Sometimes, you run across something so perfect that you just have to share it.

Last week, an anonymous commenter on my blog composed a thing of pure beauty. The Automated Rod Blagojevich Story Generator is a very funny satire on how our state politics are stuck in a bizarre, ever-repeating spectacle.

The idea, the commenter explained, is to "pick one item from each section to generate a typical Rod Blagojevich story." And here it is.

"It had better be a job where you can make some money."

That, apparently, was what Governor Rod Blagojevich told Ali Ata about Ata's quest for a state job during Blagojevich's Navy Pier fundraiser in 2003 - an event that pulled in almost $4 million for the governor and appears to have put Blagojevich and his campaign fund in extreme legal jeopardy.

It's difficult to take seriously last week's House vote to establish a recall provision in Illinois' state Constitution. An amendment to the constitutional provision passed the other day with 80 votes - a pretty solid majority.

The tiny minority who opposed the amendment pointed out that the proposal could cause all sorts of problems.

A new statewide poll confirms what most of us knew anyway. If Barack Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, he will do a whole lot better in Illinois against Republican John McCain than will Hillary Clinton. But there's more to it than that.