Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

South Carolina’s lieutenant governor Andre Bauer, a Republican, has been heavily criticized for his remarks in which he compared welfare recipients to stray animals and called on the state to stop providing welfare services to them.

At a town hall meeting last week, Bauer said, “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.” (Reported by Greenville News)

Democratic State Senator Vincent Sheheen has called the remarks "immoral," and said he felt "disgusted."

"They show an unbelievable lack of compassion toward the unemployed workers in our state who are hurting during these hard times," Sheheen stated.

As the criticism mounted, the lieutenant governor took to the airwaves to salvage his image. In an interview with CNN, he stated that he regretted his comments, saying "I wish I had used a different metaphor."

However, Bauer went on to say that he would like to see "the culture of dependency" created by government assistance come to an end, as it takes away the incentive to be responsible.

"If some of these people who are currently on welfare were put to work you wouldn’t have an immigration problem," he said, quoted by the news source. "The welfare system is so entrenched that nobody wants to do manual labor jobs."

Bauer is running for governor to replace the incumbent Mark Sanford who has been involved in a sex scandal.

During last week’s State of the Union address President Obama proposed a "spending freeze" on discretionary government expenses. However, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) estimated that the president still called for at least $70.46 billion in new federal spending.

According to the organization, Obama outlined 21 proposals that have a fiscal impact, including eight that would boost spending, three that would cut it and 10 whose costs or savings cannot be predicted at the moment.

The most expensive item was the call to pass a cap-and-trade national energy tax legislation, with a predicted cost of $51.5 billion, not counting revenue increases or possible price hikes in energy bills, NTU calculated.

Other pricey initiatives included immigration reform, at $9.8 billion, and subsidies for retirement savings among low-income Americans.

Meanwhile, the proposal for student loan forgiveness and a new round of mortgage refinancing subsidies were unquantifiable at present.

"This analysis doesn’t include huge potential burdens from big-government healthcare legislation, a new ’stimulus’ plan or greater obligations to bailed out entities like auto companies and banks," said Demian Brady, policy analyst for the NTU Foundation.

He concluded by saying that Obama failed to provide taxpayers with specifics regarding future direction of federal expenditures.

As Tea Party activists prepare to hold their first convention in Nashville, Tenn., in early February, concerns have emerged about the cohesion of the movement that rose to prominence on its outrage directed at Washington and Wall Street elites.

Some commentators suggested that the lavish nature of the event—which is set at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center and rumored to include steak and lobster dinner with Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker—is at odds with the basic principles of the movement.

"I’m hoping for the best, but I’m prepared for the worst—that it descends into infighting and that the passionate activists who attend end up leaving disenchanted," Red State blogger Erick Erickson told Politico.com.

Others noted potential problems that may stem from trying to hold together a fractious coalition of groups distrustful of authority and pursuing conflicting agendas. For example, the goal of the convention is to develop a mainstream organization, even though the movement was built around grassroots actions and appeals to an audience that is suspicious of top-down management, according to a blog on the website of the Los Angeles Times.

"The idea that there’s one person, one event, that can somehow be the Tea Party spokesperson is inaccurate and counter to the movement of free-thinking individuals that want less government intervention," says John O’Hara, author of A New American Tea Party, quoted by The Christian Science Monitor .

The wife of former presidential candidate John McCain surprised many when she appeared in an ad supporting gay marriage rights.

Cindy McCain is featured on the website of NoH8Campaign.com—which advocates against California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that bans gay marriage—with a piece of silver duct tape over her mouth and the slogan "No H8" written on her cheek.

"The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot," wrote Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley, owners of the site.

They added that her appearance sends the message that same-sex marriage is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but it is an issue of human and civil rights.

Mrs. McCain is not the only member of the Arizona senator’s family that has spoken in support of marriage equality. Her daughter Meghan has appeared in a similar ad on the website and is widely known to have distanced herself from her father’s views on the issue.

According to Yahoo News, Cindy McCain joins a long list of politician’s wives from both sides of the political scene—including Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush—who have publically expressed views on this issue that are different from those of their husbands.

In response to criticism from some Latin American leaders regarding the thousands of United States troops that have been sent to Haiti following the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, the Secretary of State has dismissed the verbal attacks and stressed that the soldiers are performing humanitarian missions.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez joined forces with leaders from Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba in accusing the U.S. of using the earthquake in Haiti as a pretext to occupy the country.

"There is not a shortage of guns there … doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that’s what the U.S. should send," said Chavez, who also promised to provide oil for electricity generation and transport purposes.

