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Glenn Beck
Exposed: The End of Oil; Mexican Mafia; What`s Being Achieved in Washington Debates?; Book Looks at Putin`s Influence on Russia
Aired September 26, 2008 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GLENN BECK, HOST: Hello, America. Politics is a dirty business, and could it get any dirtier than it is right now? We`re going to take a look at the parties and the politicking behind our financial crisis and the negotiations leading up to the federal bailout. It has been a very long week in this country. We`re going to wrap it up, next.
Well, in Congress, winning and losing is a matter of perspective. The decision on the federal bailout is probably the most important decision of these senators` and representatives` political careers. I think it is probably the most important decision we as Americans may have ever made in our lives so far.
The way things are stacking up, it is a virtual no-win situation for anybody. If you`re a politician, and you happen to be for the bailout, you`re going to get labeled as being in the pocket of big business. Those fat cats using taxpayer money to save the butts of the greedy people on Wall Street. Those pirates you`re in bed with.
If you`re against it, you`re just going to be an out-of-touch dope that had blinders on and couldn`t see the pain and suffering in store for average Americans and the poor people who are different than you. Why do you hate them so much?
No matter how this plays out, you`re screwed either way.
It`s time for Washington to stop thinking about winning and losing and get down to the business of saving our butt. It`s too late. And there is just too much at stake for all of us. So to heck with partisan politics tonight. What`s getting done in Washington? is there anybody actually doing it? Let`s check in with our panel tonight.
Jim Geraghty from the "National Review" online campaign spot, and Michael Reagan, he`s a talk radio show host and GOP strategist.
And I think you had somebody famous in your family. Michael, your dad`s spinning in his grave this week, in seeing with this federal bailout?
MICHAEL REAGAN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Yes, most likely he`s spinning in his grave this week, looking at Washington.
I mean, one of the problems we have here, Glenn, is Washington helped create this very problem that we`re in. And they`ve yet to understand how much they helped create it. Even with the bailout, do you realize everything that was in place that caused this situation is still in place? They`ve done nothing about anything that would stop the banks from doing this all over again.
There`s no guarantee to America that, in fact, the $700 billion is going to be the answer. Why not $1.4 trillion? Why not $3.4 trillion? Where is it going to stop?
BECK: Yes.
REAGAN: And America right now, as well you know, Glenn, doesn`t trust Washington.
BECK: We don`t...
REAGAN: We need to get the trust back.
BECK: We don`t trust anybody. Let me bring in Amy Holmes. She`s a CNN political contributor.
Amy, you know, I heard, who was it, Barney Frank or somebody say, "The great thing is we`re going to be able to help out the poor." Help out the poor? What are you talking about?
How about helping out the truly forgotten man in this scenario, the person who is living their life, busting their butt to put food on the table, didn`t buy a house that they couldn`t afford, didn`t buy the boat that they wanted but couldn`t afford, and just lived their life responsibly? That`s the person really getting screwed here. Everybody else gets something.
HOLMES: Well, that`s right, Glenn. And those are the people that didn`t cause the problem. And it was these unscrupulous bank lenders who were putting together these very risky deals, and now they want government to bail them out. The problem here is, as Secretary Paulson said, is that there`s been this choke in the market, and if we don`t solve this problem, then it does hurt the good guy. It does hurt the middle guy. Not just on the tax end, paying for the bailout, but in terms of economic disintegration, if jobs are lost.
Small businesses, you know they`re the engine of job growth of this country. They create 75 percent of jobs in America.
BECK: Well, they`re the rich people.
HOLMES: If they can`t get a business loan...
BECK: Right.
HOLMES: ... they can`t employ you, me, your brother. They can`t employ anybody.
BECK: I know. Jim, these are the people that were being disenfranchised. I mean, these are the people -- you know, Obama wants to say $250,000, those are the rich people. You know who those are? Those are the entrepreneurs. Those are the people that are driving 70 percent of this economy.
And if you or somebody who is in that role right now, and you`ve always done -- let`s say you`re a farmer -- and you always go and get what`s called commercial paper. That just means, hey, I`ve got to buy seed and fertilizer. The bank expects you every year. You go, you can`t get a loan now.
Well, this is the person getting screwed. And you`re going to get hammered by taxes on top of it.
JIM GERAGHTY, "NATIONAL REVIEW" ONLINE: Well, the irony is, Glenn, there`s a slim possibility that if this deal was managed right, you could actually have this turn out pretty well for the taxpayers. And I was kind of hoping that when we saw the deal, it would have some sort of provision to say that any profit that comes out of the U.S. -- taking on these loans and on these mortgages and on these, theoretically, even these properties, is that the money goes to either Social Security or debt reduction.
