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Glenn Beck

Culture of Death; DNC Not Likely to Change Rules for Michigan, Florida; OPEC Blames Mismanagement of U.S. Economy for Price of Oil; Immigration Legislation Under Consideration Again

Aired March 06, 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, the Clintons go delegate Dumpster diving in Florida and Michigan. But guess what? When you break the rules, there are consequences. I say personal responsibility. No do- over.

And Saudi Arabia says no to the president`s request to pick up the pace of oil production. They say it`s our fault because we mismanaged our economy. And I`ll tell you, for the first time in my life, I agree with Saudi Arabia.

Plus, how do you win a war against the culture of death. Noted law professor Alan Dershowitz joins me to talk about our battle against the elements of terror at home and abroad.

All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Hello, America.

Did you ever play a game with your kids and have them teach you how to play the game? Sometimes I love it. They play by the rules, and then sometimes they don`t, like, when you`re winning. I guess children must be running the Democratic race for presidential nomination since neither Clinton nor Obama can mathematically win enough delegates to secure the nomination. Some now, both of them, are throwing a tantrum. And they`re trying to change the game. One way or another.

One is saying, "Oh, Jeez, we should hold new primaries in Florida and Michigan." You know what? Here`s "The Point" tonight. Actions do have consequences. And personal responsibility shouldn`t be, but it`s all but dead in America. And here`s how I got there.

Can`t pay your mortgage, because you bought more house that you can afford? Have the government bail you out. It`s just that easy. Don`t have enough delegates to win the nomination? Why not call for new elections?

America, we cannot treat our republic like a game of schoolyard kickball and start calling for a do-over. This is why we`re all feeling so disenfranchised in this country. You work hard. You work hard. You bust your butt to pay your bills and pay them on time. Support your family. You do the best job you can to raise your kids, with respect for God, and country and to treat other people with respect. You know the difference between right and wrong. No matter, no wonder everybody in this country is so mad right now.

It used to be, we could expect those kinds of values from our leaders. Well, they ain`t making presidential candidates like they used to. So, tonight, here`s what you need to know.

One of the -- one of the real hallmarks in our republic is that it is governed -- try this out for size -- by a set of rules. Rules that make the process equally fair to everybody. This isn`t Venezuela. When did we become Russia where we make up the rules where we come along to prop up whatever leader has the most power and influence? Not here. We hold our system to a higher standard, and we need to. We can`t allow opportunistic politicians to dishonor us and our system with their petty and self-serving greed.

Here`s the truth. The Democratic parties in both Michigan and Florida knew that they would be stripped of their delegates if they moved their primary dates and they did it anyway. DNC chairman Howard Dean. The two of us, we never agree on anything. But listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: The rules were set a year and a half ago. Florida and Michigan voted for them. Then decided they didn`t need to abide by the rules. Well, when you`re in a contest, you do need to abide by the rules. Everybody has to play by the rules out of respect for both campaigns and the other 48 states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I`ve slipped into a parallel universe. I agree with him. And it`s funny. In today`s day and age, a word like respect almost seems old- timey, doesn`t it?

Ellen Kamarck, she is the member of the rules committee for the DNC, professor at Kennedy School of government at Harvard University.

Elaine, rules are rules. Right?

ELAINE KAMARCK, RULES COMMITTEE, DNC: That`s right.

BECK: Don`t -- don`t we have to -- don`t you disenfranchise more people if you change the rules now?

KAMARCK: Nobody`s thinking of changing the rules now. I mean, there was a process more than a year and a half ago, as Chairman Dean said, where we considered some other states to come early in the process. We had a very open process. Everybody was on notice. The party chose Nevada and South Carolina to be early. I wasn`t in favor of Nevada. I thought Arizona was a better -- better state to go early, but the votes were for Nevada.

BECK: Why were they changed in the first place? Why move any of them up?

KAMARCK: Well, because there was a -- there was a movement in the party, as we were setting the rules -- every four years we set the rules, well in advance of the primaries, there was a movement to add two states to Iowa and New Hampshire to give the party some demographic and some regional diversity. That was the reason.

So, states applied. Some won, some lost. All 48 states, with the exception of Michigan and Florida, played by the rules and had their primaries or caucuses later in the contest. And that`s why Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates.

BECK: OK. So, are you telling me now that Florida and Michigan will not be counted? That nothing`s going to be done? It`s not going to change.

