Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top ranking Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he will file an ethics complaint against Representative Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) if he doesn’t provide details about an alleged illegal job offer from the White House.

Sestak, who recently defeated Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the Democratic primary, said in February that the Obama administration offered him a high-ranking cabinet position if he dropped out of the race.

During an interview May 23 on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sestak reiterated his claim, but refused to provide specifics regarding the allegation.

"I was offered the job," he said. "Anything that goes beyond that is for others to talk about."

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during a separate interview on Meet the Press that the administration’s lawyers had looked into the claim, and found that "nothing inappropriate" happened.

"It is unacceptable for an administration that touts itself as the ‘most transparent’ in history to continue to stonewall a significant and potentially devastating accusation of political corruption," responded Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

Issa said that he will file a formal complaint with the House Ethics Committee if an investigation into Sestak’s allegation is not launched, Politico.com reports.

"Either he’s lying, or covering up felonies for political purposes," said Issa.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave his approval on the vote to overturn the "don’t ask, don’t tell policy" earlier this week. However, many media outlets stressed the apparent "lukewarm" nature of the endorsement, which may be unsurprising given the significant opposition to the measure, especially in conservative quarters.

The Family Research Council (FRC) has been at the forefront of trying to prevent the overhaul of the agreement that bans openly gay individuals from serving in the military. The organization’s lobbying arm called FRC Action recently launched an ad campaign accusing Democrats of attempting to use the military to "advance their radical social agenda."

"We call on Congress to protect the military, listen to our troops and the American people by rejecting this outrageous deal that politicizes the military at the expense of our national security," said FRC president Tony Perkins.

The FRC was seconded by the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization, The American Legion, which affirmed its opposition to repealing the law on the grounds that it served the military well for 17 years and that it would not be wise to make a major cultural change in the middle of two wars.

The legion’s National Commander Clarence E. Hill also pointed out that the Department of Defense has ordered a study on the policy, and the vote should not take place before the commission releases its findings.

Faced with a growing challenge from a right-wing rival for the Arizona Republican nomination, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is taking an increasingly intransigent stance on the Democrats’ efforts to repeal the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.

McCain, who at one point declared himself ready to see the policy repealed, has now indicated he will vote against the measure.

The former presidential candidate, who is also the top Republican on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, told Arizona’s KBLU radio that the Democrats "[are] going to try to jam [the overhaul] through without even trying to figure out what the impact on battle effectiveness would be," quoted by TheHill.com.

McCain was also interviewed by Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins on Washington Watch Weekly, the organization’s syndicated half-hour radio show, where he said "that this issue has significant long-term implication for our ability to defend this nation."

He also said he was afraid that the repeal was a done deal "because of no other reason than President Obama’s campaign promise."

The Republican primary in Arizona is scheduled for Aug. 24, and McCain appears to be losing ground to a more conservative opponent.

Individuals who are looking to lower their blood pressure without taking medication may be able to do so by moderately reducing their intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new study.

For the 18-month study, a research team from the Louisiana State University Health Science Center recruited 810 adults with early stage hypertension who drank an average of 11 ounces of sugary beverages each day, well below the American average of 23 daily ounces.

At the end of the study, participants who reduced their soft drink intake by at least half lowered their systolic blood pressure by an average of 1.8 points and their diastolic blood pressure by 1.1 points.

"We found a direct dose-response relationship," said study leader Liwei Chen."Individually, it was not a big reduction. But population-wise, reducing total consumption could have a huge impact."

According to background information included in the report, a three-point reduction in blood pressure can lower heart disease mortality risk by as much as five percent.

The correlation between lower blood pressure and reduced soft drink intake remained after accounting for weight loss and other risk factors.

The controversy surrounding the government’s attempts to impose internet regulations continues, with the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE) announcing it will oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) "third way" approach to network neutrality.

Earlier this year the United States District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC had overstepped its jurisdiction when it tried to impose net neutrality rules on Comcast, which had blocked its subscribers from using the file-sharing website BitTorrent. This effectively closed a similar avenue for regulations, prompting FCC chairman Julius Genacowski to propose a "third way," which would reclassify broadband services under New Deal-era "common carrier" laws created for early landline telephone technology.

This has met with sharp criticism from the two Republican commissioners on the agency’s board, Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, who said it would lead to regulatory chaos and stifle investment that is necessary to expanding broadband infrastructure and creating jobs.

The ADE has also expressed opposition and urged Congress to play a larger role in the network neutrality debate.

"This policy shift appears to be a risky experiment and will likely lead to higher broadband prices," said ADE chairman Julius H. Hollis.

