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Glenn Beck

Former O.J. Attorney Weighs in on Robbery; Why are We Obsessed with O.J.?; How Should U.S., Allies Deal with Iran?; Texas Muslims Rally Against Terrorism

Aired September 18, 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, the latest in the O.J. Simpson arrest. Is the Juice guilty or perhaps he`s a victim. Wait until you hear the point on this one.

Plus, showdown with Iran. As the head of the state comes closer to getting their hands on a nuke, is military action inevitable?

And I`ll crash test the country`s economy. We just might be heading into the gutter. I`ll tell you how we can get out of it with our stuff.

All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Good evening from New York City, America. There`s a lot of news to report.

Iraqi insurgents continue to kill American soldiers. Oil is nearing the $100 a barrel mark. U.S. home foreclosures are up 36 percent. But let`s talk about O.J. Simpson. It seems like that`s all that people want to talk about. So here`s the point tonight.

What the hell is wrong with us? Things are out of control in this country. We need to get back on track before it`s too late. And here`s how I got there.

Get ready for a news flash. When it comes to the armed robbery in Vegas, most people think O.J. Simpson is guilty as sin. Oh, yes, just as guilty as he was of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole and her friend, Ron Goldman. We need to put the story to rest.

So tonight, I thought, since yesterday I came out so against O.J., tonight I`d be for O.J. Give you both sides. I`m a giver like that. OK? Here we go.

I don`t know if you`ve noticed, but O.J. Simpson is black. Yes. Haven`t African-Americans suffered enough at the hands of the man? I bet the L.A. cops planted O.J. in Vegas so they could hang this robbery on him. Yes, I do. I believe that.

And O.J. is also very misunderstood. Do you know he was an athlete his whole life? I think I`m pretty sure I`ve heard that some place. I believe he probably missed a lot of those high school civic classes where they teach you it`s wrong to roam around with an armed posse and steal sports collectibles and then cut your wife`s head off. Probably missed that class.

And speaking of grisly double murders, for the last 13 years, O.J. Simpson has been committed to finding the real killers. I mean, after checking all the golf courses in America, what do you do? That`s why he obviously started checking all the Las Vegas hotel rooms. I mean, why else would he be conducting such a complicated sting operation?

And, lastly, why would O.J. Simpson bother stealing old autographed sports stuff when he can just sign new stuff? You know what I mean? Hello. His own autograph is free.

So, tonight, here`s what you need to know. Whew, even after that really persuasive argument I just laid out, I have to tell you, you`d have to be dumb as a box of rocks to think that O.J. Simpson is innocent. But all the facts aren`t out yet. So, we don`t know the whole story. You know, even though I might think he was probably even the second shooter on the grassy knoll. Let`s not jump to conclusions.

This morning, yet another one of Juice`s henchman was released on bail. And you can bet that they`re playing "let`s make a deal" to save their own skins and leave O.J. holding the bag.

It`s time to stop with the wasted talk of O.J. Simpson being persecuted and move on to the real problems facing our country. While O.J. Simpson is finally prosecuted and silenced.

Bob Blasier is the former attorney for O.J. Simpson, has recently spoken to Simpson.

Bob, you talked to him on the phone or in person yesterday?

BOB BLASIER, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: I talked to him a couple of times on the phone from the jail. He called me collect several times.

BECK: Is he OK?

BLASIER: Yes, he`s doing fine. He just -- you know, this whole thing has been blown so way out of proportion that, you know, it`s a very interesting thing. It`s going to make a great movie at some point.

BECK: No. Who would be the beneficiary of those movie profits? I see an O.J. Simpson movie in this deal?

BLASIER: No. Certainly not O.J. That`s for sure.

BECK: Yes.

BLASIER: This was all a setup by this guy named Tom Riccio, who is the one who invited O.J. to come in to get what he believed was his own property.

And the hollering that you hear on the tape, the tape recorder, that`s him, that`s O.J. talking to Riccio, because Riccio did not want these other two guys to know that Riccio is the one who ratted them out, basically.

BECK: What is the motivation for Riccio to...

BLASIER: You know, I`m not sure. I think a lot of that remains to be seen. Because I`m not sure that O.J. knew that this was going to be recorded. And I`m not sure he knew this was going to wind up in the media. So I have a feeling that we really don`t know.

BECK: So do you think, Bob, that -- you know, let`s just play devil`s advocate here.

BLASIER: Sure.

BECK: If you cut a couple of people`s heads off, do you think you should kind of play it on the down low for the rest of your life and just kind of, you know, play golf and be quiet?

