♪ and they -- bad lighting. there's my camera. ♪ and they called it puppy love ♪ >> oh, geez. ♪ oh, i'm very embarrassed >> you should. >> not the only one. that's done and marie osmond monday night. right now on cnn, misery along the mississippi. >> we're flying over lake providence, louisiana. this is the old levee. not the new one, where water is pouring out of the mississippi over the top of the levee. >> billions of gallons of water unleashed on purpose, crushing property, memories and dreams in its wake, wrecking the lives of people rushing to escape.

>> it's worse than we thought. it's really worse than we thought. we thought maybe we might have water in our yard and this is going to come into our homes. this is going to take everything we've got. >> plus, a global business big wig charged with attempted rape, a posh new york city hotel the location, he was naked forcing himself on a made maid. we're live at the courthouse where he's facing a judge right now. plus this. >> and to the people in arizona, in atlanta, georgia and atlanta, you should be ashamed of yourself. >> musician carlos santana blasting georgia's new immigration law, fanning the flames in the upcoming presidential election. i'll examine with cnn's errol lewis. i'm don lemon and the news starts right now. tonight thousands of people in louisiana are packing up and leaving. there might be nothing left when they return. billions of gallons of water now pouring through the morganza spillway. today two more gates were opened

doubling the amount of water diverted from the swollen mississippi river. over the coming weeks it will flood the area half the size of connecticut. incoming water extremely dangerous, alligators, and snakes and other wild animals are being flushed out of their habitats. it was a troubling thought for one evacuated resident i spoke to earlier. >> you're going to have so much sand piled up, you don't know if you're going to go back with the snakes and everything else, the alligators. you don't even know if you'll be able to go back to salvage anything, you know. it's very depressing. >> cnn's ed lavandera was with residents as they quickly loaded up their belongings and fled knowing they might not see their homes again. >> reporter: don, officials here in st. landry's parish here in louisiana issued mandatory evacuation orders late today especially in some of the low-lying areas. this is significant because after the floodgates of the morganza spillway were opened, this is one of the significant areas where we'll see the flooding as that water continues

to make its way down the river towards morgan city. this small neighborhood made up of about 20 or so homes got the evacuation orders this morning. national guard soldiers and sheriff's deputies going door to door. we've seen literally some people picking up their trailer homes and having them hauled away to higher ground, and throughout the areas that have been ordered to evacuate, some 250 homes affecting almost 800 people, we've seen those in this specific area literally packing everything they can into trucks, moving vans, trailers, whatever they can to move to higher ground and they say that they are anticipating being away for almost a month because they have been told in this area where we're standing to expect as much as 10 to 15 feet of water. a little while ago i spoke with the parish president here and they said they expect water to flow into some of these neighborhoods and creeping into some of the neighborhoods around midnight tonight, so in the coming days the scene around here will be changing very dramatically. ed lavandera, cnn, cross springs, louisiana.

>> all right, ed. this natural disaster involves miles of rivertown and it involves weeks more of watching the mississippi. our meteorologist jacqui jeras tracking it all from the cnn severe weather center. when will it all end? >> june sometimes, weeks ahead and that's keeping the gates open, not to mention how long it will take for the river to recede and get navigation back working again. let's go ahead and show you the area ed is talking about where some of the evacuations took place today in st. landry parish. here's the morganza floodgates that were open and some of the cities are spared. they have these little circle levees and you can see how the spillway was designed and how everything was leading its way down to the gulf of mexico. it takes time for this to happen. doesn't all happen at once and by tomorrow we're expecting that water to move in towards the grand lake area over towards baldwin and morgan city which is great concern, 12,000 plus people who live in this area. that water should be arriving

