What Iran's President Says Is the Reason the U.S. Invaded Iraq

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Insulting Iran?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says toppling Saddam Hussein was merely a "pretext" for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, telling Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, "The Americans occupy the country, kill people, sell the oil and when they have lost, they blame others."

The Iranian leader rejected new talks on improving security in Iraq unless "the Americans change their behavior," saying the U.S. "insulted" Iran after the country agreed to talks earlier this year.

Ahmadinejad also denied that the 18-page letter he sent to President Bush last month blamed U.S. intelligence services for 9-11 and once again questioned whether the Holocaust actually took place.

Losing Her Base?

New York Senator Hillary Clinton's support for the war has lost her the approval of many on the left, now including some Democrats in New York City itself.

The New York Daily News reports that two prominent Manhattan Democratic clubs have voted to endorse Clinton's anti-war opponent in the Democratic Senate primary and others are endorsing no one rather than support the Senator.

One club chairman says Clinton is "not in Arkansas anymore," adding, "the majority of New Yorkers are against the war."

And Gramercy Democrats president Sylvia Feinman, whose club has supported Clinton in the past, says members voted not to endorse her this year, "to send a message... that she was moving away from the views of her base"

Political Position

Republican candidates who favor comprehensive immigration reform are more successful than those who focus only on border security. That according to private polls done for the Republican Party, which find that just 25 percent of voters would support a candidate who only supports stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country, while 71 percent are likely to support the candidate who would beef up border security, enforce laws against hiring illegal immigrants, and create a temporary worker program.

Seventy percent of voters — including 68 percent of conservatives — also support the president's plan to eventually grant legal status to illegal immigrants already in the U.S. — while 25 percent call the proposal amnesty.

Source of Pollutants?

Outdoor outfitters Timberland have long studied how to reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing of their famous leather boots to be more environmentally friendly, but researchers discovered that most of those harmful gases weren't released during the manufacturing process.

As Timberland CEO Jeffrey Swartz tells The New York Times, "the vast majority of the greenhouse gases associated with manufacturing leather come from cows in the field." The company is currently researching ways to reduce bovine flatulence — including changing the livestock's feeding habits.

—FOX News Channel's Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.