Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

President Obama’s paternal aunt Zeituni Onyango, who is a citizen of Kenya and living in the U.S. illegally, appeared in a Boston court recently to fight a deportation order issued in 2004.

Onyango, who is wheelchair bound, testified before Judge Leonard Shapiro about her asylum request, according to media reports. Her previous request filed in 2002 was denied both in first instance and on appeal, but the 57-year-old remained in the U.S. nonetheless.

The latest round began in December 2008, when the deportation order was suspended pending a new asylum bid. Judge Shapiro did not issue a ruling last week, and attorneys have 30 days to file written closing briefs. The hearing may be continued on May 25 if there is no decision before then.

The case has come under fire from immigration reform proponents, such as Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, who said it is symptomatic of what is wrong with the U.S. asylum adjudication process.

"Her case is all too typical, where you have people who have had countless bites at the apple, continuing to press appeal after appeal…and never actually being removed from the country," he said, quoted by OneNewsNow.com.

Mehlman added that this only encourages immigrants to abuse America’s asylum policies.

A spokesperson for Obama said the president is not involved in any aspect of the case.

"This is a legal issue, and the president strongly believes that the law should be followed by everyone," press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters last week, quoted by CNN.

Arizona lawmakers are preparing to consider a new bill that would allow school faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus, media reports suggest.

Currently, only certified police officers are permitted to carry a weapon on school grounds in Arizona, but the bill introduced by State Senator Jack Harper of Phoenix would extend that right to select groups of ordinary citizens, according to ABC News.

"Any step toward allowing the people the right to self defense is a good thing," said Daniel Crocker, Southwest Regional Director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, quoted by the news provider.

He added, however, that his organization believes the right should also be extended to students.

As expected, not everyone is happy with the possibility. For example, Andy Pelosi the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus told ABC that introducing guns will make campuses less safe. "More guns are going to create more problems," he stated.

In the past year gun-rights proponents, such as Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as well as the Second Amendment Foundation, have registered some significant victories. One such victory came when the Texas legislature voted last May to allow college students and employees to carry concealed handguns on campus.

A new study from Lund University in Sweden has found that the consumption of butter may lead to a lower elevation of blood fats after a meal compared to olive, canola and flaxseed oil. High blood fat levels are commonly linked to elevated cholesterol readings.

The researchers found that approximately 20 percent of the fat in butter is made up of short and medium length fatty acids, which are "good" fatty acids that are used as energy and rarely affect blood fat levels. However, the study’s authors admit that butter can also lead to a higher content of free fatty acids in the blood, "which can be a burden on the body."

"The fact that butter raises blood cholesterol in the long term is well known, whereas its short-term effects are not as well investigated," said Julia Svensson, a doctoral candidate at Lund University.

"Olive oil is good, to be sure, but our findings indicate that different food fats can have different advantages," she added.

The study found that the difference in short-term elevated blood fat levels was more pronounced in men due to hormones, the size of fat stores and the differences in metabolism compared to women.

For the first time since being sworn into office, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) got a chance to flex his conservative muscles by voting to block President Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. As it turned out, however, the GOP did not need Brown’s 41st vote to sustain the filibuster.

Senate Democratic leaders failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to approve the nomination of Craig Becker to the board that resolves disputes between unions and management. The final tally was 52-33 in favor of appointing Becker. Fifteen senators were not able to cast their vote due to violent snowstorms in the Washington area.

Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), crossed the aisle and voted to block the president’s nomination.

"Craig Becker’s theories about how the workplace should function, if ever put into practice, would impose new burdens on employers, hurt job creation and slow down the recovery," said Brown.

Becker has also been blasted by business leaders who fear that, if appointed, he would further empower unions by embracing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow labor groups to have a stronger hand in organizing employees, according to The Washington Times. Republicans have heavily criticized the bill, which is scheduled to be voted on in the Senate later this year.

New research shows that eating chocolate may help lower the risk of having a stroke.

Study author Sarah Sahib, with McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and her colleagues analyzed three separate studies, two of which showed a link between the consumption of chocolate and a decreased risk of stroke.

In the first study, researchers found that nearly 45,000 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke compared to people who did not eat any sweets. Meanwhile, a second study found that more than 1,000 respondents who consumed 50 grams of chocolate each week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than those who eat no chocolate.

"More research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others," concluded Sahib.

She added that chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, which may have a beneficial effect against stroke.

The third study that was analyzed found no link between chocolate and the risk of stroke or death.

