Sparring With Very Serious People

As if I Needed Another Reason Not to Vote For John Liu

2013-03-18T16:46:00.001-04:00

Charles Barron endorsed John Liu for mayor. John Liu happily accepted Charles Barron's endorsement. That's all the signaling I need.

Don't vote for John Liu. Please.

Headlines I Never Thought I'd See

2013-01-28T15:18:00.002-05:00

Human Rights Campaign Praises Boy Scouts

I was thinking about where we were as a society on LGBT issues 8 years ago and how far we've come since then. It's incredible, magnificent, and a testament to MLK's famous quote

The arc moral universe is long but it bends towards justice

The arc isn't as long as I thought it would be, but it is certainly bending towards justice.

Battle for the Gavel: Streetsblog Edition

2013-01-19T23:31:00.002-05:00

New York City's political landscape is in the process of being upended by the legally mandated end of the Bloomberg era. The City will have a new Mayor, a new Public Advocate, a new Comptroller, a slew of new Council Members, and with Chris Quinn forced to seek higher office by term limits a new Council Speaker to go with it. The two members considered the favorites for the position are a pair of Harlem members, Melissa Mark-Vevirito and Inez Dickens. Mark-Vevirito is regarded as the progressive outsider, a rabble rouser that will work the outside game and likely to maintain a great deal of independence from the new Mayor, regardless of who that might be. Dickens is much more of an establishment player, and would keep conflicts inside the family so to speak. Historically the path to the gavel runs through courting the the bosses of the county parties, especially the powerful bosses in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. That's how Quinn defeated DeBlasio back in 2005 for the gavel.

Activists though still like to make their mark on the process, even if their influence on what is ultimately an insiders game is minimal. Well the transit activists over at Streetsblog have fired a salvo in what is shaping up to be another hotly contested race for the speaker's chair by declaring Mark-Vevirito as elected official of the year, and Dickens as the worst elected official of the year. Its not going to have a huge impact on the speakers race, but what little impact it has will happen via proxy endorsements I expect Transportation Alternatives, the advocacy group behind Streetsblog, will ask council candidates who they anticipate supporting for speaker, and I doubt they will be endorsing anybody that would put Dickens in the chair. Its the only influence Transportation Alternatives, or advocates of any variety, will have on the speaker's race.

The Mayor's race is (rightfully) going to get the lion's share of public attention, but pay attention to the lower tier races. These little goings on will subtly affect the direction the City will take in the post-Bloomberg era.

Stringer's Out

2012-11-17T15:00:00.001-05:00

Its not quite official, but he sees the writing on the wall.

Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, is expected to announce soon that he will not run for mayor next year, but instead vie for city comptroller, according to half a dozen people who have talked to him in recent days.

I'm both pleased and disappointed that Stringer is dropping down to the comptroller's race. I'm pleased because it improves the probability that we'll have a comptroller that actually cares about his job instead of taking cheep potshots at the mayor and the MTA wherever he can find them. I'm disappointed because the mayor's race, the only one that will have any serious profile in the media, has lost the candidate who was far and away the best one on transit issues overall. Stringer uniquely understood the critical need for a fully funded MTA, the importance of complete streets with bike lanes, and was willing to take on the worst rent seekers in the city, the medallion owners.

No other candidate was as complete in their advocacy for progressive transit. DeBlasio has shown himself to be in the pocket of the medallion owners, and has morphed from bike lane supporter to bike lane agnostic at best. Liu has shown himself to be a complete hack who will do nothing more then wait for the federal government to make it rain. Quinn says some the right things when talking to a transit audience, but when talking to a general audience she tailors her message almost exclusively around the needs of car owners instead of the vast majority of New Yorkers who use alternative methods to get around.

