Reuters reported on Wednesday that China’s environmental ministry has okayed the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on the Dadu River in the Sichuan province, which when completed will be the country’s largest. China’s energy mix was 9.4 percent renewable as of 2011, and the Sichuan project is part of the country’s effort to boost itself to 15 percent by 2020. Hydroelectric power is anticipated to make up most of that increase. The environmental ministry acknowledged that the project is massive enough to damage the local ecology, negatively effecting certain rare fish species and plant life. The dam’s developers have promised to try and offset those effects with “counter-measures,” and the project still requires the approval of China’s ruling cabinet. To be built over 10 years by a su...

On this week’s Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace pressured White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer about why the Obama administration didn’t act sooner to address the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) tax status, arguing that Treasury officials and administration officials were aware of an ongoing investigation. Pfeiffer argued that it would have been “wholly inappropriate” for anyone in the White House to interfere with an ongoing investigation and claimed that the administration was never aware of the specifics of the probe. Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin was informed about the matter last year and the White House counsel’s Office learned of the examination in late April, before the results were available. “[House Oversight Committee Cha...

Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen On Wednesday night, Minnesota State Representative Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe) took to the House floor to talk about climate change and renewable energy. Using sources such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Gruenhagen told his colleagues that climate change is a “complete United Nations fraud and lie…. The latest facts from CPAC show that in the last sixteen years there’s been no global warming.” While it is common practice among climate skeptics to claim that the Earth is no longer warming, the fact is global temperatures are rising. 2010 was the hottest year on record and every year of the 2000s was warmer than 1990s average. Over 30 million people were displaced by climate-related extreme weather events in 2012, and it is increasingly likely ...

On Sunday, during an appearance on Meet The Press, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — the GOP leader in the senate — distanced himself from Republican efforts to portray the Obama administration’s response to the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic issue in Benghazi, Libya as a Watergate-level scandal that should result in impeachment. McConnell’s comments come just days after the White House released 100 pages of emails undermining GOP claims that administration officials doctored the public talking points U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used to discuss the incident on the Sunday morning talk shows. “You’re talking about others who may have said various things about this, let me tell you what I think about it. It’s clear there was inadequate security out there and it’s very clear that it was inconvenient...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) went on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to use the IRS scandal to attack the Obama administraiton, but flubbed a key part of his case: he couldn’t defend the claim that IRS was targeting conservative groups as part of a political strategy to help the White House. Paul, like most Republicans, has been spinning the scandal as an Obama Administration attack on dissenters. “What the IRS did is how the KGB used to target dissidents,” he wrote in a CNN op-ed. “It is how they deal with troublemakers in China.” Some have argued the extra IRS scrutiny was part of a failed attempt to implement election law, as opposed to a political crackdown. Host Candy Crowley asked Paul why this interpretation was wrong. He couldn’t give her a reason: CROWLEY: We do know this one place pr...

(Photo: Amb. Chris Stevens, left, in Tripoli, Libya in Aug. 2012, Credit: AP) I didn’t know Chris Stevens. I admit that the first I’d heard of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya was the morning of Sept. 12, when I woke up and, along with the rest of the country, learned that he and three others had died in an attack on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi. By all accounts, Stevens was well-respected among his peers and adored by his family and friends. I didn’t know Ambassador Stevens, but I do know one thing: he deserved better from his government all in these weeks and months after his death, from the Republican party that chose to place him center ring in an embarrassing circus to the Obama administration that failed in its responsibility to keep him safe. In retrospect, the original Republican a...

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein points us to the ever-growing scandal that will echo through the ages: When future generations look back on the scandals of our age, it’ll be the unchecked rise in global temperatures, not the Benghazi talking points, that infuriate them. Yes, unchecked warming is likely to prove the greatest scandal in U.S. history. Certainly it’s the one that will ruin the lives of the most people, far more than Watergate did if our government doesn’t act to expose what’s going on and work to put an end to it — before it puts an end to our stable climate: Scandalous: Projected warming this century (in red, via recent literature) if humanity allows current carbon pollution trends to continue compared to the temperature change over past 11,300 years (in blue, via Science, ...

