Texas Salad Toss

From around the state:

> Cynthia Yates trial continues with trumped up testimony from sneaky, lying crack-headed jail house stooly. I've stopped wondering why Texans are so hell-bent at killing the insane, retarded and poor minorities. Everything I've had to say about this can be found over at Driftwood/snake farm/$50.50; www.chron.com

> Train Killer ritually slaughtered. (see above driftwood/snake farm/train killer) texas ap

> Texas congressional district to be re-configured after SCOTUS decides to stop protecting serial Barney-hater Henry Bonilla; www.mysa.com

>A South Texas jury has found a 44-year-old political consultant guilty of four counts involving the sexual molestation of children. The Hidalgo County jury deliberated almost two days before convicting Carey Lee Cramer of four counts and acquitted of nine others.

The 44-year-old Cramer was convicted of one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two of indecency with a child by contact and one of indecency with a child by exposure. Cramer, who now lives in Tucson, Ariz., gained national attention during the 2000 presidential election.

His McAllen company created a TV ad accusing the Clinton-Gore administration of giving away nuclear technology to China in exchange for campaign contributions. The spot was modeled after the infamous 1964 "Daisy" nuclear scare commercial and was pulled after a barrage of Democratic criticism. Cramer faces a maximum of 149 years in prison for the four felony charges; www.kwtx.com

> The war of words between Reba McEntire and the Dixie Chicks is heating up.
The red-haired country crooner says she's "very disappointed" in the trio for comments they've made about the industry and about Bush.

Chicks band member Martie Maguire had told Time magazine the group prefers to attract fans who "will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith ... We don't want those kinds of fans."

"I've never turned my back on country music," McEntire told the CMT network. "So when somebody talks bad about my music, my family, that does not set well with me. And when you bite the hand that feeds you, I just don't think that's very nice."

Earlier in the year, she made a crack about how the Dixie Chicks "can sing with their foot in their mouth." She recently added, "After they did come out in Time magazine and said that about Toby and me, I was very glad that I had . I was ready to say that because I hope they realize that they're not doing themselves any favors." www.msnbc.msn.com

As is later pointed out, Rebba has a 16 year-old son, whom I am sure she can't wait to send to the patriotic war in Iraq.