Phillip Jennings has the top story at Human Events today.

As you prepare for your imminent deployment to Afghanistan, I guess it’s inevitable that I’m thinking of that time forty five years ago that I prepared for my deployment to Vietnam as a young lieutenant of Marines. We’ve talked about the similarities in our respective wars, but there’s a lot more I could say. The concurrent publication of my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War has sharpened our discussions and my ability to comment on your questions.

First, it is critically important for Americans to understand the true history of our involvement.  Most important is the fact that the U.S. military fought brilliantly and defeated the Communist aggressors in Vietnam.  Yes, that’s right.  We won the war.  And then we saw the Congress of the United States throw away that victory by abrogating our obligations to continue support of the South Vietnamese.

Why is that so important? Simply because that fact illuminates the only way we can similarly lose in Afghanistan. You will not be defeated on the battlefield. Of that, there is no question.

Gary Bauer has the top story at Human Events.

I’ve spent the last week traveling across Israel as part of a delegation from Christians United for Israel (CUFI). I’ve had individual meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and others. As always, it has been an eye opening experience.

Vice President Joe Biden also spent the past few days in Israel, consorting with many of the same leaders I met with, visiting some of the same historic sites and perhaps walking many of the same streets in Jerusalem and elsewhere. But what he seems to have missed on his trip is at the heart of the troubles that the Obama administration is having in the Middle East.

Despite having similar itineraries, Biden and I come to strikingly different conclusions about America’s relationship with Israel, and what it will take to resolve the world’s most intractable conflict. The vice president (and the administration he works for) treats Israel as the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East. They seem blind to the Islamic fundamentalist who want Israel and the U.S. wiped off the map. But I regard the Jewish state as a lonely outpost of Western Civilization deserving and in dire need of our unwavering support.  

Biden’s trip has been dominated by controversy over new settlements. The Israeli government this week revealed plans to build 1,600 new housing units in response to a housing shortage in an Orthodox community of East Jerusalem.

Our own Brian Darling has the top story at Human Events this morning.

President Obama and Democrats in Congress are readying a procedure known as reconciliation to railroad Obamacare through Congress. This abuse of process has been called the Healthcare Nuclear Option, because it’s a way to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.

Reconciliation was created in the early ’70s to allow Congress to balance the budget with a mere majority vote. It would allow Obamacare to be fast tracked with no hearings, no extended debate and no opportunity for members to engage in an honest give-and-take on changes to the package.

Obamacare is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Although most Americans want Congress to “leave” it, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) don’t care. Their desire to “take” power means they’ll use every means necessary to pass it.

It is important for opponents to use every means at their disposal to fight this idea. One of the few resources that the minority party has is that it can offer unlimited amendments at the end of the reconciliation process in the Senate and they can be issues that have no relation whatsoever to health care. All that a senator has to do is offer the non-healthcare related amendment, then waive the rules of reconciliation that limit the subject matter of amendments. It is done on most reconciliation measures and is considered a frequently used procedure to force votes on tough issues.

Jed Babbin has today’s top story at Human Events. It seems the Emanuel Death Watch is continuing.

White House chiefs of staff come and go, arriving with fanfare and departing — usually — in celebration or silence.  Only one exception comes to mind. When Don Regan swapped jobs with Ronald Reagan chief of staff James Baker there began an epic battle with the president’s wife which — to no one’s surprise but Don Regan’s — he lost.

Hamilton Jordan played Sancho Panza to Jimmy Carter’s Don Quixote.  H.R. Haldeman was Cardinal Richelieu to Richard Nixon’s Louis XIII.  But Rahm Emanuel, who has that lean and hungry look, seems to be auditioning for the part of Cassius to Obama’s Caesar.  

Rahm Emanuel, famous for declaiming that a crisis should never be allowed to go to waste, is now engaged in an epic battle not only with President Obama’s closest advisers but with the president himself.

Run Larry Run.

Larry Kudlow, Wall Street’s Palladin of American capitalism and free market economics, says he is moved by the public support he’s getting to run for the U.S. Senate aganst New York Democrat Charles Schumer.

