Story of the day: Those wacky jokesters at Lamar Advertising are at it again. In response to a proposed tax on billboard revenues, they've taken out ads of their own targeting City Councilor Natalia Rudiak and Council President Darlene Harris. But only as a public service, mind you.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell says what some of us Dems are thinking -- which is that it would be nice if Bob Casey started actually campaigning against Tea Partier Tom Smith. I mean, it couldn't hurt, right?

Interesting piece here on how Gov. Tom Corbett's 2010 election campaign benefited mightily from a loophole in the state law barring corporate contributions to candidates. Fully one-fifth of Corbett's fundraising came from a PAC that elects Republican governors, using a network of state affiliates to literally run an end-run around such state regulations. Dems do the same thing, but -- as is so often the case with these matters -- they've had far less success.

Speaking of convoluted end runs, check out this account of how Harrisburg Republicans used parliamentary procedure to avoid an investigation into Corbett's handling of the Sandusky case.

Voter ID may be in limbo, but it's still causing trouble. The state is still running those "Show it" ads, and although they've been altered somewhat, skeptics say they are perpetuating confusion. (A personal aside: I've seen the TV ad, and the only thing that has changed is the voiceover at the end -- there's still a bunch of stuff with people waving IDs around you and telling you that if you really cared about democracy, you'd "show it." I'm no marketing expert, but it seems to me that if the first 15 seconds of an ad are the same as an ad that people have seen before, they'll assume the last 15 seconds are the same as well.

Bill Clinton was in town last night, talking to the One Young World convention -- which, in case you didn't know, is like Pittsburgh's Coro Center if it took over the United Nations. Lots of coverage, but I'm linking to the Tribune-Review, because I always enjoy seeing the Trib's reporters cover stories that touch on climate change, which the paper's editorial page insists is a fraud. Anyway, Clinton told the young'uns that they can expect to inherit an "unequal, unstable and unsustainable world," the Trib says. So have fun!