The United States military is getting more involved in the Haiti relief effort by the day. On Wednesday, 4,000 more troops were added, bringing the total U.S. presence in the country to about 16,000. As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen is the country's highest ranking officer in the armed services. John sat down with Adm. Mullen at the Pentagon on Wednesday for a wide-ranging conversation. In part one of our interview, we ask him about the use of Guantanamo Bay in the relief effort, the "war" with Al Qaeda, and the renewed focus on Yemen.

• CONGRESS TAKEOUT:  We speak with our Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich about how Congressional Democrats are regrouping on health care reform in the wake of losing the Massachussetts Senate race.
  
• MONEY TAKEOUT: Starbucks was hit hard by the economic crisis, closing hundreds of stores across the country. New York Times reporter Louise Story explains why things are looking up for the coffee company.
• RESPONSES: Listeners weigh in on why Democrats lost their Senate seat in Massachussetts.

Republican Scott Brown's victory in Tuesday's Massachusetts Senate race proved the power of independent voters, and the degree to which they are shifting away from the Democratic party, only a year after they helped propel Barack Obama into the presidency. We speak with Jay Campbell, a vice president at Hart Research, and with Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University.

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, major U.S. aid organizations have received over $305 million dollars for Haiti. Big photogenic disasters close to home generate big donations, but that’s not always the best way to save the world, says Economist writer Matthew Bishop.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks about a new Apple product that's scheduled to be unveiled next week. The legions of Apple rumor-mongers suspect the company is about to launch a new tablet device, which Apple fans hope will have the kind of game-changing impact of the iPhone. We try and separate fact from fiction and look at how useful such a device might be.

The election of Republican Scott Brown as Massachusetts' new junior senator on Tuesday night sent shock waves through Washington. Politicians of on both sides of the aisle flocked to microphones to give their takes on the future of health care reform now that the Democrats no longer have the Senate 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster. But how did we come to expect a 59-vote majority as a bad thing? We look at the history of the supermajority.

• MONEY TAKEOUT: New York Times reporter Louise Story walks us through the Justice Department's arrest this week of nearly two dozen U.S. executives on bribery charges.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Takeaway sports contributor, Ibrahim Abul-Matin on this weekend's big game between the Jets and the Colts.
  
• LISTENER TAKEOUT: After Tuesday's stunning defeat for Democrats in Massachusetts, it got many of our listeners thinking about the fate of health care.

The USNS Comfort has steamed into a sea of misery in Haiti. The floating hospital has a thousand beds, which is a big number, but is nothing compared to what's needed in Haiti right now. The worry this morning is will injured people, who would otherwise survive, die for lack of basic medical care. We find out about the status of the medical care there.

Three leaders of Haiti’s women's movement were killed in the January 12 earthquake. All three had been part of important advocacy work of great benefit to women and girls in Haiti. We speak with Carolle Charles, a friend and colleague of the women, about what those deaths mean for the future of women's rights and activism in Haiti.

When you conjure up the image of the typical gonzo war correspondent, you don’t necessarily envision a graphic novelist. But author Joe Sacco has been telling of the wrenching stories of war in comic book form for a decade. We talk to him about his new book, the future of journalism and why he prefers to tell gruesome war stories with drawings.

BBC World Affairs Correspondent Adam Mynott spent yesterday in a hospital in Port-au-Prince. He reports on the latest situation on the ground and how food is being distributed throughout the city.

"I think probably too much time has been spent setting up processes, securing sites, and deciding programs, and actually they should have simply dumped some food on the streets and allowed the people who are here, who need it desperately, to get their hands on it"

--Adam Mynott

Until December 2009, Haitian journalist Michele Montas was on call 24/7 for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. When she retired from her post as his spokesperson to Port-au-Prince, she vowed to do "three months of nothing".  However, that was before an earthquake destroyed her home city. 

Headlines; Adm. Mullen on Haiti, Al Qaeda, Fort Hood, Yemen