So who benefits from Stringer dropping out? Conventional analysis says Quinn since Stringer's Upper West Side and liberal Jew coalition overlaps most strongly with Quinn's Manhattan/LGBT/Democrats for Bloomberg coalition. However I think there is a good possibility that DeBlasio comes out ahead. My view of the race is that its going to come down to a two person race between Quinn and a Not-Quinn. People who supported Stringer were probably supporting him as the best Not-Quinn candidate. With Stringer gone, I imagine his supporters will look for another Not-Quinn to back, and only if they conclude Stringer was the only acceptable Not-Quinn will they reluctantly fall into the Quinn camp. The scandal tarred Liu isn't gonna get any support from Stringer's reform minded backers, while Billy Thompson is a complete non-factor. That leaves DeBlasio as the best positioned to pick up Stringer's supporters. While there might be a Park Slope/UWS rivalry in the city, the issues and demographics of the two neighborhoods are similar. DeBlasio clearly understands the issues facing Park Slope, so it isn't a stretch to see him creating a stroller coalition between the two neighborhoods. Quinn might win more of Stringer's support in the end, but I don't think its as automatic as I've seen other publications portraying it.

An Awesome Occupy Initiative: Buying and Forgiving Debt

2012-11-09T14:19:00.001-05:00

Occupy Wall Street has faded as a movement, but it doesn't mean they are totally gone. Their Occupy the SEC branch has been thoroughly awesome and since Sandy they've been helping the victims of the hurricane get back on their feet. Their most recent initiative to purchase distressed debt for cents on the dollar and forgive it is something that caught my eye, and put a very wide smile on my face.

Normally debt forgiveness creates some serious economic incentives problems in the form of moral hazard. Moral hazard is a Very Serious problem that Very Serious People obsess over, however just because it is a Very Serious problem doesn't mean it is a very real one. In the aggregate individuals will price the probability that they will get their debt forgiven into their calculations about how much debt to take out. The higher the chance they will be forgiven, the more likely it is they will take on more debt, or enter strategic default if they are already in debt. We can quibble about the moral obligation that people attach to paying off their debt, but for my purposes I'm making the admittedly strong assumption that people are pure rational actors.

However the Occupy initiative doesn't create this problem due to the small and random nature of the initiative. Occupy isn't going to be liberating hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, they probably won't even crack the ten million dollar mark when all is said and done. This means the marginal increase in the chance that debt will be forgiven is infinitesimally small, so they won't take out more debt then they can handle. Additionally people who are already in debt and are considering going into default won't chance their decision to default or not because the chance their debt will be forgiven is still the same incredibly small amount it was before.

So far I've described a small, seemingly insignificant program, so where is the upside you ask? People who's crushing debt was going to fall into the hands ruthless debt collectors prior the program will instead see their debt wiped clean. They can go forward without a ball and chain of past debt dragging their consumption and investment down. They won't be hounded by collectors at every turn. They can focus on living their lives instead of worrying about their next bill payment. These individuals will have won a lottery, but its a lottery they unknowingly entered because they were forced into extreme circumstances.

This is of course a second best option for debt forgiveness and personal debt reduction. Cramdown on mortgages, caps based on graduate income on student debt repayments, and stronger consumer protection against predatory lending are all better long term options. However in the interim Occupy is doing something concrete that will help the lives of those deeply in debt, and by extension the communities that these folks live in too.

Crazy Shithead of the Week

2012-10-05T16:04:00.002-04:00

Arkansas State Rep. Jon Hubbard

Literally Worse Then Hitler

2012-09-17T18:10:00.003-04:00

Word to the wise: anytime you make Nazi references regarding a local corruption probe, you've lost me. Somehow the slaughter of 6 million Jews doesn't compare to the inconvenience of being under investigation for campaign finance fraud.

