Opinion:The five most under-reported, unreported and/or mis-reported stories of 2012

At this time of year, people usually write about the biggest stories or most impactful stories of the year. Being a contrarian at heart, I prefer to look at the stories that should have been the biggest stories. These are the news items that might have been the number one stories of the year if they hadn’t been ignored or misreported by the mainstream media.

5) What wasn’t added back to the Democratic Party platform? Everyone talked about the provision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which was in previous Democratic Party platforms and removed from 2012. The provision was added back despite the lack of votes, as it became a political embarrassment. But there were three other items removed by the Obama campaigns that were not added back to the platform: the peace process should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel; there should be no discussions with Hamas until they renounce terrorism; and any peace agreement required adjustments to the 1949 Armistice lines to protect Israel’s security. Please don’t tell anyone though; the mainstream media wants to keep it a secret.

4) Attorney General Holder being held in contempt of Congress. The mainstream media attributed this story to politics. But many were killed (including a U.S. border agent) because of this misguided ATF plan which allowed Mexican drug cartels to have some powerful weapons. Congress wanted to get to the bottom of how the program happened, and why Eric Holder lied about not knowing about the program when he first testified. Holder refused to provide the documents requested by Congress and a bi-partisan vote of the House declared that Holder was in contempt of Congress.

Many Democrats have attempted to politicize the issue, falsely claiming that House Republican’s contempt vote is an act of racism that has more to do with their efforts to suppress votes than finding out the truth about the operation and Terry’s death. Led by the Congressional Black Caucus, many Democrats walked out during the vote.

3) The President’s “Green Energy” threw money away. This goes way beyond making lousy investments. In trying to pick winners and losers, the Obama administration chose companies who had already lost; they took our money and invested in green energy projects despite warnings that they were going bankrupt.

Most surprising, perhaps, is how bad off the government knew some of the investments were before committing all that money. For example, Beacon Power, a green energy storage company. Before committing $43 million of our money, the Energy Department knew that Standard & Poor’s had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of triple C-plus. Would you put your personal money into an investment that’s triple C-plus? Your government did.

“CBS counted 12 clean energy companies that are having trouble after collectively being approved for $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy. The junk bond rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES, a subsidiary of Eastern Energy and Solyndra. Others are also struggling with potential problems. Nevada Geo-Thermal, a home state project personally endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, warns of potential defaults in new S.E.C. filings reviewed by CBS News. On its last financial statement, Sun Power owed more than it was worth. First Solar was the biggest S&P 500 loser in 2011 and its CEO was cut loose, even as taxpayers were forced to back a whopping $3 billion in company loans.

The U.S. passed the 16.5 trillion dollar mark in national debt; can we really afford to waste money like that? The rest of the mainstream media ignored CBS’ report.

2) The $1 trillion dollars of tax increases that began on New Year’s Day, which had nothing to do with the fiscal cliff. There are five major Obamacare taxes that took effect earlier this week.

•The Senior Citizen Tax- Medical Device Tax: In addition to killing small business jobs and impacting research and development budgets, this will increase the cost of your health care – making everything from pacemakers to artificial hips more expensive. This tax attacks America’s seniors.

•The Flex Account Tax: The 30-35 million Americans who use a pre-tax Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at work to pay for their family’s basic medical needs will face a new government cap of $2500. This will squeeze $13 billion of tax money from Americans over the ten years. (Currently, the accounts are unlimited under Federal law, though employers are allowed to set a cap.)

•The Surtax on Investment Income: This is a new, 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single).

•Higher Taxes for Medical Itemized Deductions: Currently, those Americans facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). This tax increase imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. By limiting this deduction, Obamacare widens the net of taxable income for the sickest Americans. This tax provision will most harm near retirees and those with modest incomes but high medical bills.

•The Medicare Payroll Tax Hike: The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits. Under this tax hike, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate instead. This is a direct marginal income tax hike on small business owners, who are liable for self-employment tax in most cases.

1) “Benghazi-gate” Four Americans were killed in this 9/11-terror attack. We were told that it was all because of an anti-Muslim you tube video—that has proven to be a lie. The State Department was watching the attack happen LIVE. The questions the press refuses to ask: is why were the people lied to about the causes of the attack? Why wasn’t there more security at the Benghazi mission when they were receiving urgent pleas from Ambassador Stevens and others? Why wasn’t help sent to the people fighting for their lives in the Benghazi Mission annex? The battle was over seven hours long, there was plenty of time to send help, but none came.

Those are my top five most under-reported/un-reported/misreported stories of 2102. Keep your eyes on the Jewish Star during 2013 and you will read the political stories and angles you will not see elsewhere as they happen.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com). Jeff contributes to some of the largest political sites on the internet including American Thinker, Big Government, Big Journalism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has been a guest on national radio shows including G. Gordon Liddy, Tammy Bruce and Glenn Beck. Jeff lives in Long Island.