here on tuesday and some of to forecast bringing maybe as much as five feet of water in this city. it's all about control at this point. this is pictures from the army corps of engineers showing you the spillway, and there you can see the water, rushing through as the four gates opened up, and there you can see it spilling in. as we zoom in, these are all just a series of gates here and there's about 125 of them. four open right now and in the days and weeks ahead. they will have to open up more of the gates because they are trying to maintain the flow south of these floodgates. now we'll switch over to the river for new orleans and what that means is the river now is at 17 feet, and they are going to try to keep it at 17 feet throughout the entire crest of this wave of water, and so that forecast at 17 feet is being controlled by man basically, and it's going to stay there. they think it's going to take maybe ten days to get through

that entire process. let's look at the river as a whole. the natural crest of this river right now taking place up here in arkansas city. vicksburg exceed d the record crest tied, the record height but they will top that because it will still be rising until thursday, and then it's going to move downstream and down towards nachez and cresting here towards new orleans so that's all the control stuff of what's going on here right now. it's operating done exactly as it was designed, to but knock on road, you can see the breach of levees to make these things fall apart in between here and there. >> mississippi has a mind of its own. keep our fingers crossed. more on the morning forecast. also ahead, we'll check out the situation up river from louisiana in just a few minutes. redwood, mississippi, is one town near the mighty mississippi keeping a close eye on the water level. there's a levee there that has folks 30 miles away very

concerned. but, first, new develop just in tonight and the story of a global business big wig ments. charged with forcing himself on a hotel maid while naked. he's responsible for billions of dollars of the world's money, and his arrest could make a pretty good movie. we'll have a live report for you. >> we know what the lead story flooding. >> flooding is number one on news polls and gabrielle giffords, the shuttle launch and that in the newscast and the imf story. >> and people on twitter talking about our conversation about common yesterday and the same thing on the blag at cnn.com/don and you'll see it in about ten minutes. ♪ ♪

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. even if it's true or not, even if he's proven innocent it will definitely leave a mark in the months to come and it will be a decider. so, yes, i think it's all over for him. >> french citizens reacting to the shocking arrest to the men many believed could be their next president. dominique strauss-kahn is expected to be arraigned in new york at any moment now. he's accused of attempting to rape a maid at a luxury hotel near times square. strauss-kahn is in charge of hundreds of billions of the world's money as the head of the international monetary fund. let's go to cnn's susan candiotti outside the courthouse now. has he made his appearance yet? >> reporter: not yet. it's been an extraordinary day

because, remember, don, he was formally charged by police and formally arrested at 2:15 sunday morning and we expected this arraignment to happen sometime sunday afternoon, but this is like a real life version of that old tv show "night court." we're still waiting and hasn't made an appearance yet. all kinds of delays and rumors. don't know why it's taken so long and all we do know is this is court wraps up at 1:00 in the morning. >> susan, what about this new detail of the police lineup? >> that's right. a law enforcement source tells cnn that police did have a lineup to show this defendant the accused to the alleged victim, the woman making the claims that he was -- he tried to rape her and in fact she was able to identify according to the source that this is the man who attacked her, dominique strauss-kahn, and at this hour we're waiting at any moment for a news conference to happen we believe by the attorneys

representing him. >> and we know in cases like this that the victim is not usually identified so we don't know a great deal. we know a great deal about the suspect, but what about the victim in this case, susan? >> official, police say very little about an alleged sexual assault victim. they say she's 32 years ole. that's all they have said. however, we have learned from the general manager from the sophie hotel where she works, as a maid, that she has worked there for three years here in manhattan, and in the words of the general manager, he said he signed both her work and her behavior, in his words, to be very satisfactory. >> susan candiotti after the courthouse where she expected to be arraigned and if it happens in this broadcast, we'll get back to you. this case has a lot of thorny legal angles. strauss-kahn is a french citizen and he's the head of the international organization so i asked cnn's senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin whether he could get immunity.