One of the things that I truly cannot understand about the conspiracy theory tinged bitching emanating from Liu supporters is the complete lack of a reason why the Feds decided to target Liu unjustly over any other likely candidate for Mayor. For their whining to have any merit, they'd have to prove that the FBI and the US Attorney for the New York Southern District Preet Bharara has a unique ax to grind with Liu over say Quinn, De Blasio or Stringer; that the FBI/Bharara is in the tank for Quinn/De Blasio/Stringer; or that the FBI/Bharara is flat out racist against Asians. None of those arguments carry much water, but the last one in particular seems to be the one Liu supporters are hanging their hats on, and its also the one I find the least compelling. After all, Bharara is himself Indian-American.

Bill de Blasio Gets His Transit Black Mark

2012-05-30T22:44:00.001-04:00

NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joins Comptroller John Liu in getting a transit issue black mark. De Blasio earns his by demonstrating he is completely in the tank for taxi medallion owners by filling an amicus brief on behalf of the medallion owners in the lawsuit to stop the borough taxi plan. I thought the Public Advocate was supposed to speak up for the people of New York City. Instead, like just about every other major NYC politician, he's thrown his lot in with the powerful and wealthy medallion cartel.

Unlike what de Blasio et all will tell you, the vast majority of medallions are owned by a very small number of individuals. Drivers don't generally own their medallions, and the number of mom and pop medallion owners are a tiny portion of the ownership pie compared with the vast taxi empires of the big owners. So why does the Public Advocate, especially a progressive one like de Blasio, feel the need to advocate for the few that have prospered enormously under the old status quo? Is it because the medallion owners are major campaign contributors in city politics?

Moreover, as followers of the taxi debates should recognize, the medallion owners and drivers really shouldn't care about the borough taxi plan. After all 97% of legal street hails are in Manhattan below 96th street. Despite what they say about fighting to preserve a system that is working, the effective outcome should their lawsuit prove successful would be to keep upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx deprived of legal street hail taxi service. They never give a satisfactory answer on expanding service to these areas except that if only illegal black car street hails were cracked down on, taxi service would flourish in the far reaches of the city, which is frankly preposterous.

The old status quo created artificial scarcity for medallions, which drove the price of medallions through the roof, and legal street hail service to the 80% of New Yorkers living outside Manhattan. The borough taxi plan alleviates that scarcity. Government should not exist to preserve rent seeking behavior. When the City Council was bought and paid for by the taxi lobby to preserve the wealth of rent seekers on the backs of ordinary New Yorkers and drivers, Mayor Bloomberg rightly went to Albany to get the law changed. Despite bitter opposition from an entrenched special interest, the law was passed, and like opponents of the ACA, they've gone to the least democratic branch of government to get it overturned. De Blasio's hollow accusations of anti-democratic behavior on the part of the Mayor in this case is absurd on face.

And Then There Was One...

2012-02-28T19:12:00.000-05:00

Senator Olympia Snow of Maine is retiring.

Greece's Super Sad True Reality

2012-02-13T19:59:00.002-05:00

Is it me or does this remind anybody else of the ending to Super Sad True Love Story?

The situation at the macro level is, if anything, even more transformational. The Chinese have largely taken over Piraeus, Greece’s main port, with an eye to make it a conduit for shipping goods into Europe. Qatar is looking to invest $5 billion in various projects in Greece, including tourism infrastructure. Other, relatively flush Europeans are trying to make “Greece the Florida of Europe,” Theodore Pelagidis, a Greek economist at the University of Piraeus, told me, referring in particular to plans to turn islands into expensive retirement homes for wealthy people from other parts of the continent. Whether or not the country pays its debts, he went on, other nations and foreign companies “now understand the Greek government is powerless, so in the future they will take over viable assets and run parts of the country by themselves.”

What Pegagdis discribes is sovereign nation being taken over by international interests to be developed into a luxury product for wealthy foreigners to consume. And this is being done with callous disregard for the unfortunate Greeks still living there. They are being shunted aside, forced to endure serious economic misery for the sake of enriching and comforting an inaccessible elite. They are the 5 jiao men, toiling away for nothing. It looks a lot like Greece is being taken through the international chop shop, and ordinary Greeks are only left with the hollow shell of their former country.

