1. Can the U.S. solve its energy crisis in the next 40 years?
2. Will the recently brokered truce between Israel and Hamas hold?
3. Why did the Dow plunge on inauguration day?
4. How should the Chinese government deal with rising unemployment rates?
5. Why is the Likud Party benefiting from the Gaza offensive?
6. Should the world cut off aid to Rwanda after its incursions into the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
7. Will the Fiat-Chrysler strategic alliance benefit both sides?
8. Can U.S. airlines see a turnaround in 2009?
9. Is America more or less safe than January 2001 when President Bush first became president?
10. Will Obama face more trouble from the left or the right in his first term?
Category: U.S. Extemp Page 53 of 57
1. Will the Democrat’s decision to seat Burris cost them votes in 2010?
2. How will the federal governments projected deficit impact Barack Obama’s spending priorities?
3. Should Rudy Guiliani run for governor of New York?
4. What does the collapse of Satyam Computer Services say about Indian corporate governance?
5. Is President Bush responsible for the U.S. recession?
6. Will Taro Aso still be Japan’s prime minister by the end of 2009?
7. Would a successful Israeli invasion of Gaza bring the Israelis and Palestinians close to a peace accord?
8. Should Alvaro Uribe seek a third term as Colombia’s president?
9. What impact will Dr. Steven Chu have on America’s energy policy?
10. How can Europe best reduce its dependency on Russian natural gas supplies?
1. Can Israel win in Gaza?
2. Should the U.S. change the way it handles unemployment benefits?
3. Why has Blagojevich not been impeached?
4. Was Bangladesh’s vote fair?
5. Ten years on, has the euro achieved what it was supposed to?
6. Will the coup in Guinea bring positive change to the country?
7. Was Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta as the next CIA director a good one?
8. Should Obama take a stand in the Israeli-Hamas war?
9. Why are the Conservatives faltering in British political opinion polls?
10. How can U.S. schools get more math and science teachers?
Just when the drama in Illinois concerning Rod Blagojevich seemed to be running out of steam in the national press, the controversial and indicted governor gave it new momentum by defying Senate Democratic leaders and state lawmakers and appointing Roland Burris, a former state attorney general and former political primary opponent, to Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The appointment of Roland Burris has created constitutional questions about the ability of the U.S. Senate, considered one of the most elite clubs in the world, to select who it seats in its chamber and has ignited a racial element in national politics. It has also provided a tough maze for Democratic leaders to navigate without offending African-Americans, arguably the most loyal Democratic voting bloc.
This brief will provide extempers with some background information on Roland Burris, background on the appointment, and the implications his appointment has for national politics. These implications will hopefully help extempers zero in on the appropriate level of analysis necessary to answer questions tied to the Burris situation.
