B-sides, demos, outtakes and rarities from Thursday’s National Biological Armageddon Facility hearing hearing.

• The AJC’s Ken Foskett picked up on something I may have missed: it looks like the cost of building the NBAF rose from $525 million to $680 million. The higher figure is found here (click on site cost analysis and scroll down to page 27) in virtually illegibly small type buried at the bottom of an otherwise redacted chart. I guess that explains how I skipped over it, and why AJC reports make the big bucks. The Homeland Security guy I talked to today plead ignorance and said he’ll get back to me. I should have something for y’all early next week.

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.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss leads Democratic challenger Jim Martin by just six points, according to a poll released today by Team Martin.

Chambliss leads Martin 42-36 – anything under 50 percent for an incumbent shows vulnerability – and only 21 percent of respondents think the country is on the right track. The Mellman Group’s poll of 600 likely voters was conducted Wednesday through Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Martin actually leads Chambliss 52-37 among voters who know both. The problem is that Chambliss' name ID is 67 percent and Martin's is 47 percent.

A poll memo is available here.

I encourage you to take any internal poll released to the public with a big ol’ shaker full of salt, but as Paul Broun showed us, sometimes they can be right on the money.

Next year’s state budget will fall short by $1 billion to $2 billion, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta think tank, said in a report released today.

GBPI Executive Director Alan Essig is fond of pointing out that, when politicians talk about trimming fat and cutting taxes, the money will inevitably come out of popular health care, education and public safety programs, which make up the vast majority of state government expenses. In particular, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed 3.5 percent across-the-board cut would mean $287 million slashed from schools, $80 million from higher education, $80 million from Medicaid and PeachCare and $40 million from prisons, Essig said.

The housing crisis is an issue that’s right in Rep. Paul Broun’s wheelhouse. He bragged Monday about voting against a federal bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“The Fannie/Freddie bailout is the most expensive legislative package since President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Not only does H.R. 3221 give the Executive Branch more power, but it also lifts the ceiling on our national debt by at least $800 billion,” he said.

“Congressional liberals have now allowed the risks of loan defaults to be taken over by the American people by giving the Treasury Secretary a blank check through 2009.

“Congress has got to stop spending money that we do not have.”

Overall, I was 14-2 in my predictions from yesterday. Not too bad. If only I applied such foresight to my NCAA tournament picks.

Here’s what I took away from the primary results:

• Never underestimate Paul Broun. We all laughed at his polls, but they turned out to be right. At least I picked him this time, but I never dreamed he would do as well as he did. He laid a world-class whupping on Barry Fleming. I should have known when I heard that Broun planned a big victory bash, while Fleming spent a quiet evening at home.

• It’s good to be the incumbent. Broun, John Barrow, John Lewis, Jim Marshall, even David Scott, one of the most ethically-challenged members of Congress, all easily survived primary challenges.

It's on Georgia Public Broadcasting right now.

7:04: Your first question for Vernon Jones is about gas prices? Really? Jones says the Dekalb landfill is "turning trash to cash."

7:05: Rand Knight's southern accent - where'd it go?

7:07: Ladies and gentleman, our first Chris Dodd reference, courtesy of Josh Lanier. Lanier doesn't think the feds can bail out mortgage lenders.

7:08: Jim Martin invented Peach Care.

7:10: PACs are bad, mmkay?

7:12: Lanier and Martin agree on reauthorizing President Bush's global AIDS initiative. They like bipartisanship.

7:12: Jones says he's a South Georgia country boy. Lanier admits he'd endorse Jones if Jones was the nominee. I think that's a flip-flop.

7:13: Lanier wants to throw the moneychangers out of the temple. Martin comes out for fundraising reform ... just as soon as he's done using trial lawyer money to win this election.

Barry Fleming has one more problem.

Rep. Paul Broun and Fleming both filed their second-quarter FEC reports today, 12 days early. Broun out-raised Fleming almost two-to-one, but Fleming has $344,000 on hand compared to Broun’s $202,000. Still, that’s great news for the Team Broun.

It’s bad news for Democrat Bobby Saxon, though, whose report is not online yet. Team Saxon had hoped that, assuming Broun won, he’d be essentially bankrupted by the primary, putting them on more or less even footing. But Broun is learning how to raise money like an incumbent.

Peach Pundit has video of the Atlanta Press Club debate. You’ve probably heard most of it before. Fleming did haul out the bankruptcy/tax lien angle, which I expected him to do Monday in Athens but he did not.

Paul Broun’s re-election campaign released another internal poll Monday touting the congressman’s huge lead.

Broun leads Republican primary opponent Barry Fleming 80-15, has an 81 percent approval rating and 97 percent name recognition, compared to Fleming’s 58 percent. The poll of 300 district residents was conducted by the Tarrance Group and has 5.8 percent margin of error.

The poll’s accompanying memo also says that Fleming’s negative campaign tactics – otherwise known as questioning Broun’s voting record – have backfired.

I still don’t believe these numbers, but there they are.

No one’s been talking about unknown political newcomer Rand Knight as a contender in the U.S. Senate race, but at some point you’ve got to take the guy seriously. That time might be now.

Let's be realistic. Despite his immigration flip-flopping, pork-laden farm bill, support for the war and the general distaste for Republicans these days, Saxby Chambliss will be tough to beat. If you're going to go down, why not run a fresh face out there and see what happens?

Knight, an ecologist and by all accounts a longshot for the Democratic nomination, raised eyebrows when the AFL-CIO, Georgia’s most powerful union, endorsed him in May. Today came the news that he racked up another big endorsement, this one from the Georgia Association of Educators, another key Democratic constituency.