Our former blogger Claudio Gallegos has decided to return to blogging, but he won’t be coming back here to the Orange Juice. Instead he is starting a new blog called Sunny D. Here is how he has introduced this new blog:
After a year long and much needed sabbatical from the blogosphere, it is a pleasure to return. This time I have decided to strike it out on my own with a new blog in the Orange County blogosphere, SUNNY D. The name is a tribute to my blogosphere roots. In Orange County, I am very impressed how people on both sides of the political spectrum have really developed the political blogosphere. Whether Liberal or Conservative, we are looked to as an example from political bloggers from throughout the nation, and I am proud to have been a pioneer in this effort along with many of the great bloggers in the many political blogs in Orange County.
I am excited to introduce this effort, and set out to do what I did in my original run- get political discourse going, be edgy, raise eyebrows and all at the same time, be credible. Of course all great blogs have a great team behind them and I will not be doing this alone. Along with me, the first addition is Alex Coe, who will be blogging from a Libertarian/Conservative perspective. Over the next week I will be announcing other additions to the Sunny D Team from all ends of the political spectrum, some will be new faces to the blogosphere and some will be familiar names.
I find it interesting that Gallegos has partnered with a Libertarian, but is calling his site “Sunny D,” which is an obvious reference to the party he belongs to and to his past blogging here at the Orange Juice.
We wish Gallegos well. Running a blog is a lot of work. It is not easy keeping it fresh and timely, but on top of that building an audience is a painstaking effort. We are lucky to be amongst the top blogs in the state. None of that success came easy.
For the record, I did offer Gallegos the opportunity to return to the Orange Juice. He opted not to so instead I wish him well on his new venture. I am not surprised that Gallegos is not coming back, however. His friends in the DPOC often take umbrage at what we write. I guess he doesn’t want to peeve them.
If anything, this is just another nail in the coffin of the fading Liberal OC blog. Now they will have two liberal blogs to contend with, as OC Progressive is already kicking their tail.
Congratulations Claudio and good luck!
Who is that guy with the drink in the foreground? Looks familiar.
Dave,
That is Phil Bacerra. He came to one of the Grover Cleveland receptions at Tony’s house.
Bacerra is a lifelong Democrat and a member of the OC Young Democrats. He is a planner by trade. He and Claudio went to the same school when they were kids and have been friends ever since.
I have a feeling that Bacerra played a role in the formation of this new blog.
Claudio is making two mistakes: 1) He’s cutting his readership way, way down by having his own blog. I don’t take the time to look around at a bunch of blogs … this my only on for OC stuff … I’m sure its the same for many others. 2) If he’s a liberal and doesn’t want to appear on the same page as libertarians and right of center guys … it makes him look like a weenie. I guess you’re still on your own Vixen.
I wish Claudio the best of luck in his new venture.
He has an interesting take on things so I hope the “Jannie wing” of the DPOC doesn’t have too big an influence on his blog.
I hear that one of the lead “Jannie’s” is his webmaster so it may be too late.
David,
That guy is Phil Becerra. He is the lead Jannie in the DPOC. He even brings Janet Nguyen and other elected Reps staffers to the Young Dems meetings to spy on the OCYD. If you go to one of the ocyd meetings you will se Phil beceraa entertaining a bunch of Reps by putting his hand up Chris Prevatts butt and making him sing show tunes.
The competition between Liberal blogs will make them more inetresting. Lets see which one holds the party elite responsible.
Why is it competing with the Liberal blogs? I would think its direct competition would be this blog. From what I understood its going to have views from different parties not just liberal ones.
Paul,
I agree that competition leads to a better product. However how can you expect folks to hold the party elite responsible when they are part of that very clique?
Claudio brings a unique perspective to issues such as immigration and such, but I doubt he will take on folks like Melahat, Alicia or any of that crowd.
Look for a lot more of what you get from the LibOC when it comes to taking on the “Jannie” wing of the DPOC.
Claudio will however bring another voice into the blosphere that will take the Talibani’s to task. That is always a good thing.
However I am afraid that Art may be right and your buddy “the planner” may have a lot to say about the content.
