by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

McClatchy hosted an online Q&A with the authors of "The Three Trillion Dollar War" to dicuss the costs of the War in Iraq:

When the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Americans were told Iraqi oil would cover the costs of the war and rebuilding. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld scoffed at estimates of $100 billion.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes raised a stir in 2006 by estimating the real cost of the war to be $1 trillion. That estimate has been tripled and the title of their new book is "The Three Trillion Dollar War."

Click here to read the session.

Danny
Communications Director

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Governor Schwarzenegger has pledged to sign legislation requiring two of the state's public pension funds to sell off any Iran-related assets. "Schwarzenegger cited his endorsement last year of a Sudan divestmentbill to protest the mass killings in the Darfur region of Sudan," notestoday's Sacramento Bee.

Ahmadinjad is having a pretty bad day. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadreceived a harsh welcome from Columbia University. Columbia PresidentLee Bollinger slammed Ahmadinejad in his introduction, criticizing thelatter for his treatment of women, homosexuals, and Jews and his denialof the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad made the following whopper during thequestion-and-answer portion: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals likeyou do in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I donot know who has told you that we have it." Mr. President, I assure youthat you are mistaken.

Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has said that documents and interviews showed that the Bush administration was trying to "stack the deck" against California's emission standards. Said Waxman, "[I]t is not anappropriate use of taxpayer dollars to organize a lobbying campaign topoliticize this vital regulatory decision."

There's more...