Friday’s finally here, but a side project could wipe out the weekend. I feel like Sisyphus.

Here are some midday small plate items to fuel your own transition to the weekend:

* Michelle Malkin launches plenary attack on U.S. Chamber of Commerce for support of immigration reform, Common Core, and infrastructure spending.

* Collapse of Syrian peace talks narrowly averted, for now.

* NY Times‘ Sarah Wheaton has big article on importance of Keystone XL fight for environmental movement.

* At TNR, Mike Konczal lays out four big outstanding issues in fight to regulate Wall Street.

* Two new polls in VA show Mark Warner up by 14% and 20% over Ed Gillespie.

And in non-political news:

* New research shows New Madrid Fault spanning seven states still active and dangerous.

As we break for lunch and continue to commemorate the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, here’s Steve Marriott & the Pollcats with “Poll Tax Blues,” which alludes to the British Thatcher-era tax.

Ed Kilgore

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.