Things You Might Have Missed

++Tony Perkins of Focus on Your Family, Not Mine criticized the GOP for running three openly gay candidates this year because he said it was against Republican principles. Usually they run closeted gays. I guess that's what he means.

++Republican-leaning Rasmussen poll has Democrat Paul Davis leading Sam Brownback for governor of Kansas. 51-41. 5% are undecided and 3% prefer another candidate.

++Democrat-leaning PPP has Mitch McConnell leading Alison Grimes 44 to 40, with 7% for the libertarian.

++US troop levels have hit 1,000 in Iraq according to the New York Times.

++Before vacation, President Obama signed the VA Reform Law and the Highway Trust Law. In labor rights he signed an executive order preserving labor rights for federal contractors.

++Gay rights advocates lost their first same sex marriage case in Tennessee where a state judge ruled the state ban was legal.

++Today the Circuit Court ruled in Virginia that it would not put a hold on its decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Marriages could start next week.

++The New York Times finally decided that it was OK to call torture torture. Maybe it was because President Obama said "we tortured some folks." According to a new report by Amnesty International, we also committed war crimes in Afghanistan and tortured some folks under President Obama's watch.

++Ayatollah Khamenei says there is no need for bilateral talks with the United States. Iran has renewed support for Hamas and pledges to resupply them with rockets. The relationship had cooled when Hamas moved its headquarters from Syria to Doha. 

++ExxonMobil has began drilling in the Arctic tundra as part of their deal with Putin. The mysterious craters that have emerged in Siberia are the result of methane released from the melting of the permafrost. With oil exploration in that region, climate models are now probably behind the actual pace of climate change.

++President Obama stressed the reason he needs a Democratic Senate is that he expects to nominate upwards of three more Supreme Court justices. That seems motivation enough.

++The U.S. Senate before it left on vacation passed a bill to give Israel $250 million more for their Iron Dome. But experts now question whether the $750 million we have provided for its development was worth it. The stellar claims for its performance seem overblown.

++Robin Williams daughter wrote a letter thanking everyone for the support and said she has received nasty comments. She said that her father would send pigeons to poop on these peoples' cars after they washed them. Her father enjoyed a good joke she said.