Our biggest stories of 2011, Craigslisted and otherwise.

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The year 2011 was an exhilarating one of rebellions, both successful and ongoing, against oppression and corruption.

Across the Middle East we saw, and are continuing to see, the Arab Spring, with dictatorships toppling like dominoes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and hopefully soon, Syria.  Not surprisingly given Anaheim’s vibrant Little Arabia neighborhood,  much of the Arab Spring was chronicled here by Gabriel San Roman, Rashad the Happy Arab, and our own Roqaya in her big hit, “Damn it Feels Good to be Egyptian!“

Here in the US, partly in emulation of this Arab Spring, we had Occupy Wall Street, which soon spread to Orange County, at which point our editors Vern Nelson and Greg Diamond became heavily involved and shared their thoughts and experiences here at length – along with fellow Occupiers Amber, Duane, and Francisco.  On the other side we had our conservative blogger Geoff Willis and his phalanx of rightie commenters (as well as the other local blogs) providing criticism and snark against the movement, for much debate, heat and light, because that’s the way we roll here!

In the rebel stronghold of Fullerton, to which we have unique access due to our sister-blog relationship with Tony Bushala‘s “Friends For Fullerton’s Future,” true revolt has broken out as a result of the horrific police beating murder of lovable homeless man Kelly Thomas (and to a lesser extent the planned Chevron development of West Coyote Hills) – leading to a recall election this year of the three most culpable Councilmen.  This blog has been second only to FFFF in its coverage of this revolution.

This year also saw the final decisive VICTORY in the long grass-roots struggle against The Great Fairgrounds Swindle – the secretive and possibly illegal effort of a small group of wealthy well-connected OC Republicans to get their paws on the Orange County Fairgrounds – public property that our grandparents’ tax dollars paid for so our own grandchildren could enjoy it.  This blog was at the forefront of that struggle throughout 2009-10, at the forefront of the celebrations this past year, and we will continue to seek justice for the various miscreants involved over the coming year.

The redistricting of California’s Congressional and state legislative seats this year was itself the result of a voters’ revolt back in 2008, known as Proposition 11, against the anti-democratic gerrymandering of “safe seats” for both Parties prevalent in past decades.  Most of us here at the Orange Juice are pretty pleased with the results, and we’ve covered the process and results more extensively than any other local blog.

Our conservative bloggers Larry Gilbert and Tony Bushala can claim a victory in a long-time crusade of theirs – a crusade in which most of us liberals actually agree with them – against California’s wasteful and anachronistic Redevelopment Agencies, which last week were finally defeated by the state Supreme Court – after the wisdom of conservative activists like Larry and Tony finally trickled up to a responsible majority of Sacramento Democrats and Republicans as well as our fiscally prudent Governor Jerry Brown, that these were agencies that had long outlived their usefulness and could no longer be afforded.  Congratulations guys!

This past year also saw,  in various states this year that had newly acquired Republican governors and Republican legislative majorities – but particularly in Wisconsin – a full-frontal assault on both the rights of workers to organize and voting rights, leading to huge populist outcry and pushback.   Having friends in both Wisconsin and Ohio, we’ve covered these ongoing revolts extensively from both sides.

And in our own little OC Wisconsin known as the town of Costa Mesa, the autocratic Mayor Pro-tem Jim Righeimer (not at left) has launched his own jihad on both public workers and democracy, rashly attempting to lay off and outsource half the city’s workforce (precipitating Huy Pham’s suicide) and now wanting to rush through a June referendum to change the town to a “charter city” to give himself even more absolute control.  (This situation has  led to our current chilly relationship with the OC Weekly when Vern wrote his polemic “The Once-Great R. Scott Moxley Fluffs Jim Righeimer.”)  If the insurgency against these draconian moves hasn’t yet reached Wisconsin fever-pitch, it’s because we’ve only just begun to turn the knob clockwise here.

All of the above earth-shaking 2011 events were extensively reported on, discussed and debated on this blog over the course of the past year, and often we were actors ourselves in these dramas.

And yet…

And yet, our biggest, most popular story of the year, by a mile, was Geoff Willis’ late-October “Man Arrested When Shape-Shifting Hooker Turns into Donkey,” with over 10,000 readers.

This entertaining little nugget apparently went viral after being advertised on Craigslist all across the country.  Which brings up something:  We like Geoff Willis, and hope he keeps posting here, because we need conservative voices!  Some of his stories are good, and even the questionable ones lead to good knock-down-drag-out fights in the comments sections, during which we sometimes learn something!  But when Vern and Greg tried to figure out “Why do Geoff’s stories keep getting so many hits?”  we couldn’t help but notice that they are usually promoted – by somebody – on Craigslist across the nation.  And not just his donkey hooker stuff, but even his anti-Occupy diatribes and his homely sermons on self-reliance and against political correctness.

