The Ed Show for Wednesday, February 18th, 2015

Show: THE ED SHOW
Date: February 18, 2015
Guest: Lawrence Wilkerson, Lori Wallach, Danny Glover, Mark Dimondstein,
David Carmardelle

ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC HOST: Good evening Americans and welcome to the Ed Show
live from Washington D.C.

Let`s get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Tonight, the campaign against ISIS and its international impact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS is escalating its relentless assault.

PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATE OF AMERICA: This isn`t our challenge
alone. It`s a challenge for the world. But I`m confident that, just as we
have for more than two centuries, we will ultimately prevail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The goal of ISIS is to conquer the world.

JEH JOHNSON, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We all have a
state. It`s our public safety. It`s our Homeland security. It`s our
country.

SCHULTZ: And later, five years after the spill, we focus in on tourism and
the seafood industry.

CHIP WASSON, BUSINESS OWNER: The fear was that, it was going to start
washing up here on the shore and what was going to happen with tourism when
it did.

DAVID BARBER OWNER, BARBER`S SEAFOOD: The oysters have declined and lot of
the oystermen had quit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know just a little guy (inaudible) like he can`t but
I`m not going to give up.

SCHULTZ: Plus, the fight to save the Postal Service gets some star power.

DANNY GLOVER, ACTOR, FILM DIRECTOR: I`m Danny Glover, and I believe that
Postal Service is one of our most vital institutions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hoping with public pressure to turn it around,
stop the changes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now more than that we need the Postal Service to thrive
and innovate for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for watching.

We start with breaking news.

President Obama just finished what turned out to be a rather major speech,
at today`s White House Summit on battling violent extremism. The President
immediately addressed the threat of ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This isn`t our challenge alone. It`s a challenge for the world.
ISIL is terrorizing the people of Syria and Iraq, beheads and burns human
beings in unfathomable acts of cruelty. We`ve seen deadly attacks in
Ottawa and Sydney and Paris and now, Copenhagen.

So, in the face of this challenge, we have marshaled the full force of the
United States government, and we`re working with allies and partners to
dismantle terrorist organizations and protect the American people.

Given the complexities of the challenge and the nature of the enemy --
which is not a traditional army -- this work takes time, and will require
vigilance and resilience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: President Obama said terrorist extremist groups are based in
lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Al-Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy.
They try to portray themselves as religious leaders -- holy warriors in
defense of Islam. That`s why ISIL presumes to declare itself the "Islamic
State".

And they propagate the notion that America and the West, generally, is at
war with Islam. That`s how they recruit, that`s how they try to radicalize
young people.

We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a
lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that
they seek. They are not religious leaders, they`re terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The President went on to say that groups like ISIS do not
represent the faith of Islam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Do draw, selectively, from the Islamic texts. They do depend upon
the misperception around the world that they speak in some fashion for
people of the Muslim faith. That Islam is somehow inherently violent, that
there is some sort of clash of civilizations.

Of course, the terrorists do not speak for over a billion Muslims who
reject their hateful ideology. They no more represent Islam than any
madman who kills innocents in the name of God represents Christianity or
Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism. No religion is responsible for terrorism.
People are responsible for violence and terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The President was strong to make the point that Muslim leaders
play a role in stopping extremist recruitment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So just as leaders like myself reject the notion that terrorists
like ISIL genuinely represent Islam, Muslim leaders need to do more to
discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam,
that there`s an inherent clash in civilizations. Everybody has to speak up
very clearly that no matter what the grievance, violence against innocents
doesn`t defend Islam or Muslims. It damages Islam and Muslims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: And finally, President Obama made a big point that everyone plays
a role in combating violent extremism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: And when all of us, together, are doing our part to reject the
narratives of violent extremists, when all of us are doing our part to be
very clear about the fact that there are certain universal precepts and
values that need to be respected in this interconnected world. That`s the
beginnings of a partnership. As we go forward, we need to find new ways to
amplify the voices of peace and tolerance and inclusion, and we especially
need to do it online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Today`s summit at the White House, in this speech comes after
ISIS has dominated news in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is bringing the fight to ISIS with a
change in trade policy.

The United States has set new rules to export armed drones to other
countries. The rules will make it easier to provide Predator and Reaper
drones to American allies involving counter-terrorism measures.

This shift in policy reduces the chance -- friendly countries will buy
drones from other manufacturers such as Israel or China.

The State Department said that there will be strict standards for the sale
and use of these drones. This change in trade policy will absolutely
affect our national security. And I think that there are other issues
involved here.

