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For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John—over cocktails at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York—lament the lack of reporting in Internet Age journalism. Slate Plus members get an ad-free version of this podcast with bonus segments. Visit slate.com/gabfestplus and try it free for two weeks.

On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Obama’s plan to defeat ISIS, the War on Women’s impact on the midterm elections, and Scotland’s upcoming independence vote.

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

• ISIS has changed the way that Americans feel about intervention in the Middle East. A year ago, only 21 percent of Americans believed that military action in Syria would be in “our national interest.” A Washington Post poll conducted last week found that most Americans now favor some military action against ISIS.
• There’s a growing concern among some members of the media that threat inflation may be pulling the U.S. back into war in the Middle East.
• The Obama administration’s plan to coordinate with local militias and Iraqi National Guard units mirrors the U.S. military’s “Sunni Awakening” strategy in 2006 and 2007.
• Some members of Congress from both parties believe that the president needs congressional authorization to conduct airstrikes.
• Presidential campaigns in the last 30 years have produced on average a 15-point gender gap between Republicans’ advantages among men and Democrats’ advantage among women.
• Sen. Michael Bennett’s 2010 win was widely attributed to massive support from female Colorado voters.
• Intrauterine devices are more effective and often cheaper than other forms of contraception.
• Several Republican candidates in close Senate races are now supporting over-the-counter birth control pills.
• In every presidential election since 1964, female voters have turned out to vote at higher rates than male voters.
• According to the Guttmacher Institute, three in 10 women will have an abortion by age 45.
• Much of the fight for Scotland’s independent is about political ideology—Scotland leans further left than the rest of the U.K., and has been unhappy with the country’s dominant conservative and center-left rule over the past several decades.
• Eric Posner argued that leaving the U.K. would not plunge Scotland into economic turmoil, and would instead allow Scotland to naturally ally itself with more ideologically compatible partners in the E.U.

John chatters about Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

Emily chatters about the response to her piece about disgraced Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

David chatters about the film Fort Bliss.

Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest.

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Maxwell Tani.