The thing is, Uncle Sam is buying an enormous amount of real estate. They`re going to resell at some point in the future, hopefully for a better price than which they bought it. If they`re patient enough, you should be able to manage this fairly well. So you don`t lose your shirt, and in fact, actually sell what you got.
BECK: It`s the government. When did they manage anything well and make a profit? When I hear -- when I heard the president the other day saying, you know what? We might even be able to -- these are assets. They`re not necessarily liabilities. We can make money on this. I thought, oh, you`re just the people to figure out how to make a profit on something.
HOLMES: And you know what?
REAGAN: Glenn, if I can jump in, if I`m going to have a meeting at the White House about all of this, don`t I bring in like Jack Welch, Warren Buffett, people like that to help solve the problem?
BECK: Exactly right. That`s exactly right.
REAGAN: Those are the people we trust.
(CROSSTALK)
GERAGHTY: ... plan.
BECK: You know what, guys, the last people I`d bring in is Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Barack Obama and John McCain. Those are the last people I`d bring in to solve this thing.
HOLMES: Glenn, I agree with you, but you know, Jim was telling me something in the green room that I think is so interesting and important is how this issue has divided even conservatives, you know, people who believe in free market, competitive markets and the ability for oceans to raise all ships.
And yet here we are, confronted with this huge dilemma. Should the government be bailing out the banking industry so that the free market can work? Even conservatives are not unified on what is the best way to proceed.
BECK: You know, here`s the deal. Somebody called me yesterday, or today, and said, Glenn, you know, this is an insurance thing. This is not really a -- you know, that`s not a bailout. That`s more insurance. Yes, so is Social Security. That was insurance, as well. That`s not insurance. That`s -- I mean, the government doesn`t even understand their own term.
Jim, true or false: the people in -- the Democratic Party, when they went in to meet early on in some of these discussions, they were actually handed a glossary of terms?
GERAGHTY: Reassuring, isn`t it, Glenn?
BECK: Oh, yes.
GERAGHTY: There are several terms that they were describing that I didn`t know. But you know what? I`m not voting on the bailout bill. You know, I cover campaigns for a living, but I don`t have to know the intimate details of this.
I`m really kind of disturbed when you`re hearing members of Capitol Hill -- I think we have a political class where large chunks, the only thing they know how to do is denounce the Wall Street fat cats.
BECK: Yes.
GERAGHTY: And they don`t actually know what Wall Street does. And they don`t quite recognize that, but look, I don`t like the consequences of action here. But I really don`t like the consequences of inaction. And I`ll take $700 billion in payments now over four trillion in losses in the stock market in coming weeks.
BECK: Hey, Michael, have you ever noticed, picture Uncle Sam -- everybody, picture Uncle Sam in your head right now. All the pictures you`ve ever seen of Uncle Sam. Anybody else notice the guy`s wearing striped pants? I think he`s an escaped prisoner. I think the guy is a crook.
REAGAN: You know something? Thinking of that, though, Glenn, think about this. Remember Ken Lay with Enron? Remember Ebbers with WorldCom? What did they to? They cooked the books, paid the price. Ken Lay died on the way to prison. Ebbers, I think, is still in prison.
Well, you know, America`s saying actually, wait a minute, you want us to pay 700 million bucks. Isn`t there a crook here somewhere? Isn`t something going to do the perp walk? Where`s the perp? I mean, you`ve got Franklin Raines...
BECK: Fannie Mae, that`s exactly right.
REAGAN: Jamie Gorelick. You`ve got Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, all of these people out there. And again, nobody`s being held responsible. And America`s picking up their mistakes.
BECK: Wait a minute. Let`s -- why do we go that far? Why don`t we just go to Charlie Rangel that nobody seems to care about? Charlie Rangel, here`s a guy -- let me ask you something, Amy. Amy, do you have an ocean front villa?
HOLMES: No. Unfortunately I don`t.
BECK: Jim, do you have an ocean front villa?
GERAGHTY: Only when it rains. And that`s if you count a puddle.
BECK: Michael, you probably do.
REAGAN: No, I don`t have one. I don`t have one, but my tax man speaks Croatian. So I don`t know what the problems are.
BECK: How is it a guy who was a veteran, who then went into public service, has a villa, has four rent-controlled homes here in New York City, has a Mercedes that`s just sitting there in the congressional garage, and writes the tax code, but can`t figure out how to pay his taxes? How does this stand?
HOLMES: You know, those are all very good questions that I hope investigators are asking of Charlie Rangel. And I just saw it today, a headline that there may be an investigation.