I think the Trans-Pacific Partnership also plays a role in our national
security. I think the President is going along with the TPP because he
wants to strengthen the economic ties with these countries and also
strengthen the defense ties.

When you tie 40 percent of the world`s economy together, you rely on each
other. It will be easier to open military bases in these countries and
also do counter-terrorism measures. It will also be easier to get them
onboard in fighting ISIS in the long run.

Now, this is my theory in all of these. Because so far in trade policy,
the administration has not given as a real good reason why American workers
or how American workers or an industry are going to benefit from this trade
agreement. The economic push around the globe right now is about the best
thing we have when it comes to fighting terrorism across the globe.

I don`t think the TPP is the way to go. I have always been against the TPP
and always for American workers. There are other methods and other ways we
can do this. This is a flowed trade agreement and to money it up with
national security I think is a mistake.

For more, let me bring in Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of
Staff, Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Colonel, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time.

COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY: Good to be here.

SCHULTZ: Have we done as much as we can do when it comes to a strategy
with ISIS at this point? I mean, I think today that this summit at the
White House and this speech was the President really putting the icing on
the cake of what kind of strategy he wants. He wants Turkey involved, he
wants the Iraqis involve, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, a lot of players,
a big global coalition all culminating to work against these extremists
that are ISIS and also they`re recruiting method.

I mean, this was a big speech today by the President. And I think it
played really into his strategy.

I want you take on -- have we gone as far as we can go on ISIS in what
we`re doing? Is this it?

WILKERSON: I think at this point, we probably have, especially since, what
the President said. I think is very circumspect with regard to how he
wants to develop the strategy. Let me make a couple of points though.

Despite the tragic events that have happened particularly in last few days,
weeks, regarding ISIS, four-fifths of the world plus still has about as
much chance of dying from a terrorist attack as they do from a lightning
strike. So, we do need to over hype this.

The second point I`d make is that, historically, the United States has --
through its policy and its actions in the world been the greatest aider and
abettor of the rise of these forces. First, Al-Qaeda in Iraq then taking
Gaddafi out in Libya not -- essentially disowning Assad in Syria. These
dictators held a lot of these forces in check and removing these dictators
precipitously and expecting that there`s going to be democracy afterwards
was a bit naive.

We started in my administration by invading Iraq, one of the most
disastrous decisions America has made in a long time.

So, with those two things in mind, fighting these forces such as they are
in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq and elsewhere with the indigenous forces, so to
speak, is makes a lot of sense. It`s the only way to do it.

Putting American ground forces in there simply aids and abets the process,
I just referred to earlier. All you`re going to do is create more of them
because they`re going to be incentivized by not only doing their Islamic
thing, if you will, their radical Islamic thing, but by killing American
forces on the ground.

SCHULTZ: Colonel, what`s your read on the availability of drone technology
now to allies that want to work in counter-terrorism measures around the
globe in coordination with the United States?

WILKERSON: In media respects, Ed, what we`ve done is taken the template we
use in the Cold War where we would support almost any government as long as
it was anti-communist. And now we`re supporting almost any government as
long as it`s counter-terrorist, it`s fighting terrorist.

To put drones into that bag might be good for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon
and others who manufacture these drones. And it might be competitive with
Israel and other who are selling them to anyone. But it is not a smart
thing to do in terms of the technologist spread.

All technology migrates, but as we saw with nuclear weapons, you don`t want
this kind of technology migrating any faster than you can control it.

SCHULTZ: Well, the United States has been criticized for killing civilians
with drone attacks. Now, if drones go to other countries, there`s no way a
country is going to be able use drones and be perfect on their strikes. I
mean, this is going to rope other countries into killing other civilians,
but it`s the latest and hottest and the easiest technology for taking out
terrorist which we have done across the globe with this technology.

WILKERSON: And let...

SCHULTZ: But I sense that you think this is a slippery slope.

WILKERSON: So let me just -- you just put your finger on it, in order to
be reasonably assured you`re doing the enemy and not civilians. You must
have a massive and good intelligence complex -- tactical, strategic and
operational intelligence. Tell me what other country other than Britain
and perhaps Germany, maybe France has that kind of capability? Maybe
Israel.

So if you`re proliferating these drones out there for people who don`t have
the kind of the -- they`re just going to kill whatever happens to show up
in the aperture of the mechanism.

SCHULTZ: Well that`s the other fly in the ointment I think. I mean, if
you sell an arm to another country, how are you going to control how they
use it?

WILKERSON: You can`t. And the world right now is awash in arms. Look at
Libya.

