I do not publish this photo to argue that Democrats are bad because the alleged sender of letters laced with ricin gave a “thumbs up” to Democrats.

I publish this photo because tomorrow, some people will argue that Republicans are bad because (they will claim) the alleged sender of letters laced with ricin is a Republican.

When they say that, you will know they are lying, because you will have seen this:

Background at the Blaze. I have, admittedly, not independently verified that this is the guy who was arrested — but the information at the Blaze looks compelling to me.

Damn Republicans, always sending poison in the mail and taking pictures of themselves giving Democrats the thumbs up. They’re crafty bastards, aren’t they?

Because not enough other things happened today:

WACO (April 17, 2013)—Emergency crews from throughout Central Texas responded Wednesday night after a major explosion at a burning fertilizer plant in West north of Waco.

West firefighters were dispatched to the plant earlier in the evening after an earlier fire rekindled.

The explosion was reported at around 7:50 p.m. in a frantic radio call from the scene of the fire at West Fertilizer at 1471 Jerry Mashek Dr. just off Interstate 35.

Numerous injuries were reported and multiple ambulances were requested.

Several buildings were reported destroyed and a nearby nursing home was damaged.

There were reports that people were trapped in the nursing home and in an apartment building.

Scanner traffic indicated that some residents of both the nursing home and apartment building were severely injured.

Children are among the victims, according to reports from the scene.

A photo from just after the explosion:

BREAKING PHOTO: Plume of smoke after reported explosion at fertilizer plant explosion near Waco, TX (@passantino) twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) April 18, 2013

UPDATE: More here. Thanks to DRJ. This sounds bad.

UPDATE x2: I am riveted to Channel 5’s live coverage at the link above. Although there are no confirmed deaths as of right now, there is a good chance that many people, perhaps dozens, could be dead — and there are clearly huge numbers of injured. This is a major, major story.

UPDATE x3: Someone sent a local TV station this video of the explosion. Incredible.

UPDATE x4: I think the video in the last update is from this far more rough and intense clip, courtesy of happyfeet:

Wow.

UPDATE x5: Horrific.

BREAKING: Stunning photo of apartment near explosion in #West Texas – @roncorning twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) April 18, 2013

UPDATE x6: The anniversary of the famous Texas City explosion was yesterday. Check the New York Times front page from April 17, 1947.

UPDATE x7: Here is that front page for those philosophically opposed to clicking links:

Photo: New York Times front page, April 17, 1947 tmblr.co/ZqxiutiyNhO7

— BuzzFeed Politics (@BuzzFeedPol) April 18, 2013

UPDATE x8: An official just said: “We do have confirmed fatalities.” He compared the damage to the Oklahoma City bombing or Iraq.

UPDATE x9: Some pictures here.

UPDATE x10: They’re reporting that a pilot 4000 feet up in the air saw the explosion and then felt the concussive force of the explosion.

UPDATE x11: Seismically, this was a 2.1 on the Richter scale.

UPDATE x12 6:27 a.m. April 18: Such is the nature of this story that it’s actually a relief (?!) that reports today place the estimated death toll at “only” around 5 to 15 people.

Slow news day, huh? After looking at Hot Air’s post headlines, I could close my eyes and read them in green font on the back of my eyelids.

Because of all the red, you see.

The Boston Marathon bomber either was arrested or wasn’t; a gazillion anti-gun measures got voted down; a second ricin-laced letter was discovered and an arrest has been made . . . did I miss anything?

Oh yeah: that dude who is suspected of having murdered the prosecutors in North Texas? Yeah, his wife got arrested for capital murder:

The wife of a former Kaufman County justice of the peace told authorities that her husband shot and killed Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife, Cynthia, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

In an interview Tuesday with an investigator, Kim Williams, 46, “confessed to her involvement to the scheme and course of conduct in the shooting deaths,” according to the affidavit signed by Sgt. Matt Woodall of the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Department.

The affidavit said “Kim Williams described in detail her role with that of her husband, Eric Williams, whom she reported to have shot to death Mark Hasse on January 31, 2013, and Michael and Cynthia McLelland on March 30, 2013.”

Holy mackerel.

My thanks to JD for giving y’all timely posts on all the other developments so that you could comment away.

I announced this over the weekend, but wanted to repeat it on a weekday, when more people are reading. If you’re a Facebook user, you can now learn when new posts are on the site by following my new Facebook page. It is easy to remember: https://www.facebook.com/PattericoBlog. Go to that page and hit the “Like” button, and new posts will show up on your Facebook timeline. (As long as I remember to keep putting them there. None of this automated crap for me!)

Seriously, I am excited about using a new tool to connect with readers of the blog, so make sure to hit that Like button.

If you’re squeamish, I would not read further.

A janitor testified that he

threatened to quit working at the abortion clinic because he refused to pull any more flesh from aborted babies out of the plumbing. …

He told the jury toilets backed up one-two times a week and said he opened the outside clean out pipe and fetal parts such as babies’ arms came spilling out.

Johnson said he scooped up body parts with shovel and put them in a bag that was taken to rat infested basement. Johnson said a cat kept at the Gosnell clinic was there to deal with rat infestations that kept happening. He said the [cat] pooped in plants all over clinic.

. . . .

“If … a baby was about to come out, I would take the woman to the bathroom, they would sit on the toilet and basically the baby would fall out and it would be in the toilet,” testified Latosha Lewis, who worked for Gosnell for over eight years. “I would be rubbing her back and trying to calm her down for two, three, four hours until Dr. Gosnell comes. She would not move.”

Via Hot Air.

We simply must give people living in the shadows a path to voting Democat, er, to citizenship. Ed Morrissey quotes Fox News giving the alleged broad outlines:

In total, the bill creates a minimum 13-year path to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants, costing them each $2,000 in fines plus additional taxes. Applicants would have to meet other criteria as well in order to qualify.

It’s unclear whether the border security “triggers” will be enough to satisfy skeptical lawmakers. Conservatives say border security improvements should be verified before illegal immigrants can seek citizenship. Illegal immigrant advocates say their pathway should not be held up by that process.

Regardless, the plan dedicates billions to security efforts, including $3 billion to providing more border agents, customs agents and surveillance systems along the border; and $1.5 billion to building up border fencing.

From what I could tell from Marco Rubio’s defense of the bill, the “triggers” essentially mean that if border security targets are not reached, that will “trigger” a group of people to gather periodically in a room, knit their eyebrows together in a concerned fashion, and take a Good Hard Look at the Problem. Meanwhile, nothing about the pathway to voting Dem — dammit, I keep doing that! — to citizenship will be slowed down at all.

But maybe I’m wrong about that. We have broad outlines, but what does the bill actually and really do?

Silly! We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.