Former president Bill Clinton boasted in Harlem about how his foundation has helped pressure soft drink companies to cut shipments of full-sugar soft drinks to schools by 95 percent compared with 2004. "There's been a dramatic shift toward lower calorie and more nutritious beverages in schools," Clinton told reporters.

Governor Paterson is pro-tax but Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) is set to kill the governor's proposal dead in the water. "I think it has to be," Klein told the Daily News, "Anything that is going to cause us to lose jobs in this devastating economy has to be considered a nonstarter." And Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) declared, "Ladies and gentlemen, today it's soda and juice, tomorrow it's lettuce and tomato. Do you know how much sugar is in a grape or a banana? They are not going to stop there."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the proposal is still under consideration: "The question is whether people will be taxed for things that are clearly legal ... [a] product sold in supermarkets. If we deal with sugar, we might as well deal with the whole gamut of sugar."

Paterson has admitted that he might sneak a soda now and then, although the First Lady has banned them from the mansion. The supposed goal of this dumbest of tax proposals is to take these "dangerous substances" out of the hands of children. Paterson is trying to equate this to preventing children from handling fireworks. This is really one of the dumbest analogies going.

Meanwhile watch the YouTube video above of a Japanese commercial for Cola Shock to see if this dumbest of ideas would fly there. Cola Shock, which is a combination of soda and booze, is a hot item there. here we have fat Americans ordering "burger!" "pizza!" and "Cola Shock".

Does this product have any chance of coming to the U.S.?