In a recent Foreign Policy Magazine blog posting, senior editor Christine Chen summarizes studies that point out what the money spent in Iraq could have been used for. The numbers are mind-blowing. Total estimated cost for the war to date is $1.2 trillion.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The White House is considering an expansion of the U.S. Army and Marines for “the long struggle against radicals and extremists,” President Bush said during a Wednesday news conference.

Bush would not elaborate on where that struggle would take place, only that he wanted to ensure that the U.S. military “stays in the fight for a long period of time.”

Go Buckeyes. Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan tells it like it is.

This is a short poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush. These have been arranged, only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
I am the Decider!

CNN.com – In the space of barely a minute, John Kerry’s political life took an abrupt turn. There’s before The Impression, when the Massachusetts senator appeared to be well on his way toward making a political comeback, laying the groundwork for a White House bid despite losing the 2004 presidential election.

Then there’s after The Impression, when even fellow Democrats and former supporters question whether Kerry is still politically viable. Kerry’s quip just before the November 7 midterm elections that those who don’t study hard “get stuck in Iraq” not only forced him into isolation in the campaign’s final days, it rekindled criticism about his failure to beat a war-plagued president two years ago. It also highlighted a shallowness to what he and his aides still considered to be widespread public support.

I thought this was an interesting contrast in headlines this moring.

From the New York Times: “Bush Blames Al Qaeda for Wave of Iraq Violence: Dismissing suggestions that Iraq has deteriorated into a civil war, President Bush on Tuesday blamed Al Qaeda for the rising tide of sectarian violence there and said he would press the Iraqi prime minister to lay out a strategy for stopping the killings when the two meet in Jordan this week.”

In contrast to that, on Al Jazeera English the blame seems to be pointed at the United States: “US spies behind Iraq unrest: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s highest authority, has told the Iraqi president that the US is reponsible for Iraq’s unrest and said Iran is ready to help restore security. He said: ‘The first step to resolve insecurity in Iraq is the withdrawal of the occupiers and handing over the security issues to the Iraqi government.’”

The Consumer Research Center released its report on October advertisement spending and consumer confidence today, declaring the television networks NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox the undisputed winners of the 2006 United Status mid-term elections.

“The numbers are in and validated, and the winner is clear: big networks.” Said CRC representative Lynn Fraco. “Spending this year on advertising trumped all previous years, resulting in big wins to the shareholders of these media giants.”

The data suggest that spending was concentrated in areas of the country not usually subject to heavy advertising spending, such as Minnesota, Virginia, and Tennessee, though Illinois remained near the top of the list. Spending in California and New York, traditionally strong markets for non-political advertising, lagged significantly.

“The reason for this is obvious – that’s where the big contests were.” Continued Fraco. “Consumers there were bombarded with advertising for Tim Pawlenty, Tammy Duckworth, Jim Webb, etc. There was no room for the usual advertisements for Chia Petss or Ditch Witch tractors or whatever else those hicks buy.”

On a related note, spending in these areas plummeted over the month of October. Many analysts chalk the drop to the lack of normal advertising during this period to drive people to spend.

“The airwaves were just saturated – there was nothing we could do.” Said Bob Wright, CEO of NBC. “We couldn’t exactly shorten the programming to allow more ads – the politicians would have taken those too, and we would have lost viewership. We had to hold the line. Fortunately, doing so was incredibly profitable.”

This trend was validated by other surveys of consumer confidence. Said one Minnesotan taking part in the survey: “Well, you know, I was going to buy Jim something for the house, you know, maybe something from Menards. But I didn’t know about any of the sales on account of the TV didn’t have anything on but Pawlenty, Hatch, Kennedy, you know. It was awful. We have all this money now, we don’t know what to do.”

Analysts point to the fact that the political advertising paradigm is reversed in this case, as votes are limited to a single purchase per person, and the pool of potential political positions is limited and often confusing.

“In normal advertising anyone has the right to buy the plethora of products on the market.” Noted consumer analyst Chris Farrell. “But in the case of political advertising a limited number of political offices are up for election, and each consumer gets a single voting dollar – they can’t buy the same politician advertised to them multiple times. This results in an unusual advertisement spending to earned value ratio.”

Chicagoans were the exception to the process, as was clear in the numbers. Said Chicagoan Bob Dahl: “I don’t see what the problem was. I couldn’t spend my money on furniture or food or anything because without the ads I didn’t know where to spend. So I went ahead and bought extra votes for my guy on the county board from my neighbors. It was pretty easy. What a great town!”