Number Of Bin Laden Domain Names Soars

Osama bin Laden's death is having many ripple effects — but none more pronounced than the land rush on the Internet to secure desirable domain names, such as osamakilled.com. Within hours of bin Laden's death, roughly 2,000 new bin Laden URL addresses had been registered.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/09/136149449/number-of-bin-laden-domain-names-sours?ft=1&f=1004

bill oreilly fox news hamid karzai barak obama hillary clinton

Turning Obama's Coup Into Defense of Torture

Andrew Sullivan, Dly BstIt's maddening to me - but entirely predictable - that Obama's successful coup in finding and killing Osama bin Laden should be turned by the GOP into a defense of torture. It is almost as if they cannot explain how on their watch, when torture was widespread in every branch of the services and authorized by the White House, they were unable to get bin Laden, indeed unable to make any serious progress either in the terror war, where they let Osama get away in Tora Bora, or in the democratization of the Middle East.There is no evidence that torture was integral to capturing bin...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/05/09/turning_obama039s_coup_into_defense_of_torture_255159.html

al sharpton bill oreilly fox news hamid karzai barak obama

The Nation: A Cruel, Unusually Punishing GOP Debate

Fox News hosted the GOP's first debate on Thursday, a chance for the public to asses those who aim to replace President Obama in the White House in 2012. But John Nichols of The Nation argues that the debate was neither consequential nor did the participants impress.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/136049702/the-nation-a-cruel-unusually-punishing-gop-debate?ft=1&f=1057

barak obama hillary clinton george w bush nancy pelosi harry reid

Tenn. Readies For Flooding; Ky. Spared Calamity

Some jittery Memphis residents began abandoning low-lying homes as the dangerously surging Mississippi River threatened to crest in coming days just shy of a 48.7-foot record of a devastating 1937 flood.

Meteorologist Rich Okulski says the good news is there is no significant rain in the forecast.

"Right now, the weather is looking in our favor for throughout the next week," he said.

Record river levels, some dating as far back as the 1920s, were expected to be broken in some areas as the swollen river threatened flood-prone areas of Memphis on down through the Mississippi Delta into rich Louisiana farming country. In Memphis, the river was expected to crest at 48 feet by Tuesday.

Some anxious Memphis residents saw some rain Saturday, just enough to send some packing — and calling the city bus for transportation out.

"Reality has set in, so now we're getting more calls," said Alvin Pearson, assistant manager of operations for Memphis bus service.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell urged residents to not let down their guard.

"Just use the common-sense test: If you look out the back door and if the water's there today and wasn't there yesterday, you need to be concerned," he said.

Downriver in Louisiana, officials warned residents that even if a key spillway northwest of Baton Rouge were to be opened, residents could expect water 5- to 25-feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the vital Morganza spillway, northwest of Baton Rouge, could be opened as early as Thursday although a decision has not yet been made. If it is opened, it could stay open for weeks.

A separate spillway northwest of New Orleans was to be opened Monday, helping ease the pressure on levees there, and inmates were set to be evacuated the same day from the low-lying state prison in Angola.

Meanwhile, there was relief in communities farther upriver after water levels began to recede after days of anxious waiting — and testing of the levee defenses. Heavy winter storms and snowmelt are blamed for the flooding.

In the small town of Hickman, Ky., officials and volunteers spent nearly two weeks piling sandbags on top of each other to shore up the 17-mile levee, preparing for a slow-moving disaster of historic proportion. About 75 residents were told to flee town. But by Saturday, the levee had held, and officials boasted that only a few houses appeared to be damaged and no one had been injured or killed.

"We have held back the Mississippi River and that's a feat," said one emergency management director, Hugh Caldwell. "We didn't beat it, but it didn't beat us."

Some were left cleaning up mud oozing in front doors and wrecking carpeting and furnishings.

"We just never even thought of it getting this high," said Karla Fields, who with husband Tony and their 8-year-old son were forced to live on the second floor of their home when the water rose on their 13 wooded acres.

