ONE:

On the issue in which Kommissar Ummm Politboro ooops! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continuously slams Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with accusations that he hasn’t paid any taxes in ten years and demands that he show us his tax returns for said decade, there seems to be a slight, er, discrepancy, here…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid again deflected questions Monday about releasing his tax returns, even as he continued to pound the demand for Mitt Romney to make more of his own public.

Instead, Reid pointed to the financial disclosure forms he files as a member of Congress, which provide different information.

“I’m a member of Congress now, I don’t make too much money,” said Reid, whose net worth was estimated at $10 million in 2010. “But it’s all listed every year.”

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson told POLITICO last week that the majority leader will not release his tax returns, writing: “He’s not running for president. … He has of course released more than 30 years of detailed [personal finance disclosures]. There is exponentially more information available to the public about Sen. Reid’s financial life than there is about Mitt Romney’s.”

Conservatives have begun accusing Reid of hypocrisy for his attacks on Romney. And the Las Vegas Review-Journal — in a somewhat different context — on Monday resurrected a 1974 statement in which Reid said: “Any man or woman who will not be completely candid about his or her finances does not deserve to be in public office.”

Asked about that statement at a news conference Monday in Nevada, Reid responded: “In 1974, I wasn’t in Congress.

“All you have to do is go look,” he added. “I file every year, every stock trade, every piece of land I buy, all the money I have, it has the value of my homes, it’s got it all there.”

Of course, it is, communist dirt bag.

TWO:

Then we have 70 Facts about the U.S. Economy that Barack Osama Obama doesn’t want We, the People to see.

Let’s have a look…

$3.59 - When Barack Obama entered the White House, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.59.

22 - It is hard to believe, but today the poverty rate for children living in the United States is a whopping 22 percent.

23 - According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities permanently shut down in the United States every single day during 2010.

30 - Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer. Today, that number is above 30 percent.

32 - The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

35 - U.S. housing prices are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble.

40 - The official U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row.

42 - According to one survey, 42 percent of all American workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

48 - Shockingly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.

49 - Today, an astounding 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the government.

53 - Last year, an astounding 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

60 - According to a recent Gallup poll, only 60 percent of all Americans say that they have enough money to live comfortably.

61 - At this point the Federal Reserve is essentially monetizing much of the U.S. national debt. For example, the Federal Reserve bought up approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department during 2011.

63 - One recent survey found that 63 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economic model is broken.

71 - Today, 71 percent of all small business owners believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession.

80 - Americans buy 80 percent of the pain pills sold on the entire globe each year.

81 - Credit card debt among Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket has risen by 81 percent since 1989.

85 - 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

86 - According to one survey, 86 percent of Americans workers in their sixties say that they will continue working past their 65th birthday.

90 - In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

93 - The United States now ranks 93rd in the world in income inequality.

95 - The middle class continues to shrink - 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs.

107 - Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes.

350 - The average CEO now makes approximately 350 times as much as the average American worker makes.

400 - According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.

$500 - In some areas of Detroit, Michigan you can buy a three bedroom home for just $500.

627 - In 2010, China produced 627 million metric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.

877 - 20,000 workers recently applied for just 877 jobs at a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama.

900 - Auto parts exports from China to the United States have increased by more than 900 percent since the year 2000.

$1580 - When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1580 an ounce.

1700 - Consumer debt in America has risen by a whopping 1700% since 1971.

2016 - It is being projected that the Chinese economy will be larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2016.

$4155 - The average American household spent a staggering $4,155 on gasoline during 2011.

$4300 - The amount by which real median household income has declined since Barack Obama entered the White House.

$6000 - If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

$10,000 - According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

49,000 - In 2011, our trade deficit with China was more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985.

50,000 - The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

56,000 - The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

$85,000 - According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

$175,587 - The Obama administration spent $175,587 to find out if cocaine causes Japanese quail to engage in sexually risky behavior.

$328,404 - Over the next 75 years, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars. That comes to $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

$361,330 - This is what the average banker in New York City made in 2010.

440,00 - If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to totally pay it off.

500,000 - According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

2,000,000 - Family farms are being systematically wiped out of existence in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today.

$2,000,000 - At this point, the U.S. national debt is rising by more than 2 million dollars every single minute.

2,600,000 - In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

5,400,000 - When Barack Obama first took office there were 2.7 million long-term unemployed Americans. Today there are twice as many.

