Fresh Loaf

If Clayton County Schools wants to regain its accreditation status, it’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the accrediting agency that stripped the system of its status this morning, released several documents related to the decision. I’m posting them below. The first is a 20-page report outlining the events leading up to the unfortunate news. The second file is from a press conference held today by the agency.

Click here to download the 20-page report from SACS.

Click here to download the press conference fact sheet.

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UPDATE: We normally don’t correct quoted sources, but I’ve done such to the copy below because of Todd’s comment.

Says the AJC’s Megan Matteucci:

The 50,000-student school system is the first in the nation to lose accreditation since 1969, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced today.

…

Qualifying Clayton students will still be able to get their HOPE scholarships. Earlier this year, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill allowing graduates of unaccredited schools to get HOPE.

Without accreditation, Clayton will also lose pre-kindergarten funding and some teacher benefits. The county also expects more students to flee. About 2,000 students have already left, superintendent John Thompson said.

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OBAMA: Officially becomes the Democratic nominee for president, the first black person ever nominated by a major party. He’ll give his acceptance speech tonight.

MCCAIN: Has picked his running mate, whom he’ll inform of his decision today and introduce Friday in Ohio.

UNDERDRIVE: As gas prices and environmental worries have driven down driving, highways and other transportation projects, including commuter rail, have lost a major source of funding — gas taxes.

CLAYTON IS THE HARDEST PART: SACS will announce its accreditation decison at a 1 p.m. press conference today. [UPDATE: Accreditation lost.] Meanwhile, a state judge has recommended that Gov. Perdue remove four Clayton school board members from office for violating Georgia’s open-meetings laws and ethics code. 

FREE REFILL: Fay has now added two feet back to Lake Lanier, as rainwater continues to move downhill through the basin. It’s still 15 feet below full pool, but that one storm has made up for the month of August so far, which has been especially dry.

FUNNEL VISION: The National Weather Service says up to four tornadoes may have touched down in Hall County as Fay passed through.

OUR DEERLY DEPARTED: Rome’s world-famous six-legged deer died last week after surgery to remove his two unnecessary legs.

PAUL JOHNSON: The New York Times profiles Georgia Tech’s new skipper and his stubbornly distinctive coaching style, which he’ll debut in Atlanta tonight as Tech hosts Jacksonville State to open the season.

BRAVES: Call up minor-league outfielder Josh Anderson after trading CF Mark Kotsay to Boston Wednesday for minor-league outfielder Luis Sumoza. Atlanta also signed journeyman relief pitcher Elmer Dessens.

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Now that Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, the Georgia gents who trotted out a gorilla costume and tried to pass it off as the corpse of Sasquatch, have been been muzzled by a lawsuit, we’re left to determine what happened through the few details they’ve left behind.

The video below was posted on Tom Biscardi’s website. (He’s the California Bigfoot “expert” who received the faux carcass.) In it, a narrator provides an up-close view of the authentic organs that were part of the gorilla costume he received from the hoaxsters.

WARNING: You get an up-close and personal shot of BIGFOOT TESTICLES. DON’T WATCH THIS IF YOU’RE EATING LUNCH AT YOUR DESK OR ARE NOT DOWN WITH TESTICLES. PARTICULARLY WAXED ONES. That was a warning.

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TED KENNEDY: Helps kick off the Democratic National Convention with a rousing speech, despite his terminal brain cancer.

GUSTAV: Hurricane gains strength in advance of hitting Haiti. Tropical Storm Fay’s remnants continue to soak Atlanta today; the storm destroyed only about 8 percent of coastal Georgia’s sea turtle nests, though, which was less than feared.

FRED CRANE: The actor who played a beau to Scarlett O’Hara and spoke Gone With the Wind’s first line has died at the age of 90.

HOT MANTA: The Georgia Aquarium brings in a manta ray rescued from fishing nets in the Indian Ocean.

RUSTLE: A raccoon that’s been terrorizing a judge and others at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building downtown has been captured.

WONDER WAAL: Emory primate researcher Frans de Waal has demonstrated that generosity is rewarding to capuchin monkeys, who prefer “prosocial” behavior over pure self interest.

CLAYTON WITH BATED BREATH: SACS is expected to announce this week whether it will strip Clayton schools of their accreditation, since the Sept. 1 deadline falls on Labor Day.

