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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says that he would like to weaken existing gun control laws with any new legislation by decreasing the number of background checks required for people who apply for concealed carry permits in multiple states.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Rubio if his filibuster of a bill to expand background checks to include gun shows and Internet sales meant that he would also vote against the final bipartisan legislation.

"Well to be fair, I haven't read it in its totality, but I can tell you this, I am very skeptical of any plan that deals with the Second Amendment because invariably these gun laws end up impeding on the rights of people to bear arms who are law abiding and do nothing to keep criminals from buying them," the Florida Republican opined. "Criminals don't care what the law is."

"You have supported background checks in the Florida legislature," Wallace pointed out.

"Yeah," Rubio replied. "But those background checks in Florida are for people who have concealed weapons permits. If you have a concealed weapons permit, you do background check. I have no problem with that."

"But are they going to honor that in all 50 states? If someone goes to another state to buy a gun, do I have to undergo another background check or will my concealed weapons permit be de facto proof that I am not a criminal? These are the sorts of things that I hope we'll talk about."

According to The Washington Post, gun rights lobbyists and pro-gun lawmakers are hoping to weaken existing gun laws by amending a background checks bill in the Senate.

"Most worrisome to those who advocate new gun limits is an expected amendment that would achieve one of the National Rifle Association’s biggest goals: a 'national reciprocity' arrangement, in which a gun owner who receives a permit to carry a concealed weapon in any one state would then be allowed to do that anywhere in the country," the Post's Karen Tumulty and Ed O’Keefe wrote on Friday.

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A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family's welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.

On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean. Nearby, a choir of about 60 activists sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

"You are so weak, to not listen to a child," a parent said as Campfield walked away with the girl following.

"Why do you want to cut benefits for people?" 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.

"Well, I wouldn't as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they're exempt," the state Senator explained.

The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.

"Using children as props is shameful," he grumbled at one point.

But the protest tactics may have worked because Campfield decided to withdraw the bill before Thursday's vote after several other former supporters began to express doubts.

"You can say that withholding the money from the parents doesn’t harm the child, but you’re fooling yourself," Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R) pointed out.

Under Campfield's bill, families could have lost up to 30 percent of welfare benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program if a child did not attend school regularly and make "satisfactory academic progress."

Campfield, however, said he was not giving up on the idea. He asked the state Senate to further study the bill, giving him the opportunity to bring it back up next year.

"To me, it’s not a dead issue at all," he told reporters. “This may be a slight detour, but honestly I think this could hopefully make it even better.”

As for the protests, Campfield remarked, "It is what it is."

“There’s always going to be detractors.”

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Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on Wednesday explained that Al Gore and the United Nations get most of the blame for what he called a global warming "hoax," but filmmaker Michael Moore and billionaire George Soros deserved some credit too.

At a Environment and Public Works Committe on President Barack Obama's nomination of Gina McCarthy to be the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that he wanted the agency to listen to scientists instead of climate change deniers like Inhofe and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).

"What Sen. Inhofe has written and talked about is his belief that global warming is one of the major hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people, that it's a hoax pushed by people like Al Gore, the United Nations and the Hollywood elite," Sanders told the committee.

"I think that is a fair quote from Sen. Inhofe. Is that roughly right, Sen. Inhofe?" Sanders asked the Oklahoma Republican.

"Yes," Inhofe agreed. "I'd add to that list MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore and a few others."

"That's exactly the issue," Sanders said, turning back to the committee. "Do we agree with Sen. Inhofe that global warming is a hoax and that we do not want the federal government, the EPA, the Department of Energy to address that issue? Because it is a -- quote -- unquote -- hoax, according to Sen. Inhofe and others? Or do we believe and agree with the overwhelming majority of scientists who tell us that global warming is the most serious planetary crisis that we face, and that we must act boldly and aggressively to protect the future of this planet? That is what the issue is."

(h/t: The Hill)

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A gay man was arrested at a hospital in Missouri this week when he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, and now a restraining order is preventing him from any type of visitation.

Roger Gorley told WDAF that even though he has power of attorney to handle his partner's affairs, a family member asked him to leave when he visited Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Tuesday.

Gorley said he refused to leave his partner Allen's bedside, and that's when security put him in handcuffs and escorted him from the building.

"I was not recognized as being the husband, I wasn’t recognized as being the partner," Gorley explained.

He said the nurse refused to confirm that the couple shared power of attorney and made medical decision for each other.

"She didn't even bother to look it up, to check in to it," the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.

In a 2010 memorandum, President Barack Obama ordered hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding to allow visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners.

For its part, Research Medical Center insisted that it does not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

"We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process," the hospital said in a statement. "And, the patient`s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance."

Gorley cannot currently visit his partner at all due to a restraining order issued after his arrest on Tuesday.

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Republican Texas Rep. Joe Barton on Wednesday dismissed concerns that the Keystone XL pipeline could contribute to climate change, citing the biblical flood myth described in the book of Genesis as evidence that climate change was not man made.

BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski obtained video of Barton speaking to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in support of the Northern Route Approval Act, a bill that could allow Congress to override President Barack Obama if he refuses to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline extension.

"I don't think it's a secret that I'm a proponent and supporter of the Keystone pipeline," Barton explained.

In contrast to Barton's past insistence that global warming science is "pretty weak stuff," the Texas Republican took a different tack in Wednesday's hearing.

"I don't deny that the climate is changing," he said. "I think you can have an honest difference of opinion on what's causing that change without automatically being either all-in that it's all because of mankind or it's all just natural. I think there's a divergence of evidence."

"I would point out if you're a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change. And that certainly wasn't because mankind overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."

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The founder of a tea party group in Oklahoma was charged with two felonies on Tuesday for allegedly sending threatening emails to a Republican lawmaker after he refused buy in to the notion that the United Nations was conspiring to transform the country into a communist dictatorship.