16,000,000 - It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

$20,000,000 - The amount of money the U.S. government was spending to create a version of Sesame Street for children in Pakistan.

25,000,000 - Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

40,000,000 - According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.

46,405,204 - The number of Americans currently on food stamps. When Barack Obama first entered the White House there were only 32 million Americans on food stamps.

88,000,000 - Today there are more than 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.

100,000,000 - Overall, there are more than 100 million working age Americans that do not currently have jobs.

$150,000,000 - This is approximately the amount of money that the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress are stealing from future generations of Americans every single hour.

$2,000,000,000 - The amount of money that JP Morgan has admitted that it will lose from derivatives trades gone bad. Many analysts are convinced that the real number will actually end up being much higher.

$147,000,000,000 - In the U.S., medical costs related to obesity are estimated to be approximately 147 billion dollars a year.

295,500,000,000 - Our trade deficit with China in 2011 was $295.5 billion. That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet.

$359,100,000,000 - During the first quarter of 2012, U.S. public debt rose by 359.1 billion dollars. U.S. GDP only rose by 142.4 billion dollars.

$454,000,000,000 - During fiscal 2011, the U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt.

$1,000,000,000,000 - The total amount of student loan debt in the United States recently surpassed the one trillion dollar mark.

$1,170,000,000,000 - China now holds approximately 1.17 trillion dollars of U.S. government debt. Yet the U.S. government continues to send them millions of dollars in foreign aid every year.

$1,600,000,000,000 - The amount that has been added to the U.S. national debt since the Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. This is more than the first 97 Congresses added to the national debt combined.

$5,000,000,000,000 - The U.S. national debt has risen by more than 5 trillion dollars since the day that Barack Obama first took office. In a little more than 3 years Obama has added more to the national debt than the first 41 presidents combined.

$5,000,000,000,000 - What the real U.S. budget deficit in 2011 would have been if the federal government had used generally accepted accounting principles.

$11,440,000,000,000 - The total amount of consumer debt in the United States.

$15,734,596,578,458.59 - The U.S. national debt as of June 7, 2012.

$200,000,000,000,000 - Today, the 9 largest banks in the United States have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. When the derivatives market completely collapses there won’t be enough money in the entire world to fix it.

And there are people who call themselves Americans who would actually consider voting to reelect that…miserable failure… to the presidency?

Then again, maybe I’m being too harsh; One has to presume, even with a precedent like Jimmy Carter, that no political party is going to expend their time and their capital pushing a total moron in the direction of the White House, so perhaps Barack Hussein is NOT a failure, maybe he’s destroying America, dismantling us from the bottom of our foundation upward, with every intention of doing so.

The good Lord only knows that like thinkers in the Communist Party have been trying for years to do what he’s already accomplished in less than a single term, so maybe from his and his leftist friends’ perspective, he’s very close to being a strong success at finally bringing our great nation to its knees…

By “him”, I mean Eric Holder, that snake-in-the-grass…

I mean why bother to hold him in “contempt” of Congress if they’re not going to do anything about it?

Despite voting to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress, there’s little House Republicans can do in the short term to compel him to turn over documents — unless it wanted to revisit a long-dormant power and arrest him.

The thought is shocking, and conjures up a Hollywood-ready standoff scene between House police and the FBI agents who protect the attorney general. It’s a dramatic and unlikely possibility not least because Congress doesn’t even have a jail any longer. But in theory it could happen.

Republicans say it’s not even under consideration, with House Speaker John A. Boehner’s spokesman flatly ruling it out.

I can see if we were discussing the president, joke though he is for that office, arresting him would be nearly as much of a national embarrassment as it is having him as POTUS, arresting ANY president would be kind of, well, degrading, but arresting Holder?

C’mon, Holder taking a perp walk on CNN would do him, and the right thinkers among us, some good. He’d have gotten what he deserves, we right thinkers would see justice done.

But the process, known as inherent contempt, is well-established by precedent, has been confirmed by multiple Supreme Court rulings, and is available to any Congress willing to force such a confrontation.

“The House is scared to death to use the inherent contempt power,” said Mort Rosenberg, a fellow at the Constitution Project and author of “When Congress Comes Calling.” “They’re scared to death because the courts have said … the way the contempt power is used is unseemly. It’s not that it’s unconstitutional, because it’s been upheld by four Supreme Court decisions, but unseemly to have somebody go arrest the attorney general.”

