Well, yesterday was certainly interesting. One minute we have a monummentous celebration in Beijing, and the next, Russia invades Georgia over a tiny rebellious mountainous enclave. So two universal truths are reinforced. One, the Chinese know how to throw a good party. Two, the Caucasus remain one of the world’s most irritable sores.

Now, on to the blogs.

Mark Almond/CiF - An informed commentary. And not ignorring one of the fundamentals of the Georgian-Russian conflict, Saakashvili - the Georgian president - is a naive idiot.

Svante Cornell/CiF - Stark, one-sided Russophobia. IMO. But then I would say that.

Robin Lustig - Iraq is flooded with oil-money, so why is the US still footing the bill for reconstruction?

Political Betting - Will two sex-scandals - one tinged with race - destabilise Obama’s campaign?

Real Clear Politics - (Re. one of those scandals) WTF was Edwards thinking?

The Curvature - Two in a row for Cara. Today it’s another story of a defence contractor, this time the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, covering up rape by its workers.

Paul Linford - Closer to home, we have Paul’s weekly Journal column, outlining why David Miliband must move to the centre, and not be shackled with Blairites.

Giles Coren/The Times - Coren, he of the very sweary emails, gives Polly, and many of her fellow Guardianistas, a jolly good thrashing.

Jim Killock - Some light-hearted poking at the Lib Dem’s latest pre-manifesto statement. Background reading here.

The Daily (Maybe) - Jim pens a letter to Ronald McDonald. LOL funny.

Obsolete - septicisle gets playful with some Red-Top satire. Also LOL funny, and in very bad taste. You’re warned.

That’s all. Jennie’s up tomorrow. Bye. *waves*