BECK: No, no, no. No, no, no, he asked for the investigation to be done. Nobody else is asking for this investigation except for the Republicans. He said, "You know what? You guys should investigate me." You`ve got to be kidding me.
REAGAN: You know, what do you think Duke Cunningham is thinking about right now? Duke Cunningham is saying, "Why am I the only one in jail?"
BECK: Yes, yes.
REAGAN: "Why am I the only one paying the price?"
HOLMES: He was small beans compared to all this. Just a yacht and a $2 million house, something like that.
BECK: Let me tell you something, America, you look at Uncle Sam. He`s wearing striped pants. And maybe he should be.
All right. We`re going to take a quick break here in a second. We`ll pick up our conversation. More on politics in just a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Coming up, alternative energy ideas are needed now more than ever before. You know, while we should be drilling through anything and everything just to get the oil that`s left, we should also be leading the world in energy innovation. That`s the subject tonight in our "Exposed: End of Oil" segment. And it`s coming up.
But first, we`re taking the politics out of the bailout tonight with our panel: Amy Holmes, CNN political contributor; Jim Geraghty from the "National Review" online`s "Campaign Spot"; and Michael Reagan, talk radio show host and GOP strategist.
Jim, let me start with you. I think something has fundamentally changed here in America in the last couple of weeks. I mean, you know, what was it, last night, night before, $25 billion bailout for the audio -- auto industry. Well, that`s actually kind of cool, because now we own automobile companies. We own an insurance company. We own a bunch of mortgages. If we could just get a steakhouse, a fruit stand, and an oil company, we`d be set.
GERAGHTY: Glenn, great news: with the AIG purchase we got a chunk of Manchester United, too. So if you`re into football...
BECK: Good. Yes. Of course, we should buy DirecTV, because then we could all watch it all together. What has happened to us? We have changed fundamentally as a country overnight.
GERAGHTY: Yes. And for a long time on this, I was one of the guys beating the drum on the concept of moral hazards. Say that if you bail somebody out of their mistake, it takes away the incentive from avoiding that mistake and from avoiding that mistake in the future.
Then a couple folks in the financial industry said, "Jim, you`re absolutely right, except is it worth the market crashing to teach that lesson?" They give me a sense of just how bad they were talking about. We`re talking about hundreds of the points in the Dow Jones each day for several days, for several weeks, talking about maybe a 2,000, 2,000-4,000- point drop.
All of a sudden the idea of, you know, teaching that lesson didn`t look so valuable anymore. So look, it`s one of those things where the circumstances get bad enough, the government does have to step in.
BECK: OK. Look, that`s the only reason why I was considering this bailout earlier. I don`t think I`m considering -- I have to see the final thing before I would sign off on anything that is -- I mean, this is socialism.
And you know, again, I`m not for torture, but if we`ve got a guy and we think New York City is going to blow up, I`m going to torture the snot out of the guy. The same with the bailout. I`m not for socialism.
But if we are looking for a massive meltdown -- but this is crazy. Because Michael, do you believe this thing would actually work? And if it doesn`t, where do we go from here?
REAGAN: You know, I`ve had congressmen on my show over the last few days. And every one of them I asked, when you sign a document, promise me that this is going to work, that you won`t need any more money? And they refused, of course, to sign any document.
And it`s interesting, Glenn. I was thinking about this the other day, that what you have here is, say, financial 9/11. And what al Qaeda and the Taliban could not do...
BECK: I know.
REAGAN: ... back in September of 2001, Wall Street and the government have been able to do.
BECK: Yes. Amy, did you hear anybody talking after the president`s speech? Because I don`t know about anybody else. I don`t know about you guys, but that pissed me off. It`s just -- and I`m a conservative. But he just pissed me off when he led with, cheap money, cheap money caused this. You know, people taking out loans that they couldn`t afford.
Everything that he pointed out that was the problem, these people, both Republicans and Democrats, caused themselves. How are you -- you know what, Jim, you said earlier, you know, you`ve got to teach these people a lesson. The people we need to teach a lesson are the people that are running this country.
HOLMES: That`s exactly right. And Glenn, I really love your point about the $25 billion bailout for the car industry.
BECK: Overnight. In the middle of the night.
HOLMES: Because the great conservative insight is the nature of government is to grow. And so when we have this huge $700 billion, what`s another $25 billion over here?
BECK: Exactly right.
HOLMES: What`s another $30 billion over there? And that`s exactly what conservatives are here to try to stop. Not something that they`re trying to encourage.
REAGAN: Glenn -- Glenn, also, you might remember over the last weekend, they tried to shove in their credit card debt, auto loan debt, student loan debt.
BECK: It`s coming. It`s coming.
HOLMES: It`s called the Bridge to Terabitha.