Was this a good or bad thing, we debated?  Vern is not going to complain himself, because the extra hits are adding modestly to his modest Google-Ads revenue, which is rapidly approaching a hundred dollars a month!

On the other hand, we note that none of these thousands of Craigslist visitors actually join in the conversation in the comments section, perhaps because they find it awkward to type with one hand.

In the spirit of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” Greg tried last week promoting Amber’s fine scoop on the black San Diego nurse who was allegedly rammed, beaten and hogtied by CHP officers in Santa Ana while driving his Mercedes home – promoted it on Craigslist in San Diego. But it was immediately flagged as inappropriate and taken down, twice. So, in the celebrated words of five-year olds everywhere, we protest “Not fair!” Geoff Willis, the master of Craigslist, gets his OWN category because we can’t compete with him on a level playing field in number of hits:

Geoff Willis’ Top Ten Stories of 2011:

• Man Arrested When Shape Shifting Hooker Turns Into Donkey (10,183 readers)
• The puzzling Public Unions Threaten Claim of Slavery (5197)
• The somewhat mistaken 18 of World’s Top 20 Hospitals Are In U.S. (3626)
• Mission Viejo’s Clown Dale Tyler (2799)
• Franklin Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (2389)
• Ping Pong Gate Strikes Mission Viejo (1908)
• Anaheim Angels Is A Better Name (1883) – could that have anything to do with the Victoria’s Secret model as illustration? (below)
• “Attack On Unions” or “Attack on Democracy?” (with two updates) (1838)  – THIS one gets honorable mention for getting 320 comments – it was picked up on by some Wisconsin worker sympathizer who posted it on a site called “SomethingAwful.com” which brought outraged commenters by the boatload.  Believe me – there’d be 350 comments if I hadn’t deleted the ones wishing pain and death on Geoff and dishonoring his mother.)
• 11 True Things You Won’t Learn In High School (1585)
• And “We’re Going to Disney World” State Senator Tells Disabled Son, Then Beats Him (1447)

(I note with some satisfaction that none of Geoff’s assaults on Occupy, or his “Obama Murdergate” stories, made his top ten – even with Craigslist assistance!)

[Geoff’s Anaheim angel]

One other category to quickly dispense with:

Old Stories that people just keep clicking on for one reason or another.

• Vern’s May 2010 piece The Company Bill Hunt Keeps: now, Michele Bachmann?, which got 9,477 hits last year.  We do not imagine that many people in 2011 were interested in the previous year’s failed OC Sheriff candidate’s brief flirtation with the most extreme characters of the Republican Party, before retreating into private life as Joe Arpaio’s bodyguard.  We do imagine that, with Bachmann still on the national stage vying for the Presidential nomination, folks across America are jonesing mightily for this picture of the pinwheel-eyed Minnesota queen smoking a crack pipe.  And they find it here.

  

• Similarly, the interest of 5,792 internet surfers in Humberto Caspa’s 2009 piece Aztecs playing basketball in Costa Mesa? Maybe Not was probably more an interest in this popular image:

• Our founder and former editor Art Pedroza is very proud of the longevity of old stories of his such as his 2008 Happy ending for massage parlors in Santa Ana, which got 4,677 hits last year.  Art sees this as proof that this blog was better, more popular and more relevant under his leadership.  I wonder what keeps possessing people to google “Massage Parlors, Happy Endings, and Santa Ana?”  and if they are at all disappointed when they find the piece to be about new restrictions put on the industry by the City Council?

Same with Vern’s 2010 “Wedding Bells for Loretta,”  Larry Gilbert’s 2008 “Discussion with Hewell Howser,” and anything with Sarah Palin in the title.  SO.  All of that nonsense out of the way, let’s see what are actually…

The Top 25 OJ stories of the year, excluding Geoff and Craigslist!

• WARNING: Graphic Photo of Fullerton Police Beating Victim (Tony Bushala, 5,557 hits)  Our Friends for Fullerton’s Future really made history with this story, and we are fortunate to be in their penumbra.
• Where have you gone Hunter S. Thompson? (Guy Fawkes, 3433)  A fine eulogy, probably also helped by this great image:

• New Santa Ana USD Thread – 2011-12 edition! (3,332 hits – our latest edition of an old Pedroza tradition, but Vern took “corruption” out of the title, just in case there were things teachers and SAUSD workers wanted to discuss that weren’t exactly “corrupt.”)
• Ron and Ana Winship hit it big with Wile E. Coyote is alive and well in Laguna Woods! – 2,775 hits – but, really, are that many people really interested in Laguna Woods’ red-light cameras, or are most of them looking for this cool image we put on it?

