Left Flank

I watch the local news, in my hometown of Baltimore and my parents' residence in Florida, for national news. Here's what I see.

Professional fundraisers for McCain?

Coale has long shared money and connections with Dems. But he showed up at the Republican National Convention last week and announced plans to woo high-profile Dems to «Citizens for McCain.» «A Leading Hillary Supporter Defects to McCain,» read the headline as Newsweek.com broke the story.

«First, I'm surprised it's any kind of big deal at all,» Coale told me later by phone from Minnesota.

«And second, I told McCain that I am doing nothing to help [down-ticket] Republicans. John and I go back. We worked together on the tobacco stuff when he was chairman of the commerce committee. I've known him a long time.

«And I like him a lot. ...

«I'm a true-blue Democrat. But look, I don't know Barack Obama. I had one one-on-one for 30 minutes once. I've worked with McCain. He has a tremendous record of compromise in putting deals together in the Senate.

«I made it very clear this is about John McCain, not Republicans and not Republicans in Maryland,» he added. «I will be supporting Martin O'Malley for his re-election and all Democrats, especially in the state of Maryland. I'm holding a fundraiser for what's-his-name on the Eastern Shore.»

So, the man has more money than sense.

Tax cuts are an easy sell?

Back then, candidates from both parties -- from Crist and his Democratic challenger, Jim Davis, to county and city commissioners -- campaigned on the mantra of delivering property-tax and insurance relief to a steamed electorate.

This fall, though, those pitches are nowhere to be heard. Lawmakers trying to get re-elected seem more interested in running away from Tallahassee's track record than embracing the results of the past two years.

For the most part, they've concluded deep tax cuts can't be achieved as long as the citizenry also expects decent public schools and services.

«What we proved to ourselves is we're so dependent on services, that to reduce taxes so largely in one area we have to raise them somewhere else,» said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, who speaks frankly because he's term-limited.

«We have had a lot of failed attempts at tax reforms, but that doesn't mean it necessarily can't be done.»

Service, and competence? Florida can't have that, so it might as well just fire all the legislators! And, the fundraisers!

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No, I'm not talking about The Wire! The US District Court in Baltimore convicted a member of the Tamil Tigers, Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, on conspiracy and attempted export of small arms.

Investigators posed as representatives of a defense company and lured a Singapore arms broker to Baltimore. In July 2006, they put Haniffa Bin Osman up at an Inner Harbor hotel and shuttled him to a shooting range in Harford County so that he could test-fire machine guns he wanted to buy. Bin Osman, who also pleaded guilty, was the one who brought in Varatharasa to inspect the arms before the deal was completed in Guam, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say the arms dealers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to export firearms and ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, night-vision goggles and other military weapons and gear. Most were to benefit the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group seeking a homeland for ethnic Tamils on Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka's government officially gave notice Thursday that it is pulling out of a 2002 cease-fire agreement with the Tamil Tigers that has failed to quell the violence.

More than 70,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed since the Tigers began fighting for an independent state for the ethnic Tamil minority in 1983, according to published reports. The Tamils claim that the Sinhalese majority discriminates against them. Despite the cease-fire, near- daily ambushes, assassinations and airstrikes have killed more than 5,000 people in the past two years.

In the Baltimore undercover operation, Varatharasa helped organize a plan to have at least part of the $900,000 worth of arms shipped to the Tamil Tigers by sea. Then, about 125 miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, the rebel group intended to send out its Sea Tigers naval force to pick up the weaponry, according to court papers.

Baltimore Sun