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This is one subject that Saturday Night Live can never spend too much time mocking IMHO, and that's the several hour long debacle that manages to make even the rest of cable "news" look good by comparison, Fox & Friends. Their cold open began with the group opining over President Obama calling NBA player Jason Collins, who just came out, a hero -- and if you are unfortunate enough to actually watch any of Fox's programming, it's sadly not too far off from the carping from the talking heads on that network.

They then moved onto whether New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might have any luck with pushing for more gun control regulation and whether everyone in the country is ready to listen to a "northeastern Jewish billionaire" on the topic -- and they had the crew mocking him for his attempted large soda ban.

There's enough material on Fox every day that Saturday Night Live could make an entire hour out of all of their programming and not just mocking Fox & Friends. For that matter, if anyone wanted to devote an entire network to mocking them -- they would never run out of material as well. There are so many things wrong with the crap that network pumps out on a daily basis that the list is endless.

Sadly, that would mean subjecting someone to watching them 24/7 first to come up with the material, and I wouldn't wish that punishment on anyone.

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NBC host David Gregory on Sunday confronted National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre for "thwarting the will" of the public by opposing universal background checks while a vast majority of the public supports them.

Following an interview where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he planned to use part of his personal fortune to defeat candidates who oppose gun control, Gregory asked LaPierre if he was "preparing to arm politically people" support gun rights?

"We have people sending us five, 10, 15 dollar checks, saying, 'Stand up to this guy that says we can only have three bullets,'" the NRA chief explained. "Stand up to this guy that says ridiculous things like the NRA wants firearms with nukes on them. I mean, it's insane the stuff he says."

"Ninety percent of people want background checks," Gregory pointed out. "Among people who own guns, 85 percent support [background checks]. Are you thwarting the will of the American people by standing in opposition to universal background checks?"

"No, not at all," LaPierre insisted. "Because here's the thing, the whole thing -- universal checks -- is a dishonest premise. There's not a bill on the Hill that provide a universal checks, criminals aren't going to be checked, they're not going to do this. The shooters in Tucson, in Aurora, in Newtown -- they're not going to be checked, they're unrecognizable."

The pro-gun lobbyist suggested that the NRA would even oppose the current background check system if Congress tried to pass it again today because "it's a speed bump for the law abiding."

"It slows down the law abiding and does nothing to anybody else," he insisted.

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Rachel Maddow detailed the surprising dynamic going on in a Democratic primary in Illinois where a former congresswoman likely won't win because of her vocal support of the gun nuts lobby, even to the point of channelling Wayne LaPierre with her [gun laws] "always hurt law-abiding citizens" crap from a 2010 YouTube video for a Second Amendment Freedom Rally in Chicago.

via Maddow Blog:

As Rachel noted on the show on Friday, a super PAC run by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I) has taken an active interest in the special election, hitting Chicago's airwaves with ads targeting Hutchinson and former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) for having earned "A" ratings from the National Rifle Association.

The RNA's grade, Rachel noted, "is a scarlet letter" in the heavily-Democratic district, so much so that it helped push Hutchinson out of the race altogether.

If there were any doubts that the post-Newtown environment has changed, ask yourself: when was the last time a congressional candidate was forced to quit after taking heat over a positive NRA rating?

Robin Kelly, meanwhile, is eager to tout her "F" rating from the right-wing organization. Though the Democratic primary remains quite crowded, the race increasing appears to be a showdown between Kelly, who enjoys backing from Bloomberg and progressive groups like the CREDO super PAC, and Halvorson, who is scrambling to convince voters she disagrees with the NRA on a series of key issues, her previous boasts about her "A" rating notwithstanding.

The Democratic primary is a week from tomorrow, the winner of which is very likely to win the seat. Given the national implications, it's a race worth watching -- we haven't seen one like this in a long while, but it may prove to be a sign of things to come.

For her part, Halvorson blames outside groups like Bloomberg's PAC for trying to buy a congressional seat. Halvorson even claims she's still the frontrunner, seemingly oblivious to her fate. Or perhaps she figures she'll land a gig at Fox News slamming Democrats anyway, as evidenced by this segment with Megyn Kelly last week.

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Jon Stewart took apart the hypocritical Republicans who keep saying we don't need any new gun regulations, because we already have laws on the books that aren't being enforced... because they made sure there was no way the ATF could actually do its job.

And as Stewart pointed out, they haven't had a permanent director "since Congress required its director to face Senate confirmation in 2006, mostly because of objections to each of the nominees from Republicans and gun rights groups." Sadly as Stewart discussed here as well, they've been making the agency work with both of their hands tied behind their back.

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Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) says that the presidential election is now trending towards President Barack Obama because of Hurricane Sandy.

During a Sunday panel segment on State of the Union, CNN's Candy Crowley noted that the president had gotten a boost after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his endorsement in the aftermath of the super storm.

"He said that he thinks President Obama is better on the issue of climate change," CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash explained. "And that the hurricane -- the super storm -- was a reminder from his perspective of what's going on with the climate."

"But that wasn't the best thing that happened to Barack Obama this week," Barbour noted. "The hurricane is what broke Romney's momentum. I don't think there's any question about it."

"Any day that the news media is not talking about jobs and the economy, taxes and spending, deficits and debt, Obamacare and energy is a good day for Barack Obama. You had a blackout -- you had a blackout on all of those issues that started about last Saturday and lasted until about yesterday. That was what was really good for Barack Obama."

