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Michelle Malkin and her Fox News Friends demonstrated a stunning hostility to democracy as they didn't just whine about legally-mandated voter registration opportunities in Obamacare applications but thought there should be a lawsuit to prevent them.

Malkin and her Fox Friends joined in Republican outrage over a provision in Obamacare application that allows an applicant to register to vote. There is nothing in the application that suggests people should register as Democrats or vote Democratically and a similar provision has existed for years on federal Medicare applications. In fact, it’s part of the so-called “Motor Voter Law” which requires public agencies that provide public assistance to offer voter registration opportunities.

But to Malkin and her like-minded Fox friends this is an effort to buy or coerce votes.

STEVE DOOCY: You think, “OK, If I want Obamacare, I’m going to have to register to vote,” right?

MICHELLE MALKIN: The new Hippocratic oath is no longer “First do no harm,” it’s “First get them registered to vote.” …We all knew that it was transparent that Obamacare was just another vehicle to recruit the next generation of Democrats. Now that has been confirmed.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Is that legal for them to put it in there?

MALKIN: It sounds like a potential lawsuit or certainly a question that should be raised by some public interest law firm.

BRIAN KILMEADE: If Punxsutawney Phil can get sued for not having spring start on time, why not sue them for putting this voting thing in there?

For most people, passing legislation designed to be popular with the electorate and then encouraging them to vote would be considered the American way of governing. Laudable even. Only on Fox News – which embraces GOP voter suppression efforts - would such activity be presented as something evil that must be prevented.

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Fox News continued its war on poor people today when it hyped Herman Cain’s highly dubious claim that people are using food stamps to pay for "fitness training," which he “learned” via a caller to his radio show.

It was not very surprising that Cain would repeat a thing like this without bothering to verify it. He isn’t exactly known for having a thirst for knowledge. But what’s Fox's excuse? Apparently, the “fair and balanced” network was so eager to re-air Cain’s characterization of food stamp recipients as moochers being exploited by a government that wants to make them dependent that nobody cared enough to verify whether Cain was telling the truth.

As banners on the screen screamed ON THE DOLE and then FOOD STAMP NATION, Steve Doocy announced that on Friday, “a document dump” from the federal government revealed a rise in Americans’ use of food stamps, the “biggest number in history,” he said. “47,791,996 Americans had to get these SNAP cards to put food on their table – they say," he said with a sneer.

Gretchen Carlson added, “So some people are concerned at the fact that this number has continued to escalate dramatically over the last couple of years.”

The concern was not that people are hungry or are not earning enough money to feed their families adequately. For example, as the Working Poor Families Project reported, "the number of low-income working families is increasing and nearly one third of all working families—32 percent—may not have enough money to meet basic needs." Also not mentioned: 55% of all food stamp recipients are children under 18 or the elderly, over 65.

And speaking of the working poor, let’s not forget that Cain bears a hefty chunk of responsibility for their plight:

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Fox’s Judge Andrew Napolitano upped the ante on his impeachment talk this morning during today’s visit to Fox & Friends. Last week, he accused “President Panic” of commiting “almost an impeachable offense” for (in Napolitano’s view) deliberately sabotaging the budget in order to score sequester political points. Today, in a Fox News twofer, Napolitano dropped the “almost” and went full out for impeachment – this time, adding one of Fox’s scare-quester tactics: the supervised release of some ICE detainees.

In case you missed it, Fox has been fear mongering that ICE’s supervised release of undocumented immigrants means that a vicious killer is on his or her way to your neighborhood.

Even though the New York Times reports they are “noncriminals and other low-risk offenders who do not have serious criminal histories.” The Times also noted, “Under supervised release, defendants in immigration cases have to adhere to a strict reporting schedule that might include attending appointments at a regional immigration office as well as wearing electronic monitoring bracelets, officials said.” Furthermore, as Media Matters pointed out, “(T)here is nothing unusual or illegal about supervised releases. This policy has been a regular part of Department of Homeland Security enforcement procedures since at least 2002.”

