SharePoint v3: Recreating the Quick Launch Menu

UPDATE: 2009 June 17th - Please see the comment by David in the comments section. His fix is the best fix I have seen for this problem.

If you see any improvements that I can make, let me know by leaving me a comment. Hope this helps someone.

Versioning

1. Version 1.2 - (2009 June 17) - Much better solution posted in comments by user David.
2. Version 1.1 - (2007 May 2) - Bug fixes which include:
   • Applying Quick Launch logic that is used in the SharePoint WSS 40 Free Application templates.
   • Wrapping data retreived from the database and other sources in System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlPathEncode() to prepare for URL formation and usage.
   • Colorized the comments (I'm looking for a Drupal module to automatically do this for me)
3. Version 1.0 - (2007 Feb 7) - Original Article on recreating the SharePoint v3 Quick Launch through a Web Part