That’s why it’s been more than 75 years since either chamber has used the option though it used to be somewhat common.

The House on Thursday voted 255-67 to hold Mr. Holder in criminal contempt, and 258-95 to pursue a case against him in the courts.

But those votes do little to break the impasse over his refusal to turn over documents the House is seeking in an investigation into Fast and Furious, a botched gun-walking operation. The House issued subpoenas for the documents last year but President Obama last week asserted executive privilege in withholding them.

A court case will take time, meaning there’s little immediate effect of the two contempt votes.

A court case will take time, right, like until sometime after the November elections.

So the contempt vote is about as worthless as, “I dare you to cross this line….okay, I dare you to cross this one…. now this one…”

A precedent has now been set. Perhaps they can call it the “Sticks and Stones” Precedent. It’s similar to that scene in Team America where they threaten Kim Jong Il with a letter of “strong condemnation” if he doesn’t give up his nuclear weapons ambitions.

What a bunch of spineless wastes of skin we have in the GOP these days, and they’re our alternative to the anti-America far left that has assumed control of the Democratic Party?

Are we in trouble, or what!?

When you give liberals an inch, they will not be satisfied to take a mere mile and, like terrorists, they will continue pushing the envelope to see how far they can get. Such is the case with political correctness, and the way the left keeps pushing more and more of it on the rest of us as a way of knocking down our defenses against their various agendas, none of which are in the least bit friendly to America and the American way of life.

Here we have yet another example of this phenomenon in action;

In yet another case of Orwellian political correctness run amok, a video posted at MoveOn.org says calling illegal immigrants “illegal” fits the definition of a hate crime and calls for the word to be banned when used in the context of immigration.

The headline at the MoveOn page screams “One word we hear too often on Fox News,” as if only Fox News calls illegal immigrants “illegal.”

As usual, they alter the context to make “illegal” aliens out to mean that the peoples, their existences, are illegal rather than their undocumented presences in the United States, semantics intended to villify enforcement of federal law.

It irks me to no end that this practice is allowed to continue, but I suppose that this is the essence of a country like ours, one endowed with freedom for all, including those that would destroy us from within, taking away those same liberties that allowed them to do so.

Having said that, here is the article quoted above, complete with video.

From One News Now:

Planned Parenthood is suing the state of Texas for denying it tax dollars for a Medicaid program.

The Obama administration stopped sending federal money for contraception and check-ups for low-income women in Texas when the state decided not to allocate the money to organizations that perform abortions.

Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life says the state instead decided to give program funding to 1,400 qualified providers in the state.

“Planned Parenthood and abortion providers are suing the state for locking them out of the women’s health program because they are desperate to keep their hands in the pockets of taxpayers to promote their abortion agenda,” she says.

Planned Parenthood is basically claiming discrimination because they are abortion providers.

“Really, the state is obligated to distribute much-coveted healthcare dollars to programs and agencies that best serve a large population and programs that have a broad application across the state,” comments the spokeswoman.

Texas will be allocating the money to healthcare providers that have no affiliation with abortion providers, because — as Graham emphasizes — abortion is not healthcare.

…abortion is not healthcare, amen to that!

Yet, Planned Parenthood is determined to finance as much baby murder as it can using our tax dollars. Is that abonimable, or what?

Of course, anyone who’s visited Hard Astarboard over a period of time knows how we classify the likes of Planned Parenthood.

And here I thought Mayor Bloomberg’s despotic administration in New York was beyond the pale.

Well, it appears that KingImamHis Excellency President — that’s it, President (or unrerasonable facsimile thereof) Obama has outdone Bloomberg the Weasel by bestowing upon himself the power to enact an all-encompassing martial law over we, the people and all our assets as he sees fit.

From the Washington Times:

President Obama has given himself the powers to declare martial law — especially in the event of a war with Iran. It is a sweeping power grab that should worry every American.

On March 16, the White House released an executive order, “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” The document is stunning in its audacity and a flagrant violation of the Constitution. It states that, in case of a war or national emergency, the federal government has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American society. Food, livestock, farming equipment, manufacturing, industry, energy, transportation, hospitals, health care facilities, water resources, defense and construction — all of it could fall under the full control of Mr. Obama. The order empowers the president to dispense these vast resources as he sees fit during a national crisis.

