WATCH AS SARAH PALIN TELLS KATIE COURIC ABOUT ALASKA AND ITS RUSSIAN NEIGHBOR

In Pt. 2 of CBS' Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, Couric asks the GOP vice president candidate whether she ever has had meetings with Alaska's neighbor Russia.

You won't believe how Palin answers Couric's question.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ezxqgDDND6Q&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

CASUALTY REPORT FROM IRAQ---THE FORGOTTEN WAR

For the past several months, and in particular the past week, the war in IRAQ has been totally forgotten and the American public hasn't got a clue what is happening in IRAQ because NOBODY in the media reports on the IRAQ WAR anymore.

The IRAQ WAR has become "THE FORGOTTEN WAR II." (The Korean War was the first "FORGOTTEN WAR.")

Below is an updated report on two US. soldiers wounded in AFHANISTAN and IRAQ and a series of bombings and killings in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN.

Click on any name or topic in "BLUE" to obtain more information:

Casualty Reports:staff sergeant Chuck Isaacson, 29, was paralyzed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. For Isaacson, a flight engineer on a Chinook helicopter, Feb. 18, 2007, was a regular day transporting service members from one spot to another in southern Afghanistan. But the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure during a snowstorm and the Chinook crashed, killing eight of the 22 people aboard. Isaacson woke up hanging outside the wreckage by his harness and realized he couldn't move his legs. Lying in 10 inches of snow, he waited several hours for help to arrive. He was the only flight crew member to survive. Isaacson's lungs collapsed, and his injuries included a broken leg, broken ribs, broken neck and three fractures in his back. Doctors fused his spine from near the top of his neck to his lower back. Months of rehabilitation followed. Now Isaacson, who is paralyzed from the waist down.

Cpl Joshua Hoffman, USMC 1st BN 24th Marine Regiment-Michigan was hit by sniper fire in Iraq in 2007 on his 3rd tour of duty. The sniper’s bullet severed his spinal cord at the base of his neck and left him a quadriplegic. After over a year in the hospital Josh still faces months, if not years, of physical rehabilitation and therapy as he strives to regain movement in his upper body and develop his language skills.

Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:#1: A roadside bomb wounded six people, including one soldier, in the Zaafaraniya district of southeast Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen killed a civil servant in a drive-by shooting in southeast Baghdad, police said.Gunmen shot an employee in the Ministry of Municipalities and Works on the main road of al-Rashid Camp at 8 a.m. Thursday.

#3: A roadside bomb near a police patrol wounded at least three civilians in eastern Baghdad, police said.A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near al-Shaab Stadium in east Baghdad wounding three civilians.

#4: The U.S. army in Iraq denied on Thursday that its forces wounded Iraqi civilians by random fire in eastern Baghdad. “The U.S. forces did not randomly shoot any civilians in al-Fadieliya region in eastern Baghdad,” Abdellatif Rayan, the U.S. army's media adviser, told Aswat al-Iraq, describing such news as bare of truth. A police source had said yesterday that seven civilians were wounded by U.S. random fire when an explosive charge went off targeting the forces in eastern Baghdad.

#5: An IED placed in a dumpster near Maysaloon Square, east Baghdad exploded at noon Thursday wounding three civilians.

#6: A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in al-Rabae Street the thoroughfare in al-Jamia neighbourhood, western Baghdad injuring four people including one policeman.

#7: A roadside bomb targeted civilians near al-Samarrai Mosque in Amil, southeast Baghdad at six p.m. Thursday killing two, including one child, injuring five, also including one child.

#8: Three unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today by Iraqi Police; one in Karrada, one in Palestine Street and one in Doura.

Diyala Prv:Baquba:#1: update Iraqi police on Thursday raised the death toll in an ambush against Iraqi forces raiding a Sunni village northeast of Baghdad to 35, most of whom were police commandos sent to the area as part of a U.S.-backed military crackdown. A police officer in the provincial military operation center said 27 policemen were killed, raising the total to 35. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted civilians in al-Kharab village, 4 km to the south of Baquba at 5.30 p.m. killing three people including one female, all from one family

.Kut:#1: Policemen found unknown civilian body in the wee small hours of Thursday morning in northern Wassit, a security source said. “A police force found the body in al-Dabouni district in north of Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.“The blind-folded body bore signs of torture and was sent to the forensic medicine department in al-Zahraa hospital in Kut,” he added.

Sinjar:#1: The Iraqi army killed three gunmen in the district of Sinjar on Thursday, 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul Sattar, the spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Nineveh province said.

Mosul:#1: One civilian was killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked a police patrol with rocket-propelled grenades in western Mosul 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Four civilians were killed or wounded in a missile attack in western Mosul city, a security source said on Thursday. "An RPG attack launched by gunmen from alleys in Bab Sinjar area, western Mosul, on a police patrol vehicle left one civilian killed and three others wounded, who were close to the scene," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "None of the patrolmen was injured," the source noted, adding that one of the civilians was seriously wounded and another had his leg cut off.