1. Which country will be the biggest threat to international security in 2009?
2. Should the Senate refuse to seat Burris?
3. Is Caroline Kennedy a qualified candidate for U.S. Senate?
4. Will the Israeli offensive in Gaza help or hinder future Middle East peace talks?
5. Should the EU intervene in the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute?
6. Will the winner of the Minnesota Senate race have a tainted victory?
7. Do Bulgaria’s problems mean that the EU should cease expansion plans for the near future?
8. Should China change its export driven economic model?
9. Are “obesity taxes” a good idea?
10. Will OPEC’s production cuts save the global economy from deflation?
1. How should Obama’s Senate seat be filled?
2. Can the Congress of the People Party successfully challenge the ANC in the 2009 South African elections?
3. Are higher cigarette taxes a good idea for tobacco growing states?
4. Would it be wise for Obama to overturn the Cuban embargo?
5. Will the Blagojevich scandal ruin Obama’s economic stimulus plan?
6. Can Michael Ignatieff guide the Liberal Party of Canada back to power?
7. Should U.S. policymakers be more fearful of hyperinflationary or deflationary pressure in the economy?
8. Why are communal tensions in the Philippines on the rise?
9. Should the Big 3 automakers be allowed to go bankrupt?
10. How will Obama’s counter-terror strategy differ from President Bush?
Last week, when it appeared that the Obama presidential transition would proceed as smoothly as possible in the midst of economic turmoil, two foreign wars, and a crisis of relations between India and Pakistan, the entire U.S. political climate was shaken to its core by the arrest of acting Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The controversy has been a distraction for the incoming Obama administration and his transition team has been beating a quiet message for the media, while circling the wagons to prevent any negative political fallout. The incident has also put into question Obama’s economic plan, worth up to $1 trillion, and has the implication of eventually altering the makeup of the U.S. Senate, at a time when Democrats assumed that Obama’s successor would be a Democratic candidate.
While controversy surrounding Blagojevich is not new, his accused actions of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat for future campaign cash or for personal gain as well as trying to eliminate editorial members of the Chicago Tribune who disagreed with him are some of the most brazen acts of political corruption the U.S. political system has ever seen and will most likely be talked about by extempers for years to come.
This brief will give some brief background on the scandal, actions being taken against the governor, and the political fallout of the scandal for the Obama administration and Illinois politics.
1. Is Somalia the next Afghanistan?
2. Does the print news industry deserve a government bailout?
3. After an outbreak of violence by Zimbabwe’s army, is Mugabe’s regime in its final days?
4. Is the world closing in to becoming victorious over the AIDS virus?
5. Will the raid by British authorities over Damian Green make the British public resistant to future laws that encroach on their civil liberties?
6. What can Hugo Chavez do to reduce Venezuela’s homicide rate?
7. Why is Greece seeing an outbreak of riots?
8. What was President Bush’s biggest foreign policy accomplishment?
9. Is Nepal’s decision to close down its private schools misguided?
10. Will Obama’s economic plan work?
1. Should the Senate intervene in the Minnesota Senate race?
2. Why is California in a fiscal emergency?
3. Should Britain join the euro?
4. To the U.S.: Is Turkey important??
5. Should Obama have campaigned for Martin?
6. What impact will the banning of the PPP have on Thai politics?
7. Are African nations coddling Omar al-Bashir?
8. What impact will the Mumbai attacks have on Indian politics?
9. Why did Obama keep Gates?
10. After eight years, what grade does the Bush administration deserve on its environmental report card?
1. Do Obama’s cabinet appointments echo his campaign’s message of “change” or do they simply create a Clinton restoration?
2. Why are countries wary of an IMF bailout?
3. Can a resolution to the conflict in Kashmir bring stability to Afghanistan?
4. Was Tom Daschle a better selection for Secretary of Health and Human Services than Howard Dean?
5. How can the U.S. improve civic education?
6. Was the government bailout of Citigroup justified?
7. Should Barack Obama make cuts in the defense budget?
8. Have the Venezuelan local election results provided Hugo Chavez with some needed political momentum?
9. How should the world bring Somali pirates to justice?
10. Will low oil prices now lead to a supply crunch later?
Domestic social issues are issues that extempers never want to discuss. Extempers dread walking into them and feel even worse after they have competed. Speaking on domestic social issues well is a fine balancing act between taking a moderate approach on issues, so as not to offend judges, and having a knowledge base that can cite specific examples of how approaches have worked in the past and could work better in the future.
This brief will be shorter than most, simply because the Thanksgiving holiday does not allow for any tournaments to occur this weekend. However, I would hope that most extempers would use the days off of school to get caught up on current events and knock out some heavy reading.
