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Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Wednesday asserted that the British people "brought it on themselves" after an apparent terrorist used a meat cleaver to hack a soldier to death in London.

Following Wednesday's horrific slaying, Fox News host Sean Hannity speculated that President Barack Obama would have refused to call the incident a "terrorist attack."

"What do you need to have? Neon lights that say, 'Islamic jihad,' 'Islamic jihad?' I mean, duh," Malkin agreed. "They were screaming at the top of their lungs, 'Allahu Akbar,' and repeatedly swore in the name of Allah that they would continue to fight against us."

"And in large part, unfortunately, in British culture, among the progressives there, they brought it on themselves in some ways because of lax deportation policies, and an unwillingness to screen out and profile Islamic militants who are now doing this in a homegrown manner on British soil," she added. "It's tragic."

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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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Sen. Kelly Ayotte was once again asked by her constituents at a town hall meeting about her vote against the Manchin-Toomey background check legislation and her response this time around was to make stuff up:

Before saying anything about New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, let's establish one thing: Although the Manchin-Toomey background check proposal would have expanded background checks for gun purchases, it wouldn't have created a national firearms registry. In fact, it would have strengthened existing law barring the creation of any such registry and stiffened penalties against any official who violated or tried to violate the prohibition.

With that said, check out Ayotte's explanation on Thursday afternoon for why she voted against expanded background checks:

I will tell you in terms of a universal background check, as it's been framed, I have a lot of concerns about that leading to a registry that will lead to a privacy situation for lawful firearms owners.

That's total bull. The text of the legislation would have explicitly prohibited the creation of a national gun registry in not one, not two, but three separate places. Read on...

Here's more from Steve Benen: The facts Ayotte doesn't want her constituents to know:

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From this Wednesday evening's The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the bed-wetters over at Faux "News" to task for wanting to shred our Constitution and Bill of Rights, ever since the suspect was arrested for the Boston Marathon bombings.

As Stewart noted at the end of the segment, they're ready to rip just about every amendment to shreds, there is one of course that they're willing to defend -- the 2nd.

STEWART: God help us if the Muslims ever decide to form a well-regulated militia.

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Here's something you don't see happen every day. Peggy Noonan actually got called out for attempting to repeat one of her favorite talking points -- that President Obama could somehow wave a magic wand and force the members of Congress to behave the way he wants them to -- and on Meet the Press of all places.

GREGORY: And-- and yet this week as-- as this was going on, as the investigation was going on, the Senate defeats a background check bill for-- for guns. So we-- we are confronting this violence but still very divided about how we react to it and try to solve it.

NOONAN: Yeah, I think the essential problem is that Americans at this point don’t trust their government so much to do the right thing. They are skeptical of all bills on things that they care about to-- to lower the conversation a little bit, get it down to-- to mere politics, I guess. I think there is a problem when you’ve got 90 percent of the American people wanting something like background checks and a president who is just re-elected and riding a wave, can’t make anything move that way. I think there is a problem there, and I think he is having, as somebody said, a problem with the levers of power.

KEARNS GOODWIN: But maybe the problem is also the structure of the Senate. You know, at the turn of the 20th century when public sentiment wanted a lot of things done to deal with industrialization and the problem of the slums, the Senate was impossible to move because it was millionaires in there. They finally realized they have to have direct election of senators. They used to be elected by the state legislatures and they’re only susceptible to special interest. Maybe that’s the trouble now, that structural Senate given the 60 votes that are needed, given who they listen to, given the power of special interest, public sentiment cannot penetrate. And we’ve seen it now for the last decade. That’s what the dysfunction is about. It’s not just the Senate, it’s the Congress.

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Jon Stewart took our "broken bad" Senate and their failure to pass even some watered down gun regulation to task during the opening segment of The Daily Show this Thursday night. Stewart also took a page out of Chris Hayes' book, going after them for being willing to move heaven and earth to combat terrorism, while pretending there's no point in even passing any laws if criminals are just going to break them when it comes to guns.

After showing a portion of Hayes show comparing the number of terror vs gun fatalities in the United States, here's how Stewart wrapped things up.

