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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Corporate Welfare

Ending Corporate Welfare could fit the definition of "tax increases," since it ends tax breaks for corporations.  Check out this article for more on the issue and PRO ammo.

Corporate Welfare

Monday, November 19, 2012

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.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Westfield Results



Extemporaneous Speaking
Lincoln-Douglas
1st Lekha Sunder 1st Stephanie Oyolu
2nd Bowen Song 2nd Zuhayr Ali
3rd Erin Sheena SF's Robert Brown
4th Tommy Hayes SF's Travis Craig
5th Robert Brown

6th John Dagley
Public Forum 


1st Vinny Misra & Hugh Hajdik

Dramatic 2nd Olivia Cardenas & Erin Sheena
1st Ali Potthast SF's Maddie Muhlherr & Michael Hoyal
4th Maddie Van Brunt SF's Lyle Derden & Lekha Sunder
5th Maddie Spence Q's Jeong Woo Han & Bowen Song


Q's Matthew Fontenot & Martin Logan

Junior Poetry Q's Aaron Jasso & Armon Tabibzadegan
1st Adele Lauzon Q's Marcos Coronado & Miguel Covarrubias
2nd Athene DelVecchio

5th Ally Sun
Humorous
6th Navya Sharma 1st Jeong Woo Han


3rd Nikki Goldin

Senior Poetry 5th Larry Zhang
1st Michelle Tang

2nd Maddie Van Brunt
Oratory
3rd Amy Yao 1st Mina Nam
4th Dikla Taylor 2nd Rukmini Kalamangalam
5th Elise Lanier 3rd Abby Eastman


4th Lyle Derden

TV Commercial 6th Michelle Tang
1st Max Nathan

3rd Jeong Woo Han
Senior Prose


1st Dikla Taylor

Readers Theatre 2nd Maddie Muhlherr
6th Wayside School 3rd Michelle Tang


4th Elise Lanier

Duet Improv 5th Nikki Goldin
1st Athene DelVecchio & Vega Shah 6th Amy Yao
2nd Zibi Gugala & Jeong Woo Han




Senior Duet Acting

Storytelling 1st Maya Waterland & Amy Yao
3rd Stephanie Sonik 4th Katherine Nyquist & Ally Sun


5th Nikki Goldin & Kaitlyn Kelly

Impromptu Acting/Speaking

1st Lekha Sunder
Junior Duet Acting
2nd Nikki Goldin 8th Nicholas Abraham & Nathan Dunbar
3rd Noah Scantlebury

4th William Acheampong

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Bellaire Results


Novice Lincoln-Douglas Senior Impromptu
Travis Craig - Double-octos Olivia Cardenas - 3rd
Stephanie Oyolu - Double-octos




Novice Prose Novice Public Forum
Nikki Goldin - 5th Madeline Muhlherr & Vishnu Narayana Semifinalists

Rukmini Kalamangalam & Mina Nam Double-octos
Novice Extemp.

Vishnu Narayana - 4th

Stephanie Oyolu - 8th


Novice Duet Acting
Novice Impromptu Shelby Griffin & Madeline Muhlherr - 2nd
Cameron Biggart - 1st Kira Lam & Amy Yao - 3rd
Zibi Gugala - 5th Nikki Goldin & Kaitlyn Kelly - 5th

Ben Teague & Maddie Van Brunt - 6th

Monday, October 29, 2012

Westfield Schedule



Saturday, November 10, 2012

6:00                AM                          Meet at Lanier
6:15 AM                        Leave Lanier
7:30 AM                        Extemp Draw in Black Box Theatre
8:00-9:00 AM                Section A Prelims
9:00-10:00 AM             Section B Prelims
10:00-11:30 AM           Section C Prelims; Round I Debate
11:00-11:45                  Round II Debate
11:30-12:30 PM            Duet Acting/Duo Interp                                  
12:00-12:45                   Round III Debate                                         
12:30-2:00 PM               Semi-Finals A & B 
2:00-3:30 PM                  Semi-Finals C &D                                        
3:00-3:45                        Quarters for  Debate
4:00 PM                           Extemp Draw for Finals
4:30-6:00 PM                  Finals  A & B
6:00-7:00PM                   Semis for Debate
6:00-7:30 PM                  Finals C & D
7:00-7:45PM                   Finals for Debate
8:00 PM                           AWARDS CEREMONY!!
                                         (Could be sooner if possible)
9:30 PM                         Return to Lanier