BLASIER: Well, O.J. can`t play golf and be quiet. They follow him around on the golf course.

BECK: Oh.

BLASIER: So, no matter -- he`s always going to be watched and I`m not...

BECK: Is that why he`s having a hard time finding the real killers? Because I know he promised that he was going to be out there pitching to find the real killers. Is there the possibility that that`s what he was doing here, that he thought maybe Riccio was the real killer?

BLASIER: I don`t think so. You know, that`s humorous and everything. But that`s -- right now he`s in custody. He`s obviously not looking for anybody. He`s trying to get out.

BECK: So apparently he`s got the Rolex and the memorabilia. He owes the Goldman family $60 million. I mean, he`s got offshore accounts and everything else.

BLASIER: I don`t know about that. I know that what he was looking for, primarily, were family photos of his kids when they were growing up, a lot of personal items. It wasn`t...

BECK: So it wasn`t the autographed memorabilia?

BLASIER: No. It wasn`t him. It wasn`t him with J. Edgar Hoover. He didn`t really care about that so much.

BECK: Did he get the photos?

BLASIER: I`m not sure. I don`t know what was taken. But obviously, there was not as much there as he had anticipated, because he had brought these other guys to help carry stuff out.

BECK: Right. I hope he got the photos. Even though he could see his kids, but he seems to be...

BLASIER: He doesn`t want those out in the public. And he has a right to his privacy on that.

BECK: OK. Good, good, good. Bob, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

O.J. is just part of the problem, quite frankly, America. We, the people, continue to be obsessed with the celebrity scandal du jour: everything from Britney Spears` custody battle to Sally Field`s Emmy acceptance speech.

I was on "Good Morning America" today talking about Sally Field. When they came to me, I just started laughing. You`re kidding me, right? This is our priority in America?

We go to Howard Kurtz, who was in the piece on "Good Morning America" right before me.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": They came to my house, Glenn. I had no choice.

BECK: It`s unbelievable, Howard. How are you, sir?

KURTZ: I`m doing well.

BECK: OK. The O.J. Simpson, Sally Field, Britney Spears. Good God in heaven. I opened with "The Point" tonight. What the hell is wrong with us, Howard?

KURTZ: Well, I`m going to surprise you a little bit, because I think in the first 48 hours of the Simpson story, this was a very legitimate story.

BECK: No, it was.

KURTZ: The most famous murder defendant of our generation, the person most think got away with murder, suddenly behind bars in this bizarre incident, gunpoint and all that. And -- and the audiotape with all those expletives that the TV networks get to bleep out.

After that, though, we`re seeing this familiar media excess where, you know, there`s not really any great new developments in the O.J. case. So you get the lawyers and you let them argue, and you get the psychologists and the ex-detectives and the ex-prosecutors and you try to fill up the air time on cable.

CNN actually has been pretty restrained in this particular one. But if you want to make the broader point about Britney, and Paris, and Sally and all of them, it does seem that that gets a lot more attention than, say, oh, I don`t know, Hillary Clinton`s health plan.

BECK: I couldn`t believe that -- yes. Hillary Clinton`s health plan is announced, and news organizations are leading with O.J. Simpson like day No. 4. We`re doing it, too. Don`t get me wrong.

You`ve got Sally Field -- she was edited. I mean, like, this was a surprise? Who at home was watching? It ended this sentence. Who at home was watching the Emmys. But who at home was watching the Emmys and went, "Oh, my gosh, I was -- I was for the war, but now Sally Fields (sic) has convinced me and turned me around I should be against it."

It`s a non-story.

KURTZ: Well, it`s a non-story that became a story because of FOX pulling the plug on her anti-war sentiment. But look, the...

BECK: That`s not what they did, Howard. They did -- they did not do that.

KURTZ: They didn`t like the word she used, I know. But, look, there`s no question -- this started with O.J. in the `90s, and then television got addicted.

Any time you have celebrities and crime and controversy, it is like heroin. We just shoot it up, particularly on cable television. Network morning shows often do the same. And does it overshadow and sometimes blot out news about the rest of the world? For example, the economy, the war, and other vital issues? Yes, it does.

BECK: OK. Let me play devil`s advocate here first. Britney at the VMA got more coverage on television than Petraeus. That`s incredible. Now, granted...

KURTZ: Because Petraeus wasn`t wearing a bra and panties.

BECK: I was going to say. If we got Petraeus -- well, somebody stand behind Petraeus to dance like that, maybe we would watch that. But is there a possibility that this is actually healthy, because it shows that we are -- we`re fatigued? We are -- I mean, nobody wants to think of all of this stuff.