Leave it to the Very Serious People to make Shteyngart's dystopia a reality.

Seriously Chris Christie?

2012-01-26T16:08:00.000-05:00

Chris Christie is a complicated politician. On the one hand he is a, bullying, anti-union demagogue. His decision to cancel the the ARC tunnel and leave 20 years of transit planning in the waste bin will leave train and road congestion at unconscionable levels. As a transit nerd, I'm particularly pissed about that.

Yet, he has a softer side, at least in comparison to the right-wing ideologs that currently constitute the Republican Party. His defense of his appointment of Sohail Mohammed to the New Jersey Superior Court in the face of grotesque islamophobia was commendable. And he has at least made noises of being gay friendly in a decidedly homophobic party.

But today that softer side died completely in my eyes.

The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.

Beyond the fact that the civil rights movement was fighting and dying to use their right to vote in the first place, this is a completely nonsensical statement. Civil rights cannot and should not be taken away by the ballot box. Period. End of statement. In one felt swoop Christie alienates gays and blacks, two groups that don't really see eye to eye on much. It might look good in a frenzied Republican Primary, but to a general electorate this is an ugly thing to say.

Context? We Don't Need No Stickin' Context

2012-01-09T20:17:00.000-05:00

As Teagan Goddard notes, there were high fives at the DNC and Obama HQ today.

My favorite part of the video is that moment right after the money quote when he looks at the camera, pauses, and starts to stutter on his next sentence. It's not a complete "oh shit" moment, but it's damn near close to one.

In full context though, Romney's doesn't sound like a completely heartless bastard. He is saying he likes flexibility as an executive to fire underperforming employees, which is a reasonable position to have. Somehow though, I have the feeling that the only part of that quote we will be seeing in 30 second spots will be when he says "I like being able to fire people."

Of course, Romney will protest loudly that the ads take him completely out of context, and the President is really a radical anti-capitalist who wants everybody to have a job regardless of their ability to do said job.

Unfortunately for Mittens, context has never been all that important to him in the past. In his first ad of the 2012 campaign, Romney took a quote from Obama wildly out of context. How far out of context you ask? Well the quote is from 2008, at it was about how the McCain camp was thinking that so long as the conversation rested on the economy he would lose. Romney's ad portrayed it as a recent quote by Obama about his own reelection prospects in 2012.

Romney defended his use of the Obama quote, basically saying that context was irrelevant. So when Democrats start saturating the airwaves with his mind-bogglingly stupid quote, Romney doesn't have much of a leg to stand on to denounce them. Keep that in mind when the false outrage starts pouring out of the conservative and establishment media over Obama's supposedly taking Romney out of context.

Things That Made Me Think

2012-01-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Using Kurt Vonnegut as a tool for understanding microeconomics and incentives is plane awesome, and gives me the serious nerd chills.

I'm not sure I totally agree with the idea/conclusion of the article that a pre-career tax is utility maximizing given the (completely unfounded) assumption that income=productivity, but the entire thing was enough to make me drop what I was doing and think about it for a while.

Gerrymandering is Bad Mmkay

2011-12-20T09:49:00.001-05:00

Gerrymandering is bad. It reduces electoral competitiveness, civic engagement, and accountability. It shouldn't happen. If I were to start from scratch I'd have a system that looks something like the one in Iowa, where the maps are drawn to keep counties in one district wherever possible, and don't take into account party registration. The only difference I would make is to try to keep district lines as similar as possible to the old maps as a means of increasing voter awareness of their representatives and their district. Imperfect, sure, but far superior to the current system.

That said, in the current system, gerrymandering does happen, and it happens with brutal efficiency. Democrats gerrymandered the hell out of Illinois and Maryland, while Republicans did a number on North Carolina and Ohio. In both cases, the opposing party protested loudly and angrily that gerrymandering would destroy the democratic process by reducing competition, the essence of democracy.