• Vern’s now-deleted CPS takes baby from loving mother Sarah Sandy, and gives her to Violent Tweeker Felon, which got 2,644 hits and hundreds of fascinating pro-and-anti-CPS comments before Vern decided he was being fed too many lies and exaggerations by a troubled woman.
• Vern’s masterpiece Who is Dave Ellis? A Portrait of our Fair Board Chairman, which Fullerton commenter Nipsey has called “unbelievably thorough, funny, sad and scary.”  (Best compliment ever!)  2,489 hits.
• Before Kelly Thomas, a month before Kelly Thomas, there was Travis Kiger’s Fullerton Police Beating Complaint “Sustained” by Internal Investigation; Officer Named. It’s a pattern with these Fullerton cops.  1,985 hits.
• Mayor Quimby’s topical and well-informed Costa Mesa’s Pension Crisis – Phony as a $3 bill. 1,763 hits.
• Gabriel’s OC Weekly Exposes Local Tea Party/GOP Racist Marilyn Davenport – 1,542 hits.
• Gabriel’s Taking the Rubber Stamp Report into the Community – referring to an ongoing project to bring more accountability and openness to city governments in the OC.  1,453 hits.
• Well, Duane Roberts’ LATE 2010 Ten women wearing “Muslim garb” that Juan Williams would be nervous to sit next to on an airplane was ALMOST a 2011 piece.  Although it was probably helped a lot by its pretty pictures of women in veils – Audrey Hepburn, the Queen Mum, Jackie Onassis, Lady Gaga, Grace Kelly, Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Love, Sojourner Truth, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  1,420 hits.
• Zorro’s Gil Cedillo introduces the California DREAM Act! with 1,398 hits.  Note – this was VERN posting as Zorro:  Although Art Pedroza started the use of the pseudonym “Zorro” whenever he wrote about immigration, Vern continued the practice for a while, just to fuck with our enemies’ heads.
• Gabriel’s Claudia Alvarez: Where to Begin? Remember when SA Mayor Pro-tem Claudia used a Hitler reference when chewing out obnoxious Jewish developer Irv Chase?  That sure seems like a tempest in a teapot in retrospect, eh?  The Liberal OC made what they could of it, not much…  1,141 hits.
• Vern’s timely (before any of the other local blogs) What does the Kinde Durkee bust mean for the DPOC? with 1,098 hits.
• Vern’s scabrous Costa Mesa – slash – media analysis The Once-Great R. Scott Moxley Fluffs Jim Righeimer had 1,055 hits, and has caused the OC Weekly to blackball us when once they celebrated us.  Sad-face emoticon.
• Travis Kiger’s FBI Launches Formal Investigation into the Kelly Thomas Beating with 1,054 hits.
• Roqaya’s jubilant Damn it feels good to be Egyptian! with 897 hits.
• Vern’s defiant Full Speed Ahead with California’s High Speed Rail! – POLL ADDED with 890 hits.
• Guy Fawkes asks the burning question, Are litterbugs Tea Partiers or Progressives? 882 hits.
• The odd quaint Winship couple addressed the Fukuyama disaster with their It only took an earthquake to change history, and got 877 hits.
• Larry asks us Obamacare waivers. Did you make the updated list? and got 833 hits.
• Vern pissed off most of the county and beyond with his tenth-anniversary  FUCK September 11. 826 hits, hundreds of comments, and a few lost readers.
• Gabriel’s Davenport, the “Bush or Chimp” Defense, and Other Predictables from the Rulebook for Racists! 825 hits.
• Mayor Quimby’s Red-Faced at Red County – SEC Charges Chip Hanlon with Fraud got 813 hits.
• Gabriel reacted to an LA Times piece with his “Go Here, Not There” OJB’s Counter-Guide to the LAT’s Inland OC Profile, and got 801 hits.
• The wild performance of Deborah Pauly and her mob at a Muslim fundraiser led to Gabriel’s The Video Everyone is Talking About – Islamophobes Go Wild in Yorba Linda! with 782 hits, and…
• to Vern’s Yorba Linda Hate-fest Update: Pathetic Bawling Pauly gropes for excuses as her Villa Park colleagues reject her. And further amazingness! with 781 hits.

Okay, okay, that’s enough now!  To another big year of comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable, kicking ass, and taking names!!!