KAMARCK: Right. Well, right now, they will not be counted. And this number that you see, the magic number of 2,025, which is a majority of the convention, does not count Florida and Michigan delegates in them.

Now, there has been a provision in the rules. It`s been in the rules for 25 years, that if a state wants to come in and submit a delegate selection plan that is at odds with their state law, they can come to the Democratic Party and they can approve that plan.

So, theoretically, Florida and Michigan could come back to the DNC, come back to the rules committee, submit a plan that is in line with the party rules, and have an alternate contest. But it could not be an early contest.

BECK: May I suggest something to both parties? How about we just let people vote? And then we just take their votes and we count them up. And at the end of the night, whoever has the most votes wins? How about that idea?

KAMARCK: Well, that is obviously -- that`s obviously a simple way, but you know, a long time ago...

BECK: I`m sorry, but...

KAMARCK: It`s obviously simple, but a long time ago, we started out having party conventions, and we now have this mixed system where we have some primaries, some caucuses and we end up in a convention. And obviously, this -- look, it`s kind of like the Electoral College situation, you know. Nobody thinks the Electoral College makes sense anymore, either, but we have it for historic reasons.

BECK: We have it because it`s in the Constitution. I mean, I look at what happened in Texas, and I think to myself, which party -- and don`t -- believe me, I`m not on a GOP bandwagon. Which party understands smaller government and easier, get the machinery out of the way of the people. In Texas, you had to go and vote and then come back later to do a caucus. It`s insanity. Just let people vote.

KAMARCK: Well, that is obviously a very popular sentiment.

BECK: OK.

KAMARCK: But like you a lot of things in American politics, there`s a lot of tradition and history that gets us to the place where we are.

BECK: Elaine, thanks very much. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the program.

We got the problem. Now, are there any reasonable solutions? My next guest is fine (ph). His name is Roger Simon. He`s the chief political correspondent for Politico.

You know, here`s a lot of reasons historically we`re doing it this way, even though it doesn`t work and it stinks on ice. Let me just run down the five. I`ve only got a couple of minutes here with you. Let`s run down the five that you`ve written here. First of all, it`s the heck with them option, which I`m for. Explain.

ROGER SIMON, POLITICO: That`s just leave it as it is. Both states are rogue states. They broke the rules. The heck with them. We`re not going to seat them, forget about it.

BECK: OK. Doesn`t that disenfranchise everybody who went out and voted?

SIMON: Yes, but they had been warned in advance. And you can`t underestimate the pugnacity of Michigan and Florida in doing what they did. They were warned not to do it. They were told what would happen if they did do it. They did it anyway.

BECK: OK. This would be the progressive. This would be the one -- this is one I would think liberals would like because it would make everybody feel better, the "Kumbaya" option. What`s that?

SIMON: The "Kumbaya" option is, hey, let`s seat Florida the way they voted. Let`s join hands. Let`s not have a big fight. Let`s just do it and get it over with.

BECK: Then why do they hate Florida and Michigan so much, those hate- mongers? The split-the-baby option, which is ridiculous.

SIMON: Split the baby, give half of the delegates to Hillary, half the delegates to Obama. The only rationale for that is, if you buy into the notion that voters in Florida and Michigan actually would be insulted by not being seated at the convention. This is a way of getting a couple of hundred people to have a good time in Denver. And they can go and party there.

BECK: But you`re not even -- I hate politics. The mulligan option.

SIMON: Mulligan option, do it all over. Hold a new primary in Florida, maybe a new caucus instead of a primary in Michigan. The problem with that is, it`s hugely expensive. Might cost $25 million in Florida. Howard Dean says he`s not going to pay for it. The Florida party says they`re not going to pay for it.

BECK: Why don`t we just get the people who couldn`t pay their mortgages? We just get -- while we`re bailing them out, let`s just use some of that money we`re borrowing from China to do that as well.

And the final one is the Lone Ranger option. I actually read an editorial today that said this one might be Al Gore. He`s the savior.

SIMON: You know, everyone says that about Al Gore, and Al Gore did win the Nobel Prize. But he would have to win the Nobel Peace Prize to solve this one.

BECK: And an Oscar.

SIMON: Well, sort of.

BECK: And a Grammy.

SIMON: You`ve got to keep in mind, though, Al Gore is not the most popular figure in the Democratic Party. A lot of Democrats think he should have won in 2000 and blew the election. So I`m not sure he has that much clout.

