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USSA: Twelve steppers, temperance leaders, MADD, law enforcement, taxmen and the alcohol industry are lining up against AWOL, an alcohol inhaler that leaves people more euphoric than drunk.

USA: Ken Cordier is stepping down from a Bush steering committee. He was featured in one of the Swifties television commercials. Yet another piece of evidence that the GOP and W are involved with the Swifties efforts.

USA: Robert Rauschenberg survived Hurricane Charley in his Captiva Island studio. A wild story.

USA: Researchers have developed an additive to anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer that can also be used in making methamphetemine. Marketed as GloTell, it turns methamphetemine pink, and leaves pink stains on cooks and users. Cooks will trun to other methods, but anything that makes meth harder to make and use is a good thing.

USA: Maureen Dowd in the New York Times provides a nice summary of the Swiftie mess: “Reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post last week made it clear that the vile Swift boaters have told wildly varying accounts, sometimes supportive of Mr. Kerry. The Times revealed that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - is that like the administration’s Clear Skies Act for spewing pollution? - has a trellis of ties to Karl Rove, the Bush family and Bush supporters…. It makes sense for W. to use surrogates to do his fighting, just as he did when he slid out of Vietnam and just as he did when he sent our troops to fight his administration’s misbegotten vanity war in Iraq.”

Meanwhile, Edwards challenges W. to call off his attack dogs, and William Rood provides more support for Kerry’s story. Where’s W? He’s cowering in Crawford this week before attending next week’s riots, er, the Republican convention in NYC.