STEWART: Well, thank God for Chris Hayes, because I'm not good at math. I'm so stupid. I still think 54 votes is more than 46, because I'm a f**king idiot. But I'm pretty sure that a million is more than 3400, and yet, to battle the evil of terror, we started two wars, tortured people, reorganized almost the entire federal government, disallowed the air trafficking of shampoo and conditioner and okay'd the robot sky killing of American citizens, if warranted by... someone.

Because one American life lost to terror is one too many, which I agree with. But it seems to me we'll move heaven and earth to do whatever it takes to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of foreigners who might kill our citizens, because apparently we think killing our citizens, is our job.

John Oliver continued the theme in the following segment, where he made a complete mockery of the Virginia Citizens Defense League's President, Philip Van Cleave, who was attempting to make many of the same arguments as those Senators, despite the fact that, as Oliver pointed out to him, Australia has proven that gun regulation can prevent mass shootings and gun deaths.

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During a Wednesday debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) could be heard laughing out loud after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) claimed that expanded gun background checks was part of a "push for a federal registry."

After Cruz said that he objected to a bipartisan plan to extended background checks to gun shows and Internet sales because it "would put us inexorably on a path to a national gun registry," Schumer pointed out that the same background check system had been used for 17 years for federal fire licensees (FFLs).

"It's the same technique, it's the same entry into the book and everything else," the New York Democrat argued.

"But what is consequential," Cruz opined, "is extending it to private sellers, not licensed dealers because the argument surely would be -- if this bill passed, the argument would immediately become, 'Well, it can't possibly be effective because we don't know who owns those firearms.'"

Schumer pressed: "Just one more question, has my colleague in the last 17 years detected any move out of Washington for national registration, any specific substantive move by ATF, the Justice Department or any other federal agency to begin a campaign, a move to any kind of national registration?"

"It is not currently proposed, but if the bill that is being considered were adopted it would put us on that path," Cruz insisted.

At that point, laughter could be heard off camera. A Senate Democratic aide later confirmed to The Huffington Post that the guffaw had come from Schumer.

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Saturday Night Live took a shot at President Obama and the Senate and whether there's going to be any meaningful gun control legislation passed any time soon. Sadly, their parody wasn't that far from reality on whether we're going to see anything will make a real difference make its way through this Congress controlled by the NRA any time soon.

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Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe is one of 14 Republicans who have pledged to filibuster any sort of new gun restrictions and as MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell noted, he now apparently believes enough time has passed that he feels free to insult the parents of the murdered children from Sandy Hook elementary school.

I guess Inhofe believes only senators who have an A+ rating from the NRA are allowed to talk about gun control.

James Inhofe: Gun Debate Has Nothing To Do With Families Of Newtown Victims:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that the gun control debate doesn't have anything to do with the families of the Newtown, Conn., shooting victims, and that the only reason those families think it does is because President Barack Obama told them it did.

Eleven family members of Newtown victims were in Washington on Tuesday, meeting privately with senators to urge them to support a forthcoming gun package that would impose tighter background checks, crack down on gun trafficking and enhance school safety measures. Speaking to a handful of reporters, Inhofe said he feels bad for those families because they're being used as pawns in a political fight.

"See, I think it's so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn't," Inhofe said.

When it was suggested that the families of Newtown victims actually believe the gun debate pertains to them, Inhofe said, "Well, that's because they've been told that by the president."

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As the families of those who were killed in the Newtown massacre prepare to head to Congress to push for stricter gun control laws, I've got to wonder if any of those members watched this heart-wrenching interview from 60 Minutes this Sunday.

You can watch the entire interview at their site, but I wanted to share the very end of the segment and if this doesn't just break your heart, it's made of stone.

Newtown families voice support for gun control:

Scott Pelley: Do any of you fear that after only four months the impact of this on the Congress is beginning to fade, and the memory of how we felt on that day is beginning to fade?

Francine Wheeler: Well, people do change because the country goes in different places. But we're gonna bring it right back, so that America can see. Four months, to them, it feels like it just happened a moment ago. And yet--

Scott Pelley: To you.

Francine Wheeler: And yet it's been years since I've seen my son. OK? So we're just-- we're not going anywhere. We're here. And we're going to be here.

Jimmy Greene: We don't get to move on. We don't have the benefit of turning the page to another piece of legislation and having another debate and playing politics the same we we've been doing. We don't have that benefit. We're gonna live with this for the rest of our lives. So our legislators need to hear us.

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