Tomorrow, the Republicans controlling the Minnesota State Legislature will be voting behind closed doors on whether to put an ALEC-assisted measure on this November’s ballot that will effectively strip the right to vote from tens if not hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans.

What if you are so outraged at ALEC’s hidden activities with corporate lobbyists that a simple call, click or letter though the usual channels isn’t enough? I’ve got some ideas for you.

As part of an ongoing look at ALEC and its pet legislators, I’m looking at why certain ALEC bills (such as the Minnesota anti-voter “voter ID” bill which, having been shot down by both an ACLU lawsuit and a Mark Dayton veto, is back for its third go-round as a ballot measure) keep getting revived even after being shot down for unconstitutionality and other reasons.

A research document going the rounds in Minnesota summarizes twelve specific actions taken by ALEC darling and voter-ID maven Mary Kiffmeyer during her time as Minnesota’s Secretary of State (1998 to 2006) that put the integrity of voting in Minnesota at risk during that time.

Today we’re looking at the anti-voter actions of Mary Kiffmeyer, former Minnesota Secretary of State, current Minnesota state representative, ALEC’s point woman in Minnesota, and longtime foe of nonwhite voters, college kids, or anyone else she thinks might not vote for Republicans.

Lest she be mistaken for some class warrior, Ms. de Rugy hastens to point out that even though many of the aged are rolling in enough gelt to keep them in poligrip and corrective shoes for the rest of their lives, they differ from the one-percent. The heroic one-percenters, you see, amassed their riches by making contributions to the economy, unlike grandma who fritters away her days watching Matlock reruns and has yet to outsource a single job.

I saw an interesting story the other day that starts off thus…

Private prison companies don’t make money by generating more revenue; they make it by cutting costs, in things like maintenance, security, and medical care provided to prisoners. So private prisons simply don’t offer better or even equivalent services and conditions compared to state-run facilities. But the findings of the audit may surprise those who aren’t familiar with this blog or the industry: the state wouldn’t actually save any money by privatizing its prisons. That’s right; even though they pay less, offer less benefits, cherry-pick the cheapest prisoners, and cut corners in every area of operations, private prisons cost just about as much to operate in Arizona as state-run facilities.

Most Indiana Democratic House members stayed out of session for a second day yesterday to protest a right-to-work bill Republicans want to pass. Today becomes a point of reckoning, because after the third day of missed sessions, the majority Republicans, under a law passed last year when the Democrats went out of state to protest various bills, can impose fines of up to $1,000 a day.

Phoenix police alleged protesters assaulted them with nail-filled sticks. That is basically police speak for when we were doing “crowd control” we were touched by the sticks holding up protesters’ signs. The Fire Department was on the scene to wash out the eyes of those pepper sprayed.