BOISE, Idaho -- When last we left the saga of Texas' few living elected Democrats, they had fled the state pursued by minions of the law -- legislators on the lam. These courageous citizens, fleeing vile Republican oppression in their state capital, took refuge at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Reporters embedded with the law-breaker law-makers in Ardmore say the perps remain unrepentant.

Meanwhile, back at the capitol, mighty was the wrath of the Republicans left holding session without a quorum. Bills died by the dozens as the lawmakers wanted by the law bollixed up the legislative works (bills not passed through second reading as of May 15 die automatically, a bit of legislative process the fleeing Dems cunningly used to their advantage).

Gov. Goodhair Perry, who keeps saying he wants more civility and bipartisanship, denounced the AWOL solons as "cowardly," childish" and "irresponsible." It was a bad day for bipartisanship.

Everyone mourned the death of legislative civility while colorfully cursing the other side. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, the

Months before the United States military showered Iraq with bombs and missiles, the Department of Defense was secretly working with Vice President Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton Corp., on a deal that would give the world’s second largest oil services company total control over Iraq’s oil fields, according to interviews with Halliburton’s most senior executives.   

Moreover, classified Halliburton documents obtained over the past month prove that the war in Iraq was as much about controlling the world’s second largest oil reserves as it did about overthrowing the regime of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein.   

The deal between the Department of Defense and Halliburton unit Kellogg, Brown & Root to operate Iraq’s oil industry, which was hatched as early as October 2002, according to the documents, and could ultimately be worth $7 billion, couldn’t have come at a better time for Halliburton.   

AUSTIN, Texas -- They just went too far, that's all. This session of the legislature has been as brutal, callous and indifferent to the welfare of the weakest, the most frail, youngest and oldest Texans as it is possible to get. The level of pure meanness is just stunning. They have just gone too damn far.

The session was pretty well summed up by Rep. Senfronia Thompson when she illustrated what was going on by taking the House rulebook to the podium with her and dropping it on the floor. There is no rule of procedure, fairness, common sense or decency that has been observed by the Republican majority in the Texas House.

This is not about partisan politics -- although that has certainly reared its ugly head. In case you hadn't noticed, every major newspaper in this state has criticized the plans and performance of the legislature this session, often in harsh language. Those wild-eyed radicals at the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle are just disgusted with the tacky display these people have been putting on.

There is no excuse for this, and blaming it on the deficit will

I am writing this on the behalf of my fellow American Indian students and myself who are tired of being ignored, silenced, and dismissed with words of support that those in the position to help us feel we want to hear but do not follow through with positive actions. This year has been one of the toughest to be an American Indian student at The Ohio State University. Originally I was looking forward to this academic year. We had made a lot of progress in the previous year in having our first American Indian Month of events and all of our hard work to bring the Memorial Day Powwow to campus was met with success. Yet this academic year has been nothing but a slap in the face.

Greetings, Activists!

Please read this ENTIRE e-mail message, as it contains important, detailed information regarding our KFC Campaign, which is NOT being called off. In fact, it’s going full speed ahead. Please continue to organize as many demonstrations as you possibly can, write letters, and so on. The pressure must continue!

As you may have heard, KFC’s president, Cheryl Bachelder, recently flew to PETA’s hometown of Norfolk, Va., for a meeting with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk and Bruce Friedrich to discuss our demands of KFC. As a result of the meeting, KFC has pledged to make several important improvements in the way chickens are treated. Here’s what KFC has pledged to do:

·       put cameras in all U.S. slaughterhouses to help discourage the sadistic abuse of chickens and to help catch and punish any employees abusing birds

·       implement humane mechanized chicken-gathering at one-fourth of all U.S. slaughterhouses by the end of next year

·       increase the amount of living space for each bird by about 30 percent