Yeah, wouldn’t want to actually wait and see what gets posted on Sunny D before rushing to judgment!
Better to start criticizing them from the get-go.
Em you are correct.
Claudio says on his blog…
“Over the next week I will be announcing other additions to the Sunny D Team from all ends of the political spectrum, some will be new faces to the blogosphere and some will be familiar names.”
I believe it is not only a Liberal blog after reading that.
Matt,
Nobody is criticizing anyone or anything. Why are you here trying to stir up something?
Wouldn’t your time be better served writing on your own blog about John Lewis endorsing a Dem or a racist Reep mayor stepping down. Both stories you conveniently ignored.
Art and I both wish Claudio luck and hope he does well.
I was simply pointing out to Paul that Claudio probably won’t be taking the folks that Paul is referring to to task.
Em and Danielle,
The problem, if there is one, lies in the name of this new blog. The “D” refers to the Dem Party.
Art said: “… The “D” refers to the Dem Party.”
Are you sure Art? It could be:
Sunny D – a different kind of “Orange Juice” !
Good luck Claudio! I have enjoyed reading your stuff in the past and I am looking forward to your links being posted here!
SAHS Teacher,
I guess you’re still on your own Vixen.
Hey, I just came here to tidy up the SAUSD links, and I wound up staying for blog. You want to join me? I think we could convince Art to add you to the OJ blog roll group! Interested?
— Rv
Sean said: “Why are you here trying to stir up something?”
It is Art who is deliberatly stirring the pot by posting the photo of Claudio and Phil.
junior,
Not sure that is an analogy you want to make. Sunny Delight is basically colored sugar water.
Oh look who’s shown up: Rent-a-BFF, Matt.
Anything interesting happening at the Red County ghost town? I am loving the antics of dualing RNC heads Rush Limbaugh and Michael Steele. Have any relevant and current commentary on that subject?
Now junior how exactly is posting a picture of Claudio with Phil Bacerra stirring the pot?
“Oh look who’s shown up: Rent-a-BFF, Matt”
RV: I don’t understand the reference. Please elucidate.
Is that moocher Count Chocula smiling because he got his drink for free?
As far as competition is concerned, I think it will be a competition in quality of content between thw three liberal based blogs. Sunny D seems to be taking a wide bearth approach by including bloggers that arent traditionally conservative but more libertarian in philosophy.
The Lib OC for some reason has seen a precipitous drop in both readership and commentors. The OC Progressive IMHO suffers from a format problem in which the commentor is compelled to register to comment. Thats simply too much work for poeple to do to particiapte in a medium that is more hobby than anything.
Sunny D will have to prove itslef over the next short term 6months and long term 1-2 years to cut its niche in the blog market.
The issue with Phil Beceraa is that he is a childhood friend of Claudio who is known to fraternize with the enemy.
Oh Sean. Is some occasional intellectual honesty too much to ask?
You prejudge Claudio’s blog based on who the webmaster is.
Art classlessly prejudges Sunny D with a typical “when did you stop beating your wife” remark about Claudio’s motives. What a great friend!
Oh look who’s shown up: Rent-a-BFF, Matt.
Oh boy, another insult from Red Vixen, OJ’s reliable source of poorly argued, ill-informed Democratic hack opinion.
You’re a Democratic woman pretending to be a moderate male Republican, and lob personal attacks while hiding behind anonymity. Gosh, I wonder why you’re not taken seriously?
Anything interesting happening at the Red County ghost town.
Lots, actually. And I guess you haven’t figured it out yet, but the sidebar on the right lists “recent comments” or you can click the “read more” at jump to see the comments on particular posts. Just trying to help the blog-impaired.
Matt/Jubal,
Questioning his motives? What the heck are you blathering about? I did nothing of the sort.
Is your skin so think that you see insults where none are offered? Even when none of this has anything to do with you?
BTW, when will you be telling your readers that John Lewis endorsed Democrat Tom Daly over Republican Shawn Nelson, for the OC BOS? It has been over two weeks since Greenhut broke that story…and not a peep from the Red-faced County blog!
Matt/Jubal,
Speaking of blog impaired, Red has never said she was a man. I don’t know where you got that.