BECK: You know what. I said that on the radio today. We were talking about it, and I said, when did -- he was described as, you know, so smart and so, and I said, when is it that he was -- did you forget how much you hated him because he lost to "Curious George"? I mean --

SIMON: Oh, he lost his home state. He lost Arkansas. He lost West Virginia. He may not really be the Lone Ranger figure who could pull this off. But I`m not sure Howard Dean is, either.

BECK: No, no. Thanks, Roger.

Now, coming up, a terror attack in Jerusalem has killed eight people today. We`ll have the details and try to figure out how we can stop this culture of death from setting the Middle East and the rest of the world on fire.

And unless you`ve been living under a rock, you know it`s election season, which means the battle for the border is back, with Congress set to release the toughest immigration bills yet. Question: will anyone actually do it?

Plus, oil is about to hit another all-time high, and guess what? We`re to blame. That`s right. For the first time in my life, I can`t point the finger to Saudi Arabia. Can`t believe it. It`s a wormhole day. We`ll explain in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, America, you`ve got two great choices for president in Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And if you believe that, I`m sure you`re going to love their plans to take away money from ordinary Americans by targeting our oil companies. I`ll explain in just a bit, with Ben Stein in tonight`s "Real Story."

But before we get to the Democrats, how they`re screwing this up with big oil, let`s start with the Republicans, and how they`re screwing us to the wall with oil. Oil prices hit nearly $106 a barrel today. Remember the good old days when it was only $100 a barrel?

It`s no surprise now. People are looking to OPEC. Trying to blame them. What`s Saudi Arabia? What`s OPEC? Why won`t they open up the spigots a little bit more? You know what? What do we expect OPEC to do? Is OPEC suddenly supposed to take pity on us? News flash, America. This isn`t about OPEC; it is about us. We have a problem. And OPEC confirmed it yesterday in no uncertain terms.

First of all, we don`t have the any refineries. We won`t drill ourselves. No, and they said that the rising oil prices are not a result of their policies. They`re a result, quote, of our "mismanagement of the U.S. economy."

You know what? I find myself today saying -- I just said, I agreed with Howard Dean on something. It`s Crazytown tonight. I actually also agree with OPEC and Saudi Arabia on something.

No one in this country actually wants to accept responsibility for their actions anymore. We just -- we just bail them out. Let`s just start cranking things up. The old printing press of the U.S. Mint. "Hey, you got a bad loan, here`s some money. Print more dollars." And when we print more dollars, it makes each thing worth more with our dollars, because our dollars are worth less.

It`s simple supply and demand. If our money buys less and we import everything, those things cost more. And guess what? We import more than virtually anything else, oil.

America, please. Stop pointing fingers. Stop trying to blame everybody else for our problems. We are doing this to ourselves, and we need to stand up and hold our people in Washington responsible, say enough.

Steve Cordasco, he is the host of "The Big Money Show" on my radio affiliate, 1210-AM WHPT in Philadelphia.

I`ve got to tell you, it`s driving me crazy, Steve. We`re printing money. We`re not exploring for oil. We`re not -- we`re trapping ourself in this. And everybody is like, hey, what about OPEC. Why doesn`t OPEC give us a break?

STEVE CORDASCO, HOST, WHPT`S "THE BIG MONEY SHOW": Glenn, you are right on the money. You`ve been on it for awhile now. You know, myself, I wouldn`t think I`d agree with the Saudis, but you`ve got to agree with them there. They`re saying, "Hey, take a look in the mirror."

And if you really take a look at what`s taking place right now, it is a lot to do with the dollar. It has a lot to do with the fact that we haven`t invested in infrastructure and put facilities in that are state-of- the-art. It`s been since 1977 that we`ve invested into the production of resources.

You know, there`s also another component here. And that`s how much manipulation might be taking place on the NYNEX, which is where the stuff trades, the futures contracts. I mean, if you really want to take a look at what`s going on in our country right now, we have Senators running around, more worried whether Roger Clemens is on steroids, versus if there`s manipulation on the NYNEX of oil contracts. Now, the Saudis gave us a free pass on that one.

BECK: How do you -- how do you manipulate it? How would that happen?

CORDASCO: Well, they control the contracts, which controls pricing. And, look. It`s -- speculative, it`s conspiracy-type noise, but look, nobody`s talking about it. That`s the scary part. But if you talk to traders, they`re telling you, hey. It`s taking place.

