An excellent AJC article on the GOP's Southern Strategy.

Between 1968 and 1988, the Republicans won five of the six presidential elections, and desegregation was managed in a way acceptable to national opinion, save for the 10 to 15 percent on the left and the 10 to 15 percent on the right. However, since the mid-1980s, three new circumstances have emerged.

First, the Republicans have become much more focused on economic policies that, in the name of business and the markets, have favored the top 1 percent income group. Second, use of the race issue by GOP presidential nominees has had less to do with real racial policy (as in the '60s and '70s) and more to do with gratuitously raising convenient themes and prejudices -- Willie Horton in 1988, the visit to Bob Jones University in 2000 and the various flag incidents.

The importance of the second circumstance lies in the political requirement of a third. During the Bush Era, the Republican presidential nominee got 53 percent of the popular vote in 1988 but won less than a majority in 1992, 1996 and 2000. Non-white voters are becoming more numerous, pro-rich economic policies are a poor draw and in the Northern states so is the GOP's increasing over-Southernization. War in the Persian Gulf could override these problems in 2004, but then again war benefits wore off quickly in 1992 with the economy in the doldrums.

The upshot is simple: For all its talk about reaching Hispanics, blacks and Asians, the GOP also has a pressing strategic need to use cultural themes to maintain a high level of support among white Southerners in order to eke out electoral-vote victories in normally close states such as Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri.

Lets repeat my favorite part again:

Second, use of the race issue by GOP presidential nominees has had less to do with real racial policy (as in the '60s and '70s) and more to do with gratuitously raising convenient themes and prejudices -- Willie Horton in 1988, the visit to Bob Jones University in 2000 and the various flag incidents.

Can you imagine the GOP using gratuitous themes and prejudices? Can you imagine southern racists voting for the GOP without closely looking at all the GOP policies? I can.

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Atlanta Humane Society gets hammered by local rescue groups.

The Atlanta Humane Society runs the Fulton County shelter under contract. You would think this unique arrangement would lead to better euthanization rates than shelters run by county employees. The statistics are not good.

Fulton County Animal Control, the agency that collects strays, impounded 13,102 animals in 2001 and euthanized 10,761. That statistic, an 82 percent kill rate, makes the government shelter the most lethal for lost or unwanted pets among the four most populous counties in metro Atlanta.

Rescue groups have largely been ignored by Atlanta Humane Society director Bill Garrett in their effort to see more strays adopted. They have been trying to remove more animals for rescue for many years.

"When I first started there, he was very hostile about the idea of working with rescue groups," said Nancie Liles, who worked briefly in the fund-raising department of the Humane Society in the fall of 2001. "He said they were all fanatics, they were all crazies."

The groups have lately begun to approach the Fulton County about making changes, and are getting some results. The county plans to advertise for qualified managers, and may begin seaching for a new vendor to run the facility. You of course can contact commissioners if you would like to see changes made. You can get contact information for them here.

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No confedrate flags allowed at Sonny Perdue's inaugural.

Actually they have banned any flag waving. Posters and umbrellas will also be banned. I wonder if I could wear my confederate flag t-shirt?

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