The Orange Juice Blog is Orange County’s original political news and views blog, known popularly as “the OC’s political mosh pit.”  Here is our blog team; you may click on their name to read their body of work exclusively:

Our Publisher and Editor-in-chief,

It’s Vern Nelson, damn it!

Our Publisher/Editor, Vern Nelson,  is a master pianist and a longtime activist in (and occasionally against) the Democratic Party.  Nelson moves around the County to wherever he can cause the most trouble, but can most often be found in Huntington Beach where he “grew up.”

Nelson joined this blog back in early 2008, during the dark and chaotic Art Pedroza days, as the Angry Democrat correspondent;  then spent much of 2009 in jail as his enemies will never fail to remind you.  Soon after release he gradually began taking control of the blog, eventually buying it from Pedroza and fashioning it into the Mosh Pit it is today, while Pedroza wails and gnashes his teeth in a blogospheric Hades of his own making.

Pieces credited to Admin, especially since 2010, are generally posted by Nelson but with a minimum of his biting commentary.  Go back before 2010, and anything marked “Admin” is probably by Art Pedroza, and the current batch of writers will not answer for it.

Nelson also has contributed under the pseudonyms Phobius (his satirical anti-gay persona), The Royaliste (a satirical worshiper of “Queen Meg” Whitman), and Miss Info Asperger (a writer of things that are just WRONG.)

Oh yeah – hear Vern play his unique blend of classical, jazz and rock piano at the Regatta Cafe in Newport Beach every Friday and Saturday nights, and at his regular concerts at the Huntington Beach Central Library!

Then there’s DIAMOND.  grrrr…

Since the Fall of 2011, our Managing Editor has been the argumentative workers’ rights attorney Greg Diamond, who at one time or another pisses everybody off.  A newcomer to the LOCAL blogosphere, Greg has had a national following on the Daily Kos for more than a decade, under the pseudonyms Major Danby and Seneca Doane.  Greg is much more active in the Democratic Party of Orange County than Vern, preferring to throw his rocks  inside the building while Vern throws from the outside.  Both Greg and Vern – in fact, most of our writers – have also been very involved in the Occupy Orange County movement.

 Contributing Editors!

Cynthia Ward, one of our distinguished conservative contributors, quartered proudly in Anaheim.  Never at a loss for words, she proclaims on her home blog “Think For Yourself OC“:

I am a truth-teller. It gets me in trouble. But if you ask me if a dress makes you look fat, I will tell you so, and help select another, before you go on television and realize it for yourself. My real friends are expected to be truthful with me as well. A secret shared will be taken to my grave, but lie to me, and it will end up here…on these pages… especially if you are tasked with the stewardship of public resources. I am a registered Republican who disdains the local GOP power structure, a born-again Christian who supports everyone’s right to spend their lives with the partner of their choosing. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister. I am a loyal friend to those who merit that friendship and when crossed I am a bitch with a capital C. I do not fit into a box, nor do I see others through the stereotypes that politics and public affairs so often tries to shoehorn us into. I think for myself, and so do you. Welcome to our shared space in this world.

Ryan Cantor, one of our conservative columnists, mostly writes about his home town of Fullerton, where he disagrees equally with both the complacent bipartisan pro-business/anti-citizen establishment clique and the anti-any/all government extremist faction – we are trying to get him to branch out to more county and state issues.   His masterpiece “Chevron Thinks You’re Really Stupid” helped defeat that multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise’s plots against Fullerton’s Coyote Hills last year.  Ryan serves on Fullerton’s Library Board and is an avid homebrewer: Anger Management Brewing Company.

Rounding out our (at least) troika of Republican misfits, the Irvine Valkyrie is a former and future Irvine political candidate, Katherine Daigle.  If you want to see exactly how she disagrees with the policies AND style of the new Irvine Republican majority… well, don’t be a lazy bastard, click and read her stories!

Mayor Quimby, our snarky but wise correspondent who, let’s say, has a lot of knowledge of the corruption and incompetence characterizing the county and city governments behind the Orange Curtain – knowledge gleaned from years of EXPERIENCE in said government.

It can now be admitted, what everybody pretty much knew:  Mayor Quimby was none other than the late, beloved former Fountain Valley Mayor Gus Ayer (1949-2013.)

