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ASPEC Card
Agent specification is key to policymaking
GAO, June 13, 2006 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06751r.pdf
After the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March 2003, two legacy enforcement
agencies—the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Customs Service (USCS)—
were among the 22 federal agencies brought together within DHS. 1 This transformation in turn merged
the legacy INS and USCS investigators 2 into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of
Investigations (OI), and legacy INS and USCS inspectors, 3 among others, into Customs and Border Protection
(CBP). It has been nearly 3 years since the merger and efforts to integrate thousands of federal employees within
ICE and CBP continue. You raised questions about ongoing human capital challenges brought about by the
integration of legacy enforcement employees within ICE and CBP. In prior work, we have reported on the
management and human capital challenges DHS faces as it merges the workforces of legacy agencies, including
the need to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the new agencies, the difficulty of legacy staff operating
from separate locations, and how it decides to allocate investigative resources. 4
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Generic Agencies Fail
Regulatory agencies empirically fail—inherent problems
Tibor Machan, Chair in Business Ethics & Free Enterprise at Chapman University's Argyros School, research
fellow @ Pacific Research Institute & Hoover Institution 6/29/09“The reality of regulatory agencies”
The confidence shown in regulators in the first statement seems to me to be plainly undermined by the
historical claim in the second, one that seems to follow from a certain plausible understanding of public choice
theory, actually — ignoring rather than investigating warnings would come naturally to those who are,
whether consciously or not, embarking upon vested interest dealing, in this instance working for regulations to
continue instead of doing what might make them unnecessary in time. Regulators have a good job, and it is no
surprise that they might work not so much to fix problems they perceive in the marketplace but to keep
working at what keeps them employed and well fed. In free markets, to the extent that they exist, such vested
interest dealings are checked by competition and budgetary constraints (to the extent these are not thwarted
by government policies that often produce monopolies). A shoe repairer may be tempted to fix shoes not quite as
well as they need to be fixed but just enough that they will last a while but need to be returned for further repair.
Indeed, automobile repairers are often suspected of this. What, apart from conscientiousness, keeps such folks on
the straight and narrow is competition, the knowledge that if they don't do the work well enough someone else will
jump in to do so. One main reason that bureaucracies are generally sluggish and unenthusiastic about
serving the public — as distinct from private vendors — is this element of constant competition, combined with
the fact that bureaucrats gain their income from taxes, which can often be raised with impunity by those who hire
them. What public choice theorists claim is that bureaucrats have a far better opportunity to yield to the
temptation of malpractice than are those in the private sector. The theory does not claim that all bureaucrats
are cheats and all those in the private sector are professionally responsible. But it identifies an evident tendency
and shows it to exist through the study of economic and political history. Common sense supports this, as well,
when most people notice that if they go to, say, the Department of Motor Vehicles (one of the more visible
government outfits), they mostly get a reluctant, bored, at times even curmudgeonly treatment, whereas in
the private sector the routine tends to be eagerness to serve, to generate and keep business. There is an element
about public choice theory that economists do not emphasize often enough, namely that the objectives of
regulators are often very obscure, unclear, even contradictory. For example, governments often embark on
historical preservation but at the same time they are supposed to make sure that building and other facilities are
properly managed, kept safe, etc. But historical preservation mostly require keeping things in their original form,
while the pursuit of safety involves making use of the most up-to-date technology and science. One can
generalize this kind of conflict within government policies all over the place — which is what accounts for
vigilant propaganda against smoking while tobacco farmers keep receiving government subsidies.
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NGO’s Key Federal Sucess
NGO’s the number one internal to federal government success
Booz Allen Hamilton, leading consulting firm, helps government clients solve their toughest problems “The Role of Mission
Integration in the Federal Government” Nov 5, 2008 http://www.acuf.org/issues/issue121/081201news.asp
An Increasingly Complex Environment Federal agencies are no longer communities unto themselves—
technology and globalization have created greater interdependence between NGOs and the private sector.
Respondents in every federal sector, from agriculture and energy to defense, describe their mission as “very
complex.” Furthermore, 88 percent of respondents report that the complexity of their missions requires collaboration with other federal agencies or third parties outside the government structure. The need for
increasingly integrated and complex misions will increase in the coming years. More than 84 percent of
respondents believe that their mission’s complexity has increased dramatically since 2000. Furthermore, they
recognize complexity and mission integration as vital to mission success. According to respondents, joint
missions will be increasingly critical in the future for agencies to meet mission goals. Nearly three quarters of
respondents (73 percent) believe that by 2012 joint missions will play a greater role in their agency’s ability to
achieve mission success. A full 50 percent of respondents believe their missions will become “significantly more
integrated” over time. The Need for Mission Integration In an era of pervasive complexity, mission success is
increasingly dependent on mission integration. Federal agencies need to draw on a diverse mix of specialties
and capabilities, work across organizational boundaries, and operate from deliberate plans with
accountability for clear, measurable results.
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Administration for Children and Families
Administration for Children, has jurisdiction over asylum children
Chriss McGann June 19, 2003 “U.S. gives harsh welcome to children seeking asylum”
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/127345_juv19.html.
Responsibility of care for unaccompanied immigrant children was transferred in March from the INS to the
Office of Refugee Relocation a division of the Administration of Children and Families in the Department of
Health and Human Services.
ACF fails at implementation
GAO December 2002 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d039.pdf
ACF conducts much of its work through nonfederal service providers, which often limits the extent to
which ACF can influence national performance goals and can seriously complicate data collection. To
address this, ACF has successfully collaborated with providers to develop national performance goals and build
data collection capacity. This has also raised awareness of the importance of collecting and reporting
performance data uniformly
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Agriculture Department
Agriculture department has internal problems and performance gaps
GAO-09-650T 6/29/09 “U.S. Department of Agriculture: Recommendations and Options Available to the New
Administration and Congress to Address Long-Standing Civil Rights Issues” Summary
ASCR's difficulties in resolving discrimination complaints persist--ASCR has not achieved its goal of
preventing future backlogs of complaints. At a basic level, the credibility of USDA's efforts has been and
continues to be undermined by ASCR's faulty reporting of data on discrimination complaints and disparities
in ASCR's data. Even such basic information as the number of complaints is subject to wide variation in ASCR's
reports to the public and the Congress. Moreover, ASCR's public claim in July 2007 that it had successfully
reduced a backlog of about 690 discrimination complaints in fiscal year 2004 and held its caseload to manageable
levels, drew a questionable portrait of progress. By July 2007, ASCR officials were well aware they had not
succeeded in preventing future backlogs--they had another backlog on hand, and this time the backlog had surged
to an even higher level of 885 complaints. In fact, ASCR officials were in the midst of planning to hire additional
attorneys to address that backlog of complaints including some ASCR was holding dating from the early 2000s
that it had not resolved. In addition, some steps ASCR had taken may have actually been counter-productive and
affected the quality of its work. For example, an ASCR official stated that some employees' complaints had been
addressed without resolving basic questions of fact, raising concerns about the integrity of the practice.
Importantly, ASCR does not have a plan to correct these many problems. USDA has published three annual
reports--for fiscal years 2003, 2004, and 2005--on the participation of minority farmers and ranchers in USDA
programs, as required by law. USDA's reports are intended to reveal the gains or losses that these farmers have
experienced in their participation in USDA programs. However, USDA considers the data it has reported to be
unreliable because they are based on USDA employees' visual observations about participant's race and ethnicity,
which may or may not be correct, especially for ethnicity. USDA needs the approval of the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) to collect more reliable data. ASCR started to seek OMB's approval in 2004, but as of May
2008 had not followed through to obtain approval. ASCR staff will meet again on this matter in May 2008. GAO
found that ASCR's strategic planning is limited and does not address key steps needed to achieve the Office's
mission of ensuring USDA provides fair and equitable services to all customers and upholds the civil rights of its
employees. For example, a key step in strategic planning is to discuss the perspectives of stakeholders. ASCR's
strategic planning does not address the diversity of USDA's field staff even though ASCR's stakeholders told GAO
that such diversity would facilitate interaction with minority and underserved farmers. Also, ASCR could better
measure performance to gauge its progress in achieving its mission. For example, it counts the number of
participants in training workshops as part of its outreach efforts rather than access to farm program benefits and
services. Finally, ASCR's strategic planning does not link levels of funding with anticipated results or
discuss the potential for using performance information for identifying USDA's performance gaps.