And they would be correct. Since gerrymandering is done with the sole purpose of maximizing the party in power's electoral success, the party out of power should follow one singular rule: NEVER vote for the majority party's gerrymander. They might not be able to stop it, but they can make sure that the majority party can't claim bipartisanship support for a terrible map. Make lemonade out of lemons, and get some good press in the minority.

Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania it looks like Representatives Bob Brady (D-Philadelphia) and Mike Doyle (D-Allegheny) are encouraging their fellow Democrats to do a cardinal sin and vote for the Republican's gerrymander. What is worse is that the maps could fail if they don't gather enough Democratic support in the state House. There is absolutely no reason why that Brady and Doyle should twist arms on behalf of Republicans. If the maps are going to fail, let them fail. The current gerrymander is so horrible that any change that Republicans are forced to make would be a substantial improvement over the current map.

How bad of a gerrymander is it you ask? Well, this picture of the new 7th Congressional District tells the whole story.

That vomit inkblot nightmare is worse then I could have possibly imagined, and I was expecting some ugly districts to come out of Harrisburg this cycle.

So Reps. Brady and Doyle, if you are actually twisting arms to get this monstrosity passed, stop it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so. If this passes because of Democratic votes, we know who to blame for our electoral failure for the next ten years. So seriously, cut this shit out.

(h/t DKos Elections)

Boycott Lowe's

2011-12-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

Not like I shop there anyway, but this is just ridiculous.

Jon Huntsman Is Not A Moderate

2011-12-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of liberal friends who say that if Jon Huntsman were the Republican nominee, they would seriously consider voting for him. They consider the fact that he was a part of the Obama Administration as Ambassador to China. They look at the way he talks, and the way he presents himself. And he does projet a Serious, moderate image. The only problem with this image is that it is a mirage, the mirage is beginning to fade.

7 Layers of Douche

2011-11-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

So when a livery cab driver gets shot three times, this might not be the best response.

Picking up street hails in the outer boroughs is not legal and will never be a good idea.

I know the Taxi federation is opposed to a new class of outer borough taxis, but seriously c'mon guys, this is really not the time to be preaching.

Nothing Like A Good Dems Divided Story...

2011-11-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

Except that Bernie Sandars isn't a Democrat...whoops.

An Open Letter To The Independent Democratic Caucus

2011-11-08T14:23:00.000-05:00

Dear Senators Klein, Savino, Carlucci, and Valesky

Hi. How are you doing? I know you've had a fairly good year. You started the "Independent Democratic Caucus" and got lots of press attention. Nice. You also all got committee chairmanships in exchange for basically voting with the Republicans on every procedural issue in the Senate, including a State Constitutional Amendment to create an independent redistricting commission that would only go into effect for the 2020 redistricting period, thus totally screwing over the good government ideals you claim to hold oh so dear. Well done. Gold stars all around.

Now the New York Daily News is reporting that you've taken this alliance a step further.

The Daily News has learned Senate Republican bosses have agreed not to put up — or fund — strong candidates next year against the four Democrats who created their own independent caucus this year.

The four rogue Democrats will not back current Democratic leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) or Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) for majority leader if the Dems take control of the chamber, the source said.

I think I've seen this movie before. Let's go over how it ended for each of the conspirators.

Pedro Espada lost the Democratic Primary in 2010, lost his seat in the Senate, and is now under federal inditement for embezzlement and fraud.

Hiram Monserrate was convicted of slashing his girlfriend, got expelled from the Senate, and lost the subsequent race to regain his open seat by a fairly substantial margin.

Carl Kruger is under federal inditement for bribery.

Ruban Diaz is the world's biggest homophobe, but has exclaimed on multiple occasions that the reaction to the IDC proves that the reaction to the "Gang of Four" was partially driven by racism against Hispanics.