“I’m very flattered by all the attention and quite frankly surprised at the size of the draft movement which has developed. So it has my attention,” the CNBC host and weekday anchor, and former Reagan administration economist told HUMAN EVENTS

“But, and this is a very important thing, and from the heart, I love my work at CNBC. I just love it. And that’s the reason why I have no plans to run for the Senate at the present time,” Kudlow said in an interview.

Michelle Oddis has the top story at Human Events today.

House and Senate Democrats are moving full speed ahead with their healthcare overhaul after last week’s lengthy summit.

Yesterday, President Obama said “no matter which approach you favor, I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health-care reform,” abstaining from using the word reconciliation but calling for an “up or down vote.”

But before leadership can go forward with the legislative process known as reconciliation or the “nuclear option” in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must once again round up the 218 votes needed for the bill to pass in the House, putting a bright spotlight back on the 54 so called fiscally conservative Democrat members in the Blue Dog Coalition who should oppose the $950 billion dollar package.

Jed Babbin has the top story today at Human Events.

When Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind) announced his retirement, the media revived their drumbeat that our government is broken.  As the indispensable Brent Bozell pointed out last week, Democrats and the media only complain of broken government when the liberals can’t get their agenda enacted.

The problem isn’t that our government isn’t working: it’s that President Obama’s agenda is entirely perverse. It reverses the essential order of priorities, devoting the energy of government exclusively to his plans to revolutionize our country.  

Since last June, congress and the White House have been consumed by President Obama’s plan to impose government control on our healthcare system.  With time outs for the occasional earthquake or celebrity scandal, their attention has been drawn from more important issues, and of our most precious asset — time — nine months have been wasted and cannot be recovered.

Jed Babbin has the top story at Human Events today.

Senate Democrat “moderates” probably slept well last night, but no House Blue Dog should have.  In the marathon Blair House healthcare “summit,” the Chicago Obama family made it perfectly clear that the Senate Dems are protected “made men” but the House members are expendable in Obama’s pursuit of nationalizing healthcare.

The summit convened after a round of new polls showed — again — that most Americans don’t want Obamacare.  A Quinnipiac poll showed Americans disapproved of Obama’s healthcare plan by 54-35 percent.  Rasmussen said 56% opposed and 41% approved, and both Pew Research and PPP said 50% were opposed to it.  The opposition will almost certainly rise after yesterday’s media event.

For that is what it was.  It was precisely as Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind) characterized it to me last night. The “summit” wasn’t anything resembling an honest debate or a real negotiation.  Pence pointed out that Obama opened the meeting with comments that directly contravened his stated objectives for the summit.  Instead of opening the “summit” to a debate and negotiation of both sides’ positions, Obama began by stating that his purpose was to make the case for his healthcare bill.

Congressman Ted Poe has today’s top story at Human Events.

Today, the administration will put on another show for the American people. The nationalized healthcare naysayers have been summoned to the White House to give their ideas on healthcare reform. Yet, the President announced his newly packaged plan days ago. So what’s the point?

Is this a meeting to exchange ideas and move forward in a bipartisan manner or a meeting to say this is my plan, get on board or get out of the way?

The American people see this meeting for what it is. But, what I don’t understand is how this administration can continue to think that the people aren’t smart enough to see that for themselves. We keep hearing that the White House has an open door and that this is the most transparent Congress in the history of our country. The door may be ceremonially open, but the window to hear the people must be closed. The public has overwhelmingly rejected the idea that the government knows what is best for the rest of us.

Rowan Scarborough has the top story at Human Events today.

The CIA has established a well-functioning spy network in Pakistan, providing tips that have lead to stepped-up drone attacks on suspected militants.

Sources tell HUMAN EVENTS that the cadre of Pakistani informants was years in the making. The U.S. had to convince them to trust Americans on one key issue: protecting their identity.

There is another component to improved intelligence. Adm. Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs chairman, and Gen. David Petreaus, the U.S. command for the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater, have devoted large chunks of time to developing personal relationships with Islamabad’s national security leaders.

The two four-star officers have stressed the importance of taking on the Taliban and al Qaeda, presenting the two as risks to Pakistan’s long-term democracy.