We Kick Ass, We Take Names — The Orange Juice Runneth Over!

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(by Vern Nelson, editor, and Greg Diamond, associate editor.)

milestone

Appropriately enough, to honor our years of comments, almost no one around here will have any idea what this means.

July 2012 was the best month that Orange Juice Blog has had since the 2010 election (and its purchase by Vern from blog founder Art Pedroza.)

The week ending August 5 was the first one we’ve had during that time in which all seven days of the week had over 2000 page views; it was also the best week of the year that didn’t involve goosing them along with the “Willis Maneuver.”  [That is, advertising stories on Craigslist with titles making them seem racier than they are.]

Today, August 12, 2012, was the day that we had our 100,000 comment (which was … this one from skallywag!)  Comments do NOT come more pithy than that one – three simple words,  “That is false.”  One could barely hope for a better and more fitting distillation of OJB commentary.  Thank you, Skallywag!  (Although actually, it was true.)

Some time during the next few weeks, we are likely to celebrate another big website milestone — like the previous one, a “career achievement” that we are happy to share with the prodigal Pedroza — but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

We have also gone 15 days without an industrial accident, and longer than that without a sexual indiscretion.

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This morning editor Vern shared a cup of virtual coffee with departed blog founder Pedroza and departed, prolific contributor Larry Gilbert to discuss what they were most proud of accomplishing with the Orange Juice Blog.   Some answers:

  • The Santa Ana Unified School District Corruption thread (still going, minus “corruption” in the title) which has been an invaluable resource to teachers and staff in the district who have needed to whistleblow, share info, and just get things off their chest these last 6-7 years.
  • Pedroza is proud of having helped get Carlos Bustamante “off of two commissions” even while we sounded the alarm about his over-the-top work behavior for YEARS before it finally sunk in to the lizard brain of the Supes and T-Rack.
  • Pedroza is also proud of “having exposed the hypocrisy of Matt ‘Jubal’ Cunningham,” former Republican blogger who has been shamed into behind-the-scenes “consulting.”  I say our pal Bushala deserves credit for the coup-de-gras on that – the exposure of Matt’s making bank on shilling for the liberal First Five Commission he had railed against as a “conservative blogger.”
  • Speaking of Bushala, we were proud to be the junior partners, as cross-posters, of everything he’s accomplished in recent years in beautiful, tempestuous Fullerton.
  • Larry Gilbert SHOULD be proud of recalling some really wasteful “RINOs” off his city’s council, but what he says he’s most proud of is exposing the GIGANTIC WASTE OF MONEY Mission Viejo spent a few years ago on their Rose Bowl Float, and shaming them – and other OC cities – into doing all their Rose Bowl Floats with volunteer labor and donations!
  • Vern is most proud of all the following:  Helping to stop the theft of the OC Fairgrounds by Schwarzenegger cronies and its sale to developers;
  • Helping to recall the madcaps who were running the Capistrano Unified School Board two years ago and replace them with a bipartisan group of sane trustees;
  • Helping to drive out Public Administrator/Guardian John Williams out of office WHEN EVERYBODY ELSE was ignoring his waste, cronyism and incompetence;  and keeping the energy going until the equally culpable CEO Tom Mauk was gone.
  • And we’re PRE-PROUD of keeping toll lanes off the 405, and everything we are GOING to help accomplish in Anaheim!  ADELANTE!!!

Oh, and this just happens to be Pedroza’s birthday.  As much as the guy pisses all of us off sometimes, this blog would not exist if not for him, so we gotta all say, as though to a half-mad grandpa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ART PEDROZA!

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To the rest of you, Greg says:  “Thank you for your readership.  You make blogging fun.”

Vern is too pre-occupied to say anything right now.  Oh.  He says “Hi.”  And he’s not pre-occupied, he is “verklempt.”  But he doesn’t look that way.

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Nevertheless, as always, not everyone will be impressed with our accomplishments.

Aliso Viejo's McKayka Moroney inserted into the "proto-human learns to use tools" scene from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

McKayla inserted into prom scene from Carrie

McKayla is not impressed with the warlocks of Qarth: "When you play the game of Orange County politics, you blog or you die."

We also welcome back to our Olympians, Aliso Viejo gymnasts or not, who have also had some recent accomplishments worth celebrating.


About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.