Now, look, if it was just the dollar, which I think part of this is the dollar...

BECK: Saudis told us, they`re not going to lower the price. Our dollar falls. For every penny our dollars falls, a penny up in the oil price.

CORDASCO: It doesn`t, well -- maybe. But if you look at, maybe some news that hits in Venezuela, has nothing to do. Our dollar may not take a hit, based on -- on geopolitical news. But yet the price of oil gets hit. Why is that? Because somebody`s holding contracts on a marketplace which represents oil.

BECK: You know what really scares me is Russia is -- I mean, they are going to control Europe. Did you see the new -- the new president of Russia, the first thing he did, shut down that oil pipeline to, where was it, Georgia on Monday, said, hey, I guess you guys are out of oil. You don`t agree with us. No gas for you. They are hording all of this energy. China is off our show, just off the shore of Cuba, and they are going and drilling.

Meanwhile, we do nothing. We are trapping ourself in a box. We have got to go and find our own resources.

CORDASCO: Let me tell you, Glenn, how -- how dire the situation is. The only way we -- we`re on life support. The only way we know how to get ourselves out of a jam right now is to make money cheap, is to create credit in the United States. That`s because we`ve incubated a bunch of people from Wall Street that are running around setting policy.

And let`s look at this. Wall Street companies have messed up so bad, the only way to fix their balance sheets is for the Fed to come out and lower the interest rate.

BECK: Right.

CORDASCO: Now, they lower the interest rate, but guess what happens? Your credit card and my credit card that they got us all hooked on, they raise the rate there. So they get to charge, they get to make profits off of cheaper money. Our dollar gets beat up. The average guy, you know the guy in Brooklyn, you know what they get? They`ve got a saying there. Nothing.

BECK: Steve, thank you very much. We`ll talk again.

Coming up, terrorists today killed at least eight seminary students in Israel. We`ll have the latest. We`ll try to explain what it`s going to take to stop this culture of death.

Also, illegal immigration. Costing the border towns millions of bucks. But that`s not why Congress is once again pushing for new legislation. Could it be election time? We`ll ask one guy who`s not a weasel in Congress, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know what`s surprising? One thing nobody`s talking about in the election is illegal immigration. And it is so out of control in this country it makes blood shoot out of my eyes, because it`s so easy to fix.

It is costing our border states millions every year. They need help. They ain`t getting anything from Washington. There is a group of Republican senators that have responded with a series of bills that address a host of issues.

Listen to how crazy these things are. Completing the border fence is one thing they`d like to do. Establishing English as a national language. I mean, I`d sure like to be the Balkans, why don`t we give this a whirl? Doing away with sanctuary cities and banning driver`s license to illegals. I know, boy, just a bunch of hate-mongering stuff there.

You believe in it. I believe in it. But these days, we`re in short supply of politicians who actually say what they mean and mean what they say.

One exception is Senator Jeff Sessions. He`s a Republican from Alabama.

Hello, Senator. How are you, sir?

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS: I`m doing well, Glenn. Good to be with you.

BECK: Good. Tell me -- tell me the highlights that I might have missed in this bill, because this is pretty comprehensive bill.

SESSIONS: Fifteen bills were announced by 12 senators. Each one of them will close an existing gap in our border security.

And you are so right, Glenn. This is achievable. It`s doable. It`s not going to bankrupt the country at all. We simply need to have Congress on board, and an executive branch willing to follow through. And so it`s not surprising, I guess, that the Majority Leader Reid pushed back at us this morning, and he kind of sniffed at the fact that we held a press conference to announce this legislation, and said he knew what our agenda was and he hoped the American people would.

What he was really saying was, he does not want to have to vote on these bills in an election year. I think it`s more helpful for the American people before an election to see how their senators are standing on these issues.

BECK: Senator, what does he mean, what your agenda was? I mean, these are fix-the-border issues. What is the agenda that he was alluding to?

SESSIONS: He`s talking about politics. He`s speaking with an inside- the-beltway mentality, that it`s some how improper for a group of people that want to see lawfulness brought into the system, to bring up these bills and actually seek a vote, when it might impact somebody`s re-election ability.

BECK: That doesn`t even make any sense. Because these are the people that keep telling us that this is wildly unpopular. It`s only about racism, and you`ll be exposed as a racist. So how could he possibly make that? According to his own theory, and the Democrats` theory, this would be the last thing that, if you are trying to play politics, you would do.

