Tonight, the House of Representatives voted 218-203 to pass a $50 billion funding bill for Iraq that would require withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq to begin within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, with a completion goal of Dec. 15, 2008. The AP reports:

The bill was on shaky ground this week, after some liberal Democrats said they were concerned it was too soft and would not force Bush to end the war. Conservative Democrats said they thought it went too far and would tie the hands of military commanders.

Uncertain the bill would pass, Pelosi on Wednesday delayed a vote by several hours while she met with supporters and asked them to help her round up votes.

The bill’s prospects brightened somewhat early Wednesday after three leading anti-war Democrats announced they would support it. California Reps. Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters said they had agreed to swing behind it because the bill explicitly states the money should be used to bring troops home.

UPDATE: The Gavel has more.

New data compiled by CREW finds that rural “pregnancy resource centers” that often offer religious content and false information have received nearly $6 million in federal grants since early 2006. Some of these centers tell patients that abortion leads to breast cancer, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug abuse, and even a “fear of punishment from God.”

As ThinkProgress noted earlier today, former book publisher Judith Regan claims in her lawsuit against News Corp. that a company executive “encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik” in order to “to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani.” The connections between Regan, Kerik, Giuliani and News Corp. can be a little confusing, but thankfully, MSNBC has created a flow chart explaining “who’s who” and how everyone’s connected. Watch it:

The right wing has been trumpeting the global warming denial of TV weatherman John Coleman, claiming that such a “high profile member of the weather reporting community” should be viewed as a legitimate skeptic of climate change. Climate Progress’s Joe Romm reports that meteorologists generally have thin knowledge of long-term climate patterns:

Meteorologists are not required to take a course in climate change, this is not part of the NOAA/NWS [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service] certification requirements, so university programs don’t require the course (even if they offer it). So we have been educating generations of meteorologists who know nothing at all about climate change.

Romm writes, “Asking a meteorologist to opine on the climate — or even the cause of recent extreme weather — is like asking your family doctor what the chances are for an avian flu pandemic in the next few years or asking a mid-West sheriff the prospects for nuclear terrorism.” Check out ThinkProgress’s response to right-wing distortions here.

Earlier today, State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard told the House Oversight Committee that he was “not aware of any financial interest or position” his brother A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard had as “a member of the advisory board.” During a break in the hearing, Krongard called his brother and returned to tell the panel that his brother “had been at the advisory board meeting yesterday.” Krongard said he didn’t know this when he spoke to his brother “six weeks ago.” In an interview with TPMmuckraker today, “Buzzy” Krongard contradicted his brother:

In an exclusive interview with TPMmuckraker, Buzzy Krongard says that in that phone conversation, he specifically told Cookie Krongard he had agreed to join Blackwater’s advisory board. “I had told my brother I was going on the advisory board,” Buzzy Krongard says. “My brother says that is not the case. I stand by what I told my brother.”

Buzzy Krongard says the phone conversation was more recent than Cookie Krongard indicated to the committee. Cookie said it took place about five or six weeks ago. Buzzy says it was about two or three weeks ago.

“Buzzy” told TPM that the two brothers don’t speak regularly, adding that after this episode, he expects that it will be even “less often.”

Yesterday, Congress’s Joint Economic Committee produced a report finding that the “hidden” economic costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaled approximately $1.5 trillion, costing the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000. (View the full report here.) The total includes higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans, and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

While acknowledging that she hadn’t “seen the report,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino nevertheless derided it yesterday as “an attempt to muddy the waters.” Today, Office of Management and Budget chief Jim Nussle added his own attack on the report:

Office of Management and Budget director Jim Nussle blasted a congressional report that pegged the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1.6 trillion through next year, saying the study by the Joint Economic Committee was “clearly partisan.”

Stephen Colbert once remarked, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Colbert was joking; Nussle is not. Responding to Nussle’s comments, Israel Klein — a spokesman for the Joint Economic Committee — told ThinkProgress:

Unfortunately for the White House, reality is not partisan. The Bush administration has now requested a total of over $800 billion for the direct costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Borrowing this money has resulted in an additional $60 billion in interest on war-related debt so far, with decades of future payments to come. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that even if troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan are reduced by more than half over the next five years, total Federal expenditures for the two wars and interest on war-related debt will total $2.4 trillion.

The total economic costs estimated by the JEC add a reasonable and conservative assessment of the additional non-budgetary costs created by the wars on to these figures. These costs were assessed using standard economic methods and widely accepted assumptions. We stand by our report, and welcome inquiries concerning our methodology and assumptions.

The same administration that has been so unwilling to call on Americans to make sacrifices for war is now frightened by the prospect of the public discovering why sacrifice was needed.

UPDATE: When the CBO revealed in October that the Iraq war costs could total $2 trillion, Perino said she’s “not worried about the number.”

The right-wing website Blogs For Bush is no more as of this week. The site has announced that it is changing its name to Blogs For Victory. A possible explanation for the name change? “Falling ratings that seem to coincide with their President’s popularity.” A comparison: