A decade of BlueOregon

Kari Chisholm

Well, folks, it's been 10 years of BlueOregon.

Hard to believe, actually, but it was on July 17, 2004, that we launched this little experiment. Since that time, we've had 10,317 posts from exactly 99 contributors and just over 1000 guest columnists. This little site has generated just over 14 million pageviews and over a quarter million comments. To everyone that's pitched in to make this the water cooler for Oregon progressives, especially our contributors, thank you.

In celebration, I thought I'd share a few of my own favorite posts over the last ten years. I've invited our other contributors to post their favorites from their own personal archives, too.

• Elections matter. Democrats get it done.
  What happened in the 2007 legislative session stands the test of time as a series of extraordinary accomplishments, especially when you remember that then-Speaker Jeff Merkley was leading a 31-seat majority -- without a vote to spare!

• How a little kid brought hope to an entire city
  Has anyone forgotten the day that little Atticus Lane-Dupre and his Green Machine buddies played the Portland Timbers?

• Operation Sparkle: Ted Nugent gets seated next to Thomas Lauderdale!
  When Gawker picked up this BlueO story, they gave it this headline -- "State of the Union Seating Planners Troll Ted Nugent, Put Him Next to Gay Civil Rights Activist from Portland". Epic.

• OBAMA KEEPS JOB: Headline writers at the Oregonian suck
  Remember when we cared what the headlines in the print edition were?

• How many ounces in a pint of beer?
  OK, this one is a bit of an odd choice. But this 2007 post is our #1 most-visited post of all time -- with over 51,000 page views. I'm still hoping that Jeff Alworth's Honest Pint Project is successful someday and pubs will stop pouring absurd 14-ounce "cheater pints".

• Epic moment: Six year old asks a question that leaves Hillary Clinton speechless
  'Nuff said. Watch the video.

• BREAKING: During UO gubernatorial debate, "is there a doctor in the house?" (updated w/ video)
  The "batman moment" from 2010 when Dr. Kitzhaber flew into the audience during a debate at UO.

• BREAKING: Ballot tampering suspect identified - and she's a right-wing activist
  In one of our most visited posts of the last two years, we actually did a little investigative journalism (OK, facebook sleuthing) to determine that the woman accused (and later convicted) of ballot-tampering in Clackamas County was a right-wing activist.

• True Class: Steve Martin and the Eastern Oregon College Democrats
  That time when the comedian Steve Martin offered to finance a school play at EOU.

• Wyden, Merkley, and Schrader endorse Save KPOJ campaign; petition hits 13k signatures
  The Save KPOJ movement might not have succeeded in changing Clear Channel's mind, but it helped launch two critical causes -- BlueOregon Action and the Carl Wolfson Show and its home on XRAY FM.

• Welcome to Saxtonville. In 2006, GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton made illegal immigration the centerpiece of his campaign. Too bad he used to house migrant workers in a corrugated tin shed on his farm. We ran with the story for eight straight days, finally forcing the media to cover it. Ultimately, Senator Larry George (R-Sherwood) blamed the coverage of Saxtonville for Saxton's loss. The power of blogging!

• Is David Wu fit to be a Congressman? Our exclusive interview.
  At a time when then-Congressman Wu was dodging the press at every turn, Carla Axtman and I managed to land an exclusive interview. It turned into a six-part series with complete transcripts, and revealed a lot about the craziness that was the Congressman's life at the time.

• The Sexual Hypnotist from Las Vegas
  This one always stops people in their tracks -- but it's true! The leading right-wing donor in Oregon politics thinks he can cure your sexual dysfunction by shouting at you on YouTube.

• My contradictory thoughts about John Edwards
  When the former presidential candidate's sex scandal was revealed, a swirl of emotional and intellectual reactions ensued. And I wrote 'em down.

• Olbermann on Dudley: "That's a rich former athlete explaining how he's going to keep everybody else poor." If only Mitt Romney would have paid attention to what happened to Chris Dudley in 2010 when he declared that waitresses make too much money. (Oh, and BlueOregon cited on-air by Keith Olbermann!)

• Busted! Latest anti-tax-fairness TV spot features an "Oregon small business" in... California?! The campaign against Measures 66 and 67 were desperate to find a business, any business, that would be hurt by the measures. In the end, they faked one -- in California!

By Kari Chisholm July 17, 2014