Let me ask you this question. You`ve got a bunch of Blue Dog Democrats that are also proposing different bills to get things done. Do you have enough Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats to have any kind of common sense actually come through?

SESSIONS: Yes, we do. The answer is, it`s plenty of Senators and plenty of House members that can agree on a host of very important bills. Now, the problem is, the group I call the masters of the universe, you know, the people that think they know better than the rest of us.

BECK: Yes, sure.

SESSIONS: They will manipulate it so it may pass one house but not the other one. May pass and doesn`t get funded. And we`ve had this kind of frustration. So, the net result has been politicians can say, I voted for these bills, but they never become law and never become effective. And I think that`s why people are upset with Congress.

BECK: Senator, thank you very much.

Coming up, the voice of Spunky the Elf from "Santa Versus Snowman." Bueller. Ben Stein will explain why Exxon needs some loving. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: How do you survive in a world where groups like Hezbollah and al Qaeda worship death more than life? It is a culture of death.

We`ll talk to Alan Dershowitz about America`s second war with radical Islam and what happened in Jerusalem today, coming up in just a minute.

But first, welcome to the "Real Story."

I want to -- I want to take you through a little wormhole here for a second, to an alternate America. Just for a second.

This alternate America will look exactly the same as the one we just came from, except in this America there`s no such thing as political correctness. It`s crazy. In this crazy America, you would be allowed to say whatever you want, you know, as long as it`s based in fact.

Nice, isn`t it? It`s a dream, I know, but come with me for a second.

You see, back in the old America, what I might, you know, say here in a second would probably be considered, oh, I don`t know, inflammatory, maybe even insane. But since we`re here in the safety tree, I`m sure everyone will hear me out now before running to write in their liberal blogs.

Ready? Here it is.

The supposedly evil, greedy oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profits while average Americans struggle to keep their jobs and their homes deserve to have the government step in and give them a round of applause. Oh my gosh. Did I just say that out loud?

Yes. Yes, I know it`s a surprise coming from a conservative. Just shilling for big oil -- I hear he hates trees, too.

I get it. I get it.

But unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who attack these companies for political gain because they`re such easy targets and want to literally take their profits from them, I have some actual facts for you. I know it`s tough for progressives to wrap their head around those things called "facts" when oil prices are hitting new records every day, but the "Real Story" is that most big oil companies are not owned by a few rich bazillionaires people sitting around smoking stogies in Houston.

They are owned by people like you -- average, hard-working Americans through a little something we capitalists like to call the stock market. About two million individual shareholders own about half of all of Exxon`s stock.

The other half? Owned by institutions. Yes, like pension funds for your mom and dad, mutual funds, which are, of course, owned primarily by ordinary Americans.

I hate to break it to you, but you might even own some of this evil Exxon Mobil in your own 401(k) without even knowing it. Maybe its profits are helping you put your kids through college.

Less than 1 percent of this company is owned by the rich executives who run the place, and who, by the way, have created a company that employs over 82,000 people. That`s why it drives me crazy every time I hear some anti- capitalist progressive politician launch into an attack for a company in this country making too much money. Like it`s a crime to do that in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And here`s how we pay for it -- take the tax subsidies away from the oil companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It`s not going to be easy to change our energy policy. Exxon Mobil mad $11 billion last quarter. They are not going to want to give up all those profits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: If there`s one business in America that`s doing really well, if you saw Exxon Mobil`s profits last quarter, $40 billion in profits. They do not need your tax dollars to make those kinds of profits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Forty billion dollars in profits. That`s horrible. You go, girl.

But maybe Hillary and Barack have forgotten about two important facts. First, yes -- OK, first, as of right now, we`re still in a country that embraces capitalism.

Second, last year Exxon paid over $7.6 billion in dividends, all of which were taxed, of course. And they also paid tens of billions more in corporate income taxes.

All of that money didn`t go to buy, you know, massive yachts or private jets for the guys in the 10 gallon hats. It bought food. It paid rent. It helped fund government programs, the kind that they want more of.

In fact, since we`re still in the safety tree -- we are, aren`t we? I`d like to throw out a crazy other idea, and that is that we don`t fight wars for big oil. We fight wars financed by big oil.

Ben Stein is the creator of a new movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."