>> that seems very unlikely. in the first place as i understand it, the treaty that covers diplomatic immunity between france and the united states does not cover imf officials so i don't think he is a relevant party as far as diplomatic immunity is concerned. second, when you look at what diplomatic immunity usually covers, a crime of violence like this, generally is not covered, so i really think that diplomatic immunity is unlikely to be an issue in this case. >> well, jeffrey also says if bail is set, it will probably be very high because of the potential flight risk, and he also says if strauss-kahn had even again to a consulate, he doesn't believe he would have gotten diplomatic immunity. he doesn't believe it would apply to this case, but he does say if he had gotten on that plane and he probably would have been home free for many years, for many years, so

strauss-kahn's arrest is a total bombshell in his native france, but allegations of sexual indiscretion are nothing new for him. the correspondent joins us now. you've covered dominique strauss-kahn. what does his arrest mean back home for the french? >> it's huge. imagine a few years back, three years back, john mccain and barack obama having been accused of something like that. that's what it is about. dominique strauss-kahn was really ahead in all the polls for next year, 2012, next year's election in french so it's a huge event for the french people and for the french media obviously because it means there's one less candidate in the race and the candidate that was really ahead in all the poll. >> rumors have swirled for years about strauss-kahn, haven't they? >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear your question.

>> i said rumors have flown around for years about him. what are those rumors? >> yeah, there's been rumors about him for years, but there's been rumors of obviously him being very, how could i say that, him really having a lot of, you know, stories about him and women. there is one at the imf in 2008 which was really a big problem because he was actually accused of having abused his position to have a sexual relationship with a woman, but that was nothing like a rape accusation, like this is the case, and even by french standards i would say that has nothing to do with, you know, a french womanizer or something like that. it was someone that was accused of having attempted rape. >> that 2008 case he had to apologize for, she family man though. >> he had to apologize for that,

yeah, and he had all the stories in france, and a lot of rumors about his -- his action with women, and so it's really -- even in france, there is a lot of people who are, you know, in doubt about what happened in new york about -- about that, but -- but i think a lot of people are ready to believe that about strauss-kahn more than about anyone else because of all these rumors from the past. >> new york correspondent for france 24, thank you very much for your time, sir. >> carlos santana is speaking out on immigration, that's right. the carlos santana, and you won't believe where he decided to take his stand. plus, newt gingrich makes his presidential plans official and

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breaking news. there you see strauss-kahn's attorney speaking now. let's listen in. they just -- it was a very short statement that they said they are going to postpone the arraignment. you heard susan candiotti saying that they had been there for quite some "time." he had been arrested and so far he had not made an appearance and this is live.

coming in raw to cnn. those attorneys speaking, william taylor and benningman broughtman saying they are going to delay his arraignment again. did they give a reason? apparently they did not give a reason. it's going to be delayed and as soon as we get more information on that, we will bring it to you. stand by. i want you to hold on a bit because i want to play what the attorney said if we can get it up in our -- if we can get in the diplomat, global big wig. let's listen in now. >> that's being done in light of the hour. we've agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow morning, and we expect to be in court here tomorrow. >> how is your client doing? >> he's tired but he's fine. >> thank you very much. >> not before 11:00 tomorrow. >> okay. so that's his attorneys again speaking and -- sorry, it's a little shaky here but breaking

news. that's how it happens. coming out of break and just finishing up their press conference and i wanted you to hear it. we'll move on. stay tuned to cnn for more information on that. "american morning" begins at 6:00 a.m. eastern time here on cnn, and they will be covering that story. meantime, let's go to politics. president obama is the most successful food stamp president in american history. >> that's new gop presidential contender newt gingrich on nbc's "meet the press" going after the president for failing to create more jobs but now he's having to defend his curious choice of words against charges of racism. >> this kind of automatic reference to racism, this is the president of the united states. president of the united states has to be held accountable. now the idea that -- and what i said is factually true. 47 million americans are on food stamps, one out of every six americans is on food stamps and to hide behind the charge of racism, i have -- i have never said anything about president obama which is racist. >> all right.