Says our gun-totin’ libertarian blogger Carl Overmyer, “I am an independent, libertarian, not a member of any political party, fiscal conservative, who believes the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are still the supreme overriding law of the land. They are not living documents but should be interpreted to allow the maximum amount of freedom for individuals and the strictest interpretation when applied to the role of government in our daily lives. They protect us from ever expanding power that governments naturally try to expand to fill. Power in the hands of the masses are rarely abused as badly as when government abuses it’s powers. Freedom to make mistakes, freedom to chart our own lives without interference from anyone, so long as we hurt no one, even if I don’t like what you do with your own life, it’s yours to live. “

Corona Del Mar couple Ron and Ana Winship will spin a yarn of olden OC Republican days to rival your grandparents – they were there!  But judging from their general moderation, they haven’t left the GOP – it’s left them!

Ricardo Toro (above, top left) has been an Anaheim resident for over twenty years.   A quiet content resident to boot, until he attended the Council Meeting held after the July 14, 2012 riots that rocked the city.  There Ricardo got a real eye-opener about his city’s  power structure and marginalization of the most vulnerable sections of the community.  Ricardo is a native of Chile, one of most active earthquake prone on earth, which suffered its own tragic 9/11 event, partly triggered by Nixon and Kissinger administration.

Boutwell, another of our conservative bloggers, is an expert on tax and financial issues, the areas in which he works.  He has named himself after Ulysses S Grant’s Treasury Secretary, who became the first Commissioner of the IRS, and before that had fought long and hard for the end of slavery, and African-American citizenship and voting rights.

The mysterious and hyper-well-informed Over But Not Out has a unique perspective as a moderate Republican and retired public employee, causing him to have a more balanced view of pensions and budgetary matters than most of his fellow Reeps.

Matt Munson, our Inland-Empire-based, gay, pro-marijuana, Republican blogger.  Has quite a unique perspective as a sincere young conservative who WANTS to have a respectable humane Party to call his own, and is as much a thorn in the side of his local GOP as Vern and Diamond are to the Dems.

Francisco “Paco” Barragan, Marine commander, Mexican-American immigrant, Certified Public Accountant, former assembly candidate for the 69th district, focuses his fine analytical mind on issues of fiscal sanity, government corruption, and accountability.  Semper Fi!

Anaheim activist Duane Roberts ran against Barbara Boxer in 2010 as the Green Party candidate, and ran for Anaheim City Council in 2012.  With a degree in criminal justice from UCI, his major blogging topic (when he’s not picking on the Democrats for not being a better Party) is police abuse in Anaheim and elsewhere in the OC.

*

ramping down with our prodigals….

Libertarian and marijuana rights activist Debbie Tharp who recently returned to our bosom only to get arrested for collecting petition signatures, becoming our blog’s first political prisoner…

Feisty hip young progressive Gabriel San Roman frequently blesses us with his far-left and racially-conscious dispatches in between his pioneering work for our competitors the OC Weekly.

in progress…

Eddie Rose

Tony Bushala, Travis Kiger and friends from Fullerton

John Earl, Surf City Voice

Amber Stephens

Geoff Willis

Guy Fawkes

(the below is old shit from Art’s old version)

That’s Larry, on the left

Larry Gilbert – A national leader in the fight against eminent domain abuse, Gilbert is also a community activist in Mission Viejo.  Gilbert helped to recall Mission Viejo Councilman Lance MacLean, who was ousted by nineteen votes!  Gilbert also is an expert on the attempts by folks like Curt Pringle to waste our money on high speed rail.

That’s Tony, in the middle

Tony Bushala and Travis Kiger – The editors of the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog have become very influential in north Orange County.  They helped to defeat carpetbaggers Linda Ackerman and Harry Sidhu.  They cross-post here at the Orange Juice.

Eddie Rose –  Rose is a former Laguna Niguel (CA) City Councilman (1994 – 1998).  He has been active in politics in Orange County for years.  He runs his own blog and cross-posts here.

Disclaimer: The comments made on this blog, by featured contributors and/or individual commenter’s, are the sole responsibility of those individual authors. They do not represent the opinions of any other individual(s), any advertiser, or the publisher, Vern Nelson.