Oak Ridge Schedule...sort of

Below is the schedule for the Oak Ridge tournament on Dec. 7.  The real schedule is much more complicated but this gives you a basic idea of how things are supposed to go.  If you want the more detailed version then go here.

6:00 A.M.                  Arrive at Lanier Middle School

6:15 A.M.                  We leave Lanier

7:00   - 7:30               Registration

7:30                            Extemp Draw 

8:00  - 9:30                Section A Prelims

9:30  - 11:00              Section B Prelims

11:00 – 12:30            Section C Prelims

12:30                          Extemp Draw (Semis)

1:00 - 2:30                 Semis Section A            

2:30 – 4:00                 Semis  B and C

4:00                            Extemp Draw (Finals)

4:30 - 6:00                 Finals Section A

6:00 - 7:30                 Finals Sections B and C

8:oo                            Awards 

10:00 P.M.                We return to Lanier

Oak Ridge report

Extemp	Declamation	Humorous
Lekha Sunder - 1st	Rukmini Kalamangalam - 1st	Max Nathan - 2nd
Will Acheampong - 2nd	Lekha Sunder - 2nd	Larry Zhang - 3rd
Martin Logan - 3rd	Will Acheampong - 3rd	Jordan Hinrichs - 6th
Maddie Spence - 4th	Abby Eastman - 4th	Gabby Keene - 8th
Abby Eastman - 5th	Nikki Goldin - 5th
Megan Dickson - 6th	Zibi Gugala - 6th
Poetry	Original Oratory	Prose
Kaitlyn Kelly - 1st	Abby Eastman - 1st	Maddie Muehlherr - 1st
Dikla Taylor - 3rd	Maddie Spence - 2nd	Natalie Festa - 6th
Maddie Muehlherr - 4th	Ali Potthast - 3rd	Adele Lauzon - 7th
Ally Sun - 5th	Martin Logan - 4th
	Noah Scantlebury - 8th
Duet Improvisation	Pantomime	Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Zibi Gugala & Everett Lowen-	Nathan Dunbar - 4th	Joseph Donowho - Octofinalist
stein - 4th	Larry Zhang - 7th
Storytelling	Solo Improv	Dramatic
Nikki Goldin - 2nd	Athene DelVecchio - 3rd	Amy Yao - 2nd
Athene DelVecchio - 3rd	Maddie Muehlherr - 4th	Ruth Ling - 3rd
Alisa Lu - 6th	Sara Tin-U - 6th	Nikki Goldin - 5th
Ally Sun - 7th
Alice Qui - 8th
Duet Acting		Public Forum Debate
Shelby Griffin & Maddie Muehlherr - 1st		Olivia Cardenas & Erin Sheena - 1st
Annika Bohmann & Kaylie O'Connell - 2nd		Jeong Woo Han & Bowen Song - 2nd
Ally Sun & Katherine Nyquist - 3rd		Joseph Dowdall & Sam Frank - Semifinalists
Sophie Cardenas & Adele Lauzon - 4th		Travis Craig & Lyle Derden - Semifinalists
Megan Dickson & Julia Dietrich - 5th
Congressional Debate	Extemp.	Poetry
Miguel Covarrubias - 1st	Erin Sheena - 1st	Rob Laucius - 1st
Andrew Hollenberg - 2nd	Olivia Cardenas - 2nd	Sam Liu - 4th
Curtis Yao - 3rd	Sam Frank - 4th
Marcos Coronado - 5th	Bowen Song - 5th	Prose
Vishnu Narayana - 6th	Evan Finley - 6th	Sam Liu - 3rd
Armon Tabibzadegan - 8th	Gan Liu - 8th
		Oratory
Public Forum Debate Top Speakers		Sam Frank - 2nd
Lyle Derden - 1st		Lyle Derden - 3rd
Bowen Song - 2nd

March PF Topic

Here's an article describing the penalties the government can level against individuals who don't have health insurance.

This piece is from the Cato Institute in 2007, but offers help for the PRO side.

These items showed up when I searched for "health care mandate."

Oak Ridge (Apr. 6) Is Using the March PF Topic!

Huzzah!  Here's the topic:

Resolved: The U.S. government should not require its citizens to have health insurance.

