Garland Robinette 14 Scary Truths About BP oil Leak

Run time: 09:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXIo8fGkNJo   Posted on YouTube: May 22, 2010 By YouTube Member: WWLFirstNews Views on YouTube: 30   Posted on DU: May 22, 2010 By DU Member: likesmountains 52 Views on DU: 1468

 
Garland Robinette of New Orleans radio WWL on the "spill"

I was there once, in a sweltering July when it rained every half hour and I felt as if I were drowning in the air. I have never had any desire to go back. Oh, sure, it's blistering hot in Arizona, but it really is a dry heat, and I'll take that dry heat over the sticky humidity of the Big Easy any day.

But we here in the desert southwest have something in common with y'all on the Gulf Coast. We know that water is absolutely essential to our way of life.

I spent the first 37 years of my life in the midwest, where water was pretty much taken for granted. Hot or cold, it came out of the tap whenever you wanted it. It arrived in the form of rain or snow on a fairly regular basis throughout the year, sometimes too much at once but rarely with devastating effect, and sometimes too little but again with little serious impact to our daily lives. We had lakes and rivers and creeks and streams, swamps and marshes and wetlands.

Then I moved to Arizona -- a choice made and never regretted -- and learned a new appreciation for this precious commodity.

That's why listening to Garland Robinette brought tears to my eyes. The people whose lives depend on the Gulf are not being heard. They don't count. No one gives a damn. What will it take to make the powers that did this and the other powers that don't seem to be doing very much about it -- what will it take to make them understand just how serious the devastation is?

Animals are dying. Dolphins, turtles, birds that we can see. We don't have any idea how many more are dying in the water, under the water. We do know that what we've seen so far is only the beginning. But we don't know when it will end, or how it will end.

Don't you care, Mr. Salazar? Don't you fucking care? What about you, Mr. Hayward? Do you give a rat's ass about the fishermen whose livelihood you have completely and totally destroyed? Do you lose a moment's sleep worrying about the restaurant owners, the waiters, the cooks and busboys who will all be out of work because the seafood they have made a living off of for fucking generations is now either dead or so poisoned that it's not fit for human consumption? Do you, Mr. Hayward? Or do you go back to your mansion, in whatever securely gated community you reside, and sip purified water from a petroleum-based plastic bottle and have not a care in the world because you're rich and you don't HAVE to care? And Mr. Obama. Do you think appointing a two man commission to study who was responsible for this catastrophe is enough to satisfy your obligation as the leader of this nation, this nation that includes New Orleans, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, all the beaches, all the states, all the rivers, all the fish, all the birds? DO YOU CARE BEYOND MAKING A PRETTY SPEECH AND APPOINTING A COMMISSION? Or will you be like Pilate and wash your hands? Maybe it worked for him, but it didn't work for Lady MacBeth. I don't think this red sludge is gonna come off your hands any easier than blood off hers.

I don't like New Orleans, but it's a pretty safe bet there are New Orleanians who wouldn't like the desert southwest. That's all a matter of personal preference. What isn't a matter of personal preference is the absolutely crucial importance of water to the people, the economy, and the ecology of both environments. it's time somebody with more pull than I recognized that.


Tansy Gold, standing in solidarity with every Gulf Coaster.

The Connicks, Marsalis family, Saints, Tulane, Commanders Palace, et cetera. He is straight up NOLA and tells it like it is daily.

of New Orleans. He was handsome, she was beautiful, they were both well spoken and displayed genuine concern for the locale. That was some 30 years ago, but I remember growing up watching them share the news.

It hurts to see how far Garland has declined. His voice is no longer clear. He rambles. I still love the man to death, but he is a pale shadow of his younger, more vigorous self.

He spoke in Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke." He pointed out then, after Katrina, the Gulf states provide 30% of the oil produced in the country. He said then "we're not asking for a handout, just give us our goddamned money and let us fix it ourselves."

Between the demadon'ts and republicant's, a city, a unique culture, is dying. And, I think he's right. The rest of the US would give a tip of the hat, and then write off coastal Louisiana.

RE: "he is a pale shadow of his younger, more vigorous self"

Yes, 30 years of fighting the good fight can take its toll.

I know I have some gray hair.... I have been fighting Gerge Bush and the Neocons since 2000... and it has taken a toll. Sometime I think, "I don't know how much more of the fight/flight nervous system overload I can handle before finally giving up"?

Mr. Robinette is right... everyone in the Gulf States will stand in solidarity with the Cajuns: the Florida Gators, the Alabama Tide, Mississippi, Texans... we will do whatever it takes to fight against the Repuclicants and Demodonts and the Goldman Sachs Scum-Bag Bankers who control them.

Garland is a NOLA institution, but make no mistake -- his show is on WWL, and like Bob DelGiorno whose show precede's Garlands he takes calls from a lot of mouth-breathing far-right whackjobs, and all too often agrees with their whackjobbery. Garland usually has no trouble shilling for corporate interests; a Freeport-McMoran employee once gave me a videotape about their lovely wonderful operations in the beautiful land of Irian Jaya that he jokingly referred to as "the cutting edge in corporate propaganda" and which Garland narrated. Garland has long been a friend of both oil and mineral extraction interests.

But over the last week in particular these radio hosts have been expressing the frustration that they hear in their listeners' calls. That free-floating anger they were more than happy to whip up Tea Party style and aim at the Democrats last month is now being amplified by actual fear of something real and aimed squarely at BP and TransOcean, and even the occasional efforts to deflect some of it toward the Administration are half-hearted and unconvincing. Everyone knows who did this, and for once even the teabaggers have figured out it isn't Herr Comrade Obama.

It's possible that this little reversal will be as temporary as Anderson Cooper's post-Katrina moment of clarity, but it's hard to say; this is going to affect a lot more people than Katrina did, and "oil spill fatigue" probably won't set in when there's new news every day of oil showing up in new previously unspoiled places.

That is what is so great about DU.. it allows you to cut thru the MSM propaganda.

I appreciate your background on the NOLA Media Circus.

My real concern continues to be the people who live at ground zero.

It's a good post about local perspective. Just needed a bit of tweak to remind the non-locals (and some of the locals) that these people were very RW before the spill and the obviousness of the calamity became evident. Garland Robinette would in most situations be considered by DU the worst kind of corporate media shill. It makes the case all more telling that such a person is letting loose in this fashion.

He is pissed off at RFK JR, Bill Nelson and Arnie? It does not sound like he wants to stop drilling even after all this? And he is angry at those who do not want off shore drilling. Am I missing something?