STATE PARKS: Could be closed due to the statewide budget crisis.

QUILTERS NEVER WIN: The Gee’s Bend quilters from Alabama have resolved their lawsuit against an Atlanta art dealer whom they had accused of cheating them out of earnings.

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Megan Matteucci of the AJC reports that Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill, everyone’s favorite lawman, has put his four-bedroom ranch home on the market for nearly $300,000. He bought the joint for $240,000 three years ago. Perhaps the real estate market is in shambles everywhere but Riverdale. Who knew?

Hill may have good reason to leave the embattled county. The controversial sheriff had a knack for attracting lawsuits as well as getting the attention of the media. The New York Times wrote about his memorable first day in office that included snipers dispatched to rooftops to ensure no shenanigans took place when he unceremoniously fired 23 employees. He lost any chance he had to continue as sheriff on Aug. 5, when Kem Kimbrough bested him in the county’s Democratic runoff for the office.

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FAY ACCOMPLI: The tropical storm has caused severe flooding in Florida and is expected to keep zig-zagging up the coast, although it probably won’t become a hurricane again. Georgia is expected to avoid a direct hit, but the barrier islands and southeastern coast will likely get drenched.

LAKE HARTWELL: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially initiates the lake’s Drought Level 3 contingency plan for just the second time in 20 years, and officials say they won’t be surprised if the current drought soon forces them to “trigger level 4,” which has never happened before.

BIGFOOT IN MOUTH: The former Clayton cop and car salesman who claimed to have a Bigfoot body are being sued by a Bigfoot researcher, and officials are looking into whether the ruse could be a crime. The deceptive duo discusses the hoax with WSB-TV.

CLAYTON: The lawyer for several black school board members is accusing white whistle-blowers of racism for reporting to Gov. Perdue on alleged malfeasance in the Clayton BOE.

GLAVINE: Surgery will keep the 42-year-old pitcher out for the year, which is all he’s under contract for, but fellow Braves and Bobby Cox want him back next season.

STAFFORD: UGA’s quarterback has assumed the team’s leadership role in his junior season.

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Jesus Christ, Georgia, this kind of stuff has to end. People are starting to think we’re apeshit crazy.

The two Georgia men who made national headlines last week with the claim they bagged Bigfoot were revealed today as hoaxsters. A California researcher says the “corpse” encased in ice and presented at a press conference melted to reveal a rubber gorilla costume.

From the Associated Press:

First, the hair sample was burned and “melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair,” Kulls said in the posting.

The thawing process was sped up and the exposed head was found to be “unusually hollow in one small section.” An hour of thawing later and the feet were exposed – and they were found to be made of rubber.

Matt Whitton, an officer who has been on medical leave from the Clayton County Police Department, and Rick Dyer, a former Georgia corrections officer, announced the find in early July on YouTube videos and a Web site.

“Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words,” Whitton said at the time.

And this gem:

Phone calls to Whitton and Dyer went unreturned on Tuesday. But the voicemail recording for their Bigfoot Tip Line – which proclaims they search for leprechauns and the Loch Ness monster – has been updated and announcing they’re also in search of “big cats and dinosaurs. If you see any of those, give us a call.”

You got it, guys, I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Whitton was fired from his job as a Clayton County police officer today after his bosses learned the We-Got-Bigfoot claim was a sham.

(Photo courtesy of monorails.org, of all places)

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VICE UNIT: Obama is Biden his time and keeping rumors at Bayh when it comes to his VP candidate, but the two senators believed to be atop his short list are given prime-time convention speaking slots, raising speculation it’s one of them.

COLOR-CODED: Reuters offers an analysis of how race has bubbled below the surface throughout this campaign, and how it manifests itself in coded language.

SAVANNAH RIVER ECOLOGY LAB: Less than two years after it looked like the ground-breaking, 54-year-old lab would be shut down for lack of funding, its own fundraising ventures have exceeded expectations and drawn in $2 million.

BIGFOOT IN THE DOOR: The Clayton County cop and former corrections officer who claim to have a frozen Bigfoot body will hold a press conference this afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., to announce their findings. So far, even Bigfoot experts aren’t buying it.

WETLANDS: Can survive a drought, despite appearing dried-up.