March/April 2013 LD Topic

Resolved: The United States is justified in intervening in the internal political processes of other countries to attempt to stop human rights abuses.

While I like the PF topic I'm not nearly as excited this one because variations of it have been used before in LD and PF.  U.S. intervention in troubled nations is nothing new.  The annoying thing is that THIS topic gets specific to impose the limitation that U.S. intervention is limited to the internal political processes.    

Oak Ridge - Winter Results

Oak Ridge, Dec. 15 - 1st Place Sweepstakes 

	Extemp		Humorous		Junior Poetry		Senior Duet Acting
1st	Beckett Gonzales	3rd	Larry Zhang	4th	Natalie Festa	3rd	Maya Waterland & Amy Yao
2nd	Maddie Spence
3rd	Noah Scantlebury				Senior Poetry		Junior Duet Acting
4th	Ethan Tran			1st	Alisa Lu	2nd	Sophie Cardenas & Adele Lauzon
				5th	Katherine Nyquist
							Declamation
	Junior Prose		Senior Prose		Oratory	2nd	Zibi Gugala
7th	Gabby Keene	7th	Stephanie Sonik	3rd	Maddie Spence	5th	Rukmini Kalamangalam
8th	Ally Sun	8th	Maddie Van Brunt	5th	Kaitlyn Kelly
				6th	Kierra Morris		Lincoln-Douglas Debate
							Justus Miles - octofinalist
	Storytelling
8th	Alisa Lu						Public Forum Debate
						1st	Lekha Sunder & Lyle Derden
	Extemp (Supp)		Prose (Supp)			2nd	Michael Hoyal & Maddie Muehlherr
1st	Robert Brown	1st	Ruth Ling				Joseph Donowho & Evan Finley - Semis
3rd	John Dagley						Jackson Hanna & Travis Craig - Semis
5th	Stephanie Oyolu						Joseph Dowdall & Sam Frank - Quarters
							Alex Hoyal & Vishnu Narayana - Quarters
	Oratory (Supp)		Poetry (Supp)
7th	Sophie Dunn	2nd	Sara Tin-U
5th	Robert Brown	3rd	Stephanie Oyolu				Congressional Debate
		5th	Ruth Ling			1st	Marcos Coronado
						2nd	Armon Tabibzadegan
						3rd	Curtis Yao
						4th	Bowen Song
						5th	Will Acheampong
						6th	Tomer Downing
						7th	Edgar Brutain

Dec. PF topic analysis

Resolved: The United States should prioritize tax increases over spending cuts.

Taxation has been a hot partisan issue for the past few decades.  It's never not been a hot issue, but it has become increasingly contentious as most Democrats advocate for higher taxes (mainly on the "wealthy") and Republicans counter with supporting government spending cuts.  Let's look at an analogy that takes place at home:

Your family takes in about $100,000 a year.  Something happens and for whatever reason the income drops from $100K to $75K a year.  You can do one of two things: Get more income from other jobs or reduce your spending.  Most families in a situation like this will start reducing their spending.  They'll reduce/eliminate their spending on luxuries before cutting into more important expenses like mortgage, car-note, etc.

Our government has seen a reduction in the amount of money it has available. Fighting two wars, expanding the size government (thank Bush and Obama for that), spending money on natural disasters and other outlays will deplete the money pile pretty quickly.  The government can definitely cut spending and raise taxes but this debate is about which one should the government do first.

Taxation is mostly done through personal income, so a tax increase would obviously take effect there.  We have a progressive (or graduated) tax rate; the more you make the more you pay.  The IRS offers tax deductions for any number of things such as children, eco-friendly purchases, etc. which reduces the amount we're taxed.

Government spending is outlined in the annual budget the President submits to Congress for approval.  The bulk of the spending is in defense.  There are many pie-charts and graphs depicting the government's budget where you can see where your tax dollars go.

PRO - tax increases

Your increases can go one of several ways...
Letting the Bush tax-cuts expire.  This would repeal the tax cuts that Bush Jr. enacted at the beginning of his Presidency.  You will want to look at letting them expire specifically for the upper-income earners.  Here's a good article on the benefits of letting those tax cuts expire:

Benefits of letting tax cuts expire

There are other types of taxes that could be increased:

gas tax

soda tax - also called an excise tax

Of course any sort of tax plan you offer should argue that the U.S. economy is now strong enough to weather the increase.