Barbour added that Obama's proactive response to Hurricane Sandy didn't "help him a bit."

"What happened is that the news media absolutely blacked out any coverage of the issues that have been the issues of this campaign," the former governor insisted. "Nothing was stopping Romney's momentum. No matter what Obama did, he couldn't stop the momentum. This blackout -- and I'm not blaming the news media -- just all the news coverage was about everything but Obama's policies and the results of those policies."

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After thanking everyone from the politicians, to first responders in what he dubbed "A Daily Show Tribute to Institutional Competence" for the response to Hurricane Sandy which as we all know, just ravaged the east coast, Jon Stewart had a bit of fun with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his change of heart towards his new best friend, President Barack Obama.

After showing a clip of Christie from twelve days ago showing the governor saying President Obama was fumbling around in the dark "clutching for the light switch of leadership," followed by Christie thanking the President over and over for his great leadership after the hurricane hit, Stewart quipped, "Yeah, I guess he found that f**king light switch, huh?"

As Stewart noted, Christie had time to "climb down from Bulls**t Mountain and deal with this Obama (the real Obama) not this Obama (Clint Eastwood talking to a chair). Not everybody got the memo.

Cue the knuckleheads over at Fox & Friends asking Christie when he's going to bring in Romney for a photo op which we covered here.

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CBS's Bob Schieffer spoke to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this Sunday about the shootings in Aurora, CO this weekend and unlike some of our other politicians out there, Bloomberg wasn't worried about any backlash from the NRA with speaking out on the need for some rational gun control laws in America and to enforce the ones that are already on the books.

NYC Mayor: Hold Obama, Romney accountable on gun control:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a question for President Obama and Mitt Romney in response to the mass shootings in Colorado: "What are you going to do?"

"You know, Governor Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts actually passed a ban on assault weapons, and President Obama when he came into office in 2008 said he would reinstitute a federal ban on assault weapons," Bloomberg told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, in an interview for "Face the Nation."

"The governor has apparently changed his views, and the president has spent the last three years trying to avoid the issue - or if he's facing it, I don't know anybody that's seen him face it.

"It's time for both of them to be called, held accountable," he continued. "You know, we spend all our time talking about tax returns, and gaffes, and things like that. This is one of those issues, along with a handful of others, that really matter to the American public. It matters to the future of our country, it matters to you and me and to our children and grandchildren. And it's time I think that we hold them accountable and say, 'Okay, you want our votes? What are you going to do?'"

Continue reading »

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Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is warning that halting New York City's controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy, which he calls "racial profiling," will lead to an increase in the city's crime rate.

On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) proposed decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana as a way to cut down on the low-level arrests that when occur each year New York City police force tens of thousands of black and Latino residents to empty their pockets as a part of the "stop-and-frisk" practice.

"This is about racism," O'Reilly admitted on Tuesday. "This is a racial story, not a drug story. Here in the city we have 'stop-and-frisk' policy which has brought crime way down in New York. Way down. What that is, is the cops know who the wise guys are, they know who the dealers are, they know who the punks are and they know who the muggers are. And they try to get these guys on anything. It's like getting Al Capone on tax evasion instead of murder."

"They left hates that!" the culture warrior continued. "Because it is racial profiling, but it's really criminal profiling. However, there are a number of people who are stopped and frisked who don't have anything and they get angry and I understand that."

"But it's a crime-fighting technique that they are now going to take away from the NYPD. And mark my words, street crime in New York will go up."

According to recent analysis of crime data, the NYPD stopped and frisked a record 685,724 last year, up from 97,296 during New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's first year in office. During that same period, the number of gunfire victims were virtually unchanged, 1,821 last year compared with 1,892 ten years ago.

An analysis by the New York Civil Liberties Union showed that during 2011, 88 percent of the nearly 700,000 people stopped were innocent and and 87 percent were black or Latino. And 2012 could be a record year for stop-and-frisks: Over 200,000 people were stopped in the first three months alone.

Watch this video from Fox News' Fox & Friends via Mediaite, broadcast June 5, 2012.

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Conservative columnist George Will on Sunday used outrage over New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on large sugary drinks to slam attempts to curb climate change.

"That's modern liberalism: They delight in bossing people around," Will complained to ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "What Bloomberg is saying [is] the government helps with your health care, the government's implicated in your health. Therefore, we own you. Therefore, the government can fine tune all the decisions you make pertinent to your health."

"This is one of the reasons liberals are so enamored over the issue of climate change," Will continued. "They say all our behaviors in some way effect the climate, therefore, the government -- meaning, we liberals, the party of government -- can fine tune all your behavior right down to the light bulbs you use."

Last week, Bloomberg proposed that certain businesses be banned from selling sugary drinks, like sodas, in containers larger than 16 fluid ounces.

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New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly got the first place honors in Keith Olbermann's list of Worst Persons for Monday night for their little fiasco this weekend with another over-hyped terrorism threat to distract from the Occupy Wall Street protesters that were showing up outside of Bloomberg's home.

Marcy Wheeler has more on that here -- The Bloomie and Kelly Show … with Fake Video Props!.

Runners up were deadbeat dad Rep. Joe Walsh -- VIDEO: Rep. Joe Walsh Calls Veterans Protesting Wall Street Un-American.

And child labor advocate and current GOP frontrunner, Newt Gingrich -- Newt Gingrich: "Child Labor Laws Are Stupid" -- UPDATED with Video!.