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Glenn Beck
Economy, Bad or Not?; Media Slow to Cover Edwards Affair? "Rocking" Our Border; War for the West; A Token Liberal; The Red, White and Blues
Aired August 14, 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, prices at the pump are down. Time to breathe again, oh, maybe I should buy one of those big SUVs, I wish they could make these things bigger. Can you believe how many pinheads surround you? Gas prices might be dropping, but so could your quality of life, and I`ll explain.
Plus, John Edwards may have failed his family, his party, his sense of shame, but the most important thing about his affair is the media failed you.
And eBay shuts down a vintage flag dealer because he`s not going to sell his vintage American flags to anybody in the Middle East, France, or California. You`re going to love this story. All this and more, tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: Hello, America. I cannot wait to give you the flag story. It`s going to make you laugh hard, oh yes, it will. And also, we`ll have more on the continuing Georgian/Russian conflict in tonight`s "Real Story." That thing is heating up and getting out of control.
But I want to begin tonight with your wallet. Anything in it? Anything left? Consumer prices, or how much it costs us to buy stuff, rose 5.6 percent last month. That is the fastest rate of inflation in more than in 17 years.
But some things are costing less, like gas. Have you seen it? I mean, I drive up to a gas station and I`m like, oh, my gosh, $3.75 a gallon, what a deal! Everybody in! Don`t lose sight of the big picture here. Here`s the point tonight. Gas pries are down, but they are going to go back up, and gas prices are only down because energy use is declining.
When we use less energy, that means our economy is contracting, not expanding. That`s incredibly dangerous for our future. And here`s how I got there. Environmentalists love it, love it when we use less energy, but economists see it just a little differently.
Think about it, when an economy is growing, businesses are expanding, jobs are being created, more people in their cars driving to work. As a result, we use more energy. Makes sense. In this case, lower gas prices aren`t about the strong dollar, or a healthy financial forecast, nope, really just an indicator of how bad our and the world`s economy really are tanking.
What we should be striving for, and this is the evil conservative in me, is a stready increase in our use of energy at the same time that we increase our supply of energy. Oh, yes, drilling. Oh, I love drilling. Love the smell of natural gas in the morning, but also wind, solar, and nuclear power.
The more energy we have, the more we can use, the price comes down. And the economy goes up. At the end of the day, everybody wins, except for the poor polar bear.
Tonight, here is, America, what you need to know. We`re not even close to these things yet. The fundamentals that govern how much gas costs. They haven`t changed. Gas is cheaper because fewer people can afford to buy it.
Washington doesn`t get it. They need a bold and comprehensive energy plan and to get the heck out of the way and realize it`s the individuals and not the government that always has and always will advance our society.
The world, I don`t know about you, but I`m a little tired. It has already been a very spooky place, and this last week, with Russia, oh, come on, man. That, too? When you boil it down, the Russian and Georgia conflict is about power and oil.
Now is really not the time for the red tape to tie the hands of the marketplace and keep energy independence more of a dream than a reality. Ben Stein is the co-author of "How to Ruin the United States of America."
Hello, sir.
And Bob O`Brien is the stocks editor for Barron`s Online.
Ben, let me start with you, because I know you`re going to say I`m wrong. So where am I wrong? Go ahead.
BEN STEIN, CO-AUTHOR, "HOW TO RUIN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA": Yes, you are. You are wrong. Well, first of all, it`s a very good thing that gasoline prices are going down, and it`s because Americans are being more cautious in their use of gasoline and other oil products. That doesn`t necessarily mean the economy is going into a recession or even faltering, although it actually is faltering.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: So it`s just a coincidence.
STEIN: No, people can be more conservative and more productive in their use of energy. Look, if you and I decide to go on a vacation 20 miles from home instead of 2,000 miles from home and we use less gasoline driving there, that does not the affect the GDP numbers.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: All right. Hang on just a second. Ben, Ben, the deal is we`re using less because we can`t afford it. This isn`t something -- the story is.
STEIN: Well, because they`re being more cautious about it.
BECK: The story is, is that.
STEIN: They`re being more sensible about it.
BECK: The story is, is that everybody is now looking and saying, I wonder if I can get that SUV. No, gas is going to go up because the fundamentals haven`t changed. Don`t.
STEIN: No, sir, you are -- with all due respect to a man I love like a young child, brother, like a very much younger brother, or an older child, I will tell you that the speculators drove it up -- the speculators drove it up like mad. The environmentalists helped the speculators drive it up like mad. The speculators have been burned. They`re now unloading their positions. And the speculators are.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: There`s part of that, but it`s also the economy. It`s also the world economy, and our dollar is going up, not because we have done anything but because the rest of the world sucks now, too, and everybody is like, oh, crap.