cnn contributor errol lewis is here. is newt gingrich right about referencing food stamps here, or does this remind you of the candidates who used to talk about the so-called, you remember the welfare queens? >> oh, sure. well, newt gingrich was one of those candidates, i mean. it's part of political history. it's in black and white. in the early '90s his go pac circulated a document called language, a key mechanism of control, in which he recommended to represent republican candidates to use certain words to make their case, including words like cheat, lie and steal so of all the people in the country who don't have a right to complain about their words being taken out of context, this is somebody who built a career on specifically using rough, antagonistic language to achieve power. made no secret of it in the '90s.

i don't know if he gets the benefit of the doubt this time. >> will this have an effect on him positively or negatively? >> no, i mean, the initial response seems to be -- seems to have blown up in his face and backfired. you have to be very careful about how you do this stuff. we have a much more sophisticated public in part because we've seen what newt gingrich did in the 1990s and a lot of it was caustic and divisive and a lot of people didn't like to and i think people's ears are maybe a little bit more attuned in the modern internet and cable television age to when somebody is trying to sort slip a fast one past them. >> okay. errol, let's talk about immigration, sure to be a factor for newt gingrich and every other candidate. here is legendary guitar player, ca carlos santana, in atlanta where he was receiving an award from

major league baseball. >> i would like to say very clearly i am here to represent the immigrants and to the people in arizona and atlanta, georgia, and atlanta, you should be ashamed of yourself. peace. we love you. god bless you. >> all right. errol, what's your reaction to this? is this an unusual time and place to speak out about this issue? >> a bit of a wake-up call. for viewers who don't know what he was talking about. there's a new arizona type arguably crackdown on immigration this, law that just got passed and the reference to atlanta is the capital. a state law now in georgia, and, look, 40 conventions cancelled in arizona after they passed their very tough law. there's a sign that something similar to happen in georgia, among the groups opposed to this new tough crackdown on georgia was the atlanta visitors bureau. they know what could happen, and there's already talk about organize boycotts, and by the way, don, your state, by the way is 8% latino. first councilwoman who is of latino descent was just elected

last year, so, you know, the political reality is changing, and if the national republicans don't pick up on this, this was a very big hint that was dropped in their laps today. they should almost thank carlos santana for it, provided they actually take it to heart politically. >> very interesting take, errol. good to hear that. let's take a look at the week ahead for the president who has a big speech planned on the middle east. what can we expect to hear given what's going on in the middle east? >> in a time of great flux, his credibility at an all-time high just because of the killing of osama bin laden. for him to talk now about the palestinian-israeli conflict and other aspects of this long-standing snarl of interest in the middle east, maybe he's going to unveil his new obama doctrine or maybe another piece of that puzzle will be made clear, but this is a president who when he has political

capital likes to spend it or invest it, depending on how you think about it and it's clear that he's about to do that on the middle east. i think he's going to double down on his process of trying to get the parties to the table and try make conditions right for some kind of a breakthrough in the middle east. >> errol louis, thanks as always. one more white house news in case you missed it this weekend. republican mike huckabee says he's not going to run for president this time around. the former arkansas governor made a lot of noise with a surprisingly strong run during the 2008 campaign. in his words all factors say go, but the heart says no. countdown to launch, space shuttle "endeavour" just a few hours away from its last flight. among half a million people expected to make the launch in person and at least one very special guest. actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ]

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look at that live pictures of the shuttle. the next to the last space shuttle mission scheduled to blast off less than 12 hours from now, and once again congresswoman gabrielle giffords of arizona will be there, and as you know her husband is mission commander mark kelley. our john zarella has a preview from the kennedy space center. john? >> reporter: the shuttle "endeavour" is again poised to lift off here from the kennedy space center in florida tomorrow morning. nasa says everything is looking good. the vehicle is in good shape and two and a half weeks ago the launch was scrubbed and after some critical heaters, heating

