Zero Tolerance beats out Common Sense once again: A high school student in McDonough, Georgia, received a two-day in-school suspension for kissing his girlfriend (a peck) on her forehead during school. Yet another reason not to send you son(s) or daughter(s) to a public school.

For those of you that are interested, here is an email address where you can contact me: southernappealblog@yahoo.com

For those of you interested in the Georgia senate race between Saxby Chambliss (R) and incumbent Max Cleland (D), here is an article emphasizing how tight the race has become.

Kudos to Howard Bashman, owner and operator of "How Appealing", the best damn legal blog period. This past Tuesday, Bashman, a former federal appellate law clerk, made mention of an error in a footnote to a Fifth Circuit opinion authored by Judge Jerry E. Smith. Judge Smith, a regular reader of How Appealing, issued an amended order one day later correcting the error. Unbelievable.

Senator Wellstone, a worthy adversary in the marketplace of ideas, deserved much better than the political whore fest held in his "honor" last night. The vast majority of those in attendance actually booed Republicans Trent Lott and Rod Grams for being present at the memorial. It was truly one of the most sickening events that I have ever witnessed. Minnesota Democrats should hang their heads in shame.

Senator Paul Wellstone--RIP.

I am constantly amazed at how little political pundits know, especially those "inside the beltway." Take, for example, the Georgia senate race. I have yet to see any of these so-called experts predict that Saxby Chambliss (R) will beat incumbent Max Cleland. Will it be a close race? Sure. But Cleland is definitely beatable. Here are a few reasons why I think Saxby Chambliss will be the junior senator from Georgia on election day:

(1) In 1996, when Cleland was elected to the Senate, he barely beat Guy Millner, a businessman with marginal political skills--48.9% to 47.5%.

(2) In the six years that have passed since that election, Georgia has only become more conservative. President George W. Bush carried Georgia in 2000 by almost 12 percentage points., whereas in 1996 Bob Dole carried the state by just over one percentage point.

(3) President Bush is enormously popular in Georgia (currently has a 71% approval rating in the state), and he is campaigning hard for Chambliss. He has been to Georgia three times this year, twice on behalf of Chambliss, and has raised a considerable amount of money for the Chambliss campaign.

(4) According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle "Chambliss has raised about $5 million and has $1.8 million on hand, according to his most recent financial disclosure report, filed Oct. 15. Cleland has raised about $8.8 million and has about $200,000 on hand, according to his report."

(5) Chambliss, a congressman from Central/South Georgia (8th District), has a strong base of Republican support in the Atlanta area (suburbs), which is crucial for winning a statewide election in Georgia.

(6) A recent Mason-Dixon poll has the race at 47%-41% in favor of Cleland. If these numbers are accurate, and by all accounts they are, Chambliss should win the race. History teaches us that if an incumbent politician is polling under 50% before an election he will generally end up losing the race. This same poll indicates that approximately 9% of Georgia voters remain undecided. In a conservative state like Georgia, chances are that most of these voters will swing over into Saxby's column on election day. Chambliss' 41% is the rock solid, hard core Republican vote. Of the 47% who have indicated that they will vote for Cleland, I would estimate--having followed Georgia elections now for approximately 10 years--that 42-44% is solid. At least 3% of those who currently favor Cleland can probably be persuaded that he is too liberal and that Georgia needs at least one Republican senator (to replace Paul Coverdell). Assuming that Cleland has 44% of the vote locked up, that leaves 15% of the remaining vote in play. The vast majority of these swing voters are white females, also known as "soccer moms." On this issue, the political pundits are probably right, Georgia's soccer moms will most likely end up deciding the outcome of this race. If I were a betting man, I would take the odds and place my money on Chambliss to upset Cleland by 1-1.5%. If this happens the Republicans will take back the Senate.

UPDATE: I just read in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Political Insider" that a new poll has Cleland at 46% and Chambliss at 44%.

John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. Two compelling reasons to be in favor of capital punishment.

From a Washginton Post profile of Brett Kavanaugh, an attorney with the Office of White House Counsel: "Still, Kavanaugh finds time to speak at occasional gathering of the Federalist Society, a club of elite conservative lawyers." Agreed. But how should we describe the ABA?