#2: Three insurgents from the al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq killed themselves when police raided their house in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said. They included an Iraqi man, Malik Mohammed al-Jabouri, who Askari said was a senior commander of the group in Mosul. They died when a Saudi Arabian fighter amongst the three detonated his suicide vest.

Afghanistan:#1: Helicopter gunships Thursday pounded militant positions in northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border, leaving 14 Taliban rebels dead. “According to preliminary reports, at least 14 miscreants were killed and numerous injured in today’s shelling,” a security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, using the term Pakistani officials employ to refer to militants.

#2: On Wednesday, intense fighting in Bajaur resulted in the death of seven troops and 25 militants, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. Dozens of fighters attacked the troops stationed at a government school building in the Rashakai area. The two sides exchanged rocket and mortar fire during the hours-long fighting, after which military helicopters and jets bombarded the militants.

#3: In one attack, a remote-controlled bomb blew up a police vehicle near the southern border town of Spin Boldak late Wednesday, killing two border policemen, Kandahar province police chief Mutiullah Khan told AFP.

#4: Another remote-controlled bomb blew up early Thursday in the nearby city of Kandahar and killed a civilian man who was crossing a road, a policeman at the scene said. The explosives, fixed to a bicycle, were detonated as a minibus carrying police trainers to work was passing, said the policeman, Gul Mohammad. The vehicle was only slightly damaged.

#5: NATO says Pakistani troops fired at their helicopters patrolling eastern Afghanistan, but no damage is reported. In a statement, NATO says its helicopters did not cross into Pakistan's airspace when they came under fire near Tanai district of Khost province.

BREAKING NEWS: 1 US SOLDIER, 43 IRAQIS KILLED, 35 IRAQIS WOUNDED

If the Presidential debate is held Friday, Sen. Barack Obama will have plenty to talk about in respect to the situation in Iraq. Here is what happened on Wednesday in Iraq.


Wednesday: 1 US Soldier, 43 Iraqis Killed: 35 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 11:31 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24, 2008

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13500

At least 43 Iraqis were killed and another 34 were wounded in the latest violence. Among them were 35 security personnel who were killed in a bold attack in Diyala province. Also, the Department of Defense reported that a U.S. soldier died from an non-combat illness.

A contentious debate over a provincial elections law ended today when Parliament unanimously passed the law. The main stumbling block had been indecision over a power-sharing scheme for multi-ethnic Kirkuk. Elections there will be postponed until those specific issues are resolved, but lawmakers hope that polls will open elsewhere before the end of January.

Gunmen ambushed a number of security personnel in Dulaimiyat, killing 35 of them. The bulk of the dead were policemen and Awakening Council members.

In Uthmaniya, gunmen attacked a checkpoint killing three policeman and wounding five others.
In Baghdad, a bomb planted on a car killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded six others in Shabb.

In Fudhailiyah, seven Iraqis were injured during an attack on an American patrol. Gunmen wounded four people, including a brigadier general in the Interior ministry during an attack on their vehicle. A body was found in Ur. Also, 26 suspects were detained.

A bomb blasted a convoy carrying the security commander in Samarra. Six bodyguards were injured.

One policeman was killed and another was wounded during a raid in Khan Bani Saad.
Gunmen killed a school guard in Abara.

A roadside bomb wounded three policemen in Saidiya.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb wounded two Iraqi soldiers. Police arrested two men who threw a hand grenade at a checkpoint; no casualties were reported. Four suspects were detained.
A weapons cache was found in Basra.

A man was killed while trying to plant a bomb in Kirkuk.

Also, an Iranian news agency reported that about 200 Shi'ite websites have been suffered cyber attacks

U.S. IS GOING TO HIDE THE RISING DEATH COUNT IN AFGHANISTAN

'Grim' Afghanistan Report To Be Kept Secret by US
US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.

PALINTOLOGY: WATCH AS SARAH PALIN IS CLEANSED OF WITCHES BY HER 'WITCH HUNTER' PASTOR

Shocking Footage of Palin Praying With 'Witch Hunter'

By Max Blumenthal, MaxBlumenthal.com
Posted on September 24, 2008, Printed on September 25, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/100149/shocking_footage_of_palin_praying_with_%27witch_hunter%27/

Wasilla, Alaska

On September 20 and 21, I attended services at the church Sarah Palin belonged to since she was an adolescent, the Wasilla Assembly of God. Though Palin officially left the church in 2002, she is listed on its website as "a friend," and spoke there as recently as June 8 of this year.

I went specifically to see a pastor visiting from Kiambu, Kenya named Thomas Muthee. Muthee gained fame within Pentecostal circles by claiming that he defeated a local witch, Mama Jane, in a great spiritual battle, thus liberating his town from sin and opening its people to the spirit of Jesus.

Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared.

