Every year at this time, the media pause to look back at the top stories of the year gone by. This author, too, wants to take this opportunity to look at the top stories of 2011, reported on this website but ignored by the mainstream media. In fact, if you are a new reader, this may be the first time you have heard of some of these news items:

21. Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption (story). Obama’s broken campaign promises do not just affect human beings; sometimes they harm wildlife, too. As a candidate, Barack Obama had pledged to oppose the slaughter of American horses for food, a practice effectively ended in 2006. But just as most Americans were about to sit down to a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, he signed a bill allowing equine slaughter mills to re-open for business. Already more than 100,000 American horses are slaughtered each year, including 10,000 Thoroughbreds. Slaughter plants are currently planned for eight states.

20. The UN’s New Center for Counter-Terrorism is Funded by…Saudi Arabia (story). You can’t make this stuff up. In September, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the construction of the UN Center for Counter Terrorism (UNCCT) in New York City, financed by a generous $10 million donation from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Prince Faisal al-Saud was particularly insistent that “Terrorism has no religion.” Yet few jihadists shout, “Jesus akhbar!” before going on rampages, do they?

19. Obama Believes America was Not a Great Country from 1776-1965 (story). In a speech on the budget in April, Obama enthused that American taxpayers contribute to programs like Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid. “We are a better country because of these commitments,” he said. “I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.” Since Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 by Lyndon Johnson — one of just three presidents Obama ranks above himself — that means Obama believes we were not a great country for the first 189 years of our existence. We had the analysis within minutes.

18. The Justice Dept. Says Obama Can Send U.S. Troops to Fight the UN’s Wars by Decree (story). As an increasing number of Americans weighed in to oppose Obama’s war-by-decree in Libya, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel weighed in on a president’s powers as commander-in-chief. In defiance of all the Founders’ wisdom and prudence, the DOJ ruled the president could commit U.S. troops to wars around the globe without congressional authorization as long as he was enforcing some vital national security, such as “maintaining the credibility of United Nations Security Council mandates” or “enforcing UNSC mandates.” That means if the UN authorizes a war, in their view the president can commit U.S. servicemen (and women) to the battle, even if it is in none of the United States’ vital interests, and if Congress and the American people vehemently object. The short version: It’s good to be the king.

17. Talk of Obama’s Impeachment Explodes (multiple stories). The Impeach Obama Campaign began as a lonely exercise. In the last year impeachment has been endorsed by a widening group of the most influential Americans and carried by citizen activism into every state in the union. National figures who have endorsed or discussed impeachment include Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Dennis Kucinich, even Ralph Nader and Jon Huntsman. At a congressional level, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona got things started when he suggested that the president’s refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act may merit impeachment. Rep. Pete Olson soon confirmed that his colleagues were talking about introducing articles of impeachment in the House. After Barack Obama proposed side-stepping Congress to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott called it “an impeachable act” — and the president backed off. Texas Congressman Michael Burgess told a constituent that impeachment “needs to happen.” Legal expert Bruce Fein drew up articles of impeachment over the president’s Libyan war; Ron Paul later named Fein his legal adviser. Veterans and small businessmen marched for impeachment on Veterans Day. An “Impeach Obama” banner flew over San Diego as Obama visited. Citizens have flooded newspapers from coast to coast with letters demanding Obama’s impeachment. This author even took the fight to the pages of the mainstream media, writing an op-ed for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram entitled, “Barack Obama Deserves Impeachment.” And more groundbreaking citizen activism is planned in the new year.

16. Obama Betrayed Armenian Christians on Easter (story). In 2008, candidate Obama promised he would acknowledge the genocide of Armenian Christians, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million Christians living under the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, their slaughter inspired the coining of the term “genocide.” Instead, Obama’s statement for this year’s remembrance — which fell on Easter Sunday — referred only to “horrific events” and encouraged the region’s (few remaining) Christians and (much more numerous) Muslims to settle aspects of their “contested history.” He issued no Easter proclamation at all. Somehow, he cannot believe when people question his Christian faith.