In Washington, Clinton stated that the more than 15,400 troops sent to Haiti acted to deliver the much needed humanitarian aid. "I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake," she stressed.

Criticism of the U.S. role in Haiti has also come from Italy’s top disaster expert who pointed to a lack of organization and the reliance on soldiers with no training in humanitarian operations, although the Italian government has distanced itself from these remarks, according to Reuters.

The chairman and the top ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee have demanded that the Obama administration transfer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to military custody.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan, Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT.) and Susan Collins (R-ME.) wrote that Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, needs to be treated as an unprivileged enemy belligerent (UEB) and charged accordingly.

Although President Obama "has said repeatedly that we are at war, it does not appear to us that the president’s words are reflected in the actions of some in the executive branch, including some at the Department of Justice, responsible for fighting that war," the senators stated in the letter.

They added that the decision to charge him in criminal court "almost certainly prevented the military and the intelligence community from obtaining information that would have been critical to learning more about how our enemy operates and to preventing future attacks."

Lieberman and Collins also heavily criticized the decision to read Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights, as he was openly talking about details regarding the attack when first confronted by law enforcement. After being read his civilian rights, Abdulmutallab subsequently obtained a lawyer.

The two senators urged the Obama administration to "reverse this error" by transferring the suspect to the custody of the Department of Defense.

According to a new study, increasing magnesium intake may help improve memory and learning abilities while inadequate levels of the compound may impair cognitive function leading to the deterioration of memory in older adults.

Professor Guosong Liu, director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and his colleagues developed a new compound capable of increasing magnesium saturation in the brain.

After boosting the levels of the nutrient in lab rats of different ages, the researchers found that magnesium supplementation was associated with positive behavioral and cellular changes.

"We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats," said Liu.

"Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing intake might be a useful new strategy to enhance cognitive abilities," he added.

The researchers noted that control rats had a normal diet, which contained a typical daily amount of the nutrient, and that the beneficial effects were associated with levels higher than those provided by a standard diet.

On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman, ending speculation from both sides of the aisle that his nomination was in jeopardy. The Senate voted 70-30 to reappoint Bernanke, the closest vote ever for a nominee for the position.

Over the past two years, Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized the Fed hairman for not recognizing the signs of the impending economic crisis of 2008 and for failing to prevent the housing bubble from bursting.

"Chairman Bernanke was asleep at the switch while Wall Street became the largest gambling casino in the history of the world and hurtled into insolvency," said Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT.), quoted by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. "His failure to adequately regulate financial institutions should not be rewarded with a reappointment."

Supporters of Bernanke argued that the way he handled the economic crisis is the very reason that he should be confirmed for a second term, Fox News reports.

Meanwhile, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH.), a proponent of Bernanke’s reappointment, said that President Obama is responsible for much of the ill will directed toward the Fed chairman, stating that he "threw kerosene on the fire [that] unfortunately blew back on his own nominee."

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has asked his running mate in the 2008 presidential elections to help raise money for his reelection campaign, and they will appear together at a couple of events next month, according to media reports.

Palin is set to stump for McCain in Arizona on March 26 and 27, and her appearances will include a Phoenix fundraiser and a public event, most likely a rally, USA Today reported.

"I’m looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail with my former running mate, and I know my fellow Arizonans will welcome her, as well," McCain said.

"Sarah energized our nation and remains a leading voice in the Republican Party," he added.

At the moment, McCain’s primary challenge seems to be coming from conservative right, as former GOP congressman J.D. Hayworth, a conservative talk-show host, announced he will run against the incumbent for the republican nomination.

The primary election will be held on Aug. 24.

Meanwhile, Palin is also reported to be getting ready to hit the campaign trail in the coming months for other conservatives, including Texas Governor Rick Perry and Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

A new study has found that insufficient vitamin D levels may be associated with a higher risk of relapse attacks in patients who developed multiple sclerosis (MS) during childhood.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego followed 110 patients who first exhibited MS symptoms as a child and found that high levels of vitamin D corresponded to a 34 percent decrease in the rate of relapse attacks.

The study suggests that raising the level of the compound in people with MS by 2,000 IU per day can conceivably cut a patient’s relapse rate in half, according to lead author Ellen Mowry.

"This is an exciting finding because it indicates that it is very possible for vitamin D supplementation to have a profound impact on the course of this disease," said senior author Emmanuelle Waubant.

The next step for the research team is to conduct a randomized clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation in MS patients as well as a study to determine the mechanism by which the compound affects the inflammatory process.