And if you have a problem with anon posters, you should know that Claudio’s “Libertarian” blogger is using a pen name too.
And didn’t you used to refer to “Jubal” in the third person until the OC Weekly outed you?
Questioning his motives? What the heck are you blathering about? I did nothing of the sort.
Good grief, man! You can’t even pay attention to what you write?:
“I am not surprised that Gallegos is not coming back, however. His friends in the DPOC often take umbrage at what we write. I guess he doesn’t want to peeve them.”
That is questioning his motives.
Speaking of blog impaired, Red has never said she was a man. I don’t know where you got that.
She said as much in one of her early posts. if Ii have the time, I’ll track it down.
Ah, how far OJ has come since the days of Art’s fierce denunciations of pseudonymous blogging and loud bragging about how he would never tolerate it on OJ!
Matt/Jubal,
You are the LAST person who should be crying about anon posters. You allowed Jeff Flint to out one of your anon bloggers – and it ended up hurting his career. You never apologized for that. I hope you are proud of yourself.
As for what I wrote, it is factual. The DPOC removed a link to our blog. And Claudio remains tight with his party. That’s fine. There is room in the OC for other blogs.
The Orange Juice is not for everyone. But we have carved out a nice niche for ourselves.
And your niche appears to be shilling for your red-faced friends. What cost your pride man?
“Oh Sean. Is some occasional intellectual honesty too much to ask?”
Matt/Jubal,
That is a question that you should reserve for yourself. Your refusal to report on John Lewis endorsing a Dem or your completely ignoring the racist Los Al Reep story demonstrates what kind of honest and open blogging you do.
I love your gushing over Claudio and him over you. It’s a regular lovefest.
You said something about folks not blogging with “vitriol” and instead focusing on “political discourse and debate centered on issues, actions and facts, rather than personalities”.
Really? Is that how you would describe blogging that compares local politicians to Hitler, Goering and Goebbels on a regular basis?
Whose being intellectually dishonest now Matt/Jubal?
Art:
Once again, you transparently attempt to change the subject to distract from the fact you falsely presume to know Claudio’s motives, to whit:
You are the LAST person who should be crying about anon posters.
Art, I’m not sure whether you are just dishonest, a genuine crackpot, or both.
For starters, I’m not crying about pseudonymous posters. But I don’t take seriously those like Red Vixen who abuse it to write personal attacks.
You allowed Jeff Flint to out one of your anon bloggers – and it ended up hurting his career. You never apologized for that.
That’s because I had no involvement in that, and therefore nothing to apologize for.
While realizing you live in this creepy fantasy conspiracy world in which your believe politics run by an octopus-like OC GOP Machine, I can’t allow or disallow Jeff Flint to do anything.
To hold me responsible for anything Jeff did — or for the blogger in question’s actions — is childish. People are responsible for what their own actions. But I’m sure this blogger you express such concern for appreciates you publicly dragging that matter out into the wider blogosphere. With friends like you, Art, who needs enemies?
Sean,
Yes, Claudio can be over-the-top with his rhetoric.
But he also possesses a quality absent from this blog: he will admit error, listen to an opposing viewpoint, and apologize if, after re-consideration, he has been over-the-top. That’s a level of maturity conspicuously absent from this fever swamp.
But we have carved out a nice niche for ourselves.
Art, you owe a a large chunk of your traffic to the good fortune of naming your blog after a popular breakfast beverage.
That “niche” you’ve carved out is somewhere in that seething brain of yours.
Matt/Jubal,
You are the Editor at Red-faced County but you “That’s because I had no involvement in that?” Lame.
The fact is your blog is nothing more than a shilling machine for your party. Period.
That has become very obvious of late since you continue to refuse to tell your readers that Lewis is backing a Democrat over Shawn Nelson, for Norby’s seat.
It is funny how seriously you take yourself when most folks think Red County is boring and controlled.
Why don’t you heed Sean’s advice and go tell your readers what Lewis did instead of wasting time looking like an ass over here?
Matt/Jubal,
“Art, you owe a a large chunk of your traffic to the good fortune of naming your blog after a popular breakfast beverage.”