15. Flashback: Obama Wanted a Nuremberg Trial for Osama bin Laden (story). Barack Obama has had few accomplishments, so he is loathe to let one go unnoticed, particularly one as monumental as the death of Osama bin Laden. The media instantly began to spin that the death made Obama’s re-election inevitable. In fact, Obama had little to do with it. The intelligence that made the finding possible was generated during the Bush administration by interrogation techniques he criticized and later banned. When the plan was ready to go, he dithered for 16 hours, telling a room waiting for his decision: “I’m not going to tell you what my decision is now – I’m going to go back and think about it some more. I’m going to make a decision soon.” Obama’s most intimate adviser, Valerie Jarrett, allegedly counseled against killing bin Laden. Ultimately, he gave a team of waiting Navy Seals the go-ahead. But in 2008, the Associated Press reported that Obama “said the Nuremberg trials for the prosecution of Nazi leaders are an inspiration” for how he’d deal with Osama. Obama added he would not “make him into a martyr.” For some odd reason, no mainstream media outlet has seen fit to remind people of candidate Obama’s judgment. Although he now presents himself as half-Wyatt Earp and half-Charles Bronson, he’s really all hat and no cattle.

14. Eric Holder Promotes the UN’s Global Wealth Redistribution to “Fight Terrorism” (story). At the same conference that announced the construction of a Saudi-funded UN anti-terrorism center, Attorney General Eric Holder told an international audience that, in addition to killing practitioners of terrorism, they must “just as importantly endeavor to eliminate its causes.” The documents promoted at the conference, such as the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, call for “combating [income] inequality at all levels,” a longtime goal of Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren. What international socialism, presided over by the UN, has to do with safeguarding Americans is a mystery known only to Holder, Holdren, et. al.

13. Obama Snubbed the VFW, But Not These Radical Left-Wingers (and Potential Terrorists) (story). In 2011, Barack Obama became the first commander-in-chief not to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention or send a top-level substitute in his place. He instead sent W. Scott Gould, the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. (Cue the sound of 1,000 owls.) Yet he or his close subordinates addressed the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation’s support for terrorist organizations; the National Council of La Raza (“the Race”), the nation’s leading lobbyist for amnesty; the San Francisco-based Muslim Advocates; the homosexual pressure group Human Rights Campaign; the AFL-CIO, whose head, Rich Trumka, has a history of excusing or condoning union violence; and the NAACP, which all but accused George W. Bush of killing a black man in 2000. The president’s attitude toward veterans mirrors a comment allegedly made by a White House insider about another voting bloc: “F— the [vets], they didn’t vote for us, anyway.”

12. Obama’s Justice Dept. Point Man Likely Perjured Himself about the Black Panthers Case (story). Barack Obama’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Thomas Perez, is a busy man. He is the administration’s point man on the Supreme Court case to allow the government to define who is a “minister” (see below). He drew up a complaint alleging Sheriff Joe Arpaio racially profiles illegal immigrants, because too many crossing the Mexican border are Hispanic. He heads the case against Maryland pro-life activist Richard Retta for allegedly walking too close to those entering abortion clinics. But this enforcer of justice also appears to be a perjurer. Perez testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in May 2010 that the decision to drop the Black Panthers voter intimidation case was simply “a case of career [Justice Department] people disagreeing with career people,” and no political appointees were involved. But longtime Democratic Party lawyer Sam Hirsch and Associate AG Thomas Perrelli, “the department’s No. 3 political appointee,” both helped convince the department to drop the charges.

11. Weak RINOs Are Aiding and Abetting Obama (multiple stories). House Speaker John Boehner wimped out when Obama violated the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution on Libya. (In fact, this author highlighted Obama’s lawbreaking while RINOs and Establishment “conservatives” taunted Obama, egged him on, excused his illegality, or twisted themselves into knots doing all of the above.) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a plan to end the debt ceiling stand-off that would have given Barack Obama dictatorial powers. RINO herder David Frum advised Congress to go along with Obama’s debt ceiling plan, so it could avoid impeaching him. Now, some former appointees of the George W. Bush administration counsel that they must not consider impeaching Eric Holder or his deputy, Lanny Breuer. This is the loyal opposition — loyal to the Beltway rules of a one-party governing elite, not to their grassroots supporters back home.

