Speaking Jan. 15 on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Coulter said she had just returned from England, and spoke dismissively about comparisons of that country’s low gun crime rate relative to the United States’. The difference, she suggested, could be explained by demographics.

"If you compare White populations, we have the same murder rate as Belgium," Coulter said. "So perhaps it's not a gun problem, it is a demographic problem, which liberals are the ones pushing, pushing, pushing."

She continued sarcastically, "Let's get more Colin Fergusons and whoever the guy was who shot up Fort Hood. Why are they coming in [the U.S.] to begin with?"

On Dec. 7, 1993, Ferguson, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, shot and killed six persons and injured 19 others on a New York commuter train, in what became known as the Long Island Railroad Massacre.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is the accused perpetrator of the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 32 were wounded.

The American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent had reportedly been harassed by other soldiers because of his religion, was outspoken in his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had—according to relatives—tried to leave the Army. He is still awaiting trial and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Coulter also said that President Obama’s plan for banning extra capacity ammunition clips would not abate public shootings.

In a letter sent to the White House, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) asked the president to consider Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) for the position of Secretary of Commerce and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to fill the post vacated by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Jan. 9.

“Both Melvin Watt and Barbara Lee have served the American people in the United States House of Representatives and the citizens of their respective Congressional districts with distinction… [and] are exceptionally well-qualified, proven candidates,” Fudge wrote in her letter.

Watt, a former CBC chairman, has served in Congress since 1993. As an attorney, he specialized in minority business development law and was a partner in several small enterprises.

Lee has served California’s 9th Congressional District since 1998. Also a former CBC chair, she has been a persistently progressive voice on Capitol Hill, advocating against the United States’ involvement in the Iraq War and championing issues such as labor and minority health.

Lee told The San Francisco Chronicle, “While I’m honored by my colleagues’ unsolicited recommendation, my focus remains the 13th Congressional District. If the President were to ask me to join his Cabinet, I would of course have to give that very serious consideration."

The settlement, announced Jan. 7 by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), involves some of the giants of the financial industry including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.

The banks will pay $$3.3 billion to more than 3.8 million borrowers whose homes were in foreclosure in 2009 and 2010. Homeowners could receive as much as $125,000 depending on the type of bank error.

The mortgage servicers will also provide $5.2 billion in other assistance, such as loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments.

Federal regulators said the decision ensures that more money goes directly and more quickly into the hands of affected homeowners.

“When we began the Independent Foreclosure Review, the OCC pledged to fix what was broken, identify who was harmed, and compensate them for that injury,” Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry said in a statement. “While today’s announcement represents a significant change in direction, it meets those original objectives by ensuring that consumers are the ones who will benefit, and that they will benefit more quickly and in a more direct manner.”

Curry said the regulators had learned a great deal from the review process, “it has become clear that carrying the process through to its conclusion would divert money away from the impacted homeowners and also needlessly delay the dispensation of compensation to affected borrowers. Our new course of action will get more money to more people more quickly, and it will speed recovery in the nation’s housing markets.”

Some critics say the judgment is a slap on the wrist, which will not deter banks from the criminal behavior that brought on the near collapse of the U.S. economy.

“It’s not a huge amount of money when we consider it in respect to the bailouts that have happened or the cost to households in the U.S. The banks are not paying enough for what they actually had done,” James Heintz, an economist at the Political Economy Research Institute in Amherst, Mass., told The Real News Network. He added, “$8.5 billion, when we compare it to the amount of wealth that’s evaporated from households, which is about $6.9 trillion, is a drop in the bucket at the very best.”

Maryland Democrat Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and an outspoken voice on the foreclosure issue, said he was concerned with the haste in which the decision was made, and feared banks would sidestep their full obligations.

“I am deeply disappointed that the OCC and the Federal Reserve finalized this settlement and effectively terminated the Independent Foreclosure Review process before providing Congress answers to serious questions about how this settlement amount was determined, who these funds will go to, and what will happen to other families who were abused by these mortgage servicing companies, but have not yet had their cases reviewed,” Cummings said in a statement.

He added, “I do not know what the rush was to make this settlement without answering these key questions, and although I look forward to obtaining information about how this deal may assist homeowners, I have serious concerns that this settlement may allow banks to skirt what they owe and sweep past abuses under the rug without determining the full harm borrowers have suffered."