We used air power in Libya with NATO. No one secured Gaddafi`s arms depots
on the ground. They now constitute the greatest arms bazaar in Africa.
20,000 shoulder fired missiles, all kinds of sophisticated weaponry
available to ISIS and ISIS-like forces because Libya had its dictator taken
down.

SCHULTZ: And what`s your take on the economic ties the United States has
with other countries when it comes to trade? Are we selling security?

WILKERSON: We are selling security. We`ve been doing it since World War
II.

Our trade packs have this biggest security component as they do financial
and economic components. They`re designed to facilitate arm sales for
major arms merchants. They`re designed to make sure our allies have
interoperability with our forces and so forth. There are as many security,
what I would call a hard security implication to the trade packs as there
are economic and financial. And of course, those are wider security
implication too.

SCHULTZ: What hope do you hold out or what reality can we expected of all
of these countries that the United States -- the Obama administration is
going to need to be players involved in this to destroy and degrade ISIS.
That`s the terminology that they`re using. Can this happen?

WILKERSON: I think it can but it`s got to be the native forces so to
speak.

I think in Iraq what I`m seeing right now, the intelligence reports I`m
looking our right now. In Iraq, we have pretty much stabilized the
situation. In Syria, it`s a little bit different because we`re not able to
do what we should be doing which is really taking Assad side.

I don`t care how you do it. I don`t care how you camouflage it. But you
need to take the side of the force in Syria that can bring stability.

SCHULTZ: And so, we should be arming the Syrian rebels?

WILKERSON: We should not be arming the Syrian rebels.

SCHULTZ: OK, because they`re talking about doing that...

WILKERSON: I know.

SCHULTZ: ... training in vetting -- but they`re talking about light
trucks, mortars and small arms. How in the heck going to beat ISIS with
that kind of fire power. I mean, that kind of defeats the purpose, I
think.

WILKERSON: It`s a -- when we talk about the number of arms that are in the
world today, small arms in particular...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

WILKERSON: ... the world awash in them. There are so many arms out there
for these people and yet, we didn`t secure the ones in Libya, we didn`t
secure the ones in Iraq and yet we`re still selling weapons to the so-
called rebels in Libya and the so-called rebels whom we support in Syria.
We do not need more arms.

SCHUTLZ: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, great to have you with us tonight. I
appreciate your time. I want to followup on this issue of trade because,
of course, this is been a big story on this show. We`ve covered it quite a
bit.

I want to bring in Lori Wallach who is the Director of Public Citizen
Global Watch. Lori, good to have you with us tonight.

I would like to have your reaction on the United States selling security
and, of course, when you look at the enormous TPP, the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, it involves 40 percent of the world`s economy. These would be
new partnerships, new deals with countries that we haven`t had these kinds
of ties with. Do you think there`s a connection?

LORI WALLACH, PUBLIC CITIZEN GLOBAL TRADE WATCH: Well, I certainly see
where you`re going with it because the agreement doesn`t make sense in
economic basis. It would make it easier to offshore our jobs and push down
our wages. So then the question is, why? But, I actually don`t think that
the administration`s intent is about these foreign policy alliances.

First, we have trade agreement with most of the country is involved in TPP
and the once we don`t have relationships with aren`t the countries are
going to be leading the counter-ISIS effort.

But also the agreement predates all of these blowing up in the Middle East.
What you do see is the administration now as the economic arguments for TPP
have basically failed, the public doesn`t buy it. They see this new trade
data Obama`s last trade agreement with Korea, huge new trade deficit, more
jobs lost. The model -- that was model for TPP.

So now, they`re trying to create sort of a distraction. It sort of --
they`re now using the issue of, oh, we better write the rules or China
will. TPP are our rules. And that really is the trade agreement version
of "squirrel".

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

WALLACH: So we all go look some place else because, if you actually look
at it. We`ve heard the same exact argument like we heard was NAFTA. And
what China is or isn`t going to do maybe a real issue, but giving away our
manufacturing strength, our ability to just defend ourselves by making our
own stuff. Our economic well-being doesn`t improve our ability to counter
China.

And if you look, specifically, during NAFTA, we were told if we don`t write
the rules China`s going to write the rules in Latin America. Well, now
it`s 20 years later.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

WALLACH: At the time, we had 69 percent of exports going into Mexico.
We`re down to 49 percent. Guess who got it? We did NAFTA and China moved
in.

The agreement is not the answer to what might be real China problem, but
it`s not a foreign policy solution.

SCHULTZ: All right. Lori Wallach, always great to have you with us
tonight. I appreciate your time here on the Ed Show. We move on.

