Last year, you may remember, that august body, the Illinois Senate, helped pass legislation later signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that prohibited Illinois employers from participating in any sort of verification program in order to weed out illegal workers. Something about "workplace privacy," and, oh, golly, such programs can't be trusted unless they are 99 percent accurate, etc., etc.

Surprise! The feds promptly sued.[PDF]

Now, in order to get Uncle Sam off their spineless backs and in attempt to save face, these same buffoons voted 57-0 to reverse their earlier stupidity by substituting the word "discourages" for the original "prohibits." See? All better!

Illinoisans no doubt are sleeping better these days knowing that their "lawmakers" in Springfield are only "discouraging" companies from obeying federal law rather than threatening to punish them for breaking a state law.

The new and improved bill has been sent to the House, where last year it passed 76-39.