10. Year One of Obama’s Stealth Amnesty (multiple stories). Numerous outlets have reported the Obama administration’s August 18th memo implementing the DREAM Act, and more, by executive fiat. Few, however, have reported exactly what this means. Obama’s Amnesty Plan only 60,000 of the nation’s 13 million illegals. Would Let 99.5 Percent of Illegal Immigrants Go Scot-Free. Obama Released Enough Illegals to Fill Pittsburgh

9. Democratic Operatives Lie About “Racist” Mitt Romney Ad (story). In November, Democratic strategist Tad Devine claimed a new Mitt Romney TV advertisement was “clearly an attempt to bring back Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright and race.” Why is that? It allegedly featured a frame — lasting less than one second, in which there were no white people. Also, Devine insisted, it contained no minorities in any of the shots featuring Romney. Heaven forfend! Even this thin reed broke beneath the weight of truth. As screenshots of the ad demonstrated, neither contention is true. As this author wrote, “Apparently to err is human, to lie Devine.”

8. Solyndra: an Impeachable Offense? (story). This fall, the national media covered a story of cronyism and political favoritism involving the Green energy firm Solyndra. The Obama administration gave the company — largely owned by one of his campaign bundlers, George Kaiser — more than half-a-billion taxpayer dollars before it shut its doors and laid off more than 1,000 employees. E-mails later showed execs, who met with Valerie Jarrett among others, exploited an “unnatural relationship” to wring the money from the government. As part of the Obama administration’s desperate attempt to keep the company alive, it gave a guarantee that in the event of bankruptcy, investors could collect $75 million before the taxpayers recouped a dime. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 clearly states that all government loan guarantees “shall be subject to the condition that the obligation is not subordinate to other financing.” If this breaks the law, that makes Solyndra more than a case of corruption but an impeachable offense.

7. Obama Quotes Teddy Roosevelt Speech that Rebukes Obama’s Policies (a four-part story). In Barack Obama’s messianic quest to inflate his significance, he gave a speech this month designed to harken back to one of the men on Mount Rushmore. Obama traveled to Osawatomie, Kansas, the place where Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech entitled“The New Nationalism” in 1910. However, the difference between the two speeches is so stark it makes one wonder if Obama’s handlers read TR’s original before sending The One off to mother’s home state to stir up economic envy and cry for collectivism. The very speech Obama highlighted contradicted him on embracing political violence, class warfare, the welfare state, and the importance of Christian morality to the survival of any Republic. The Republican Roosevelt also had strong words for those who believed in hyphenated-Americanism, mass immigration, and Open Borders. How could Obama, who had just told two members of Occupy Wall Street’s often violent mobs they were “the reason I ran for office in the first place” cite TR, who said in his “New Nationalism” speech, “I have small use for the public servant who can always see and denounce the corruption of the capitalist, but who cannot persuade himself, especially before election, to say a word about lawless mob-violence”? Because Obama is politically desperate and historically illiterate.

6. Obama’s Economic Advisers Include International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies (story). Building on his State of the Union Address, Obama appointed new members of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness early this year to give him sound economic advice. However, its members have worked with European socialists to establish a global tax, bankrupted financial institutions by pushing them into the subprime loans market, promoted performances of a play that glorifies a 24-year-old lesbian seducing and raping a 13-year-old girl, and bought their way in with campaign contributions and activism. Still wonder why the economy is a wreck?

5. The Dept. of Homeland Security is Spying on this Website and Many Others (story). Our websites attract a wide array of readers from across the political and economic spectrum. However, this fall one of our team members noticed ImpeachObamaCampaign.com had one regular, persistent visitor: the Department of Homeland Security. We have since learned that Big Sis is watching a number of other websites — even creating fake Twitter and FaceBook accounts to spy on anything writing about illegal immigrants or oil drilling.

