Here is the multiple choice version of this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
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Here is your R&D for November 20th:
Europe Chooses Nobodies from Der Spiegel
Note: This article has a nice chart on the EU’s new structure.
A Tilt Away From Social Issues for the GOP from the New York Times
Mixed Messages from Asia (Interview) from the Council on Foreign Relations
‘Netanyahu wants Syria talks without delay, preconditions’ from The Jerusalem Post
The Battle for Angola’s Oil from Foreign Policy in Focus
Here are your answers to this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.
Extemp Central and the staff of the Ex Files wish all extempers competing at the Glenbrooks the best of luck. Remember that 100 National Points Race points will be awarded to the winner!
Check back on Monday for another great week of updates!
Yesterday, we began our discussion of the current Healthcare Debate in the first part of our topic brief. As we wrap up your week of preparation for The Glenbrooks, we dive in further to help you better understand some additional complexities concerning the debate.
by Logan Scisco
Abortion Debate
While the Republican Party fought a small civil war over the 23rd New York House district a couple of weeks ago, Democrats are gearing up for their own civil war over the abortion issue. One of the misconceptions made in the healthcare debate is that the Republican Party is pro-life and the Democratic Party is pro-choice. While it is true that it is hard to imagine the Republican Party rallying behind a pro-choice candidate (just ask Rudy Giuliani) or the Democratic Party rallying behind a pro-life candidate, both parties have a mixture of ideas about the abortion issue in their camps.
By Logan Scisco
Since the summer, the Obama administration has attempted to push healthcare reform through Congress. With 46 million Americans uninsured, the administration and its Democratic colleagues have emphasized the urgency of passing healthcare reform that would provide insurance to these individuals who do not possess insurance because of choice, their economic condition, or because a pre-existing medical condition excludes them from obtaining quality health insurance. The current economic situation in the country, where the official unemployment rate is the highest in 26 years at 10.2% (some have the actual number of unemployed at 17%), would seem to help the administration pass this reform. Another added advantage of the administration going into the healthcare debate is that the Democrats control both houses of Congress and have a crucial filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
However, Obama’s initial push to pass healthcare reform by the end of the summer bit the dust and when representatives went back to their constituents they faced hostile town meetings. While the media debated the merits of these meetings, they showed how divisive healthcare reform can be as violence was reported at some of the town halls and one man even had a finger bit off. Furthermore, although the House of Representatives succeeded shortly after the 2009 elections in passing a healthcare bill, the Senate is facing a series of complications in ensuring healthcare reform can clear its chamber.
This topic brief will provide an updated focus on the healthcare debate. It will examine the future of the public option, the new controversy involving abortion in the healthcare legislation, and the chances of the Democrats getting a healthcare bill through the Senate.
As a side note, I cannot recommend enough that extempers read as much as possible about the healthcare debate, looking at medical journals such as the American Journal of Medicine and other publications to get a sense of the problems that effect American healthcare. It would also be wise for extempers to read about other “national” healthcare systems that exist in Canada, Great Britain, and France because comparisons in speeches are never a bad idea.
Interview by Logan Scisco
At the 2009 NFL National Tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, Evan Larson of Bellarmine College Prep anchored the best extemp squad at the tournament and emerged as the United States Extemporaneous Speaking National Champion. A two-time champion at the California Invitational, a two-time California state champion in United States extemp, an MBA Round Robin Exhibition Round participant, a three-time national finalist, and CFL runner-up, Larson agreed to sit down for an interview to discuss his extemp career and provide advice for those wishing to compete at the highest level in extemp.
Logan Scisco: Thanks for doing this interview with us Evan. The first question to get us started here is how did you get started in extemp?