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Department of Health and Human Services
Conscience rule acts as a bureaucratic barrier to health care
Medical News Today, 22 Dec 2008 “HHS 'Conscience' Rule Creates 'Huge Bureaucratic Barrier,' Opinion
Piece Says” http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/133861.php
The HHS "conscience" rule is "a huge bureaucratic barrier to health care -- a barrier the incoming Obama
administration will find difficult to remove," a Philadelphia Daily News editorial says. The editorial notes that
several state laws "already protect the 'right to conscience' of doctors and nurses not to perform abortions. But
federal laws also protec[t] the rights of patients to legal health care." It continues that the new rule would "choose
the former over the latter, and also remove protections for the 584,294 federally funded medical entities -hospitals, doctors' offices and pharmacies -- that might find it an 'undue burden' to pay employees who refuse to do
the work for which they were hired." According to the editorial, it will cost about $44 million annually for
medical entities to certify compliance with the rule, which "doesn't include the cost in pain and confusion, and
maybe litigation, that would come with allowing health care workers to decide who is worthy of receiving what
care." The editorial continues that the rule demonstrates that the Bush administration "doesn't care about the
objections of doctors or hospitals or patients -- but what about the approximately 70 million Americans who voted
Nov. 4 to let Barack Obama lead the nation? Apparently, they don't matter either." To undo the regulation,
Congress could "resort" to using the Congressional Review Act, "which has been used only once," the
editorial says. The other option would be for incoming HHS Secretary Tom Daschle to "restart the rule-making
process," which would "take months," according to the editorial. It adds, "The Obama team has signaled that it is
ready to go this route, with the inevitable political divisiveness -- and who knows how many individuals who won't
get the health care or information they need?" The editorial concludes that the HHS rule provides "[m]ore proof
that George W. Bush's historic unpopularity is the only thing he's ever earned" (Philadelphia Daily News, 12/18).
HHS is to large to be effective
GAO, March 18, 1997 Department of Health and Human Services: Management Challenges and Opportunities
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/he97098t.pdf
In summary, the first challenge HHS faces is its ability to define its mission, objectives, and measures of success
and increase its accountability to taxpayers. Because of the size and scope of its mission and the resulting
organizational complexity, managing and coordinating HHS’ programs so that the public gets the best
possible results are especially difficult. The Department has eleven operating divisions responsible for more
than 300 diverse programs. HHS has not always succeeded in managing the wide range of activities its
agencies carry out or fixing accountability for meeting the goals of its mission. Another complicating factor
is that HHS needs to work with the governments of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to implement
its programs, in addition to thousands of private- sector grantees. Developing better ways of managing is
essential if HHS is to meet its goals.
HHS is too vulnerable to exploitation
GAO, March 18, 1997 Department of Health and Human Services: Management Challenges and Opportunities
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/he97098t.pdf
Finally, HHS’ responsibilities require it to constantly combat fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.
HHS has several programs that are vulnerable to such exploitation. For example, the size and nature of
Medicare, which accounts for over half of HHS’ total budget, make this program particularly vulnerable. HHS
needs to be vigilant now and in the future because its programs will probably continue to be the targets of fraud
and abuse and because waste and mismanagement can have such serious effects on taxpayers and program
beneficiaries.
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Department of Education
The DOE is a total failure
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
The inevitable pattern of bureaucracy is to grow bigger and bigger. The Department of Education should be
eliminated now, before it evolves into an even larger entity consuming more and more resources that could
be better spent by parents themselves. 7. The $47.6 billion spent each year by the Department of Education
could be much better spent if it were simply returned to the American people in the form of a tax cut. Parents
themselves could then decide how best to spend that money. 8. The Department of Education has a record of
waste and abuse. For example, the department reported losing track of $450 million during three
consecutive General Accounting Office audits. 9. The Department of Education is an expensive failure that
has added paperwork and bureaucracy but little value to the nation’s classrooms.
The DOE is inefficient and wasteful
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
The NCLBA provides the Department of Education with $26.5 billion for spending on the program and
perpetuates most of the old federal education programs, most of which are ineffective and wasteful. The total
could climb to $37 billion a year by the end of the six-year authorization period. If past experience is any guide,
those dollars will go primarily to feeding the hungry bureaucracy and will have little positive impact on
public school students. Instead of decreasing the role of the federal government in education, the NCLBA allows
the federal government to intervene more than ever in what should be strictly a local and state matter. While the
act provides school districts with increased flexibility in spending some of their federal subsidies, mandated testing
and staff restructuring represent an unprece- dented usurpation of the authority of local communities to run their
own schools. During his presidential campaign, Bush emphasized that he did not want to become the ‘‘federal
superintendent of schools.’’ But the NCLBA gives the president and the federal government far too much power
over local schools and classrooms. Instead of proposing more top-down fixes for education, the president
should use his position to push for the return of control of education to states and localities and urge statelevel reforms that return the control of education to parents.
Federal action deters key state and local governments
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
2. No matter how brilliantly designed a federal government program may be, it creates a uniformity among
states that is harmful to creativity and improvement. Getting the federal government out of the picture
would allow states and local governments to create better ways of addressing education issues and problems.
Congress is to far away from local needs
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
Since most information about the problems and challenges of education is present at the local level,
Congress simply does not have the ability to improve learning in school classrooms thou- sands of miles
away. These problems are best understood and addressed by local authorities and parents.
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States Solve Education
State action solves best—states model other states
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
The way for Congress to improve American education is to step aside and let the states experiment with
choice in a variety of ways. Some will expand charter schools or experiment with private management. Others
will institute scholarship tax credits, parental tax credits, or vouchers either on a limited basis or open to all
students. The most successful policies and programs will be emulated by other states.
State programs have better educational effectiveness
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
3. If education were left at the local level, parents would become more involved in reform efforts.
Differences in school effective- ness among states and communities would be noted, and other regions would
copy the more effective programs and policies.
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Department of Interior
Infrastructure problems prevent DOI productivity
GAO “Department of Interior” Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Interior also faces a challenge in adequately maintaining its facilities and infrastructure. The department
owns, builds, purchases, and contracts services for assets such as visitor centers, schools, office buildings, roads,
bridges, dams, irrigation systems, and reservoirs; however, repairs and maintenance on these facilities have not
been adequately funded. The deterioration of facilities can impair public health and safety, reduce
employees’ morale and productivity, and increase the need for costly major repairs or early replacement of
structures and equipment. In November 2008, the department estimated that the deferred maintenance backlog
for fiscal year 2008 was between $13.2 billion and $19.4 billion (see table 1). Interior is not alone in facing
daunting maintenance challenges. In fact, we have identified the management of federal real property, including
deferred maintenance issues, as a government wide high-risk area since 2003.23
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Department of Interior (Natives Link)
The aff falls under the department of interior
GAO “Department of Interior” Tuesday, March 3, 2009
BIA is the primary federal agency charged with implementing federal Indian policy and administering the
federal trust responsibility for about 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. BIA provides basic services
to 562 federally recognized Indian tribes throughout the United States, including natural resources management on
about 54 million acres of Indian trust lands. Trust status means that the federal government holds title to the land
in trust for tribes or individual Indians; land taken in trust is no longer subject to state and local property taxes and
zoning ordinances. In 1980, the department established a regulatory process intended to provide a uniform
approach for taking land in trust.14 While some state and local governments support the federal government’s
taking additional land in trust for tribes or individual Indians, others strongly oppose it because of concerns about
the impacts on their tax base and jurisdictional control. We reported in July 2006 that while BIA generally
followed its regulations for processing land in trust applications from tribes and individual Indians, it had no
deadlines for making decisions on them.15 Specifically, the median processing time for the 87 land in trust
applications with decisions in fiscal year 2005 was 1.2 years—ranging from 58 days to almost 19 years. We
recommended, among other things, that the department move forward with adopting revisions to the land in trust
regulations that include (1) specific time frames for BIA to make a decision once an application is complete
and (2) guidelines for providing state and local governments more information on the applications and a longer
period of time to provide meaningful comments on the applications. While the department agreed with our
recommendations, it has not revised the land in trust regulations.