BRAVES: Swept by the Cubs in six games for the first time since 1876, despite Mark Kotsay hitting for the cycle.

VICK: Bankruptcy judge appoints a trustee to oversee the troubled QB’s finances, after his initial trustee was charged with securities fraud.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE: Falcons third-string QB Joey Harrington, whose Detroit teammates used to call him “Joey Sunshine” for his sunny disposition amid miserable circumstances, still hasn’t given up hope.

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SPY VS. PIE: The AP reports that Julia Child left a career as a WWII-era spy to become a chef; Child is one of several well-known Americans whose previously secret spy career was revealed this morning, as the personnel files of the pre-CIA Office of Strategic Services were declassified.

SHOOTING: The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party is dead after a recently fired Target employee mysteriously drove more than 30 miles to Little Rock and shot him.

LANIER: Georgia officials asked SCOTUS this morning to overturn a February appeals-court ruling requiring congressional approval for the state to take more water from Lake Lanier to quench Atlanta’s growing thirst.

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: The NYT reports on the resurgent popularity of streetcars in at least 40 U.S. downtowns such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, Houston and Charlotte. Not mentioned: Atlanta’s distant visions for the Beltline and Peachtree Street streetcar.

SACS: The accrediting agency is in Clayton County today, part of its review to determine whether the school system will be the first since 1969 to have its accreditation revoked.

SCRATCH PAPER: Cox Newspapers is selling all but three of its newspapers.

RESCUE 911: The recent death of a Johns Creek woman highlights problems in the Fulton County emergency services, as the 911 operator who sent emergency crews 30 miles in the wrong direction had a long history of such routing mistakes. She also repeatedly was disciplined for sleeping on the job, chronic tardiness and fighting with co-workers, and records show her behavior wasn’t uncommon in the department.

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MICHAEL PHELPS: The U.S. swimmer becomes the winningest Olympian ever with his 11th career gold medal.

RUSSIAN INTO WAR: Georgia’s government continues to accuse Russia of attacking the city of Gori despite the cease-fire, and even of moving toward the capital of Tbilisi, although confirmation is difficult.

DRINKING PROBLEM: A judge will decide whether metro Atlantans ever had the right to use Lake Lanier for drinking water.

JOSH SMITH: Interviewed on the Sporting Blog by Bethlehem Shoals following his re-signing with the Hawks.

SILVER BULLET: Transportation officials are discussing the possibility of building a 310-mph, mag-lev bullet train connecting Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

LAVONIA: Police are accusing a man of keeping his wife and four children captive for three years in a single-wide trailer.

CLAYTON: School board member Rod Johnson becomes the latest to resign. He stepped down after school system attorneys declined to represent him because he had skipped meetings where they were discussing defense strategies for upcoming administrative hearings.

ACCREDIT CHECK: North Carolina Central University’s now-defunct Atlanta satellite campus has been retroactively stripped of its accreditation by SACS, essentially nullifying the degrees earned there by 25 students.

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— As Clayton County tries to rebound from four years of chaos, B. King over at Terminal Station writes a thoughtful analysis on how Eldrin Bell borrowed from his experience in Atlanta politics to put together a successful coalition of candidates.

— After a long absence, DriftGrift offers up yet another “Morning Wooten”. Fortunately, he saved up all those lost Morning Wootens and combines them all into one.

— Over at Going Through The Motions, Sara treats us to a few of her random thoughts. Most notably, she’s not happy with John Edwards. Especially because he was cheating on his wife as she battled cancer. Sort of like a former Georgia politician of note handed his wife divorce papers while she was in the hospital being treated for cancer. Call us, John; we’ll put you in touch with Mr. Gingrich so the two of you can commiserate.

— Mingaling is getting married in a DIY ceremony, and she’s sharing with us. Today’s topic: How to make a Boutonnière for the boys.

— Most have applauded the city’s recent crackdown and people hanging out in Barbara Asher Square at Five Points. But Arc of Time has a different perspective, arguing that it gives the city character and diversity.

— And, finally, it turns out we’re not the only ones confused by this Russian invasion of Georgia. On the Georgia (that’s state, not nation) feed for Lefty Blogs, are such headlines as: “Cheney: Russian aggression must not go unanswered” and “Russia versus Georgia; the reality of Obama’s candidacy” and, our fav, “Is Georgia the last Iraq casualty?” Time to get the hell out of here, ya know?