In Arkansas, authorities recovered the body of a man who drove around barricades earlier in the week and was swept away by floodwaters when he tried to walk out.

Wary of such dangers, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton warned residents in low-lying areas to evacuate.

William Owen, 53, didn't heed the call until firefighters began to bang on his door Saturday morning at a Memphis mobile home park. Owen said when he went to sleep, the water wasn't that high. By midday, it had risen around the base of his home.

He and his girlfriend took a city bus out, along with his dog.

"It seems like we've had a stroke of bad luck," Owen said after settling in a shelter. "I'm hoping things will get better, I just don't know what else to do right now."

For those on higher ground, it was a different story.

At Graceland, Elvis Presley's Memphis home and one of the city's best-known landmarks, is about a 20-minute drive from the river and in no danger of flooding. Water pooled at the lowest end of Beale Street, the thoroughfare synonymous with Mississippi blues, but it was about a half-mile from the street's world-famous nightspots.

And about 100 miles to the north, residents in Tiptonville, Tenn., were hopeful as the river levels began to ebb.

Like many other areas along the Mississippi, the town wasn't completely spared. In Tiptonville, an estimated one-fifth of the town suffered some flooding with dozens of homes inundated and corn, soybean and wheatfields underwater.

So far, most towns along the banks of the big river have been spared calamitous floodwaters. Billions of dollars have been spent on levees and other flood defenses built over the years, and engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the water pushes downstream over the next week or two. Nonetheless, farms, small towns and even some urban areas could see extensive flooding.

As Hickman resident Jeff Jones put it after the levee held: "This was a disaster, but it wasn't disastrous."

Since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a disaster that killed hundreds, Congress has made protecting the cities on the lower Mississippi a priority. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent $13 billion to fortify cities with floodwalls and carve out overflow basins and ponds — a departure from the "levees-only" strategy that led to the 1927 disaster.

The corps also straightened out sections of the river that used to meander and pool dangerously. As a result, the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico faster, and water presses against the levees for shorter periods.

More than 4 million people live in 63 counties and parishes adjacent to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers from Cairo, Ill., south to the Gulf of Mexico, census figures show.

NPR's David Schaper contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/08/136110843/memphis-readies-for-big-river-as-ky-spared-calamity?ft=1&f=1003

al gore bill clinton newt gingrich sarah palin al sharpton

Tenn. Readies For Flooding; Ky. Spared Calamity

Some jittery Memphis residents began abandoning low-lying homes as the dangerously surging Mississippi River threatened to crest in coming days just shy of a 48.7-foot record of a devastating 1937 flood.

Meteorologist Rich Okulski says the good news is there is no significant rain in the forecast.

"Right now, the weather is looking in our favor for throughout the next week," he said.

Record river levels, some dating as far back as the 1920s, were expected to be broken in some areas as the swollen river threatened flood-prone areas of Memphis on down through the Mississippi Delta into rich Louisiana farming country. In Memphis, the river was expected to crest at 48 feet by Tuesday.

Some anxious Memphis residents saw some rain Saturday, just enough to send some packing — and calling the city bus for transportation out.

"Reality has set in, so now we're getting more calls," said Alvin Pearson, assistant manager of operations for Memphis bus service.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell urged residents to not let down their guard.

"Just use the common-sense test: If you look out the back door and if the water's there today and wasn't there yesterday, you need to be concerned," he said.

Downriver in Louisiana, officials warned residents that even if a key spillway northwest of Baton Rouge were to be opened, residents could expect water 5- to 25-feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the vital Morganza spillway, northwest of Baton Rouge, could be opened as early as Thursday although a decision has not yet been made. If it is opened, it could stay open for weeks.

A separate spillway northwest of New Orleans was to be opened Monday, helping ease the pressure on levees there, and inmates were set to be evacuated the same day from the low-lying state prison in Angola.

Meanwhile, there was relief in communities farther upriver after water levels began to recede after days of anxious waiting — and testing of the levee defenses. Heavy winter storms and snowmelt are blamed for the flooding.