BIA is the department of interior
FCC – Federal Communications Commision 11/26/08 “Department of Interior (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA)” http://www.fcc.gov/indians/internetresources/bia.html.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (www.doi.gov/bia) is responsible for the administration of federal programs for
federally recognized Indian tribes, and for promoting Indian self-determination. In addition, the Bureau has a trust
responsibility emanating from treaties and other agreements with Native groups. Indian Affairs (IA) is the oldest
bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. Established in 1824, IA currently provides services
(directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts) to approximately 1.7 million American Indians and Alaska
Natives. There are 562 federally recognized American Indian tribes and Alaska Natives in the United States.
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is responsible for the administration and management of 66 million acres of land
held in trust by the United States for American Indian, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives. Bureau of Indian
Education (BIE) provides education services to approximately 44,000 Indian students. The mission of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) is to: "… enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the
responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives."
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Department of Interior (U.S. Territories DA)
A. Department of interior has jurisdiction over U.S. territories
GAO “Department of Interior” Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Secretary of the Interior has varying responsibilities to the island communities of American Samoa, Guam,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, all of which are U.S. territories—
as well as to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau,
which are sovereign nations linked with the United States through Compacts of Free Association. The Office of
Insular Affairs (OIA), which carries out the department’s responsibilities for the island communities, is to assist the
island communities in developing more efficient and effective government by providing financial and technical
assistance and to help manage relations between the federal government and the island governments by promoting
appropriate federal policies. The island governments have had long-standing financial and program management
deficiencies.
B. Not only is federal aid insufficient, but it creates dependency and ruins local economies
GAO “Department of Interior” Tuesday, March 3, 2009
In December 2006, we reported on serious economic, fiscal, and financial accountability challenges facing
American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.16
The economic challenges stem from dependence on a few key industries, scarce natural resources, small
domestic markets, limited infrastructure, shortages of skilled labor, and reliance on federal grants to fund basic
services. In addition, efforts to meet formidable fiscal challenges and build strong economies are hindered by
financial reporting that does not provide timely and complete information to management and oversight
officials for decision making. As a result of these problems, numerous federal agencies have designated these
governments as “high- risk” grantees. To increase the effectiveness of the federal government’s assistance to
these island communities, we recommended, among other things, that the department increase coordination
activities with other federal grant-making agencies on issues of common concern relating to the insular area
governments. The department agreed with our recommendations, stating that they were consistent with OIA’s top
priorities and ongoing activities. We will continue to monitor OIA’s actions on our recommendations.
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Housing and Urban Development
HUD policies get co-opted by financial regulators
Ralph Nader, April 26, 2004 “Bureaucratic Impediments to a Much Needed Integrated Urban Policy”
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0426-04.htm
HUD has been looked on as the "urban department," but the ills and the needs of urban communities cut
across a wide swath -- health, transportation, education, business development, the environment. HUD remains
essentially a housing agency and even this responsibility has been scattered across the federal government.
Similarly, on Capitol Hill urban policies land under the jurisdiction of multiple standing committees, not just the
Senate and House Banking Committees with jurisdiction over HUD.
The giants of housing finance -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and the financial regulators like the Federal
Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of Thrift
Supervision - exercise immense power over housing and urban policy - probably more so than HUD. The
Community Reinvestment Act, for example, requires banks and thrifts to help meet the credit needs of their
communities. It's requirements are enforced by financial regulators interested in safety and soundness of
federally insured institutions, not urban policy. As a result, only a handful of institutions fail to get passing
and outstanding grades on their efforts to help finance housing. And HUD has no role despite the myth that
it holds all the keys to urban policy.
HUD has no authority—trapped in bureaucratic hurdles
Ralph Nader, April 26, 2004 “Bureaucratic Impediments to a Much Needed Integrated Urban Policy”
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0426-04.htm
HUD has to be an important cog in any new efforts to establish a workable urban-metropolitan policy, but it is
folly to look on the department as the centerpiece. Urban needs extend beyond affordable housing. Jimmy
Carter was wise in broadening the scope to include other Cabinet offices in the urban policy mix, but he left HUD
as the key decision maker. In the end the other Cabinet offices began to worry that their funds, staff and power
would be eroded. And in such situations, the officeholders always decide to scuttle the ship. This bureaucratic
hurdle has to be removed if we truly are interested in developing and managing an urban policy which
stretches across the interconnected problems of housing, health, transportation, education, jobs and livable wages.
With nearly 80 percent of the nation's citizens living in urban-metropolitan areas, it is time to establish a
new office that recognizes the real world in the 21st Century-an office with the authority to coordinate the
disparate facets of federal programs which affect the overwhelming number of our citizens. An UrbanMetropolitan Coordinator should be established under the President in a manner similar to that of the Council of
Economic Advisors and the Office of Management and Budget with the authority to recommend, review and
coordinate programs and budgets with a direct impact on urban-metropolitan areas. Only with such a structure
can we place the full force of the federal bureaucracy behind an urban policy worthy of the name.
HUD mismanages funds
GAO June 09 “PUBLIC HOUSING HUD’s Oversight of Housing Agencies Should Focus More on
Inappropriate Use of Program Funds” GAO-09-33
Further, HUD has stated that its analysis of housing agency financial data is primarily intended to ensure the accuracy of the information that
is used to calculate the housing agencies’ PHAS scores and not to identify at-risk housing agencies. Our analysis of housing agency financial
data illustrates how such data could be leveraged to identify housing agencies at greater risk of inappropriate
use or mismanagement of public housing funds that neither PHAS nor the department’s current approach
to analyzing financial data would detect. For example, our analysis of PHAS and financial data from 2002 through 2006 found
that 200 housing agencies had written checks that exceeded the funds available in their bank accounts (bank overdrafts) by $25,000 or more—
indicating a potential that these housing agencies could have serious cash and financial management problems and could be prone to increased
risk of fraudulent use of funds. However, 75 percent of these agencies received passing PHAS scores. Although HUD has focused
its efforts on the challenges of improving the quality of single audits, the department has not taken steps to
develop mechanisms to mitigate the limitations of its oversight processes. Without fully leveraging the audit
and financial information it collects, the department limits its ability to identify housing agencies that are at
greater risk of inappropriately using or mismanaging program funds.
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Department of labor
Falls under the department of labor
Department of Labor July 6, 2009 “III. DOL Mission and Agency Functions”
http://www.dol.gov/osbp/pubs/dolbuys/mission.htm
The Department's many activities affect virtually every man, woman, and child in our country. Such activities
include protecting the wages, health and safety, employment, and pension rights of working people;
promoting equal employment opportunity; providing job training, unemployment insurance and workers'
compensation; strengthening free collective bargaining; and collecting, analyzing, and publishing labor statistics.
Although created to help working people, the Department's services and information benefit many other groups
such as employers, business organizations, civil rights groups, government agencies at all levels, and the academic
community. Its enforcement activities and job training services, in particular, affect large numbers of people
who are not currently working. As the Department seeks to assist all Americans who need and want work,
special efforts are made to meet the unique job market requirements of older workers, youths minority group
members, women, the disabled, and other groups.
The DOL is massively incompetent –GAO sting operations prove
Steven Greenhouse 5/25/09 “Labor Agency Is Failing Workers, Report Says” New York Times
The federal agency charged with enforcing minimum wage, overtime and many other labor laws is failing in
that role, leaving millions of workers vulnerable, Congressional auditors have found.