Coming up, the United States Postal Service has a new lethal weapon. Actor
Danny Glover joins us to tell his personal story and about the importance
of this great American institution. He joins me live coming up.

And later, the third installment of our series "The Gulf Today: 5 Year
After The Spill". Tonight we hear from residents who were still grappling
with the ripple effects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN BLANCHARD, OWNER, DEAN BLANCHARD SEAFOOD: It`s been a nightmare.
It`s a -- I mean we woke up one morning that living in paradise and then
went to living in hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY GLOVER, ACTOR: I`m the son postal workers. My mom and dad worked
for the Postal Service for most of their working lives. My sister was a
postal employee, my brother, a letter carrier. I even worked to the Post
Office during Christmas break as a teenager.

The Postal Service belongs to all of us. It reaches everyone, everywhere.
The Post Office is an anchor, a symbol of community.

Join me in a Grand Alliance to strengthen a cherished institution, our
Postal Service, a public trust, a national treasure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show.

United States postal workers have a new partner in the fight and believe me
it is a fight.

For 240 years, United States Postal Service has provided affordable,
universal mail service to all Americans, all communities. They serve 150
million households and businesses each day without -- and listen to me
folks, without any taxpayer funding. They`re self-sufficient.

Now unlike private shippers, the Postal Service goes everywhere. Your in
small town America, they deliver about 30 percent of FedEx`s total U.S.
ground segment.

What would FedEx do without the Postal Service?

Well, the Postal Service employs over 626,000 people, including
approximately 130,000 military veterans.

It is shining example of we the people at work, which is why we the people
need to stand up and fight to keep the Postal Service alive. And they are
under attack.

They now have a Grand Alliance to save our public postal service in a
coalition of 65 groups mobilizing across the manufactured crises
threatening this institution.

Now, since 2006, Congress is required the United States Postal Service to
prepay future retiree health benefits75 years in advance and put it all
into a 10-year window of getting it done, at a costs of approximately $5.5
billion per year which is align out in their budget that they have to meet.

So when you hear people say that Post Office isn`t making money it depends
upon what you`re talking about.

It`s something no other business is required to do. And as a result, more
than 140 mail processing facilities have closed since 2012, 82 more.
That`s 82 more are scheduled to close or consolidate this year in 2015.

What`s the mean? Well, slower service, slash hours of operation at
neighborhood Post Offices and threaten to lower service standards.
Thousands of postal workers have lost good living wage jobs and it`s
unnecessary.

The Postal Service is a democratic right enshrined in the constitution.
Under a "Do Nothing Congress" it`s up to us to protect it.

Ask yourself the question tonight. In your town, do you really want your
Postal Service Office to close?

Joining me tonight Danny Glover, Actor and spokesman for the Postal
Service. Also with us tonight, Mark Dimondstein who was the President on
the American Postal Workers Union. Gentlemen, great to have you with us
tonight.

GLOVER: Thank you. Glad to be here.

MARK DIMONDSTEIN, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION: Glad to be here.

SCHULTZ: Mark, first of all. Let`s talk about this consortium, this
alliance that you have. What is it, what are expectations?

DIMONDSTEIN: Well what is it? It`s 65 national organizations and that`s
just the beginning.

They`d have -- from my walks in life, from faith-based to labor based, to
advocacy, to civil rights based, they all have a strong feeling that they
need to join together and to protect the common good manifested in a public
Post Office and in a viperid (ph) Post Office.

And so, what they expect to do in time right now, the flag has been raised
but in time, to work together to promote good legislation certainly to meet
with the Postal Services to make sure they`re concerns are being heard.
And to stop the downward slide of less service, slower service and to turn
that around and to be part of what you said in your opening, that we the
people. And so they`re declaring we the people are going to stand together
and protect the public Postal Office.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Glover, this is personal to you isn`t it?

GLOVER: Well, yes, yeah. My parents came to the Post Office. I think the
beginning of my maturation, I was through what I saw -- how I saw them as
young people, young parents who are building the family, building their
life and that life would not had been build, have it not been for their
employment at the Post Office, the Postal Service. And the work that they
did and the beliefs that they had and that things we`re changing in this
country with their work.

SCHULTZ: And the big thing on the Postal Service is that it hires a lot of
veterans and has a tradition...

GLOVER: Yes.

SCHULTZ: ... of doing that and you saw that.

GLOVER: Yeah. Well, certainly, my father was a veteran of World War II
and so he had certain preference and when he was hired in 1948. My brother
was a veteran of Vietnam and, certainly, that helped him hiring as a letter
carrier in the `70s after he came back from Vietnam.

