Vote by Fri Aug 17 . . .

[Jim Hanson]

If you are coming to the NW Parli-IE Warmup . . .

Rank the below topic areas.
1 = best, 2 = second best, etc.
after 8, give everything else a 9.

Maximum of 8 votes per school (i'll average the scores after that; schools may request their one vote count as 8).

--email to me, Jim Hanson, at hansonjb@whitman.edu

--i reserve the right to make minor tweaks to the topic areas and to select topics for diversity and debatability even though the vote is the primary means of choosing the topic areas

--we will have 3 or 4 topic areas for the tournament (my goal is to keep the research burden as low as possible while keeping topic areas)

____ The USFG should end its trade agreement obligations for: NAFTA, DR-CAFTA, US - Israel FTAA, and/or US - Australia FTA.
____ The USFG should significantly improve its infrastructure in one or more of the following areas: road and highways, the energy grid, dams and bridges, and/or railways.
____ The US congress should implement the Dream Act, the Democrat’s “Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform,” and/or Gingrich’s proposal for citizenship for currently undocumented people in the United States.
____ The USFG should substantially reduce restrictions on one or more of the following: music piracy, television content, signal bandwidth.
____ The USFG should extend and/or expand the Violence Against Women Act.
____ The USFG should intervene in Syria.
____ The USFG should expand funding arts & sciences in primary education.
____ The USFG should take action to reduce class sizes, teacher turnover, and/or dropout rates.
____ The USFG should take action to reduce the influence of Sovereign Wealth Funds in America.
____ The United States should elect Mitt Romney or Barack Obama President in 2012.
____ The US should take action to curb the use of tax havens.
____ The US should take action to reduce global climate change.
____ The United States federal government should substantially increase protections against cyberterrorism and/or cyberwarfare in the United States.
____ The United States federal government should substantially increase its support for resource exploitation activities in Arctic Alaska.
____ The United States federal government should remove one or more dams on the Lower Snake River, Klamath River, and/or Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir.
____ The United States Department of Defense should restrict the use of its Air-Sea Battle Concept in East Asia.
____ The USFG should intervene in Mali.

[Jim Hanson]

reminder--vote by tomorrow, friday, aug 17.

[Jim Hanson]

the topic areas are:

____ The US congress should implement the Dream Act, the Democrat’s “Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform,” and/or Gingrich’s proposal for legal status for currently undocumented people in the United States. (citizenship changed to legal status)

____ The USFG should extend and/or expand the Violence Against Women Act.

____ The United States federal government should substantially increase protections against cyberterrorism and/or cyberwarfare in the United States.

[TH is Thor]

A clarification question:

When you say "Gingrich’s proposal for citizenship for currently undocumented people in the United States." do you mean the Red-Card Solution he proposed in the debates? If not is there a specific proposal this is in reference to?

[Jim Hanson]

see the 6th step of his 10 steps to a legal nation:
http://www.newt.org/solutions/immigration/

6. Create a path to earned legality for some of the millions of people who are here outside the law.

There are currently anywhere from 8 to 12 million people living in the United States who entered illegally.

These people range from day laborers who arrived recently, to grandparents who have been paying taxes, supporting their families and obeying the law for decades.

We need a system that enforces the rule of law, ensures that those who broke the law pay a stiff penalty, but also acknowledges that it is neither optimal nor feasible nor humane to deport every single illegal immigrant.

We need a path to legality, but not citizenship, for some of these individuals who have deep ties to America, including family, church and community ties. We also need a path to swift but dignified repatriation for those who are transient and have no roots in America.

We need a process that can distinguish at the human level.

Congress must charge the Department of Justice to establish a “citizens’ review” process for those here outside the law. It would establish committees to process these cases in individual communities and determine who will continue on this path to legality, and who will be sent home. Congress must define understandable, clear, objective legal standards that will be applied equally during this process. While this process is ongoing, those here outside the law will be granted Temporary Legal Status for a certain, limited period of time until all have had the opportunity to apply and appear in front of committees.

Applicants must first pass a criminal background check, and then the local committees will assess applications based on family and community ties, and ability to support oneself via employment without the assistance of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs.

The government will rigorously enforce a requirement that all individuals seeking this path to legality must be able to prove that they can independently pay for private health insurance. If an individual cannot prove this, they will lose the ability to stay in the United States.

Furthermore, proficiency in English within a certain number of years, similar to the requirement for naturalization, will be required for anyone who seeks continued legal status in the United States.

Once an applicant has been granted the right to obtain legal status, he or she will have to pay a penalty of at least $5,000.

Moving forward, those who receive this status will have to prove on a regular basis that they can support themselves without entitlement programs and pay for health insurance or else risk the ability to stay in the United States.

[Jim Hanson]

and as you will note, i have changed it to "legal status" so it no longer says citizenship.