I didn't care for LBJ's foreign policies one bit.
That's an understatement as I had a brother in Vietnam
and opposed the war.
Fortunately, he made it home.

But Johnson did initiate the Head Start program for preschoolers
and his War on Poverty. The war overshadowed both of these
programs.

Yep, Lady Bird was a great lady.
And she was very humble, in spite of her greatness.

And so the sins of the husband negate all of the positive influence Lady Bird had on the face of America?

As Karin points out, she did more for social programs in this country than Pat, Barbara, Laura, and Hillary combined. She set a contemporary standard for what it should mean to be First Lady, and that has to count for something. Like Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady bird left some very big shoes to fill.

teh company you are talking about (KBR) ties in with are contracted to feed our troops. the K in KBR stands for Kerr, one time governor of Oklahoma and old school buddy of LJ''s.  Kerr owned and operated a non union coal mine here in so. il. and Johnson (General Dynamics) owned the union mines.  in 1982 they shut down most of our union mines because of lowerd production do to safety issues.  now that the UMWA is all but gone you hear more and more major accidents in coal mines that should have been prevented.  So. IL. is a arsonal grave yard for johnsons left over bombs.  they are stored in bunkers south of our airport here in Marion IL.  Periodocally one goes off too.  guess what im trying tosay is gas, oil and coal mine owners are who run our country and profit from war.   

But not your "own" facts.  Lyndon Johnson did not own Brown and Root, it was a Houston corporation.  George Brown was the majority owner and then was bought out by Halliburton and Kellogg. 

Who do you want to discuss first, Lady Bird or Lyndon.  I am casual in how I refer to them because I went to church with Lady Bird and have known the family for a very long time and my best friend worked for President Johnson while in the White House. 

Lyndon had the guts to do what he had to do to get the job done, i.e., civil rights, open housing, voter rights, strongest up to date environmental legislation at that time in history, education legislation, making it possible for kids to go to college and one my personal favorites was when President Lyndon Baines Johnson walked through swamp mud raw sewage to let the people of New Orleans know that their president was there to help them and he did, the following link is word for word what happened during this hurricane.  Unlike GWB, President Johnson didn't watch it on television and sit back, he took action himself.  http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/AV.hom/Hurricane/audio_transcript.shtm

It wouldn't hurt everyone to take a look at this link above and just see what kind of man Lyndon Baines Johnson really was.  He was not a coward.  He took action.  He was tough and mean at times necessarily so but he cared about people, especially the poor the old and the sick and the minorities and the dependent young.   

Now for Lady Bird, how dare you demean her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There are no valid reasons to demean this woman, she is a saint in my book and you obviously just don't know history or anything else.  One of the last great jestures of Lady Bird was granting my personal request to retire the debt of our church, St. Barnabas in Fredericksburg, Texas.  $300K check that I received less than two weeks before her death.  She was a real Christian, not one of these fakes that we have running around today.  I will cherish the letter that she enclosed, signed by her, for the rest of my life.  She was a remarkable woman and was the last of the great First Ladies......

As I said you can have your opinion, you cannot have your own facts. 

I'm not sure what your beef is with Bell Helcopter, but as a Huey crew member in SE Asia (H-13s before that), and later an employee of Bell, I literally owe my life to them. Bell helicopters are the finest rotary aircraft ever manufactured, and have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands around the world.

As far as trashing the legacy of a great First Lady (when compared to all of them), you certainly have a right to your opinion. Just because her husband owned stock in a particular company can't take away her humanitarianism, nor her pioneering American spirit.

Comparing Lady Bird (or her husband for that matter) to Ray Gun and his neoconservative cabal is absurd, and I believe that you know that. And actually, Ray Gun, and the two Bushes have done more harm to this country than any presidents in our history.

You know Steve, opinions are like assholes -- everybody has one. When you accuse someone, or a company, of "starting wars" for profit, you really should be able to back it up with facts.

Bell helicopters earned their reputation for stability and reliability in Korea, and they certainly had no part in "starting" that war. As rescue aircraft, they have proven their worth worldwide. I happen to know (or knew) some of the founders of the company, and they were -- to a man -- honest, ethical, patriotic, and pioneering Americans.

If you want to trash LBJ, I am in agreement on some (not all) of your gripes. As far as Lady Bird's honor goes however, I fail to see how you arrive at your conclusions other than guilt by association. In neither case, however, does trashing the motives of Bell Helicopter or its founders make your arguments any stronger.

P.S. Your assertion that Bell Helicopter was owned by Brown & Root (later acquired by Halliburton) is erroneous. You may be thinking of Textron, but they had no connection to B&R either.

Your attempts to tie Bell Helicopter to KBR, B&R, and Halliburton are all bullshit. It is you who are attempting to twist the facts to suit your agruments. The citations above prove nothing but the fact that KBR and Halliburton are indeed war mongers for profit, but Bell Helicopter and Textron have never been asscociated with them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Helicopter_Textron

As far as Bell selling helicopters to the military, you may as well include Lockheed, Boeing, Douglas, and all of the civilian shipyards in your diatribe. I have no idea what your motives are for attacking the Johnsons and Bell in particular, but you are sounding more and more like a Greenie or a Libertarian in this, and other forums.

It is you who are being offensive just to make an argument that has no merit.

You and I can agree to disagree, but the facts and the truth stand for themselves. And yes, I was alive and being shot at (and shooting back) during this period, and Larry Bell's machines saved my, and my teammates', collective asses on more than one occasion.