Just when you think they can't possibly sink any lower, they surprise you. The "story" Breitbart links to from that other cesspool, The Washington Examiner. So yeah, nothing there.

Anyway, I'm sure this latest "discovery" that the gays are evil (and Hitler was a leftist neener neener!) will make Niall Ferguson very happy.

There are some places you don't go, even when speculating. At least, you don't if you're a decent human being who doesn't imagine a grisly death of Chelsea Clinton or Sasha and Malia Obama for the sake of flogging the nontroversy that is Benghazi.

Eric Bolling is not a decent human being. He is a bad shill for bad right wing policy, but he has the added negative of being a guy who will say anything, just because he can. In this particular segment, he is trying to make hay out of the myth that the military was not sent in but told to stand down.

Think of this one second. If it was Alex or your daughter. Or if it was Malia or Sasha. Or if it was Chelsea Clinton, in Benghazi pinned down with mortars coming in and there's a 5-hour difference between when they first learned the emails came out saying there was an attack on Benghazi or a 4-hour difference between when Obama met with Pannetta and Biden.

Between then and the time that one of those precious children were injured or killed, don't you think we'd be asking different questions right now?

Had Darrell Issa allowed Thomas Pickering, the co-chair of the State Department's Accountability Review Board to testify, he would have heard this (and maybe Bolling would have heard it too, though I'm not sure):

PICKERING: The aircraft at Aviano were 2 to 3 hours away but there were no refueling aircraft available. I think that speaks for itself. It has all along. I don’t see any contradiction. … There should be no controversy over that. Aircraft were there but they were not available in a time span that could have made any serious difference in connection with the issue.

So would we be asking different questions? You bet your ass we would. For starters, Fox News would be falling all over themselves to stand up for the military, the joint chiefs, the State Department, and everyone in between. They would call in every damned general they could pay enough to go on Fox News and claim that said First Daughters put themselves in harm's way at the expense of national security, that it was tragic what happened but they should have taken the advice of the generals who told them to stay away.

That's what questions we'd be asking. Hey, Eric Bolling, wake up and get a clue. Those retired Navy SEALs and diplomats understood that there was inherent danger in moving around Libya. They chose to do it anyway because they believed in their mission, which was to try and use DIPLOMATIC means to help stabilize the country.

It's certainly telling that Bolling didn't mention the Bush daughters. Evidently Those Who May Be Used For Speculation can only be daughters of Democratic presidents.

Precious children, indeed. Precious enough that Eric Bolling should never let their names cross his lips ever again for ever and ever.

People from foreign states don’t fully recognize the importance of high school football in small Texas towns.

I remember about 20 years ago when the Democratic National Committee sent some Yankee yahoo to my area of Texas to teach us how to win elections. He planned the first big fundraiser on the same night as the high school homecoming game. We tried to explain to him that homecoming involved parking lot barbeques, big ole honker corsages, booked hotel rooms, and enough enough noise to be heard a mile against the breeze. Everybody in town shows up for homecoming.

“Awww…. it’s just a football game,” he argued and proceeded to have the fundraiser that night. Two people showed up – one drunk and one lost. I determined then and there to never give another dime to the DNC and I haven’t.

It appears that high school football in Texas has become so big that God has taken an interest and is picking sides.

Personally, I’m kinda disappointed that God waited so long to do this. I mean, I’m not questioning God, but wouldn’t a better time to pick sides is when Christians were being fed to the lions?

Better late than never, I guess, because God is right here right now. In Texas.

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If you spend any time at all on Twitter (and believe me, I don't blame you if you don't), Texas Republican Congressman Steve Stockman makes a habit of posting his insane thoughts and comments online. But even for him, this latest announcement only shows what a tasteless buffoon he is. (Yes, I know I already said he was a Republican, and that the buffoon part is a redundancy.)

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How mature of them! As we noted yesterday, on the day where Gina McCarthy's nomination for EPA head was to have been voted on in committee, Republicans decided a boycott was in order instead.

But not just any boycott. No, at least some of them decided it would be better to hang out with lobbyists at a nice lunch than do their damn jobs.

Weakening the EPA and obstructing its authority is a major priority for the polluting industries that fill many senators’ campaign war chests. At least three of the boycotting Republicans—Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)—won’t have to wait to hear the appreciation of their benefactors, since they’re raising money from the special interests impacted by EPA’s decisions on the same day as McCarthy’s vote.

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"Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research," says famous researcher. Here's my research of the links you need for Friday:

Connecting.The.Dots connects the dots between J. Edgar Hoover and Wayne LaPierre.

