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Hello and welcome to this late political gab fest.

I'm here at the historic Sixth and I synagogue with Emily Bazelon, David Plotz,

and some of Washington's most diehard hockey fans.

And today we're going to talk about three issues.

Our first issue will be the president's reversal on releasing photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan,

and then an assessment of the Obama administration more broadly.

Then secondly, we're going to talk about a series of gay rights issues that have come on the scene recently.

And finally, we're going to end with a Washington tradition and institution almost as powerful as the Slate Political Gab Fest. And that's

the White House Correspondence Dinner, which some of us attended and from which we are still

recovering. Emily, today the president decided very late in the day on Wednesday that he would

reverse,

he said he was going to release these photos of detainees captured in Iraq and Afghanistan,

and then suddenly he decided not to.

He said it would threaten national security to do so.

What's your reaction to that?

You know, I've been disappointed at various moments with the Obama administration's decision

about secrecy,

and this seems like one of those instances.

It's whenever the president casts a decision in terms of national security, it's hard to argue with it.

And so this seems to me like a big concession, especially because former Vice President Dick Cheney

...