On the Larry King Live show last week, Vice President Joe Biden took credit for the success in Iraq, stating that the United States involvement in the war-torn country "could be one of the great achievements of [the Obama] administration."

The vice president’s statements have angered many Republicans who have pointed out that, as senators, Biden and Obama both opposed the surge in Iraq.

Biden also credited the current administration with the troop withdrawal process that is currently underway, an initiative that was actually negotiated in the Status of Forces Agreement before President Obama took office.

"The reduction in U.S. forces that is under way right now is…largely the continuation of the policy that President Bush had set in place when he negotiated the drawdown schedule with Prime Minister Maliki at the end of 2008," said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, quoted by Fox News.

When asked how the administration could take credit for an agreement that was signed before their tenure, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama’s political pressure, as a then-candidate, helped to implement the withdrawal accord.

A potential split among America’s conservatives appears to be emerging as a pair of new Rasmussen polls indicates that likely Republican voters now outnumber the Democratic electorate, but the picture changes when the Tea Party movement comes into play.

The first survey—which is a generic ballot—found that 44 percent of respondents would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 36 percent would cast their ballot for the local Democrat, according to Rasmussen Reports. These numbers have led some commentators to suggest that President Obama’s party may be in the worst electoral shape in a half century.

However, when the poll participants were asked about their preferences in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat garnered 36 percent of votes, while the GOP candidate’s support fell to around 25 percent. The hypothetical Tea Party candidate picked up 17 percent of the vote.

To confirm a growing split among conservatives, an ABC/Washington Post poll found that 35 percent of those who identify themselves as Republicans expressed favorable views of the Tea Party movement, and 40 percent saw it unfavorably.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs threw a sarcastic jab at Sarah Palin, mocking the former Alaska governor for looking down at talking points written on her left hand during her keynote speech at the National Tea Party Convention last week.

During her address in Nashville Feb. 6, photographers caught Palin looking down at her hand, where she had written the words "energy", "budget," "tax" and "lift American spirits." Later in her talk to fellow conservatives, the former vice presidential candidate ridiculed President Obama for his consistent use of teleprompters throughout his first year in office.

A few days later, while answering questions from reporters regarding healthcare reform, the White House press secretary turned his ink-stained hand toward the cameras while he derided Palin.

"Oh, I wrote a few things down," said Gibbs, looking at palm. "I wrote eggs, milk and bread… then I wrote down hope and change just in case I forgot them."

When asked about the content of Palin’s speech, Gibbs noted that the convention appeared to be "a pretty successful private enterprise," a possible reference to fees charged to attendees who came to hear her speak, according to The New York Times.

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to meet with representatives of the state’s Muslim community in the wake of the comments he made in support of government profiling of Muslims.

During last month’s meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee that reviewed the Fort Hood shootings, Inhofe reportedly stated that he believed in racial and ethnic profiling, claiming that "all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners between the ages 20 and 35."

In response, the organization cited FBI statistics that suggest the vast majority of terrorist attacks on American soil have been committed by non-Muslims.

"It is disturbing to hear a member of the U.S. Senate suggest that entire religious and ethnic groups should automatically be considered terror suspects," said CAIR-OK executive director Razi Hashmi.

He added that by portraying all Middle Easterners as suspects, the politician "does a disservice to our nation and to its tradition of racial and religious diversity."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles branch of the CAIR said it will complain to the Justice Department over comments made by Mayor R. Rex Parris of Lancaster, Calif., who reportedly said he was "growing a Christian community."

On Monday, leading House Republicans responded to President Obama’s proposal for a bipartisan summit on healthcare reform, stating that they may decline to participate if the administration uses the Democratic bills as a starting point.

In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) expressed concern over reports that the president plans to promote the same piece of legislation that the GOP has publicly condemned over the last few months.

"If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate," Boehner and Cantor wrote.

The two House leaders also openly questioned Obama’s sincerity regarding an open, bipartisan discussion concerning healthcare reform.

"’Bipartisanship’ is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support," they said. "Bipartisan ends require bipartisan means."

In response, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the president is open to any "good ideas that stand up to objective scrutiny," but also stated that Obama has been clear about his support for the congressional bills created by Democrats.

More than a year after the Bush administration left office activists are still trying to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the alleged use of torture during the interrogations of terrorism suspects.

In the latest installment, DisbarTortureLawyers.com has joined forces with other organizations to demand the impeachment of Jay Bybee, a federal judge and the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Council. They claim that Bybee authored memos that sanctioned the use of torture and "offensive war."

