Political news, analysis, commentary and more about California and beyond

And now a word from our (self) sponsors: Okay,  okay we admit that as branding slogans go, “Shooting the Wounded Since March 2009” doesn’t quite rank up there with “Just Do It,” “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” or “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.” But we’re working on it, eye’ite?

That said, our Department of Weights, Measures and Worldwide Marketing is pleased to announce the launch of another big project: the Calbuzz New Deal.

Starting today, we’re offering a limited number of home page advertising positions for companies, campaigns and candidates working in the wacky world of California politics. (They’ll run as 120 x 90 pixel spot ads on the right side of the cover page, as in the example here, and on the jump pages.) We’re looking for a small number of preferred clients who want to get their messages in front of the eyeballs of our cognoscenti audience of decision makers, movers and shakers, insiders, flacks and other hacks.

At the risk of sounding earnest for a moment, we’ve been completely surprised by the response Calbuzz has received since we launched what we thought would be an occasionally updated, grumpy old guy blog back in March. From our first post -– a much-discussed analysis of why Dianne Feinstein won’t run for governor -– we’ve been extremely gratified by the interest, support and (mostly) positive feedback we’ve gotten from readers .

In the months that have followed, Calbuzz has offered a steady stream of original reporting, analysis and commentaries –- ours, along with those of star political players — not to mention snarky cheap shots and the blinding insights of our staff psychiatrist, Dr. P.J. Hackenflack. Along the way, our stuff has been cited everywhere from the New York Times to NBC’s “First Read,” and we became the only non-partisan site selected by “The Fix,” the Washington Post’s influential insider’s blog, for its short list of top-rank, go-to online sources in California.

What began as a labor of love has become a passionate avocation, and the time has come for us to find ways to build and sustain the enterprise into the future. The Calbuzz New Deal offers a limited number of display ads on the right hand column of our home page, with preferred placement for those who sign up first.

Okay, that’s it –- no high pressure pitch (although we do know where you live). If you’re interested, please contact Anna Roberts, our advertising director, in our New York office in way cool TriBeCa (where she reports “you can see the Statute of Liberty if you hang out the window”). You can reach her by email at annacamiller@gmail.com or at (805)680-3029.

Thanks for listening. We now resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Circular firing squad alert: For decades, Democrats were mocked by Republicans for  their self-destructive zest for internecine warfare. Now, it appears, California’s GOP has finally been turned on to the appeal of the  intramural sport.

Over at Flashreport, our friend Jon Fleischman is leading a crusade to ban independents from voting in Republican primaries, a proposal that will come up for a vote at the state central committee meeting in a few weeks. Given that independents are the fastest-growing group of voters in California, while the GOP is fast becoming an endangered species, the move would seem, uh, a bit counter-intuitive, despite Fleischman’s characteristically vigorous argument in its favor.

Strictly observing our non-interventionist policy with sovereign states, Calbuzz takes no official stance on this partisan issue, but finds veteran wise man Tony Quinn’s thoughtful essay quite persuasive on the politics of the matter.

More bad news for Gavin: It seems appropriate that a Republican site is the first to call attention to the elephant in the room regarding Newsom’s bid for the Democratic nomination for governor.

While Newsom’s famous “whether you like it or not” comment about gay marriage, and all it implies about his character, is most often viewed as his key weakness, the aforementioned Jon Fleischman today surfaces the case of “Newsom’s Willie Horton,” the Edwin Ramos case.

Ramos is an illegal immigrant who shot and killed an innocent father and two sons on a San Francisco street. Before the tragic episode , Ramos  committed several other violent crimes, but was shielded from deportation by the city’s liberal Sanctuary policy for immigrants. Newsom offered little more than a pro forma expression of sympathy to the men’s family, which sued the city.

Odd that Fleischman would sluice this out there now, unless his thinking is that Newsom poses a greater threat to a GOP candidate than does Jerry Brown. This is the kind of move you’d make now only if you want to knock the guy out of his primary (see South vs. Riodran, 1998 2002).