Do you want to think about your -- your house being worth 20 percent less? We`re getting our butts handed to us all around the world, that you know, terrorists might be in your kids` school and might be planning to kill your kids right now? Do you want to think of that or would you rather see Britney Spears dance?

KURTZ: Look, a lot of so-called real news, particularly the war, is depressing. So obviously, some of this serves as a kind of comic relief. But the problem is it seems like the media can`t seem to walk and chew gum at the same time. It`s got to be a lot of Britney, a lot of O.J. or a lot of Anna Nicole, and then the other stuff falls by the wayside.

I actually think that news organizations can cover all of this stuff with a little more balance. But try telling that to producers who see the ratings needle move every time Britney is shaking her booty.

BECK: That`s why -- thank you very much, Howard. That`s why we`re moving on to being vaporized by Iran in just a second.

And there`s a long list of countries that are lining up and saying, "Ooh, a nuclear armed Iran, kind of a bad thing." This weekend, it was France that said that. Are we inching closer to military action? We`ll find out in a second.

Plus, the recession and the housing market. Oh, more good fun. Don`t worry. I`ll show somebody jiggling on the screen at the same time.

The Fed has cut interest rates, sky-rocketing oil prices. These are all part of a larger puzzle, a scary economic puzzle. We`ll have the common-sense answers on what you can do to protect yourself against financial disaster, if it should come.

But first, some conspiracy theorists are saying that O.J.`s arrest was just a ploy concocted by O.J. himself in order to sell more books. You might think that`s crazy, but "If I Did It" right now is No. 2 on the best sellers` list. I mean, don`t cut the throat of the messenger here. Perhaps O.J. is onto something.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: On the heels of his runaway best seller "If I Did It" comes a new book by acclaimed writer O.J. Simpson that`s destined to become an instant classic. It`s called "I`m not Saying I Robbed Those Memorabilia Dealers at Gunpoint But if I Did, This is How it Might Have Gone Down".

You`ll get all the juicy details on O.J. Simpson`s recent alleged armed robbery. I`m sorry, sting operation. With a special forward by Judge Larry Seidler. In stores soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, it seems the head of the snake has reared its ugly head once more. Iran`s state news agency has labeled France extremist. Yes, France, home of the Baghdad extremist.

It was a reaction to comments made by the French foreign minister over the weekend. He suggested that we should all prepare for the possibility of war with Iran, but only after the world`s major powers used further sanctions to prove they`re serious about stopping Tehran from getting the bomb.

Well, that is tough talk. Actually, it is coming from France.

In case you haven`t noticed, Iran has been ignoring pretty much every sanction that we`ve levied against them so far, and now we`ve got friends like Germany saying they won`t support it anymore.

So, with Germany doing -- and the new Frenchie Frenchman, where does that leave us? Reportedly, some of our own foreign diplomats believe that there is only one option is left, military action. And this is bad news.

One of them said, quote, "There are a number of people in the administration who do not want their legacy to be leaving behind Iran that is nuclear armed." Great. Great.

So how do we do that now without dragging all of us into World War III and making oil $200 a barrel?

Michael Ledeen is the author of the new book "The Iranian Time Bomb".

Michael, is there any way -- let`s start here -- is there any way to stop Iran from getting the bomb with the way the spineless world is behaving?

MICHAEL LEDEEN, AUTHOR, "THE IRANIAN TIME BOMB": No, not if they -- not if they insist that the only two options are sanctions or negotiations, because we`ve been negotiating with Iran for 30 years, virtually non-stop, and nothing has come of that. And I don`t know of a single case in which sanctions have changed the behavior of an enemy country.

BECK: How much time do you think we have before we have to act?

LEDEEN: Nobody knows.

BECK: Take your best educated guess.

LEDEEN: It`s probably months rather than years, is my best educated guess. I`m surprised that they haven`t tested an atomic bomb already. They`ve been at it since 1991. We went from zero to bomb in four years, when no one had ever done it. And they`re getting all kinds of help.

BECK: The -- the whole world changes overnight once we see the earth move under Iran. Doesn`t it?

LEDEEN: I`m not so sure if that -- it will certainly change overnight if the Iranians do what they`ve been promising to do, which is, as soon as they get a bomb, drop it on Israel. That will certainly change the world.

BECK: I have said before we went into Iraq, I said to my audience, my radio audience: you have to understand, I think you read between the lines with what President Bush told us at the time.

One of the real targets over in the Middle East was Iran. That is the head of the snake. That is where this poison is coming from.