According to the Oklahoman, 54-year-old Sooner Tea Party founder Al Gerhart faces up to five years in prison for blackmail and violating the state computer crimes act.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation determined that Gerhart admitted sending an email to state Sen. Cliff Branan (R) "that was intended to threaten and intimidate him."

Gerhart had been angry because Branan refused to allow a vote on a bill that would have ensured Oklahoma cities do not participate in Agenda 21, a United Nations initiative to promote environmentally sustainable development. Conspiracy theorists on the right have long thought that Agenda 21 was a "conspiracy to transform America from the land of the free, to the land of the collective” through “a mind-control" tactic called the Delphi technique.

Although the Oklahoma state House had passed House Bill 1412, Branan refused to bring it up in the state Senate because he said it was based on a "fringe conspiracy."

"Branan, Get that bill heard or I will make sure you regret not doing it," Gerhart wrote in the email. "I will make you the laughing stock of the Senate if I don't hear that this bill will be heard and passed. We will dig into your past, yoru [sic] family, your associates and once we start on you there will be no end to it. This is a promise."

At a press conference last week, the tea party leader admitted that he sent the email.

"Political pain and embarrassment will be necessary if the citizens expect to regain control of this Senate down here from the state chamber of commerce and special interests," he insisted. "The time for ‘nice' behavior is over with."

Gerhart suggested to reporters that there was "scuttlebutt" at the state Capitol that the state senator pushed for criminal charges because he was afraid the Sooner Tea Party would reveal infidelities.

On Tuesday, a judge set a bail of $15,000 and ordered Gerhart to stay at least 1,000 feet from Branan and his family.

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Conservative rocker Ted Nugent on Monday insisted that he had just been using a metaphor when he called President Barack Obama "the Chicago gangster" and then asked a NRA television host to "help me shoot somebody."

In an interview on NRA News, host Cam Edwards explained that the president's proposed universal background check legislation might as well be called "the Ban Ted Nugent Act of 2013."

"Do you realize, Ted, that under the language right now, any time somebody went to your ranch and you loaned them a gun to do some hunting or to do some plinking that would be a five-year felony?" Edwards told Nugent.

The Motor City Madman reminded Edwards that it was only a year ago that he had promised to be "dead or in jail" by the Spring of 2013 if Obama was re-elected.

"And I know it caught a lot of my friends off guard, when I said if this America-hater, if this freedom-hater, if this enemy of America becomes the president again I'll either be dead or in jail," Nugent recalled. "So it's funny that I might be dead or in jail. And that is so indicative of how callous and disconnected some are, because you are talking about arbitrary, punitive, capricious draconian felonies."

The rocker went on to complain that most people were not willing to take action even thought the federal government had engaged in "freedom-stomping and jack-booted thuggery."

"And here we are, with the Chicago gangster, ACORN rip-off scam-artist-in-chief because we, who know better, were silent," he quipped. "And the Nugent guy, well he's a radical. And again, it's not about me. I don't want a pat on the back. I don't need one."

"But when I kick the door down to the enemy's camp, would you help me shoot somebody?" Nugent asked Edwards. "Just help me clear the room."

He quickly added that his threat to "shoot somebody" had been "a metaphor."

"I'm not recommending shooting anybody. It's a metaphor of how to counterpunch the enemy if someone is willing to be on the frontline."

After interviewing Nugent last year, the Secret Service eventually determined that he was not a threat to the president.

(h/t: Media Matters)

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A disgraced former Navy chaplain explained on Monday that Jesus Christ was effectively a "biologist" because he knew that "three women and a dog" can't make a baby.

In a Monday interview, Internet talk show host David Pakman asked conservative former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt if he acknowledged that there was a trend in the United States toward the legalization of LGBT rights, decriminalization of marijuana and support of reproductive rights for women.

Klingenschmitt explained that there was a "polarization" between some Americans becoming more liberal and some churches that were becoming more conservative.

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Conservative supporters Margaret Thatcher expressed outraged on Monday after CNN marked the death of the the former British prime minister by airing a photo of her with former BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile, a suspected pedophile.

In a CNN Starting Point segment soon after the news of Thatcher's death broke on Monday, the morning show displayed the black and white photo of Thatcher and Savile appearing together at an event in the 1980s to support the NSPCC children's charity. CNN showed the photo at least four times during the five-minute segment.

Scotland Yard announced that in 2012 that it had launched an investigation about a year after Savile's death in October 2011 into allegations that he had sexually abused hundreds of children.

Wall Street Journal Social Media Editor Neal Mann noted on Twitter that CNN "obviously didn't get the memo" when it ran the photo of Thatcher with Savile.

"That is the picture CNN chose to run for Margaret Thatcher’s obituary? A pedophile?" Michelle Malkin's Twitchy website asked, accompanied by a list of tweets by conservatives slamming CNN's decision.

"Whoever's doing the Thatcher montage on CNN is either an idiot or a sly lefty. Repeated images of Thatcher with Pinochet and Saville...," David Tumilty wrote.

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Conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Monday linked an MSNBC promotional advertisement about public education to conspiracy theories that contend the United Nations plans to use mind control to establish a communist dictatorship and that the Obama administration is using school testing standards for "leftist indoctrination."

Last week, conservative websites like Newsbusters and the Daily Caller cited MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry's promo about the need for public education as evidence that liberals intended to usurp parental sovereignty.

"We have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children," Harris-Perry says in the spot. "So part of it is, we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility, and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments."

On Monday, The Daily Caller's Jim Treacher featured the video with the headline, "MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry wants your children." And the Media Research Center's snarky headline borrowed a popular Internet meme: "Shorter Melissa Harris-Perry: All Your Kids Are Belong to Us."

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