Now I hate to say it, but Diaz might just have a point. The "Gang of Four" was all about hostage taking, and enriching themselves and their power, but they shrouded their selfish intentions in a woven cape of racial empowerment. You all have no standing here. You all represent White, suburban style districts. And you are saying you won't vote for John Sampson, a Black Senator. That really doesn't look good.

The only point that you might have to stand on is the illusory notion that you are supporting "bipartisan governing" and "good government" in general. Except you aren't. On multiple occasions you enabled the Republican Majority to take naked power grabs, as in the case of stripping the Lieutenant Governor the ability to break ties, and delaying the creation of an independent redistricting commission until 2020, as a gerrymander is the only way the Republicans can possibly maintain power in New York State.

Plus, bipartisanship should not be the end for you. The goal should be progressive governance, inclusive governance, moral governance. The goal should be better schools, better infrastructure, better higher paying jobs, equal opportunity, racial equality, a greener environment.

The modern Republican Party wants none of these things. Even in blue New York, the Republican Party stands in the way of progress. They want to cut taxes for the wealthy, while increasing the burdon on middle and working class families. They will choke money out of our schools and our public transit to line the pockets of the fortunate few. And they'll do it with a smile, and your consent.

The last basion of Republican power in New York is the Senate. If we break them here, we break them in New York for a generation. We can truly see a progressive era come to New York. But all you want is personal power, at the expense of the principles you campaign for, and were elected on. You forgot the Democratic part of the Independent Democratic Caucus. If you don't want be a member of the Democratic Party or the Democratic Caucus, I'm happy to show you the door. And so will thousands of other progressive activists.

Sincerely,

P.Swift

Perry Joins the Mythic Order of the Supply Side Genies

2011-10-31T22:51:00.001-04:00

Like George W. Bush and T-Paw before him, Rick Perry has declared that tax cuts pay for themselves because the awesome and mysterious forces of the Supply Side Genies will bost economic growth so much that tax revenues won't actually fall when we implement an insane half-baked flat tax that is really another backdoor tax cut for the rich.

Just to be clear, tax cuts, especially ones like this, don't even come close to fully paying for themselves with increased economic activity. The CBO under my favorite wonk-turned-hack ever, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, tried to score the Bush Tax Cuts using dynamic analysis, the preferred methodology of the Mythic Order of the Supply Side Genies, and even he couldn't figure out a way to say the tax cuts paid for themselves.

So the next time you hear somebody claim that tax cuts pay for themselves, give them a hug and tell them that Genies simply don't exist.

Voter ID Stories Going Mainstream

2011-10-31T15:37:00.000-04:00

The great invisible story that I wrote about a couple weeks ago is getting some mainstream coverage. Happy Face.

The bottom line is the marginal decrease in fraud which by and large does not exist resulting from these new laws is completely outweighed by the huge increase in citizens being denied their Constitution right to vote. No spin by Republicans or Very Serious People like Artur Davis should obscure this fact.

Revenge of the Son of the Birther

2011-10-23T13:41:00.000-04:00

Rick Perry outs himself as Birther-curious.

Birthers, still out there, still crazy, still looking for a candidate to call their own. Rick, you diserve them.

Facepalm

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

2011-10-21T18:11:00.000-04:00

We have a Commerce Secretary! I think now with a confirmed Secretary in place, the confidence fairy will grace us with her presence, commerce will flourish throughout the land and unemployment will magically drop to 5%. Because not having a Commerce Secretary was what was holding us back all along. Think about it. I didn't.

Sarcasm aside, I really liked Matt's take on our insane institution dysfunction regarding Presidential appointments that require Senate confirmation. Go read it. For you too lazy to read it, here's the money quote.

Someday, maybe, we’ll adopt a form of government in which jobs aren’t regularly deemed so crucial as to require Senate confirmation but sufficiently trivial as to be allowed to have nobody doing them for years.

