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The acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner on Friday told Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) that applications for 501(c)4 groups had doubled since the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling, which opened the floodgates for unlimited political spending by corporations.

"The applications for this type of corporation increased dramatically, did it not?" Rangel asked acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller at a House Committee on Ways and Means hearing.

"They did double," Miller agreed.

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A Republican congressman from North Dakota suggested to the graduating class at University of Mary earlier this month that the Boston Marathon bombings, the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks and multiple school shootings were all connected to the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

In a video clip pointed out by The Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel on Thursday, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) says that the ideal of American Exceptionalism has been "turned upside down."

Cramer notes that Bismarck news anchor A.J. Clemente had been fired for uttering a "vulgarity on live television."

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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who is a Muslim, told Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday that he was making a mistake with calls to profile the Islamic community in the United States because similar actions in the past had created a "national stain" on the country.

NBC host David Gregory noted in a Sunday interview with both congressmen that King had insisted to the National Review that law enforcement should not be "bound by political correctness" after two Muslim men with a Chechen background were accused of carrying out bombings at the Boston Marathon.

"Absolutely," King agreed. "What the NYPD is doing in New York with a thousand police officers focusing on this issue, knowing where the threat is coming from. Now, most Muslims are outstanding people, but the threat is coming from the Muslim community."

"You're a Muslim," Gregory pointed out to Ellison. "This concerns you on civil libertarian grounds and other areas."

"Well, I'm an American," Ellison replied. "And I'm concerned about national safety -- public safety -- just like everyone is. But I think it's ineffective law enforcement to go after a particular community. I think that what we need to do is look at behavior and follow those needs where they would lead."

"Once you start saying, we're going to dragnet or surveil a community, what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community, and you go after people who don't have anything to do with it," he added, noting that the recent poison ricin letters sent to President Barack Obama and other elected officials were terrorist attacks that had not come from the Muslim community.

"And remember, we went after one community in World War II. And the Japanese internment is a nation stain on our country. And we are still apologizing for it."

King interrupted: "No one is talking about internment! We are talking about following the Constitution."

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Bill Maher answered his own question while discussing the political prospects for Anthony Weiner and whether he is able to make a comeback in New York, compared to Mr. Appalachian trail, Mark Sanford, who has already been forgiven and won his party's primary for the upcoming House race in South Carolina.

As Maher explained during his New Rules segment this Friday, the Republicans are the Christian party and "there's nothing Evangelicals eat up like a redemption story," but when it comes to the Jewish guy from New York, "no Jesus mulligan for him."

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday became irate and yelled at Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during a Senate hearing at the suggestion that he had used last week's Boston Marathon bombing to try and delay immigration reform.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday, Grassley had said that knowing the immigration status of the Boston bombers would "help shed light on the weaknesses of our system."

"How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?" he asked.

In his opening remarks on Monday, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that he was troubled that some people would use the tragedy in Boston to slow down immigration reform.

"Let no one be so cruel as to try to use the heinous act of these two young men last week to derail the dreams and futures of millions of hardworking people," Leahy remarked. "A nation as strong as ours can welcome the oppressed and persecuted without making compromise on our security. We are capable of vigilance in pursuit of these values."

Grassley made it clear that he had taken Leahy's opening statement personally.

"If you want to want to avoid partisanship, I would say, let's be very deliberate," the Iowa Republican said. "And I want you to take note of the fact that when you proposed gun legislation, I didn't accuse you of using the Norsetown [sic] killings as an excuse."

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Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on Sunday lashed out at New York Rep. Peter King (R) for creating "disdain and hatred" for Muslims following last week's bombing in Boston.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked King in a Sunday interview if he agreed that "political correctness be damned, we have to do more effective surveillance inside the Muslim community."

"The threat is coming from within the Muslim community within these cases in New York," King asserted. "They are getting people in our country, who are under the radar screen, who have clean records. We saw it in the Times Square bomber, the subway bomber in New York. And now we've seen it -- it appears -- in Massachusetts."

"And 99 percent of the Muslims are outstanding Americans. The fact is, that's where the threat is coming from," he added. "If you know where the threat is coming from a certain community, that's where you have to look."

Feinstein, however, argued that King's rhetoric was not very helpful.

"I think the important thing is to get the facts, let the investigation proceed," she pointed out. "With respect to whether we are doing enough in the Muslim community, I think we should take a look at that."