{Emphasis mine, contempt for the Constitution Mr. Obama’s}

More:

In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law. He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional. The executive branch is arrogating responsibilities precluded by the Constitution without even asking the permission of Congress. The order gives Mr. Obama a blank check to erect a centralized authoritarian state. This is a law one would expect to find in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Sure, His Majesty uses the possibility of looming conflict with Iran (over their nukes) as a reason to somehow justify this extreme measure, but that is just an excuse, like his moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the BP oil spill or his and his fellow leftists’ use of any firearm incident as an excuse to pursue their anti-2nd Amendment agenda.

Would that tempt Mr. Obama to claim a state of emergency and thereby implement his executive order? No one knows the answer. And we shouldn’t have to find out. The president does not — and should not - have the authority to subordinate the entire private economy to the government, especially without the consent of Congress and the American people. It is national socialism masquerading as military security.

Amen to that!

Read the entire article here.

It never does, no matter what happens among the panoramas of our political landscape, whether the leftist controlled Democrats are in charge or the Republicans have regained control after a stark demonstration of Democrat dominance has reawakened the voting public to the BOHICA (bend over, here it comes again) effect that always follows the advent of a new majority coming from the left side of the aisle.

The “it” in question is the never ending assault from the left on the elements of our marketplace that made it, in two centuries, the most formidable in the history of the world.

From ever vigilant Red State, we have Killing the Private-Sector: What Democrats in Congress couldn’t do for union bosses, the NLRB will.

As unemployment continues to rise as a result of the Obama administration’s anti-business climate, the union-controlled National Labor Relations Board is about do what a Democrat-controlled Congress could not do—give unions the ability to kill unionize more companies.

We’ve known this was coming for a while now, but after union bosses blew a few hundred million of their members’ money trying to save what Democrats they could on Tuesday, they now know that their number one legislative agenda item, the Employee Free ANTI-Choice Act is all but dead. Union bosses don’t seem to be too upset though. Why should they? After all, they’ve already engineered Plan B and, now, they’re ready to implement it.

Union leaders on Wednesday said they would focus their efforts on regulatory agencies that govern labor and union-organizing matters, and push for job-creating programs such as new infrastructure projects.

That means unions will turn their attention toward agencies such as the Department of Labor or the National Labor Relations Board, now that there’s little hope Congress will act on legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize without secret ballot elections.

[snip]

The NLRB doesn’t have the authority to overhaul labor law, but it could make administrative changes to shorten the time between when a union files for a unionization election and when the election is held at a company, a change unions say is needed to cut down on unfair anti-union pressure tactics by employers.

Gridlock in Washington could compel unions to put more resources into organizing new members, especially low-wage laundry and restaurant workers, and those in health care where unions have had recent successes, labor experts said. They might use more campaigns to allege unfair labor practices at companies, and work more with international unions.

Read the entire article here.

I suppose that in any great country, there are always going to be crooks and scumbags people like our union leaders who have no compunction about bringing down their nations’ economies at the expense of millions just to put some sleazily “earned” lucre in their own pockets, and there will always be a few treasonous politicians who support their efforts.

It’s enough to make you sick.

…I simply must share it, in case someone who visits Hard Astarboard hasn’t seen it.

An indignant President Obama complained last week, “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.” Fine. How about plastering a copy of his presidential oath of office there instead? The kowtowing commander-in-chief is in dire need of a daily reminder that his job is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — not international law or global diktats.

Case in point: Last week, Obama’s State Department handed in America’s first-ever report to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the “Universal Periodic Review.” In short, the 29-page document (pdf) is a self-aggrandizing report card touting the administration’s far-left domestic and foreign policy initiatives for the world’s approval. The report boasts of racial- and gender-bean-counting in the executive branch; Justice Department outreach to Muslim grievance groups opposed to post-9/11 security measures; teachers’ union payoffs in the federal stimulus law; continuing commitment to closing the Gitmo detention facility for enemy combatants; and the illusory lifesaving effects of Obamacare on minorities through “expanding community health centers” (which have yet to be built, but not that it matters in our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president’s age of post-achievement).

The report also includes a section on “values and immigration,” which essentially singles out Arizona’s immigration enforcement law as a human rights deficiency “that is being addressed in a court action.”

