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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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Marco Rubio claims he doesn't like or want to be racially profiling anyone, but he might be willing to make an exception for Muslim students. Nothing like watching him buy into the fearmongering and Islamophobia that's gone into high gear over at Faux "News" since the bombing attack last week.

After Boston, Rubio Entertains The Idea Of Not Granting Visas To Muslim Students:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday suggested that, given the attack on Boston carried out by two immigrants, he would consider barring young foreign Muslims from getting student visas to come the United States.

Prompted by host Neil Cavuto to address how the attack by the Tsarnaev brothers — neither of whom came to the country on student visas — had influenced immigration reform, Rubio said that he was willing to consider Fox News Host Bob Beckel’s suggestion that anyone who observes Islam should not get a student visa:

CAVUTO: Senator, there are some getting leery of all the Muslim students in America. Bob Beckel is among those saying stop grants visas, others speaking about slowing down the number getting into the country. What do you think?

RUBIO: We need to be open to changes that provide more security. I don’t like profiling anybody or singling or generally leading, on the other hand student visas are something this country does because it’s in our national interest but you don’t have a right to a student visa. I’m not prepared to take a firm position on restriction. I want to learn about what might have worked to prevent past attacks.

Islamophobia has been pervasive in the responses to last week’s attack on Boston. Read on...

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The police chief in Peoria, Arizona has launched an investigation into what activists are calling a "de facto immigration checkpoint" that nabbed young immigrants attending a speech President Barack Obama delivered on immigration reform last month.

"It was a de facto immigration checkpoint," Respeto executive director Lydia Guzman recently explained to KPNX.

According to police, the checkpoint began as an effort to inspect commercial vehicles, but Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers showed up voluntarily.

"We have an email list and that goes out to all the agencies -- law enforcement, different agencies," police spokesperson Amanda Jacinto said. "ICE happens to be one of the people on that list."

ICE, however, insisted that its agents attended the checkpoint at the request of the Arizona Department of Transportation, which had partnered with Peoria police.

Authorities said that 11 undocumented immigrants were detained during the three-day checkpoint operation. Ten of those detainees had been released by Tuesday.

Lino Garcia Paulino was detained as he was driving back from Phoenix with his pregnant wife. He spent a week in jail before a friend was able to pay the $3,000 for his bail. Paulino's wife was released after telling officers she was in the process of applying for citizenship.

Coincidentally, the checkpoint kicked off on Jan. 29, the same day that President Obama was speaking about immigration reform in nearby Las Vegas, and some of the young immigrants -- or DREAMers -- who attended his speech were also caught up in the operation.

"We thought the timing of this was very suspicious," Guzman observed. "We thought that maybe this was some sort of way to antagonize the activist groups that went out to the president's speech."

For its part, the Peoria Police Department almost immediately denied allegations of racial profiling, but hours later promised to review activists' complaints.

"It was in no way ever intended to be, set up to be or in any way was a immigration check point," Jacinto declared. "At no point were our officers involved in any sort of racial profiling."

Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter on Monday announced that the department would conduct an official inquiry to find out why officers decided to stop private motorists during a checkpoint that was set up to inspect commercial vehicles.

"That operations plan did not state anything about a vehicle registration compliance checkpoint," he noted.

Police said that the 17 vehicles impounded during the operation would be given back to the owners and all fees would be waived as a "gesture of good will."

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Our own managing editor Tina Dupuy joined the set of The Young Turks along with The American Prospect's Paul Waldman as part of Cenk Uygur's Power Panel this Tuesday. The topics for the panel included Mitt Romney's problems with Latino voters and whether this helps or harms either candidate in the Presidential election.

As Tina noted, it may be a wash given Romney's huge deficits in the polls already with that voting bloc, however as Paul noted, it's never a good thing for Mitt Romney when voters are being reminded of his extremely harsh rhetoric on immigration he made during the primary race.

They also discussed crazy Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer doing her victory dance today after the Supreme Court struck down most of her state's "papers please" SB1070 law. They wrapped things up talking about Romney's spokesperson dodging the question 20 times today on Romney's stance the court's ruling.

