In two years, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the citizens of California will have the chance to vote on a new scheme to divide their state into not just two new states, but six. "California" as a political entity will cease to exist under this plan, but the name would be preserved in four of the new states (North California, as well as South, West, and Central Californias), while two of the new states will have entirely new names: Silicon Valley and Jefferson. But while it will be interesting to see what the voters think, the rest of the country should rest assured that this is not actually going to happen. It's a fun thought experiment, but nothing more.

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Speaker of the House John Boehner now seems pretty committed to his effort to bring a lawsuit against President Obama. This is ridiculous on a number of different levels, and a majority of the American people already see it as nothing more than a political stunt (which is good to hear, since that is exactly what it is). If Boehner keeps to the timetable he's set out, this sentiment may even grow right before the midterm election. The Republicans believe that suing Obama will excite and turn out their base voters, and they're betting that this benefit will be larger than any political blowback (which would excite and turn out Democrats and Independents to the polls to vote against Republicans). Whether they're right in this political calculation or not remains to be seen. But what is undeniable is that, so far, this lawsuit is nothing short of laughable.

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I'm playing hooky today.

This is actually the first year in a long while that I won't be traveling and hobnobbing this week, as for various reasons I decided not to attend the Netroots Nation confab this time around (I personally think next year will be the one to attend, since likely Democratic candidates may be vying for attention from the liberal crowds).

What I will be doing today is watching baseball's All-Star Game. It's the middle of the summer, it's a lazy hazy day here, and I'm going to kick back and watch baseball rather than deal with the ins and outs of politics. So I'll see you back here tomorrow, and in the meanwhile you can join in with me in a rousing chorus of:

Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks
I don't care if I never get back
'Cause it's root, root, root for the home team
If they don't win, it's a shame
And it's one, two, three strikes, you're out
At the old ball game!

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Speaker of the House John Boehner seems to be in need of a refresher course in how legislation is supposed to happen in the American system of government. Over the course of the past year, Boehner has gone from confidently touting his and his fellow House Republicans' upcoming leadership on the issue of immigration (and border security, in specific), to now doing nothing more than groveling for President Obama to solve the problem using his executive authority -- which is an ironic enough stance for a Republican to take, these days. The House is obviously incapable of action, Boehner is now all but admitting. That's a pretty stunning turnaround, politically.

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We're back! Yes, we took last week off (for our nation's birthday), so it's been two weeks since we've taken a look at politics through our own special lens, which (as always) will feature heavy overuse of the editorial "we" (just because we enjoy it so much).

Plenty of stuff happened in the past two weeks in the political world, but we'll get to all of that in a minute, because first we'd like to highlight (pun intended, of course) what is being billed as "the first marijuana television commercial." It's not on the air yet, but Canadian company Crop King Seeds has released this first look at their ad (they do admit that they'll likely have to edit out one bit of profanity before the ad airs). Without further ado, here is their ad (used with full permission, as they would really like the ad to go viral):

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Not so very long ago, Republican candidates foresaw a single-issue campaign for the 2014 midterms. The race would be won, they assured themselves, on stoking the public's seething hatred of Obamacare. Republicans didn't need to do anything else this year (something House Republicans excel at: doing nothing), and in fact they didn't want to hold votes on any other contentious issue (like immigration reform), since all that would do is distract people away from the single campaign issue of Obamacare.

While it's too early to see how all of this will work out for Republicans this year, at midsummer the anti-Obamacare campaign strategy is starting to fizzle like a wet firecracker. Partly, this is due to external events which are beyond the control of Republicans (and Democrats, for that matter) -- in any political campaign, you cannot predict what sorts of "October surprise" issues will pop up along the way. External events always shift the political ground, constantly. But even allowing for outside events, it still seems the anti-Obamacare campaign isn't exactly going as planned.

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In all the fulminating going on about the children in the current border "crisis," there is one problem I have yet to hear addressed, by either side in the debate. Mostly, I suspect, because it would cost a lot of money to fix. Americans who are unfamiliar with the problems immigrants face and who have never personally had to deal with an immigrant can be excused for not even being aware this problem exists. Conjuring up gauzy images of Ellis Island, such Americans wonder: "Why don't the immigrants follow the law and come in legally?" One of the big answers to that question is the monumental backlog they face. A backlog it would take a lot of political effort -- and a whole lot of money -- to fix.

Just look at the current political debate to see how hard this problem would be to truly solve. President Obama has deported more people than any other U.S. president. Just ask the immigration reform groups who represent Latinos -- they'll tell you, in no uncertain terms, that Obama is the "Deporter-in-Chief." For all this effort (which has cost Obama a lot of political capital with one of his key support demographics) he gets precisely no credit from his political opponents. Under Obama, the Border Patrol's budget has grown enormously. The bipartisan Senate immigration bill would have doubled the number of Border Patrol agents. But, to listen to Republicans, the federal government is doing absolutely nothing about border security, and Obama has actually made things worse.

I'm not sure if this is an ideological disconnect on the Republicans' part, since it boils down to a reality they are often uncomfortable admitting: government services cost money. Why, after all, have we had precisely zero detailed plans from the House of Representatives on how to achieve the total border lockdown they so desperately crave? They've had years to come up with some such plan, and early on they announced they'd be passing it separately from any "comprehensive immigration reform" bill. So where is the House plan to secure the border? Where's the "enforcement-only, moats-and-alligators" Republican plan?

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Before I begin what is, in essence, a very short and very silly column, allow me to offer up some sort of explanation. When sitting down to write today, two subjects sprang to mind, but I then realized that with both of them I had previously written pretty much exactly what I intended to say. I considered just posting a "From The Archives" re-run column, but it's a lazy summer day so I decided instead to start by posting the two links to the previous columns, then just jot down some silly daydream, post it, and call it a day.

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Tomorrow, Washington state will become the second state with a legal recreational marijuana market (look for a whole bunch of stoner jokes on tomorrow's television news, in other words). While Colorado and Washington both passed their legalization laws at the same time, Colorado's was fully implemented at the start of this year, while Washington waited until now to completely implement the new law. So it seemed like a good time for an update on which other states are moving towards full legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes, since there is news from a handful of other states as well.

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Program Note: No new article today, and no new article tomorrow. Wishing everyone a glorious Fourth!

What follows is a repeat of most of a previous column, "Friday Talking Points [84]," from 2009. I cut out the awards sections (Senator-Elect Al Franken won MIDOTW, and in the spirit of celebration, nobody won the MDDOTW), since it was the only "dated" part of the column. The rest of it is still a fun read before you head out to enjoy the fireworks. Have a great weekend everyone -- new columns will resume Monday.

Originally published July 3, 2009

What separates humans from animals can be summed up as one simple thing -- the mastery of fire. Even "using tools" doesn't cut it anymore, as apes have been shown to use their own tools to achieve their own modest goals. When you get right down to it, the sole dividing line between us and the other creatures which crawl this planet can be drawn at the mastery of fire. Animals are still scared of fire. Humans, now, are not.

This may sound like a strange beginning to my annual Independence Day column, but I write today in praise of recreational explosions. In a word, fireworks. Fireworks and the Fourth Of July are inextricably linked in American history, beginning with the first time the holiday was celebrated, in 1777, one year after the Declaration of Independence. Celebrating the Fourth with fireworks is not some modern invention, but actually started at the creation of the holiday's celebration.

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