WATCH VIDEO OF SARAH PALIN AS SHE IS CLEANSED OF WITCHES BY ALASKA WITCHCRAFT PASTOR:


http://www.youtube.com/v/kj-on3kfWuE&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

Read more here: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/100149/shocking_footage_of_palin_praying_with_%27witch_hunter%27/

BULLETIN: MARTIAL LAW EFFECTIVE OCT. 1. WATCH VIDEO

Amy Goodman of the Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x197567 reports the 3rd Infantry Division is being brought back to the U.S. for crowd control beginning Oct. 1 as the U.S. enters a state of martial law.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/OvVAKx8E_r4&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

MESSAGE TO SENATOR McCAIN CONCERNING DEBATES: BRING 'EM ON!

Message to Senator McCain concerning debates: Bring em on!

By Mary MacElveen
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/25/3899993.html

In these past two weeks since the stock market crashed two times within one week, it was Senator John McCain who said, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong” only for President Bush to say Wednesday night, “The economy is in danger” For the first time in these eight long years, it was President Bush’s words that I believed and that is not saying much since I have consistently written of his failed administration. By the way where was Bush when the first crash happened?

Being a heart patient and witnessing McCain’s erratic behavior during this crisis, my heart palpitated. It was only hearing Senator Barack Obama calmly state in a news briefing certain key points that must be included in this $700 billion dollar bailout did I feel the palpitations lessen. Such as oversight and taxpayers being treated like investors.

For McCain to dictate how the both of them should react to this crisis is a tone that only a dictator would use and we have had eight long years of Bush who once said, “I am the decider” It took guts for Obama to stand up to McCain and not blink concerning McCain’s call for a postponement of the debates and say, "This is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess," Obama also stated, "It's going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once." In fact he has been in constant contact with Hank Paulson and others in congress to be kept up to speed.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee even chimed in saying, that, “Obama’s and McCain’s help was not needed.”

Bush even stated during his speech to the nation on Wednesday night which counters McCain, “We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the federal government is responding with decisive action.” So, Senator McCain, let the debates go on or as Bush once said in the early days of the Iraq War while painting a target on our soldier’s back, “Bring em on.”

There were many other key words contained within Bush's speech that I feel will send some Americans into panic mode such as danger, collapse, and “some serious negative consequences" While the fault lies with an unbridled free-market system with little regulations which is the Republican philosophy when it comes to doing business, at least he was coming clean in how this will affect Americans. Unlike McCain who switched gears day-to-day last week and who became confused as to who the Prime Minister of Spain was.

If he thought it was imperative to go to Washington to become part of these proceedings, then why did he parade his running mate Sarah Palin around at the United Nations for photo-ops and a course in foreign policy 101? If he felt it urgent then he should have flown back then and suspended his campaign then. You do not do so two days prior to the debates. That could have been done early last week when the crash first occurred. I agree with Obama that Americans need to hear from who will be their next president since there will be a transition after the November elections.

In our own thoughts hearing them answer certain key and vital questions, we need to take them out for a test drive in our mind. In both their temperament and tone, Americans must witness how they will handle future critical moments as we go forward.

Again if there was a sense of urgency coming from McCain to return to Washington, this article reported, “McCain said he would return to Washington on Thursday after an address to former President Clinton's Global Initiative session.”

I think that on Wednesday, Americans got a taste of the matrix where one takes either the red or blue pill. In the movie ‘The Matrix’ the difference between the red and blue pill is as follows, “When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." I do think that this was the moment in time where Americans needed to hear the truth for once. Like it or not, most of us have taken that red pill and we do not like what we see.

The late president, John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and this is directed at those Hillary Clinton supporters as well as the eighteen percent that was reported today who are undecided, it would be irresponsible to elect John McCain as the next president.

There was a clear disconnect between Bush and McCain which was apparent on Wednesday night. Also from what was reported today the Republicans were in disarray when it came to this bailout. We cannot have four more years of Republican’s controlling the White House. We need clarity and not confusion.

The article that reported that eighteen percent of voters are up for grabs, this one passage stuck out, "A large chunk of these voters say they are hurting on a personal level from the country's economic woes, and, like everyone else, they say the economy is the top issue. Most haven't decided who would best solve their problems as president; neither candidate has an advantage on handling the economy."

While the article expresses that, one only has to remember the Keating Five scandal which John McCain was embroiled in and where the senate ethics committee stated he “showed poor judgment” We must also remember that McCain’s economic advisor Phil Gramm wrote most of the deregulation laws that got us to this point.

In a complete 360 from last week, McCain stated of this bailout, "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time," The same sense of urgency came when it came to voting for the authorization for Bush to invade Iraq and we all know how that turned out. This time, congress has to be sure for the American people that this time they get it right. I think in that statement, it showed a McCain in panic mode and we cannot have a president who sends the American people into panic.

Those that are still on the fence need to hear from these two candidates come Friday night. In fact we as Americans need to hear from Senators Obama and McCain as to who can lead us rationally into the future. Let the debates go on.

You may contact the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Message-to-Senator-McCain-by-Mary-MacElveen-080925-104.html

http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/25/3899993.html