In November, Michigan voters repealed Public Act 4, the state's anti-democratic emergency manager law. While you were busy protesting the right to work for less, in the legislature's mad rush to get every evil thing it can passed during the lame duck session, the House passed a new version of the same damn thing and sent it to the Senate, which is expected to pass it and send it to Governor Rick Snyder to be signed back into law.

The only real difference may be that Republicans attached an appropriation to this bill (pdf) so that it won't be subject to referendum.

The state House passed late Wednesday what the Snyder administration says is a new and improved emergency manager law, but opponents say is a warmed-over version of what voters rejected Nov. 6.

The House passed the Local Financial Stability and Choice act in a 63-46 vote, with Rep. Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, being the only Republican to join Democrats in voting no.

Cotter declined to comment after the session on why he voted against the legislation. Rep. Jimmy Womack, D-Detroit, was absent for the vote.

A request for immediate effect for the new bill was turned down 63-45, meaning it would take effect around the end of March if passed by the Senate today and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder. Both moves are expected.

Why do Michigan Republicans hate democracy?

An overlooked development from Montana on election night, a referendum to state that corporations don’t have constitutional rights has unofficially passed by a 75 percent to 25 percent margin. Initiative number 166 stated that “corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights because they are not human beings,” and thus is a blow to the Citizen’s United ruling that helped make this presidential election the most expensive one ever.

Montana has been a real leader in efforts to buck Citizen’s United, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that equated money with free speech and allowed corporations to contribute unlimited amounts of money to campaigns through super PACs. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ruling by the Montana Supreme Court that limited political spending in state and local elections earlier this year.

Montana and Colorado are the first states to endorse an amendment through statewide votes. Seven other states -- Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey -- acted through their legislatures, which passed resolutions calling for an amendment. In two more states, Connecticut and Maryland, majorities of the legislatures signed letters to Congress calling for an amendment.

These votes reflect an extraordinary level of public support for overruling Citizens United, which has also been found repeatedly in national polling, most recently an Associated Press poll found that 83 percent of Americans favor limits on the amount of money corporations, unions, and other organizations can spend on our elections. That's more than 8 in 10 Americans.