4. Obama’s Unprecedented Support for Cross-Dressers and Transgender Rights (multiple stories). In late April, Obama held the first-ever White House transgender conference in strict secrecy — but this author reported all the available details. Its attendees have demanded the government pay for sex-change operations, make transgender people eligible for Affirmative Action set-asides and quotas, and teach schoolchildren there is no difference between “women” who have testes and women who ovulate. The government, they believe, must crush “prejudices and stereotypes regarding sexual orientation and gender identity,” particularly if those “prejudices” are based on “notions of…public morality.” Obama used a federal regulation to literally redefine the family for the purposes of Section 8 housing, claiming that discrimination against cross-dressing men constitutes “sexual discrimination” against women. He made the first transgender presidential appointment, Amanda Simpson the Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department,who served as a test pilot before becoming a “woman.” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis introduced a new harassment policy barring “contractors at every level” from allowing any discrimination against cross-dressing employees, even if a construction worker appears on the jobsite with a beard, beads, a flower dress, and makeup. For an issue so apparently irrelevant to the vast majority of Americans — indeed, a behavior disapproved of by the vast majority — Obama has spent an enormous, unreported sum of time and energy forcing their extreme agenda down the throats of his citizens.

3. Obama Court Case Could Force Christian Schools and Churches to Employ HIV-Positive, Transgender Teachers and Church Employees (story). The Obama administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is waging a legal challenge to the “ministerial exception,” a longstanding judicial tradition that allows churches to define who constitutes a “minister.” Those deemed ministers cannot sue their employers on the grounds of discrimination, because the lawsuit would force judges to determine whether the former employee performed sufficiently well and taught doctrines sufficiently orthodox to remain a minister in good standing. Under the First Amendment, this is none of the courts’ business. Obama would like to change that. He would like to allow teachers in Christian schools and other “ministers” in parachurch organizations to sue their religious employers using Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA specifically protects people infected with HIV/AIDS. The Obama administration has begun enforcing “sexual discrimination” law as though it applies to transgender “women.” If you believe, as the social revolutionaries do, that sexual identity is determined by the mind instead of physiognomy, then firing a “woman” because she happened to be born male and still has testicles is a form of anti-female discrimination. Opening Christian schools up to this kind of enforcement would mean Christian schools would have to choose between being sued by the federal government or violating their faith by allowing a transgender “woman” to teach elementary school. Obama promised to have “an activist Attorney General’s office and Justice Department” in his 2001 Chicago public radio interview. Now the nation has learned how ideologically extreme he can be.

2. Norway’s “Christian Fundamentalist” Terrorist was Pro-Gay, Pro-Abortion, a Freemason, and an Agnostic (story). He wrote that he did “not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God” and considered himself an agnostic. His writings emphasized his pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, anti-racist, and extremely pro-Israeli views — and that had a soft spot in his heart for environmentalism, Freemasonry, rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, forming a “New World Order,” hip-hop culture, and breakdancing. Somehow, the media presented Norway’s Anders Behring Breivik as a “blue-eyed,” “Christian fundamentalist terrorist” and “neo-Nazi” who murdered innocent Norwegian schoolchildren for the love of his Fuhrer and sweet Baby Jesus. Most media outlets never corrected themselves, allowing the anti-Christian slur to spread to this day, perhaps because he would represent precisely the white Christian conservative extremist the Department of Homeland Security has spent two years warning us is the “most likely source of terrorism”in the United States. Readers of this author had the truth before the weekend was over.

1. Solyndra with a Needle: Obama Considers Injecting U.S. Children with Anthrax (story). The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services steered at least $150 million in federal grants to the well-connected firm of PharmAthene, Inc. of Annapolis, Maryland, to develop a new anthrax vaccine called SparVax. Its founder, Joel W. McCleary, is a former aide to Jimmy Carter and onetime Democratic Party treasurer who donated $2,300 to Barack Obama in 2007. McCleary and his fellow executives in another of his ventures — Four Seasons Ventures, LLC — have proven most generous, donating at least $110,000 to Democratic Party candidates or organizations during the same time period. This unreported scandal is crony capitalism of the worst kind, Solyndra with a needle. And this author brought it to you first.

These are the stories we brought you — first, verified, and ahead of the pack. The headlines do not include our commentary on well-known issues, unique audio and video, or other aspects of our political or economic analysis. Stay tuned for what the presidential election year of 2012 brings.

See last year’s entry, “The Top Stories We Broke in 2010.”