"As the world of business, medicine and education shift towards a more digital-based economy, the proposal could worsen the problems of [ordinary] Americans, who are already stretched financially and have disproportionately borne the brunt of this recession," added Manuel A. Diaz, vice chairman of the ADE board of directors.

Despite gun opponents’ warnings that easier access to guns leads to escalating violence, the most recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suggest that crime in the United States dropped dramatically in 2009.

Preliminary data from the Uniform Crime Report shows that the violent crime rate went down 5.5 percent nationwide in 2009. This covers all four categories of violent crime: murder, robbery, aggravated assault and forcible rape. Violent crime went down 4 percent in metropolitan counties and 3 percent elsewhere, according to the FBI.

This has prompted gun rights organizations, such as the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), to point out that these positive trends are taking place despite the evidence—also cited by the FBI—that gun and ammunition purchases are up.

"There are more guns in private hands than ever before, yet crime rates have declined…this means that gun prohibitionists have been consistently wrong," said CCRKBA chairman Alan Gottlieb.

He added that these data suggest that "America should turn its back on the gun prohibition lobby and their insidious policy of victim disarmament."

According to media reports, the decline has continued for the third straight year, and this year’s drops were steeper than those registered in 2007 and 2008, despite the recession.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin heavily criticized the Obama administration May 23 for what she considers to be its insufficient efforts to help clean up the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

While speaking on Fox News Sunday, the former vice presidential candidate suggested that the White House’s lack of response to the incident may be due to the campaign contributions that Obama received from oil companies during his 2008 presidential race.

"I don’t know why the question isn’t asked… if there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico," she said.

Palin added that if former President George W. Bush was still in office, "the mainstream media would be all over his case."

The former governor noted later on her Twitter account that during the last 20 years the largest single donation by BP—the company responsible for the spill—was provided to Obama during his 2008 campaign.

In response to Palin’s comments, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CBS’ Face the Nation that the White House is working around the clock to clean up the spill, and that most "oil companies don’t consider the Obama administration [to be] a huge ally."

Long-term obesity is a well-known cause of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. However, a new Boston University School of Medicine study suggests that excess abdominal fat may also be linked to a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

For the study, a research team led by Sudha Seshadri recruited nearly 800 adults over the age of 60 and analyzed their body mass index, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and percentage of abdominal fat. The investigators also performed an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on each participant to examine their total brain volume and their number of brain infarcts.

As expected, the researchers identified a strong inverse association between increasing body mass and smaller brain volume—a known risk factor for dementia.

"More importantly our data suggests a stronger connection between central obesity, particularly the visceral fat component of abdominal obesity, and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease," said Seshadri.

While further studies need to be conducted to analyze how obesity prevention can affect dementia risk, the researchers speculate that consuming a low-fat, nutrient-rich diet can significantly improve brain health.

Early next month a self-described human rights organization will conduct a rally at Ground Zero in New York City to protest the construction of a mosque at the site where terrorists brought down the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) plans the rally for June 6 and has invited anyone interested to join, especially those who lost family or friends, or who were injured on Sept. 11.

"What could be more insulting and humiliating than a mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack?" asked SIOA executive director Pamela Geller.

She added that "any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in eye of America."

SIOA says it works to defend human rights, religious liberty and the freedom of speech against "Islamic supremacist intimidation" and to block any attempts to bring elements of Sharia law to the United States.

According to the organization, groups supporting the June 6 event include ACT! for America (ACT! Manhattan chapter), Z Street, Freedom Defense Initiative, Faith Freedom International and the Center for Security Policy.

Despite the passage of the healthcare reform and the financial regulation bills, a newly released poll has shown that more than half of all United States citizens give President Barack Obama negative job ratings.

While two in five Americans (42 percent) give Obama positive ratings on the overall job he is doing, The Harris Poll found that 58 percent evaluate his performance negatively.

The pollster suggests that among the likely culprits for these lackluster figures is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has forced the president’s attention from the issues that the public cares about most, namely jobs and getting the economy back on track.

In terms of partisan breakdown, 92 percent of Republicans are disappointed with Obama’s job, as are one-quarter of Democrats (25 percent). However, he also scores poorly with Independents, among whom 68 percent give him negative marks.

The survey also asked whether the country was going in the right direction. It found that while in April 39 percent of Americans believed that to be true, the measure has dropped to 36 percent this month. Meanwhile, 64 percent have said the nation is currently on the wrong track.

According to Harris Interactive, which produced the poll, the president’s numbers are unlikely to increase unless he accomplishes something that will positively impact the economy and calm the volatility of the stock market.

