories, tell some of mine. It is the best part of the job. I really do feel reconnected with the country every time we go out on tour.

Go over to GlennBeck.com for the all the details. Grab your tickets there. It`s GlennBeck.com.

We`ll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Michael Lomonaco, he is known as one of the best chefs in New York City. 1997, he became the executive chef of one of the world`s most famous restaurants and under his direction, it was the highest grossing restaurant in the United States. The restaurant was Windows on the World, located on the 106th and the 107th floor of the World Trade Center.

Michael was there the morning of September 11, 2001, when he was hosting a conference for, of all things, risk-management specialists. He had the whole staff in the restaurant that morning. He had planned to go downstairs to Lenscrafters to get his glasses adjusted. I think he had an appointment, like, 1 p.m. in the afternoon. It was in the mall.

But with the breakfast under control, he looked at his watch, and it was about 8:35 this morning. He says everything under control? He said, "I`ll be right back." Took the elevator, went downstairs.

When he got into Lenscrafters, he felt the building shake. Initially, he stayed there at the eyeglass shop trying to finish up his appointment, but the cops came in and evacuated everybody, because the sirens are going off and the lights were flickering.

He got outside of the building and wanted to call his wife and let her know that he was OK. He still didn`t know what was going on. He couldn`t get a phone signal. He told me when he told the story to me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a pay phone nowadays? Well, he eventually did. He got back in touch with his wife and then turned back to deal with the tragedy of the moment, which was growing.

He was going back to try to help everybody evacuated. He heard the second jet fly over and then the tower collapsed. He lost an uncountable amount of friends and co-workers that day and, by pure chance, he was the only one to survive.

You might think that Chef Lomonaco would pack things up and get the hell out of this city, but he didn`t. In fact, he opened up a new restaurant in New York in another set of twin towers. It`s called Porter House, and it is located right here in the Time Warner Center, the building that I`m in on Columbus Circle. It is one of my favorite restaurants in this city.

So one day in Porter House and I`m talking with Michael about how we`re doing this upcoming special of preparedness, something you might correctly guess he has something to say about. Sure, in a pinch, you might need food, water, you know, things like that. Basic supplies. All of which we have covered in our newsletter this week.

But tomorrow Chef Lomonaco takes care of the last part of the series, the ultimate meal. Because a great meal is just as important to the sanity and survival as anything else. I have literally begged Michael for this recipe for his beef short ribs. He has never given it to me. In tomorrow`s news letter, he`ll give it to you. In addition, you`ll get his recipes for Maryland-style crab cakes and the best French fries in the city and the double crust apple pie that he makes.

Sign up for the e-mail newsletter at GlennBeck.com. It`s free. From a few floors above Porter House in New York City, good night.

END