So, yes. It does that, you know, and -- but I think more of the -- we`re
talking about something else, we`re talking how do we change the narrative
around here.

The narrative has always been placed upon the idea of profit, return on
investment. The narrative is based about greed. And the Post Office never
worked on greed.

The Post Office was essential part of this whole change in America with the
expansion of public service. The Post Office expanded its realm as well.

Now, the idea privatization is based upon the concept that certainly the
concept of competition.

What about the concept of cooperation that is build into -- things happen,
people changed, communities changed, people grow, not by competition but by
cooperation. That somebody -- some people may think that`s an esoteric way
to look at the...

SCHULTZ: No. The Post Office is the heart beat of a community.

GLOVER: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: It`s vital to small business. It`s vital to all businesses.
It`s vital to elderly people who are counting on their medicines.

GLOVER: Absolutely. I go to the same Post Office in San Francisco that
I`ve gone to since I was 11-years-old.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Dimondstein, the numbers. If you didn`t have this
legislation thrown on you in 2006, you`d have a different bottom line.

DIMONDSTEIN: Absolutely. The operating profit of the Post Office just
this last quarter was $1.1 billion. Last year, $1.3 billion to the good,
we`re it not for this pre-funding hoax manufactured by (inaudible)...

SCHULTZ: So you`re being attacked by the profiteers?

DIMONDSTEIN: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: ... and high level business which ironically couldn`t serve as
well as they do right now if you, guys, were out of business.

DIMONDSTEIN: That`s right. That`s right.

SCHULTZ: What`s -- what do you hear from postal workers? Are they mad
about this?

GLOVER: Well, generally, I think that the -- from what I see, we`re at the
same time that would build in this Grand Alliance. We also in sometime
raising the conscious of workers themselves...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GLOVER: ... those who are most endangered by this. I think on the one-
hand, we get it easy in a particular place. I mean, I remember the -- when
my parents were involved in the union, involved these employees and
everything else, there was something else in which drove them as well, and
that was a Civil Rights Movement.

So, you see that played out through their work as postal employees`
involvement in union. I think there`s sense of the change is -- at my own
interpretation...

SCHULTZ: Sure.

GLOVER: ... the change is going to happen. We can`t play a role in
facilitating the kind of change that works with us. We want to see that it
belongs to us. It`s our...

SCHULTZ: Yeah...

GLOVER: ... responsibility to be the participants in our own rescue.

SCHULTZ: You know, the American people have, I think a great grip on
what`s happen in their community. I really do. I mean, I think if you
live in a community, you know what`s happening, you know what`s going on.

Where is the march to get rid of the Postal Service? Where is the outcry
the people say they`re just not get it done, they going to get rid it.
It`s not there. This is such a manufactured attack by people who see an
opportunity to do big business and make a profit and it speaks right to
what you`re talking about, about what the commitment is to with community,
it will be undermined it in a big way...

DIMONDSTEIN: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: ... if it goes down that road. Gentleman, great to have you with
us tonight.

GLOVER: All right.

SCHULTZ: Danny Glover with Mark...

DIMONDSTEIN: Thank you Ed.

GLOVER: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: ... Dimondstein in here on the Ed Show.

Still ahead. A look at the ripple effects in the gulf years after the
worst oil spill, this country has ever seen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WASSON: Shortly after the oil spill there was hope that it was going to
get clean up, it was going to get rectified, there wasn`t going to be an
impact to the beaches here. And as time kept, you know, ticking away each
day and you`re watching the updates on the different news, media outlets.

The fear was that, the oil is going to start washing up here on the shore
and what was going to happen to tourism when it did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show. Take a look at these pictures out
of the Southern California today where an ExxonMobil Refinery exploded in
the city of Torrance.

According to a statement released by Exxon, four people were taken to the
hospital for minor injuries and all personnel have been accounted for. The
explosion happened around 9:00 this morning local time. No word yet on
what caused the explosion.

Well, our Republican friends are not going to like this story one bit.
Today, 11.4 million Americans are now enrolled in private health insurance
through the Affordable Health Care. This year`s open enrollment period is
closing although there`s still time for anyone who forgot to complete the
application. If you started the process before 15th of February deadline,
there is an extension which is good news. You have until this Sunday, the
22nd, to complete it. The number, 11.4 million, I`d to say that`s
successful.

Today, President Obama named Joseph Clancy, the new Director of the Secret
Service. Clancy has been agencies` acting head since the service`s
Director Julia Pierson resigned in October amid a host of scandals. The
decision has sparks a passionate response from some on Capitol Hill who are
expecting the President to choose from outside the agency.

