tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5194776.post115589348895309410..comments2023-11-05T23:25:31.498+11:00Comments on Wot Is It Good 4: W is just a useful idiotUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5194776.post-1155948638101475042006-08-19T10:50:00.000+10:002006-08-19T10:50:00.000+10:00oh - will check out audible too - although i don't...oh - will check out audible too - although i don't have many non-blogging activities - and i find it difficult to read, write and listen attentively at the same time.lukeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13280906371216516750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5194776.post-1155948514225040992006-08-19T10:48:00.000+10:002006-08-19T10:48:00.000+10:00much thanks to you both.will have to get my hands ...much thanks to you both.<BR/><BR/>will have to get my hands on Confessions, and Caro - and if i get some time, will try to pull all of these recents posts together into a single post so that we have a proper record of it all, and to see if we can learn something new. (i'm completely unfamiliar with much of the stuff mentioned re texas (apart from ew's parsons posts). will have to look closer.)lukeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13280906371216516750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5194776.post-1155916887862506802006-08-19T02:01:00.000+10:002006-08-19T02:01:00.000+10:00Texas is a fascinating subject of inquiry all by i...Texas is a fascinating subject of inquiry all by itself. There are marvellous things that have come out of Texas -- the music and the food, for two -- but it's also had an ongoing tradition of corruption, arrogance, and the abuse of wealth and power.<BR/><BR/>For example, Texas has been home to a continuing ultra-reactionary strain, having been home to fascist groups in the 30's, to a powerful McCarthyite movement in the 50's, and to extremist figures like oil magnate H.L. Hunt. <BR/><BR/>The conservative oil-and-business Democrats of Texas turned against Roosevelt and the New Deal by the early 40's, being particularly infuriated by wartime price controls on oil and gas, by the growth of government bureaucracy and the labor movement, and by initial steps towards desegregation. The anti-Roosevelt Democrats, known as the Texas Regulars, plotted unsuccessfully to throw the 1944 election to Dewey and then formed the core of the Dixiecrats, who ran Strom Thurmond for president in 1948. The issue of states rights at that time was far more about control of offshore oil leases than it was about desegregation. It was this essentially this same group of interests that would eventually switch from the Democratic Party to the Republicans.<BR/><BR/>Lyndon Johnson, for all his flaws, stood firm against these people. The Texas Regulars tried to oust him from his congressional seat in 1944, charging that he had thrown profitable construction contracts to his friends at Brown & Root while ordinary citizens struggled with wartime rationing. Johnson, who won his primary with ease, responded when he was accused of corruption by H.L. Hunt's Facts Forum that the charges came from "stooges of Standard Oil and Wall Street gold," angry because he had voted against legislation which would have enabled them to collect windfall profits.<BR/><BR/>And all of this was long before the Bush family became involved in Texas oil and politics, and even longer before the Saudis -- who after the 1973 oil crisis had more money than they knew what to do with -- started investing in Texas and making friends with George H.W. Bush and his Houston business and real estate cronies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com