Mission Viejo Buzz - 05/18/13

The Buzz

Join the Tea Party protest against IRS abuse of power on Tues., May 21, with a choice of two Orange County locations. In South County, go to the IRS Services office at 24000 Avila Road, Laguna Niguel, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. SOC912 posted the flyer, including a link to a map, http://www.meetup.com/SOC912/events/119899242/?gj=fbsd_ed&a=fbsd_event_details&rv=fbsd_ed . Another Orange County protest rally will take place, starting at 12:00 noon, Internal Revenue Service office, 801 Civic Center Drive W., Santa Ana 92701. Additional information on the Santa Ana rally can be found at http://ocpoliticsblog.com/

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On May 16, Saddleback Republican Assembly hosted a forum on Mission Viejo city issues, led by Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht. Topics included the city’s financial health and the continued pattern of spending more than is taken in. Councilwoman Schlicht commented, “With the city being built out, money from developers is ending and reserves are down.” Questions from the audience covered pension liabilities and the difficulty in tracking where taxpayers’ money is going. Councilwoman Schlicht is among three council members who are asking the city staff to account for the costs of city events, staff parties and festivals. Thus far, staff members have indicated they don’t have a list and it will take months to find the costs.

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City Manager Dennis Wilberg posted his usual summary on May 17, “The Week That Was.” It contained paragraphs about activities the city hosted (e.g., the ones it can’t keep track of, described above). Among the events was a job fair in which the city’s human resources department participated. With 270 people already on the payroll, this might shed light on another topic from SRA’s city issues forum: where is all the money going?

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Stop Common Core. Dan Catania, Tea Party United, distributed a report on the May 10 rally in Sacramento. Parents, educators, Republicans, Democrats and independents are coming together to stop Common Core, which is education’s Trojan Horse. View the video, Part One, http://youtu.be/SeAnIQ-YPes . Part Two is also up and running: http://youtu.be/OcNAh8cIRiE

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The OC Board of Supervisors won’t increase the OC Grand Jury’s budget. The decision came after the grand jury’s April 15 report, "A Call for Ethical Standards: Corruption in Orange County," which came with a recommendation for creating an ethics commission. ‘Sadly, it is the grand jury's hypothesis that untoward behavior continues and is actively festering in today's political environment,’ the report read, referring to imprisoned former Sheriff Michael Carona and the dozens of past county politicians and bureaucrats who have been indicted. Supervisors, who have been targeted in the reports, this week unanimously voted against a $20,000 increase in the grand jury's budget.” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0510-grand-jury-fight-20130510,0,5001335.story

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The agenda link for the May 20 Mission Viejo City Council meeting can be found at http://dms.cityofmissionviejo.org/sirepub/pubmtgframe.aspx?meetid=1997&doctype=agenda . Note Agenda Item No. 11 under Old Business: Review and Discussion of the Street Sweeping Contract. Viewers should expect to see Councilman Hee-Haw Leckness “lead” the discussion, motivated by his intense interest in street sweeping, of course. Translation: he’s up for reelection in Nov. 2014, and he’ll need a lot of campaign cash to offset his history of complete lunacy. One of his exemplary statements from the dais was his suggestion that children should be given rifles for his campout in a city park.

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The Obamanation in the White House generally gets a pass from the media. In the May 19 Orange County Register, the summary of Obama’s scandals this month was given an explanatory headline: “Second Term Can Be Trouble.” So, it’s nothing worse than the usual problems any U.S. president faces after winning a second term. OCR’s practice of printing only happy news has led to its self-inflicted irrelevance and lack of credibility. OCR says happy readers buy more papers, and happy advertisers buy more ads. The lack of community news coverage has given rise to privately owned blogs and newspapers, such as Capistrano Common Sense, a monthly publication in San Juan Capistrano: http://www.ccsense.com/

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From Mission Viejo watchdog Larry Gilbert, “As today [May 18] is Armed Forces Day I wish to acknowledge a true American Hero. I had the honor and privilege to meet and later interview Walter Ehlers, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from WWII. Walter and his brother Roland were each in the D-Day Landing on Omaha Beach where his brother was killed when his landing craft was hit by a mortar.

“At last count there are only 80 Medal of Honor recipients alive today. That includes every war that we have been engaged in. As an example of losing the greatest generation, 465 of our military forces received the Congressional Citation in World War II. Walter Ehlers is one of 10 survivors from World War II. Recognizing American Military heroes, I have also met John Baca, who served in Vietnam, when Saddleback College installed their Vietnam Memorial Wall in Mission Viejo.”

Reading from Walter Ehlers Citation: The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to EHLERS, WALTER D.

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, 18th Infantry, 9-10 June 1944. Entered service at Manhattan, Kans. Birth: Junction City, Kans. G.O. No.: 91, 19 December 1944

The Citation begins as follows:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 9-10 June 1944, near Goville, France. S/Sgt. Ehlers, always acting as the spearhead of the attack, repeatedly led his men against heavily defended enemy strongpoints exposing himself to deadly hostile fire whenever the situation required heroic and courageous leadership. Without waiting for a order, S/Sgt. Ehlers, far ahead of his men, led his squad against a strongly defended enemy strongpoint, personally killing 4 of an enemy patrol who attacked him en route. Then crawling forward under withering machinegun fire, he pounced upon the guncrew and put it out of action. Turning his attention to 2 mortars protected by the crossfire of 2 machineguns, S/Sgt. Ehlers led his men through this hail of bullets to kill or put to flight to the enemy of the mortal section, killing 3 men himself."

There is more data in this Citation that points out Walt's heroism.