And just in case you missed it, take a look at this pup. I watch this
every year, by the way. The 4-year-old beagle known as Miss P took home
the title at last night`s Westminster Dog Show.

Miss P`s great uncle, the only other beagle to ever win the competition
took Best in Show in 2008.

It must run in the family. Our dogs Buck (ph) and Ducky (ph), they fell
asleep early and I don`t think they saw it.

There`s a lot more coming up on the Ed Show. Stay with us. We`ll be right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMPTON PEARSON, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Hampton Pearson with your CNBC
Market Wrap.

The Dow falls 17 points, the S&P ends flat, the NASDAQ add 7.

Shares of ExxonMobil fell more than 2 percent today dragging down the Dow,
as you`ve heard earlier, an explosion Torrance, California refinery own by
that company.

Shares of watchmaker Fossil slid about 16 percent today, a day after it
reported declining sales and lower than expected profits.

And the minutes in the latest Fed meeting show policymakers are concerned
about low inflation.

That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show.

Tonight in part three of our series, "The Gulf Today: 5 Years After The
Spill", we focus on the ripple effects along the coast. The residents we
spoke with on the gulf shore shared their tales of economic hardship in a
weakened real estate market and a threat to seaside culture which defines
the region.

In tonight`s edition, shrimp buyer Dean Blanchard shows us Grand Isle,
Louisiana through his eyes.

Blanchard believes the oil spill disseminated the region but he`s giving up
hope.

B.P. believes their restoration efforts have been successful. The oil
company cites improve tourism numbers in the end of the active clean up
operations by the coast guard. Dean Blanchard tells us why he believes
B.P. still has a long way to go in repairing the place, he calls home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUTLZ: It`s an old saying, "What with this guy, it really fits". Dean
Blanchard is the salt of the earth.

BLANCHARD: We have asked for nothing. We never got government money on
nothing. I mean, I`ve never collected a penny from the government in my
life.

SCHULTZ: A tell it like it is, raging caging on a mission. Blanchard was
one of the largest seafood distributors in the United States before the
spill.

BLANCHARD: It`s 800 to 900 shrimp boats regular.

SCHULTZ: 800 to 900?

DAVID CARMARDELLE, GRAND ISLE MAYOR: I`m asking the President of United
States to come and save our fisheries in Louisiana because it`s a crime.
I`m born and raised as commercial fishing and I`ve got tears in my eyes
seeing these fishermen begging and asking me to please do something Mr.
David, please.

BLANCHARD: 800 to 900 shrimp boats.

SCHULTZ: Just right at here?

BLANCHARD: Yes, right out there.

SCHULTZ: They`re not there now.

BLANCHARD: They`re gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see heavy oil coming here a couple days ago, you
didn`t see this much oil west of the river.

TOM CAPELLA, JEFFERSON PARISH COUNCILMAN: It`s here. We touched it. We
get off the helicopters. It`s like when you`re a little kid with a cake
mix or brownie mix, it`s that thick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There maybe submerged oil, maybe oil coming beneath the
booms. We`ve had report of tar balls coming beneath the booms not along
the surface.

BLANCHARD: There`s reason for them to come. They`ll come once and awhile
and just look because they`ve been so used to come and, you know, they lost
day-long. They can`t catch enough to feed a few.

SCHULTZ: The shrimp industry has changed and he`s mad about it.

So, all the shrimpers boats that where out here, where are they now? Are
they out of business?

BLANCHARD: A few went out of business, the ones that didn`t want to leave.
They`ve took out job mostly with oil companies. I mean, we had to go --
they had to go to people that pretty much put them out of business.

SCHULTZ: Today, he`s an activist and advocate to make things right.

BLANCHARD: We, actually, was naive enough to think that B.P. was really
trying to pick up the oil.

SCHULTZ: Many local seafood workers believe the tar balls are the direct
result of the chemicals used in an effort to clean up the gulf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: B.P. workers are on the beaches in Mississippi now,
cleaning up tar balls and patties in Biloxi.

SCHULTZ: B.P refutes that claim and says dispersants were an important and
highly effective component of the response to the spill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of feet boom that`s being loaded on these
boats to be taken out to stop this oil.

BLANCHARD: And they did it about two or three weeks, they realize that...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BLANCHARD: ... so many right here, you know.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody is out doing their business right. If you`re
commercial fishermen, most of them are out trying to stop this oil.

