Dunno if this has been diaried, but I just got a copy of Zogby's September newsletter:

http://www.zogby.com/Sept-ZRA.pdf

In it, he claims that while a lot of voters (including a majority of independents) saw the ads, most of them didn't believe the SBVs' stories. The ad campaign ended up shoring up the Democrat base and pissing off the electorate, raising turnout motivation.

Recently around these parts I've seen lots of calls for the Kerry camp to get its hands muddy, take the gloves off, stop bringing knives to a gunfight, (insert colorful metaphor here) with regard to their campaign tactics. I disagree. Although it's important for the Kerry camp to be strong and respond to attacks, I don't think that their interests are served by going negative and getting nasty. Here's some reasons why.

I'd like to direct your attention to an event the Buddhist Peace Fellowship is holding in conjunction with both national conventions. It begins with a dawn-to-dusk meditation vigil in Boston during the DNC, then joins the 28-day walk from Boston to New York, and then a meditation vigil during the RNC.

http://www.bpf.org/html/whats_now/conventions.html

This link has details about the event(s) and several statements about relating Buddhist principles to current politics and why they're doing this.

I'll admit it; up until a couple of days ago, I was seriously considering voting for Green Party candidate David Cobb. Why? Well, I have always liked the Green agenda, almost voted for Nader in '00, etc., but I was really heartened that Cobb was able to repel Nader this time and keep him off the ballot. Also, I live in a very "safe" Democratic state and my vote really won't decide much in this election. Since Cobb had pledged to run a "safe state" campaign, I didn't have to worry about him taking votes away from Kerry where it counts.

But then I heard a segment on NPR's "Living On Earth" with host Steve Curwood interviewing David Cobb.

LINK

This didn't make much news, but Bill Clinton gave the commencement address at Cornell University on May 29 this year. There's no transcript of his talk, but there's an archived webcast (RealVideo) of his speech:

http://www.cornell.edu/Commencement/multimedia.html

You'll have to fast-forward or sit through speeches by the Cornell valedictorian, class president, and so on before you get to the Bill.

Found this in Rebecca's Pocket:

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/the_war_in_iraq_/2004/05/chalabi_quiz.php

I've found the whole Chalabi story a bit convoluted and hard to follow, but this really lays out the whole thing in short bites, complete with links to back up each one. Must read.

From Political Wire:

A surprisingly well-thought out memo from Zogby:

http://www.zogby.com/news/051004.html

Excerpt:

I've been trying to push through the conceptual mud of the Abu Ghraib scandal to get at something solid. I posted an earlier diary that netted some good comments and ideas, and after reading the WaPo article from the front page story and another diary this morning, I wrote a post for my blog detailing some of these thoughts.

Here's something else.

Fellow Kossacks, please help me iron out my thoughts. I've got lots of ideas bouncing around in my noggin but I can't seem to put them together in an articulate way. Please respond:

1. Looking at the grinning soldiers striking poses next to the prisoners, I'm reminded of frat-boys hazing their pledges. Clearly the power structure is different and this goes beyond simple hazing, but somehow I see the same impulse at work. Part of our system of indoctrination (especially in military-style organizations) involves breaking the spirit of individuality, often through physical and psychological humiliation. The military has experience with hazing scandals, and I think it's likely that those soldiers in the pictures may have been through it themselves. Hazing is dehumanization lite, torture is dehumanization heavy. Isn't there some connection here?

WASHINGTON, DC - Senate lawmakers today debated a measure to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the nation's government in the event of an attack by flesh-eating zombies. The current draft of the contingency plan calls for mandatory state elections within 45 days of an attack in which at least 100 members of Congress have been devoured and/or transformed into undead monsters.

This is an interesting sign I saw yesterday that I wanted to share - this person has been using their fence, located at one corner of a busy intersection, as an anti-Iraq war billboard since 2002 or so.

Yesterday, I was inspired by a posting of Kos' to start ranting about karma and how Bush's Iraq policy is doing more harm than good:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2004/4/12/1534/02321/18#18

While it felt good to vent, I kept thinking about it and wanted to create a more articulate entry. So first, I outlined the Buddhist doctrine of karma and posted it to my own blog:

http://owmyblog.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_owmyblog_archive.html#108186861535475508

The problem there was that I talked a lot about karma in general and barely mentioned Iraq at all.

Dick Clarke made headlines not only by being critical of the Bush administration's handling of terrorism, but by offering an apology on behalf of himself and the government to the families of the 9-11 victims. "Your government failed you," he said. Yesterday, Condi Rice offered no apology, and was not only explicit about not doing so, she sent Scott McClelland ahead to the press to inform them that she would not be offering one, just so they wouldn't miss the non-moment when she didn't offer an apology.

This stirred memories in my mind of the Chinese jet pilot incident that occurred three years ago, in April 2001. As you may recall, a U.S. spy plane was buzzed by a Chinese fighter jet; the two planes collided, and the fighter pilot was killed, while the spy plane was forced to land in China and the crew was held for a couple of weeks. The Chinese government demanded an apology from the U.S., and Bush responded angrily that no apology would be coming since apology implies responsibility, and the spy plane was clearly not responsible for the incident.

You know, sometimes I write these koans and sometimes they write themselves. This morning I was listening to the radio while thumbing through Hekiganroku (no, really I was) looking for this week's koan, when suddenly John Kerry uttered one himself:

For those of you new to the issue of the privatization of the military, I'd highly recommend P.W. Singer's book Corporate Warriors. It's an insightful and well written (and left-leaning) account of how the military has been privatized over the past decade or so. In short, the U.S. isn't the only one, and it didn't start with the Bush administration.

I have an ongoing practice of offering prayers for those who have died in Iraq (please see my blog for details). With this recent flap over mercenaries, I wanted to clear up some ethical concerns I had.

I've just posted the political koan of the week:

http://owmyblog.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_owmyblog_archive.html#108094213622513487