Yeah, this issue had mention here a few days ago, but some things bear repetition when they are downright offensive, so, truncating a bit…

No one should be surprised, of course, that the Department of Blame America First is prostrating itself before the likes of repressive U.N. Human Rights Council members Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China. No one should be surprised that Obama’s globalist panderers couldn’t simply keep their mouths shut and refrain from trashing Americans with whom they disagree. In May, you’ll recall, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner preemptively trashed our country’s human rights record to Chinese government officials and humiliated Arizonans — and all Americans — who support states’ rights to protect their borders and enhance their security through strict immigration enforcement. An obsequious Posner called S.B. 1070 “a troubling trend in our society” in his bow-and-scrape conversations with the ChiComs.

The inclusion of Arizona in a politically correct catalogue of human rights and wrongs is more than “downright offensive,” as Brewer put it. It’s a national travesty. In the very same Obama administration document, the State Department praises the administration for its “robust protections for freedom of expression.” The report notes sanctimoniously: “As a general matter, the government does not punish or penalize those who peacefully express their views in the public sphere, even when those views are critical of the government. Indeed, dissent is a valuable and valued part of our politics.”

Yeah? Tell that to the Democratic members of Congress leading the punitive economic boycott and political demonization of Arizona. Or to Attorney General Eric Holder, who rushed to attack S.B. 1070 before he had even read it. Fresh off this U.N. mess, Holder’s Social Justice Department has launched yet another vendetta against Arizona. On Monday, DOJ filed suit against Phoenix-area community colleges because they imposed strict citizenship screening of potential employees.

As Obama throws America under the bus for the cause of open borders, the shady U.N. human rights police must be laughing their jackboots off.

The entire column is here.

November, 2012 is sure taking its sweet time getting here…

…this kind of filthy, sleazy prophylacticism generally leads to instant dismissal, and with good cause.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state’s controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations’ human rights commissioner.

The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is “downright offensive” that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.

Governor Brewer is absolutely right, in fact…

“The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to ‘review’ by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional,” Brewer wrote.

And some actually deny that the leftists running our government are traitors!

I’ve always thought that a strange title for an organization that’s more a Murder Incorporated for defenseless unborn, but very much alive, babies.

Naturally, since baby murder goes well, somehow, with the doctrine that’s become popular among our intellectual elite and the “progressive” politicians they elect, it is also supported by the mainstream media who, as we know, have a habit of reporting only what is convenient for the public to know in order to press their political agendas. As often as not, there are a few twists, spins and, to those who actively seek the truth, some profoundly loud omissions.

Fortunately, there are a few honest journalists out there, including those who write for the Culture and Media Institute.

Speaking of which…

Media Ignore Planned Parenthood’s $1.3 Billion Federal Funding Discrepancy

Networks and newspapers silent on government report contradicting abortion group’s taxpayer funding figures.

If $1.3 billion is unaccounted for and the media don’t report it, did it really happen?

According to an American Life League review of Planned Parenthood’s annual reports, the organization received more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts between 2002 and 2008. A June 16 Government Accountability Report, however, found that the organization spent just $657.1 million of taxpayer money in the same time period.

The $1.3 billion discrepancy failed to catch the attention of the nation’s major media outlets. None of the networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) or major newspapers (Los Angeles times, The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post) reported it.

A Culture and Media Institute review of coverage found that only one newspaper listed among Nexis’ “major newspapers” – The Houston Chronicle – even mentioned the GAO report. The Chronicle’s June 16 article noted that Planned Parenthood spent $657 million of federal money over seven years, but did not mention the income/outlay discrepancy.

Amazing, here are all these media institutions in whom the public place their (I would say “our”, except I don’t trust those leftist turds, not me) trust for news, and only one of them even seems to “know” about a “discrepancy” on the part of an organization that our government siphons hundreds of millions of our hard earned tax dollars to.

Don’t Follow the Money

The media have made Planned Parenthood a go-to source for several stories over the last six months, including debate over abortion language in health care reform legislation, the trial of the activist who killed abortionist Dr. George Tiller, and the 50th anniversary of the Pill.

From Dec. 28, 2009, to June 28, 2010, the broadcast networks and the “Big 4” newspapers mentioned Planned Parenthood 56 times in news stories. None of those stories mentioned the GAO report, and only one article reported the amount of federal money going to Planned Parenthood.