1. Does the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo warrant intervention by neighboring African states?
2. Should the international community launch a joint naval mission to protect commerce off of Somalia’s coast?
3. Why did Jerry Yang leave Yahoo?
4. Should the Republican Party stop its opposition to the auto industry bailout?
5. Is centrism growing in Latin America?
6. What should be Barack Obama’s first priority as President?
7. Is the world forcing Tibetans to become more violent in their struggle with China?
8. Are proposed constitutional changes in Russia necessary?
9. How should the Supreme Court rule in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum?
10. Will the Democrats achieve a filibuster proof majority in the Senate by the end of December?
Extempers have been busy over the last several months trying to understand the different elements of the current financial crisis. In the midst of understanding credit markets, bond markets, the $700 billion U.S. bailout package, and deteriorating housing market, it was easy to ignore the problems of one of the most crucial industries of the U.S. economy: the auto market. Within the last several weeks, the problems of the auto industry’s “Big Three”, General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and Ford have become dire, as the auto companies say they have spent most of the $15 billion they held in reserve during the third quarter. Faced with slumping sales at home and in the midst of restructuring their operations, GM has warned that without government aid it will not be able to make it through the year and Ford has warned that it will not last long into 2009 without government aid.
Faced with this situation, and a lame duck session of Congress, as well as for President Bush, you have the recipe for a tense political battle that will have ramifications far into the future. You also have the stage set for what will be the last major battle of the Bush presidency, and one that could make President Bush even more unpopular before he leaves office.
This brief will give a summary of the current woes facing the automakers, the different solutions proposed by each side, and ramifications for the eventual solutions that could be prescribed for the auto industry’s woes.
by Logan Scisco
The 2008 elections, an election cycle some extempers have been speaking about for the last two and a half years has finally come to a close. The election result, unlike 2000 and 2004, was announced at the end of evening, with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois becoming the first African-American to be elected as the President of the United States. Obama won the election by a large margin in the Electoral College, at last count 365 to Senator John McCain’s 162, and also won a commanding margin of the popular vote, 52% to 46% (independent candidate Ralph Nader won 1% of the vote). Obama’s share of the popular vote was the first time a Democratic candidate has won over 50% of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976.
Obama’s victory was accompanied by Democratic triumphs in Congressional races across the country. In the House of Representatives, Democrats expanded their majority by twenty seats and in the Senate, the Democrats added to their majority by six seats, with three races in Georgia, Minnesota, and Alaska being subject to recounts, absentee ballot counts, or runoffs. If the Democrats win all three of those contested races they would have a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which would be intact for the first two years of an Obama administration.
This topic brief will give a brief analysis of why Obama managed to win, why McCain lost the election, and where the Republican Party goes from here for the 2012 elections.
by Bill Thompson
Preface: While the point of this brief is not to advocate for Universal Healthcare, it is not an unfair expectation to suggest that children should NOT suffer medically because of their socio economic status. According to the US Census Bureau 34% of those in poverty in 2007 were children.
It is entirely possible that there is no task more daunting than trying to explain “Poverty” in a single extemp brief. Before I begin I would like to preface that I have a larger investment in this issue than most who will read this. For the last 7 years I have worked with homeless and abused teens in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. I have seen firsthand the toll that poverty has on its victims and the gravitational pull that it emits, making it at times like a blackhole pulling in those who get too close to it. Poverty is also not just an issue because of America’s current economic woes. “From 1975 to 2001, the U.S. child poverty rate did not go below 16%. For much of that time, the child poverty rate was at or above 20%.” (National Center for Children in Poverty, Low Income Children in the United States: A Brief Demographic Profile, March 2003)
I suggested this brief to Logan because in the 16 years I have judged extemp I can count on one hand the quality extemp speeches I have seen on the topic. This is due to a few causes: 1. Most extempers have an aversion to the subject that causes them not to take poverty questions or write them when they become coaches. 2. Those who do take poverty questions address them in a very narrow manner and do not understand the many facets of this subject. I say this because there is no way in a single brief that I will be able to adequately navigate all the causes and effects of poverty. However, it is my hope that by first addressing what poverty is and how it is measured and next the side effects of poverty on American citizens that those reading will have a better understanding of poverty and it’s toll on America.