In the small town of Hickman, Ky., officials and volunteers spent nearly two weeks piling sandbags on top of each other to shore up the 17-mile levee, preparing for a slow-moving disaster of historic proportion. About 75 residents were told to flee town. But by Saturday, the levee had held, and officials boasted that only a few houses appeared to be damaged and no one had been injured or killed.

"We have held back the Mississippi River and that's a feat," said one emergency management director, Hugh Caldwell. "We didn't beat it, but it didn't beat us."

Some were left cleaning up mud oozing in front doors and wrecking carpeting and furnishings.

"We just never even thought of it getting this high," said Karla Fields, who with husband Tony and their 8-year-old son were forced to live on the second floor of their home when the water rose on their 13 wooded acres.

In Arkansas, authorities recovered the body of a man who drove around barricades earlier in the week and was swept away by floodwaters when he tried to walk out.

Wary of such dangers, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton warned residents in low-lying areas to evacuate.

William Owen, 53, didn't heed the call until firefighters began to bang on his door Saturday morning at a Memphis mobile home park. Owen said when he went to sleep, the water wasn't that high. By midday, it had risen around the base of his home.

He and his girlfriend took a city bus out, along with his dog.

"It seems like we've had a stroke of bad luck," Owen said after settling in a shelter. "I'm hoping things will get better, I just don't know what else to do right now."

For those on higher ground, it was a different story.

At Graceland, Elvis Presley's Memphis home and one of the city's best-known landmarks, is about a 20-minute drive from the river and in no danger of flooding. Water pooled at the lowest end of Beale Street, the thoroughfare synonymous with Mississippi blues, but it was about a half-mile from the street's world-famous nightspots.

And about 100 miles to the north, residents in Tiptonville, Tenn., were hopeful as the river levels began to ebb.

Like many other areas along the Mississippi, the town wasn't completely spared. In Tiptonville, an estimated one-fifth of the town suffered some flooding with dozens of homes inundated and corn, soybean and wheatfields underwater.

So far, most towns along the banks of the big river have been spared calamitous floodwaters. Billions of dollars have been spent on levees and other flood defenses built over the years, and engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the water pushes downstream over the next week or two. Nonetheless, farms, small towns and even some urban areas could see extensive flooding.

As Hickman resident Jeff Jones put it after the levee held: "This was a disaster, but it wasn't disastrous."

Since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a disaster that killed hundreds, Congress has made protecting the cities on the lower Mississippi a priority. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent $13 billion to fortify cities with floodwalls and carve out overflow basins and ponds — a departure from the "levees-only" strategy that led to the 1927 disaster.

The corps also straightened out sections of the river that used to meander and pool dangerously. As a result, the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico faster, and water presses against the levees for shorter periods.

More than 4 million people live in 63 counties and parishes adjacent to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers from Cairo, Ill., south to the Gulf of Mexico, census figures show.

NPR's David Schaper contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/08/136110843/memphis-readies-for-big-river-as-ky-spared-calamity?ft=1&f=1003

harry reid john mccain al gore bill clinton newt gingrich

Voters Disenchanted In Upcoming Saudi Election

Registration is underway in Saudi Arabia for a national election this September to fill seats on nearly 300 municipal councils.

It's only the third time in the kingdom's history that a nationwide vote is taking place. And it comes at a time when citizens in other Arab countries are rising up to demand democratic reforms.

In Saudi Arabia, only men can vote and only men can serve on the councils.

Few people are signing up to vote, and some Saudis are dismissing the upcoming elections as a gimmick.

The Last Election

Local businessman Turki Faisal al Rasheed beams as he recalls the last elections for Saudi municipal councils back in 2005.

He says it was the first time in four decades a Saudi king had decided to let his subjects choose who they wanted to represent them, at least on local matters. Still, many people were unenthused and had to be persuaded to cast ballots.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/08/136068424/voters-disenchanted-in-upcoming-saudi-election?ft=1&f=1004

al gore bill clinton newt gingrich sarah palin al sharpton