Bob, tell me -- here. You can talk to me apparently at my 4-year-old level.
BOB O`BRIEN, STOCKS EDITOR, BARRON`S ONLINE: OK.
BECK: I think that`s what Ben was saying.
O`BRIEN: That`s a year ahead of my level, but I`ll try to stretch here. Listen, the take-away here, the problem is that consumers are going to look at these lower gas prices and think that this is something that is happening from some fundamental strength when in fact the message is this is happening because the economy is in decline.
Look, real wages have declined for nine consecutive months. Real household incomes have declined by 9 percent in 2008. So effectively, even the investments that you`re making, if you bought, say, a Treasury bond that`s paying you about a 4 percent yield here, after you pay taxes, that`s 3 percent.
With the inflation rates, you`re actually losing money by buying government bonds. The economy has not -- we haven`t officially hit a recession, that`s correct, but anybody who says this economy is not in distress has been living on Mars.
BECK: OK. Ben, Ben, let me try one more try.
(CROSSTALK)
BECK: No, no, no, wait, wait, let me try one more time. Talk to me like a 4-year-old. Let`s talk about ice cream instead of gas. Let`s say ice cream is just wildly expensive, all right? Because there`s a shortage of ice cream, and so a big fat fatty like me goes into the grocery store and says, oh jeez, I can`t afford ice cream anymore.
Well, if a bunch of fat-fat-fatties say, I can`t eat ice cream anymore, we`re not conserving, what we`re doing is we can`t afford to buy it anymore. So the price of ice cream goes down, then the big fat fatties like me go back into the ice cream store and go, oh my gosh, the price is great, I`d like more, please.
That`s what`s happening, and the price will go back up.
STEIN: It could happen that there will be more demand for gasoline in the future, but what drove it up in the first place was gigantic speculation on the part of enormously, enormously affluent speculators with unlimited pools of money at their disposal. They drove it up. Now they`re driving it down again.
They will make money on the way up and they will make money on the way down. It`s not true that conserving on gasoline necessarily drives down gross domestic product.
And as to our mutual friend from Barron`s for which I wrote for many, many years, I love Barron`s, as for that, real wages, inflation-adjusted, peaked in 1973 when my boy, Mr. Nixon, was president. They have been declining ever since pretty much on a solid straight line, and yet the price of almost everything has gone up.
BECK: Yes, Bob.
O`BRIEN: I`m not sure that makes me wrong, then.
STEIN: Well, the fact is that we can have inflation even with declining average hourly wages, there can still be inflation, and there has been.
O`BRIEN: And there has been, and this is a horrible circumstance. And part of the problem that we`re seeing now is that the problems that had been confined to the United States are effectively being exported to other areas of the world. Let`s.
BECK: Yes, Ben.
O`BRIEN: . see what happens to China after the Olympics. Does the economy there just fall off the map?
STEIN: I question the use of the word "horrible." I mean, if you look around America, it doesn`t look as if we`re in horrible shape. I`m in Wal- Mart -- when I`m up in my home in north Idaho, I`m up in Wal-Mart almost every day. That place is packed. People are buying, buying, buying. Their shopping carts are overflowing. It doesn`t.
O`BRIEN: But, Ben, if you go to a mall.
STEIN: . look as if people are falling.
BECK: I just like watching these two fight.
O`BRIEN: If you go to a mall in the northeast part of the country, you could swing a dead puma by the tail and not risk hitting a fellow shopper.
BECK: A dead what?
O`BRIEN: We`ve seen -- puma, it`s a big cat.
BECK: Puma.
O`BRIEN: It`s a really big cat.
BECK: That`s what comes to mind? A puma?
(CROSSTALK)
O`BRIEN: Listen, how many restaurants have gone out of business over the course of the last three months?
STEIN: They were highly leveraged and poorly managed. And the fact is that retail sales have been quite strong until just the last few weeks. And then they have faltered a bit. But by and large, this economy is not in recession. It could be in a recession -- that`s very funny, Glenn.
BECK: What? I`m just.
STEIN: Don`t think I miss any of your jokes. I don`t miss any of them. The economy is not that weak. And I`m tired of people hitting Bush over the head about the economy. The economy is not that weak. He`s not doing a bad job about the economy.