BECK: Let me -- let me ask you this. Anybody believe that we wouldn`t be better off as a nation -- look, I love the car companies. I really do. They`re fantastic. However, they can`t pull this thing together.
So wouldn`t it be better if -- I mean, it`s not going to just sit there and just gather dust -- if they collapsed, somebody could come in and say, "Well, I want to buy those assets because I want to build cars" They could do it. You wouldn`t have all of the overhead now that GM and Ford and Chrysler have with all of these labor unions.
The only reason why these things -- why these guys got the $25 billion and another $25 billion coming, is because labor unions and election year.
HOLMES: Glenn, that`s exactly right. And you know who`s already doing it right now? Toyota, Nissan. They are buying up these plants. They are renegotiating these labor deals so they don`t have to deal with our labor unions.
You know, the average car on the road is being made in, what, like five different states in America. It says that it`s from Japan, but in fact, the labor, many of the parts are being imported. They`re being made here.
So the answer, yes, the market did step in, stepped around the labor unions. Then you have the auto industry collapsing under the weight of these labor prices. And then they look to government to bail them out. You know, sorry, that`s not how it works.
REAGAN: You know, we could take the Sarah Palin concept. She did sell the plane on eBay. How about all these mortgages, and how about all these homes, why not put them on eBay and let the free market buy them up?
BECK: Let me ask you this, Jim. Why don`t we have -- here`s a bailout for you. "Hey, guys, boy, you screwed things up. I`ll tell you what. I`ll give you 10 cents on the dollar for anything you want to dump." Right now they`re worried about, you know, well, these companies won`t take it because it`s got to be a good offer or they won`t take it. What the hell you doing?
GERAGHTY: Exactly. Glenn, you`ve hit the nail on the head. And this is one of those things where, again, you`re saying how the government will not -- you know, will not manage this correctly. The Resolution Trust Corporation that came along in the early `90s during the Savings & Loan crisis actually made a profit. So it`s not often, but there are times where you put the right minds in charge and the government can do this.
BECK: I haven`t seen the right minds in charge yet.
Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.
Coming up, the new book is called "Tsar." It shares an inside look at how former Russian President Vladimir Putin single-handedly changed the face of that nation. And it really ain`t for the better. The author, Ted Bell, stops by to share all the details. It`s a great book, by the way.
Plus, border violence may not be high on the presidential campaign radar -- what a surprise there -- but it is another looming catastrophe that we do need to address. Drugs, violence, kidnappings, murders. The Mexican mafia is here. How do I know? You`ll know the same way. We`re going to talk to a guy who is actually currently in prison, coming up.
(NEWSBREAK)
BECK: I said on this program before that you need to read history; you need to keep abreast of current events. But the best way to see over the horizon on what`s coming is to go down the fiction aisle and read some of the authors that we showcase on this program from time to time.
Ted Bell is a good friend of mine. He is the author of "Hawk," "Spy," "Assassin"...
TED BELL, AUTHOR, "TSAR": "Pirate."
BECK: "Pirate" and a million others. And the new one that is coming out today is going to be another -- another No. 1 best-seller for you, "Tsar."
BELL: "Tsar".
BECK: It is the best of the books in the series...
BELL: Thank you.
BECK: ... for "Hawk." It`s really good. And you don`t have to read the other ones to get this one.
You said to me two years ago, you said, "Glenn, you`ve got to pay attention to what`s going on in Russia." There is a gathering storm in Russia, started to pay attention to it. You`re absolutely right. You said that, because you were over in Russia doing research for this book.
BELL: Exactly. I was just starting to work on the book and the things I was picking up were scary. And that`s why I told you, you`ve got to start looking at Russia, because they`re next. It`s the next problem.
BECK: Right, you said at the time that Putin is going to cobble this thing back together. This is two years ago. You were over there on the ground. What was it that you saw or...?
BELL: It`s because I read a ton of biographies of Putin to get ready to write this book. And I realized he`s a career KGB guy, and the KGB guys are not interested in democracy. They`re not interested in human rights. They don`t care about anything but power.
And I knew that once Putin got in there and consolidated power he was going to try to rebuild Russia into a world power because they are -- they were humiliated by their loss in the Cold War. They think we spent ten years sort of, you know, making fun of them. And he was -- he wanted revenge.
BECK: Are the people feeling that way, Ted, or is it just the leadership?
BELL: I think -- no, I think there`s a certain amount -- Putin has got an 80 percent approval rating.
BECK: I know.
BELL: I think the people are feeling it a little bit. They felt like, you know, that we sort of...
BECK: Abandoned them.
BELL: Abandoned them.