On the heels of shocking losses in traditionally liberal states, many Democrats have begun to question the strategy behind negative political campaigns that compare Republican challengers to former President George W. Bush, Politico.com reports.

Democratic nominees for governor in New Jersey and Virginia and for the Senate in Massachusetts, all ran smear campaigns that compared their opponents to the former president. All three Republican candidates upset their liberal counterparts.

"Voters are pretty tired of the blame game," said Democratic strategist Steve Hildebrand, a top aide on Obama’s presidential campaign, quoted by the news source. "What a stupid strategy that was."

Meanwhile, Obama, who ran a successful presidential campaign criticizing then-President Bush, has continued to point blame at the previous administration more than a year into his first term.

Fox News reports that Obama and his top advisors have negatively mentioned the Bush administration seven different times since last week’s upset in the Massachusetts Senate election.

"The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," Obama said last week. "People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years."

As the government flew some 50 orphans who survived the earthquake in Haiti to Pennsylvania for adoption, a state agency says there are thousands of American children waiting to find a family.

Acting Secretary of Public Welfare Harriet Dichter said that 3,000 Pennsylvania children are waiting for adoption and more than 20,000 live in foster care.

"While the plight of the Haitian orphans has attracted much attention, it is important to recognize the many other children for whom we are always working to find a supportive family and safe home environment," the secretary stated.

In addition to bringing orphaned children from the disaster-ravaged nation, the government has also relaxed immigration policies for Haiti nationals by announcing it would halt deportations of illegal immigrants.

Haitians who are in the U.S. illegally can now apply for "temporary protected status," which will allow them to stay and work in the country for the next 18 months.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this will provide an indirect form of economic aid to Haiti through remittances sent home by immigrants working in the U.S.

Canadian researchers have found that vitamin D may be able to combat and even prevent symptoms related to Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder associated with diarrhea, intestinal pain and weight loss.

The study, conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, was originally designed to investigate the nutrient’s ability to treat cancer cells, but scientists discovered that vitamin D had a beneficial effect on two genes associated with inflammatory bowel disorders.

Lead researcher John White and his colleagues found that vitamin D supplementation forced a reaction in the beta defensin 2 and NOD2 genes, which alert cells to the presence of invading microbes. If NOD2 is deficient or defective, the gene cannot combat microbial attacks in the intestinal tract.

"This discovery is exciting, since it shows how an over-the-counter supplement such as vitamin D could help people defend themselves against Crohn’s disease," says study collaborator Marc Servant.

The next step for the team is to conduct clinical trials with human participants suffering from the intestinal disorder.

Separate studies have also suggested that vitamin D can help prevent heart disease and certain forms of cancer.

On Wednesday night, President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address, renewing many of the promises that he made to a joint session of Congress one year ago.

Obama vigorously defended his legislative agenda concerning job creation, healthcare reform, climate change and his economic stimulus plan, while also acknowledging that many Americans have lost faith in his promise of change and are irritated with the partisan squabbling in Washington.

"I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe we can change — or that I can deliver it," Obama said matter-of-factly. "But remember this — I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I could do it alone."

The president chastised Congress several times, demanding that they not walk away from healthcare reform and "finish the job for the American people."

However, the centerpiece of Obama’s speech was job creation. He insisted that the Senate craft a similar piece of legislation to the House bill that was passed last year, proposed a tax credit for companies that hire new employees and called for an elimination of the capital gains tax on small business investment.

"I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay," Obama said vehemently.

The president also defended some of his more unpopular political moves, including the Wall Street bailout, banking reform as well as cap-and-trade climate legislation.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer expressed his discontent with Fox earlier this week, saying that the conservative network is "not a traditional news organization" and will be treated differently than other information providers.

In an interview with The New York Times, Pfeiffer said that Fox News has "a point of view [and] that point of view pervades the entire network."

"We don’t feel the obligation to treat them like we would treat a CNN, or an ABC, or an NBC, or a traditional news organization, but there are times when we believe it makes sense to communicate with them," he added.

Pfeiffer has recently replaced former director Anita Dunn who had a history of tense moments with the conservative news station, commonly referring to them as a "wing of the Republican Party," Newsmax.com reports.

When asked if the White House will respond to Fox pundits such as Sarah Palin, Pfeiffer said that they will correct the record of anyone creating a false depiction of the current administration’s policies, according to the Business Insider.

According to a recent study, taking vitamin D and calcium on a daily basis can help reduce the risk of bone fractures.