Results of a new Kansas State University study suggest that adding certain spices to ground beef may help lower the accumulation of dangerous compounds that are known to cause cancer.

For the study, lead author Scott Smith and his colleagues sought to identify natural ways to reduce the carcinogenic compounds that are commonly produced when ground beef is grilled, fried or boiled. Known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs), these compounds have been proven to increase the risk of developing colorectal, stomach, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

"Cooked beef tends to develop more HCAs than other kinds of cooked meats such as pork and chicken," Smith said. "Cooked beef patties appear to be the cooked meat with the highest mutagenic activity and may be the most important source of HCAs in the human diet."

Working off of the theory that antioxidants can help combat dangerous carcinogens, the researchers tested the effectiveness of several spices in inhibiting the formation of HCAs. They found that fingerroot, rosemary and turmeric were the most successful.

In fact, rosemary extract was able to reduce HCA formation by 61 to 79 percent.

Diabetic patients who are prescribed the drug metformin may be at an increased risk of developing a vitamin B-12 deficiency, according to a new European study.

Lead author Coen Stehouwer believes that individuals who take the medication should routinely monitor their vitamin B-12 levels and may want to consider taking nutrient supplements.

For the study, the research team recruited 390 patients with type-2 diabetes and assigned them to take either metformin or a placebo three times each day for four years.

At the point of follow-up, participants who were prescribed the diabetes medication experienced a 19 percent reduction in their vitamin B-12 levels. A total of 17 once-healthy participants developed a severe nutrient deficiency over the course of the research.

"Our study shows that it is reasonable to assume harm will eventually occur in some patients with metformin-induced low vitamin B-12 levels," said Stehouwer. "Our data provide a strong case for routine assessment of vitamin B-12 levels during long-term treatment with metformin."

Vitamin B-12 deficient patients often experience fatigue, anemia and significant mental changes.

Although he has been called "the darling of the Tea Party," Rand Paul’s select comments since his win in the Kentucky Republican primary last week have some GOP members scratching their heads.

Just hours after Paul declared his victory, he gave an interview in which he implied that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 limited businesses’ rights to set their own policies and decide which customers or clients to serve.

Although he later tried to qualify his statement by saying that he supported the act and would not press to repeal it, the damage appeared to be done.

Criticism came not only from Democrats but also many Republicans, with Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, saying Paul’s philosophy "is misplaced in these times."

"I don’t think it’s where the country is right now. The country litigated the issue of separate but equal," Steele told the Fox News Sunday show. "I think in this case Rand Paul’s philosophy got in the way of reality."

However, the controversy has not stopped there, as Paul stirred more controversy by saying that President Obama’s criticism of British Petroleum for the Gulf oil spill was "un-American."

Prior to the primaries, the Senate Republican leadership failed to endorse Paul, instead throwing its support behind his opponent Trey Grayson.

While some advocates claim that a ban on cross-dressing amounts to the violation of transgender people’s rights, a family organization has presented the opposite argument while commenting on a recent American Eagle Outfitters case.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo successfully challenged the clothing retail chain to change its policies to be more transgender-friendly. According to The New York Daily News, the company will abandon the rule about employee "personal appearance" that banned men from wearing women’s clothing and vice versa.

"If more places would follow behind American Eagle’s experience, a lot of us would be able to work more," said Joi-elle White, a transgender member of Make the Road New York, adding that "there would be less of us on the street or on the internet risking our [lives] just to survive."

However, Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins has expressed his disappointment with the outcome, and linked the case to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), currently under consideration in Congress.

"Every American who believes in the right of employers to set dress and grooming standards for their employees should be alarmed by how this attorney general has used bullying tactics and litigation to impose cross-dressing policies on American Eagle Outfitters," Perkins warned.

Several human and civil rights organizations sent a letter to top officials at the Pentagon demanding the reversal of the ban on several reporters covering military commission hearings of foreign terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay.

The letter was prompted by the ban imposed on four journalists from the United States and Canada for publishing the name of an interrogator in one of the cases.

The four, who include reporters from The Miami Herald, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and Canwest News Service, allege the ban is "illegal and unconstitutional," because the name of the interrogator was already in the public domain, and publishing it did not constitute a violation of the Pentagon’s rules, according to media reports.

In their intervention, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the National Institute of Military Justice said that "this [decision] not only runs counter to the U.S. administration’s stated commitment to transparency in government, but will also bring the military commissions into further disrepute, internationally and within the U.S."

The Pentagon has said the newspapers in question can continue to cover the story, which involves detainee Omar Khadr, but they must send other journalist to do so.

After barely clearing the 60-vote threshold to end debate, Senate Democrats passed a financial reform bill last week that will revolutionize the way that large banks operate.