Evan Larson: Kim Jones, my team’s head coach, teaches a class for freshman that goes over the fundamentals of public speaking and debate. It’s a great resource for newcomers that are just getting started in speech. The students practice policy debate and then choose an IE event to work with. I chose domestic extemp during rhetoric class and I competed in it all four years. I think I was drawn to extemp because I wanted to speak on new topics, rather than memorizing a speech. I was also drawn to the current events element of extemp— I like talking about politics. Finally, as you may have already ascertained, I am both tedious and longwinded. In any other speaking event, this would be an extreme disadvantage, in extemp, it may have given me the competitive edge.
Here is your R&D top five for November 19th:
Iran nuclear deal collapses. Time for US to get tough? from The Christian Science Monitor
Senate Health Plan Seeks to Add Coverage to 31 Million from the New York Times
Battle of the Budget Bulge from the Pew Research Center
Foreign Aid Not Good for Africa from The Zimbabwe Herald
Venezuela Opposition Under Pressure to Consolidate Before Election Run-Up from the Latin American Herald Tribune
by Stacey Chen
The Glenbrooks is one of the largest tournaments of the year in both speech and debate events, as well as one of the most fun! Extemp at Glenbrooks generally contains a fairly large and diverse pool of extempers from across the country. It is also “mixed” extemp, which may be different for extempers who come from districts that regularly split between “domestic” and “international” extemp. Although the size and quality of the field, as well as a possible switch to combined extemp, can be intimidating, there are a few things you can do to prepare well for the tournament and enjoy the experience rather than stressing out.
Preparation for the Glenbrooks was pretty standard for me because my district did not split between USX and IX. The rounds at Glenbrooks alternate between foreign and domestic topic areas, so it is important to prepare for both types of questions equally. Be sure to read and file articles from major publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, etc as usual. Many questions will be drawn from the headlines of these papers in the few weeks leading up to the tournament. On the domestic front, it is also useful to find smaller regional papers for more specific issues (e.g. The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, etc). For international issues, also try to include source diversity with articles from news sources like Der Spiegel, AllAfrica.com, The South China Morning Post, The Council on Foreign Relations, etc. These publications should give you a solid base of background knowledge and recent events; for more advanced extempers, delving into journals ranging from Foreign Affairs to Current History to The Washington Quarterly will provide you with a deeper theoretical knowledge for analysis. If you are just beginning to extemp or do not have enough time to devote to searching for journal articles, however, it may be much more beneficial to focus on covering major newspapers first. Although it is always helpful to have detailed and specific articles, do not waste time on obscure happenings in, say, Moldova, when you could be bolstering your Iran file.
Here is your R&D top five for November 18th:
The U.S.-China Economic Relationship: Separating Facts from Myths from the Council on Foreign Relations
She’ll Be Back: Sarah Palin and the State of the Republican Party from the Economist
3 Democrats Could Block Health Bill in Senate from the New York Times
Iraq VP vetoes new election law from the BBC
The worst is yet to come: Unemployed Americans should hunker down for more job losses from the New York Daily News
1. Has the UN food summit been a failure?
2. Does the status of Franco-German relations dictate the direction and power of the EU?
3. Should Brown back Blair for EU president?
4. Does Uribe need to do more to protect labor unions?
5. How likely are Kurds to boycott the Iraqi elections?
6. Does Latin America have a role to play in the Middle East peace process?
7. Is China gaining a significant amount of influence on U.S. domestic policy?
8. What is behind Russia’s preemptive nuclear strike policy?
9. Should Cambodia have extradited Shinawatra?
10. What is the purpose of Chavez’s threats of war with Colombia?
by Logan Scisco
Just like last year, the Extemp Central National Points Race is close heading into the Glenbrooks this weekend. No extemper has managed to gain points at more than one of the first three tournaments that count for points in the season: Wake Forest, Yale, and St. Mark’s. Similarly, the National Teams Points Race is close going into Glenbrooks thanks to several teams gaining multiple finalists at the first three major national circuit tournaments of the year.