And I think our leaders were not honest with us, not about weapons of mass destruction or anything else, but including Iran into the plan on saying we`re trying to squeeze it with democracy on both sides. It really is a nasty, poisonous place.

LEDEEN: It is. It`s a dreadful place. And you`re quite right. We should have started with Iran, especially because the most lethal weapon against the Iranian regime is the Iranian people.

And the most effective method against the Iranian regime is to support and sponsor democratic revolution in Iran, as we did in the Soviet Union. Soviet Union had atomic bombs, but you`re not going to drop atomic bombs on demonstrators in your own cities.

BECK: Right. I`ve been saying to the White House over and over and over again, where is the Reagan speech? Where is that -- where is that "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall"? Where is the moment, "We will support you, Poland. You rise up and we`re there." I mean, I haven`t heard it yet.

LEDEEN: I haven`t heard it either. And -- and when you memorize the Iranian time bomb, you`ll know that no president has said it in 30 years.

BECK: Tell me what it looks like if we went in for war. Because I`ve got to believe it is damn near, if not the end of our economy, it is -- it is bad, bad news. Wouldn`t it inflame the entire Middle East if we then went in and flew our planes into their skies, bombed their cities, brought our troops in?

LEDEEN; Well, we`re not going to bring any troops in. I mean, that`s just, you know, fantasy. We`re not going to invade Iran.

We might, at the end of the day. If Iran announces they have nuclear weapons and successfully test one. We might find ourselves faced, as these guys see it, as a choice between negotiating some more and basically appeasing them or bombing the nuclear installations, if we think we know where they are.

First, I`m not sure we know where they all are. And secondly, I`m not sure that that would be a very good policy. I`ve been against military action against Iran all along, as you know.

BECK: As I -- as I have been, as well. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it.

Coming up, I`ve always pledged to cover stories where good Muslims publicly stand up and speak out against extremists. Well, 200 Muslims did that just recently in a rally in the streets in Austin, Texas. The organizer joins me in just a second.

And Travis Tritt joins me in the studio later on in the program. Don`t miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Even though no dot org will ever report it, I`ve said on this program time and time again, we need to hear the voices of peaceful Muslims who speak out against those Islamic extremists who are destroying their religion.

Today, on this sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I am proud and happy to introduce you to a Muslim-American woman whose goal is to have a peaceful voice of Islam be heard louder than that of any terrorist. This past weekend, she organized a march in Austin, Texas, to help educate people on what Islam is really all about.

Her name is Sharida McKenzie.

Sharida, how are you?

SHARIDA MCKENZIE, ACTIVIST: Fine. How are you doing, Glenn?

BECK: I`m very good. Congratulations. You had a fairly large, I would imagine, fairly large turnout of Muslims supporting you in Austin, Texas? What was it, about 200?

MCKENZIE: Yes, it was.

BECK: Over the weekend. Good for you.

Now, I have to ask you. Here`s a very frank question coming your way.

MCKENZIE: OK.

BECK: It was organized as a peace march. And quite honestly, I think most Americans are sick and tired of hearing that Islam is a religion of peace. We get it. What we don`t hear is people standing up and saying, "Not in my name. Don`t do this. These Muslim terrorists are destroying my religion."

MCKENZIE: That`s right. But that`s what this march was actually really about. It was a platform for Muslims to denounce terrorism. That`s what we were doing. That`s what our signs said, and that was the message.

BECK: God bless you. Now I understand your father was a military man. Your last name is Hussein, until you married a McKenzie.

MCKENZIE: That`s right.

BECK: How old are you, if you don`t mind me asking?

MCKENZIE: I`m 29.

BECK: During the Gulf War, did you have a hard time with the last name Hussein?

MCKENZIE: Oh, yes, definitely. The kids -- they really, really did believe that my uncle was Saddam Hussein, so yes.

BECK: So -- and you`re -- you decided to do this message of speaking out against extreme Islamists and, at the same time, preaching that Islam is peaceful, because of your in-laws?

MCKENZIE: Well, actually, I think you had something to do with that, too.

BECK: OK.

MCKENZIE: I didn`t realize that, but I didn`t realize that -- but today, I did realize that, at one point in your show, you had mentioned that you would love to see Muslims actually taking a stand against terrorism in public. So, yes, in addition to a couple of in-laws, I think you had -- you had something to do with that, too.

BECK: Well, that`s fantastic. I`m glad to hear that.

So, are you going to take this anyplace else? Was this just a one- time event? What was the sense that you got from the people that were there?

