So college football returns in a few hours with North Carolina vs. South Carolina and Kent State vs. Liberty. More about footbaw later.

* WaPo publishes partial expose of intelligence agencies’ $52.6 billion “black budget,” courtesy of Edward Snowden, who increasingly appears to have known more about the federal government than the president.

* Strikes and demonstrations for higher wages hit McDonald’s and Burger King outlets in sixty cities.

* Russia sends two war ships to the Mediterranean but Moscow denies it’s any big deal.

* House GOPers may be leading charge against attack on Syria, but TNR’s Nate Cohn notes rank-and-file GOP much more supportive than Democrats.

* Increasingly obvious that congressional Republicans deliberately skipped March on Washington, instead of being (as some claimed) excluded.

And in non-political news:

* Tropical Storm Juliette slams Cabo. But no threat of Sharknado just yet.

As I break for lunch, here’s Lil Wayne’s post-Katrina song, with Robin Thicke: “Tie My Hands.”

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.