The Ad War in Iraq

The Pentagon, looking for innovative ways to thwart deadly roadside bombs in Iraq, has launched an $11 million program using robots, body armor and a "first-ever advertising campaign aimed at the Iraqi" people, the weekly Inside the Army reports.

An Army-led joint task force, called the Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force, will spend $7.7 million to have an Iraqi ad agency produce "a series of media products . . . designed to influence Iraqi target audiences to support efforts to eliminate the IED threat," the Pentagon said last month.

The effort against improvised explosive devices will include video, audio and print campaigns. "The task force is looking at solutions across a wide spectrum, really," a spokesman told Inside the Army. "It's not just technology, it's not just jammers, it's not just armor. It's a holistic approach to solve the problem."

Also on the media front, the Pentagon in June said the U.S. Special Operations Command put out contracts worth up to $300 million to three U.S. companies for "media approach planning," producing and distributing media "products" and analyzing effectiveness.

That's a five-year effort, officials said, and would include using billboards, television and radio spots and such. Five years?

White House News Laundry Forgets Spin Cycle

The White House press office distributes news releases, announcements, transcripts and schedules via e-mail to reporters each day to keep them apprised of what's going on and to put the White House spin on the day's events.

So it came as some surprise Friday afternoon when reporters were sent a Reuters news service story about President Bush 's motorcade blowing by a war protesters' encampment near the Crawford, Tex., White House. That's where "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan , whose son was killed in Iraq, was holding a vigil demanding a meeting with Bush.

So was this an effort to highlight Bush's refusal to speak with her? reporters wondered. Nah -- turns out it was just a press office error.

A mere 39 minutes later, a second e-mail went out. "Please disregard the previous email. It is part of our news tracking system that was meant for our internal distribution list, not the press list. We apologize for the mistake."

Must be August.

Paving the Way to a Bigger Deficit

Speaking of August, if you've got some free time tomorrow, check out Sen. Jim Bunning 's event in Louisville.

The Republican from Kentucky "will announce a $500,000 earmark that he secured for the University of Kentucky's Asphalt Institute," a news release Friday said. Bunning proudly "secured the federal funding in the 2005 Omnibus Spending Bill," a euphemism for the biggest hog trough in the nation's history.