In a report scheduled to be released Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office found that the agency,
the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, had mishandled 9 of the 10 cases brought by a team of
undercover agents posing as aggrieved workers. In one case, the division failed to investigate a complaint that
under-age children in Modesto, Calif., were working during school hours at a meatpacking plant with dangerous
machinery, the G.A.O., the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, found. When an undercover agent posing as a
dishwasher called four times to complain about not being paid overtime for 19 weeks, the division’s office in
Miami failed to return his calls for four months, and when it did, the report said, an official told him it would take
8 to 10 months to begin investigating his case. “This investigation clearly shows that Labor has left thousands
of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn,” the report
said. “Unfortunately, far too often the result is unscrupulous employers’ taking advantage of our country’s
low-wage workers.” The report pointed to a cavalier attitude by many Wage and Hour Division investigators,
saying they often dropped cases when employers did not return calls and sometimes told complaining workers that
they should file lawsuits, an often expensive and arduous process, especially for low-wage workers. During the
nine-month investigation, the report said, 5 of the 10 labor complaints that undercover agents filed were not
recorded in the Wage and Hour Division’s database, and three were not investigated. In two cases, officials
recorded that employers had paid back wages, even though they had not. The accountability office also
investigated hundreds of cases that it said the Wage and Hour Division had mishandled. In one, the division
waited 22 months to investigate a complaint from a group of restaurant workers. Ultimately, investigators found
that the workers were owed $230,000 because managers had made them work off the clock and had
misappropriated tips. When the restaurant agreed to pay back wages but not the tips, investigators simply closed
the case.
Employees have no motivation
Steven Greenhouse 5/25/09 “Labor Agency Is Failing Workers, Report Says” New York Times
The report concluded that the Wage and Hour Division had mishandled more serious cases 19 percent of the
time. In such cases, the accountability office said, the division did not begin an investigation for six months, did
not complete an investigation for a year, did not assess back wages when violations were clearly identified and did
not refer cases to litigation when warranted.“When you have weak penalties and weak enforcement, that’s a
deadly combination for workers,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, who, as chairman
of the House Education and Labor Committee, asked the accountability office to do the report. “It’s clear that
under the existing system, employers feel they can steal workers’ wages with impunity, and that has to
change.”
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Department of Justice
Lack of data sharing hampers effectiveness
Office of the Inspector General, March 2009 “The Department of Justice’s litigation case management
system” Audit Report 09-22 http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/plus/a0922/final.pdf.
Each of the Department’s litigating divisions currently maintains its own case management system, which is
not able to share information with other systems in the Department. As a result, these divisions cannot
efficiently share information or produce comprehensive reports among the divisions. separate systems also
hamper the ability of the litigating divisions to collaborate and limit the timeliness and quality of case
information available to Department leadership.
Courts are clogged
Mary Mack, Corporate Technology Counsel,. 4/9 2009 “Total Revamp of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure?”
http://www.discoveryresources.org/library/case-law-and-rules/total-revamp-of-federal-rules-of-civil-procedure/.
Two and a half years after the amendments to the FRCP took effect, the trial lawyers – overwhelmed by clogged
courts as a result of increased litigation, discovery in general and e-discovery in particular – are calling for
change to fix a “broken” system. While the starting point of their analysis was focused on discovery, the report’s
recommendations ultimately upend current procedure in many significant ways.
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Environmental Protection Agency
EPA has staff and resource allocation problems
GAO March 2009 “Environmental Protection Agency” http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09434.pdf
Addressing human capital issues. EPA has struggled for several years to identify its needs for human
resources and to deploy its staff throughout the country in a manner that would do the most good. We
found that EPA’s process for budgeting and allocating resources does not fully consider the agency’s
current workload, and that in preparing requests for funding and staffing, EPA makes incremental
adjustments, largely based on an antiquated workforce planning system that does not reflect a bottomup review of the nature or distribution of the current workload.6 Moreover, EPA’s human capital
management systems have not kept pace with changes that have occurred over the years as a result of
changing legislative requirements and priorities, changes in environmental conditions in different
regions of the country, and the much more active role that states now play in carrying out day-to-dayactivities of federal environmental programs.
EPA’s lack of data hampers effectiveness
GAO March 2009 “Environmental Protection Agency” http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09434.pdf
Improving development and use of environmental information. Critical, reliable environmental information is
needed to provide better scientific understanding of environmental trends and conditions and to better
inform the public about environmental progress in their locales. We found substantial gaps between what is
known and the goal of full, reliable, and insightful representation of environmental conditions and trends to
provide direction for future research and monitoring efforts. 7 EPA has struggled with providing a focus and the
necessary resources for environmental information since its inception in 1970. While many data have been
collected over the years, most water, air, and land programs lack the detailed environmental trend information to
address the well- being of Americans. EPA program areas have also been hampered by deficiencies in their
environmental data systems. For example, the quality of environmental data constrains EPA’s ability to assess
the effectiveness of its enforcement policies and programs throughout the country and to inform the public about
the health and environmental hazards of dangerous chemicals.
Performance problems
GAO March 2009 “Environmental Protection Agency” http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09434.pdf
While EPA has made some progress in improving its operations, many of the same issues still remain. EPA’s
mission is, without question, a difficult one: its policies and programs affect virtually all segments of the
economy, society, and government, and it is in the unenviable position of enforcing myriad inherently
controversial environmental laws and maintaining a delicate balance between the benefits to public health and the
environment with the cost to industry and others. Nevertheless, the repetitive and persistent nature of the
shortcomings we have observed over the years points to serious challenges for EPA to effectively
implement its programs. Until it addresses these long-standing challenges, EPA is unlikely to be able to
respond effectively to much larger emerging challenges, such as climate change. Facing these challenges headon will require a sustained commitment by agency leadership. As a new administration takes office and begins to
chart the agency’s course, it will be important for Congress and EPA to continue to focus on the issues we have
identified.
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Office of National Aids Policy
Sorry, it’s exclusively international
Jeff Gow 2002 “The HIV/AIDS Epidemic In Africa: Implications For U.S. Policy”
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/57
In response, the focus of U.S. government activities toward HIV/AIDS has shifted away from a domestic
orientation toward an increasingly international focus. The Office of National AIDS Policy now has an
explicit international focus. Although the African epidemic is now the worst, the potential exists for an epidemic
of similar magnitude in Asia over the next decade. Emerging epidemics in the Caribbean and Latin America are
smaller in scale but closer to home.
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Social Security Administration
SSA funds get wasted
GAO-07-986 August 31, 2007 “Social Security Administration: Policies and Procedures Were in Place over
MMA Spending, but Some Instances of Noncompliance Occurred”
SSA spent the $500 million in MMA funds from December 2003 through January 2006 to implement activities
outlined in MMA. The majority of costs paid with MMA funds consisted of personnel-related expenses,
contractors, and indirect costs. More than half of the funds were spent on payroll for staff hours used on
MMA activities in SSA headquarters and field offices (see table). Once the $500 million was spent, SSA began
to use its general appropriation to fund the remaining costs of implementing MMA activities. SSA used its
cost analysis system to track the total costs of its implementation of MMA activities. As of February 20, 2007,
SSA had completed implementation of 16 of the 22 tasks for the six provisions under the act.
SSA funds don’t get enforced
GAO-07-986 August 31, 2007 “Social Security Administration: Policies and Procedures Were in Place over
MMA Spending, but Some Instances of Noncompliance Occurred”
SSA had agency wide policies and procedures in place for its cost tracking and allocation, asset
accountability, and invoice review processes. It also established specific guidance to assign and better allocate
SSA’s costs in implementing MMA. There were some instances though where SSA did not comply with these
policies and procedures. SSA did not effectively communicate the specific MMA-related guidance to all
affected staff. SSA subsequently identified and corrected at least $4.6 million of costs that initially were
incorrectly allocated to MMA, but had not corrected approximately $313,000 misallocated credit card purchase
transactions. In addition, GAO found instances where accountable assets purchased with MMA funds, such as
electronic and computer equipment, were not being properly tracked by SSA in accordance with its policies
and instances where purchase card transactions were not properly supported. Although purchase card
transactions and accountable asset purchases represented a small percentage of total MMA costs, proper approval
and support for these types of transactions is essential to reduce the risk of improper payments.
