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The host of Fox & Friends on Thursday decided to find out once and for all if the "War on Christmas" was real by asking a mythical figure who listens to the fantasies of children.

"I like to think that I'm a Santa for boys and girls of all ages," Santa Claus impersonator Sal Lizard told Fox News host Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson.

"What do you make of the political correctness part of our culture?" Carlson wondered. "Have you seen it change over time?"

"There was a time a few years back when suddenly I started showing up at Christmas parties and was told that they were having holiday parties, so therefore, they didn't need a Santa anymore," Lizard explained. "And that was the time that the Surgeon General said that Santa should lay off the cookies and start picking up more carrots and broccoli. And I heard that Santas in Australia had to say 'Ha, ha, ha!' so as not to offend certain gals. And that Santas in England weren't weren't allowed to have children on their laps anymore, so as not to create an image of impropriety."

A Media Matters analysis recently determined that culture warrior Bill O'Reilly, who is leading the charge on the "War on Christmas" for Fox News, had spent three times more airtime on the manufactured war as on actual wars for the second straight year. Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 18, O'Reilly spent over 55 minutes talking about the "War on Christmas," while spending only 15 minutes covering Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Gaza combined.

(h/t: Think Progress)

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After Mitt Romney's son, Tagg, said recently said that he wanted to punch President Barack Obama for insulting his dad, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell on Thursday invited the younger Romney to "take a swing at me."

Following Tuesday's second 2012 presidential debate, Tagg Romney explained how he wished he could to react when he felt like the president was calling his dad "a liar."

"Well — jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him," he told radio host Bill Lumaye. “But you know you can’t do that because, well, first there is a lot of Secret Service between you and him but also because this is the nature of the process, they’re going to do everything they can do to make my dad into someone he is not.”

On Thursday, Ann Romney pointed out that her husband and five sons had not served their country by joining the military because they found "different ways of serving" by going on religious missions in France, England, Australia and Chile as part of their obligation to the Mormon church.

"Serving in war is not against the Romney family religion, but it is against the Romney family tradition of safely and always pursuing self interest," O'Donnell charged during his Thursday show, noting that the Romney men had refused "to serve in the military while championing every war that comes along and urging us to another one in Iran right now."

"The flawlessly consistent, intergenerational combat cowardice of Romney men makes today's threat of physical violence from a Romney man all the more surprising," the MSNBC host added, referring to Tagg Romney's desire to deck the president.

O'Donnell then looked into the camera and spoke directly to "Taggart":

When I hear you talking about taking a swing and taking punches, why do I get the feeling that you've never actually taken a punch? Or thrown a punch? I didn't have that luxury in the part of Boston that I grew up in. But in your rich, suburban Boston life, with your father filling a $100 million trust fund for you, I don't know, I just get the feeling that things were kind of different for you.

Now, I know you've got a lot -- a lot to be pissed off at these days, starting with the name Taggart, which you got every right to be wicked pissed off at for every day for the 42 years of your life. So, let me try to help you deal with all this aggression you're feeling right now.

You're mad at President Obama for calling your father a liar? Well, let's get something straight, he didn't call your father a liar, I did. The president just said that what your father said isn't true. I've been saying all year that your father is a liar, I've repeatedly said that your father lies and is trying to lie his way into the White House.

You want to take a swing at someone for calling your old man a liar? Take a swing at me. Come on, come on. And don't worry, there won't be any Secret Service involved. Just us. And I'll make it easy for you, I'll come to you. Anytime, anywhere."

"Go ahead, Taggart, take your best shot," O'Donnell concluded.

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Jon Stewart took his turn piling on Mitt Romney for his disastrous start to his overseas tour, where he managed to insult everyone and their grandmother from the Olympic committee to politicians on both sides of the aisle in the UK.

I'm guessing he's saving going after Mittens debut in Israel for Tuesday's show.

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A senior adviser to President Barack Obama's reelection campaign on Sunday lamented that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had "embarrassed" the U.S. by insulting Britain as they kicked off the Olympic games last week.

Robert Gibbs told ABC's Matthew Dowd that Romney had disgraced himself "in front of our strongest ally in the world."

