He continued that Mitt Romney in particular was one of those bad candidates. “Mitt Romney appeared like a kid who showed up for his science project and the teacher said, ‘Explain it,’ and Mitt couldn’t do it,” Sessions said. “His ‘dad,’ Paul Ryan, explained it to him, but Mitt didn’t get it. … That’s why we lost the last election.”

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A call that there had been a "discharge of firearms" came into police at 1:35 p.m., John Cannon, the spokesman said. The shots were fired near the ticket counter in Terminal B at Bush Intercontinental Airport, he said. One person has been taken to an area hospital with life threatening injuries.

Dale Howard, of Tomball, was at the baggage handling area of the airport waiting for his sister to arrive on an incoming flight when he heard two shots fired from the floor above. A few seconds later, he said he heard three more shots.

"People were screaming. I knew exactly what it was - gunfire," Howard said.

Police from an adjacent station rushed in, and Howard said he directed them to the floor above.

Parts of the terminal remained blocked off as police investigated the shooting. The airport announced on its Twitter feed that the terminal had been closed and passengers would be redirected to other terminals.

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The non-binding opinion was in response to a request by state Sen. Dan Patrick, a Republican, who objected to the Pflugerville school district's decision to offer domestic partnership benefits.

From the Dallas Voice:

Pflugerville’s decision also prompted a Republican state lawmaker to introduce a bill that would cut funding for school districts that offer DP benefits. The bill — HB 1568 by Drew Springer of Muenster — is awaiting a vote in the House.

While Pflugerville was the first school district to offer DP benefits, several other local government entities do so, including the cities of Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth and San Antonio; as well as Dallas County and Parkland hospital. Most offer DP benefits to both same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners.

In his opinion, Abbott writes that domestic partnerships "have various characteristics in common with the criteria for marriage," enough that "a court is likely to conclude that the domestic partnership legal status about which [Patrick inquires] is 'similar to marriage' and therefore barred by article I, section 32 of the Texas Constitution."

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Cruz had popped by a FreedomWorks meeting in Texas on Friday, and was speaking about a letter he wrote with Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, announcing their plan to filibuster gun control legislation. The letter, Cruz said, "generated more heat" from other Republicans.“We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing up and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at the top of their lungs. I mean really upset,” Cruz said.

"They said, ‘Listen, before you did this, the politics of it were great. The Dems were the bad guys, the Republicans were the good guys. Now we all look like a bunch of squishes.’" Cruz continued. "Well, there is an alternative. You could just not be a bunch of squishes.”

Watch:

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Reuters reports:

The case before the justices was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted.

The ruling is the only one the court has yet to issue following oral arguments in cases heard in October and November, the opening months of the court's annual term which lasts until the early summer. A decision might come as early as Monday, before the start of a two-week recess.

The Court could also decide to hold off on ruling, since it will be taking up another affirmative action case, this one brought by the state of Michigan challenging a lower court decision that a ban on the policy is unconstitutional.

As Bloomberg reported in March, when the Supreme Court elected to hear the Michigan case:

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Traditionally, political scientists have taught their students that there are two schools of thought about how a legislator should get the job done. One is to vote yay or nay on a bill by following the will of his or her constituency, doing what they say they want. The other is to represent them as that legislator sees fit, acting in the best interest of the voters — whether they like it or not.

But our current Congress — as cranky and inert as an obnoxious old uncle who refuses to move from his easy chair — never went to either of those schools. Its members rarely have the voter in mind at all, unless, of course, that voter’s a cash-laden heavy hitter with the clout to keep an incumbent on the leash and comfortably in office.

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The Appleby Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, is among this country’s scattered, independent fundamentalist churches still openly promoting the idea that the Biblical Noah pronounced a curse on descendants of his son, Ham. Ham had sexually molested Noah as he slept in a drunken stupor, and Noah realized it, the story goes. The curse ultimately fell on Canaan, Noah’s grandson, whose descendants were black and fated to be an underclass of slaves, according to this version of the Bible, which has been widely discredited by mainstream religious scholars.

But the canard is trumpeted loud and clear in an online statement of conviction by Appleby leaders. The East Texas church, 90 miles from Shreveport, La., is “a bit of a throwback, but these people are still out there,” Rachel Tabachnick, a fellow at the think tank Political Research Associates, told Hatewatch. She researches the impact of the religious right on politics and society.

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"I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm going to anyway," he said. "Your mother showed me some of your landscapes and animal paintings and I thought they were great. Really great. And I seriously considered calling you and asking you to do a portrait of me until I saw the results of your sister's hacked e-mails. Those bathroom sketches were wonderful, but at my age I think I should keep my suit."

Watch:

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In a post on the right-wing site RenewAmerica, Klayman argues that President Obama is responsible for the attacks in Boston because of political correctness, "orchestrated and furthered by Obama and his minions," because "Terrorists like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to avoid even the appearance of prejudice against Muslims, are even given scholarships to prestigious schools and entrees into other venues of American society, which they can use as cover for their plots."

He continued: "Nor was there hardly any mention on any station or other press entity of even the possibility that Muslim terror was involved in the huge explosion that occurred in West, Texas, where a fertilizer plant blew up Wednesday, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing."

From the post:

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What a week.

