Vetiver is not only cheap to grow but resistant to pests and disease. The grass soaks up pollutants and improves crop yields. What's more, it can grow in any kind of soil on any kind of slope in just about any tropical region that is free of freezing temperatures.

Okay, I've read a number of articles about kudzu. Am I the only person who thinks this sounds like a potential Big Mistake.

[ Yeah, sounds to me like it's about the same. In 20 years they'll be driving around with trucks of herbicide, desperately trying to kill this crap, just like they do with the kudzu here in GA. I swear, there are whole sections of woods whose visible face is a solid wall of kudzu, all the way to the tree tops. -k]

Grass Grows 13-Foot Roots of 'Steel'

So, to sum up: CNN says Log Cabin Republicans cannot run an ad that accurately depicts signs carried by a publicity-savvy hate-monger. But the network has agreed to run (and give near-constant free airtime to) a series of ads by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that smear Senator John Kerry.

CNN rejected Log Cabin Republicans ad urging in ... [Media Matters for America]

] But the important thing isn't the falsity of the charges,
] which Republicans continue to repeat despite press
] reports debunking them. The important thing is that the
] GOP is trying to quash criticism of the president simply
] because it's criticism of the president. The election is
] becoming a referendum on democracy.
]
] In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. You
] hire him when you elect him. You watch him do the job. If
] he makes good decisions and serves your interests, you
] rehire him. If he doesn't, you fire him by voting for his
] opponent in the next election.
]
] Not every country works this way. In some countries, the
] commander in chief builds a propaganda apparatus that
] equates him with the military and the nation. If you
] object that he's making bad decisions and disserving the
] national interest, you're accused of weakening the
] nation, undermining its security, sabotaging the
] commander in chief, and serving a foreign power%u2014the
] very charges Miller leveled tonight against Bush's
] critics.
]
] Are you prepared to become one of those countries?

[ Zell Miller apparently went off the deep end last night. -k]

Imperial President - Opposing Bush becomes unpatriotic. By William Saletan

] Republicans know that plunging ahead with a course of
] action, even if it becomes obvious it's wrong, is an
] easier political sell than flip-flopping, even if it's
] right.
]
]
] When the president slipped, admitting that the war on
] terror is unwinnable - perhaps recognizing that terror's
] a tactic, not an enemy - he had to be saved later by
] Laura Bush, who fixed his stumble into nuance. Then Mr.
] Kerry made the mistake of responding in Bush
] black-and-white, calling the war on terror winnable.

Op-Ed Columnist: Cutups and Cutthroats

[ I found a few definitions for this word... in the broad sense, it can apply to society in the description of unrest or instability due to a lack of values, morals or ideals. It can have a similar application to individuals, describing their own instability due to a similar lack.

I like the M-W medical dictionary's second definition the best though : "personal unrest, alienation, and anxiety that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals"

It may be an aspect of meaning that the word absorbed over time, but the addition of purposlessness to the definition moves it out of the realm of moral judgement and seems to make it applicable to a more general state of wandering, of uninspired drifting through life. I think that makes it much more vital term.

Just thought i'd share... I always like learning new words. -k

p.s. my usual source for definitions is dictionary.com, one leg of my personal tripod of trivia verification. ]

] A heavily armed gang seized up to 400 hostages at a
] Russian school near Chechnya Wednesday and threatened to
] kill 50 children for any member of their group killed, a
] senior local official said.
]
] Itar-Tass news agency said negotiations had begun with
] the gang of up to 17 men and women who stormed into the
] secondary school in Beslan in North Ossetia province
] during a morning ceremony to mark the first day of the
] new school year.

[ Jesus, people are some kinda fucked up. And given Russia's historcal lack of delicacy in these situations, i really fear for these hostages. It would seem that whatever Russia's policy on Chechnya is, it's not working so well, what with the planes and the suicide bomb in Moskow. -k]

Top News Article | Reuters.com

] "Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - having already
] enraged some New Yorkers with his remarks about local
] office-holders' "unseemly scramble" for federal money
] after 9/11 - yesterday opened a second front. On "Fox
] News Sunday," the Illinois Republican insinuated that
] billionaire financier George Soros, who's funding an
] independent media campaign to dislodge President Bush, is
] getting his big bucks from shady sources. "You know, I
] don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't
] know where - if it comes overseas or from drug groups or
] where it comes from," Hastert mused. An astonished Chris
] Wallace asked: "Excuse me?" The Speaker went on: "Well,
] that's what he's been for a number years - George Soros
] has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I
] mean, he's got a lot of ancillary interests out there."
] Wallace: "You think he may be getting money from the drug
] cartel?" Hastert: "I'm saying I don't know where groups -
] could be people who support this type of thing. I'm
] saying we don't know."

[ Are you fucking KIDDING ME? I don't KNOW where my roommate gets his money. He SAYS he goes to work and writes computer programs, but I don't KNOW that... Maybe, maybe he's WHORING down on West Peachtree, or, maybe he's assasinating leaders of Hamas, i just DON'T KNOW. Crimony, is this fuck serious? (bold mine, btw)

For the record, Soros was none too pleased, sending a letter to Mr. Hastert which is none-too-subtle in it's intent : http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/soros.hastert.pdf -k

UPDATE: This (http://www.hillnews.com/news/090104/soros.aspx) page from today quotes an entirely unapologetic spokesman for the Speaker :

' John Feehery, a spokesman for Hastert, said, “George Soros has an agenda. He supports the legalization of drugs, and the statement stands. [Hastert] has been fighting Soros on this for years because it is a character flaw. The Speaker thinks legalizing drugs is wrong." '

UPDATE 2 : They had a different comment to Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/01/cz_mm_0901soros1.html):

"Of course the Speaker doesn't think he gets money from drug cartels," says Hastert's press secretary, John Feehery.

What a bunch of assholes. -k]

TPM : Hastert defames Soros?

Researchers from Canada believe they have identified the gene responsible for breast cancer tumor growth, a discovery that could possibly lead to a cure for the disease.

When the gene was removed from the mice, breast development was not affected, however, when the gene was removed from already growing tumors, the tumors ceased to grow.

[ God bless them if so. Fuck a bunch of cancer. -k]

Breast Cancer Cure?

The poll question asked: "Did Rudy Giuliani's speech reassure you or move you to support the Bush-Cheney ticket?" The two response choices were: (1) "Reassure"; and (2) "Move you to support."

Reality become like an Onion joke.

MSNBC poll offered two 'choices,' both assuming support for Bush-Cheney

] Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron was injured while
] shooting her new Paramount film, "Aeon Flux," in Germany,
] but her representatives aren't saying how badly she was
] hurt.
]
] Theron suffered the unspecified injury while doing her
] own stunts in a wire-hanging action sequence, the movie's
] publicist, Jeanmarie Carrasco, told The Associated Press
] Tuesday.
]
] "No cuts, no broken bones," Carrasco said. "I think it
] was something less tangible than that. ... Something
] vague and nagging."

[ That sucks that she was hurt, but dude, they're making a live action Aeon Flux movie?!?! Holy crap! -k]

Actress Theron hurt on Germany film set