"Look, Mitt Romney wondered aloud whether London was ready for the Olympics, and I think it's clear that voters in this country wonder aloud whether Mitt Romney is ready for the world," Gibbs quipped. "And I think the world is not yet ready for Mitt Romney."

"Literally to go overseas, stand in the county of our strongest ally -- in the Olympics that they had been preparing years for -- and question whether or not they're ready does make you wonder whether or not he ready to be commander in chief."

"I thought it was embarrassing for our country," Gibbs added.

In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams last week, Romney had offended Brits when he suggested that London wasn’t ready for the games.

“It’s hard to know just how well it will turn out,” the candidate said. “There are a few things that were disconcerting. The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials — that obviously is not something which is encouraging.”

During a torch lighting ceremony, London Mayor Boris Johnson made a point of calling out Romney by name in front of tens of thousands of people.

“There are some people coming from around the world who don’t yet know about all the preparations we’ve done to get London ready in the last seven years,” Johnson told the massive crowd in Hyde Park. “There’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready.”

“Are we ready? Are we ready? Yes, we are!”

Even conservative Prime Minister David Cameron took a jab at Romney's 2002 games in Salt Lake City, saying, "Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."

The next day, the British press panned the GOP hopeful as “devoid of charm, offensive and a wazzock.”

“Good old Mitt,” The Guardian‘s Paul Harris tweeted. “His charm offensive in the UK failed to be charming, but he really pulled off the offensive bit.”

(h/t: Politico)

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A Republican strategist who managed former Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign says that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney's recent gaffes during a trip to London reinforced the appearance that he is "aloof and not always understanding the situation."

Chip Saltsman on Sunday told Fox News host Chris Wallace that Romney had made an "unforced error" in London by suggesting that the British were not prepared for the Olympics.

"And unforced errors usually lose the match," Saltsman explained. "At the end of the day, this should have been a lay-up trip. When you go to London you'd think since he's got the Olympic experience, the guy writing the memo would say, be positive. I mean, this is an exciting time for London."

"But I think what you saw there was kind of CEO Mitt Romney come out -- which is kind of his default position -- and say, you know, 'Looks pretty good but there's problems -- could be problems. We need to work on this.' And people were like going, 'Huh?'"

Saltsman added: "And this, unfortunately, reinforces the kind of Mitt Romney image of kind of aloof and not always understanding the situation."

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It seems the "Brown-Haired Guy Who Isn't Steve Doocy" got his panties in a twist on Fox & Friends this Friday over Mitten's treatment by the press and politicians over in the U.K.: Fox host: Brits shouldn't be so mean to Mitt ... after all, he could be president:

Hahaha, these guys are so deep inside their own bubbles that it never seems to have occurred to Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade that maybe Mitt is the one who should have been nicer to the Brits because he might someday become president.

Even Chris Wallace doesn't buy Kilmeade's take, arguing that perhaps it was a mistake for Romney to have "seemed to go out of his way to offend the Brits." Kilmeade dismissed Romney's verbal miscue as nothing more than "a candid response to a security question," adding that he believes "the British press better back off, and so should the officials — this guy could be president."

TPM has more on Romney's bad start to his overseas trip here: Mitt’s British Blunders: How It Played In The UK Press.

From The Daily Show April 21, 2010:

For the first time ever, British candidates import American-style democratic theatrics.

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From Democracy Now -- George Monbiot: UK Inquiry “Toothless” and “Feeble” in Probing Origins of Iraq War:

As the Iraq war continues, Britain is in the midst of an ongoing public inquiry into the UK’s role in the US-led war in 2003 invasion. The public hearings began in late November and the committee is expected to report its findings by June of this year. We speak to author and columnist George Monbiot, who has begun a campaign encouraging citizen’s arrests of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for crimes against peace in Iraq.

You can watch the entire program at Democracy Now.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Britain and to the ongoing public inquiry into the Britain’s role in the US-led war in Iraq. Chaired by Sir John Chilcot, the inquiry will consider Britain’s role in Iraq from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to military action, the invasion and the aftermath. The public hearings began in late November, and the committee is expected to report its findings by June of this year.

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