units actually failed. nasa went back and traced the problem to an electrical box that contained hundreds and hundreds of circuits, and they found that one of those circuits was literally open so they changed out the box and they say everything is good to go as far as the vehicle is concerned. gabrielle giffords, the congresswoman who is critically wounded in a shooting back in january, is back again to watch this launch. her husband mark kelly is the commander of "endeavour." now not only is "endeavour" carrying a critical science pay load call the alpha magnetive spectrometer which could revolutionize our understanding of the universe, it is also carrying nutrition bars, and these nutrition bars were created by two sisters, a 14 and 16-year-old, from battle creek, michigan. they won a contest that allowed them to go ahead an make this bar, and then they went to nasa with it, and nasa approved it to

fly on the shuttle "endeavour" as a supplement for the astronauts, so, again, everything looking good here at the kennedy space center. john zarella, cnn, at the kennedy space center in florida. >> thank you. we're following a developing story tonight. the discovery of more than two dozen bodies, many of whom were beheaded in the -- and in the mississippi river, all eyes on a four-mile swath of levee. if it blows, towns 40 miles away could be affected. g up our wires network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible.

get you up to date now on your top stories. two more gates were opened at the morganza spillway. about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate and it's too late for some residents in st. francisville across the river where mississippi has invaded the town. even though many homes are on stilts, no one had ever seen the water get this high. arraignment postponed until monday for the top politician. dominique strauss-kahn is accused of sexually assaulting a maid at a luxury hotel. he'll plead not guilty according to his attorneys. here's what they had to say moments ago outside the courthouse. >> we have a very short thing to say. our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic

examination tonight. >> can't hear what you're saying, sir. >> our client consented to an examination tonight at the request of the government. that being done. in light of the hour we agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow morning and we expect to be here in court tomorrow morning. >> how is your client doing? >> he's tired but he's fine. >> thank you very much. >> again, mr. strauss-kahn's appearance tomorrow morning. tomorrow morning. make sure you stay tuned to cnn. the middle east, israeli troops fired tear gas at crowds and palestinian protesters. this is the golan heights on the syrian border. clashes erupted on all of israel's border today.

at least 12 people were kill. many more hurt. this is a day set aside every year when palestinians angrily protested the creation of israel. evangelist billy graham is now home in north carolina after five days in the hospital. the 92-year-old evangelist is recovering from pneumonia. he responded well to treatment and his recovery will be slow. graham has inspired millions over 60 years of preaching and is now working on a book on aging. a morbid discovery have made some wonder if the drug violence in mexico has spread to guatemala. 27 bodies were found by security forces at a farm in the northern region of peton. he did not speculate what was behind the killing and did not rule out drug trafficking. most of the bodies had no heads, and two of the victims were women. >> the flooding along the

mississippi river includes a lot of tributaries and all of that water is putting an enormous strain on local levees. one levee in particular is keeping everyone awake at night. martin? >> so far the story in mississippi at least has actually been a success story in the ability of the levees to prevent an all-out flooding disaster, but if there's going to be a failure of any levee, this is that levee, and this is the time. >> we're driving on top of a potential disaster. of the 700 miles of mississippi levees struggling to hold back the record flooding, none are in greater jeopardy than the yazou levee. the water here is less than a foot from pouring over the top. on the flooded side it's at least 16 feet deep and the only thing preventing the flood from inundated thousands of homes on the other side is 28 miles of earth works completed in 1978, but never has this levee had to endure the stress it's under now. peter nimrod knows if the state of mississippi were to have a

catastrophic levee failure, this is most likely the place or time. >> it's hard to predict actually what's going to happen. >> boats from the army corps of engineers regularly patrol for the first signs of weakness or failure. they are quickly prepared to fill any breach. >> they would take anything out there and deploy it out there and roll it in the place up against the levee, and this is thought to be the weakest point where the water is expected to come over the top. in just a week and a half work cruise covered four miles of this stretch with heavy plastic and trying to prevent the levee from washing away but there's no guarantees. if this levee were to fail, what are the consequences and who

would be impacted and how far? >> the town is 30, 35 miles from here. that town would be under water. have you numerous towns under water and all major highways and thousands of homes would be under water and hundreds of thousands of acres would be under water and we'd actually flood about 1.2 million achers. >> officials are hoping and praying the possibility of an all-out levee failure is small, but they can't rule it out. until the water recedes, these will be very nervous days and nights, all along the levee. the projections are that the water will rise exactly a foot and that is how much free space there is right now.