Researchers at Copenhagen University in Denmark found that taking the nutrients together decreased participants’ isolated hip fracture risk by 16 percent and their overall fracture risk by 8 percent. However, the study also discovered that when the vitamin was taken by itself, no significant protection was offered.

"This study supports a growing consensus that combined calcium and vitamin D is more effective than vitamin D alone in reducing a variety of fractures," said lead researcher John Robbins.

"Interestingly, this combination of supplements benefits both women and men of all ages, which is not something we fully expected to find," he added.

Experts recommend a dose of 10 mcg of vitamin D and 1,000 mg of calcium on a daily basis, according to Med Page Today. For high-risk patients, the nutrients should be supplemented by bisphosphonates or other antiosteoporotic drugs.

Bone fractures are a significant cause of disability in older people. Nearly 40 percent of women over the age of 50 will experience a fracture of the hip, spine or wrist in their lifetime.

After one of his most trying weeks in office President Obama decided to re-hire his 2008 presidential campaign manager David Plouffe in an effort to retain as many Democratic congressional seats as possible in the upcoming elections.

Although many have speculated that the decision to bring Plouffe back was made in response to the Democrats’ stunning loss in the recent special Senate election in Massachusetts, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said on Sunday that the move had been planned for some time.

During his first day on the job, Plouffe delivered a defiant message, signaling an aggressive change in tone for the current administration and the Democratic Party as a whole.

"Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that we have more than just the brains to govern—that we have the guts to govern," Plouffe wrote in an op-ed article for The Washington Post.

"Let’s fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win," he added.

Although Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is thought to have enough backers to easily pass the Senate confirmation vote, recent reports suggest that support may be eroding, even among liberal Democrats.

Last week, media reported that prominent Senators Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) confirmed they would not cast their vote for Bernanke, who was nominated for the second term by President Obama last summer.

Boxer stated that her reservations were due to Bernanke’s "lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis." Feingold added that the financial excesses of recent years, including predatory mortgage lending, happened on the current chairman’s watch.

However, this morning a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)said the House’s top Democrat hoped to hold the confirmation vote this week, according to Benzinga.com, a financial information website.

In addition, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that Bernanke will have bipartisan support, although he declined to say whether he would vote in favor.

Uncertainty over Bernanke’s confirmation unnerved investors last week and helped contribute to the worst three-day slide for U.S. stocks since last March.

The chairman’s term ends on Jan. 31.

During his State of the Union address tonight night, President Obama will announce a proposal for a partial three-year federal spending freeze for programs unrelated to national security beginning in 2011.

The Obama administration estimates that the freeze, which would exempt the cost of Pentagon spending, homeland security funding and foreign aid, would save approximately $250 billion over the course of a decade, but only $15 billion in the plan’s first fiscal year.

The president’s proposal has been greeted with skepticism from both sides of the aisle, as many think the freeze is insignificant in the context of the federal deficit, which is projected to hit $1.35 trillion in 2010.

"Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, quoted by Fox News.

The Economist referred to the proposed freeze as a "bright shining gimmick" because it doesn’t account for major portions of the budget including defense spending, NBC.com reports.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona has said he supports Obama’s proposal, but recommends that the president reject a $90 billion job creation stimulus bill that is currently being debated in Congress as well as veto any appropriations bill that contains pork barrel spending.

The Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 21 that campaign finance laws should be relaxed to reflect constitutional rights to free speech. However, the decision was strongly criticized by liberal politicians, and even John McCain expressed his disapproval.

The ruling in Citizens v. Federal Election Commission eases the limits on corporate campaign donations, in practice allowing businesses, unions and advocacy groups to air political ads, according to media reports.

Justice Anthony Kennedy explained that the decision reflects the majority’s belief that government’s regulation of who provides information to citizens violates the First Amendment.

However, Representative Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) said the ruling is "an affront" to his constituents and added that "people have constitutional rights, not corporations," quoted by Green Bay Press Gazette.

Top Democratic leaders in Washington have also expressed their dismay, warning that the ruling will cause corporate money to flood politics, create greater corruption and erode democracy and free elections by promoting special interests.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tim Kaine confirmed the administration is preparing a "forceful response" to the Supreme Court’s decision that he said "must not be allowed to stand."

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, (R-Ariz.), declared himself disappointed with the ruling that weakens the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 he co-sponsored.

The act banned unregulated contributions to national political parties, outlawed advocacy ads in the 60 days before an election, limited contributions and required donor disclosure.