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ICE
Immigration courts are brutally unfair and clog the system
Brad Heath 3/29/2009 “Immigration courts face huge backlog” USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The nation's immigration courts are now so clogged that nearly 90,000 people accused of
being in the United States illegally waited at least two years for a judge to decide whether they must leave,
one of the last bottlenecks in a push to more strictly enforce immigration laws. Their cases — identified by a USA
TODAY review of the courts' dockets since 2003 — are emblematic of delays in the little-known court system that
lawyers, lawmakers and others say is on the verge of being overwhelmed. Among them were 14,000 immigrants
whose cases took more than five years to decide and a few that took more than a decade. "It's an indication that
they just don't have enough resources," says Kerri Sherlock Talbot of the American Immigration Lawyers
Association. Some immigration courts are now so backlogged that just putting a case on a judge's calendar
can take more than a year, says Dana Marks, an immigration judge in San Francisco and president of the
National Association of Immigration Judges. "You could have a case that would take an hour (to hear). But I can't
give you that hour of time for 14 months," Marks says. In the most extreme cases, immigrants can remain
locked up while their cases are delayed. More often, the backlogs leave them struggling to exist until they
learn their fate, Marks and others say. The immigration courts, run by the Justice Department, have weathered
years of criticism that their 224 judges are unable to handle a flood of increasingly-complicated cases.
Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Eastwood acknowledges some long delays, but says that's often the result
of unusual circumstances. She says the department has enough judges.
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Veterans Health Administration
VA misuses its budget
Randall B. Williamson -- Director, Health Care, March 12, 2009 “Challenges in Budget Formulation and
Execution”
VA also faces challenges executing its health care budget. These include spending and tracking funds for
specific initiatives and providing timely and useful information to Congress on budget execution progress and
problems. GAO’s 2006 report on VA funding for new mental health initiatives found VA had difficulty spending
and tracking funds for initiatives in VA’s mental health strategic plan to expand services to address service gaps.
The initiatives were to enhance VA’s larger mental health program and were to be funded by $100 million in
fiscal year 2005. Some VA medical centers did not spend all the funds they had received for the initiatives by
the end of the fiscal year, partly due to the time it took to hire staff and renovate space for mental health
programs. Also, VA did not track how funding allocated for the initiatives was spent. GAO’s 2006 report on
VA’s overall health care budget found that VA monitored its health care budget execution and identified
execution problems for fiscal years 2005 and 2006, but did not report the problems to Congress in a timely way.
GAO also found that VA’s reporting on budget execution to Congress could have been more informative. VA has
not fully implemented one of GAO’s two recommendations for improving VA budget execution. Sound budget
formulation, monitoring of budget execution, and the reporting of informative and timely information to Congress
for oversight continue to be essential as VA addresses budget challenges GAO has identified. Budgeting
involves imperfect information and uncertainty, but VA has the opportunity to improve the credibility of its
budgeting by continuing to address identified problems. This is particularly true for long-term care, where for
several years GAO work has highlighted concerns about workload assumptions and cost projections. By
improving its budget process, VA can increase the credibility and usefulness of information it provides to
Congress on its budget plans and progress in spending funds. GAO’s prior work on new mental health initiatives
may provide a cautionary lesson about expanding VA programs—namely, that funding availability does not
always mean that new initiatives will be fully implemented in a given fiscal year or that funds will be adequately
tracked.
VA inefficient—fraud, waste, and abuse
GAO September 2008, “Improvements Needed in Design of Controls over Miscellaneous Obligations”
VHA recorded over $6.9 billion of miscellaneous obligations for the procurement of mission-related goods
and services in fiscal year 2007. According to VHA officials, miscellaneous obligations were used to facilitate
payment for goods and services when the quantities and delivery dates are not known. According to VHA
data, almost $3.8 billion (55.1 percent) of VHA’s miscellaneous obligations was for fee-based medical services
for veterans and another $1.4 billion (20.4 percent) was for drugs and medicines. The remainder funded, among
other things, state homes for the care of disabled veterans, transportation of veterans to and from medical centers
for treatment, and logistical support and facility maintenance for VHA medical centers nationwide. GAO's
Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government states that agency management is responsible for
developing detailed policies and procedures for internal control suitable for their agency's operations.
However, VA policies and procedures were not designed to provide adequate controls over the authorization and
use of miscellaneous obligations with respect to oversight by contracting officials, segregation of duties, and
supporting documentation for the obligation of funds. Collectively, these control design flaws increase the risk
of fraud, waste, and abuse (including employees converting government assets to their own use without
detection). These control design flaws were confirmed in our case studies at VHA Medical centers in Pi ttsburgh,
Pennsylvania; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Kansas City, Missouri.
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Ineffective Agency – Political Capital Link
The solvency deficit is our link—Congress reluctant to fund inefficient agencies
Mark Wilson, Nina H. Shokraii, and Angela Antonelli August 7, 1998 “Labor-Health-Education
Appropriations: Eliminating Waste and Enhancing Accountability”
http://www.heritage.org/research/labor/bg1212.cfm
Fortunately, the House of Representatives has become far less willing to continue to feed the appetite of an
ineffective, bloated federal bureaucracy. The House Appropriations Committee has taken a bold first step by
reporting an FY 1999 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill that begins to hold agencies accountable
for poor performance, eliminates programs that are wasteful or no longer needed, and demands results from
those that continue. It would either terminate or reduce funding levels and reform many of the following
programs because of their poor track records:
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Poverty Frontline (1/2)
1. Poverty solutions are dominated by political agenda’s not fact
Robert Rector (Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Domestic Policy), “Understanding and Reducing
Poverty in America,” The Heritage Foundation. Sept 25, 2008.
Sadly, a major problem in developing reasonable policies to reduce poverty in the U.S. is the implicit taboo on
discussing the real causes of poverty: lack of parental work, high levels of out-of-wedlock childbearing, and low
skill immigration. In most discussions of poverty, political correctness prevails: The predominant causes of poverty
rarely receive more than a token comment. This process was vividly apparent in the discussions about poverty following
the flooding of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina.
2. Welfare causes poverty – fragments families
James A. Bacon (Publisher & Editor in Chief of Virginia Business), “Addressing Poverty’s Real ‘Root Causes’,”
Virginia Business. Sept 2007.
Welfare caused financial and moral poverty by fragmenting families. Teen-age mothers living in their own
apartments -- unmarried, out of school, separated from the influence of older family members -- may be the least
viable social and economic unit ever conceived. Today in Virginia, welfare policies reward marriage and promote
extended family structures, whatever allows low-income people to pool resources and help one another. One surprise,
says Metcalf, is that the demand for child care, though substantial, is less than expected. "Lots of people are turning to
friends and relatives," he says. Here's my prediction: In another three to four years, the evidence will be irrefutable. The
Great Society brand of welfare will be regarded as one of the most destructive social experiments in American history.
Welfare, not capitalism or racism or discrimination, has been the real "root cause" of poverty. In the name of
compassion, welfare plunged millions of Americans into dependency. It destroyed their work ethic. It bred
ignorance. It shattered families. It spawned violence, drug abuse and the criminal neglect of children.
3. Crime is a barrier to poverty solutions
The Honorable William P. Barr (former Attorney General), “Crime, Poverty, and the Family,” The Heritage Foundation.
July 29, 1992.
Crime Causing Poverty. It was once a shibboleth that poverty causes crime, but today I think it is clear that crime is causing poverty.
Businesses are driven from crime-ridden neighborhoods, taking jobs and opportunities with them. Potential
investors and would-be employers are scared away. Existing owners are deterred from making improvements on their property, and as
property values go down, owners disinvest in their property. I know a small contractor who tried to rehabilitate inner-city housing for low-income
tenants. He had to give up because drug addicts would break in, rip out his improvements, and sell them for drug money. They would even come in
regularly and take out all of the piping in the building and sell it for scrap. This contractor obviously couldn't continue like that, and like many others has
just stopped his efforts to rehabilitate housing. I think that what we saw in Los Angeles shows the difficulty we are going to have in rebuilding those
communities. It shows the impact of crime on a community in fast motion, fast forward. But that same process is occurring around the country at a more
deliberate speed. So in short, I don't think you can have progress amid chaos. And the fact is that no urban program can arrest the decline in our inner
cities, and no anti-poverty programs are going to take hold unless they are combined with and founded upon strong
law enforcement measures that suppress violent crime.