None of that information was brought up in this discussion. Instead, Steve Doocy actually prodded Napolitano into talking impeachment:

NAPOLITANO: This is really a new low for the government. …(Obama’s) micromanaging the government in a way consistent with his message of pain, not consistent with his Constitutional obligation to enforce the laws whether he agrees with them or not.

DOOCY: Ask a question: Is what he’s doing Constitutional?

NAPOLITANO: It’s within his power to do it. But it is so offensive, it’s impeachable.

DOOCY (feigning surprise): Oh-Kay. Judge Andrew Napolitano. There’s the impeachment word.

Napolitano is not the first person on Fox to talk impeachment. Sean Hannity has been salivating at the thought for years. Even Neil Cavuto has brought it up, and there's every reason to believe it will continue through Obama’s second term.

At the end of the segment with Napolitano, Doocy teased an upcoming guest: a woman whose “brother was killed by an illegal alien… and she’s not buying the sequester excuse, either.” The message was clear: Your brother could be next.

So while Fox is shrieking about the Obama administration deliberately causing pain, it’s “willfully” doing the same thing to its viewers for political gain. If only THAT were an impeachable offense!

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Fox & Friends hosts developed a serious case of amnesia this morning as they helped Jeb Bush promote his new book about immigration – yet forgot, as Sean Hannity did the night before - that Bush was for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants before he turned against it in his book. They also forgot the pro-pathway results in Fox’s newly-released poll on the subject – even as they hyped other results from the same poll.

Steve Doocy opened the segment by announcing, “A brand new Fox poll out overnight is showing us where Americans stand on immigration reform.” A graphic on the screen trumpeted the news that 69% of the respondents favor completing new border security before changing immigration policies.

But he somehow failed to point out that another question in the poll found that 72% favor “allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country and eventually qualify for U.S. citizenship, as long as they meet certain requirements like paying back taxes, learning English, and passing a background check.”

That’s a rather curious omission, given that it’s been big news that Bush has backtracked on his support for a pathway to citizenship. Especially when Gretchen Carlson noted in her first question for Bush, “You’ve been talking about (immigration) for a long time.” She later “wondered” whether members of Congress should use his book “as their primer to learning how to get the job done.”

Even worse, Doocy noted that Jeb’s brother, George W. Bush, had proposed a “guest worker program” even as it must have slipped Doocy's mind that W. had also proposed a pathway to citizenship.

Meanwhile, Bush has flip-flopped again. He was also on Morning Joe yesterday (not sure which appearance came first) where he said, “I don’t have a problem” with a pathway to citizenship. He told MSNBC viewers that if a law is crafted “where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn't an incentive for people to come illegally, I'm for it," But on Fox, he had no need to clarify what they didn't bring up in the first place.

At the end of the lapdog interview, which also included chirpy, chummy talk about 2016, Bush said, “It’s cozy here.”

Oh yes, as always.

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Fox has been fanning the flames of fear lately that dangerous criminal immigrants have been let loose by the Obama administration as a response to pending sequester spending cuts. But the propaganda took a new turn for the worse as Fox & Friends presented anti-immigrant extremist Lou Barletta (R-PA) as an unquestioned authority to discuss what is in reality ICE's supervised release of some undocumented immigrants. As he made the McCarthy-esque warning that he had "been told" dangerous criminals were now on the loose, he also accused the Obama administration of preferring to endanger Americans rather than to lay off any federal employees.

It started with Steve Doocy making the unsubstantiated announcement in his introduction, “Hundreds of illegal immigrants charged with big crimes freed from jail.”

After playing a clip of Jay Carney saying the decision to release the detainees was made by “career officials at ICE without any input from the White House,” Gretchen Carlson asked, “So are we to believe the White House now?” For the answer, she brought on Barletta who, she said, “I know is skeptical.” She forgot to tell her viewers that Barletta, was described by Right Wing Watch as a “one-issue firebrand,” a “hero to anti-immigrant and nativist groups,” and one of the Ten Scariest Republicans Heading To Congress in 2010.

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Judge Andrew Napolitano has now added “impeachment” to the list of usual Republican attacks on President Obama over the looming sequester cuts. During a visit to Fox & Friends, he and Steve Doocy went through some familiar right-wing myths about the sequester – that it’s just a small reduction in future spending and therefore no biggie – and went on to accuse “President Panic” of deliberately sabotaging the budget – i.e. making the cuts as damaging as possible in order to punish Republicans.