CON - "taxes" are you insane?!

Raising taxes is an idea that is never received well, even less so when the economy is in the toilet.  Typical Con strategy can go one of two ways: Both/neither should be prioritized or spending cuts should be prioritized.  I don't think the former is really worth it, so here's how you argue for spending cuts.

8 ways to cut government spending

CATO institute proposal

cutting defense spending

This should get you started.  I'll help you with showing the DISADS for both sides later on.

2012-2013 Tournament Schedule

Here's our tentative schedule.  Debate veterans should know that things get moved around and so this isn't set in stone.  We are going to places that have a good track record in keeping tournaments, so hopefully this should stick.  I'm looking for a tournament for us in early January, possibly Klein Oak because that's where we went last year during that time.

EVENT                                    DATE                          LOCATION                            

Bellaire Novice Extravaganza       Sept. 14/15                  Bellaire High School*

Afterschool Debate Club Starts      Sept. 11                              Debate Room

Tournament                           Oct. 12/13                   Univ. of Houston

Tournament                           Oct 19/20                    Bellaire High School*

Tournament                           Nov. 10                       Klein High School

6^th Grade Tournament          Dec. 7/8                       Lanier Middle School

Tournament                           Dec. 15                        Oak Ridge High School

Tournament                           Jan. 25/26                   Lamar High School*

Tournament                           Feb. 2                          Hastings High School

Tournament                           Mar. 23                       Oak Ridge High School

Tournament                           April 12/13                 Univ. of Houston

Debate Banquet                     May 18                       Sheraton Galleria

* - No buses on Friday night or all day Saturday

Nationals are scheduled to be hosted in Birmingham, AL

June 2013

Oak Ridge Schedule

SATURDAY, MARCH 31

6:10 a.m. – Arrive at Lanier Middle School

6:30 a.m. -               Leave Lanier Middle School

8:00 - 9:30               Prelims Section A

10:00                       Extemp. Draw

10:30                       Extemp (if in debate, speak first then go to debate round)         

9:30  - 11:00            Prelims Section B (if in extemp must perform first in Section B)        

11:00                       Debate Rnd 1   

12:00                       Debate Rnd 2  AND Prelims Section D 

1:00                         Debate Rnd 3  AND Semis Section A

2:00                         Extemp Draw AND Semis Section B (go to draw first then section B)

2:30                         Semis in Extemp

3:30                         Debate Quarters  AND Finals Section A  AND Semis Section D

4:30                         Debate Semis       AND Finals Section B

5:30                         Debate Finals      AND Finals Section D  

6:30                         Extemp Draw

7:00                         Finals Secton E

ASAP                     Awards ceremony in the auditorium

10:00 p.m.               Return to Lanier Middle School

Oak Ridge Schedule

OAK RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL

DEC. 3, 2011

6:00 A.M.              Arrive at Lanier

6:10 a.m.               We leave Lanier

7:00   - 7:30          Registration

7:30                       Extemp Draw

8:00   - 9:00           Section A Prelims

9:00 – 10:00           Section B Prelims

10:00 – 11:30         Section C Prelims, Round I Debate

11:30 – 12:30         Section D Prelims, Round II Debate

12:00                     Extemp Draw for Semis

12:30 – 2:00           Semis A and B

2:00 – 3:30             Semis C & D, Round III Debate

4:00                       Extemp Draw for Finals

4:30 – 6:00             Finals A & B, Debate Semis

6:00 – 7:30             Finals C & D, Debate Finals

8:00                       Awards Assembly (in cafeteria)

10:00 p.m.             Return to Lanier

Section A                  Section B                          Section C                 Section D                          

Extemp $7                  Oratory $7                         Duet Acting $12       Readers Theatre $12       

Humorous $7            Prose $7                             Solo Improv $7        Pantomime $7

Poetry $7                   Storytelling $7                  Dramatic $7               LD Debate $7

Ind. Lip-Sync $7       Duet Improv. $12                                                  PF Debate $12

Group Lip-Sync $12                                                                                Parliamentary Debate $12

                                                                                                                    Vocals $12