Jason Richwine. (Credit: The Heritage Foundation.)Over 1,000 Harvard students delivered a petition to Harvard University’s JFK School on Saturday, demanding an investigation into how and why the school approved a 2009 doctoral thesis arguing that Hispanics have lower IQs. The thesis was written by Jason Richwine, a co-author of a paper by the conservative Heritage Foundation that argued immigration reform would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. The discovery of Richwine’s paper by the Washington Post sparked a firestorm around the Heritage study, and several days later Richwine resigned from the think tank. Now Harvard students want to know how a thesis built on those views and assumptions was able to make it through the approval process in the first place. “Academic freedom and a reasoned deb...

(Credit: Associated Press) The Virginia Republican Party this weekend nominated for lieutenant governor a minister who has a history of virulent anti-gay statements, accuses the Democratic Party of enslaving African Americans, and criticized President Obama for having “Muslim sensibilities.” The former Senate candidate ,who in 2012 garnered less than 5 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, bested six other candidates during the Virginia GOP convention, and will join conservative Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on the Republican ticket, as the first black candidate the state party has endorsed since 1988. Here are some of the most alarming facts you need to know about E.W. Jackson: Original linkOriginal author: Nicole Flatow

Last summer the cover-up of the epidemic of military rapes at Lackland-- engineered by House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon-- began to unravel, due, primarily, to the tireless efforts by Protect Our Defenders. POD battled McKeon's determination to cover up the scandal and keep it out of the public view. At all times, he insisted on closed briefings rather than the public hearings this kind of scandal demanded. And who was McKeon's point person on the Committee, with his own peculiar take on rape? Todd Akin, of course. It was two of Congress' most backward, patriarchal and misogynistic Neanderthals that John Boehner put in charge of "protecting" the Pentagon... and leaving the rape victims to twist in the wind. This from last summer: For one of the most misogynistic members ...

Off-the-Marc: Episode 3 (view clip at link)Look who shows up at Marc's door! Says Marc: "The character in the show is not exactly my father. My dad's name is Barry; the character in the show is Larry. My father is more frightening than Judd Hirsch." However, Marc assures us in "Off-the-Marc: Episode 3" (here's the link again) that all the stories attributed here to "Larry" Maron, such as the incident when he ran over Marc's ankle with his car, can be properly credited to Barry M. by KenI've made the point often enough: I'm suspicious when shows are said to come together only after a couple of episodes. In my experience it has usually turned out that the creators had their act together from the start, but what they were trying to do was sufficiently unexpected that I just missed it for tha...

"What do you expect? 'Crook' is my middle name" Last election cycle the Wall Street banksters poured $83,722,946 into campaign contributions for congressional candidates, $55,447,942 for Republicans and $28,077,244 for Democrats. Their #1 agenda item was to get Congress to further water down Dodd Frank. The House did just that yesterday with Scott Garrett's (more on him tomorrow morning) H.R. 1062, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act. I should probably mention that, aside from Boehner ($1,415,075) and Cantor ($902,400), Garrett took in more legalistic bribes from the banksters than any other Member of the House ($537,020), including Banking Committee Chairman Paul Ryan ($310,500), House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling ($285,250) and House Ways and Means Committee Cha...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 17:02 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) on Friday blasted Republicans for attempting to use this week’s scandal at the IRS to attack and undermine Obamacare. At a House hearing, Doggett condemned the “outrageous and inexcusable” list used by IRS staff to flag tea party applications to become social welfare nonprofits for additional review. He questioned whether Treasury inspector general J. Russell George had uncovered any fraud, abuse or cor...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 17:10 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetBeing physically above others can buffer against some of the negative psychological consequences of social exclusion, according to research published online May 16 in Social Psychological and Personality Science. “Our study investigated whether participants’ spatial position has an influence on their reactions to being ostracized,” Christiane Schoel of the University of Mannheim and her colleagues wrote in the study. “Drawing on e...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 17:59 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet MIT professor Noam Chomsky criticized the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Friday, saying President Barack Obama could have provoked a nuclear war. “We were very close to war with Pakistan, which easily could have turned into a nuclear war, which could have destroyed all of us,” he told Jason Liosatos of Global Peace Radio. “The Obama administration was willing to take that chance, though there were other ways of fi...