MCKENZIE: They -- they loved it. I got a lot of support. And this is not a one-time event. We are going to make this an annual event in Austin. And not only that, we plan on spreading the word across the country. So I`m going to be talking to Muslim leaders across the country and asking that they hold the marches and peace rallies and denounce terrorism publicly.

BECK: Sharida, I can`t tell you how happy I am to have you on here. Especially, a woman taking charge and speaking out carries a huge message in the Muslim extremist communities. And thank you for doing it.

MCKENZIE: Thank you very much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Welcome to the "Real Story."

The media and financial markets seem to be in shock over the recent Alan Greenspan book, excerpts in which he warns us on everything from higher than expected inflation to lower than expected housing prices. But the "Real Story" is that none of this is shocking if you`ve been watching this program. Please wake up, America.

Believe it or not, the only topic that we cover that gets more hate mail than radical Islam is the threats facing our economy. Yes, apparently people just don`t like to hear that their homes may be worth a lot less than they think they are and they may never get to retire. I know, sounds crazy. Unfortunately, since people don`t like the message, they tend to ignore it. That is human nature. It is also dangerous.

Whenever we talk about the worst-case scenario with the economy, the words of my grandfather always run through my head. And, man, they have been going crazy. In my head, that`s all I`ve been hearing lately. He would always tell me, the only people that survived the Great Depression were those who had money to spend when everyone else was broke, those who saved while everyone else spent like crazy. If that does not sound like you, then please walk down the Doomsday road with me for just a couple of minutes and consider whether or not you`re positioned to make it through another depression.

You may not like the message, and the message may be wrong. But is there harm into listening to it, at least for a couple of minutes?

Peter Schiff is the president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of "Crash Proof." Also, Michael Panzner is a Wall Street trader and author of "Financial Armageddon."

You two are Doomsday. You make my head hurt, honestly. You give me nightmares. But while I might not agree with everything that each of you say, you both I think are closer than the clowns that we see on TV all the time saying, "Oh, no, we`re totally fine."

Let me start with this. The housing market, Greenspan is saying that there`s at least single-digit losses. He may see double-digits. And, Peter, you say it`s going to be worse than that.

PETER SCHIFF, PRESIDENT, EUROPAC CAPITAL: Oh, sure.

BECK: Why?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, housing prices were only bid up to these bubble levels because of the monetary policies of Alan Greenspan. He brought short-term interest rates down to 1 percent, left them there for years, and then raised them very slowly, and that`s what created the fuel that fed that fire and allowed so many speculators and so many people to borrow huge sums of money to overpay for houses that they couldn`t afford.

BECK: All right, Michael, so what we have in Florida is, we have 23,000 condos that are currently sitting on the market. Next year, or the next two years, we`ll have another 25,000 condos that are being built right now that are coming on the market and then another 48,000 have some kind of money in it. I mean, we`re talking an enormous amount of condos.

Here`s the problem. As I understand it, this is why we kind of had a run on the banks in London. You have to have this money. They`ve taken all of this money. They can`t get any more financing. There`s no transactions going on in some of the real estate markets, at least right now in real estate markets in Florida. So those housing prices dropped dramatically because the bank has to say, "This is what the market is worth." And if only one sells -- but it sells for 50 percent less -- they`re all 50 percent less. Is that true?

MICHAEL PANZNER, AUTHOR, "FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON": Well, that`s the thing about all markets. It`s really the sale at the margin that matters. If you live on a street where one person sells their house at a fire sale price, it affects everybody`s houses. It worked very well on the way up. But on the way down, it really does have a tremendous impact, and it also feeds through the psychology, it affects buyer`s attitudes, as well as seller`s attitudes. And, frankly, I don`t think we`ve seen anything yet. I agree with Peter.

BECK: OK. Peter, the one thing that you talk about in your book is that the dollar is going to be worthless. And I will tell you that I`ve talked to people who are bulls. You guys are both bears. I`ve talked to bulls, and they are extremely concerned that we`ve only got a few levers and knobs to do again and to pull. And if we start to cascade down, we might open some valves. If we`re hit by a terrorist attack or something like that, the government will not let these banks fail. Things won`t fail, so they`ll just start printing money.

SCHIFF: You know, we don`t need a terrorist attack. I don`t think the dollar is going to be worthless. I just think it will be worth a lot less than it is now.

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Your scenario is not a 25 percent cut in the dollar`s value.

SCHIFF: No, no, no.

BECK: You`re talking about massive inflation.