And I`ve got to tell you, Ben. I saw your editorial in "The New York Times" and I thought, Ben Stein, the most -- the most hated man in the world, or, at least, the worst person in the world...

BEN STEIN, WRITER, ACTOR, FILMMAKER: Oh.

BECK: ... for saying that Exxon Mobil needs a hug.

STEIN: Well, it`s so obvious. Exxon Mobil is us.

I mean, when Barack Obama and -- Senator Obama and Senator Clinton criticize the oil companies, they are criticizing us. The oil companies employ people just like us, they produce oil and gasoline for people just like us. They pay their dividends to people just like us.

The oil companies are us. They are not a group of conspirators waiting to shoot the quail in west Texas. They are us. When we get mad at them, we`re getting mad at us.

They don`t set the price of gasoline. That`s set in world markets. It`s not set by the oil companies.

BECK: Does it drive you crazy at all, Ben, that we have somehow or another entered this country where, A, it`s bad to make profits, and B, the rest of the world is grabbing energy as fast as they can, making sure that they use every possible resource, because they know what`s coming, and we`re sitting here doing nothing about it?

STEIN: I know. It`s just nuts.

We are a prophet-driven society. That`s how we got to be the richest country in the world, that`s how we got to be the freest, most open country in the world.

The socialist countries are the ones that are closed down and not open to human advancement. The profit companies -- the profit-driven countries are open to any kind of human growth, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, anything.

But the oil thing that you just mentioned is very scary. The Chinese are snapping up oil properties all over the world, paying way more than the U.S. oil companies can afford to pay.

We should be giving our oil companies a pat on the back and saying, go out there and get us oil. That`s what we need.

Oil is the miracle fuel of the future. There`s nothing out there to replace it. All those alternative energy sources all put together, all over the country, less than 1 percent of energy production.

Oil is it. Let`s go after it for as long as we can.

BECK: The people who are running our country now, and, quite frankly, running it into the ground, the ones who are against us going after oil, all this global warming bull crap and everything else, I think it`s almost as if they are intentionally trying to destroy us.

STEIN: Oh, they are...

BECK: The rest of the country -- the rest of the world is not going to do this.

STEIN: No, no. We have an intellectual class in this country that is literally suicidal and hell bent on wrecking America.

My friend Phil DeMuth and I are writing a book called "How to Ruin America." The movement is coming right out of America`s prestige universities. They understand nothing. The more degrees they have, the less they understand.

But we`ve got to get this right about the oil companies. What will we do if the oil companies just one day said, OK, you know what? We give up, we`re going out of business. Get your oil from Hugo Chavez from now on.

I mean, we depend on them. They are us. Let`s stop beating up people who are us. Let`s stop beating up ourselves.

BECK: You know, you said something the other day -- last time you were on we talked about the economy -- and I love you Ben, and I hope you know that. But you were Mr. Sunshine in -- this is funny saying this to you -- you were Mr. Sunshine and lollipops on the economy last time you were here. Now -- tell me if this is true or not -- I`ve read that you have said that there is no end to the fall of the dollar.

STEIN: Yes, there is no end to the fall of the dollar. But that doesn`t mean that most Americans won`t still be prosperous and happy.

No, there is no end to the fall of the dollar. Every circumstance that can conspire to push down the dollar is at work right now.

Low interest rates relative to the Eurozone and to Japan. Well, low relative to the Eurozone, anyway.

An incredible trade deficit, an incredible budget deficit. We`re flooding the world with dollars. Naturally, if you flood the world with any kind of commodity, the price goes down.

So, the dollar is just going down, down, down. That means the price of oil and gas and other commodities will go up, up, up.

The commodity boom is also being fueled by the idiotic ethanol subsidies which are just the dumbest idea in the history of the world. And so there is no end to the fall of the dollar. And I don`t see any end to the inflation, frankly.

BECK: You know what? I have to tell you, I don`t see a way out.

With all of the candidates that we have -- we have got John McCain, who is the only one that anybody who is, you know, from the right could even consider voting for, and I don`t -- I`m not thrilled about it. He`s going to go into this global warming thing with cap and trade and restrictions and taxes and, you know, giving away our sovereignty and everything else.

This is -- honestly, the global warming thing is going to so destroy us economically on so many other fronts, it`s the same kind of system that is being set up again back in the schools that you talk about in your movie "Expelled." You can`t talk about certain things.