By Robin McKie, The ObserverSaturday, May 18, 2013 18:29 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetLorraine Barnes suffered a heart attack in 2005 and has lived with the consequences – extreme exhaustion and breathlessness – ever since. “I was separated from my husband and so my children, Charlotte and James, had to grow up overnight because suddenly they were caring for me,” she says. Charlotte agrees: “It turns your world upside down. I worry about my mum day and night, 24/7.” Heart failure leaves Barnes, 49, “dro...

By Ian Sample, The GuardianSaturday, May 18, 2013 18:33 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetThe field of mental health will face its greatest upset in years on Saturday with the publication of the long-awaited and deeply-controversial US manual for diagnosing mental disorders. Early drafts of the book, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, have divided medical opinion so firmly that authors of previous editions are among the most prominent critics. Known info...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 19:17 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet Fringe right-wing radio host Pete Santilli made disturbing comments about Hillary Clinton last week, calling for sexual violence against the former secretary of state because of her alleged involvement in a bizarre conspiracy theory. “Miss Hillary Clinton needs to be convicted, she needs to be tried, convicted and shot in the vagina,” he said. “I wanna pull the trigger. That ‘C U Next Tuesday’ has killed human beings that are in...

By Agence France-PresseSaturday, May 18, 2013 19:22 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetGays and lesbians demonstrated in Venezuela’s capital Saturday to push for an end to discrimination and for civil rights such as same-sex marriage. “In some areas of the capital, two men cannot be seen holdings hands without security ushering them out,” said Cesar Sequera, who leads Diverse Venezuela, among marchers waving signs like “Say yes to inclusion.” Sequera said the dozens taking part in the protest wanted to see th...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 19:47 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet In video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, Arthur Kellermann of the RAND Corporation said that keeping a gun in your home was a bad way to protect your family. “It’s natural to want to do everything you can to keep you family safe, especially if you live in a dangerous neighborhood,” he told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. “In a thunderstorm, it is also natural to take cover under the nearest tree, but that doesn’t mak...

By Agence France-PresseSaturday, May 18, 2013 21:17 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetDenmark won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the Swedish city of Malmoe early Sunday with the song “Only Teardrops” by Emmelie de Forest. Denmark, widely tipped to win the annual music competition, took the honours ahead of the 25 other finalists in a glittering ceremony watched by millions of viewers across Europe. The Scandinavian country last won the contest in 2000 with “Fly on the wings of love” by Olsen Brothers...

By Eric W. DolanSaturday, May 18, 2013 22:01 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet Two suspects armed with a handgun and an axe broke into a home in Fresno, California on Saturday morning, but one was killed by the samurai-wielding homeowner. ABC 30 reported the resident of the home was first tied up by 34-year-old Aaron Baeza and 30-year-old Christopher Rupe. But the resident convinced the robbers to untie him so that he could show them where he kept his money. After Rupe left the house, the resident grabbed ...

Kaitlyn Hunt (Credit: Free Kate Facebook Page) A Florida family says their 18-year-old daughter was charged with a felony and expelled from high school as a result of a consensual, same-sex relationship with another student. Kaitlyn Hunt started dating a female classmate at the beginning of the school year when she was 17 and the girl she was dating was 15. According to an account posted to Facebook by Kaitlyn’s mother, in February, just after Kaitlyn turned 18, she was arrested on felony charges at the behest of her girlfriend’s parents. The specific crime was “sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old.” Kaitlyn’s mother believes the charges were motivated by anti-gay animus: They were out to destroy my daughter, they feel like my daughter “made” their daughter gay. They are bigoted, r...