That is baseless conjecture – and it is not borne out by our readership statistics. You may recall that WE provide our data to our readers, whereas you continue to hide in the shadows.
The fact is, folks like this blog because it is entertaining and hard-hitting. We are not sycophants and party hacks. If people want the latter they can always read your blog – or the Liberal OC.
Let’s see if this new blog by Claudio tows the line or not. It is too early to tell, but I noticed that Stanley Fiala has already signed on over there. Nice…
Jubal,
“Yes, Claudio can be over-the-top with his rhetoric…and apologize if, after re-consideration, he has been over-the-top.”
Has he ever apologized for comparing Mansoor and company to Nazis? That was fairly over the top, wasn’t it?
Since when, by the way, are you an expert on Claudio? And why does he need a right wing gay-bashing Talibani nut like you to defend him?
You are the Editor at Red-faced County but you “That’s because I had no involvement in that?”
Yes. It was between to grown-ups who can take responsibility for their own actions, rather than blaming consequences on me.
Now, why don’t you run along and ask the person in question to thank you for dragging that incident into the public square. You are so intent on trying to score points at my expense you don’t care who you splatter. You need help.
That is baseless conjecture – and it is not borne out by our readership statistics.
Quite the contrary. Google “orange juice.” This blog is the number 3 result.
When SMS optimized your blog for search engines, your traffic doubled overnight — even though the content hadn’t changed an iota. So it’s not hard to figure out the reason for the traffic spike.
All your puffery, self-congratulation, fierce assertions of relevance and importance, and your weird, simultaneous sniping at Claudio while trying to squeeze some sort of credit for his new blog screams insecurity. People who really do have influence don’t continouslly remind everyone about how influential they are.
Matt/Jubal,
You will note I took pains not to name the person we are discussing. Unlike Flint who went out of his way to wreck him. And you let it happen.
If anyone needs help it is you. But I am fairly sure you are a hopeless case.
Has he ever apologized for comparing Mansoor and company to Nazis? That was fairly over the top, wasn’t it?
Look at you. You’re so obsessed with me that you’re starting to take shots at Claudio in order to try scoring points at my expense.
You will note I took pains not to name the person we are discussing.
What we can note is you dragged that incident into the open, where people can start guessing — and my old blogpen wasn’t that big. You’re a real pal.
And you let it happen.
Translation: “Dammit, bested by Cunningham again! I’ll attempt to cover my retreat by spitting out the same lie over and over again! Brilliant!”
Matt/Jubal,
I am not taking any shots at Claudio. He would be the first one to admit that those posts were over the top. But I truly doubt he would ever apologize for them. Why should he?
You are a shameless hack Matt. There is really no other way to put it. I am not sure how you can live with yourself knowing what a sell-out you are.
As for Claudio, I have a feeling that before long he will be ripping your corrupt friends – let’s see if all this good will holds up when that happens. Good luck with that!
Matt/Jubal,
As for the other matter, it is just another shameless episode in your disgusting life. You and Flint deserve each other.
Blah blah blah. At the end of the day, as usual, you’ve got nothing left to argue with but lies and pure insult.
What does BFF mean?
David,
It means “best friend forever.”
Is that like BFL?
Matt/Jubal,
You crack me up! You say our traffic os due to thirsty readers, yet you spend half your day here.
Your actions seak very loudly.
You say our traffic os due to thirsty readers, yet you spend half your day here.
Unfortunately, on some days I spend too much time jousting with you. Sometimes I find it impossible to let the idiocies go unanswered.
If it weren’t for SMS , your traffic would still be stuck in the 600 visits per day range.
Jubal,
You would have made a great historian in the former Soviet run USSR the way you are rewriting history.
I have never seen a single apology for the comparing of local pols to Hitler, Goerring and Goebbels as you infer there was.
Again you are shown to be dishonest or at the very least misleading.
You attack bloggers here for the very the type of over the top comparisons made by your new blog buddy.
I have never attacked anyone in the blogosphere by comparing them to the Third Reich.
Matt/Jubal,
I guess you forgot that you banned Sarah from Red County.
Sarah did a lot for us, and then she left to work on her own blog.
Many people have tried to take us out before. All have failed, much to your chagrin.