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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for August 30th, 2013, the terrible, well, that was almost English.

The terrifying, looming, touching the void awfulness edition.

I'm David Plotz, the eddorf Slate, back joyously, giddily, in the humid, possibly even fetid, DC Studio, but I don't even notice the smell.

I don't even notice the sweat that's beating on my back already.

All I notice is that John Dickerson, Slate's chief political correspondent, is next to me.

Hello, John.

Hello, David.

I was with you so in lockstep until you got to the sweat on your back.

The sweat of my brow? What about the bondsman's toil? No, no, I thought you said sweat on your back. I did. Oh, no.

Why is it bad, is the back a bad place to sweat? I don't know. It just feels like one sort of seething excitation too much. You know what, Jews sweat on their backs, John. Maybe you people do it. As a representative of the Gentile on this show, I can tell you that it's true of the Gentiles as well.

Emily, way in, won't you? Emily, joining us from New Haven. Emily Vazlon, it's so great to have us all back together.

It is. It is. Even if some of us are sweaty.

Emily is on video chat with us and she is almost flesh-like, but she is very fuzzy. We have like

half an Emily. But you're in like... Now I'm doing a little dance for you. Which I wish, which... I really

wish you'd stop. Okay.

All right.

This week, America prepares to go to war against Syria over its use of chemical weapons against civilians.

We'll talk about why, what possible outcomes there are of the coming assault on Syria, which we assume is going to happen as we record.

Nothing has happened yet, but something

...