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BULLDOGGED: Did an Athens site for a federal research facility get left off the finalist list because of politics? It’s suspicious that a site in Mississippi that scored lower than Athens on the Department of Homeland Security’s checklist made the pool of finalists, and Athens didn’t.

ADULT SWIM: Squirty the loggerhead sea turtle makes its first foray into the ocean, and 1,000 people gather at Tybee Island to watch.

STEEP HILL: Clayton County is so exasperated with Sheriff Victor Hill that it has filed papers in federal court asking that a special monitor be appointed to run the sheriff’s department until Hill’s term expires.

SKIPPING A BEAT: The Braves are back in Atlanta for the first time since Skip Caray died. And Pete Van Wieren dreads a press box that doesn’t have Skip holding court.

JUDGMENT DAY: The former judge in the Brian Nichols trial joins the chorus of those who say the reason the trial is so costly is because Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has turned a simple, one-week trial into a tangled mess of hundreds of witnesses and a dozen crime scenes.

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This is a Soapbox submission by a guest blogger.

Trouble in Paradise

By Hannah Palmer

When ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” came to Stumptown, I was just as excited as everyone else at the office. The project site was one block from my high school, on a street where I had trick-or-treated, babysat and toilet-papered houses. Ahyoka Drive was one of the nicest streets in a low income neighborhood, which, by 2005, wasn’t saying much.

During the shoot, I cruised by to get a glimpse of the action. It was winter and through the naked trees I could see the construction zone, surrounded by cranes and lit up like a movie set. People with bullhorns and Starbucks were moving about purposefully. People from LA!

I even tuned in to the Sunday night broadcast to get a look at the interior, “meet” the family and share in the community-wide freakout. And I’ve cruised by a few times since the “dream house” was finished and the cameras cleared out. With its turrets and archways and copper gutters, the place looks like nothing else in Clayton County. It inspires gawking.

So now Lake City’s “Extreme Makeover” home is making the news again. I saw the headlines and thought, great. One more embarrassing story to put Stumptown in the national news. I was worried by the grouchy remarks of Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt who said, “It’s aggravating. You do that much work, and they just squander it.”

He’s “aggravated.” The Harper family is losing their home. I thought a touch more compassion would be appropriate. And what did he think would happen? That they would live happily ever after? (more…)

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ABRIDGE OVER STUBBLED WATER: Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin is instituting Razor-Free Fridays, asking male ag employees to conserve water by skipping shaving.

BAT SIGNALS: A graduate student’s research uncovers an unknown population of about 900 Rafinesque’s big-eared bats living in South Georgia bottomland forests; scientists had previously spotted just 17 of the bats in all of South Georgia and thought they lived only near the coast.

ECO LOCATION: The Golden Isles are popular with ecotourists.

CLAYTON: Embattled Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill has responded to a former employee’s election-season lawsuit by filing a flurry of 30 defenses. Also, the county school board will outline at a meeting Friday why SACS shouldn’t revoke the school system’s accreditation. Read more about Clayton’s panoply of problems in this week’s CL cover story by Thomas Wheatley.

A FEATHER IN THEIR CRAP: Stephen Colbert called Canton, Ga., “crappy” on his show Monday night, leading defensive city leaders to invite him to visit, hoping to salvage some positive publicity.

T-STORMS AND ASTHMA: Are apparently correlated, according to a joint study by UGA and Emory researchers.

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It’s a Tuesday night in early July in Jonesboro, and Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell is still smarting from a weekend dalliance with a pistol.

Bell’s left thumb is wrapped in a cartoon-sized bandage, a reminder of yet another newsworthy moment that made people scratch their heads over the embattled county. Bell – a 33-year police officer and ordained minister who looks and acts decades younger than his 73 years – “burned his thumb” while attempting to fire a .50-caliber handgun at a Fourth of July party at the Butts County compound of strip-club impresario Jack Galardi.

Bell sits on the dais alongside his colleagues, his collar button undone, his red tie tugged loose, his tight, dark curls mussed. Stubble sprouts from his chin and his vivid blue eyes look haggard. It’s 8:30 and Bell’s night is long from over.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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VACANCY: Atlanta police have a new burglary unit dedicated to monitoring houses that have been foreclosed or abandoned, as copper thieves grow in numbers and audacity.

