My Bush-bashing "make your case against Bush" invitational
A prize contest!

I first posted this invitation as a reply-comment in this post , but I think I will open it up to everyone.

The anti-Bush commentati have backed off from their assertions that President Bush and his administration actually claimed that Saddam Hussein and his regime were directly linked to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The reason is that the administration never made such a claim.

However, citing recent surveys that show approximately 70 percent of Americans do believe Saddam was directly linked, the administration’s opponents now claim that Bush and company deliberately misled the people to believe it.

Well, prove it.

Here is my invitational:

I invite you to write up a guest post for me actually demonstrating how the Bush administration actively led Americans to believe that Saddam and the 9/11 attacks were directly linked. I'll post your essay on this site. Yes, I am serious.

Rules:

1. Send your essay to me by email and no other way. The email link is in the upper left-hand column of this page.

2. The subject line MUST read "Bush invitational entry." I get a ton of email every day and need to be able to identify your entry easily.

3. IMPORTANT: Send your entry as a plain text email, not HTML email. Embedded links in HTML email do not copy into Blogger’s template; I would have to manually retrieve them and re-establish the links, and I am not going to do that. Please don’t email me asking how to write HTML code.

4. Absolutely no profanity, period. Cuss on your own dime, not mine. And no name calling, either.

5. I have no idea how many such essays I will receive and therefore I reserve the right to choose how many I will publish. Right now my inclination is to publish the one I think does the best job.

6. I don’t have time to figure out what you are trying to say. Please write clearly and succinctly, using correct English. I will not copy-edit or proofread your essay, so please take care of that on your own. Clarity will weigh heavily in winning!

7. To win you must document the claims and provide hyperlinks to sources, and provide the citation for print media sources. The quality of sources will matter! I am looking for documented evidence, not mere assertions. (Linking to other mere assertions will not be persuasive.)

8. Deadline: Midnight CDT, Saturday, 27 Sept Monday, Sept. 29.

9. Length: I would say that 2,000 words would be more than ample. (That’s a very long post, btw.) Length by itself will not carry the day; quality and citations will.

10. I am not looking for you to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Bush administration deliberately misled the people to make the connection. That is setting the bar far too high. I ask only that you demonstrate that a reasonable, not certain, conclusion may be drawn that the administration did so. Obviously, whether as essay does that is a subjective call, which makes documentation and clarity all the more important.

11. THE PRIZE: As an incentive for excellence, I will award the writer of the essay I think is the best with five ounces of Donald’s Best Home Roasted Columbian Supremo coffee. I roast my own coffee at home because it is the only way to get the full favor of the beans. A warning, though: once you taste true fresh-roasted coffee, you will be spoiled and will never want anything else!

12. Please note that I am not promising to identify any essay as meeting the standard of para. 10, I am just inviting you to try. Therefore, there may turn out to be no winner at all.

Update: Becasue, as John Callender commented, members of "the vast left-wing conspiracy have day jobs and assorted other whatnot that gets in the way of our rabble-rousing," I will extend the deadline from Saturday night until Monday night, Sept. 29.

Update: If you wish instead to post your essay on your own blog, that counts. Just email me the permalink so I can read it. In lieu of posting a winning essay posted elsewhere, I will link to it. If you want me to post it here as well, please send me the plaintext form so I can post it with links intact.

by Donald Sensing, 9/24/2003 09:58:06 AM. Permalink |