Fox News hyped the candidacy of its former contributor Pete Snyder, calling him "a really good guy."  On May 17, the Virginia Republican Convention began. Over the course of the weekend, Virginia Republicans -- as described by a May 17 Washington Post article -- are gathering "to pick nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and rally behind Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II for governor." One of the candidates for lieutenant governor is Snyder, a former Fox News contributor, whose campaign website -- as of May 18 -- features that fact in a front page box. The box links to a page that details Snyder's experience at Fox and includes a laudatory quotation from Fox News chairman Roger Ailes: On the May 18 edition of Fox & Friends Saturday, co-host Tucker Carlson hyped the c...

The cover of the June 3 issue of National Review shows a caricature of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with exaggerated features and playing a fiddle in front of what appears to be the attacked U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya engulfed by flames. The cover, as TPM noted, is likely "an allusion to the Roman Emperor Nero, who is said to have 'fiddled while Rome burned.' "  According to PBS, history has implied that Nero himself set the fire that burned Rome, so that he could rebuild the city more to his liking:            History has blamed Nero for the disaster, implying that he started the fire so that he could bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking. Much of what is known about the great fire of Rome comes from the aristocrat and historian Tacitus, who clai...

This is fairly preliminary data, but Rick Nevin reports that if current trends keep up, we'll end 2013 with the murder rate in America at its lowest rate in over a century. More MoJo coverage of the dangers of lead. Analytically speaking, murder is an especially interesting crime because we have pretty good homicide statistics going all the way back to 1900. Most other crimes have only been tracked since about 1960. And if you look at the murder rate in the chart below (the red line), you see that it follows an odd double-hump pattern: rising in the first third of the century, reaching a peak around 1930; then declining until about 1960; then rising again, reaching a second peak around 1990. It's been dr...

Tweet With its Jay-Z soundtrack, bizarre 3-D effects and commitment of Nick Carraway to a mental institution, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has seemed to some critics insufficiently deferential to a precious cultural totem. But long before it won silver in Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels, writers in The Nation offered drastically different assessments on both the book’s meaning and its legitimate place in the literary pantheon. Carl Van Vechten, a writer and photographer who later served as Gertrude Stein’s literary executor, reviewed The Great Gatsby for The Nation in the issue of May 20, 1925, just a month after the book’s publication: Mr. Fitzgerald is a born story-teller…[H]is work is imbued with that rare and ben...

Kolbe and Foley Former eleven-term Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) has been "living in sin" with his Panamanian lover, Hector Alfonso, for eight years. Today they will legally wed at the Cosmos Club in DC. (It's still illegal for same sex couples to marry in Arizona, although recent polling shows 55% of Arizonans support marriage equality.) Kolbe is the first gay congressman who voted for DOMA in 1996 to get married. Back then, Kolbe was a closeted mainstream conservative-- one of many in the House Republican caucus who, for one reason or another-- felt they had to vote against the interests of the LGBT community. The only "out" Republican-- and the only Republican-- to oppose DOMA was Steve Gunderson (R-MN), who had been publicly outed by raging homophobe "B-1 Bob" Dornan on the floor of the...

After watching him as a freshman senator, I never believed Obama would be a vehicle for Hope and Change. I voted for him in 2008 anyway. I couldn't force myself to do it again last November. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, is someone who I have actually bought into right from the start. I donated to her campaign and helped promote her cause. This week, her first proposed legislation has made me-- and thousands of others across the country who backed her-- proud. The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act would lower student loan interest rates for one year from 3.4% to 0.75% -- the same rate the government loans money to the banks through the Federal Reserve discount window. As Senator Warren reminds us in the video above, student loan interest rates will double to 6.8% on July 1st withou...

By Agence France-PresseSaturday, May 18, 2013 11:55 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetIt has been 150 years since Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died, and visitors are still bringing flowers — and lemons — to shrines that honor the memory of the Confederate army general. Jackson was one of the most successful generals in the 1861-1865 US civil war, and according to legend he sucked on lemons as he entered battle. “Jackson is a hero to some, but strange enough to appeal to a lot of people,” said Beth Parnicza, pa...