SCHIFF: I think the best-case scenario is the dollar only loses half its value. The worst case is much worse. I mean, the worst case would be hyperinflation that was inspired by a government effort to postpone the recession. The best-case scenario is that we have the recession sooner rather than later, and it`s going to be a very severe recession. Housing prices are going to collapse. But consumer prices, what we pay for what we consume, those prices are going to go up dramatically during the recession.

BECK: Have either of you guys read "The Forgotten Man," I think it`s Amity Shlaes? It`s a tremendous book. And she talks about the real causes of the Depression. And, Peter, it`s pretty much what you were saying. Michael, I`d love to hear your comments on this. But the Depression, the reason why it was as bad as it was, is because the government got in there and screwed around with it.

SCHIFF: Of course. I mean, the government created the conditions. First, the Federal Reserve blew up the bubble. They were too easy with monetary policy. They created too many dollars. They created the speculative mania of the 1920s. When the bubble burst, both Hoover and Roosevelt came in, compounded the situation by forcing employers, not allowing employers to reduce wages, by destroying food, by trying to artificially keep food prices higher, they created the Depression. It didn`t have to be that bad.

BECK: Michael, does this -- what really scares me is, I really think Hillary, the way she`s talking about being a new modern-day progressive, as progressives of the early 20th century, which was Roosevelt and the New Deal, I think these people are positioning themselves to bring the New New Deal, which would be devastating, would it not?

PANZNER: I think we`re already hearing talk of that from the Democrats in Congress. I think there`s this whole idea that somehow they can take 20 years or longer of bad behavior and somehow add more bad behavior and come up with something good. Two wrongs don`t make a right.

BECK: So I saw Warren Buffett took a lot of his money, he bought euros and I think he bought gold. He`s become very, very conservative. He`s talking -- he`s not like talking like you guys, but he`s on the same road as you guys, and we`re in big, big trouble. We`re going to pay for all of our sins of the past. What exactly do you do? I mean, I`m not Warren Buffett. What do you do with your money, the average person?

SCHIFF: Well, even Alan Greenspan, in that "60 Minutes" interview the other day, said that he was recommending that people keep their savings in currencies other than the dollar. I mean, he can see the writing on the wall. After all, he wrote it. So what average Americans can do is do what I`ve been advising my clients to do at Euro Pacific Capital, what I talked about in my book, get rid of your dollars.

BECK: Yes, but, you know what, it`s easy to say. Peter, it`s easy to say. But, Michael, come on.

(CROSSTALK)

PANZNER: I have to interject here. I have a slightly different perspective on this than Peter. I take the view that I agree with him longer term, the dollar is heading lower, but there`s a number of reasons why, in fact, we could actually see the surprising dollar rally, the kind of thing that people hadn`t been looking for, a black swan type of event, to use that sort of name, but part of if is the unwinding credit bubble.

There will be a demand for currency. People will find a need around the globe to draw in dollars so they can repay the loans that are being called in by their bankers. There`s a tremendous speculative position against the dollar. And I think, in the very short run, the next two to three years, you could see the dollar...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. I`ve got to ask you this question. What you guys are talking about is really scary stuff. The terrorists -- Osama bin Laden wants to stop our economy, wants to kill us through our economy. Do you believe that if we had a major spike in war or oil, with all of the stuff that you`re talking about, do you believe this is a knockout punch, possibly, for the United States?

SCHIFF: Look, they don`t need to kill us. We`ve already committed suicide. You know, we`ve borrowed trillions of dollars.

BECK: No, no, don`t. Just answer this clearly, Peter. Do you believe this is a possible knockout punch for the economy of the United States of America?

SCHIFF: The economy of the United States of America is a house of cards and is about to collapse.

BECK: Michael, do you feel that?

PANZNER: I agree. I think it could be any catalyst. I mean, certainly, it could be a terrorist event, but I think we`re so vulnerable now that, in fact, it could be something you completely don`t expect.

BECK: OK, guys, thanks a lot. Going to sleep well tonight. Not enough valium on the planet. If you`d like to hear more from Peter Schiff in particular, please go to glennbeck.com right now, subscribe to my magazine, "Fusion." Peter has written a great and frightening article for us on the worst-case scenario for our economy. If you want to prepare for the worst, it is a must-read.

You`re also going to get tremendous articles from other people that you`ve seen on the TV show or heard on the radio show inside "Fusion" magazine, and it is available only at glennbeck.com or calling 888-GLENN- BECK. But you`ve got to hurry. Deadline for getting this issue is tomorrow, and your dollars may be no good by tomorrow, so you better do it now. And we will not take payments in gold, yet.