The February 27 article in The New York Times mentioned an investigative operation by pro-life activist Lila Rose which found Planned Parenthood clinics willing to accept donations from people who wanted African American babies aborted. A separate New York Times report on January 28 characterized the investigation as “prank calls” to Planned Parenthood.

Four reports referred to state funding of Planned Parenthood, but did not mention federal resources granted to the organization.

Planned Parenthood’s 2008 Annual Report says $349.6 million in taxpayer-funded grants and contracts accounted for more than a third (36 percent) of the organization’s income that year, second only to health center revenue. Federal funding for Planned Parenthood has increased by 45 percent since 2001-2002, when it received a reported $240.9 million from taxpayers.

While federal orders mandate that government money not be used directly for abortions, pro-life advocates point out that federal money used to cover non-abortion costs frees up private money to pay for abortions.

“Frees it up.”

Favorite Experts

Planned Parenthood is by far the most cited pro-abortion group when it comes to national media coverage. In the last six months, 30 broadcast and print reports have quoted Planned Parenthood representatives and another 26 have mentioned the organization.

The 56 mentions of Planned Parenthood dwarf other pro-abortion groups, including the National Organization for Women (30) and NARAL Pro-Choice America (15).

When abortion was a major focus of health care reform debates, the media turned to Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and other affiliated representatives to statements and analysis. When the media celebrated the 50th anniversary of “the Pill,” the media commemorated Planned Parenthood’s role in making it possible.

A February 26 profile in The Washington Post painted a glowing picture of abortion doctor Carol Ball. The article described a “difficult time” for Ball and other doctors who perform late term abortions in South Dakota.

When Planned Parenthood produced an ad in response to Focus on the Family’s pro-life Super Bowl ad, the media praised it. USA Today noted it “defend[ed] abortion rights,” although the Focus on the Family ad did not target abortion “rights.”

The New York Times on January 27 turned to Richards on the increase in teen pregnancy rates, and she used the opportunity bash abstinence education. “This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not work,” Richards said.

In addition to news reports related to Planned Parenthood, newspapers published five letters to the editor from readers mentioning the organization and fives letters to the editor from Planned Parenthood executives.

Another seven op-eds and entertainment reviews mentioned Planned Parenthood, as well as 15 death notices, and a couple of comedians’ jokes. All told, the networks and newspapers mentioned Planned Parenthood more than 80 times in the last six months.

But when someone noticed a $1.3 billion discrepancy in Planned Parenthood’s handling of federal money – crickets.

See what I mean about the mainstream media?

The Sound of Silence

One letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times February 7 illustrated the effect the media blackout has had on public perceptions of Planned Parenthood.

Responding to the media-manufactured controversy over Focus on the Family’s pro-life Super Bowl ad, a reader wrote, “If I had it, I would give millions to Planned Parenthood to advertise on CBS during the Super Bowl.”

Well, dear reader, your wish has already come true. You might not know it from reading the Times, but Planned Parenthood already receives more than $350 million every year from you and every other American taxpayer, with no oversight from the “watchdogs” in the media.

$350 million every year!!!!

Of yours and my tax dollars, monies we could find much better uses for than having a bunch of “progressive” politicians give it to Planned Parenthood.

More than enough in any reasonable man’s book to justify giving every politician involved his or her just desserts.

The more I read, see and hear about the way things are going in our society, the greater my belief that the worst blight on the face of America, I mean, the most puss-filled, festering sore, is our politicians.

Worse than the slimy, ever-hungry union bosses, worse than liberal trial lawyers, worse than crack heads who mug eighty year old ladies for their egg money, worse than the smelliest substance at the bottom of a septic tank.

These parasites, who, if they had any consciences at all, would serve one term in office and then call it a day, going back to the private sector and earning honest livings.

Instead, they choose politics as a career path — and most of these, what was that phrase Seth likes to use — toilet cakes are no more qualified to decide on what’s best for the country or to lead the nation than the above mentioned crack addict or, for that matter, the smelly substance at the bottom of said septic tank.

They virtually steal, as in embezzle, rob, pickpocket, whatever, our hard earned tax dollars and throw them at whatever earmark has arisen that will help one of their colleagues get reelected, basically using the lucre they take from us to campaign for their friends.

When they’ve exhausted our money, they raise taxes on luxury and other items, raise property taxes, increase fines and other penalties and borrow money via bonds and other instruments upon which we, the taxpayers, will eventually have to pay not only the principal, but interest as well.

