A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April aims to help the millions of Americans who struggle to understand tax forms and other correspondence from the federal government.

Back in 1966, with the Vietnam War escalating by the day, Vermont Senator George Aiken famously said that the United States should just "declare victory and go home."

History may have repeated itself last week when the two men assigned by Governor Rod Blagojevich to forge a compromise on a multi-billion-dollar capital-construction plan unveiled a $31-billion proposal for roads, bridges, schools, and mass transit and then quickly left town. Their war was unwinnable.

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.