Coming up, country music star Travis Tritt joins me in the studio. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don`t change who I am. I might turn up who I am on radio or television. There was an article out about me recently that said I`m a lot more quiet and thoughtful off-air. Well, can you imagine being like this all the time? Can you imagine in life being, "Hello, comrades! It is I!" I can`t imagine being like that. Do I feel like that? Yes. Do I stand in my office and do that? Of course not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Well, most of the times. In case you`re a first-time watcher, maybe you`re just waiting for Nancy Grace to start, she`ll be here in a couple of minutes, or you lost the remote -- a lot of people watch this show because they lost the remote -- we`ve had our fair share of country music stars on the show. And that`s because I have a special love for the incredible talent that they have and the fact that most of their songs about America I can relate to.

Just released, brand-new album called "The Storm," the artist is Travis Tritt.

Welcome to the program, sir. How are you?

TRAVIS TRITT, MUSICIAN: Great. Good to be here.

BECK: Let me ask you this. How come everybody who is a legitimate country music star has hair? I mean...

TRITT: Well, I don`t know. I`m worrying about the ones -- it`s not the ones that turn gray. It`s the one that turn loose I worry about.

BECK: But, I mean, everybody has hair.

TRITT: Well, I don`t know about that. You know, a lot of us hide it under...

BECK: Name a bald country music star.

TRITT: No, I can`t name anybody.

BECK: See.

TRITT: But you need to check under some hats.

BECK: Right.

TRITT: Oh, there you go, check under some hats.

BECK: We had a great conversation on the radio today.

TRITT: We sure did.

BECK: We spent about 40 minutes with you, and you said something in the radio show, and we didn`t get back to it, and I wanted to. You said something along the lines of, "You and I can relate to our past," or, "I`ve had a troubled past or a dark past or something like that."

TRITT: Oh, yes.

BECK: What did you mean by that?

TRITT: Well, you know, I went through a period of time -- well, look, I was married at a very young age. I got married as a teenager, really, just basically to get out of the house.

BECK: Was it 14 or 18?

TRITT: No, 18, right out of high school. Marriage lasted about two years. Jumped right out of that one right into another one, and all this before the music thing really started taking off for me. Bottom line is, I found myself as a 26-year-old married and divorced twice and now single with a recording contract and all of this, quote, unquote, "stuff" just laid out in front of me.

BECK: You were in trouble now.

TRITT: Oh, yes, there was all kinds of things. I mean, there was drugs. There was alcohol. There was...

BECK: Did you have a pivot point?

TRITT: ... women.

BECK: Did you have a pivot point where it turned for you?

TRITT: Yes, absolutely. I realized at the very, very beginning, thank goodness, I mean, I went through a period of about -- I don`t know, maybe about a year-and-a-half, two years of just really -- I mean, it was a party every single night. And I took full advantage of everything that that had to offer. However, there reached a point, about maybe a year-and- a-half, two years into the...

BECK: Debacle?

TRITT: Yes, just having all these things going, and everything was going great. I mean, the career wasn`t slacking. As a matter of fact, gold and platinum albums just kept coming. Things were happening, really, really big.

But I started to realize that everything that I had worked for my entire life was on the verge of being destroyed by the constant partying, the drugs, the constant string of, you know, the women that came through, and just the whole thing. And I was one of those people.

I had worked so hard, and I had spent so much time playing all the clubs, the bars, the honky-tonks for so many years to develop who I was, to find out who I was as a singer, as a songwriter, as an entertainer, that I did not want to lose that. I really did not want to lose that, and I basically went cold turkey at that particular point.

BECK: Did you have a moment of redemption? Did you feel crushing, "Gosh, how do I live with this?"

TRITT: I absolutely felt I was at a point where I was literally physically and mentally exhausted by having to deal with all of the pressure, because when I first came to town, I think there`s a shot right now of me, I had to hair down to right about here, you know. And a lot of people in Nashville, Tennessee, never could get past the hair and the leather to get to the voice, and the talent, and songwriting ability. They just never could get past that.

So I was having to fight that, as well as fight all of the demons and all of the things that I had been dealing with for so many years. And it just -- it came to a point where it was just absolutely -- it was almost like an epiphany, a revelation. Look, if you keep this up, how you`re going to keep this up much longer, first of all, is beyond me. And, second of all, if you are able to keep this up for very much longer, you are absolutely going to destroy everything that you have spent your whole life working for.

BECK: I`ve got to tell you, I spent 40 minutes with you today and now just a couple of minutes here, and I wish we had another hour. Would you come back and do an hour with us?

