The White House announced an addition to the president's agenda next Wednesday; he will speak about health care reform before a joint session of Congress. Obama's oration skills have long been considered one of his strengths, but pundits wonder if a few words from the bully pulpit can bring about agreement on the challenging health care bill. Joining us with a preview of what the president might say is Jay Newton-Small, Washington reporter for Time Magazine. We also speak to presidential historian Allan Lichtman, from American University, for a look at how presidents have waged their battles with Congress in recent decades.

Tom Ridge entered the federal government as President Bush's Homeland Security advisor, and later became the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the mega-agency formed in the months after the September 11 attacks. He’s the man who brought America color-coded terror alerts, ramped-up airport security checks, and of course, a new appreciation for duct tape. We talk to him today about his experiences in the Bush administration and specifically, about a meeting that occurred just days before the 2004 election where he may have been pressured to raise the nation's security level. In his new book, The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again, he says the internal debate left left him wondering whether a move to raise the threat level had to do with security or politics. (Click through for a full interview transcript.)

<div><p>"After 9/11, I suspect as congressmen and congresswomen made decisions, and as senators made decisions, and as other people in the government made decisions, some nature of politics ... the whole question of terrorism, became embedded in our political system."<br /> &mdash;Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on the inevitable entwining of politics and security.</p></div>

The Obama administration reportedly plans to add 14,000 combat troops to those already in Afghanistan. The plan is to swap out military clerical workers and other support staff for so-called “trigger pullers” – combat troops that will serve on the front lines of the fight against the Taliban. Picking up the clerical slack? Private contractors. There are more than 68,000 private contractors already working in Afghanistan, which is more than the number of American troops in the country. This news comes hot on the heels of reports that members of ArmorGroup North America, the private security firm that guards the U.S. embassy in Kabul, were engaged in lewd and deviant behavior while off duty.

To find out what this increase in private contractors means and who monitors their work, we speak with Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, and with Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade organization for military contractors.

Legendary baseballer Curt Schilling is pitching a new idea: running for Ted Kennedy's open Senate seat.  The politically-conservative pitcher announced yesterday that he had "some interest" in running as a Republican candidate for the Massachussetts seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Kennedy. While Schilling famously led the Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2004 (and in so doing, undoubtedly won the loyalty of many Boston fans) does he have what it takes to play ball in the U.S. Senate? The Takeaway's sports contributor, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, gives us his thoughts.

When are you friends with somebody at work — and when are you just friendly? Sometimes it's hard to tell. And when it comes to office friendships, how much do you have to watch what you say or do with your colleagues, both face-to-face and online? We try to figure out the rules of mixing friends and family with work by talking with Kate Dailey, who writes The Human Condition blog for Newsweek, and Tina Wells, CEO of Buzz Marketing, who has employed a number of her siblings over the years. 

And, speaking of office friends, here's The Office, Friends-style:

U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke went to Paris on Wednesday for a meeting with more than two dozen of his international peers. But it wasn't a celebration – Holbrooke was there pursuing a fair outcome to Afghanistan's presidential primary election. The meeting was filled with reports of rampant fraud and further allegations of corruption during the country's second-ever presidential election since the fall of the Taliban.

The latest results, with more than 60 percent of the ballots counted, show that incumbent president Hamid Karzai has 47.3 percent of the vote. As Afghanistan braces for a potential runoff election, we look at what Afghanistan can do to clean up their voting process with Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard, author of The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State and a fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations; and Emal Pasarly, a reporter in the BBC's Pashto section.

ABC’s “World News” anchor Charles Gibson is stepping down, and the network has chosen Diane Sawyer to take his place. This comes three years after Katie Couric became the first woman to solo host a national network news show, on CBS' "Evening News." Newsweek media critic Joshua Alston says Sawyer's hard news chops make her better suited for the demanding role than Couric was when she got her job.

In the latest indicator that the U.S. airline industry is still struggling, American Airlines has announced plans to eliminate 921 flight attendant positions, representing six percent of the company's in-flight service staff. Like many U.S. carriers, American Airlines has reduced its flight capacity this summer, cutting seven percent of flights in June. For a closer look at the state of the nation's airlines, we speak with reporter Charisse Jones, who covers the airline industry for USA Today.

Pharmaceutical mega-corporation Pfizer has agreed to pay $2.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties for its unlawful drug promotions. The company will pay the largest health care fraud fine in history for aiming their advertising dollars at patients, not doctors; promoting off-label uses of their drugs without FDA approval; and creating and distributing phony "independent" medical educational materials. The products at the heart of the case include Bextra, a drug approved to treat arthritis but marketed for other uses; and Wellbutrin, an anti-depressant promoted as a smoking cessation aid. Pfizer's agreement to pay the penalty for their intent to defraud marks the culmination of a long and complex case. Tony West is the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He worked on the case and joins us to talk about drugs, advertising, and the law.

S.E.C. Inspector General David Kotz released a report stating that the agency had missed numerous opportunities to bust Bernie Madoff and his 16-year Ponzi scheme. Madoff's scam cost investors billions of dollars, shuffling money away from retirement funds, charitable donations, and trusts. Madoff is currently serving a 150-year sentence for his crimes, but what can the S.E.C. do to redeem themselves? We talk to David Scheer, S.E.C. reporter for Bloomberg News.

Halliburton may be the most famous corporation involved in the war with Iraq, but by no means is it the only one. Corporate involvement in times of war did not start in Iraq - nor did alleged corruption or rumors of war profiteering begin there. James Carter is a professor of history at Drew University and author of a book called “Inventing Vietnam: The United States and State Building, 1954-1968.”  He joins us with a look at the legacy of war as an economic engine.

Once upon a time, internet-based phone service was "the future"; now tech watchers are wondering about its future survival. Online auction site Ebay announced this week that it's selling internet voice-and-video conferencing tool Skype for almost $2 billion. Were the two companies simply strange bedfellows? Or did eBay dump Skype because Skype's voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is no longer the frontrunner in voice technology?

We speak to Cliff Kuang, who's written about this for Wired magazine, and Takeaway technology contributor Baratunde Thurston, host of the new TV show Popular Science's "Future Of" and a former telecommunications analyst.

Read Baratunde Thurston's blog post about the back room deals that determine international call rates

The late Senator Ted Kennedy completed his memoir, "True Compass," before he died last month. The hefty tome was due to hit stores on September 14th, but copies have already leaked out. New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney began reading a leaked copy of the 532-page book yesterday. He talks to us about the book's revelations on Kennedy's feelings on the infamous incident at Chappaquiddick, and his relationships with his brothers Robert and John F. Kennedy. 

Click through for a transcript of our conversation with Adam Nagourney.