[Written by Vern, repurposed by Greg]
[Some of you may have missed this review of our most popular stories while you were otherwise occupied over the holidays — and it’s worth your reading! So, it’s going to be this week’s first-of-the-year “Weekend Open Thread. Talk about this, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decency and decorum. I’ve included “Top Stories” into the title, somewhat damaging Vern’s intro, for the noble purpose of making the most easily fetched by our search function. Yours in the service of History! – G.A.D. (OK, here’s Vern.)]
Oh whoops, DAMN. Did I mis-type “stories” as “sorties?” Well, you know what, that’s okay! Because “sortie” is a military term meaning a “sudden issuing of troops against the enemy from a defensive position … launched against the besiegers by the defenders” – and that’s exactly the place honest Orange County bloggers usually find themselves in! Most of our best posts – and many of the most popular ones we celebrate today – are exactly that, aren’t they? – quick improvised defensive attacks against our county’s aggressive oppressors – the self-serving politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, lawless “law enforcers,” and self-described “Masters of the Universe?” Isn’t our campaign against OCTA’s attempts to make us a toll-lane county a sortie of sorts? Our movement to defend our beach fire pits a sortie? To keep out Poseidon, a sortie? To stop the Anaheim Stadium giveaway, a sortie? And I could go on, you KNOW I could…
But before I begin the annual celebration of this year’s best OJ sorties, I already need to update the list we made, on Thanksgiving, of our “Cornucopia of Victories.” That story mentioned our victories on Jalali, fire pits, Hieu Nguyen, Fairgrounds Swindle investigation, no fatal Anaheim cop shootings, and (a couple we weren’t as involved with but celebrated anyway) the Orange gang injunction and the Harkey judgment. But there were a few omitted, and a couple that have happened in the month SINCE then:
- the closing of the hazardous San Onofre nuclear power plant, which our Inge and our (dearly departed) Demagogue were very involved in;
- This month, the Anaheim Police Chief candidate we’d been rooting for, the modestly reformist Raul Quezada, finally got the gig. MAYBE it was always in the bag, but there was that time when disgruntled sergeant Tony Montanarella (with cheerleading from Matt Cunningham) was trying to lead the charge for a more authoritarian chief; but I think we helped tamp that down. Which also reminded me, we should have included some APD reforms we helped wring out of Quezada – including the moving of killer cops Kelly Phillips and Dan Hurtado.
- As we discovered at the last OCTA meeting, our victory over the Toll Trolls, while still only temporary, was stronger than we expected, with Todd Spitzer trying hard to keep Alt 2 alive, Shawn Nelson finally satisfying himself that the Caltrans bogeyman was an empty threat, Allan Mansoor planning legislation, others plotting a June initiative drive, our Congressmen carving out an OC exception to MAP21, OCTA chairman Darrell Johnson throwing up his hands “We are losing the battle,” and the argument finally shifting to whether we can afford the $100 million difference between Alt 1 and Alt 2. The Toll Trolls will be back with some new pretext next Spring, we’re pretty sure, but they’re on the ropes and weaker each time. I plan to write more about that in “The Smell of Dead Toll Lane Dreams” soon.
- And this blog was at the very forefront of our County’s most recent victory, the taking down of rancid propagandist-consultant Matt Cunningham. It’s unseemly to feel too much schadenfreude over the fall of one small man, and we hope Matt can find a line of work where he doesn’t hurt so many people … but it’s most important to let his ugliness continue to reflect on, and damage, those who are still standing by him – the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Curt Pringle, and OCGOP Chairman Scott Baugh.
So, with all that chest-thumping out of the way, here are the blog’s Top Couple-Dozen Sorties (or Stories) of the Year. Hmmm… It seems like the ones that did best somehow involved sex, crime, and/or youngness… Deep, you lot.
1. “Disturbing Reactions to Michelle Johnson’s Arrest for Sex with a Student“
(Greg Diamond, June)
2. “Appeal filed for Jesús Aguirre, the Buena Park teenager serving life in Pelican Bay.“
(Vern Nelson, March)
3. “Jenni Rivera fought for Women, Immigrants and LGBT Youth.“
(Ricardo Toro, last Demember – but most of the hits were from this year.)
