RUSSIA SIGNS GEORGIA TRUCE: “Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a truce with Georgia on Saturday, a definitive step toward ending the fighting there despite the uncertainty on the ground reflected by Russian soldiers digging in just 30 miles from the Georgian capital.”

KIM ZIGFELD ON RUSSIA’S DEFENDERS:

To its credit, the Washington Post has run a number of op-ed pieces in recent days from Russophiles (including Mikhail Gorbachev) who wish to rationalize and support the Russian invasion of Georgia.

Not only does doing so remove any attempt by the Post’s critics to claim it is biased (it’s one of the world’s leading voices in opposition to the Putin dictatorship and has issued a series of blistering editorials condemning Russian aggression), but the very best way of destroying the Russophile position is to simply let them try to state it.

I have found the defenses unconvincing.

GETTING OUR MONEY’S WORTH, in Iraq.

HOW TO HOT-WIRE YOUR CAR.

WELL, GOOD: Texas school district lets teachers, staff pack pistols. (Via Nancy Matocha).

THE END TIMES ARE HERE: Chuck Woolery to Host Cat Game Show.

INDEED: “Maybe I’m missing something here, but if Achmed the Terrorist suddenly gets a perfect 2 inch hole that passes all the way through his head, with nothing but a sizzling noise, isn’t everyone going to know it was the US that done it?”

JAY LENO on the station wagon’s glory days.

BREAKING NEWS! Third donkey found wandering around Tenn. town. I probably should have put up one of those Drudge blue-light thingies.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT DVD BOX SETS: Including why you can’t get a Terminator three-pack.

WAITING FOR MARS DATA: A nice article about my University of Tennessee colleague, planetary scientist Hap McSween.

TAKE A RIDE, RIDE, RIDE, RIDE, RIDE ON HEAVY METAL: Truck buyer uses $8,000 in coins.

SOLAR PANELS BY THE SQUARE MILE: But with this essential truth: “Photovoltaics eventually would need to be as cheap as paint or roof shingles to begin to make a serious dent in coal burning.” Which will probably happen, in time.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH validates the “beer goggles” concept. I’ve performed a few experiments along those lines myself.

PULLING THE PLUG: The Air Force Cyber Command is no more.

IN THE MAIL: Ed O’Brien’s Time of Plenty: Romance and Roguery At the Dawn of the Great American Oil Glut.

ANOTHER INSTA-POLL, and probably the last one for a bit. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments.

HOLLYWOOD, POLITICS, THE MEDIA: It’s like one big 527. Documentary blames Clintons for 9/11 miniseries’ DVD holdup.

In Hollywood docudramas, when the phrase “miscarriage of justice” is employed, it usually applies to the film’s subject, not its creators.

But a new documentary called “Blocking the Path to 9/11,” to be given a screening tonight, makes the case that former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have pressured television and studio executives into quashing the DVD release of ABC’s 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” The privately financed documentary argues that the Clintons, who decried the original miniseries as a right-wing hatchet job, are out to salvage their political influence and legacy at the expense of free expression.

They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, films that made the President look bad would be quashed. And they were right! They just didn’t say which president . . . .

HIT SQUADS TRAINING IN IRAN: “Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran’s elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to intelligence gleaned from captured militia fighters and other sources in Iraq.”

NEWS FROM THE ART WORLD: Giant Inflatable Dog Poo Wreaks Havoc. Well, that’s art. I seem to recall Rubens having a similar problem, once.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER IS GOOD — unless, you know, it’s a communist power.

HERE’S MORE ON THAT HEATH SHULER LAND DEAL:

The project started in 2005 before Shuler decided to run for Congress, the Waynesville Democrat said Thursday. He had no contact with TVA about the project, and his name didn’t appear on the proposed swap because it was filed under the name of a limited liability company.

Highlands originally thought it had access to about 2,000 feet of shoreline, Shuler said, but the TVA development map turned out to be wrong. Instead of suing TVA, Highlands acquired docking rights from the owners of another piece of property, then swapped it with TVA, he said.

“The long and short of it was, if the maps weren’t incorrect, I never would have purchased the property in the first place” because it lacked docking rights, Shuler said.

Your tax dollars at work. Of course, a bigger scandal is Heath Shuler’s support for a 55 mph speed limit:

Record-high gas prices have triggered talk that it may be time to lower the speed limit on federal highways to 55 or 60 mph.

“I think that’s a great way to save fuel,” said U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, N.C. “I think it would be the right thing to do.”

Can we launch a recall drive? Meanwhile, without government nannying, Americans are driving less and using less gas.

If things are bad enough to adopt a 55 mph speed limit, they’re bad enough to stop letting members of Congress travel by military jet.

MICKEY KAUS continues to round up skepticism regarding John Edwards’ “Story #2.”

WHAT TO DO with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.