will it go over the top? officials thinks pretty much at will and that's probably within the next 24 hours. >> a flood threat the of a different kind in the mid-atlantic and northeastern states that will impact your travel. >> what's going to happen with tomorrow's commute tonight? >> it's going to affect a lot of people. area of low pressure stalled out here in the northeastern and we'll have coastal flooding and high tide along the winds will bring water up into the coastal areas of the mid-atlantic as well as the potomac region and in addition to that we'll have some heavy rain in the interior parts of the northeast so it's going to be a very slick commute. we're expecting heaviest delays in new york city and rain an thunderstorms will be the issue. washington, d.c., boston and philadelphia expecting delays because of that and in terms of traveling the roadways, picked a couple of cities for you. baltimore wet weather and portland, maine, at number three because of the rain and the fog and seattle expecting fog and delay as well as san francisco. have a few delays at airports, too, and a lot of wet weather, don, on both coasts of the country. >> jacqui jeras, thank you very much. appreciate it. ahead, one reporter is no doubt thankful for a lot of luck. it felt like the sky was falling and how one guy was picking up the pieces.

retail sales are up. china is getting more of our money, and you may want to keep the old car another year. allison kosik has the details in this week's "getting down to business." >> reporter: retail sales continue to climb, but the space a bit slower than expected. sales rose half a percent in april slowing from the march increase that was almost double that. one reason for the penny pinching could be the soaring price of gasoline. aaa says the average price for a gallon of gas is at almost $4. also growing, the trade gap between the u.s. and china. china's overall trade surplus tops $11 billion in april. that's almost $10 billion higher than the surplus recorded a year ago. finally, your old car may now be worth more than you think. conventional wisdom says cars are worth less and less every year but used car values actually increase by 16% from last year, according to rbi group used car price index.

it says one reason for the higher value is limited supply. fewer cars were traded in for new ones during the recession. that's this week's "getting down to business." allison kosik, cnn, new york. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers.

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some heart stopping moments near spain this week from a 5.3 earthquake. it's an earthquake in 30 years in the country. four out of five homes in the city of lorca suffered damage. now to the big national stories that will be grabbing the headlines in the week ahead from the white house to wall street. we begin tonight with the president's plans for the week. >> i'm ed henry where this week the president turns his attention to the middle east, the big speech thursday trying to explain u.s. policy in the wake of all the tumult. tuesday he mets with the king of jordan and friday the israeli

prime minister all aimed at restarting the stalled peace process, but that will be difficult, especially after his enjoy george mitchell resigned. i'm kate balduan on capitol hill. members of the house are back in their home district next week as the house is in recess. meanwhile, highlighting the senate's week ahead is the gas price debate including a vote on a democratic-backed measure to reveal tax breaks tore big oil companies whose executives face some pretty tough questioning up here on capitol hill this week. the measure has little chance of passing since republicans and some democrats from oil-producing states oppose the measure, but that's almost beside the point as democrats see advantage in forcing republicans to vote on this issue and then being able to paint them as protecting big ail afterwards. >> the housing market will be a big focus this week. the latest report on new home construction. the housing starts have been sitting in extremely low levels for months, and there's not much hope for immediate improvement. same goes for the sale of existing homes which make up about 90% of the entire housing market. home sales rebounded in march and remain at depressed levels.

we'll get the april existing housing report. dow components walmart and home depot set to report their earnings. hewlett-packard and dell also set to report their quarterly numbers. of course, we'll follow it all for you on cnn many. >> on "showbiz tonight," i'm a.j. hammer and here's what we're watching this week. a big week for tv. when the networks announce which shows made the cut for this season and which shows are canceled and it's a huge week for johnny depp and penelope cruz. "pirates of the caribbean" opens. >> it was a performance under fire before he even took the stage. >> even through the unseen i know that god watches from one king's dream. he was able to barack us. one king's dream. he was able to barack us.

one king's dream. he was able to barack us. >> rapper common at the recent white house poetry reading. what's really behind the conservative uproar over his invitation?