4. “Poor” Americans are materially well-off
Robert E. Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.January 5, 2004“Executive Summary: Understanding Poverty in
America” Executive Summary #1713
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a
clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, and cable or satellite TV reception. He has a VCR, a DVD
player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own
report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs.
While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and
politicians.
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Poverty Frontline (1/2)
5. Poverty Inevitable – cap
Sharon K. Vaughan (political scientist), “Poverty, Justice, and Western Political Thought,” Rowman & Littlefield. Pg.
148. 2007.
Marx rejects Hegel’s thesis that his version of civil society represents a rational entity. The Heglian state is merely a
fantasy. It is not surprising that Hegel has no ideas to alleviate the problem of poverty because according to Marx, it is an
intractable problem. The capitalist system promotes profit making as a goal rather than meeting human needs. In
the free market society, the growth of poverty is inevitable because it is a necessary condition for capitalism to
flourish. Marx also rejects Hegel’s portrayal of the separation of civil society and the state because he believes that civil
society and the mode of production shape human beings. History, according to Marx, is divided into epochs that are
defined by the mode of production. In turn, the mode of production dictates the social relations in society. Economic
roles assigning control over the means, processes, and fruits of production to one group in society while excluding other
groups define these societal roles. This is Marx’s definition of historical materialism and these groups form the basis of
class differences in society.
6. Family history causes poverty
Central Oregon Connect, “9 Root Causes of Poverty,” Central Oregon Partnership. Oct 13, 20 07
1) Family History of Poverty. Those who are born to poor families are most at risk to remain poor and raise
children who live in poverty. Among the detrimental, cyclically learned behaviors of concern are: weak parenting
skills; lowered emphasis on education; poor self-esteem; physical and emotional abuse; substance abuse; weak
literacy skills; lowered expectations in relationships and work experiences; weak financial management skills; poor
health and nutrition practices; etc.
7. Environmental mis-management causes poverty
Steve Norgaard, “Development betrayed.” 1994.
Poverty cannot be solved without better environmental management and better environmental management
cannot be attained without local resource users receiving and adequate return. Whole systems must be addressed.
However, public belief in atomism legitimates two positions, namely the one that argues fixing the parts is sufficient and
the other one that argues fixing the parts has not been effective in the past and therefore nothing can be done.
8. Actual poverty is rare
Robert E. Rector (Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies) and Kirk A. Johnson (Ph.D.),
“Understanding Poverty in America,” The Heritage Foundation. Jan 5, 2004.
For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food,
clothing, and reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the 35 million persons classified as "poor" by the
Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and
severity. Most of America's "poor" live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or well-off just
a few generations ago. Today, the expenditures per person of the lowest-income one-fifth (or quintile) of households
equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.
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Alt Causes – Poverty
Multiple Alt Causes to Poverty in America
1. Europe
Robert Rector (Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Domestic Policy), “Understanding and Reducing
Poverty in America,” The Heritage Foundation. Sept 25, 2008.
Studies which claim that the U.S. has a higher poverty rate than European nations use a distorted technique that
creates higher income standard for assessing poverty in the United States than in other nations. Because of these
biased methods, many Americans are deemed "poor" when, in fact, they have higher real incomes than persons
identified as "non-poor" in Europe. By contrast, if a fair, uniform standard of comparison is used, the lowest income tenth of the U.S.
population is found to have a real income that is roughly equal to, or higher than, most European nations. The median income in the U.S. is also higher
than nearly all European nations.
2. education
Central Oregon Connect, “9 Root Causes of Poverty,” Central Oregon Partnership. Oct 13, 2007
4) Marginal Educational Training Opportunities. There is a lack of suitable education and/or training programs
designed to deliver training when it is needed, where it is needed and linked to opportunities to convert such
training into employment and income.
3. immigrants
Robert Rector (Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Domestic Policy), “Understanding and Reducing
Poverty in America,” The Heritage Foundation. Sept 25, 2008.
In recent decades the U.S. has imported over ten million high school dropouts from abroad through both legal and illegal immigrant
channels. Currently a third of all immigrant adults in the U.S. lack a high school degree. Overall, immigrants in the
U.S. have substantially higher poverty rates than non-immigrants.
4. gender inequality
Farhana Haque-Rahman, “Women can be agents of change in the fight against poverty,” International Fund for
Agricultural Development. Feb 20, 2003.
A fairer deal for women is crucial to the success of the first and perhaps most challenging target, that of halving the number of extremely poor people by
the year 2015, the session heard. Gender inequality is a root cause of poverty, especially in the case of rural women who
are among the most vulnerable and impoverished members of society. Women account for about 70% of the
world’s poor.
5. employment
Blake Bailey, “How to Not Be Poor,” National Center for Policy Analysis. Jan 15, 2003.
Working also significantly reduces long-term poverty. According to an analysis of the Census Bureau's Survey of
Income and Program Participation, 10.8 percent of adults who do not work are poor over the long term. In contrast,
only 1.7 percent of those employed part time stay poor for extended periods. People employed full time have a 0.4
percent chance of long-term poverty. Moreover, the government can encourage behavioral changes. Research shows
that between one-third and one-half of the fall in poverty among single mothers on welfare after 1994 was due to the
1996 welfare reforms that encouraged work.
6. dropout rates cause poverty
Blake Bailey, “How to Not Be Poor,” National Center for Policy Analysis. Jan 15, 2003.
Furthermore, these lower propensities for poverty last throughout a person's life. In every adult age group, people who
fail to obtain a high school degree are more than twice as likely to fall into poverty. People ages 25 to 54 are nearly
three times as likely. The numbers are worse for long-term poverty - poverty that lasts for years. An Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report found that in the United States: High school dropouts suffer a
long-term poverty rate of 14.2 percent, while high school grads have only a 3.8 percent long-term poverty rate.
Only 1.2 percent of adults receiving some education beyond high school are poor long-term.
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Global Poverty - Defense
Can’t solve Climate Change—Largest internal link to poverty
Richard Odingo 15 May 2006 “We can't solve poverty until we stop climate change”
http://www.independent.co.u k/opinion/commentators/richard-odingo-we-cant-solve-poverty-until-we-stopclimate-change-478296.html
In Kenya, the recent devastating drought is a stark warning of what to expect as climate change inexorably tightens
its grip on the world. There is now a clear realization - writ large in the new Christian Aid report - that the human
suffering linked to climate change will make it impossible to tackle world poverty. In autumn 2000, world
leaders signed up to achieve eight millennium development goals (MDGs) - including eradication of extreme
hunger and reduction of child mortality by 2015. As things stand, these are just pipe dreams. World leaders and
development charities urgently need to realize that talk of poverty eradication in Africa is now meaningless
without addressing climate change. Indeed, despite all the good intentions, poor communities are likely to
become poorer, as incidents of drought and flooding hit harder and more often across the developing world.
This is why we need a ninth Millennium Development Goal, specifically addressing climate change, as a matter of
extreme urgency. The G8 Gleneagles Communiqué of 2005 prescribed how to improve access to energy for the
more than two billion people in the world who are not hooked up to any power grid. Unfortunately, its
recommendations merely echo seemingly vacuous promises made at a World Energy Summit held in Kenya in
1981. A look at the deliberations in the climate mitigation forum at the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change is even more distressing. Whereas the world scientific community, under the able hands of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has shown the way, the world's developed nations have failed to
agree on how best to tackle the issues raised by global warming and the severe impacts likely to be associated with
it. In Kyoto, they only agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent between 2008 and 2012. Even now
they are still haggling over how to do this. Even if Kyoto were to be replaced by a new protocol, many developed
nations will be unwilling to make cuts that, in their estimation, will "hurt" their economies. Reducing poverty
globally means facing the climate challenge. It will not be solved by debt relief or token financial transfers. It
will require a true shift in policy. It requires a determined effort to empower rural communities. Put at its most
simple, there is no point in giving a family a sack of food every time a drought wipes out its crops - that's just not
sustainable. The only way to make sure they can feed themselves, without continual charity hand-outs, is to reverse
the climate change that is turning their land into desert.