DOOCY: As Commander-in-Chief, he should be making any future reductions in future spending as easy as possible. But instead he and his cabinet are out there and they’re scaring the living daylights out of people. …He’s become President Panic.

NAPOLITANO: …This is almost an impeachable offense. If the President is deciding how to spend money in order to hurt us, rather than in order to provide us with the services for which we have paid, and for which we have hired him, he is doing the opposite of doing of what he has taken an oath to do. He has taken an oath “faithfully,” I underscore the word… to uphold the laws. That means make the government work. Don’t make it painful. Find a way to make it work on 2% less.

…Instead, he wants to cut in a way that’s gonna make us stand on line for five hours at the airport, quote, to teach the Republicans a lesson.

While the Foxies were busy maligning the president, they didn’t have time left to consider how the sequester might affect everyday people not earning television-pundit salaries and not with a partisan agenda: Teaching jobs and education funding are at risk; unemployment insurance benefits and aid for Hurricane Sandy victims are also subject to sequester. The Bipartisan Policy Center reported the following:

(T)he immediate and across the board nature of the cuts, along with their magnitude concentrated in a seven-month period, will impair economic growth as the year progresses. At BPC, we estimated last year that the sequester would reduce 2013 gross domestic product (GDP) growth by half a percentage point, and would cost the economy approximately one million jobs over the next two years. More recent estimates released by the CBO and Macroeconomic Advisors have roughly confirmed these projections.

I couldn’t find anything in their report that said these would only happen if President Obama deliberately jiggered the cuts.

Oh, and while they were salivating at the thought of impeachment (and never mind THAT cost!), nobody mentioned that President Obama has already put forth a plan to replace the sequester that includes over $930 billion in spending cuts and $580 billion in new tax revenue.

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You know how Fox Newsies are such champions of the First Amendment that they are always on the lookout for attempts to stifle diversity in the press? That zeal for free expression has flown out the window with the news that Al Jazeera English plans to expand in the United States. And whether out of fear or just because they love their hateration, Fox pundits are doing their best to make you think that Al Jazeera is nothing less than an Al Qaeda sleeper cell.

Yesterday, a Fox News contributor blatantly suggested that Al Jazeera was somehow (without bothering to give the details or evidence about how) connected with Muslim sleeper cells in Detroit. This morning, Michelle Malkin called the Qatar-based network “a half-billion dollar Trojan horse for Terror TV.” Host Steve Doocy thought it was not a matter of if, but how overtly the pro-Islam/anti-American agenda would be promoted.

As Malkin spoke, the screen conveniently split to show a photo of Al Gore, whose sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera is bringing about its expansion, standing under an Al Jazeera logo. (Just in case we had failed to associate Gore with these ENEMIES OF AMERICA!!!)

Malkin’s eyes bulged as she urged viewers to beware of the jihadism on its way to our shores under cover of objective reporting:

They’re hiring so-called investigative reporters now at all of these bureaus and they’re going to have an expansive reach into American homes. And I think it’s incumbent upon those of us who are very familiar with how Al Jazeera abroad has cheerleaded for terror that has taken American lives that they know who these people side with.

…Inevitably the mask will slip and we can all put on our shocked faces when it does.

Doocy added, "It’ll be interesting to see exactly when you turn it on, what it’ll feel like. I mean, will it feel like the Al Jazeera that you watch over in the Middle East or will it just be some homogenized thing that has a very subtle message?"

If you think there’s even a shred of honest concern being voiced here, then you must check out the anti-American screed Jon Stewart found from Rotana – the Saudi conglomerate connected to - you guessed it, Fox News.

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Ladies, forget about transvaginal ultrasounds or contraception coverage or any other concerns about a war on women. The real issue for Fox-lovin’, rootin’ tootin’ American women is packing heat. At least, that’s what the “fair and balanced” network would have you believe as Laura Ingraham and her like-minded pals on Fox & Friends ridiculed Colorado State Rep. Joe Salazar as a Democratic Todd Akin after he inartfully voiced concerns about allowing concealed weapons on college campuses.

