women who know the personal and political tolls the monster hurricanes can take, donna brazile and cokie roberts. >>> welcome to the program, i'm jake tapper. christiane will be back next week. welcome to a special west coast edition of "this week." lots to get to. and the news since your morning papers is that hurricane irene is bearing down on new england. they are bracing for the worst. the streets are desserted. and thoususds are takinggover in city shelters. irene up and down the east coast, we have seen devastation in north carolina. at least nine people have been killed. more than 3 million homes are without power. abc news has team coverage with correspondents akrocross the region. irene is up the east coast. ashleigh banfield, we see the winds are kicking up strong behind you. >> reporter: boy, are they? i have been told they are up to 65 miles an hour. my personal gust meeter is not up to bar. the story here is not as much wind as it is surge. we are expecting an eight-foot surge. you see boats at the same level atat the houses. these houses, mandatory evacuation. these people

sure, cokie?s great, but letters i get are all -- copacabana is great, but the letters i get are all about inspirational once. it makes me feel better. i turn the radio up, and those are the songs i like writing and listening to. "forget your troubles, get happy." tavis: why 10 years before a new project? >> i had a really good run with these albums. now it was collaboration's, and i really love doing it. i love to producing it. i thought that was going to be great. it just kept going until last year, when we did one of the greatest love songs of all time, but i did miss writing songs. i love doing these songs. i love doing gershwin, but i miss the right thing. . >> you cannot go 15 minutes without mentioning in the warhol. about fame and what could happen to people once they become famous, and i took the title from an andy warhol quote where everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, and i think he is right these days with reality shows, and regular people become household names in weeks, and i say, how a

mellody hopson investment fund manager and tea party congressman jason chaffetz join george will and cokie roberts. >>> and the deadliest day in afghanistan. 33 troops perish as taliban shoots down a helicopter. >> announcer: live from the newseum in washington, "this week with christiane amanpour" starts right now. >>> welcome to the program. we have lots to get to today. but first, some news since your morning papers. the pentagon is starting to paint a fuller picture of what exactly happened on the deadliest attack on american forces since the start of the war in afghanistan nearly ten years ago. 30 americans and 8 afghans were killed yesterday when the taliban shot down their chinook helicopter. among the dead are 22 elite navy s.e.a.l.s. abc's s reign correspondent martha raddatz joins me with the very latest. what about that community, the forces and their families? >> this is such a small community. there are only 300 s.e.a.l.s on s.e.a.l. team 6. the most elite of the s.e.a.l. team. that is such a small group. when you think about those families and 22 notices going out to those fa

is also the world's biggest consumer of cokie. heroin and marijuana shipped from colombia and mexico and although the u.s. government has been hard pressed to control and cattails democratic strayed drug related violence has spread like wildfire across latin america and especially mexico our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade or inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers soldiers and civilians mexican officials have long been trying to draw attention to the torrent of illegal weapons flowing in from the us which conveniently sustained drug cartels and crime that have seen more than forty thousand mexicans killed in the last five years and a recent report by the global commission on drug policy denounced the recalcitrant violence calling the global war on drugs a failure the war on drugs and let's be more constructive in trying to reduce their consumption if you only alter production the market is still profitable the

cokie blames the constitution, darn it!at we have here is the constitution of the united states of america. which actually does require people to come together from different perspectives whether it's divided government or not. we have divided branches of government under any circumstances. >> doesn't that make us america? >> oh, that little thing. >> yeah, constitutional -- you saw george will there. that was the back of his head. he was going like this. anyone who is a big believer in the constitution pretty much fainted after that particular part of the conversation. >> but the good news is we have the managing director of the s&p, the group that downgraded the u.s. coming up in about a couple of minutes right now. we'll ask him the tough questions that you want answers to. >> there's plenty of them. >> now the rest of the headlines for a monday. the tsa apologizing after refusing to let a pregnant woman through security at denver international airport with her insulin. the woman had asked not to be named. >> like well,