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Chinese Poverty Inevitable
Climate change makes Chinese poverty inevitable
China Daily 6/18 “Climate change root cause for poverty, says report”
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/18/content_8296959.htm
Climate change has emerged as the main reason for poverty in China as over 95 percent of the poor live in
ecologically fragile areas and are the most affected by the changing patterns, according to a new report.The
report goes on to add that a map of China's poverty-stricken areas overlaps the map of the country's ecologically
fragile regions.Titled "Climate Change and Poverty: a Case Study of China", the report released yesterday was
initiated by Greenpeace China and Oxfam Hong Kong, with joint efforts of experts and researchers from the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and local meteorological officials in Sichuan, Guangdong and
Gansu.t said in the past 50 years, the direct economic losses at Mabian county in Sichuan province due to torrential
rain and flood-related disasters have dramatically increased. From 2001 to 2008, the average annual direct
economic losses were around 23.8 billion yuan, compared to 9.7 billion yuan in 50 years.Lin Erda, a member of
China's national climate change expert panel and a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences, however, feels that China has an outstanding track record in poverty alleviation.According to statistics
by State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, there were 250 million people
living in absolute poverty in the country. By 2007, however, it had shrunk to 14.8 million, accounting for 1.6
percent of the country's total population.However, case studies from Guangdong, Sichuan and Gansu provinces
show that global warming does induce floods, snowstorms and landslides, which are detrimental to
ecologically sensitive areas and hamper poverty relief efforts."The current poverty alleviation projects in
China are mainly focused on income improvement. Money helps only those people who are living in
ecologically favorable regions as natural disasters often push people in the sensitive regions back into
poverty," said Xu Yinlong, a CAAS expert.
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Economy
1. Econ resilient
Associated Press, Wednesday, January 23, 2008 “Rice Says US Economy Resilient”
http://origin2.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jan23/0,4670,WorldEconomicForumRice,00.html
Her remarks came after two days of wild market swings worldwide and the surprise Federal Reserve interest rate
cut on Tuesday lowered its benchmark rate to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent in between regular policy-setting
meetings."I know that many are concerned by the recent fluctuations in U.S. financial markets, and by
concerns about the U.S. economy," she said. "President Bush has announced an outline of a meaningful fiscal
growth package that will boost consumer spending and support business investment this year."She said U.S.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who canceled his own visit to the World Economic Forum annual meeting at
the last minute, was "leading our administration's efforts and working closely with the leaders of both parties in
Congress to agree on a stimulus package that is swift, robust, broad-based, and temporary."The U.S. economy is
"resilient, its structure sound, and its long-term economic fundamentals are healthy," Rice said. "And our
economy will remain a leading engine of global economic growth," she added."So we should have confidence
in the underlying strength of the global economy _ and act with confidence on the basis of the principles that
lead to success in today's world."
2. The rough patch is over—we’ve already waited out the worst of the economic crisis
3. No spillover – the world economy can absorb U.S. shocks
Turkish Daily News November 17, 2006 “World Economy Holds up in the face of US Slowdown” Lexis
When they convene this weekend in Australia, G-20 finance ministers from the world's leading powers can
take heart at a global economy that is proving resilient in the face of a U.S. slowdown.Global growth is
projected to come to 5 percent this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo Rato, said
last week.However, he also warned that the growth cycle could be reaching its peak, with a number of short-term
risks looming.Those risks are expected to concentrate the minds of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central
bankers at their annual session on Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne.High oil prices, exchange rates, the
floundering Doha Round multilateral trade talks and the rising cost of credit are prominent agenda items.For
months now, politicians and analysts have been fretting over fears that a sharp downturn in the U.S. housing
market could trigger a far-reaching contraction in global activity.At the moment though the IMF is predicting a
"soft landing" in the United States, according to Rato, who nonetheless cautions that a sharp correction in U.S.
housing prices could still destabilize the national economy.At the bank BNP Paribas, economist Eric Vergnaud
noted that while the world's largest economy has been losing steam since last spring, the trend should have
little impact on the U.S. performance for the year because of an especially dynamic first quarter, when
growth surged to 5.6 percent from the same period of 2005."With Japan not doing too badly, with the euro zone
enjoying strong growth this year, the world economy in 2006 should be able to absorb the U.S. slowdown
rather well," he said.
4. If the economy were to decline so much that nations lacked money, they wouldn’t fight superexpensive wars, they would save it
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Alt Causes – Economy
Banks still need to be funded
Alan Greenspan, former chairmen of federal reserve, 6/29.09 “Inflation –the real threat to sustained recovery”
financial times
In addition, huge unrecognized losses of U.S. banks still need to be funded. Either a stabilization of home
prices or a further rise in newly created equity value available to U.S. financial intermediaries would address
this impediment to recovery.
Housing prices still need to be fixed
Alan Greenspan, former chairmen of federal reserve, 6/29.09 “Inflation –the real threat to sustained recovery”
financial times
Is this the beginning of a prolonged economic recovery or a false dawn? There are credible arguments on both
sides of the issue. I conjectured over a year ago on these pages that the crisis will end when home prices in the
U.S. stabilize. That still appears right. Such prices largely determine the amount of equity in homes – the
ultimate collateral for the $11,000bn of U.S. home mortgage debt, a significant share of which is held in the form
of asset-backed securities outside the US. Prices are currently being suppressed by a large overhang of vacant
houses for sale. Owing to the recent sharp drop in house completions, this overhang is being liquidated in earnest,
suggesting prices could start to stabilize in the next several months – although they could drift lower into 2010.
Availability of credit needs to be fixed
Mary Kane 7/1/09 “Don’t Be Fooled by New Credit Card Laws; Citi Still Raising Rates”
http://washingtonindependent.com/49409/dont-be-fooled-by-new-credit-card-laws-citi-still-raising-rates
But then the Financial Times comes along to report that Citigroup suddenly hiked rates for as many as 15
million holders of cards it co-brands with retailers such as Sears. And Citi did so just months before provisions
in the new law that would ban such a move take effect. Citi isn’t entirely alone. Other card issuers have been
gradually raising rates as well, in response to increasing default rates. But the FT said Citi’s hikes have been the
sharpest. The paper cited sources close to the situation for its information, not any formal announcement of rate
hikes by Citi.
Citi’s rate increases emerged on the day the government proposed legislation to create a
new regulator with sweeping powers on consumer protection and a week after the bank was attacked by some
politicians for raising employees’ salaries.
Holders of co-branded cards who failed to pay their balance in full at
the end of the month saw their rates rise by an average 24 per cent – or nearly 3 percentage points – between
January and April, according to a Credit Suisse analysis of data from the consultancy Lightspeed Research.
Citigroup told the FT that despite the fishy timing of the move, raising rates for no particular reason on millions of
customers had nothing to do with a new law that would soon prevent it from such an action:
“We have adjusted
pricing and card terms for some customers as part of our regular account reviews. This is an ongoing process to
ensure we offer terms, interest rates, credit lines and products based on individual needs and risk profiles. [...]
“These changes also reflect the dramatically higher cost of doing business in our industry as we work to preserve
the broad availability of credit.” Yes, it’s that “availability of credit” argument again. For the past decade,
whenever anyone dared to mention putting curbs on high interest rates for credit cards or mortgages, the
lending industry always warned that any restrictions would lead to less availability of credit. Things didn’t
exactly turn out that way. If Citi’s strategy of jacking up rates prior to a new law taking effect catches on,
consumers with Citi cards would do best to vote with their feet and find another issuer who isn’t playing that
game. But it’s not only consumers who might act. Citi famously remains the recipient of government largesse, and
this new development has the potential to rank right up there with purchasing a luxury corporate jet right after
being bailed out by taxpayers, in terms of public relations damage potential. Maybe next time Congress takes on
legislation to rein in the credit card firms, it should make sure its restrictions go into effect by the time the ink
dries on the President’s signature — and not a minute later.
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Ext 1
U.S. economy is resilient.