Slobber and Spittle reminds us of the lessons that we all forgot.

Herlander Walking is not amused.

Bonus track: Big Bad Bald Bastard eulogizes a giant in film history.

Round-up by Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors who also blogs at Dependable Renegade. Send tips to: mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com

This is a good example of what they call in Don's old office, "blowback." Because as Rumsfeld joined the white male Chick-Fil-A-loving chorus of yahoos screaming BENGHAZI!!!! -- he inadvertently shot himself in the foot.

You don't want to believe that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11? There is no body of evidence that cannot be ignored.
You don't want to believe that Iraq doesn't have WMD? There is no body of evidence that cannot be ignored.
You don't want to believe in global warming? There is no body of evidence that cannot be ignored.
You don't want to believe that tax cuts for rich people don't increase tax revenues? There is no body of evidence that cannot be ignored.

This game is fun! Thanks, Don.

Turns out Santa isn't the only one who sits on a throne of lies, Mom. Mom?

Open thread below...

If the only jobs left are service jobs, then they have to pay enough for people to live on. In the aftermath of our economic reconstruction, where all the money goes to the people at the top, I find it heartening that so many people are organizing and demanding a living wage:

ST. LOUIS • Rasheen Aldridge and a couple of his coworkers did not report Wednesday for their 11 a.m. shift at the Jimmy John's in Soulard.

Instead, they stood outside carrying protest signs with a group of supporters while four community activists entered the shop and notified the manager that those workers were on strike.

Later in the day, a handful of McDonald's workers did the same at a location in Ferguson.

Rasheen Aldridge and a couple of his coworkers did not report Wednesday for their 11 a.m. shift at the Jimmy John's in Soulard.

As in those efforts in others cities, the St. Louis workers are asking for $15 an hour instead of wages that hover closer to the minimum wage, which is $7.35 an hour in Missouri.

“I realize I'm not the CEO of a fast-food company,” said Aldridge, 19, a student at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.

But he said the $8 an hour he makes at Jimmy John's is not proper compensation for his work. It's not enough, for example, to pay for repairs to his car, which he sometimes uses to deliver sandwiches.

While Aldridge granted that $15 an hour may be a lofty goal, he said it was a good starting point for negotiations.

Instead, they stood outside carrying protest signs with a group of supporters while four community activists entered the shop and notified the manager that those workers were on strike.

Later in the day, a handful of McDonald's workers did the same at a location in Ferguson.

These employees are being joined by dozens of more fast food workers Thursday across the St. Louis region in a push for higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to form a union without retaliation. A rally in Delmar Loop is planned for Thursday afternoon.

Let's remember what this guy did: He led a company in scamming $40 billion from investors, companies and customers. So when we see someone like this getting treated very differently than if he were poor, black and held up a liquor store, it becomes apparent that we have a multi-tiered justice system -- and no superheroes coming to the rescue:

Jeffrey Skilling, the convicted former Enron Corp. chief executive officer, may get out of prison in as little as four years if a judge approves a deal with prosecutors over objections by victims of one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

In exchange for getting as many as 10 years cut from his 24-year sentence, Skilling will drop his bid for a new trial and end litigation over his conviction. A jury found he spearheaded a fraud of as much as $40 billion that destroyed the world’s largest energy trader in 2001.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in Houston said he would take into consideration comments by ex-Enron employees, investors and other victims before accepting or rejecting the deal.

A sentencing agreement submitted yesterday to Lake by prosecutors and Skilling’s lawyers calls for the former executive to give up all claims to $40 million in forfeited assets and be resentenced to 14 to 17 years in prison, according to a filing in federal court in Houston. The bulk of the reduction comes from an appellate ruling that takes nine years off because sentencing guidelines were improperly applied by Lake the first time.

Lake held a series of closed-doors status conferences in the case on May 2, May 3, and again yesterday.

“It seems unlikely that the government and Skilling’s lawyers would’ve presented a deal to the judge without confidence it would be approved,” David Berg, a Houston trial lawyer familiar with the Enron prosecutions and Lake, said in a phone interview. “That’s what three days of closed-door hearings have been about. I’m unaware of any criminal case where a deal was reached of this magnitude -- 14 years is a lot of time -- and the judge rejected it.”

Skilling, 59, has served more than six years of his 2006 sentence for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Given the nine years lopped off by the 2011 appellate ruling, and with the potential benefit of two more years off for good behavior and another year off for participation in a drug treatment program, Skilling could be released in 2017 or early 2018, according to his lawyer and the agreement.