BECK: We always do the same thing. We win the war and we lose the peace.
BELL: Well, right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, everything was American rock `n` roll. We built a McDonald`s. They wore western clothes. Now it`s considered not cool to have anything to do with America or to listen to American music. Or...
BECK: OK.
BELL: They are lined up against us.
BECK: Right, OK, so the market`s crashing. There`s nothing more dangerous than a country in collapse, you know what I mean? And that`s -- Russia, I mean, collapsed originally because of the plunging price of oil. These guys are not going to -- they`re starting to make alliances with some of our worst enemies.
BELL: Hugo and the scary one for me is China. If they form an alliance with China it`s a huge problem for us. As much as I dislike the Chinese government, I think we ought to be in there, and I sort of touch on that in "Tsar."
BECK: In "Tsar" you -- I mean, it is a fantastic read. It is -- you actually have Putin in the nastiest prison I have ever read.
BELL: Pretty bad place. You don`t want to go there.
BECK: It was built on toxic waste?
BELL: Yes. The Russian navy`s toxic waste dump. It was a prison built on that. Fifty years of nuclear waste from their submarines.
BECK: Yes. You`ve never read anything quite like "Tsar." It is -- I mean, really. I called you, what -- I was 100 pages away from the end of the book. And I said, "This is fantastic."
And you said, "How far are you before the end?"
And I said, "About 100 pages."
You said, "You don`t know how it ends yet, do you?"
And I said, "No." Unbelievable. Great. It`s very great. Very good. Available at book stores everywhere. Ted, thank you very much.
BELL: Thanks, Glenn.
BECK: It is "Tsar." You`re going to love it.
Coming up, what happens when all the world`s oil wells dry up? Find out as we continue our weeklong series, "Exposed: End of Oil," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GLENN BECK, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Well, welcome to our week-long series "Exposed: The End of Oil."
With the oil prices moving closer back to the $10 a barrel mark, you have probably notice the panic in Washington has all of a suddenly died down, nobody is talking about it. Maybe because Washington is still playing whack-a-mole and the electronic mole currently is, oh, my gosh, it`s the economy is bad. Quick everybody pay attention to this.
That`s exactly why we should be talking about energy right now. As this financial meltdown proves, solutions to massive problems shouldn`t be developed during times of panic and fear. They should be developed when things are normal. Or at least as normal as $100 oil has now become.
But while we wait patiently, I guess, for new technologies developed, there are two important rules that we have to follow. Rule number one is, we have to allow the government to set the table. But not ever serve the food. Set the table and get the hell out of the kitchen.
I know that I complain about politicians a lot on this program. I think I have a pretty good reason.
But the truth is that fostering development of new energy technologies is one role that the government should play. They should set the rules so everybody knows what the framework is. Then the market has to decide what eventually wins and what loses. Not the politicians. Otherwise we end up with a little something that efficiently powers lobbyists and not cars, like corn ethanol. Call me crazy.
Second rule is to stop pretending that the first rule is going to be quick or easy. It`s not. We should know from experience that government almost always screws things up. And even if they don`t, we still have to deal with the spotted owl lovers who are like oh, they can no longer sit in those beautiful trees. Oh, shut the pie hole.
We are a long way away from having realistic solutions to choose from which leaves right now oil the one and only short-term treatment that will keep us alive while we should be working hard for a life-saving transplant.
Today in "The New York Times," Exxon Mobil, which just might be the most evil company in America, they ran a full-page ad. In it they claimed that there is enough oil and natural gas in the non-wilderness areas -- the spotted owl -- that are currently off limits to drill for fuel, 50 million cars, it will fuel 50 million cars, heat 100 million homes for the next 25 years.
Now, that`s not nearly enough to stop our kids or grandkids from fighting in which will be nonstop energy wars. But it is more than enough to buy us the one thing we`re running out of, just as fast as oil, and that is time.
Edwin Black is the author of "The Plan." Edwin, you say democracy -- fuel democracy should be the rule. What exactly does that mean?
EDWIN BLACK, AUTHOR, "THE PLAN": Well, the fuel democracy that I`ve called for mandates that our country take whatever good alternative fuel and propulsion method is best at hand, whether that`s compressed natural gas, whether that is sugar cane ethanol, whether that is methanol, whether that is bio-fuel, second generation bio-fuel. That is the way we will get off of oil.
And that really calls for an open fuel standard, a flex fuel standard. And what`s more important is that our nation is completely unprepared for an oil interruption.
BECK: And you know what -- Edwin, please talk about that just a little bit. Because I don`t think people understand, the straits of Hormuz that is right off the coast of Iran. Just say they decided to say, you know what, we`re just going to make sure we shut this down. What would that mean to America and our economy?