4. “’Homeless – The Motel Kids of Orange County’”
(Inge, June)
5. “Hallucinating Teens Rescued from Six-Hour Ordeal in Mile Square Park.“
(Miss Info Asperger, April)
6. “Uncertainty Ends: Here’s What Your Group Insurance Through Covered California Will Cost“
(Greg Diamond, September)
7. “Some things Santa Ana should know about their City Manager Paul Walters.“
(Vern Nelson, January)
8. “Huell and Cry: Huell Howser, the Docent of ‘California’s Gold’, Has Died at 67“
(Greg Diamond, January)
9. “What was the big deal about some principal getting transferred from one Anaheim school to another?“
(Vern Nelson, July)
11. “Early Morning Spree Killing in OC Follows Ladera Ranch Carjacking“
(Greg Diamond, February)
12. “How sanctimonious Matt Cunningham worked and fought for Strip Club owners last year!“
(Vern Nelson, August)
13. “Michelle Johnson Case Teaches Lessons about Torches, Pitchforks, Rumors, and Racist Jerks“
(Greg Diamond’s June sequel to our #1 story)
14. “Joining the Rest of the World: Domestic Terrorism at Boston Marathon“
(Greg Diamond, April)
15. “The Brandman Majority forces out Anaheim’s Latina City Attorney for honestly doing her job.“
(Vern Nelson, February)
16. “Can we save Huntington Beach’s fabled Bonfires from Bureaucrat Pinheads and Newport NIMBYs?“
(Vern Nelson, April)
17. “Chmielewski and Cunningham have a bit of FUN – at the expense of Anaheim, and humanity.“
(Vern Nelson, only two weeks ago – and before anyone else!)
18. “Twelve Comments on that ‘We Saw Your Boobs’ Song from the Oscars“
(Greg Diamond, February)
19. “Are you better off than your grandparents?“
(BOUTWELL, January)
20. “Mother of all Gus Ayer Tributes.“
(Vern Nelson, February)
21. “Righeimer’s 7th Cavalry Rides into Fairview Park — and Here Come the Indians!“
(GERICAULT, September)
22. “Live! Dirty! Your County Clerk-Recorder Special Coverage. (Update – It’s Hieu!)“
(Vern Nelson, April)
23. “Anaheim: Pulling the Plug on a New Power Plant.”
(Ryan Cantor, just this month.)
24. “Did Anaheim Council Majority Meet Privately to Discuss Public Policy at Chamber’s Office? Body Parts and Trash Testify!“
(Cynthia Ward, August … with a “framing story” by Greg)
25. “Who Was Lying — Ed Royce’s Staffer Young Kim or His DC Chief of Staff Amy Porter?“
(Greg Diamond, March)
26. “Cutting Anaheim’s Mayor off at the knees.“
(Cynthia Ward, March)
AND FINALLY
“T-Rack’s $4 Million gang injunction faceplant drives enraged Orange Cops to punish neighborhood for their own defeat, as Chapman swoops in!“
(Vern, just this month.)
WRAP-UPS.
And that’s one more thing we need to do, before this year is properly through. You know how you’re always hearing crazy or terrible stories on the news, and a few months later you’re wondering “whatever happened with that?” but they’re just doing their next crazy or terrible story? I don’t want us to be like that.
A lot of these stories included unanswered questions that we haven’t bothered to follow up on, and we’ll try to do better on that. For example, that last T-Rack Faceplant one – I still haven’t got any info from the Orange PD on Sergio’s murder, and neither has his mother. And how will all the victims of this unconstitutional gang injunction get justice for their four years of harassment? My last Poseidon story – did Loretta really suddenly come to support Poseidon with no strings attached, or did her aide Gaston lie to the Coastal Commission? Will the Harkey investors ever see their money? Will young Jesus Aguirre ever be released? Will Johnny’s Saloon really get to keep their sign? I’m gonna go through MY biggest stories of the year and try to tie up the loose ends.
I have it on good authority that VICTIM #1 is getting ready to depart on a mission for the LDS church and will be “unavailable” to testify. And that VICTIM #2 is camped away in Colorado and his parents are unlikely to have him further this. The DA is pissed.
“Good Authority” is a seventeen year old girl!
But, since this is an open forum regarding spoiled OC kids, how about the hilarious post about Adam Elmehmark, Mom and Dad paying his rent. Makes it pretty hard to take seriously a guy who can’t support himself. I’ll let that post speak for it self, as long as it is allowed to stay up………
Post a link confirming the story in the last paragraph if you want it to stay up. And given that Adam is doing “God’s work,” I personally have no problem with his being subsidized by his parents to do so, if that’s what it takes..
First time I had a long talk with Adam he said he was jealous of me because I could curse and joke and state my opinion; while I said I was jealous of him because he gets paid. He replied, “Not really all that much though, just enough to pay for a cheap apartment in Santa Ana.” So as far as I know he pays for his own cheap apartment in Santa Ana. By doing God’s work.
I have never met him.
I have heard he is a decent guy, but under the thumb of his handlers. This rings true in his reporting. It is decidedly one sided. Maybe Michele is ba….Nevermind.
There is some big NCAA BASEBALL NEWS,,,,,,,,
Who’s God?
It’s on HIS site (www.voiceofoc.org). Which is precisely why it won’t “STAY UP” her or there. But I thought it was as well written antidote. You will surely disagree, I also suspect that it was posted this afternoon to avoid being deleted. I don’t have a problem with his parents paying his way either. But rather am suspicious that a guy who can’t pay his “own way” is so opinionated on the rest of Santa Ana ‘s business.