I’ll agree that Salazar’s words were ill-chosen and perhaps insensitive. But it’s clear he was worried about Trayvon Martin-like situations and not being heedless of sexual assault.

That’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, that’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at. And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble and when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop … pop a round at somebody.

Akin, on the other hand, is a staunch abortion opponent who was questioning whether claims of rape were “legitimate,” suggesting that women who said they got pregnant as a result of a rape were lying and, therefore, should not allow their fetuses to be “punished” with an abortion.

But while Fox spent a lot of time trying to ignore Akin’s comments, it loves comparing Salazar to Akin – and holding itself out as some kind of champion of women’s rights.

Carlson eventually got around to pointing out that Salazar has apologized for his remarks, though she “forgot” to mention that Salazar is a former civil rights attorney who has defended women’s rights. She also “forgot” to point out that Salazar was talking about students on college campuses, not women walking down dark alleys or home alone with children. Nor did anyone note that Salazar comes from a state that has suffered horrifically from gun tragedies. Instead, Carlson distorted Salazar's comments as, “Call boxes and whistles are the best way for women to protect themselves against an attacker.”

Ingraham wasted no time getting with the Fox News program of comparing Salazar to Akin. "Let's think back to the Richard Murdouck scandal, the Todd Akin, Murdouck - all the outrage about they said, OK? Fine. But what about this? What’s he going to shoot the attacker with, a squirt gun buried in that bow tie?” she sneered. Then she held up guns as the real empowerment for women:

He’s channeling what might happen during an attack of a 200-pound man vs. 110-pound woman. … When he’s attacked by someone, probably, 400 pounds, going up against him …Let’s see him crawl to a call box. That’s one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard.

…The greatest equalizer is a gun in the hands of a woman who is well trained in its use. That’s the greatest equalizer out there when it comes to crime against women.

Nobody pointed out that what Salazar was really talking about was unnecessary gunfire nor that his worries are well-founded given the increased homicides in “stand your ground” states, e.g. – which Colorado is, by the way. Nor that women are five times more likely to be murdered by a gun in states with higher gun ownerships.

But they were ready to use their “sensitivity” to women to attack feminists for not attacking Salazar and/or not being more pro-gun. “Where are all the feminists, that’s what I say,” Ingraham sniped.

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While he works on launching a U.S. senatorial run in Massachusetts, Fox’s “Medical A-Team” psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, has his platform on the “fair and balanced” network to promote his candidacy. So this morning, when he visited Fox & Friends to discuss the psychological scars that might affect Ethan, the Alabama kindergartner just rescued after being held hostage for nearly a week, Ablow gratuitously attacked those who think this is another example of the need for stricter gun regulations and suggested they are so dedicated to an anti-gun agenda that they’d rather people get shot by the mentally ill than institutionalize them.

I’ve written many times about what a crackpot Ablow is and his propensity for diagnosing people without benefit of an examination. In this case, he diagnosed Ethan as more or less doomed to mental illness - without knowing much more than his first name. Reacting to a report that the boy has been “laughing, joking, playing and eating” after being reunited with his mother, Ablow rendered his opinion: These are “also the things that five- or six-year-olds do when they’re desperately trying to maintain some semblance of normality… I can tell you that the effort to maintain that sense of normality in and of itself has set the stage for all kinds of trouble down the road. So, as sad as it is, Ethan isn’t OK. He’s at tremendous risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug abuse later in life. Fractured relationships. All manner of disabilities from psychological problems.”

Nobody challenged Ablow’s “evaluation.” Instead, Steve Doocy opened the door for Ablow to opine on policy by asking if maybe “somebody should have connected some dots” about the state of the abductor’s mental health.

Ablow replied:

Gee, ya think? And there’ll be people, by the way, who say this is an argument for more gun control. Those people are reprehensible. Because the bottom line is, this guy had a hearing for medicine coming up. You mean to say the court couldn’t have connected the dots between that and the fact that his neighbors said that he had threatened kids’ lives? And that he had beaten a dog to death with a pipe and said, ‘We are holding you in the psychiatric unit for evaluation against your will.’ Really?