BLACK: The Strait of Hormuz is the only place that can kill America. It is two miles-wide in each direction. It is right off the coast of Iran going underneath the pock-marked caves of Iran, which is rich with silk worms, exsiccate missiles, Al Qaeda is there. If the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, it will block 40 percent of all sea-borne oil, 18 percent of the global supply and 15 percent to 20 percent eventually of America`s supply.
This country is not ready for that. No one in the country is even discussing it. And the facts are that America uses approximately 20 million barrels of oil a day, about 65 percent to 70 percent of which is imported. If we lose just 1 million barrels a day, 1 million barrel-a-day, that`s 5 percent.
They`ll open up the strategic petroleum reserve such as they did after Katrina. And that`s just a six to eight-week supply of unrefined crude oil.
Now, if we lose 1.5 million barrels a day, just 7 percent, we will be in such dire straits, we`ll have to call upon our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic to open their strategic petroleum reserves.
If we lose 2 million barrels a day, just 10 percent for a protracted period of time, say more than 30 days, according to the government, the oil crisis monitors, and everyone I`ve spoken to, it`ll be Mad Max, neighbor against neighbor.
BECK: Perfect. Edwin, thank you very much.
Now, a lot of people, and I happen to be one of them, actually believe that the Soviet Union collapsed because of a never-ending war, out-of-control spending which we pushed them into, and falling oil prices that crippled their economy.
Gosh, doesn`t that sound familiar?
We now have a unique opportunity not only to prevent ourselves from following that same path, but actually use this to our advantage; a national moon shot program for energy.
Tom Friedman is a columnist for "The New York Times" and author of "Hot, Flat and Crowded." Tom I`ve got to tell you, in your book you talk about what collapsed the Soviet Union. I`ve been saying this since 9/11. Osama Bin Laden actually came out and said, what I will do to the Soviet Union, what I did to the Soviet Union, I will do to America. We are following the same path.
TOM FRIEDMAN, AUTHOR, "HOT, FLAT AND CROWDED": Well, you know, the whole theme of my book really is, Glenn, that we -- we`re on the eve, I think, of a new technological revolution. As the world gets hot, global warming, flat the rise of the middle classes all over the world consuming like we do, and crowded, just population explosion, the demand for fossils fuels is just going to go through the roof.
What that means is that there is a new revolution born here -- I call it the E.T. revolution, the energy technology revolution. We need a bridge to get there. We`re going to need fossil fuels to get there, to get to that bridge. But the country that claims that revolution that owns E.T. is not just going to have the most electric power; it`s going to have the most national power. And that has to be the United States of America.
BECK: Ok, but you`re saying that if all if we could just be China for a day, and part of me says, yes, wouldn`t it be nice, because it`s -- well, first of all, what do you mean by that?
FRIEDMAN: What I mean by that is, boy, you look at how our Congress works. Our government doesn`t work today, Glenn. It cannot solve any big multi- generational problem like energy.
You said it in the introduction. What it all is -- our energy policy today is the sum of all lobbyists. You cannot get a strategic launch of a new industry without government really directing it from the top. That`s what I mean by it.
BECK: Ok, this is why in the 1920s the people in the United States loved Mussolini because before he started throwing his hat in with Hitler, the guy made the country move. And that`s what everybody loved. We cannot do that.
So I don`t want Mussolini. How do we solve it, Tom? I mean everybody knows what`s coming. Everybody knows we`re in trouble. What do we do?
FRIEDMAN: My motto in the book is "change your leaders, not your light bulbs." I mean without leaders, leaders are critical because leaders write the rules, Glenn. You see, I am totally with you. I`m against Manhattan Projects, I`m against big government projects. I think we have the greatest innovation engine that God ever created; it`s called the U.S. marketplace.
But government has a very limited, but critical role. Shape the prices, the rules, standards and regulations; you will get an explosion of innovation in this country if we do that.
BECK: Ok. So where are those leaders, Tom? Because they`ll all say it.
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
BECK: They`ll all say it, but they don`t -- I mean, you could look at the Republicans they say they`re for small government. They get in, they have big government. You would see, we`re going to have an ethical Congress, we`re going to have the most of it and you`ve got Charlie Rangel. And they don`t do anything about it. It doesn`t matter. They both do the same thing. So where do we find them?
FRIEDMAN: Until we as voters who basically punish people who don`t go down that route --
BECK: But wait a minute -- but Tom, the way we punish them is we vote them out, which means we have to put somebody else in.
FRIEDMANT: Yes, I realize that. Look, we have a leadership vacuum today. I wish I could wave a magic wand and tell you it`s her, it`s him.