"But I don't think we need to go and develop some real disdain and hatred on television about it."

Wallace interrupted: "I must say, I don't think that's what Congressman King was saying. He was saying, that's where the threat is coming from, we have to address the threat."

"Well, this came at this point from two individuals," Feinstein explained. "That's what we really do know. We do not know what their connections are. So, I think we ought to find out before we begin to charge them with all kinds of associations."

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Rep. Peter King (R-NY) says that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev should be treated as an enemy combatant and does not deserve to be informed of his Miranda rights to remain silent because the "battlefield is now in the United States."

In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) if Tsarnaev should be treated as a criminal or an enemy combatant.

Feinstein argued that providing a Miranda warning to the suspect, who is a U.S. citizen, was "the only legal way to proceed."

"I do not believe that under the military commission law that he is eligible for that," she explained. "It would be unconstitutional to do that."

But King disagreed, saying that Tsarnaev "should be treated as a enemy combatant for the purpose of interrogation."

"The reason for it is there are so many questions unanswered, there are so many potential links to terrorism here," he continued. "Also, the battlefield is now in the United States. So, I believe he is an enemy combatant."

The New York Republican added that the suspect would be tried in a civilian court and the statements taken during interrogations could not be used against him in the trial.

"But right now he is one of the only links we have in any Chechen involvement in the al Qaeda movement, in the overall Islamist movement. And we don't know, are there other conspirators out there? Are there other explosives out there? Where did they get their radicalization? Are there mosques, imams that we should be looking at? Who did his brother meet with when he was in Russia, in Chechnya? These are only questions that I believe can be obtained if he does not get is Miranda rights."

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) corrected NBC host David Gregory on Sunday after he repeated the National Rifle Association's (NRA) talking points in opposition to expanding gun background checks even though only 10 percent of the country agrees with the lobbying group.

During a panel discussion on NBC's Meet the Press, Gregory argued that "not a lot is about to be accomplished" even if the Senate succeeds in passing a bill to close the so-called gun show loophole and expand background checks to Internet sales.

"I disagree," Gillibrand insisted. "I think we have a very good start on beginning to crack down on gun crime. And the bottom line is the families of Newtown, the families all across America who lose children every single day, they deserve a vote, they deserve an answer, they deserve leadership out of Washington."

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) argued that the background check proposal "would serve primarily to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens, while doing little of anything to prevent tragedies like [Newtown] from occurring in the future."

Gregory asked Gillibrand if supporting gun control would be "tough" to do after she had touted a pro-NRA voting record during the 2008 election.

"That's why I know this bill will work," the New York Democrat explained. "It is making sure you protect Second Amendment rights. We're not undermining Second Amendment rights by saying criminals have to go through a background check before they can buy that weapon or straw purchasers and trafficker can't be stemming their guns straight into these communities."

"But the NRA doesn't believe that," Gregory interrupted. "The NRA does not agree."

"This is not about the NRA!" Gillibrand exclaimed. "This is about families! This is about America! Seventy-percent of NRA members like the background check bill, like the straw purchase bill. They even support things like assault weapons ban."

"So if you're talking about people and if you're talking about America and what Americans want, Americans want these reforms. We just saw that mother who lost her child, you cannot do nothing in the face of that tragedy!"

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The chief of police in Albany, New York says that his department just wanted a "realistic" setting when it frightened residents in a poor, predominately African-American neighborhood with SWAT training exercises that included firing blank ammunition and exploding flash grenades.

On Thursday, Albany's SWAT team shocked nearby residents when it stormed a public housing complex that was scheduled to be demolished, according to the Times Union. Photos circulated on Facebook over the weekend showed police in tactical gear, spent shell casings and fake blood.

In a statement on Monday, Police Chief Steven Krokoff called the training "insensitive."

"In light of the ever-increasing threats to communities across the nation, I have directed our department to provide the most up-to-date training in a manner that is as realistic as possible," the police chief said. "I certainly did not mean to offend the very people that we are training to protect."

"In retrospect, it was insensitive to conduct this type of training in the vicinity of occupied residences. We will review how we conduct our neighborhood-based training in the future and include the community in evaluating its appropriateness."

Albany NAACP President Bernie Bryan wondered why police had chosen the housing project so close to a poor neighborhood.

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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.