The Glenbrooks should serve to shake out the rankings better prior to the George Mason University Patriot Games tournament which will be the last tournament that will count for points in the National Points Race for the first semester. The Glenbrooks will award 100 points to the winner since it is a third tier tournament and with many recognized names attending someone could break away from the field by the end of next weekend. Similarly, if someone who is not ranked wins Glenbrooks and most of the top half of the current National Points Race field fails to find, we could end up with some very jumbled standings heading into George Mason and the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin in two months.
Illinois as drawn by Sen. Durbin (D-IL)
by Corey Alderdice
I would be willing to wager that–as an extemper–you could identify every US state on a map. We even think you’re smart enough to name all the state capitals in five minutes.
US Senators, well, that’s another story. To help kick off Geography Awareness Week, National Geographic invited all 100 U.S. Senators to draw a map of their home state from memory and to label at least three important places. Here’s the gallery of maps from the brave Senators who took the challenge. The maps reveal home-state pride, personal history, and even some geographic humor.
The National Geographic Blog has some fun insight into the experiment:
But we knew that senators could offer additional insight with their own sketches, and they didn’t disappoint. We haven’t heard from all 100 yet, but the first batch of responses are great fun! Our fledgling mapmakers highlighted hometowns and natural wonders, local sports teams and major industries, the birthplaces of their children and their own childhood hangouts. Even comic book heroes showed up: See the contribution above from Richard Durbin of Illinois, who put the self-proclaimed home of Superman on the map.
Check out the growing map yourself. If you’ve got a minute or two to spare, keep on reading to see a video of Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) draw a map of the United States from memory.
Here is your R&D top five for November 17th:
N.A.A.C.P. Prods Obama on Job Losses from The New York Times
Nuclear Agency Warns of More Iran Plants from The Wall Street Journal
Reid considers raising Medicare tax for high earners from The Los Angeles Times
Why the Afghan Surge Will Fail from Foreign Policy in Focus
GOP Dark Horses for 2012 from RealClearPolitics
1. Is Obama making a major political mistake in putting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in U.S. federal court?
2. Does Lou Dobbs departure from CNN spell trouble for the network’s future?
3. Will the Stupak amendment sink healthcare reform?
4. How will the filibustering of David Hamilton impact Obama’s selection of judicial nominees?
5. Is it too late for Obama to get serious about cutting federal spending?
6. After a dismal showing in the New York mayoral race, has Bloomberg ceased to be a presidential threat?
7. Is Bernanke’s insistence on having low interest rates negatively impacting the dollar?
8. Will GM ever make a profit again?
9. How can the U.S. Postal Service be saved?
10. Will David Paterson’s attacks on Obama pay off?
By Logan Scisco
Of all of the techniques speakers use in extemporaneous speaking, I would argue that one that nearly half of extempers fail to employ is the significance statement. I will admit that for the first two years that I competed in the event I had no idea what a significance statement was and it was only by competing at CFL and NFL Nationals that I saw speakers using it. However, a significance statement is arguably the most important piece of the introduction as it gives your speech a sense of urgency and can establish as powerful a connection with the audience as an effective attention getting device (AGD).
A significance statement is simply a statement in the introduction that comes after you have given some background information on your question. This statement, which is only a sentence (although sometimes it can be stressed to two) describes why your topic is so important that we must find an answer to it. As a judge, one of the questions that always lingers in my mind when an extemper starts speaking on an issue is why they chose the question. After all, in draw they had three questions to choose from so why did they choose this topic to speak on? What made this issue so relevant/urgent that they needed to give a speech on it for their audience? These are the questions that the significance statement needs to answer.
Before I clarify further I need to debunk one myth about the significance statement. The significance statement does not always need to be a source in the introduction. Sometimes it can be analytic based (without a source). Similarly, all sources in the introduction is not a significance statement. You may have a source that identifies the rate of U.S. employment, how fast the U.S. economy grew last quarter, or how many Democrats voted against the healthcare bill but if you do not tell the audience why those issues are relevant to your question they cease to have meaning. Also, if you fail to explain why they are important in the “big picture” and why the audience should care about them they cease to have meaning.
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