STUPID IN SEATTLE



I predict that it will be only a matter of time before something idiotic like this happens in the Bay Area. The left-coast liberals have an insatiable appetite for your income (via the Seattle Times):

Foam or no foam, a latte in Seattle may soon come served with an extra dollop of taxation if city voters approve the dime-a-cup tax proposed for espresso drinks on the Sept. 16 primary election ballot.



The espresso-tax initiative � which would raise millions of dollars to go toward preschool and day-care programs � has attracted national attention, much of it incredulous.



Charging an extra tax on Seattle's iconic drink strikes some as weird, like a cheesesteak tax in Philadelphia or a jambalaya surcharge in New Orleans.



"When we heard about it we were just sort of stunned. We thought it was nuts," said Mike Ferguson, spokesman for the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

Remember, it's for the "children."

DENNIS MILLER ON FOX



Comedian Dennis Miller is now filing the occassional report over at Fox News. His debut commentary targets Arianna Huffington, the former SUV-driving candidate for Governor, who lives in a huge mansion, flies around in private jets, all while paying little or no tax:

Huffington is running for governor of California and she just released financial records which show she's paid about $700 in federal taxes and $0 in state taxes over the last two years on her earnings as an author and a lecturer. To put that in perspective, she paid less in taxes than the clerks at Borders who spend their days stacking the remainder shelf with her latest opus.

Let 'er rip, Dennis.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT MARK STEYN IS THE MASTER OF ALL COLUMNISTS



Steyn, as usual, crushes his puny liberal opponents by pointing out the absurdities and hypocracies of the Left (via the Telegraph):

Certainly, Iraq has its problems. Jacques Chirac, en vacances just up the road from me in North Hatley, Quebec, took time out of his three-week holiday to issue a statement on events in Baghdad, where 20 people died on Tuesday. But he didn't bother to interrupt his vacation to issue a statement on events in France, where so many people have died, the funeral homes are standing room only and they're having to store bodies in the freezers at the fruit and veg markets.

WHACK!! But wait! There's more!

There's an old, cynical formula for the weight accorded different disasters on American TV news. It runs something like: one dead American = 10 dead Israelis = 100 dead Russians = 1,000 dead Bangladeshis. But 10,000 French can die, and even the French don't seem to care � or not too much, and not with any great urgency.

WHAM!! And finally...

In Paris this spring, a government official explained to me how Europeans had created a more civilised society than America - socialised healthcare, shorter work weeks, more holidays. We've just seen where that leads: gran'ma turned away from the hospital to die in an airless apartment because junior's sur la plage. M Chirac's somewhat tetchy suggestion that his people should rethink their attitude to the elderly was well taken. But Big Government inevitably diminishes its citizens' capacity to take responsibility, to the point where even your dead mum is just one more inconvenience the state should do something about.

You must read Steyn right now.

MORE BAD NEWS FOR THE BUSH-HATERS



Via "Reuters":

Manufacturing in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region surged well beyond Wall Street expectations in August and unemployment lines were shorter last week, lending renewed vitality to hopes for stronger growth ahead.



In a sign that the nation's long-slumping factories may be finally gearing up for a sustained recovery, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its monthly industrial gauge leapt to 22.1 in August from 8.3 in July. The jump far exceeded economists' expectations of a rise to 9.9.

Geez, what a bummer.

ON PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY



I discovered this essay via Instapundit. The author, Bill Whittle, addresses the requirement of personal responsibility in a free society.



Highly recommended.

DO THEY REALLY CAIR?



Rachel Neuwirth at ChronWatch discovers that the the Director of Communications at the Coucil of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) won't give answers to fundamental questions about terrorism (via FrontPageMagazine.com)

In late July, I contacted Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman and director of communication at the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). When he returned my call, he presented his point of view about the Arab-Israeli conflict and militant Islam. When I reminded him about CAIR's record of openly supporting Hamas, Hizbullah, and other organizations deemed by the government to be terrorists, he replied by telling me that "CAIR does not support these groups publicly."



But Hooper must have realized that he had said too much: he lost his composure and I suddenly found myself listening to a dial tone!

Please check out the entire story -- it's pretty disturbing.

THE BBC SCREWS OVER THE FBI



This is shocking (via MSNBC):

THE FBI�S ARREST of London-based arms dealer Hemant Lakhani, 68, at a hotel room near Newark Liberty International Airport this week was supposed to be only an interim step in what officials hoped would be a far more meaningful long-term operation, law-enforcement sources said. The bureau�s plan was to quickly flip Lakhani, a British citizen of Indian extraction, and then use him as an undercover informant who could lead agents to real-life Osama bin Laden operatives seeking sophisticated weapons.



But those plans went awry late Tuesday afternoon when the Feds learned that the BBC was about to broadcast a sensational report on Lakhani�s arrest by one of its star correspondents, Tom Mangold. The BBC story, based on an apparent leak from a law-enforcement source, had some key details wrong. For one thing, it falsely claimed that the arms dealer�s attempted sale of a shoulder-fired SA-18 missile and launder was part of a plot by terrorists to shoot down Air Force One�a target that never actually came up in the discussions.



But even so, U.S. law-enforcement sources tell NEWSWEEK, the damage was done. The FBI had to abort its plan to recruit Lakhani as an informant and instead charged him today in federal court in Newark, N.J., with weapons smuggling and with providing material support to terrorists.

The war continues, and is made more dangerous by the BBC.