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Fox News co-host Eric Bolling on Wednesday defended the New York Police Department's spying program that targets Muslims by claiming that "every terrorist on American soil has been a Muslim."

On Fox News' The Five, Bolling dismissed a lawsuit filed by Muslim Advocates, a legal rights group, because "the people that had their constitutional rights violated the most were the 9/11 victims, the 3,000 who were killed by 19 hijackers who happened all to be Muslims."

"It's a strange thing that a lot of groups will do if they feel they're being targeted is turn America's system of civil rights and the Constitution back on the government," co-host Dana Perino agreed. "Now that's one of the things we have to struggle against."

Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, who was dismissed from NPR in 2010 for remarks about Muslims, suggested that the group had a valid case.

"The reality is what the lawsuit says is that they are being targeted simply on the basis of their religion," Williams explained. "So, it's as if, you know, in Syria or one of these countries where all Christians are being persecuted, you said, 'I'm going to go into every Christian home of church just on that basis that I suspect that you're a terrorist.' Well, that's not fair to people in the Muslim community, most of whom are not terrorists."

"How is it every terrorist on American soil has been a Muslim?" Bolling wondered.

"Wait a second," Williams shot back. "You mean to say Oklahoma City [bombing] was conducted by a Muslim?"

"In the last 15 years," Bolling added.

"Oh, come on," Williams replied.

In the last 15 years alone, there have a number of high-profile of domestic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that did not involve Muslims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation suspected Dr. Bruce Ivins of being behind the 2001 anthrax attacks. Jim David Adkisson was accused of killing two people and wounding seven others at a Tennessee church in 2008 because he wanted to kill liberals and Democrats. Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder was convicted of the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller. White supremacist James W. von Brunn killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010. And Andrew Joseph Stack flew a plane into a Texas office building in 2010, possibly targeting the Internal Revenue Service.

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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.

Geraldo Rivera has been sticking to his talking points that if Trayvon Martin had not been wearing a hoodie, he may not have been shot and killed by George Zimmerman and that "dressing like a wannabe gangster" contributed to his death. On his show this Sunday evening, Rivera was called out for his blame the victim game by Martin's attorney, who chastised Rivera for embarrassing his son again with the hoodie remarks and likened his justification of the Martin shooting to those who would justify rape by blaming the victim for what clothing they were wearing.

As our friends at News Hounds reported, this past Friday, Geraldo went on Bill O'Reilly's show and said this: Geraldo Rivera: It’s Reasonable For George Zimmerman To Have Racially Profiled Trayvon Martin Because Of His Size, Race And Hoodie “Thugwear”.

Here's more from their post on Geraldo being called out by Martin's attorney, Benjamin Crump: Trayvon Martin Attorney Tells Geraldo Rivera: You’re Embarrassing Your Son Again With Your Latest Hoodie Comments:

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In an interview on Tuesday, one of George Zimmerman's neighbors referred to "young black males" eight times, but insisted that there was no racial profiling by his neighborhood watch.

Speaking to CNN's Soledad O'Brien, Frank Taaffe defended Zimmerman's February slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teen.

"Neighbor-hood, that's a great word," Taaffe said, chuckling. "We had eight burglaries in our neighborhood, all perpetrated by young black males in the 15 months prior to Trayvon being shot."

"How many of those cases did they arrest people?" O'Brien wondered. "How many of those cases were people actually convicted."

"One that I know of where the perpetrator was apprehended," Taaffe admitted. "The young black male went in during the daytime just two houses down from where my my place was."

"It sounds like you are saying that it made sense to you that George Zimmerman would be fearful of young black men," O'Brien observed.

"No, it would be consistent that the perpetrators were all of the young black male ID," Taaffe explained. "All of the perpetrators of the prior burglaries were young black males. ... You know, there's an old saying that if you plant corn, you get corn."

"If you plant corn, you get corn. What does that mean?" O'Brien wondered.