Maybe, but somehow I doubt we are going to get any reform coming from the Senate anytime soon. Serious business happens there, and you can't screw around with Very Serious People doing Very Serious work. Reforming the system would call into question the Seriousness of it, and lord forbid that happens.

Stoner Nation

2011-10-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

For the first time, a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana use, according to Gallup.

The only problem is the people that support legalizing marijuana use are among the least likely to vote. 63% of 18-29 year olds support legalization, making them the 2nd most supportive group behind liberals, but only 49% of eligible 18-29 year olds voted in 2008. Among those 65+, only 31% support legalization but 70% of them voted in '08.

Politicians have to be responsive to the electorate, if they like it or not. The broader American public appears to support legalization, but right now the electorate doesn't. Until supporters of legalization vote their numbers and elect politicians favorable to the cause, lighting a joint will still be a crime.

It Would Be Funny If It Weren't Actually Happening

2011-10-15T19:11:00.001-04:00

I know Huckabee was probably joking when he said this, but I want to flag the quote anyway.

Make a list... Call them and ask them, 'Are you going to vote on Issue 2 and are you going to vote for it?' If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don't go vote. Let the air out of their tires on election day. Tell them the election has been moved to a different date. That's up to you how you creatively get the job done.

So Republicans aren't going door to door locking doors from the outside and sabotaging pro-union voter's cars, yet. That said, Republicans ar systematically rolling back voter access wherever they can, namely the states where they have the trifecta in the statehouse.

Lets first look at the state where Mike made his unfortunate comments, Ohio. In the sacred name of voter fraud prevention and fiscal responsibility, statehouse Republicans, with the support of newly elected ~~Asshole~~ Governor Kasich, significantly reduced the early voting period. With the massive reduction in early voting, Ohio voters no longer enjoy the "Golden Week" of same-day voter registration that came about as a result of early voting happening before the end of the voter registration.

This same bill ended early voting on Sunday, a critically important day in early voting for African-Americans because of a pews to polls pipeline that exists within many predominantly black communities. And for those that wanted to cast an early ballot anyway, Kasich delivered one more kick in the nuts by forbidding county election boards from mailing out paid return absentee ballot applications, thus reducing the availability of absentee voting for the poor. They might not have changed the day of the election, but for some, they made sure access to the polls would be a difficult, overly time-intensive process when it need not be.

As another example of Republican voter suppression, we can examine Scott Walker worker's paradise in Wisconsin. Here Walker backed a voter ID designed to "combat voter fraud" by preventing poor and minority voters their franchise. Walker though took it a step further and decided that student IDs also wouldn't be valid. Republicans had to change the law a little in the face of ensuing uproar, but only a little. Now certain student IDs are valid, but IDs from the University of Wisconsin system don't meet the specifications, which means lots and lots of liberal students in places like Madison will be blocked from voting in this battleground.

The list of legislative trickery goes on and on. Maine ended same day voter registration, costing the state millions because of the motor-voter act, unless the voters enact "the People's Veto" to block the law. Florida enacted voter registration drive regulations so restrictive that many voter registration organizations have discontinued their activities. Texas passed an voter ID law that considers a concealed carry permit valid, but a state university issued student ID invalid.

This isn't ganging up with clubs in front of the polls to prevent blacks from voting. It isn't scheduling exams for students all day on election day. It's not advertising the wrong day as election day (though they have done it in the past). But what they are doing it is a systematic disenfranchisement of core Democratic groups, minority voters, students, and the poor.

Huckabee's comments might have been said in jest. But the comments betray a key Republican attitude about our electoral system. They are willing to undermine access to the polls in order to stay in office. The will of the voters only matters if it's the will of voters that vote for them. People that disagree with them shouldn't be included. If we insist on being included, they will fight tooth and nail to win despite us. But if they can't win, they change the rules.

To learn more about the ongoing effort to roll back voter access, check out the Brennan Center's report Voting Law Changes in 2012.