Today's edition of quick hits:
* Not surprisingly, the Pentagon is clearly planning for intervention in Syria.
* Congress: "Will the House return to vote on authorizing President Barack Obama to use military force in Syria? 'The speaker hasn't ruled it out,' says Michael Steel, spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio."
* More progress: "A married same-sex couple must be eligible for the same veteran benefits as married heterosexual couples, a federal court ruled Wednesday."
* DOJ: "Financial institutions and other enterprises that do business with marijuana shops that are in compliance with state laws are unlikely to be prosecuted for money laundering or other federal crimes that could be brought under existing federal drug laws, a senior Department of Justice official said Thursday."
* NSA story: "British authorities revealed Friday that NSA leaker Edward Snowden took at least three times as many highly sensitive documents as previously reported, and possibly far more. At a court hearing in London the government told a judge that David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was carrying 58,000 documents related to British intelligence on electronic devices when he was stopped and searched at Heathrow airport on August 18. The government also said it believed the documents had been 'stolen' from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British counterpart of the NSA."
* Economy: "U.S. consumers barely increased their spending in July after their income grew more slowly, held back by steep government spending cuts that reduced federal workers' salaries."
* More on this next week: "The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes."
* Ohio: "Ohioans who buy their own health insurance should see an average out-of-pocket savings on premiums of 21 percent because of taxpayer subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new study by the Rand Corp., a widely respected think tank."
* It turns out the infamous "47 percent" should now be known as the "43 percent."
* The drop in Medicare costs offers even more good news on health care.
* Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) is sorry about the whole comparing-gay-adults-to-12-year-olds thing.
* Another first: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will become the first Supreme Court member to conduct a same-sex marriage ceremony Saturday when she officiates at the Washington wedding of Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.