Section A                                       Section B                               Section C                               Section D
Extemp $5                                     Oratory $5                            Pantomime $5                      Duet Acting $10
Declamation $5                            TV Commercial $5                Storytelling $5                      Lincoln-Douglas $10
Dramatic $5                                  Prose $5                                 Impromptu $5                      Public Forum $15
Poetry $5                                      Duet Improv $10                  Humorous $5
Lip-Sync $10                                 Readers Theatre $10         



UH Fall Results


Extemporaneous Speaking Senior Prose Junior Prose
Vishnu Narayana 1st Ali Potthast - 1st Magdalena Hill - 1st
Erin Sheena 2nd Ruth Ling - 2nd Kaylie O'Connell - 2nd
Jasmine Khadem 3rd Stephanie Oyolu - 3rd
Alex Hoyal 4th Stephanie Sonik - 4th Declamation
Will Acheampong 5th Jia Zhu - 5th Rukmini Kalamangalam - 1st
Robert Brown 6th Nikki Goldin - 6th



Senior Poetry Junior Poetry Junior Impromptu Speaking
Elise Lanier - 1st Sara Tin-U - 1st Sam Frank - 1st
Amy Yao - 2nd Adele Lauzon - 2nd Adele Lauzon - 3rd
Kira Lam - 3rd Katherine Nyquist - 4th Viviana Collymore - 4th
Jia Zhu - 4th
Blake Modlin - 5th
Michelle Tang - 5th

Maddie Muhlherr - 6th Senior Impromptu Speaking

Olivia Cardenas - 1st Dramatic
Oratory Erin Sheena - 2nd Ali Potthast - 2nd
Michelle Tang - 1st Robert Brown - 3rd Amy Yao - 3rd
Stacey Yard - 2nd Nikki Goldin - 4th Emma Bradley - 4th
Michael Hoyal - 5th Jasmine Khadem - 5th

Xena Toumajian - 6th



Dramatic Duo Humorous Storytelling
Lam & A.Yao - 1st Cameron Biggart - 1st Alisa Lu - 1st
Hinrich & Oentoro - 2nd Nikki Goldin - 2nd Maddie Muhlherr - 2nd
Nyquist & Sun - 3rd Jeong Woo Han - 3rd Stephanie Sonik - 3rd
Powers & Vogt - 4th Max Nathan - 4th

Jordan Hinrich - 5th

Michelle Rodriguez - 6th



Public Forum Debate Lincoln-Douglas Debate Congress
M.Hoyal & Muhlherr - 1st Justus Miles - Quarterfinals Andrew Hollenberg - 1st
A. Hoyal & Narayana - 2nd Travis Craig - Quarterfinals Olivia Cardenas - 2nd
Collymore & Dunn - Semis
Erin Sheena - 3rd
Sam Frank & Nick Gonzalez - Quarters Alan Ho - Finalist
Harit Pho & James Wei - Quarters Armon Tabibzadegan - Finalist


Curtis Yao - Finalist


Jasmine Khadem - Finalist


Leo Torres - Finalist


Marcos Coronado - Finalist


Matthew Fontenot - Finalist


Miguel Covarrubias - Finalist         

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

UH fall 2012 schedule



UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
October 12 & 13

Friday, Oct. 12
                    2:30 p.m.               Students report to the debate room
      2:45 p.m.            Leave Lanier
                    3:45 - 5:45          Congress Session I
                    4:30 - 6:00          LD/PF Round I
                    5:45 - 6:30          Congress Dinner Break
                    6:00 - 7:30          Debate Round II
                    6:30 - 8:30          Congress Session II
                    7:00 - 7:30          LD/PF Dinner Break
                    7:30 - 9:00          LD/PF Round III
                      9:30 p.m.              Bus returns to Lanier

Saturday, Oct. 13
                    7:15 a.m.                Leave Lanier Middle School
                    8:00                     Extemporaneous Speaking Draw
                    8:30 - 9:45           Section A Preliminary Round
                    9:45 - 11:00         Section B Preliminary Round
                   11:00 - 12:15        Section C Preliminary Round
                   12:15 - 1:45          Section D Preliminary Round LD/PF Quarter-Finals, Congress Finals,
                                                 Reader's Theatre Finals
                    1:45                      Extemporaneous Speaking Draw
                    2:00 - 3:30           Section A & B Semi-Finals
                    3:30 - 5:00           Section C & D Semi-Finals, LD/PF  
                                                 Semi-Finals
                    5:00                      Extemporaneous Speaking Draw
                    5:15 - 6:45           Section A, B, & Remaining C Finals
                    6:45 - 8:15           Section D Finals, PF/LD Finals,
                    8:45                     Tournament Awards Assembly
                    10:00 p.m.             Bus returns to Lanier