Charlie Sykes: Sykes Writes

HERB KOHL'S WAR AGAINST Al QAEDA

By Charlie Sykes

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Yeah, that's the ticket: it's not about the money... it's about...the kids....er...actually it's about fighting terrorism.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Milwaukee, urged his Senate colleagues this week to support his bill to prevent terrorist groups from financing their operations through the black-market sales of cigarettes.

In introducing his legislation in May, Kohl said cigarette smuggling has become a lucrative revenue stream for criminal and terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah. He noted that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating more than 400 cases of cigarette smuggling; it had only six cases in 1998...

"Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products over the Internet," Kohl said at a news conference.

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Email from Patrick McIlheran:

I believe the initial H in "Herb" is silent. That's because it isn't a name, as commonly thought, but a description. He is, to be precise, parsley -- inoffensive, scarcely noticeable, seldom missed.
 

Actually, I think that comparing Herb to parsley is...insulting to parsley. At least you can use parsley in spaghetti.