TRITT: I would love to do an hour.

BECK: Love to have you. You`re fantastic. The name of the CD is "The Storm." Thank you very much, Travis Tritt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON JACKSON, CNN HERO: Haiti is the most water-poor country in the world. It`s in probably the most environmentally destroyed country in the world. In Haiti, people get their water sometimes from puddles, streams. I`ve seen kids playing in sewage and also drinking from the same water. Haiti not having proper sanitation, a lot of people are infected with intestinal parasites.

When you see a child with an extended belly, that`s intestinal worms. The average worms eats up to about 20 percent of a child`s nutritional intake a day. This is the difference between life and death in a lot of situations.

My name is Aaron Jackson, and it`s my goal to de-worm the entire world.

I grew up in Destin, Florida, playing golf every day of my life. I decided to travel, and when I traveled, it really opened my eyes to what the world was really like. In Haiti, we have four orphanages, an intestinal parasite program, and also medical clinics.

When we show up to a community to de-worm, we educate the people on ways to prevent to getting worms again. Washing the vegetables, cooking the meat a little longer, wearing shoes when you go outside are ways to help prevent catching the worms.

When we first go into an orphanage and we de-worm them, the children look very zombie like, no livelihood in their face. And that`s the scary thing, because you have to tell kids that tonight, the worms will be leaving your body in some shape or form, and then after we de-worm, they come back to life. Literally within weeks, you can see that they`re playing again and smiling. For a pack of cigarettes you can de-worm 250 children, a whole school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aaron is a great person, and I`m so blessed to know him and work together with him. Investing in children is investing in a country and that really makes things different in the future.

JACKSON: Well, me and the children, we`ve become like family, you know. They call me Papa Jackson. These kids are my kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Sheryl Crow made headlines a few months ago by suggesting we could help prevent global warming by using just a single sheet of toilet paper. Thankfully, as I reported, and not a lot of people did, she was joking. But now a remarkable new invention is about to hit the market and promises to help save this planet, five sheets at a time.

Joining me now is the director of North American washroom business, Kimberly-Clark, Richard Thorne.

Hello, Richard, how are you?

RICHARD THORNE, KIMBERLY-CLARK: Good evening, Glenn, I`m very well, thank you.

BECK: Good. Now, this is kind of like the iPod thing. You know, when you`re the only people that had an iPod, I`m the first guy to have this, right?

THORNE: Absolutely right. We think this is a great, cool, new invention that`s going to really help health and hygiene everywhere in the public stalls out there.

BECK: And what exactly is it?

THORNE: It`s an electronic jumbo roll toilet tissue from Kimberly- Clark. It dispenses our Scott bathroom tissue in, as you pointed out before, 20 inches at a time, in pre-measured sheets.

BECK: Watch this. Watch this, America. You just put your hand down here, and it`s just that easy. Hang on, you just -- there it is. There it is. Five sheets of -- now, this is going to make a difference right here.

THORNE: This is going to make a big difference right there.

BECK: This wouldn`t make a difference for my 2-year-old son. I would be wiping his pooty with five sheets. I mean, how did you come up with it should dispense five sheets?

THORNE: Well, we came up with it. We do a huge amount of research. Toilet tissue is our business. We`ve been in it for over 100 years now.

BECK: I haven`t heard that phrase from very many people, but, OK, so, quickly, we`ve only got a minute, how did you come up with the five sheets?

THORNE: We came up with -- a huge amount of research, both internally at Kimberly-Clark, but also we have smart dispensers which measure the amount of toilet tissue people take and use when they use the product in use. And basically...

BECK: So this is an average. So some people use less than five sheets?

THORNE: Some people use less; some people use more. So the dispenser has got three settings on it, a short one for 16 inches, a medium one for 20, and a long one for 24, but you can go back to it as many times as you want.

BECK: There you go.

THORNE: It isn`t only 20 sheets and then you have to put a dime in to get some more tissue. You can go back many, many times.

BECK: OK, OK. Well, you know what, I have to tell you, I do love your products, you know, and the roll of toilet paper, but if people are using less than five sheets, I`m never shaking anyone`s hand ever again.

THORNE: Absolutely right.

BECK: Richard, thank you very much.

THORNE: Thanks very much, Glenn.

BECK: Bye-bye.

THORNE: Bye-bye.

BECK: And it`s all mine. Don`t forget, if you want to know what`s on tomorrow`s show or if you`d like a little more in-depth commentary on toilet paper, hey, you sign up for my free daily e-mail newsletter at glennbeck.com. From New York, good night, America.

END