O`BRIEN: Ben, I`m going to argue that your perspective is skewed if you`re shopping at a Wal-Mart in Idaho. That`s hardly representative of the country.
BECK: No, no, but wait, wait, wait, wait.
O`BRIEN: Wal-Mart has been the best-performing retail name out there. That`s why it`s one of the few retailers whose stock has actually appreciated.
STEIN: Sir, the numbers from the Council of Economic Advisers for the whole country are not bad about retail sales. They`re just not bad.
O`BRIEN: And I`m not taking those numbers at face value at all. I would rather take the International Group (ph) of Shopping Centers, which have reported...
STEIN: Council, Council of Shopping Centers.
O`BRIEN: . consistent declines in -- International Council of Shopping Centers, which...
(CROSSTALK)
O`BRIEN: If you can`t get the point right, argue the details.
BECK: America, you can thank me. Don`t you feel so much better now you know the truth?
STEIN: You are mocking -- you are mocking us.
BECK: Oh no, not me. All right. Coming up, John Edwards has proven two things to the American people. One, that man has got amazing hair. Two, boy, he has got bad taste in mistresses.
And also, if we would have gotten the memo that he was a total scumbag, it might have impacted, you know, the whole political process a little differently. Let`s take a look at what the mainstream media has dropped the ball on. That`s coming up next.
Plus, America`s catch-22. Do we fold on Georgia and let a democracy fail or do we go all in and potentially ignite a powder keg. Decisions, decisions. I`ll explain the no-win situation Georgia-Russia conflict in tonight`s "Real Story." It`s coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Did you know there`s another fold in this Edwards story? Has anybody seen the new twist? Here is the new twist. The woman that everybody is sharing in the Edwards friends circle, you know, take one down and pass her around, that woman`s sister is saying that the baby looks just like John Edwards.
And also, apparently, John Edwards, after he broke the news to his wife, he went back and was sleeping with her again, and that`s when she got pregnant. That`s the new twist in the story. Hadn`t seen that anywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Oh, man, have you seen that yet? On the major news outlets, they seem to be all over this story, don`t they? Just like they were with Anna Nicole Smith, that very important story.
Now let me show you another twist. You have got to hate how videotape just lasts forever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN EDWARDS (D), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think this president has shown a profound disrespect for his office, a profound -- a lack of understanding of the need for moral leadership, an enormous disrespect for his wife, for his precious daughter, for his friends. And to me, that level of disrespect rose to the point that it was breathtaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Breathtaking. You got that one right. It is breathtaking. This guy actually has managed to out-Clinton Bill Clinton. That`s wild, huh? But now we`re finding out about the real John Edwards. Now, we are. The question is, why so late? Mainstream media loves to wrap itself in the virtue of their responsibility to the American people. We`re looking out for you, kid.
But you know what, lately, my journalist friends have been dropping the ball. And I have to come clean with you, I don`t have friends that are journalists (INAUDIBLE). The Edwards scandal is not about adultery. It`s about public trust, it`s about campaign funds possibly being used as hush money, and the media manipulating the news and a presidential election.
Follow this path with me for a second. Do you remember when Barack Obama`s pal, Reverend Wright, was exposed as a hateful radical? Yes, yes, that was about a year after political bloggers and talk radio broke the story and hammered it and hammered it and hammered it until the mainstream media couldn`t avoid it anymore. Why didn`t the mainstream news media break that?
Could it be because it might have hurt their candidate, Barack Obama? Where were the networks and the newspapers on Mike Huckabee`s long history of saying spooky bigoted things from the pulpit? Did the major news sources not think to look into those or did they not look into them or hold them because it might have helped Mitt Romney?
And what about our new favorite philanderer, John Edwards? Did they steer clear of that story because it might have helped Hillary Clinton and hurt Barack? Edwards wanted to be president of the United States and couldn`t be trusted not to cheat on his own cancer-stricken wife. Breathtaking, if I may quote him. Let alone lead the free world.
Today`s landscape would look a whole lot different if America would have had this information when it mattered. The media doesn`t think this kind of story matters because they don`t think that character matters. But let`s get back to another week of Anna Nicole Smith.
Now the new one is the sister of Edwards` mistress claims that this baby is his baby. They`ve had the story from the beginning. David Perel is the editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer and he is here.
OK. Give me the latest here real quick on the love child. He was still visiting her after he broke the news. Is that what this is?
