The Gabfest on the president's new Afghanistan strategy, the decision in the Wal-Mart class-action case, and the story of journalist and illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas. 

The Gabfest on the president's new Afghanistan strategy, the decision in the Wal-Mart class-action case, and the story of…

The Gabfest on the president's new Afghanistan strategy, the decision in the Wal-Mart class-action case, and the story of…

Slate's weekly political roundtable.
June 24 2011 4:19 PM

The Blood and Treasure Gabfest

Listen to Slate's show about President Obama's Afghanistan troop decision, the Wal-Mart class-action suit, and one illegal immigrant's story.

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On this week's Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Obama's Afghanistan troop decision, the Supreme Court's decision in a Wal-Mart class-action suit brought by female employees, and the story of journalist and illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas.

Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:

A Politico piece on President Obama's Afghanistan speech, in which he announced a 30,000 drop in troop levels.
A New York Times
piece on the history of President Obama's strategy in Afghanistan.
An ABC News
piece on Jon Huntsman's call to "get American troops out faster."
A Pew Research Center
poll showing that the majority of Americans think we should leave Afghanistan as soon as possible.
A New York Times Magazine
piece on this week's Supreme Court decision to throw out a huge employment discrimination class-action suit against Wal-Mart.
Dahlia Lithwick's Slate
piece on the legal repercussions of the Wal-Mart decision.
Nelson Lichtenstein's New York Times
op-ed on Wal-Mart's "authoritarian culture" of squeezing as much work as possible out of its employees.
Jose Antonio Vargas' New York Times Magazine
piece on his life as an undocumented immigrant.
A Washington Post
slide show about Vargas.
Vargas' New Yorker
profile of Mark Zuckerberg,
Chris Suellentrop's New York Times
blog post on how Vargas' story landed at the magazine.

John chatters on Eric Cantor's decision to withdraw from the debt negotiations.
Emily has two cocktail chatters this week. Her first is a BBC
piece on why U.S crime rates have dropped over the past 20 years. Her second is a statement from Wimbledon official Ian Ritchie objecting to excessive grunting during tennis matches.
David chatters on the photo blog
dearphotograph.com.

The e-mail address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by John Griffith.

Slate Senior Editor Emily Bazelon, Chief Political Correspondent John Dickerson, and Editor David Plotz host the Gabfest weekly.