STEIN: No. If you bring up at a dinner table the idea that maybe it`s sunspots, maybe it`s just a cycle -- and, by the way, why are we having the wettest, coldest winter in many years this winter if we`re having global warming?

People look at you like you`ve got two heads. They look at you like you`re crazy. But there are so many reputable scientists who don`t believe in global warming.

Less than 2 percent of the greenhouse gases that are in the atmosphere are manmade. And anyway, no matter what we do here in America, the Chinese, the Indians, the Brazilians, the Middle Easterners, are going to overwhelm whatever little steps we take here with their pollution.

BECK: OK. Ben, I`ve got to run. Thank you very much.

STEIN: God bless you, Glenn. God bless you.

BECK: You bet.

That`s the "Real Story" tonight.

For more on why, as Ben stein puts it, Exxon Mobil need as hug, sign up for my free email newsletter at glennbeck.com. I`m going to put a link to his great column in tomorrow`s edition. That`s the free email newsletter.

Sign up right now at glennbeck.com.

Coming up, terrorist attack in Israel kills at least eight seminary students. We`ll have the latest details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Earlier today, two gunmen killed at least seven students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. Another 35 were wounded.

This kind of senseless violence that has not been seen for years in Jerusalem made me long for the days when the threat of death helped keep people in line. You know, it helped prevent attacks and wars because most nations, most thinking, feeling human beings saw death as, you know, as something that, you know, was a bad thing. These days, not so much.

Muslim extremists are now a new kind of enemy that are not only willing to sacrifice their life, but they`re eager to. In the words of Hezbollah leader Nasrallalh, "We`re going to win because they love life and we love death."

Alan Dershowitz, professor of law at Harvard University, author of "Finding Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and the First Amendment in the Age of Terrorism."

Alan, I -- you know, it`s weird that you are on today about this particular topic. I just read someplace about our first war with Islam, which was actually with Jefferson, with the Barbary pirates.

What was the letter that you found, and what was -- what`s the connection here?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR OF LAW, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Well, Jefferson went to meet the head of the Barbary pirate delegation in England, and said, you can`t be beheading Americans. This was the first experience Americans had with Islamic terrorism.

And the ambassador said, we`ll be head you at will. And if you kill us, we don`t care. We`re martyrs; we want to die.

This was 1780. Nothing has changed.

Now we have Osama bin Laden saying, we will beat you because you Americans love life, and we love death. And you have these two people that go into a seminary, a school today, and just slaughter people, and then die themselves.

And I recently wrote about a mother who wants her son to become a suicide bomber. That`s her goal for her son, to have him blow himself up, or have himself shot after he kills innocent people.

BECK: I mean, Alan, how do we -- how do we possibly fight an enemy that is now sending handicap people in to be suicide bombers, they are sending their children in. Women are doing it.

I mean, how do you possibly turn the tide here?

DERSHOWITZ: We have to change the rules. The rules now favor the terrorists.

And by the way, on American universities, today, you will find cheering for the terrorists. And if Israel were to dare to retaliate against the nest of terrorists from which these vipers came, and killed one innocent civilian who was around the terrorists, you would have protests on every college campus about Israel`s disproportionate response.

We have to understand that the people who in Gaza today, as we speak, are cheering for the terrorists who killed these kids, or the people who cheered when 9/11 came and 3,000 people were killed in the United States. These are not civilians. They`re on a continuum closer to being combatants than civilians.

We have to change the law. We have to allow preemptive attacks that target the terrorists, even if they do occasionally kill civilians, particularly civilians who willingly put themselves in harm`s way as human shields. The rules have to change.

BECK: Why don`t we make it a war crime if you start to use children?

DERSHOWITZ: It is a war crime, but you can`t get the U.N. to condemn it. The general assembly is on the side of the terrorists. Many American profess ors are on the side of the terrorists. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch are on the side of the terrorists.

BECK: Alan, let me ask you a question, because these universities are driving me out of my mind. You`ve got kids wear Che shirts. They don`t even know what Che is.

DERSHOWITZ: No.

BECK: You`ve got Hollywood glorifying it. Everybody, it seems, in these universities are spewing out -- they are all rooting for the wrong side here.

DERSHOWITZ: Not everybody, Glenn. Not everybody.

BECK: I know...

DERSHOWITZ: Not me, and not many of the others who are trying to explain this is not so different from what went on in the 1930s, when in Oxford University, people said, we will not fight against Hitler. Hitler is just a (INAUDIBLE) dictator. And people on American campuses were opposing getting into the war against Germany.

