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In yet another excellent (and heavily link referenced) salon.com article, author Joe Conason examines some recent comments by Karen Hughes. Entitled: Karen Hughes’ high-octane gall, I highly suggest you read it. (blah blah premium ad view)

The gripping but brief account of Bush’s training and service ends vaguely, with this sentence: “I continued flying with my unit for the next several years.” That’s false; he quit flying after less than two years. He and his ghostwriter don’t mention that he quit flying no later than August 1972, after he missed a flight physical and was suspended. His disappearance into Alabama to work on a Republican Senate race, when he was supposed to be pulling duty, is also left out.

On that chapter’s concluding page, Bush proclaims: “I am proud of my service. Yet I know it was nothing comparable to what our soldiers and pilots were doing in battle in Vietnam.” Having written those words, Hughes should remember them whenever she feels the urge to demean Kerry, who still carries a piece of shrapnel in his left buttock. And should she open her mouth about this subject again, someone should ask her what the president did with his medals.

I will send $50 to any reporter that has this exchange with a “high-ranking” member of the Bush administration or Bush campaign:

High-Ranking Person: And John Kerry threw his medals away! The Traitor! He is unfit to be President!

Soon-to-be-$50-richer reporter: And what did President Bush do with his medals from his service in Vietnam?

Send me your article from the major news organization that employs you, and I will paypal you $50

Let me once again suggest my daily reads for news:

• salon.com
• Slate.com

Those two are all you need.