Nobody out there today has my confidence that I think, boy, if they got in, I know they that would put in place the right prices, standards, regulations to launch the E.T. Revolution. But that`s what we`ve got to have and hopefully it`s not going to take an even bigger crisis to get us there.
BECK: What happens -- well, how far away are we from a real, true energy crisis? I think if Iran was bombed by Israel, we would be in an energy crisis overnight. Agree or disagree?
FRIEDMAN: Yes, as your previous guests said, the international oil market is quite tight right now. Now, if we go into recession, things loosen up.
BECK: Right.
FRIEDMAN: But it`s really pretty tight. So the loss of any major producer, whether it`s Iran, Iraq, Russia, for any period of time, is going to send oil prices through the roof.
BECK: Ok. And with this economy that we`re in right now, can we afford to do, as a nation, again, I think your answer is private industry, can we afford as a nation to do these gigantic proposals like a Manhattan project?
FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, I don`t believe in those kind of things. I believe that what we can afford to do as a nation is put a floor price under gasoline, a floor price under oil, make it so the renewable are incredibly competitive.
And when you do, that, you will see 100,000 innovators going to 100,000 garages try 100,000 things, 1,000 of which will be really cool, a 100 of which will be promising and two I am certain it will be the next green Google and green Microsoft.
BECK: Ok, Tom I`d like to spend some more time with you, thank you very much. We`ll have you back.
Coming up, border violence may not be as high on the presidential campaign radar, in fact, is it on any of their radar. But it is another looming catastrophe that we need to address and will continue to talk about it.
Drug violence, kidnappings, murders; the Mexican Mafia is using these uncertain times to their advantage. We have details coming right straight out of prison. You`ll hear them from prison.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: If you watch this program, you already know that most of the violence along our southern border is due to the fact that Mexico is infested with paramilitary gangs run by the drug cartels. The reality is that Mexican gangs within the United States are also rising in power.
I`m full of good news today, aren`t I?
Making the crime and the violence in movies in "GoodFellas" seem mild by comparison. It is nearly impossible to break into the Mexican mob ranks. But one U.S. journalist has gotten a ton of terrifying insider information. That man is Chris Blatchford and he has a new book called "The Black Hand" the bloody rise and redemption of Rene "Boxer" Enriquez a Mexican mob killer.
And joining us from prison by phone is Rene Enriquez, the mob leader turned informant. Chris, let me start with you. Tell me a little bit about this gang.
CHRIS BLATCHFOR, AUTHOR, "THE BLACK HAND": Well, the Mexican mafia started as a prison gang back in 1957 by a bunch of young guys who were really just trying to control the prison yards at Paulson in San Quentin. And as they got out of prison, after 10, 20, 30 years later, they reached out into the streets, ran heroin operations.
And then in the `90s a new group of young guys who were made by the older fellows who started it all, Rene Enriquez being one of them, you know have this idea that if we organized all the street gang members, all the Latino street gang members in Southern California which at the time were an estimated 60,000 soldiers, you know, we could have a massive drug dealing operation. We could control what all these people can do. And really, they could control as Rene sensed the whole world, which was a pie in the sky criminal dream.
But nevertheless, something that ran through the minds of the Mexican mafia and their leaders.
BECK: Ok, so Rene is now joining us by phone from prison. Here is actually some video of Rene helping the United States out. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENE ENRIQUEZ, MEXICAN MAFIA DEFECTOR: We all study American sign language in the Mexican mafia. And most of the individuals understand some form of a sign language; we have money, drugs, dead, hit. There are a multitude -- black -- there are just a multitude of signs that we`ve learned and utilized in the visiting room in order to circumvent the audio recording.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Rene I can`t believe that I can to Compean -- I cannot talk to Compean and Ramos, but I can talk to you on the phone. Why did you turn?
ON THE PHONE, ENRIQUEZ: You know, if you ask me that question on ten different days, I`ll give you ten different answers. I think it boils down to really mob fatigue. I`ve come to a point where I`ve reached -- I guess a fatigue in my life with these continuous betrayal and deceit in the organization.
From the first year I got in I understood it was not for me, this wasn`t the pie in the sky, silk suit, limousine, and happy Mexican mafia that I thought it was. This is really an organization of individuals with every form of personality disorder. It just took me quite awhile to bring myself to drop out of the organization.
BECK: In the while it took you to drop out of the organization, what kind of things were you involved in?
ENRIQUEZ: Everything from A to Z.
BECK: Did you kill people?
ENRIQUEZ: With all due respect, I believe that the book covers that. Any spontaneous admissions might be prosecutable. So I`d like to refrain from making specified admissions of any specific crime. But I am convicted for two murders. I`ll readily admit that.
