Appropriately enough, to honor our comments, almost no one around here has any idea what this means. (That goes for views too.)
OJB will likely pass another milestone tomorrow (or today, when most of you see this, given how late it is being posted on Saturday night. Vern cares not about these site milestones, noting that there were many posts and comments and views and whatnot included in this blog’s statistics that, having been purged by the previous proprietor (and still very rarely by one of us) are no longer reflected in the numbers (called “analytics”) that we can see behind the scenes. Yes, yes — that’s very rational and all, but shouldn’t we sometimes lead with our emotions? What’s purged is gone, but we still have statistics that, for those of us who love round numbers, are worth sharing with you. June 14 looks very likely, unless an extraordinarily small number of people poke there noses into the joint, to be the day when this here blog officially passes 5 million views. (Views from me, from Vern, from our webmaster, and from Pedroza and a few others back in the day, are not counted in the total. The only ones that count come from you, our guests.)
5,000,000 views! That’s a lot of views for a gutty little blog like this one! And the chances are good that, unless Vern publishes something interesting today, the gaze of that 5,000,000th view viewer may fix on this very item, post may well be one of the most insipid we’ve ever published. And that would be a shame.
We thank you, our view-generating readers, for your continued viewing readership, which makes the place worthwhile (and makes us loved and feared from La Habra to San Clemente, from Seal Beach to, uh, someplace in the Cleveland National Forest.) And to reward you for viewing this item, here are some photosand other graphics from the first month still remaining in our photographic archives, May 2008 — or as we like to think of it, the “Year Zero.”
Miguel Pulido at play
Mayor Paul Glaaaaaab
“Friend of the Show”
Chickenhawk Ed Royce
Mike Carona and Van Tran
Debbie Carona, ticket bogarter
The lesson here, we suppose, is that however bad OC seems today, rest assured that it’s always been pretty much this bad.
In honor of our 5,000,000th view, everyone banned from the site can come back and post exactly one comment on this item between now and 5:00 p.m., after which the window will have closed and frankly is what you post is revolting enough it may be banned anyway. Happy viewing!
*The many heartbreaks in politics are interesting. “For every winner …there is a loser..” said the Gambler. Some people politics like a religious experience. They think that the end of the world will occur if their candidate or issues fails to win the day. Many political issues have two sides…..part is wonderful ….the other part tragic. Every time we line up with a political pal…..we take a chance. If they maintain their integrity, loyalty, honesty, caring and kindness to their voters and supporters…..all is well. Sometimes they fail us and we find ourselves shaking our heads and asking ourselves the question: “What did we ever see..in that person?” As the light of day shines the fatal wounds of truth upon our partisan loves and hates……the results are sometimes so shocking……that you begin to doubt your own intelligence. Not the politician that failed us but our own choices. The recent Dennis Hastert issue comes to mind. We never voted for Dennis…..we were not in his district. He became a Congressional Leader based upon various skills which required conciliation, order and process. Dennis was a “Sausage Maker”. What Dennis did behind closed doors didn’t seem so important as long as he kept “order in the House”. Our good friend Bob Livingston was a great Republican and would have made a tremendous leader, but because he wanted to send a honorable message to Bill Clinton……he stepped down from Congress and we lost a great truly honorable Conservative voice of the people. Bob’s piccadiloes were never really uncovered and we still miss his very cogent, honest remarks on issues. We never voted for Bob either……we were not in his district. Chris Cox was and still is from our point of view – a very special friend and associate that did nothing but help us throughout his tenure in the Congress. When we sent him letters to the SEC and told him those nasty Hedge Funds and Derivatives were dangerous and needed more regulation – he did what he could: politically! Chris could have been President of the United States – but…..Chris was sacrificed to the Banking Gods in order to save a bunch of worthless excuses for human beings. Then we look at our very good friend Mike Carona. Mike was our rock. Mike was “America’s Sheriff” before Joe Arpaio. Mike was Arnold’s best buddy! When our other good friend John Moorlach raised the issues and investigation into “What’s up with Mike?”. We thought:
Come on Pappa John there are other bad guys out there that are far worse. Then came the punk kid and two buddies taking video of boffing the little inlander girl with a bottle and smoking cigarette. Mike’s two best buds, suddenly were getting sunshine on their activities and elements of wrong doing and special privilege started getting slightly out of hand. The results for all except Jaramillo have been tragic. It shows how all of our heroes can have feet of clay. We are very pleased that Mike is out, even if he has to wear an electronic anklette for another couple of years. As we look at politics in general – there seems to be a lot of dirt out there to go around. The City of Bell was definitely the Poster Boy for bad conduct in public office. Sadly, they are not alone and it seems that only people with something questionable in their past – get a chance to serve the public. There is amazing stress for electeds. They have to please a bunch of rich folks so they can stay in office. They have to deal with bad medicine and dangerous criminals that threaten their lives and those of their family. They have to rely on some pretty nasty professional staff to watch their backs while looking for that next bigger and better deal. They have to deal with daily chaos and the public outcry on virtually every day….a literal gauntlet. They have to deal with ingrained bureaucrats who like most 2 year olds can only say one word: NO! Having empathy for all our pals is important. As a civilian, it is important to talk nice when you call their office. It is important to make sure you truly appreciate their taking your e-mails. It is very important to let your thoughts be known however – or the vacuum of power will merely suck you down the drain of Public Service. The job of electeds is to make it through another day, another election and on to another office. Thanks Greg, Vern and our dedicated contributors to the OC Juice – you guys are all awesome and keep the home fires burning. Remember: A BBQ pit on the beach: burning half wood and half charcoal….can’t be all bad……can it?
Milestones are good… demostrates endurance and tenacity. Better than mill stones anyday! 🙂 Kudos to all those who have written here, and commented here, for these many years. I can always find a fascinating read on this site. More windmills ahead… keep on tiltin’…
Muchas gracias, Sancho Panza!
No you’re a Quixote in your own right.
Grats, guys.
Since I have been reading this site each I have found it informative (whether I agree or not) and more times than not entertaining. At times I don’t know which is better the articles or the comments and associated dialog.
This blog fills in the gaps of political insight where others who are paid to write stuff, or who have a political brand to to brandish can’t.
Of course politics is a divisive and at times vicious world; a lot is at stake. Funny how the scandals may change but the basic themes are enduring — people one upping each other, the system, and still going to great lengths to hide the facts.
Keep on overturning those rocks Orange Juice Blog! The county needs you.
Awww, you’re all being so nice! Let me see if I can test your patience a bit today…. (I’ll clean up the mess later.)
Slow day yesterday, but we musta hit the 5 million mark sometime overnight.
We made it to 5,000,029 last night. Our stats roll over at 1 a.m. during Daylight Savings Time, so that would probably have been just before midnight. By my estimate*, the 5,000,000th view was one of the 11 hits yesterday on this post.
*My estimate of what Vern would like to believe — I mean; and we should let him do so, because it’s his blog!
That WAS a pretty good story … and way overdue for an update. (I just procrastinate when certain updates are so depressing…)
You leave out the fact that 3,256,908 of those views were Dan C,who doesn’t read this blog!
*”You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you are sitting at the table….there will be time enough for counting…..when the dealin’s done!” said Kenny Rodgers. 5 Million HIts? How many days did Dan C. have to work on that?
*Didn’t we recently see you guys on some Geiko commercial?