Chuck DeVore on Paul Rodriguez on the delta smelt

May 04, 2009 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Big Hollywood's Chuck DeVore (who is also a California State Assemblyman and candidate for the U.S. Senate) has this profile on comedian Paul Rodriguez and his work with the the California Latino Water Coalition. An excerpt:

[Rodriguez] said many environmentalists are earnest people who are concerned that the delta smelt are “the canary in the coal mine” of the delta’s environmental health.  Rodriguez said he asked his uncle who mined coal in Chihuahua about canaries and coal mines.  The uncle said, “Yes, we used canaries.  When the canary dies, you run like hell out of the mine!”  The canary dies and the coal miners live.  In the case of the delta though, “The fish lives and the farmers die,” Rodriguez observed. 

Rodriguez is in the middle of a steep learning curve regarding the vast political power of the environmental lobby.  Soon enough he’ll discover their main motivation: control – the fatal conceit that all elitists feel towards the masses who, they think, need their intelligent direction and guidance. 

The California Latino Water Coalition seeks to pressure lawmakers for more water as unemployment rates in some California rural communities have topped 40%.  Easing the rules of the Endangered Species Act to allow more water to reach Central Valley farms is the lynchpin.