"It is what it is," Taaffe replied. "I would go on record stating, of the eight prior burglaries in the 15 months prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, all of the perpetrators were young black males. ... No disrespect to George Clooney, but it was a perfect storm. All the ingredients were set up. You know, the prior burglaries were committed or perpetrated by young black males, George was on his [neighborhood watch] rounds."

CNN panelist Will Cain, an analyst for Glenn Beck's The Blaze website, asked Taaffe if there had been discussions at neighborhood watch meetings to look out for suspects that fit the profile of African-American men.

"Young black men were never the topic of discussion," Taaffe insisted.

"George Zimmerman and his family have contended that George did not racially profile Trayvon Martin," Cain pressed. "But some of what you're sharing with us today sounds like you're suggesting that it might have been appropriate if he had."

"George did not surveil just one group of people," Taaffe said. "You're asking if George profiled one group of people in my mind. And George looked at the whole landscape when he surveilled our property. It just so happened that the prior eight burglaries were perpetrated by young black males."

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This sort of segment is one where CNN regularly makes me feel that they're even worse than Fox "news," because they don't have the same brainwashed viewership Fox does, but they're still pushing the same sort of fake balance and right wing memes that you see on the other network that calls themselves "news." And I use the term lightly for either of them.

The outrage over the shooting of Trayvon Martin that finally made its way into the national spotlight is well-deserved. And not just because of what happened to this one black child, who unfortunately found himself on the wrong end of a gun when he was doing nothing wrong. It really has rallied people from all across this country who are fed up with the racism that is still festering in way too many segments of our society.

It's gotten the attention of a national audience about how insane some of these gun laws are that have been passed in states all across the country. People are asking questions about why the NRA, ALEC and Walmart are happy to see people armed to the hilt and allowed to shoot first and ask questions later if it means more sales for the gun manufacturers rather than rational policies about when you ought to be considered to be defending yourself.

It has managed to have people all across the country talking about racial profiling, and white privilege, and the fact that no white child has to be taught at a young age that it might not be safe for you to run in public, or that you might be killed for how you dress, or if you're acting in a suspicious manner in public and you'd better stifle yourself in that regard if you don't want to be a target like Trayvon Martin was.

That was apparently completely lost on CNN regular contributor, Will Cain, who got very upset when the issue of racial profiling came up during this segment and who was basically taking the same line as Larry Pratt did the other day, which is that Zimmerman may have somehow been justified in shooting Martin and we can't be sure because no one knows what happened during the altercation between the two, if there was one.

Don Lemon managed to aggravate me even more than Cain did, because apparently it's all right to lie and pretend you don't know full well that the shooting of Trayvon Martin was not justified, when it was Zimmerman that was pursuing him even after being told to stand down by the police, as long as you're "civil" or "polite" to each other and don't yell too loudly.

It's muddying the waters on issues that are actually important and that Republicans don't want to discuss because it would mean admitting their complicity in that boy's death by pushing to have everyone in this country armed to the hilt. And it's not a "great conversation" when you allow the likes of Cain to pretend there's no racial aspect to the Martin shooting or what conversation we should be having about it now.

Transcript below the fold.

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So what do you say to a news reporter when asked how you'll improve relations with the Latino community after four of your police officers were just busted by the FBI for racial profiling? Well, you probably wouldn't say this.

Story and video from WPIX.

EAST HAVEN, Conn. (PIX11)— Latinos in East Haven, Conn. say they have lived in fear of local authorities for years. However, a feeling of shock and relief came Tuesday after news broke of the arrests of four rogue police officers who are accused of systematically targeting Latinos with unlawful search and seizures, traffic stops and even physical abuse.

Despite the indictments for race-fueled attacks on the community, East Haven Mayor Joe Maturo added more fuel to the fire Tuesday by saying he "might have tacos" as his first step to repair relations with the Latino community.

On Wednesday, Conn. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called Matruo's comment racially insensitive.

"The comments by East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo are repugnant. They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable. Being tired is no excuse. He owes an apology to the community, and more importantly, he needs to show what he's going to do to repair the damage he's done. And he needs to do it today."