The anti-NBAF crowd put on a warm-up for Thursday’s National Bringing the Apocalypse Facility hearing today by staging a small protest this afternoon along South Milledge Avenue. Grady Thrasher sent pictures, which I may post later if time allows.

Meanwhile, local officials steeled themselves for the inevitable confrontation. Everyone who supports the lab is prepared to be jeered at, booed and shouted down, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge said.

“We’re going to get our teeth kicked in,” he said.

Eldridge, Mayor Heidi Davison, and several commissioners said they are coming to one or both hearings to reiterate their support. Despite incessant pressure from a handful of hard-core FAQ members – I get copied on a dozen e-mails a day – they are not going to cave.

In fact, Commissioner Doug Lowry thinks the politicians who’ve reversed their positions are a bunch of pansies.

“We’re not going to fold like a cheap suit like those guys up in North Carolina,” he said.

Let’s be completely straight here. Most public hearings are a dog-and-pony show. Homeland Security is making this call, and the decision isn’t going to come down to whether Johnny McSixties denounces President Bush as a fascist.

Unless opposition is so fierce that DHS fears sabotage, what we think doesn’t matter a whole hell of a lot. Opponents might sway the decision a bit by turning out with overwhelming force; supporters need to convince the feds that the 500 or so people who show up Thursday don’t represent the 100,000 who stayed home.

But in the end, it’ll be a whispered conversation at a cocktail party, an envelope changing hands, mid-level bureaucrats in a conference room … that’s how decisions are made. We’re in the cheap seats behind the post, craning our necks for a glimpse of the action.

When Democrats attack

Senate District 47 candidate Tim Riley unleashed his latest broadside against Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, Wednesday over Gov. Sonny Perdue’s decision to postpone or repeal the state property tax credit to help with a potential $2 billion budget shortfall. If the credit is delayed, the average homeowner’s bill will rise $266 or local governments will be forced to cut services.

Riley again attempts to paint Hudgens as a liberal and tie him to other, presumably less popular, Republicans like Perdue.

“The problem isn’t that we’re having to face difficult choices, it’s that Ralph Hudgens and the Republicans in Atlanta failed to see those choices looming on the horizon,” he said. “Back when they were planning this budget, they apparently didn’t look around and see all of the warning signs in our economy, but the average Georgian did. It doesn’t take a degree in economics to know that with consumer confidence falling and our economy in the pits, our tax revenues would drop off dramatically.”

Hudgens said an "overwhelming majority" of Republican senators agreed during a conference call Tuesday to ask Perdue not to delay paying the credit. Instead, they want Perdue to dip into reserve funds and issue bonds to cover some capital projects the state is paying for in cash, he said.

He urged county commissioners to go ahead and include the credit in tax bills, which Athens-Clarke County has done.

Riley said government should tighten its belt during hard times, and that's exactly what Hudgens said the legislature will do - next year. There will almost certainly not be a special session to deal with the shortfall, Hudgens said.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com