DAVID PEREL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NATIONAL ENQUIRER: Well, he has still been in contact with her after he broke the news. In fact, right before he went on "Nightline," Rielle was flown out of California by private jet, a $50,000 flight to an undisclosed location. They`re still in contact. So yes, they are still in contact, absolutely.
BECK: Why would he do that? I mean, what is his excuse? What is anybody`s -- is any -- let me ask you this, first. Is anybody else covering this story except the National Enquirer?
PEREL: Well, some people are starting to cover it now, but we were pretty much all alone back in October and December of 2007 when John Edwards was looking into the cameras and calling it lies, lies, lies.
BECK: OK. Here is the -- what I think this story is really all about, and I wonder if you`re covering this or if anybody is covering this. Where is all of this money coming from? Is there a chance that any of this is tied to campaign contributions? I mean, I know that there was one check that went from his campaign to the friend who is now paying her $15,000 a month. There`s another big check that was written right after the baby was born. Is there any evidence that campaign contributions were or are being used, and is anyone looking into this?
PEREL: The Enquirer is looking into it, and there certainly is evidence that Rielle Hunter was paid by his political action committee $114,000, I believe, while they were having an affair. And now Fred Baron, his former finance chair, says well, I`m paying her out of my own pocket. But Fred Baron was also reimbursed by the campaign. So we`re getting into a very interesting area here.
BECK: So why -- why? This doesn`t make any sense. I mean, for the love of Pete, you know why this show doesn`t cover the stuff like Anna Nicole stuff anymore? It`s because I couldn`t take it anymore. It wasn`t even a story, and we had to cover it every night until I finally said, no more of this crap. We`re not covering this crap. It doesn`t matter.
This one does matter. Why is the media all of a sudden off this and so virtuous?
PEREL: I don`t think the mainstream media is mainstream media anymore. I don`t think they`re getting the point here, and I think there are too many news organizations that just ignored the story and said, we`re not going to cover it. Some did try to cover it, it was very difficult to cover. But there`s no excuse right now, because the story is just getting hotter and hotter.
And you heard Hillary`s aide come out the other day and say, hey, he cost her the election.
BECK: He did. He did. No, the media orchestrated this election by not covering it. By the way, good luck on winning the Pulitzer. I`m sure all your allies and friends in the media will nominate you for a Pulitzer Prize on breaking this story. Thanks a lot, David.
Now coming up, eBay pulls the plug on a Connecticut antiques dealer because he refuses, you`re going to love this, to sell vintage American flags to the French. Sacre bleu! What happened to running your own business, eBay? I`ll have the latest on that.
And also don`t forget, "Arguments against the Idiots." It`s a new series found now only in my free e-mail newsletter. It has everything you need to set your idiot friends straight on all of the issues this election season, whether it`s left or right. But you can only get it now by signing up at glennbeck.com. It`s free.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: No shoes, no shirt, no service. That`s the great thing about running your own business here in America. I`m so American, aren`t I? You get to call the shots in America. Too bad the online auction site eBay doesn`t see it that way. They call the shots.
Navy veteran Mark Albino has prohibited the sales of vintage American flags to all buyers, you`re going to love this, if those buyers happen to be in the Middle East, France, or even in California, unless those buyers have served in the U.S. military.
Well, eBay, oh, they got their panties in a bunch and they have now prohibited his flag sales to all locations. I`m a proud American and a proud American flag collector myself, which everybody on the set makes fun of all the time. I say, you have a right to sell or not sell to anybody you damn well please. I`m joined now by the owner of the CNM (ph) Antiques and Collectibles in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Mark, how are you, sir?
MARK ALBINO, SELLS VINTAGE FLAGS: Not bad. How are you, sir?
BECK: Good. I want to put up on the screen here the restrictions that you have -- that you are now saying that, you know, if you bought a flag on eBay, this is who could buy it and who couldn`t.
"Please note that the flag is not for sale to anybody residing in any country in the Middle East, France, or the state of California unless he can show proof of serving in the U.S. military or to any person in any country not allied to the USA. I reserve the right not to sell this flag to anyone I deem may be disrespectful to it. God bless America and its true allies."
Why did they have a problem with this on eBay?
ALBINO: I don`t know. I have been selling flags like this for five- and-a-half years now.
BECK: On eBay?
ALBINO: Yes. And in the past people -- I mean, everybody supported it, all of a sudden it`s taboo.
BECK: OK. I don`t know if this is true, but I have heard rumor that you actually believe that part of it is that you said "God bless America."
ALBINO: That`s true.
BECK: OK. But you`re an atheist, are you not?
