The Buzz

What has happened with Orly Taitz’s quest regarding the “birther movement” challenging whether Barack Obama is a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as president of the United States? On Dec. 8, Taitz released information that the Supreme Court distributed her case to all nine justices for conference, to be held on Jan. 7, 2011.

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The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will meet on Mon., Dec. 13, at the Community Center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Orientation for first-time attendees begins at 7:10 p.m. The featured speaker will be Jim Horn, Retired Foreign Service Officer. His topic will be “Islam and Corruption in the American Government: Why Our Government is Failing to Protect Us from Infiltration and Terrorism.”

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On Nov. 2, voters in Mission Viejo’s senior citizen homeowner associations (Palmia and Casta del Sol) gave victories to incumbent council candidates Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness. Rhonda Reardon placed third in both HOAs. Sooner or later, the council will hear developers’ plans to build high-density housing near these HOAs. The project on east Los Alisos near Palmia will be sooner. Why would homeowners trust Trish Kelley to protect their property values? She has already voted on behalf of developers each time they gave her a “campaign donation.”

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From Congressman Gary Miller’s Dec. 10 “Weekly Roundup,” Doc Fix: On Thursday, the House approved H.R. 4994 (“Doc Fix”), by a vote of 409 to 2. The bill would prevent a reduction in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Without this legislation, doctors would have seen a 25-percent reduction in reimbursement rates beginning on Jan. 1, 2011. The legislation would maintain current doctor payment rates until Dec. 31, 2011. Congressman Miller supported the legislation. In other votes last week, Congressman Miller opposed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (which would provide $1.089 trillion in discretionary funding of government operations), and he voted against the DREAM Act (amnesty for illegal immigrants who entered the country before they reached the age of 15).

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From a Dec. 7 email from Caleb Yee, the Tea Party has a new youth group in California. “Thank you for adding me as one of the leaders of the California Tea Party groups. My name is Caleb Yee, and I and my friends have started and are running the first high school Tea Party club/movement in America. We're located in Hacienda Heights (20 miles from LA) in a public high school, Glen A. Wilson High School. I just wanted to make myself known to you all and to let you know that the youth does care and is now standing up for the future of our nation. Please check out our website and facebook page when you have time to get some additional info on our purely student-run movement. www.ATeamYouth.org, http://www.facebook.com/ATeamTeaPartyYouth .” From the group’s site: “Tired of liberally biased teachers and professors in both high school and college campuses? Tired of the constant biased stereotypes by the media? We believe it's time we put a stop to this.”

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Mission Viejo patriot and military Veteran Chuck Burzumato passed away on Dec. 5. Chuck became active in city politics in 2002 when aligning with a large group of reform-minded citizens who hoped for improved representation on the city council.