CITY COUNCIL: Wants to keep Fire Station No. 7 open.

SOUTH BY NORTHWEST: Northwest Airlines tells its employees that it may move up to 400 jobs to Atlanta.

JACKSON COUNTY: Gets state approval to sell discounted gas to the county’s nine municipalities, the first county in Georgia to do so.

BLUE JEAN BANDITS: Five suspects are arrested.

WITHOUT A PADDLE: Fifty thousand tons of sewage spill into the ground in Gainesville, entering a tributary of Balus Creek.

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The headline first made me think I was about to read about a bulky, hairy gentleman:

More evidence to come, he says.

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— Al Gore gives a speech that says we need to wean ourselves off petroleum in the next 10 years, and ATLMalcontent is skeptical. He thinks Gore is being rather hysterical.

— Gore is definitely against new off-shore oil drilling. But our governor, Sonny Perdue, thinks it’s a swell idea. Reporter-Cub gives us a reality check: The last time the U.S. had an energy crisis, the oil companies explored off the coast of Georgia and discovered that there’s no black gold/Texas tea out there.

— Folks in Dunwoody are pleased as punch to be Georgia’s newest city. At Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog, John reports that 29 people turned out for a candidates training forum with the intention of running for mayor or city council. Leaders have also come up with a proposed vision statement for the new city.

— Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire veers away from his customary posts on television news to talk about why the AJC still matters.

— Only 21 percent of Clayton County’s registered voters bothered to go to the polls last week, and Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered wonders WTF? Look for Thomas Wheatley’s insightful cover story on Clayton County in this week’s Loaf.

— Speaking of young Mr. Wheatley, the sirens at Pecanne Log can’t get enough of him. Another new post at Pecanne Log means another opportunity for a gratuitous shout-out to Wheatley. This time, they’ve found a personals site that features ads from wealthy men, including a group of of sugar daddies from Tucker. They’re already fighting over the one with the boat.

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Here’s a quick rundown on the July 15 Georgia primary results. The big news was generated by high-stakes runoffs:

* U.S. senator: The two experienced Democrats — Vernon Jones and Joe Martin — vanquished three first-time candidates and will face each other in an Aug. 5 runoff. With 91 percent of precincts counted, DeKalb CEO Jones won 40 percent of the vote, while Martin got 35 percent. Martin — who entered the race late and has been criticized for a lackluster campaign — may have a slight edge in the runoff: He has more money in the bank, he seems more likely to pick up support from supporters of other candidates, and his largely white base historically shows up for runoffs better than does Jones’ base of black voters. What does Jones have going for him? A runoff in the contest for who will replace him as DeKalb CEO could spur turnout in his home county. The winner takes on Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in November.

* DeKalb County CEO: The contest for the most powerful local government post in the state heads for a runoff as well, although DeKalb Commissioner Burrell Ellis turned out an impressive showing with 46 percent of the vote. No surprise that he’ll face well-liked state Rep. Stan Watson in the runoff. But a 20 point head start has gotta give Ellis the edge. (more…)

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HOPE FOR THE 1 PERCENTERS: UGA scientists want to make a better peanut, one that won’t spark reactions in the 1 percent of Americans who are allergic to certain proteins in the nut.

CRAZY LIKE A FOX: A Kennesaw State professor has written a book that goes inside the Dark Genius of Roger Ailes and Fox News.

POLICE ACCOMMODATION: The new police headquarters downtown isn’t the Ritz-Carlton, it’s more like a “clean, comfortable” Holiday Inn.

T-SHIRT KILLER: A man walked into a convenience store in southwest Atlanta yesterday and asked for an extra large t-shirt. When the clerk turned to get it, the man opened fire and killed the clerk, then calmly walked out.

WHAT MORE IN THE NAME OF LOVE? While Dr. Martin Luther King’s kids fight over their inheritance, organizers are behind schedule in raising $32 million to bring his papers to Atlanta.

FAST CAR: Something else in Clayton County that’s not working is the C-TRAN bus system. Too many people are using it now and there aren’t enough buses to meet the demand.

LAST WORD: The candidates for U.S. Senate in tomorrow’s Democratic primary square off in the final debate.

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U.S. Rep. David Scott’s Republican opponent is getting embarrassing attention for her campaign’s involvement in what smells like a fund-raising scam.