ALBINO: That`s correct.
BECK: I love that. Why the "God bless America" in this?
ALBINO: This country was founded on religious principles. And even though I`m not a religious person, I don`t believe in God, I believe in the ideas that these religions brought forth to the country.
BECK: OK. So now let`s say I`m a guy -- because I collect flags, I wish -- I mean, we were practically neighbors, I wish I would have known you sold vintage flags, because I collect them. But let`s say I live in California, and I call you up, I love American flags, I`m a patriotic American. I`m not going to do anything to disrespect the flag, but I have never also served in the military. You`re not going to sell it to me?
ALBINO: No.
BECK: Well, why?
ALBINO: How do I know that you`re telling me the truth?
BECK: So what are you afraid people are going to do with these flags?
ALBINO: Tromp, step on them, burn them. I mean, I still look at it like this, in California, they`re banned in public schools, they have removed them off of fire trucks, police vehicles. They don`t want to say the "Pledge of Allegiance." why would they want my flag?
BECK: OK. Well, I mean, you could buy a cheaper flag if you were just going to burn it. This is your business and you have been selling a lot of flags on the Internet through eBay. Are you worried at all about your business now and how you`re going to make money on things like this?
ALBINO: Well, I`m worried that they`re going to kill my business all together because of this. I mean, of course, I worry about that. But still, I have principles and I was brought up to believe in your principles.
BECK: Do you have a Web site that people can go to and -- or a way to get in touch with you if people happen to collect flags and want to see your collection?
ALBINO: Right now, I was set up to sell specifically on eBay. I have my Web site, CNM Antiques.
BECK: OK. Well, you let us know when you`re back on in a way to sell, and we`ll cover that. Mark, God bless you.
ALBINO: Hey, thank you.
BECK: God bless you.
Coming up, cross in the desert under the cover of darkness was so 2007. New ways illegals are now entering the country, and we`ll get to those, and the real story with Michael Chertoff.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GLENN BECK, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome to "The Real Story."
I told you last night on this program about a border governors` conference that kicked off yesterday in, of all places, Universal Studios, Hollywood, California. The theme of this border conference was, of course, naturally building green economies, which just goes to show you how blind our leaders are to the real story, that we are in a war on our own border.
Oh, but what about the polar bears? Right on the heels of the story, I told you last week, involving uniformed Mexican troops coming across the border to hold one of our own border agents at gunpoint comes another major incident. This one happened last Tuesday night in the border town just about 17 miles south of San Diego.
It was about 10:00 at night. There was a group of three or four men. They were attempting to climb one of those 15-foot high steel fences to get into our country.
The border agents responded. They went to the scene and they were immediately greeted with rocks and giant chunks of concrete being thrown over this fence. About a dozen people were throwing them at them.
Well, this is a tactic normally used to distract agents while illegals cross in another area. Our agents, unwilling to wait while concrete was being hurled at them, attacked the attackers. After firing pepper-spray bullets and teargas, most of the crowd left, but two Mexicans stayed behind.
They armed themselves with softball-sized rocks and took aim at our agents. Perhaps the agents were thinking of the 584 assaults that they have experienced on border patrol agents over the last two years. Maybe one of them was fearing for his safety.
One of our agents, a ten-year veteran on the force, fired his rifle, hitting one of the Mexicans in the butt. Sound familiar?
By all accounts, the shooting was justified. Well, by all accounts except one; the Mexican government`s account. This shooting, according to the Mexican government, is of great concern.
May I translate because I speak bull crap? We`re going to be calling our friends in Washington soon. You better look out. Meanwhile, our border patrol says that they`d like Mexico`s help and cooperation in arresting their citizen for assault on our agent.
Let me think here, our border patrol versus the Mexican government. Who`s going to win on that one?
If you`re not sure about that face-off, just ask our agents Ramos and Compean who really has the power down there. They each have about ten years left to think about their answer.
Shawn Moran is the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. John, when this story broke, we talked on the air, and I have to tell you, this is an amazing story to look at because it seems so awfully darn familiar. These are not little rocks, right? These are parts of concrete blocks.
SHAWN MORAN, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: That`s absolutely right, Glenn. I like to refer to it as a biblical stoning. This is how they killed people before they had things like rifles and guns and hand grenades.
BECK: And they were using baseball bats as well?
MORAN: I`m not sure if they were using baseball bats, but they`ll use anything they can find on that south side of the fence.
BECK: We`ve got our investigators down there right?
MORAN: As far as I understand, San Diego police investigators are down there.