Gretchen Carlson prodded for more by “asking” why they don’t do that.

With unintentional hilarity, Ablow said it’s because it takes “work” and “It takes not pontificating and trying to make political points by saying we’re gonna take everybody’s guns! …Obvious people who need help aren’t given that help when we could deliver it – because we have the expertise – but we’re not willing to allocate resources, partly out of stigma, and partly out of the fact that people would rather try to pander to certain voting blocs by saying it’s all about guns. Which it isn’t.

Doocy closed by validating the hypothesis: “It didn’t have to happen.”

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You'd think that since the “47%” meme hasn't worked out so well, Fox would have dropped it by now. But, like that old definition of insanity, they keep doing the same thing and expecting new results. Only now it's the 60% of Americans who approve of President Obama's job performance, despite the “dismal” economy, who are the “takers.”

On Fox & Friends this morning, the Curvy Couch Crew gnashed their teeth over the the fact that President Obama is riding high in popularity even as the economy shrank in the last quarter for the first time since 2009.

Steve Doocy said about the economic news:

How could it be unexpected? All you've gotta do is look at what's about to happen. We're about to decimate the national security. There's a possibility the 1.2 million security jobs could be lost in this country, plus all the regulations placed on businesses with the Affordable Care Act. It's shocking that the number isn't worse.

Then with his clown face, Doocy sneered that White House spokesman Jay Carney isn't blaming George Bush now. “He just blames the Republicans in general.”

Brian Kilmeade, noting that the stock market is up, but consumer confidence down, cried out, “But the president's approval rating is 60%! It's like he's impervious to numbers!"

Doocy made sure to throw cold water on the stock market rise. He said the market is up because “the Fed is pumping all this dough every month, billions and billions of dollars into the economy. And the unemployment number – you know, it's just under 8% but it would be much higher if you factored in all the people who simply said, 'I can't find a job. We give up!'”

Having established the economic gloom and doom, they then turned to the question of why President Obama is so popular. Of course, they could have done a teensy bit of research and discovered that the country received his second inaugural address very favorably. Despite Fox News' best efforts. Or that, as Nate Silver recently pointed out, Obama “has at least a slim majority of Americans in his corner” on most of the issues he raised, including guns, climate change and immigration. Also despite Fox's best efforts.

Instead of facts, Doocy opined that the “mainstream media” is responsible for Obama's popularity because it has not reported enough about how “dismal” the economy is. He added, “It's the same thing in the run up to the election. The number one story affecting the most Americans: the economy. But instead, what do we get? We got the 47%, war on women. We got the binders, we got everything except what really matters.”

You mean like Benghazi? Or birtherism? You didn't build that? Or how the polling was not accurately predicting Romney's victory?

Gretchen Carlson wasn't convinced. She said, “People will write books about this for years on end how the popularity of this president remained so high and yet the economy remains relatively dismal.”

So, without bothering to lift a finger to come up with any actual data, they turned to their audience for “answers.” Previously Carlson had said they had received “different thoughts” from viewers as to why the president is still so popular. First, Carlson summarized by saying, “Some people said that it's because, you know, a lot of people now are in situations where they're receiving government handouts and so they like to see a president in power who believes in continuing to do those types of programs.”

Then they posted some individual emails and/or tweets reinforcing that view:

• Ever heard the saying, 'Don't shoot Santa Clause?” If you do not work, you had no increase in payroll deductions. If you're here illegally, you have the same rights as legal citizens and now everyone is going to be granted legal status.” (from “Charley”)
• That's easy, It is because he hands out welfare like we hand out candy to kids at Halloween. Groceries, cell phone, gas, house, TV and any other thing you can think of... without having to put an effort to get off the couch and get a job. Why not like that person? (from “Scott”)

However, Carlson did dig up a tweet from Republican Senator John Thune responding to Jay Carney's remarks and asking, “What planet do these guys live on?"

Um, maybe the one where S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating because of Republican "brinksmanship." But you probably won't hear much about that on Planet Fox News.