BLANCHARD: They`re trying to arrest me three times by going over there and
see what the hell is going on. The guy tells me it`s none of my business,
none of my business. He just destroyed 30 years (inaudible) work, what the
hell you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The coast guard held us, held us hostage by two hours.
As they call the Governor`s office, they get Governor. They get the coast
guard to let us go so we got out of there. They won`t let us close to haul
(ph) and film it.

SCHULTZ: Real estate here may never be the same.

BLANCHARD: It dropped down, you know, a lot. They were going for $350,000
to $500,000. They`re probably down to $150,000 to $250,000 right now.

SCHULTZ: If you could tell and a lot of people have left.

BLANCHARD: Well, yes. As you see and this is a small place Ed, this is
not like Florida. We don`t have the big building, the big condos. There
was a place to come with your family and, you know, we have very little
crime down here. And if you like to fish this was the place to come,
because the shrimp would come here and the fish would follow him for the
food.

Well, right now, when the spill came most that all came probably 80
percent. It all came into probably about 30 miles circle of this place.
So the shrimp went around the Isle and they went to western part of the
state and so the fish follow the food, you know.

SCHULTZ: So life has really changed here.

BLANCHARD: It`s been a nightmare. It`s -- I mean, we woke up one morning
that living in paradise and then went to living in hell.

SCHULTZ: And finding things like this on the beach certainly doesn`t help.

I`d never believe it unless I saw it (inaudible).

BLANCHARD: That`s why they made it liquid turned into this. Yeah, how
many chemical do you think you got to spread and make a liquid turn into
this?

SCHULTZ: So this is...

BLANCHARD: That`s oil.

SCHULZT: This is oil.

BLANCHARD: Look at the inside, there.

SCHULZT: This is oil and they pour so much chemical on it. It hardens and
it becomes...

BLANCHARD: And it sank to the bottom and then...

SCHULTZ: It hardens like this. And then it sinks to the bottom. And this
along the beach here in Grand Isle.

BLANCHARD: I just found it right there, how long we`ve been here?

SCHULTZ: But we just got here...

BLANCHARD: And that`s out to 30 people, they cleaned up...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

BLANCHARD: ... every morning.

SCHULTZ: I don`t think this is just amazing.

BLANCHARD: Yeah.

BLANCHARD: The ripple effect on the main street throughout the gulf is
unforgiving.

WASSON: Shortly after the oil spill there was hope that it was going to
get cleaned up, it was going to get rectified, there wasn`t going to be an
impact to the beaches here. And as time kept, you know, ticking away each
day and you`re watching the updates on the different news, media outlets.

And the fear was that, it was going to start washing up here on the shore
and what was going to happen to tourism when it did.

KATHY RIVERS OWNER, CROSSFIT DESTIN: The locals can`t support the local
businesses. I know, you know, from talking with couple other business
owners that it did affect them just not, you know, like for us it was
effect of -- with locals and the tourism. But their businesses were
straight tourism and they basically have to shut their doors.

BARBER: The oysters have declined and lot of the oystermen had quit
because we didn`t have oysters and they don`t have a lot of -- our crews
downsize a lot.

SCHULTZ: It seems every walk of life and every aspect of business has been
affected.

BLANCHARD: I`m born and raise here. I`m not going to let B.P. run me out
of the hometown. I mean, this is, I mean, we`re suppose to be free. We
got -- I`m in a Cajun, we got -- in 300 years ago, in 1810, he was thrown
out of Canada because of the British. I mean, I`m our father entered (ph)
from the British.

SCHULTZ: You just -- this is your land. This is your home.

BLANCHARD: This is why we`re going to make our stand right here, Ed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Once again, we`ve invited representatives of B.P. to join us on
the show. They have declined the offer tonight but the invitation remains
open. B.P. is directed us to their website thestateofthegulf.com.

Coming up this hour, we will speak with the Mayor of Grand Isle Louisiana.
Our series "The Gulf Today: 5 years After The Spill" continues all week
here on the Ed Show.

Stay with us, we`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show.

You can follow me on Twitter @WeGotEd and @edshow. And tomorrow we
continue our series "The Gulf Today: 5 Years After The Spill" with a look
at the changing landscape of the gulf.

Off the coast of Louisiana, Cat Island was a sanctuary for wildlife.
Today, it`s all but disappeared. Now, the birds which used the land as
their breeding ground could be at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PJ HAHN, PELICAN COAST CONSULTING: We`ve lost the pelicans which is our
state bird back in the `60s due to DDT.

Louisiana`s only got six bird islands left and they`re all disappearing.
If we don`t start rebuilding these islands, this small little habitat for
them, we`re not going to -- we`re going to lose the pelican again because
their habitat...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: And the oil industry is helping with that restoration.