Deborah Honeycutt, a Clayton County physician, was clobbered in 2006 by Scott, 69 to 31 percent. But she’s cruising for another bruising anyway this year in the state’s most Democratic district. And Talking Points Memo reports that she’s raised an astounding $1.7 million. (more…)

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— Matt Towery at Insider Advantage reports that Gov. Sonny “Go Fish” Perdue is one of the top four on John McCain’s list of potential running mates. That means two Georgians are top vice-presidential candidates – Perdue for McCain and Sam Nunn for Barack Obama. Towery says Perdue’s rise is because of McCain’s shaky hold on the South, and the fact that Georgia appears up for grabs. The latest Insider Advantage poll shows McCain with 44 percent and Obama with 43 percent.

— Meanwhile Jim Galloway at the AJC’s Political Insider reports that another Insider Advantage poll shows that Jim Martin has leapt into the front in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Martin leads with 31 percent, Vernon Jones is second with 20 percent and Dale Cardwell is third with 11 percent. Still, 33 percent of those polled remain undecided.

— But that doesn’t stop Flackattack over at Tondee’s Tavern from making his own predictions in the race. He thinks Jones will come in first, with Cardwell squeezing into the runoff.

— Over at Peach Pundit, there’s another shining example of why Clayton County’s government is more entertaining than the Keystone Cops … if you don’t live there. In this episode, District Attorney Jewell Scott can’t indict a juvenile suspect in a murder case because she was unaware of a state law that mandates juvenile murder cases must be taken before a grand jury within 180 days of their arrest.

— There appears to be a spate of restaurants up for sale in Decatur, including the Chocolate Bar. However, according to inDecatur, most of them are being offered anonymously.

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— The Peach Pundit reports on a complaint filed against Clayton County District Attorney Jill Scott, who is running for re-election, and her husband, Lee, who is running for the chair of the county commission. Their campaigns sent emails offering to pay $85 for “volunteers” on primary day. The complaint says they are essentially paying for votes.

— A new blog called Georgia Premium has linked to the campaign disclosure forms of Jim Martin and Rand Knight, both of whom reported substantial debts.

— At Rachel’s Tavern, there’s a fascinating essay by Sewere, a black man from Nigeria, on interracial dating. He says that even in Nigeria, there are serious cultural limitations on dating within African ethnic groups.

— And over at Live Apartment Fire, Doug Richards has plenty of free advice for Steve Schwaid, the new news director at WGCL-46. Among them: Send Dagmar Midcap to meteorology school.

— David O’Brien over at the AJC has turned his Atlanta Braves blog into a must read. Today’s discussion includes whether the Braves should trade for Colorado outfielder Matt Holliday and how painful it was to watch Andruw Jones get booed in Los Angeles during the Braves series with the Dodgers.

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— Jason Pye wonders why a member of Congress wants to spend $50 million over the next four years to study bed bugs. For that matter, so do we.

— Someone in the Atlanta TV news business is cynical, cynical, cynical. On the Live Apartment Fire blog (one of our faves, btw), a guest poster using the pseudonym of Race Bannon discourages young people from going into television news:

It will only take around five years before they become jaded and calcified experts on exploiting the survivors of ordinary fatalities, zooming in slowly to tear stricken faces and trembling hands. At the town murder de jour they learn to recognize family members who still don’t know their son or daughter was the one killed in the ever so recent lawlessness. They’ll roll their cameras early to get every frame of the coming implosion and emotional collapse. Yay!

— Former CNN anchor (and former Rush Limbaugh main squeeze) Daryn Kagan has a new favorite television series and we’re waiting with baited breath to find out what it is.

— The first television ad from the Clayton County sheriff’s race is ripe for the pickin’ on Peach Pundit.

— Can Obama take Georgia? A new Insider Advantage poll taken last week suggests he and McCain are almost in a dead heat. An interesting tidbit: 51 percent said they’d be more inclined to vote for Obama if he chooses Sam Nunn as his running mate.

— Georgia governor wannabe John Oxendine has so much money in campaign contributions, that he’s going to spread the wealth to every Republican House and Senate candidate who has Democratic opposition. Read Oxendine’s email on Tondee’s Tavern, and the speculation that maybe he’s trying to buy the goodwill of his fellow Republicans.

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