- Today is the anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/01. Many of the candidates will be commemorating that day at public events.

- Though today is a very solemn day it is still a political day and CBS News is asking Who was Rudy Giuliani Before 9/11.

- Meanwhile yesterday the much anticipated report by General Patraeus was given. The candidates mostly lined up with their parties, Republicans supporting the statements, Democrats questioning the motives. I watched a good chunk of the testimony yesterday and like these things often become, it was a bit of a circus and a chance for both sides to give talking points.

News
- Hillary Clinton will return $850,000 in donations raised by Norman Hsu who is under investigation for violating election laws. Originally Clinton and fellow Senator Barack Obama had only planned to give the money directly donated by Hsu to the campaigns but Clinton has taken this a step further and is including all money “bundled” or raised on behalf by Hsu. She will also begin criminal background checks on big donors.

What does it mean? The Clinton campaign has now left the ball in Obama’s corner.

- Two new profile pieces to look at. One that gives insight into Barack Obama’s past and one that gives insight into Hillary Clinton’s future.

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Rasmussen’s daily tracking now has Fred Thompson at 26%, Giuliani at 22%, Romney at 13% and McCain at 12%.

On the Democratic side Clinton still leads at 43%, Obama at 22% and Edwards trails at 16%.

The Los Angeles Times reports on a study to appear in nature conducted at New York University and UCLA which shows political affiliation is linked to differences in how the brain processes information. Put short “conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences”.

It sounds interesting and follows other experiments that show similar results. The problem? I wouldn’t go racing out to declare these results as gospel truth anytime soon. The study was conducted on college students and only 43 of them, which wasn’t noted in the article but I asked the author. (Note a great deal of research like this is done with college students because they are the available population).

The article also did not note how many of those 43 were self appointed conservatives and how many were liberals and to what degree their political affiliation went. In addition there is an obvious point. Students who are in college tend to be liberal and they are open to new experiences. Their minds are developing because they are often outside their home environment/comfort zone, meeting new people and just experiencing things.

In addition we also know many of these students go on to become conservatives. There is the old expression “If you are conservative when you are twenty you are heartless if you are liberal when you are forty you are mindless” or something to that effect. So in the end if there are specific brain differences why would people change and/or how do they change physically?

Again interesting article and research but I don’t know if I would put much weight in it.

Senator Chuck Hagel has officially announced his retirement from the Senate and that he will not seek the presidency in 2008 ending months of rumors to the contrary.

The Associated Press is reporting there may be a second video of Osama bin Laden on its way, this time reading one of the last will and testaments of a 9/11 hijacker. This is not new as others in al Qaeda have marked the anniversary of those attacks by reading similar statements.

But with Osama specifically mentioning the 2006 elections, democratic politics, taxes and other issues, leftist writer Noam Chomsky and other election results around the world it is hard to imagine he is not attempting to have an influence on events in United States politics. In 2004 a video released helped influence the perception of voters right before the election. What will be in store in 2008? Could there also be an impending attack on American interests either at home or abroad?

Now that we know he is alive I doubt this will be the last we hear from bin Laden.