BECK: Does Mexico -- have they responded? Are they looking for their people, too?
MORAN: Well, it`s the Mexican government. So it`s politicians. I don`t trust them.
At least Mexico is standing up for its people and its country. Unlike the U.S., it just seems like we cater to everybody else`s interests except our own.
BECK: The border patrol, tell me about the agent, Agent Aguilar that was killed, and when we demanded something from Mexico, tell me the story.
MORAN: Agent Luis Aguilar was killed in January of this year. He was attempting to lay down a spike strip near the imperial dunes just southeast of central California. He was hit and struck by a hummer SUV. The vehicle fled into Mexico.
The suspected murder was apprehended by Mexican authorities, and I believe he was placed in prison or in jail on unrelated smuggling charges.
BECK: Right.
MORAN: Recently, he was released from prison. And the only information we`re really getting is from the Mexican government, that the U.S. Attorney`s office and the Department of Justice, they have dropped the ball on this. Border patrol agents know where we stand on the food chain as evidenced by this case.
BECK: So, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. The U.S. Attorney, who is the U.S. Attorney? The U.S. Attorney dropped the ball on this one. And didn`t file the right papers to say, hey, by the way, we want the guy who murdered one of our agents? Never got that, huh?
MORAN: We don`t know exactly what happened because the U.S. Attorney`s office won`t give any comment. The information we`re getting is from the Mexican government, and they said they got a provisional request for extradition after the murderer was released from jail.
BECK: Unbelievable. Can you even imagine what Mexico would be doing to us if the situation was reversed?
Shawn, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
Now I have to move to the conflict between Russia and Georgia. That whole cease-fire was about as effective as Amy Winehouse in rehab. However, Russian troops claim that they`re now handing over Gori to Georgian forces and a top U.S. military official says earlier today that Russia appears to be preparing to withdraw their troops from Georgia. Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, President Bush, you know, he`s been busy playing volleyball over in China, and the war was flaring up. Condoleezza Rice, keeping quiet until yesterday. If you just watch those two, you might think the United States, really, they don`t care about Georgia; those former crazy Soviet states, always arguing about something.
The real story is our leaders are not explaining the true complexity of this conflict. What a surprise. We`re expecting non-leaders to act like leaders.
This conflict is about more than just protecting Georgia`s fledgling democracy or republic. It`s about more than Russia`s desire to monopolize the region`s oil. It`s about America and the West`s place in the world.
The Democrat in me, the real kind, not the donkey kind, says we should be swift to defend our allies. After all, Georgia is not Iraq. It`s a nation whose people chose to live in freedom under a republic.
Now, Russia wants to destroy them because of that. If we let Saakashvili`s government collapse, we`re not going to just lose a Democratic ally. We will be ushering in a new era in Eastern Europe, an era that says buddy up to the West and Russia will make you pay. An era in which the America is powerless to stop Russia`s forays into Eastern Europe.
But it goes way beyond Eastern Europe. Any confrontation with Russia will make dealing with Iran even more difficult. Russia has built Iran`s $800 million nuclear reactor. Hey, guys, thank you so much for that.
Also, you can be certain that Putin will prevent another round of sanctions and increased assistance to Iran`s nuclear program if we defend Georgia.
And this is my biggest fear. If we do nothing, and we do nothing in Iran, well you know what? Israel is going to attack Iran. Then we will be powerless to stand by the side of Israel because Russia and their new-found power will block the west and demand that we condemn our ally, not Iran.
Putin, the true KGB man that he is, is sending a message to America`s enemies who are the Russian allies as well, saying that the U.S. will back down in the face of Russia. "Look at me. I`m Vladimir Putin. I can stand against America for you."
You`ve got to act. Not suggesting that we go into war, but we must stand by the side of Georgia. We must bring Georgia into a limited role in NATO. We must remove Russia from the G8 and block them from the WTO because KGB thugs have no place in the civilized free world.
Unfortunately, I don`t think our leaders are ready for the consequences of these steps. Why would they be? The mess they`d helped create in the financial markets and the lack of a policy show me they didn`t see this one coming.
Ralph Peters, retired army lieutenant colonel and author of "Looking for Trouble: Adventures in a Broken World." Ralph, Germany, France, Italy, they`re all afraid of Russia because they`re all sucking on the oil teat that Russia has put in as a pipeline, right?
LT. COL. RALPH PETERS, AUTHOR "LOOKING FOR TROUBLE": That`s certainly true. Germany, especially, has heavy investments in Russia. They`re dependent on Russian gas; they allowed the dependency to grow as did most of Western Europe.