The legislation, which now needs to be reconciled with the House version that was passed in December, will increase the role of federal regulators, establish new procedures to prevent bailouts and limit the use of derivatives, according to CNN.

"To Wall Street, it says: No longer can you recklessly gamble away other people’s money," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "It says the days of too big to fail are behind us. It says to those who game the system: The game is over."

While the majority of Republicans agree that reform was necessary, most feel that the measure will negatively impact the marketplace.

"This bill doesn’t listen to the American people—it promises massive government overreach in ordinary business transactions," said Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). "The decisions we’ve made will have an impact on the lives of Americans for decades to come."

Republicans leaders also heavily criticized the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s two largest mortgage companies, will be virtually unaffected by the new measures. Due to last year’s Federal bailout, both corporations are now government-affiliated.

Following nearly a year of contentious debate, the Democrats’ Wall Street reform bill stalled in the Senate last week, as all but two Republicans voted against the measure designed to overhaul the financial regulatory system.

Joining the GOP in preventing the advancement of the bill were two Democrats—Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.)—who oppose the legislation because they do not feel that it goes far enough.

Soon after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Republicans for blocking a piece of legislation that would prevent bailouts and strengthen consumer protections, according to CNN.com.

"Wall Street and, obviously, 39 out of 41 Republicans… think that things going on, on Wall Street, are just fine," Reid said. "I think that’s a real stretch to think the American people think that they want this to go on as in years past."

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the bill is just another example of the increasingly intrusive nature of big government.

"Not only does the bill still contain a massive new government agency with broad new powers over consumer spending and Main Street businesses, it does nothing to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the main protagonists in the financial meltdown," said McConnell.

Reid indicated that the Democrats plan to hold another vote on the bill in the coming days.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has found himself in a hot seat for the controversial comments he made in his latest book, where he compared President Barack Obama’s administration to the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

In To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine, Gingrich wrote that Obama and his closest Democratic collaborators, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), are implementing a socialist agenda, especially in areas such as the healthcare reform and economic stimulus, according to media reports.

In Gingrich’s view, these types of policies pose "a great threat" to America, and are comparable to those that characterized Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

His comments have provoked a strong reaction from many groups, including the American Jewish Council (AJC). David Harris, executive director of the AJC, said the analogy was "foolish and dangerous."

"It is vital that the Republican leadership say clearly that such analogies are unacceptable," Harris said. "Unfortunately, as the recent controversy over the new immigration law in Arizona also demonstrates, demonizing political opponents as Nazis is becoming all too common in American political debate."

Criticism has also come from Gingrich’s own political allies. Former GOP Congresswoman Susan Molinari told talk show host Joy Behar that she wanted to "distance myself from that remark. To compare anything that is going on in this country to the atrocities of Nazi Germany in any way, shape or form is just crazy," quoted by CNN.

President Barack Obama’s paternal aunt Zeituni Onyango, who is a citizen of Kenya and was living in the United States illegally, has been granted political asylum by a court in Boston.

The court accepted Onyango’s argument that she feared violence—she and Obama’s father, who was her half-brother, were members of the Luo tribe, a minority in Kenya—if she returned to that country. The ruling opens the way for her to apply for legal permanent residency in a year, according to The Boston Globe.

However, the court’s decision has angered immigration reform proponents, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The organization called it "a case study in how those seeking to evade U.S. immigration laws can manipulate the system," and demanded that the entire record of the case be made public.

FAIR representatives were particularly angered at the fact that Onyango was granted the asylum despite having her 2004 petition denied by a Federal immigration court, a ruling she ignored.

"[The] case is an all-too-typical example of how our asylum laws are used to thwart the enforcement [of] U.S. immigration laws," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, adding that "the system allows people who defy our laws repeated opportunities to [come up with] new reasons to be granted legal permission to remain."

According to a new Cornell University study, older women may be able to significantly decrease their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by regularly taking vitamin E supplements.

For the study, researchers analyzed the medical data of more than 40,000 women over the age of 45 who were randomly assigned to take either 600 mg of vitamin E or a placebo every other day for several years.

At the conclusion of the research, the investigators found that participants who regularly took nutritional supplements had an approximately 10 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with COPD compared to those in the control group. However, vitamin E had no statistically significant effect on preventing the development of asthma.

"If results of this study are borne out by further research, clinicians may recommend that women take vitamin E supplements to prevent COPD," said lead author Anne Hermetet Agler.

She also noted that the benefits of vitamin E supplementation were apparent in smokers and non-smokers alike.

The findings will be presented at the ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans later this week.