The Welcoming Committee is still hard at work out there:

"The Space Shuttle Independence which resides at the Space Center in Houston, Texas has been hit by vandals overnight.

The graffiti reads 'Houston we are the problem.' The rest of the message is said to be highly offensive and racist but has not been released to the media."

Not to worry:

Based on history, I'm sure it says, "Whitey, go home" or something.

You can handle it,...

 

"A Houston electrician known mostly for his personal crusades against LGBT rights and the city’s lesbian mayor has won a seat on the Houston Community College Board of Trustees after pretending in campaign materials to be African American,…

…KHOU reported that Wilson pulled stock images of people of color from websites and magazines and used them to make fliers to distribute in his district.

Wilson, a conservative white Republican with tea party leanings, realized that he had little to no chance of beating 24-year incumbent Austin in his heavily African-American district, so Wilson decided not to run as a white man."

A jury convicted a doctor of murder early Saturday in the death of his wife six years ago, bringing an end to a trial that became the nation's latest true-crime cable TV obsession with its tales of jailhouse snitches, forced plastic surgery, philandering and betrayal.

The case shocked the Mormon community of Pleasant Grove, 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, and captured national attention because the defendant was a wealthy doctor and a lawyer, a father of eight in a picture-perfect family and former bishop in his local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The daughters went to work uncovering what they call their father's secret life. They abandoned him while dogging authorities to open a murder investigation. It wasn't until MacNeill's release in July 2012 from a federal prison in Texas on charges of fraud that Utah prosecutors moved to file charges of murder and obstruction of justice.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the Dallas Fort Worth airport with a long layover. I spent the time on my laptop, catching up on grading. Out of nowhere, a white man sporting a camouflage baseball cap and a khaki rucksack hitched over one shoulder began pacing back and forth in front of me, muttering, “nigger.” I rarely type that word out, I try not to ever say it, but sometimes, you need to say “nigger,” instead of “the N-word.” Sometimes, you need to represent the world as it really is despite the discomfort that reality may cause.

I thought I couldn’t possibly have heard that man correctly. It was the middle of the day. The year is 2013. The terminal was crowded. Then this man looked right at me, raised his voice, and said, “Fat ass nigger.” Yes, he was talking to me.

The Houston Chronicle criticizes Ted Cruz

Is the tea party part of the GOP? Most Republicans say no.