As events unfolded in Boston, and then in Texas, and as they continue to unfold at this very moment in both places, CNN has been there for our audience in every possible way – on television, online and on our mobile platforms. As Wolf would say, that was true for our audiences here in the United States and around the world. For journalists like each of us, these are the times that define what we do and why we do it. All of you, across every division of CNN Worldwide, have done exceptional work. And when we made a mistake, we moved quickly to acknowledge it and correct it. It was important to see CNN, CNN.com, HLN and CNNI all shine this week, often with different stories and different approaches that make each of their roles clear. It is a week that began with a whole new genre of programming for CNN, with the successful premiere of Parts Unknown. Now, as the week comes to a close, I wanted to express my deep gratitude and admiration. You have worked tirelessly, around the clock, to share these stories. And our audiences have responded, making it clear that they rely on us in ever increasing ways. In front of the cameras and behind the scenes, you have shown the world what makes us CNN.

With my thanks and appreciation,

JEFF

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Amid the chaos came an emotional Senate gun control vote that inflamed American divisions and evoked memories of the Newtown massacre. And through it all, torrential rain pushed the Mississippi River toward flood levels.

"All in all it's been a tough week," President Barack Obama said Friday night. "But we've seen the character of our country once more."

America was rocked this week, in rare and frightening ways. We are only beginning to make sense of a series of events that moved so fast, so furiously as to almost defy attempts to figure them out. But beneath the pain, as the weekend arrived, horror was counteracted by hope.

"We inhabit a mysterious world," Rev. Roberto Miranda said at a prayer service for the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people, inflicted life-changing injuries on scores more and shook the sense of security that has slowly returned to America since 9/11.

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"Let me ask you, if you're sitting in your home and you know there are only two possibilities for people coming to your door," Gohmert said, "one is law enforcement and the other is somebody who has already killed Americans and continues to do so, how many rounds do you want to be limited to in your magazine as you sit in your chair and wait?"

Watch, via Right Wing Watch:

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Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said it was "with a heavy heart" that he confirmed 12 bodies had been pulled from the area of the plant explosion in West, about 20 miles north of Waco.

Even before investigators released a confirmed number of fatalities, the names of the dead were becoming known in the town of 2,800 and a small group of firefighters and other first responders who may have rushed toward the plant to battle a pre-explosion blaze was believed to be among them.

Reyes said he could not confirm Friday how many of those killed were first responders.

Rescue crews spent much of the day after Wednesday night's blast searching the town for survivors, and Reyes said those efforts were ongoing. He said authorities had searched and cleared 150 buildings by Friday morning and still had another 25 to examine.

The mourning already had begun at a service at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church the previous night.

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The explosion in downtown West, a small farming community about 20 miles north of Waco, shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake and could be heard dozens of miles away. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and rained burning embers and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.

"They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes," Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning. He added later, "At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue."

Swanton said authorities believe that between five and 15 people were killed in the blast, but stressed that is an early estimate. There is no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident, he said.

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The explosion at West Fertilizer in downtown West, a community about 20 miles north of Waco, happened around 7 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 45 miles to the north. It sent flames shooting high into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.

A member of the city council, Al Vanek, said a four-block area around the explosion was "totally decimated." Other witnesses compared the scene to that of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and authorities said the plant made materials similar to that used to fuel the bomb that tore apart that city's Murrah Federal Building.

Although authorities said it will be some time before they know the full extent of the loss of life, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman D.L. Wilson said just after midnight that an unknown number of people had died and more than 100 were injured.

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Speaking on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Gohmert, R-Texas, said: "We know Al Qaeda has camps over with the drug cartels on the other side of the Mexican border. We know that people are now being trained to come in and act like Hispanic [sic] when they are radical Islamists. We know these things are happening. It is just insane not to protect ourselves, and make sure that people come in as most people do ... They want the freedoms we have."

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Abbott was referring to reports that North Korea had included Austin, Texas on its list of potential targets in the United States. But, Abbott told the Waco Tribune-Herald, the state has more “far more dangerous” problems, in the form of the federal government.

“One thing that requires ongoing vigilance is the reality that the state of Texas is coming under a new 
assault, an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of his nuclear weapons,” Abbott said. “The threat that we’re getting is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine.”

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Blitzer did not, in fact, mention the Tea Party, but said: “One intriguing notion, one intriguing thought here, and I’m curious, Mike, and I’ll ask Matt to weigh in as well. It is a state holiday, in addition to the Boston Marathon. It is a state holiday in Massachusetts today called Patriots' Day, and who knows if that has anything at all to deal — to do with these, these twin explosions.”

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, demanded on Monday that Blitzer apologize, picking up on the false narrative that Blitzer's comments had politicized the attack:

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Blitzer responded on Tuesday:

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“People are surprised,” Bush said. “Of course, some people are surprised I can even read.”

He noted that he takes “great delight in busting stereotypes," but didn't really have an explanation for why he decided to take up the hobby, along with other activities such as mountain biking and golf. “You’ll have to call all the people who’ve written these books about me, who claim they know me, the psycho-babblers," he said.

“I like challenges,” Bush continued. “I find that charging up the hill is very rewarding — and frustrating. It’s important to set goals in life and have purpose.”

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He followed it up soon after with another abortion-related tweet:

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