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Friday, May 25, 2007

This week, the panelists discuss Congress' progress on Iraq and immigration, Monica Goodling's appearance before the House judiciary committee, and The Sopranos as it nears its conclusion. In Cocktail Chatter, David's daughter has her first pop-culture crush, Emily recommends a book, and John looks at an Iowa poll.

Here are some pieces the panelists mentioned in this week's Gabfest:

The "Gonzo-Meter" update that Emily and John were working on before they headed to the conference room

Here's the exact quote from Monica Goodling's testimony: "At heart, I am a fairly quiet girl, who tries to do the right thing and tries to treat people kindly along the way. "

The book Emily recommends is The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Olga Grushin.

Our e-mail address is . (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Posted by June Thomas at 11:44 a.m..

To play the May 18 Gabfest, download the program here, or you can subscribe to the weekly Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

Friday, May 18, 2007

On the May 18 Gabfest, we talked about the Obama skin-whitening story. One link I forgot to mention is a sociological study of skin whitening and the psychological effect it might have on American society from roughly the period in which the Esquire piece was written. The study, which I thought gave some insight into how even the topic of successful, painless skin whitening could be psychologically fraught, is: "Ability To Alter Skin Color: Some Implications for American Society," by Richard L. Henshel. It appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 76, No. 4 (January 1971), Pages 734-742. We also got an e-mail from Rick Bates, a listener who made this interesting point:

On my way to work today (May 18, 2007) I listened to this week's Gabfest. Your discussion of Senator Obama's perhaps false memory of a magazine article about skin whitening jarred me into a recollection of a similar tale. Here's my thought—Senator Obama may have gotten two things confused—one, the article that you guys discovered, and the other, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I have a very vivid memory of Malcolm X describing the pain that he endured in the process of chemically straightening his hair ("conking," I seem to recall that it was called). I was in high school when I read that book, and, even as a middle-class white boy from a virtually all-white state (Vermont), I was deeply impressed by his description of the intense pain that he put himself through in an effort to look more like a white person. I'm now 58, and that segment of that book came back to me very clearly this morning as I listened to the Gabfest, although it was roughly 40 years ago that I read it.

Posted by John Dickerson at 11:53 a.m.

This week, the panelists discuss the wild midnight ride of Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to John Ashcroft's bedside and what it reveals about Washington; Paul Wolfowitz and the World Bank; presidential politics; and Sen. Barack Obama's memory. In cocktail chatter: the Washington City Paper's Murray Waas piece, Maria Montessori, and the Fred Thompson-Michael Moore beef.

Here are some pieces the panelists mentioned in this week's Gabfest:

Marty Lederman's blog post about James Comey's testimony to Congress
The City Paper's Waas story and the story about the writing of the story
The Fred Thompson video
The Esquire piece John and Emily mentioned is "A Whiter Shade of Black," by Lawrence Lasker, from the July 1968 issue.

Our e-mail address is . (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Posted by June Thomas at 10:45 a.m.

To play the May 11 Gabfest, download the program here, or you can subscribe to the weekly Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

Friday, May 11, 2007

This week, the panelists discuss Congress and the Iraq war, Tony Blair's departure from 10 Downing Street, and Alberto Gonzales' amazing capacity for stonewalling. In cocktail chatter: the right way to praise kids and fixing the broken presidential debates.

Here are some pieces the panelists mentioned:
James Fallows' blog item on the federal prosecutor murdered in Seattle
Stuart Taylor Jr.'s column encouraging Congress to censure Gonzales
Bushies Behaving Badly
John's piece on fixing the presidential debates

Our e-mail address is . Posted by June Thomas at 1:45 p.m.

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