Stay tuned all this week for our coverage on the gulf.

And next, the Mayor of Grand Isle Louisiana joins us to discuss his town`s
road to recovery.

Stay with us. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And finally tonight, we want to focus on the small community of
Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Fifty miles south of New Orleans, was one of the worst affected areas of
the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Five years later, some islanders are fed
up with the hearing the crisis is over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, the beaches and gulf were open for everyone to
enjoy. We shared what we`ve learned so we can all produce energy more
safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Well, the beaches still covered in many areas with wrung streaks
of oil and the sand is lined with tar balls in many areas.

Environmentalists say tar balls contain the most toxic form of oil because
of the Corexit that was used to try to clean it up.

Local state terrorism has not bounced back and neither as commerce in Grand
Isle and many people have left.

The Mayor of Grand Isle wants some action taken and he joins us tonight.

David Camardelle, he is the Mayor of Grand Isle Louisiana. Mr. Camardelle,
good to have you with us tonight on the Ed Show.

I`d like to know, what would you like to see happen in Grand Isle
Louisiana? What has to happen?

CAMARDELLE: Well, like I said, we`ve been dealing with this for five
years, Ed, and between the council myself and dealing with the situation in
Grand Isle and try to take care of the people that make a living on the
island specially the people that make a living, the fishermen and the
charter boat captains and even if people that -- my resident is suffering,
my -- business (ph) people.

Through the years, you know, we`ve been promise a lot. We lobbied a lot.
We went to Washington several times. We even had the President that came
in and looked like when the President came in the beginning, he pushed
things at the beginning and the minute he left it looked like things are
left alone.

So in the meantime, we, you know, thank God, you know, we went through
different types of low pressures and hurricanes but in the meantime dealing
with the B.P. Oil Spill is as totally different compared to dealing with
the (inaudible) with the federal government but it`s been a nightmare.

I`ve been traveling all over between Washington (inaudible) New Orleans and
trying to convince B.P. officials that, you know, when you got to, your
people come in your office and campaign a gas bill, your local fishermen
they come in and your working people, they can`t pay the gas bill and you
look at the families and the mothers and the kids, you`re tell them go buy
groceries and we`re going to do the best we can until we can get back on
our feet.

In the meantime, more tourists will come and back to the island and they
try to come enjoy the island. For instance, two Fridays ago, we picked up
191 pounds of tar balls on a north side of the coast guard station off the
state park.

You know, B.P. came in and promised a lot. Our kids, you know, when you
have to take as a Mayor and a councilmen and the chief of police with 6,000
people coming in on the island to try to clean up the beach. You don`t
know who`s coming on the island. You had to get to different churches and
get all kids in with the parents and tell them it`s going to change the way
our lives and that`s what happened.

In the meantime, you know, we`re still waiting on some help and, you know,
I got a call from the Governor`s office, you know, that the budget is going
to be tight and we need to figure out a way how to keep the state awesome.

SCHULTZ: So, David, there`s still a lot that has to be done.

CAMARDELLE: Yes sir.

SCHULTZ: Would it be too much of a stretch to say the Grand Isle will
never been the same?

CAMARDELLE: Well, you`re right. It will never be the same.

You know, I`m begging Dean Blanchard and other business people who have
patience. Please, it`s going to get better. You know, but when you`re
fishermen and shrimp buyers make 30 percent in the last five years, they
can`t pay their bills. You know, this, the biggest shrimp buyer they have
in United States but we, you know, we used to bring million of pounds over
that island.

We even got a factory that we brought back since we`ve back in the, you
know, the years...

SCHULTZ: And it`s not just, Dean -- and quickly your residents their lives
have been turned upside down. Fair statement?

CAMARDELLE: Yes sir. Yes, all of our lives. All of our lives have been
turned upside down.

You know, when you got fishermen that turned all his receipts and been
there 40, 50 years which I`m one of them. And, you know, and through the
years and they`re coming back and they`re dealing with different type of
attorneys. They`re being question you over and over and over, it gets
frustrating. When you got elderly fisherman who`s retired and coming and
asking me I can`t get nothing from B.P, they want to check my freezes ...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

CAMARDELLE: ... to see if I`m a true fisherman.

SCHULTZ: All right.

CAMARDELLE: You know, we don`t need all that bull.

SCHULTZ: All right.

CAMARDELLE: Just come in and take care of our people. That`s all we want.
We don`t want them (ph) from that, Ed.

SCHULTZ: And we will continue this focus. Mayor David Camardelle, I
appreciate you being here. "Politics Nation" with Reverend Al Sharpton is
up next.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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