The evil done by the combination of Texas politicians like George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson owes its dirty money to Texas corporations like Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, Exxon Corp, Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) and Texas Utilitites, whose CEO's depend on political influence and corruption instead of innovation, creativity and plain old fashioned hard work to create wealth.
Around thirty years ago, Houston developer and mover&shaker, Walter Mischer, bragging about his behind the scenes control over public policy that benefitted him said about then Houston mayor, Jim McConn, "I like my mayors dumb but not that dumb."
These Texas corporations pay a pittance in campaign contributions to get billions of dollars in benefits for their shareholders. And like Walter Mischer of 30 years ago, they like their politicians dumb, greedy, power hungery and corrupt. They have succeeded in thwarting every environmental initiative that stood in the way of short term profits. That dirty air starts here in Texas but blows all over the country.
The current crop of neocon corrupt politicians includes Tom DeLay clone John Culberson, Texas Congressional District #7.
Here's Culberson's signature on DeLay's letter to Ashcroft to try to stop an East Texas Indian Casino that would have siphoned off some Texas gamblers who would otherwise have patronized the Abramoff/DeLay client casino in Kinder, Louisiana (part of the Abramoff/DeLay story that Dengre has been covering so very well.
http://images.chron.com/...
Jim Henley, a progressive Democrat and high school teacher is challenging neocon Culberson. Jim's the brother of Susan McDougal who went to prison instead of succumbing to Ken Starr's inquisition. Jim's a fighter, like his sister but Jim needs some help from progressive Democrats. Much of the reactionary policy that the people of this country are suffering, including I would argue the catastrophic war on Iraq, can be traced back to policies written by and for these corrupt industries.
Recently, Texas Utilities CEO, John Wilder, announced (Rebecca Smith 7/21/06 WSJ Burning Debate: As Emission Restrictions Loom, Texas Utility Bets Big on Coal)http://online.wsj.com/... that he's planning on spending $11billion on dirty coal plants over the next four years which would double Texas Utilities' carbon dioxide emissions. Even CEO of New Orleans based Entergy said building lots of dirty coal plants is "unacceptable" because it puts "all mankind at risk".
Texas is where the worst of the worst happens. These lazy and stubborn Texas corporate chieftains, own the neocon Republicans lock stock and barrel and use that influence instead of honest competition and innovation to make money for their companies.
Progressive Democrats should be giving some consideration to making political donations to courageous Democrats like Jim Henley because it's time to break the hold of dirty money corporations on Texas and the country.
Helping turn Texas Blue will send a shockwave across the country that will help stop the thievery in its tracks and also help us in 2008.
Please donate to Jim Henley:
http://henleyforcongress.com/
Help break the stanglehold of dirty money.