Fresh Loaf

Some of the state’s top Republicans are getting together at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, September 13 at the Renaissance Waverly in Cobb County for a McCain-Palin “Countdown To Victory Rally.”

Neither Sen. John McCain nor Gov. Sarah Palin will be there, but state GOP stalwarts Gov. Sonny Perdue, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Sen. Johnny Isakson, Secretary of State Karen Handel, School Superintendent Kathy “Smarter than a 5th Grader” Cox, Rep. Tom Price, Rep. Phil Gingrey and state GOP chairwoman Sue Everhart are scheduled to appear.

Conspicuously absent from the bill is Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Perhaps the Renaissance Waverly is too uppity for him.

Contact georgia@johnmccain.com for details.

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 — Over at Lucid Idiocy, Travis is amused that state school superintendent Kathy Cox has agreed to appear on a game show called “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” Let’s hope she does better than Georgia’s students just did on their standardized tests.

— The Daly Briefing checks in from Iraq, where it’s 110 degrees in the shade, the weather forecasts include sand storms and the new commanding officer wants everyone to work longer hours. And so it goes.

— The state faces a massive budget shortfall and Gov. Sonny Purdue froze $428 million earmarked for local governments. Atlanta Public Affairs notes that Purdue essentially just raised everyone’s taxes without telling them since local governments will either have to raise property taxes or slash their own budgets to cover the decrease in state funds.

— We’ve missed our “Morning Wooten,” but DriftGrift delivers a tale from his college days when a philosophy professor put the smackdown on a freshman college student who was unwilling to challenge her religious views.

— Duane Moody is all ga-ga over a new singer named Lady GaGa. And he also throws in his two cents worth at a record executive he ran into who thinks downloading music is evil. Well, of course he does. The Internet, coupled with record company greed and stupidity, has killed the big record labels.

— And finally, love = rings and Maigh just received one and she’s so happy that a trip to Sweetwater State Park seemed almost magical.

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ARTHUR TESLER: Sentenced to five years this morning for lying to investigators about the fatal 2006 shooting of Kathryn Johnston.

BRAVES FAN DIES: Falls from the upper deck during the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s game.

GUN TRIAL: Smyrna gun shop owner Jay Wallace is in New York this week, preparing for his legal showdown with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is expected to take the stand in his federal trial over gun control.

TICKLED PINK: Federal judge orders the Clayton County sheriff to stop setting up road blocks on the dead-end street leading to Pink Pony South in Forest Park. The strip club sued the sheriff in February, alleging he was unfairly targeting its customers.

CRCT BREAKER: State Superintendent Kathy Cox throws out the social studies portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests that Georgia middle school students recently bombed, saying the performance was “implausibly low.”

NORREESE HAYNES: Will find out in early June if he can get his Clayton school board seat back. During a hearing Wednesday, his attorneys apparently seriously threatened to ask for federal troops to march into Clayton:

While the judge did not give a resolution to either side, the hearing was filled with moments of confusion, theatrics and even threats from plaintiff attorneys to take the case to a federal court and ask for federal troops to march into the county, if Benefield did not decide in Haynes’ favor.

BEACON GREASE: The Roswell Beacon, a startup weekly, gets national attention for a controversial cover depicting Obama in a rifle’s crosshairs.

STATE OF EMERGENCY: Declared for Cherokee County following Tuesday’s tornado and hailstorm. According to this news graphic, the storms have dislodged the entire state of Georgia from the earth, where it’s now floating away.

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