AND… they “borrow” money from escrow accounts whose purpose is to pay pensions and other obligated monies.

And they break us. That’s right, US. That tax money is still OUR money, even though it is in what is supposed to be the politicians’ “safekeeping”, until such times as some needs to be spent “prudently” in the interests of ALL the taxpayers.

But that’s not happening, because these slugs we continue to reelect continue to leech away at our tax dollars.

Meanwhile, they also vote themselves first class benefits, perks and retirement pensions.

Having vented, let me proceed.

From the Daily Worker Oops. Pravda Waitaminnit, I mean The New York Times:

Many states are acknowledging this year that they have promised pensions they cannot afford and are cutting once-sacrosanct benefits, to appease taxpayers and attack budget deficits.

Illinois raised its retirement age to 67, the highest of any state, and capped public pensions at $106,800 a year. Arizona, New York, Missouri and Mississippi will make people work more years to earn pensions. Virginia is requiring employees to pay into the state pension fund for the first time. New Jersey will not give anyone pension credit unless they work at least 32 hours a week.

“We can’t afford to deny reality or delay action any longer,” said Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, adding that his state’s pension cuts, enacted in March, will save some $300 million in the first year alone.

But there is a catch: Nearly all of the cuts so far apply only to workers not yet hired. Though heralded as breakthrough reforms by state officials, the cuts phase in so slowly they are unlikely to save the weakest funds and keep them from running out of money.

Some new rules may even hasten the demise of the funds they were meant to protect.

Lawmakers wanted to avoid legal battles or fights with unions, whose members can be influential voters. So they are allowing most public workers across the country to keep building up their pensions at the same rate as ever. The tens of thousands of workers now on Illinois’s payrolls, for instance, will still get to retire at 60 — and some will as young as 55.

When the politicians start cutting like that, even though they’re mostly cutting the pensions of future employees, it means they’ve already overspent to the point that they don’t really have what they need to keep their current obligations.

It means they’re getting ready to begin spending money they don’t have, writing checks based on zero equity. The kind of thing these same politicians would put you and I in jail for.

One striking exception is Colorado, which has imposed cuts on its current workers, not just future hires, and even on people who have already retired. The retirees have sued to block the reduction.

Other states with shrinking funds and deep fiscal distress may be pushed in this direction and tempted to follow Colorado’s example in the coming years. Though most state officials believe they are legally bound to shield current workers from pension cuts, a Colorado victory could embolden them to be more aggressive.

Colorado pruned a 3.5 percent annual pension increase to 2 percent, concluding that was the fastest way to revive its pension fund, which was projected to run out of money by 2029. The cut may sound small, but it produces big results because it goes into effect immediately. State plans vary widely, but many have other costly features, like subsidized early-retirement benefits, which could likewise be trimmed for existing workers.

Despite its pension reform, Illinois is still in deep trouble. That vaunted $300 million in immediate savings? The state produced it by giving itself credit now for the much smaller checks it will send retirees many years in the future — people who must first be hired and then, for full benefits, work until age 67.

By recognizing those far-off savings right away, Illinois is letting itself put less money into its pension fund now, starting with $300 million this year.

That saves the state money, but it also weakens the pension fund, actually a family of funds, raising the risk of a collapse long before the real savings start to materialize.

“We’re within a few years of having some of the pension funds run out of money,” said R. Eden Martin, president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a business group that has been warning of a “financial implosion” for several years. “Funding for the schools is going to be cut radically. Funding for Medicaid. As these things all mount up, there’s going to be a lot of outrage.”

The rest is here.

But you see, while these politicians, and here I’m not singling out either party, stick it up the collective kazoo of all of us, they don’t concern themselves with what’s happening on the next guy’s watch or what’s going to happen in the course of the next two, three or ten generations. Oh, no, they’ll sweep whatever “inconveniences” come along under a rug for their successors to “deal with”.

These politicians are, to be blunt, criminals. They are guilty of grand larceny, among other things, and they are only there because a few million irresponsible, ignorant people elect them without first bothering to actually scrutinize them.

People will spend more time analyzing the Past Performances of a horse they’re considering wagering on to bet a few bucks than they will the Past Performances of a politician who may just screw up our entire society, economically and in every other way conceivable, as they now have.

How often do we see a body of politicians who have screwed the pooch vote to lower their own pay, health care or pensions accordingly?

“Crickets chirping”