BECK: Chris, you say these gangs now are a terrorist threat to us?
BLATCHFORD: Yes. I think a lot of people who really work closely with gangs in southern California, the guys on the inside who really worked it day to day call it the modern urban terrorism.
Consider this for a minute, Glenn. If you look in Wikipedia, they`ll tell you there were 15,000 -- 15,000 gang-related murders across the United States last year. In southern California, every year we have 500 to 1,000 gang-related murders in southern California. Now compare that to how many American boys are dying in Iraq and it pales in comparison.
So, yes, we have terrorism in the United States. And the worst of it is being perpetuated by street gangs. And the Mexican Mafia is calling a lot of the shots for those street gangs in southern California. And they`re reaching their influence across the United States as we speak here today.
BECK: Rene, there`s a lot of people that don`t understand what`s happening on our border. It is completely out of control. The Mexican government, much of it is in bed with this kind of stuff even though some of them are trying to fight. We can`t figure out why the border isn`t closed.
Do you think that there`s a possibility at all that if that`s it`s reasonable to assume that the same kind of heavy power and money that influences so many officials in Mexico is beginning to influence any of our officials here?
ENRIQUEZ: Well, I believe what you`re seeing now is a horizontal integration of a prison gangs and organization and in the Hispanic (ph) gang sub-culture and what integration of urban street terrorism. Some of the influence of the Mexican Mafia reach the California state senate; even past presidential candidate. That`s detailed in the book as well.
To the scale that the Mexican government has been infiltrated by the corruption and the NARCO gangs, if you will, you see this with the cooperation of San Diego, and the utilization of San Diego gang members; doing hits for the cartels over there. They are exporting and importing hitters for the drug cartels.
What the normal average Joe, John Q. citizen sees these prison gangs and they have this stereotypical image of individuals with head bands, smoking Camel non-filtered cigarettes, speaking like (unintelligible). This is not the Mexican Mafia I was from. What you are really seeing now is a contemporary Murder Incorporated; a modern day syndicate of organized crime.
BECK: I will tell you, you don`t -- your voice -- the language that you`re using, everything about you, doesn`t sound like your movie kind of street thug.
Hang on, Chris, we`ll be right back with you. We`re going to take a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: We`re back again with the author, Chris Blatchford, and the subject of his book, "The Black Hand," Rene Enriquez, who joins us by phone.
You were going to say, when we went into the break, Chris?
BLATCHFORD: I was going to say, the Mexican drug cartels and the Colombian drug cartels are involved in an enterprise of billions and billions of dollars on an annual basis. They have incredible influence in Mexico, and Central America, and South America.
Why would they not want to have that kind of influence here? Why would they not want to use that -- that large amount of money to influence politicians in the United States and in particular Southern California where the drugs come across the border?
Sure, it`s going to happen. And if we`re not vigilant about it, it`s going to get worse and worse and worse. And we could have what they have in Mexico. Maybe not to that degree, but certainly with that same thought in mind.
BECK: Rene, you say you`re a changed man today. What was your pivot point?
ENRIQUEZ: I think when the organization started opting to retaliate on family members. There was another series of murders that occurred they called the Maxon road murders where some children were killed. This was horrific, even to the most devious of Mexican Mafia members.
For me, the organization took a turn for the worst about ten years into it. You know, at that point, I wanted to leave the organization. I just became tired of all of the deceit and betrayal.
BECK: And you are in some sort of prison. I know we can`t say where, but you are incarcerated.
ENRIQUEZ: I am incarcerated, yes, sir.
BECK: And you know, again, I can`t talk to Compean and Ramos for their safety`s sake. These are border patrol agents. How is it -- you`re in a "Black Hand," prison gang and your safety is enough to be on the phone with me.
ENRIQUEZ: I am a former member of the organization.
BECK: Well, still, you`re clearly a guy marked for death by the "Black Hand."
ENRIQUEZ: I am in a protective custody environment, sir.
BECK: Ok.
And, Chris, do you -- what should -- what should Rene get out of this by helping? Do you think he should be -- because he`s serving life sentence.
BLATCHFORD: Yes, I think, you know, and I said at the beginning of this project with Rene that I would never be an advocate for him for getting out of prison. That`s going to be between him and the FBI and the U.S. Attorney`s office and the God that he prays to every day.
So as a journalist, I`m not going to be a crusader for that.
But I think Rene is a changed guy. And I think he has done a lot of good so far, and he`s going to do some more good, helping to expose what we see as a cancer that`s spreading across the United States.
BECK: Best of luck to "The Black Hand," that`s the new book.
From New York, America, good night.
END