And really, you have a split in Europe, to be fair, Glenn. The countries in Central and Eastern Europe that suffered under the Soviet yoke are rallying to Georgia`s side. They want us to move forward.
You saw the presidents, not just of the Baltic Republics in Ukraine, but also of Poland flying to Tbilisi, risking their lives to stand beside President Saakashvili. But Western Europe, still resentful, still confused, still selfish, is just unwilling to stand up to Putin.
BECK: So what happens -- I talked to the president of Georgia last night, and he said that they feel abandoned by us, or they had felt abandoned by us over the weekend. We can`t -- I meantime, I don`t want to get into a war with Russia, but we`ve got to make a move.
What move do we make other than what I have just suggested?
PETERS: Well, a crisis like this, Glenn, is like a fire in your house. If you jump right on that kitchen fire, you put it out and save your house. If you let it burn out of control, you`re not going to save much.
And the tragedy is that President Bush, who trusted Putin for so long, his sleep-over buddy, did nothing. He went to a basketball game and screwed around with volleyball in Beijing while Putin flew home and started his war.
We did react and we are doing the right now by sending in our military flights as a symbol with humanitarian aid. But still, we have no practical leverage on the ground right now to get the Russian troops out.
BECK: Ralph, I`m so sick and tired of everybody saying we have to trust, we have to stick with Russia. We have no reason to stick with Russia. And if anybody thinks Russia is really our ally and going to help stop Iran, you`re out of your mind.
I think the axis power with Putin now at the head, I think it`s already been -- the groundwork has already been laid. Right or wrong?
PETERS: Absolutely right. And without any exaggeration or scaremongering, you have to give Putin, Vladimir Putin, credit.
He`s the most effective leader in the world today. Now, certainly, he`s a monster, he`s brutal. He`s a KGB man, but when we compare him to, unfortunately, President Bush or, God help us, Barack Obama or Sarkozy or Merkel or Berlusconi, Putin`s in effectiveness towers above them.
We need a real leader right now.
BECK: And gee, I wonder if one is going to drop out of the sky.
Ralph, thanks a lot.
PETERS: Thank you.
BECK: That`s "The Real Story" tonight.
By the way, we go back to the border for a second. Our border agents, Jose Compean and Nacho Ramos, they are still in prison tonight. I don`t want you to forget about them. Unfortunately, it looks like they`re going to be in there for a while longer at least.
We were invited to go down -- we begged to go down, and after months, we were invited to go to one jailhouse interview and then another with both of these political prisoners. But they wouldn`t let me bring in a camera, or no tape recorder; just a pen or pencil.
Both of the interviews will be published exclusively in my upcoming issues of my magazine "Fusion." You can get them by becoming a subscriber right now. Just visit glennbeck.com for more information or to sign up.
Coming up, we`re going to get perspective from our token liberal, Brian Whitman. He`ll join me for some political laughs after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: If you want to see what`s coming on the horizon, look at the aisles of fiction because these fiction authors are looking at what are possible scenarios and what is coming.
Most of these that are out right now, all of the top sellers, they`re all about Russia. And they`re thinly disguising Vladimir Putin. And it`s all about oil, it`s about Putin, and it`s about controlling the West.
And it`s also about their ties to the Middle East. Meanwhile, George Bush is like, gee, I look into his eyes. I think I hear the theme from "Love Story." He`s just so fabulous. I almost kissed him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Have you ever had a friend that is smart and funny, but there was just something, I don`t know, something wrong with him? Like maybe they chew with their mouth open or they talk during a movie or have some backward, moronic, and inconceivable views on politics?
Let`s just put it this way, my next guest, a friend of mine, doesn`t chew with his mouth open or talk during movies. His name is Brian Whitman. Hello Brian.
BRIAN WHITMAN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Hello Glenn. How are you, my friend?
BECK: Token liberal. That`s you.
WHITMAN: Good to see you. I do sometimes talk during the movies.
BECK: Hey, let me ask you this Brian. What do you think? We were just talking a minute ago about the Vladimir Putin thing and Georgia and Russia. What`s your take on that with Barack Obama being able to --
WHITMAN: Well, you know, I don`t know if Senator Obama or Senator McCain would be better at handling this crisis. Let`s all hope for the best with this cease-fire.
This is -- as they say, Glenn, this is a real powder keg.
BECK: I wish you would talk in the movies. I could just cut you loose; he`s too obnoxious.