We have to fight Islamic terrorism. We have to take preemptive actions. We have to take some risks. And we have to make the civilians who support the terrorists take some risks. Civilians are not sacrosanct when they solicit help for terrorists.

BECK: Two questions. And let me bring it close to home.

How do you change the culture in our universities?

DERSHOWITZ: Well, first of all, you give -- you have professors from all sides instead of professors just from the hard left teaching these subjects.

BECK: But I -- you know what? I have friends -- I have a good friend who actually runs a very big university. And he said, "Glenn, I have a hard time finding professors like that."

DERSHOWITZ: Oh, it`s true. You know, in 45 years of teaching, there`s no group of Americans with less courage than university professors with tenure.

They will not stand up against any politically incorrect notions. They want to preach what the students want to hear.

Many of them are leftover radicals from the 1960s. They are not teachers, they are propagandists. And they`re using the classroom and they`re using taxpayers` dollars to propagandize our students against American values, western values, and favor the values of terrorists and favor the values of those who would undercut democracy.

Why should -- I go on a college campus, and you see signs, "Gays for Palestine." You know what would happen to a gay for Palestinian in Palestine? He has to seek asylum in Israel.

A feminist against America -- those kinds of values. These are people who are supporting values that would destroy them if those people ever came to power.

BECK: Alan, I can`t wait to read your book. It sounds fascinating to me. I`m just so fascinated by our founding fathers and what we have lost from all of their experience.

DERSHOWITZ: You`re right.

BECK: And I would like to invite you back, because we`ve only got about 30 seconds here, and I want to invite you back because there is a culture of death that is happening here in America as well, and it`s not just from Islam. Our kids -- we`re worshipping the god -- or our kids are starting to worship the god of fame. And they`re going in and shooting and then killing themselves for that god.

DERSHOWITZ: No, you`re absolutely right. The big difference is, the people who shoot themselves up, or take the Kool-Aid, they are killing themselves. And that`s a great tragedy.

They`re destroying their parents. But they`re at least not going out and killing other people`s children and destroying lives of other people in the interest of some philosophy that nobody can understand or want to accept.

BECK: We would love to have you back.

DERSHOWITZ: Thank you.

BECK: Alan Dershowitz.

We`ll be back in a minute. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know, once in a while it`s refreshing to hear the truth for a change. And today`s dose comes from researchers from one of the largest and most respected universities in Australia.

Every day some politician or celebrity is telling us, we`ve got to do something about global warming. But what is that something exactly?

Well, researchers decided finally to try to answer that question by analyzing new government proposals and found that they would have to reduce car travel by 80 percent to have any hope of avoiding dangerous climate change. How does that happen? Let me quote the study.

Our calculations show that "... not even the best combination of fuel efficiency, hybrid and electric cars, alternative fuels and car pooling could provide the reductions needed to meet the 2050 targets for avoiding dangerous climactic change."

Well, that sounds hopeful, doesn`t it? Believe me, it gets much, much worse.

What exactly needs to happen for Australia to hit their goals? "The car is doomed. People are going to have to fundamentally change the way they think about travel and make much more use of non-motorized travel such as cycling and walking."

Well, that`s great. I guess I could always take the tricycle down to Disneyland with the kids. What do you say?

I know for sure I`m not going to be able to fly to Disney World or Disneyland. Definitely not over to London or anything because of this one. Again, it is a quote. "An overseas trip might become a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than an annual event."

They went on to say that Australia would need to complete a "near total shift from the private car to public transport," and advocated that, listen to this, "... no new roads should be built."

So let me just recap here. No cars. No airplanes. No new roads. And plenty of bicycles and walking.

I mean, it sounds like the perfect world if you are frickin` Lance Armstrong. You hear politicians and environmentalists throw these terms around all the time -- we`ve got to reduce emissions by 80 percent. That doesn`t mean anything to the average person that lives on planet Earth.

Nobody wants the polar bears to die. Nobody wants to be, you know, one degree warmer in the summer.

But you know what? What it means to everybody on Earth, we have to have the same carbon output as the average person in Somalia or Haiti. So, you`ve got a choice. Haiti or one degree warmer. You decide.

You missed anything, read my free e-mail newsletter. All the background information at glennbeck.com.

From New York, goodnight, America.

END