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destruction. >> hip hop star common in a 2007 performance on hbo's def poetry jam. that line about burning a bush is one of the reasons that conservatives are up in arms after the white house invited common to a poetry reading on wednesday, so was the white house wrong, or do conservatives have a fundamental fear or misunderstanding of rap and hip hop? we had an amazing panel on to talk about it. listen. >> nothing to go on. this is the cleanest rapper we have in the game. common -- i mean, he makes conscious raps, speaks to the people and anti everything. this guy is a good guy. he's best we got. >> i know, that you know, fox will play this and say, oh, you know look what cnn did. they invited people on and what have you, just asking the questions. is there some racial undertones here? >> there's a definite racial disparity in the treatment of different types of music and for a lot of white americans they believe when black people talk about violence it's autobiographical and they are

getting ready to go kill somebody and when white folks do it they are just talking. bill o'reilly had a clip of him and he said, the white house doesn't understand a lot of america. i think the bigger issue is these critics don't understand that there are millions of americans whose understanding and experience in this country is not the lee greenwood thank god i'm free proud to be an american version, a version of those who live in the south bronx and live on pine ridge reservation and folks who don't feel free and what they write about it either in a rhyme or poem, that's what scares these conservative white folks. they don't accept the fact that there are millions of people for whom the experience of america is different than theirs and they certainly don't want to have to confront it. >> don't most whites buy the bulk of hip hop and rap? >> absolutely. this is all strategy, you know, in my book i actually tell the cop side of the 1992 cop killer controversy and ron lord, knew this was something the cops had

to do, after the cops beat down rodney king and the police had egg on their face and this is something that republicans and police needed to do to sort of turn cops into victims and when actually it's people like rodney king and folks brutalized by police that are much more than the victims of this this kind of thing. >> the uproar isn't over. jon stewart has accepted an invitation from bill o'reilly and you would have thought elvis was in the house in atlanta today. listen. >> these crazed fans are college grads and the object of their friend is michelle obama. coming up, the lasting

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at spellman college in atlanta today. michelle obama gave the commencement speech at historically black school for women. she told more than 550 graduates their degree was not an entitlement nor a gift. >> it is a commitment that comes with a certain set of obligations, obligations that don't end when you march through that arch today. >> well, the first lady then asked the graduates to make commitments to their communities. top stories one more time. two more gates were opened at the morganza spillway north of baton rouge, louisiana. doubled the rate of water from the swollen mississippi water that's pouring into the basin. about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate. arraignment on monday for a french politician who is charged with attempted weight in new york city. dominique strauss-kahn is accused of sexually assaulting a maid at a luxury hotel. strauss-kahn is the head of the international monetary fund and organization that oversees the world economy. he'll plead not guilty to the

attorneys. here's what they had to say just outside the courthouse in manhattan. >> our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examinations tonight. >> can't hear what you're saying. >> our client consented to a forensic examination at the request of the government. in light of the hour we've agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow morning. >> how is your client doing? >> he's tired but he's fine. >> thank you very much. >> not before 11:00 tomorrow. >> he intends to vigorously dep fend the charges and deny s any wrongdoing. in the middle east, israeli

troops fired tear gas on the crowds. at least 12 people were killed and many more hurt. this is a day set aside every year when palestinians angrily protest the creation of israel. evangelist billy graham now at home in north carolina. five days he spent in the hospital. the 92-year-old evangelist is recovering from pneumonia. doctors say while he responded well to the treatment, his recovery is going to be slow. graham has inspired millions over his 60 years preaching about working -- he's working at a new book on aging. we wish him the very best. a morbid discovery has been made and some wonder if the drug violence in mexico has spread to guatemala. today security forces found 27 bodies at a farm in the northern region of peten according to an army colonel.