Either way, if the OCEA, Joe Dunn (did I get the spelling right?) or his parents in Mission Viejo pay his way, he is still ill-prepared and Ill-experienced to comment on much of what he writes. But, none of this matters because, fortunately or unfortunately, the VOC is two-five years away from being considered credible and six years from being widely read. This means in in 2025 it might have an impact on the public, but for now it’s just a rich kid playing reporter.
Some (Skallywag) believe God’s work has to do with anahiliating homosexuals and Mexicans from his sacred Santa Ana.
I believe God works on things like chlorofluorocarbons and not on internet publications. But, that’s just me and my fucked up sense of religion.
To be clear, the three kings that visit tens of thousands of Santa Ana homes Sunday, will be named Kapernick, Gore and Bowman!
I take it that your first paragraphs involve the Michelle Johnson story?
Assuming so: The parents may want to avoid their children testifying for many reasons. Some possibilities are malign (such as a payoff to keep quiet); some possibilities are benign from Johnson’s perspective, such as that the kids weren’t entirely forthright, the harm wasn’t serious enough (in their view) to justify the punishment that the DA seeks, or the whole situation is simply more complex than you’ve been given to understand.
Or — your source may not be reliable.
I don’t know about the parents angle, but the Wrestler (Victim #1) held a going away party in Orange this weekend, where perhaps 30 BOHS students attended. He laughed and joked openly about “Bailing out”.
As for the second kid. If I was a parent whose, kid was raped, I would do everything I could to punish the perp. But, if it meant further shaming my child, the victim of sex abuse, I might, like the XXXXXXXX’S family, say, let’s move on.
As I said, this comes from seventeen year old cheerleader(s) so who knows, but then again, I think you were the guy that said she (Johnson) was a great teacher, and her bail was more in line with “Sexting” and not intercourse with a child. so. I have a tough time debating child sex abuse with you.
greg,
this was in the paper yesterday and i am surprised you guys have not posted about it because it is something that i honestly cannot get my head around…the short version is that the courts have ruled that a young man who is illegally in this country but who has fulfilled all the statutory requirements can become a member of the california state bar and can practice law in the state.
now, i accept the factual premises, that he has gone to school, has passed the bar examination and done all the other things required of a citizen to become an attorney. and i will concede that he has applied for a green card.
but the underlying fact is that to do all these things, he has had to break the law (ie he is in this country without appropriate documentation)
and while i accept the fact that moral turpitude and attorneys do not normally collide within the same sentence but shouldn’t there be some black letter law that is not flexible, such as the underlying basis for how one becomes an attorney.
i really would appreciate your thoughts
Good question. Here’s the answer as I inderstand it:
He’s not breaking the law by his mere unlawful presence in the country, because “unlawful presence” in the U.S. isn’t a crime.
Instead, it’s unlawful entry into the U.S. that’s a crime. That’s the idea behind the DREAM Act: someone here unlawfully due to their parent’s (or others’) actions in bringing them into the country may have literally committed no crime at all — let alone a knowing one — so why punish them?
While knowing unlawful presence here may be a civil infraction, in such cases the person often doesn’t even know that they are out of status. You can make the case that as soon as a late-teenager or young adult finds out the truth about their status they should cancel all of their life plans and “self-deport” to a country of which they have not even a memory and where they may have no remaining relatives — but that’s somewhere between cruel and insane.
Americans just don’t put up with that sort of “voluntary self-sacrifice just because some people think it’s morally right.” Compare the costs of complying with such a law to that of complying with HB’s plastic bag ban — which has people throwing tantrums like 7-year-olds up past midnight. Maybe a million times worse?
So, if you’re not going to make such people self-deport and you’re not going to arrest them and spend money housing them, meaning that they will stay here, does it make sense to allow those who are educated enough to get a law degree to pursue a profession?
Of course it does.
The guy wins SEVEN PGA championships, but, can’t get a green card. Go Figure.
i understand and appreciate the response but there still appears to be an ethical contradiction, especially in this instance. certain professions, including attorneys are, or should be, held to a higher standard. and the ethical consideration with regard to a law breaker, albeit a nominal one, entrusted with the law just does not seem right.
but then again, as a dying breed (white middle class moderate republican) i am probably on the wrong side of this one as well
Middle class? You mean this tycoon image of willie deville has been a sham all along?
that is the problem with perception…while you view the lifestyle as opulently excessive, we consider ourselves just average folk. i mean, everybody in my neighbor has a helicopter for those quick jaunts to avalon for a buffalo burger
He’s just hiding his tracks, Vern. You know that the FBI’s in town. Let him pretend to be “just one of us.”