The coalition has cited a recent Newsweek story that suggests the Department of Justice report on Bybee and his subordinates has been edited to remove the finding of misconduct that appeared in the report’s original version.

"If the Newsweek piece is true … then Congress should immediately launch a full scale investigation to determine if politics, political pressure or something worse entered into this decision," said DisbarTortureLawyers spokesperson and attorney Kevin Zeese.

He added that the group will also seek to work with foreign lawyers and judges to prosecute "torture advocates" for crimes against humanity.

"That torture has resulted in many deaths, not just of torture victims, but of our own soldiers who were killed by those who turned against America because our government tortured," Zeese concluded.

In a CBS interview with Katie Couric on Sunday, President Obama attempted to breathe life into the stalled healthcare debate by inviting congressional Republicans and Democrats to a summit meeting on Feb. 25.

Obama, who has recently been accused of leading a partisan effort to push healthcare reform through behind closed doors, is being forced to talk compromise after the Democrats lost a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate following a special election victory by Republican Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

"I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward," said the president.

While GOP leaders plan on accepting Obama’s invitation, they also demand that the president and other Democrats be willing to completely replace the proposed healthcare bill.

"If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, quoted by Fox News.

Meanwhile, a White House aide said on Sunday that the president does not plan to start from scratch regarding healthcare reform and that the Democrats will be "coming in with [their] plan," according to The Wall Street Journal.

During the weekend, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin delivered the keynote address to the attendees of the Tea Party movement’s first-ever national convention Feb. 6, saying that the Obama administration’s policies were causing America to "drown in debt."

Speaking in Nashville, Palin said that the government’s outsize spending—in particular its massive $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2011—will place undue burden on the shoulders of future generations.

Palin also criticized Obama’s foreign policy, dismissing it as too conciliatory and failing to "distinguish America’s friends from her enemies" as well as face up to the "true nature" of the threats to national security.

In concluding her speech, the former Alaska governor affirmed her support for the Tea Party movement, stating that "America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this." However, she reportedly dismissed the idea of becoming its leader as it was not "a top-down operation."

Finally, a day after the speech, Palin, who is a new Fox News commentator, revealed on the air that she was receiving daily policy briefings from advisers, and hinted she might run for president in 2012.

Just days after the first Tea Party nation’s convention wound down in Nashville several opinion polls appeared to send conflicting messages about the movement’s likely impact in this crucial election year.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Poll, only about a third of Americans view the movement favorably, while a plurality (40 percent) have not heard of it or don’t have enough information to form an opinion.

In addition, about 26 percent of the public is critical of the grassroots movement.

"The Tea Party movement is a blank slate to many Americans, which is not surprising for a political movement that is only about a year old," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

However, there are signals that the movement may already be influencing electoral outcomes in some key states.

For example, a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports shows Texas Governor Rick Perry leading Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison 44 percent to 29 percent in the race for reelection.

Perry was endorsed by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has been branded by some as the unofficial leader of the Tea Party movement.

Palin delivered the keynote address at the Nashville convention Feb. 6, and a day later she made a public appearance with Perry on the campaign trail in suburban Houston, according to The Daily Texan.

A recent study conducted by Italian and Australian researchers has found that saffron, the Indian spice that gives curry its color, is capable of reversing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.

In the trial, conducted at Italy’s Policlinico Gemelli, researchers gave one group of study participants a saffron pill for three months, followed by a placebo for another three months. A second group was given the supplements in reverse order, according to the Telegraph.

The researchers found that all respondents who took the pill showed significant improvements in their eyesight. However, the visual benefits disappeared after each volunteer stopped taking the supplement.

"The outcome of this experiment was remarkable—significant improvement in vision after several weeks of taking saffron in pill form, which reversed when the patients were taken off it," said professor Jonathon Stone of the Vision Center at the University of Sydney.

"This is very encouraging for a non-invasive way to treat certain important eye diseases," he added.

Meanwhile, earlier studies using animals have indicated that a diet high in saffron can also help protect the eyes from the damaging effects of bright light.

As the East Coast is being hammered by the second snowstorm in less than a week, many Americans are looking for was to stay safe and protect their property from damage.

During a blizzard, staying indoors is the safest thing to do, as most people die in car accidents on slippery roads or freeze when stuck in a vehicle.

Those who need to travel should carrying a survival kit with a shovel, windshield scraper, battery powered radio, extra batteries, road salt and sand, booster cables, emergency flares and a fluorescent distress flag.

It is also important to always keep the fuel tank above half full.