Can I ask you a question on the Democratic convention, because you are a Democrat and you were a Hillary supporter?
WHITMAN: And proud of it.
BECK: Yes, have you seen the Hillary supporter that they`re trying to make sure she doesn`t show up because she`s questioning Barack Obama`s, you know, his ability to rule?
WHITMAN: Interesting. I don`t know that we can attribute that to Senator Clinton, of course. We can`t attribute it to the candidate or to the public official all of the motives of one`s supporters, obviously Glenn.
BECK: What`s happening is they don`t want her on the floor of the convention because they don`t want her as a disruption.
At the same time, the Democrats are building some like Guantanamo holding pen in a warehouse for anybody that protests while they round up all the homeless people and send them to the movies or the zoo. I mean, I`m looking for some consistency here on what Democrats say they believe.
WHITMAN: Look, I believe that Senator Clinton`s name, just as a matter of procedure, certainly, there`s a right to put her name into a nomination, to put her name on the floor there. She has a lot of supporters.
My party, the Democratic Party, wants Senator Clinton`s supporters to know that she`s not forgotten. They are not forgotten. And at the convention, they will be respected.
BECK: Yes. Can I ask you this? Which party do you think is more fractured right now? You guys are all pissed off. You have half of your people pissed off about Hillary Clinton and half of my people are pissed off about John McCain. Which is less pissed off?
WHITMAN: Glenn, it`s a great question. I think the Democrats are less pissed off, to coin a phrase, if I might share, coin a term. I think the Democrats are actually more united than the Republicans because the Democrats have been out of power for eight years.
BECK: They just want to win.
WHITMAN: Yes, Democrats just want to -- they want back in there.
BECK: If you had the anti-Christ running right now, you`re like, I`m not really for the anti-Christ policies, considering the alternative, I don`t --
WHITMAN: Yes, right, sure
BECK: Have you been watching the Olympics by any chance?
WHITMAN: Oh, God, I hate the Olympics, I can`t stand them. I turn the Olympics off. You know if you`re in a room and there`s a small child in the room and pornography happens to come on the television screen and you jump on the remote control to turn it off real quick. That`s what I do when the Olympics come on.
BECK: Why do you do that? Why?
WHITMAN: Because, Glen, there`s no big story to the Olympics. Usually with the Olympics, there`s like a guy, he`s run over seven times, and then he`s the best gymnast in the world.
BECK: He`s our swimmer. He`s our swimmer.
WHITMAN: Pass on the swimming. I just can`t stand the Olympics.
BECK: Goodbye, Brian.
WHITMAN: See you, Glenn.
BECK: Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Well, while the Chinese decide whether your kids are cute enough to be on stage, you`ve got the chops here in America, man. There`s a spotlight waiting for you, even if you`re only 8 years old.
I don`t know if you`ve ever tried to play a musical instrument, but it`s hard. But you never know that from the next story.
Mike Miller from WISM in Milwaukee has this amazing story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE MILLER, WISM: the guitar is almost bigger than he is, but Tallan Latz, alias T-man handles the riffs like an old pro. While other second graders may be watching video games or playing out in the snow, he`s practicing, two to three hours a day and he never gets tired of it.
TALLAN LATZ, GUITAR PRODIGY: No, never. Ever.
MILLER: How come?
T. LATZ: Because I just love to play the guitar. It`s my favorite -- it`s my favorite feeling to play the guitar.
MILLER: Tallan got this acoustic guitar when he was four and then one day he happened to see a video of electric guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani.
T. LATZ: And I turned around to my dad and I said, "Dad, that`s exactly what I want to do."
MILLER: So when he was five, his parents gave him a choice: a new bicycle, a remote controlled boat, or an electric guitar.
CARL LATZ, TALLAN`S FATHER: He decided that he wanted the guitar. And I told him, I said, if you get the guitar, you have to practice, you have to take lessons, and I don`t want it sitting in the corner. And ever since then, he`s been doing nothing but play guitar.
MILLER: Other guitar players and instructors say Tallan is one in a million. They call him the future of the blues and predict he`ll be in the national spotlight by the time he`s 10.
MILLER: T-man already has endorsement deals to use certain guitars, amps, foot pedals, and guitar streams. He`s played on stage with lots of local and international acts; even played Alpine Valley on his 8th birthday.
T. LATZ: It was so amazing that I got to play on my birthday at Alpine Valley. Oh, it just blew my heart away. It was so cool!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: From New York, good night, America.
END