Individuals who become stranded in a vehicle during a snowstorm should stay inside and run the car for short periods of time to provide heat, cracking the windows slightly open to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Moreover, a stranded person should clap their hands, stomp their feet and move around as much as possible at least once an hour, according to Weather.com.

Meanwhile, experts from the Restoration Industry Association (RIA) offered tips on how to prevent property damage during blizzards. They include clearing out basement window wells of snow and removing snow from windows and doors to prevent water from seeping through frames. Snow should always be shoveled away from the home’s walls.

In order to avoid accumulation of noxious gasses inside, it is important to clear the areas around exhaust pipes and air vents on heaters, furnaces and dryers.

RIA also recommends removing snow from the roof using a rake since excess snow that melts quickly can freeze in the eaves and cause ice dams.

Finally, all drains and gutters should be free from dirt and debris, and owners should watch the property for unexpected flooding since the ground may not be able to absorb a lot of moisture.

Scott Brown officially became the 41st Republican member of the Senate after being sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden Feb. 4, a week earlier than expected.

"I want to get to work," said the junior senator shortly after taking the oath of office. "There are a lot of votes pending that I would like to participate in."

Brown, who has vowed to vote against the healthcare bill and "send it back to the drawing board," said last week that he plans to take part in the debate over the best strategy for job creation.

"The last stimulus bill did not create one new job," he said. "In Massachusetts, it hasn’t created one new job, and across the country as well."

Brown added that small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, and that tax cuts across the board are necessary to stimulate economic growth.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin demanded that Brown "respect the rights of the [Democratic] majority," referring to the former state senator’s sudden push to be seated before a vote on one of President Obama’s nominees for the National Labor Relations Board, according to the Boston Herald.

Brown was initially expected to be seated on Feb. 11, but pushed to be sworn in sooner after several commentators complained that he was "dilly-dallying" and taking "a three-week victory lap."

Results of a new study suggest that the daily consumption of fish oil capsules containing long-chain omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent the development of psychotic disorders in individuals at the highest risk.

Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, and the Orygen Youth Health Research Center in Melbourne, Australia, conducted a clinical trial on 81 individuals who had mild psychotic symptoms or a family history of psychotic disorders with decreasing cognitive function.

After three months, subjects taking fish oil supplements were nearly 23 percent less likely to develop a progression of psychosis than participants in the control group who took a placebo. The research team also found that the nutrient considerably reduced symptoms and improved functioning in those with psychotic tendencies.

"The finding that treatment with a natural substance may prevent or at least delay the onset of psychotic disorder gives hope that there may be alternatives to antipsychotics for the prodromal [early symptomatic] phase," the authors stated.

Subjects taking omega-3 fatty acids did incur some digestive complications but were predominantly free of any clinically relevant undesirable effects.

The House voted last week to approve "pay-as-you-go" legislation, which requires Congress to offset tax cuts or the funding of new programs by first reducing spending elsewhere or increasing taxes in a different sector. The new regulations were attached to a bill that will raise the debt ceiling by a record $1.9 trillion.

The pay-go legislation was voted against by every Republican member of the House, who dismissed it as ineffective.

"This is just cover for Democrats to feed their spending addiction through new tax increases, and it does nothing to meaningfully increase fiscal accountability or reduce the deficit and debt," said Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO.), quoted by the Coloradoan.

House leaders utilized an unusual procedural maneuver that allowed moderates to vote for the pay-go legislation without directly supporting the debt increase. The entire bill passed without holding a vote on the issue of raising the debt limit.

"With Democrats sinking the country deep into the red, [the] vote to bring on more debt is simply reckless," said Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The bill will now be sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law in the coming days.

Leaders of the Tea Party movement gathered for their first-ever convention in Nashville, Tenn. over the weekend, ostensibly to criticize the Obama administration and to unveil a national organizing strategy for the midterm elections.

The event kicked off Thursday night with former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo’s speech in which he stated that illiterate voters determined the results of the 2008 presidential election, according to media reports.

"People who could not even spell the word ‘vote’, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House," he said, adding that "his name is Barack Hussein Obama."

Tancredo also accused the president and the Democrats of trying to destroy the constitution and America and urged the attendees to "take it back."

However, the former Colorado representative also said that he was glad Republican Senator John McCain lost the election, saying it would have been a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2," according to RTTNews.

The movement was launched last year in response to the stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. Its website specifies that Tea Party Nation wants to preserve God given freedoms introduced by the Founding Fathers and believes in limited government, free speech, the Second Amendment, the military and secure borders.