Reuters Mar 16, 2008 “Treasury's Paulson says U.S. economy resilient”
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN1648658420080316
In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" Paulson said U.S. markets were "resilient" and that he felt the $152
billion economic stimulus plan would help lift the economy. Paulson said the Bush administration continued to
believe that "long-term economic strength is going to be reflected in the dollar." Paulson also said the Federal
Reserve made the right decision on Friday to come to the rescue of Bear Stearns, BSC.N, the fifth largest
investment bank. Paulson said it was important to minimize market disruptions and enhance confidence in the U.S.
economy. "I've got great confidence in our financial institutions," Paulson said. "Our markets are
resilient." He added that he had confidence U.S economy would work it way through the current crises that
began with a sharp downturn in the U.S. housing market leading to a full-blown credit crisis. (Reporting by
Donna Smith; Editing by Jackie Frank)
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Economy CP
CP Text: The United States federal government should fully repay and thus cancel nearly all
debt from student based loans in the United States.
Student debt forgiveness would boost the economy
Huliq June 11th ‘9 “Forgive Student Loan Debt Asks For Consolidation Bailout “ News
http://www.huliq.com/3478/82125/forgive-student-loan-debt
More and more people, faced with massive debt from student loans and the urgent need for student loan
debt consolidation, are proposing that the government forgive student loan debt in order to help out the average
consumer and thereby give a strong boost the the Nation's economy. I think it's a very good idea to forgive
student loan debt, and the government ought to consider this issue with student loans very seriously. As a
Ph.D. student working on my dissertation, I have spent now 15 years in college and grad school. During that time I
have amassed over 100,000 dollars in student loan debt. I am not alone. It is very common for individuals,
particularly those who attend graduate school to rack up a massive amount of debt. What we typically do is
consolidate that debt so that monthly payments are as slim as possible. But we are still burdened by the crushing
costs of our debt. What we need is student loan debt forgiveness. That's what the Forgive Student Loan Debt has
started at www.forgivestudentloandebt.com, where 193,500 members want the government to spend $550-$600
billion necessary 2 completely cancel all student debt. The issue of forgiving the debt of student loans has in
fact become far more pressing. Because of the horrible nature of our economy debt consolidation has
become rare. Fewer and fewer companies are consolidating student loan debt, and the consolidations offered
are doing less for the person in debt. This is rather crippling. Because of the absurdly high cost of a college
education in the United States, the vast majority of students must take out many loans of very large amounts.
Their only hope of avoiding financial ruin when they finish school is to get a very good debt consolidation deal.
This is were it would make sense to forgive student loan debt and make it beneficial. If debt consolidation
for student loans continues to wane, more and more people will go bankrupt, lose homes, and face utter
financial ruin. This is not merely a matter of pain and suffering for these unfortunate individuals either. The
more individuals that fail financially, the more the country fails. And since the vast majority of Americans now
attend some form of college and the vast majority of college students have to take out a very high amount of loans,
it follows that a large number of people are effected by this.In light of all of this, I submit that it is for the
economic good of the nation that Forgiveness of student loan debt is a key element in saving the economic
fate of the nation. With Consolidation at a low point, student loan forgiveness is essential to helping your
average person who may buy a home, a car, or luxury goods on the market. Student Loan forgiveness will
empower the average buyer to purchase, the economy will be on its way to healing. Therefore, it does make
sense to forgive student loan debt as part of the bailouts that are occurring to help the economy.
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Debt Forgiveness CP Ext
Cancelling student loan debt would stimulate economic growth
Huffington Post, February ‘9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-chattman/forgiving-student-loande_b_164103.html “Forgiving Student Loan Debt Would Stimulate Economy”
Robert Applebaum, an attorney from New York, thinks so and has an idea on how to help many in his shoes -- and
trust me, there are many -- while stimulating the economy at the same time. The 35 year old started up an online
campaign this month to bail out those "hard-working, educated middle class" suffocating in college loan debt on
Facebook. He formed the group "Cancel Student Loan Debt to Stimulate the Economy" because he believes
forgiving student loan debt for those making under $150,000 annually would help boost the economy from
"the bottom up.""I struggle to pay my rent and bills and have never defaulted on my student loans," he said Feb.
4. But I also don't spend money on consumer goods anymore -- not only because I can't afford them, but because
I'm afraid the situation will only get worse..."He continued, "One-time tax rebates and meager tax cuts do nothing
to stimulate the economy. A recession is as much a psychological phenomenon as anything else. Knowing I'd have
an extra $500 per month in my pocket will get me spending again. Multiply that across the country and the
economy will start to move again."Applebaum has been fighting off his own loans since 1998, and owes more now
than he did when he graduated. He said he decided to form a group on the social networking powerhouse because
he's sick of watching people like him pay the price for choosing to go for higher education and advanced
degrees."I was watching the news about not only the current economic stimulus package but the second bailout for
the financial institutions that's coming down the pike (in addition to the $700 billion TARP bailout). News about
lavish vacations, exorbitant bonuses and the redecorating of the Chairman of Merrill Lynch's office absolutely
disgusted me," recalled Applebaum, who has seen his group surpass 3,000 in just a few days after he formed it."It
occurred to me that these guys are responsible for the mess yet they have their hands out asking the taxpayers for
billions of dollars [while] continuing to spend money like drunken poets on payday," he added.Applebaum's not
alone in his thought processes. Fellow Facebooker Kevin Bartoy, a 35-year-old archeologist from Old Hickory, TN
started up a similar group a few weeks ago because he and his wife have been drowning in student loan debt as
well. Applebaum contacted Bartoy, and the two have since banded together, running their respective groups as
"sisters." The goal is to gain enough traction it'll grab President Obama's attention. The creation of this petition will
surely help." This would truly allow the educated lower and middle classes to create a solid foundation for a
new economy," Bartoy said. "It is frustrating to be a society in which you need the educational credentials to
succeed, but to get them, you have to put yourself in so much debt that you lose your independence in the
process."
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Terrorism – Defense (1/2)
1. Terrorism will remain as long as the military is in Muslim lands—no exception
Anouar Boukhars 6/22/09--director of the center for defense and security policy @ Wilberforce University
“There are many ways to exploit Al-Qaeda's vulnerabilities”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_ id=5&arti cle_id=103318.
Ultimately, the struggle against Al-Qaeda can be won only if its compelling message and ideology are undercut.
As long as the Palestinian predicament drags on and America's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan
persists, Al-Qaeda will continue to garner widespread Muslim sympathy for its claim to speak on behalf of
the "weak and oppressed." Occupation of Muslim lands, as America's National Intelligence Assessment on
terrorism concluded in the context of the Iraq occupation, breeds "a deep resentment of US involvement in the
Muslim world" and cultivates "supporters for the global jihadist movement." For so long, violent radicalism was
believed to be generated by religious orientations, not political ones. Islam was seen as the root cause of terror and
the breeder of a subculture of rebellion and violence. The Bush administration and its intellectual backers in
Washington embraced confrontational militarism and refused to address the grievances that fuel the fires of
radicalism, rebellion and violent resistance.
2. There is no root cause of terrorism—attempts to rationalize reflect narrow understanding
Micheal Radu – P.h.D, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. 2002 “the futile search for the root
causes of terrorism” http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2002_07-09/radu_futile/radu_futile.html
It is hubris to attempt to explain terrorism in general, let alone in its many different forms across time and
place. The following observations are therefore intended only to refocus the debate, not to "explain" terrorism.
The desire to identify "root causes" and so be able to correct them is natural. Root causes "have" to be
there—at least in the American mind. There must be an explanation for the inexplicable: why a teenaged
Palestinian girl would blow herself up in an attempt to kill as many Jews as possible, or privileged young men of
the Arab world plot to kill themselves while murdering thousands of American civilians. But much as the
frequently asked question this past fall, "Why do they hate us?" had flawed premises and yielded flawed
answers, framing the question as "What are the root causes of terrorism?" leads too easily to looking at the
usual suspects: "poverty," "injustice," "exploitation," and "frustration." Like the man in the parable who
looks for his lost keys under the streetlight instead of where he lost them because "the light's better," it's easier to
look in these familiar areas than to face and address the real problems.
3. It’s impossible to wins hearts and minds
Jessica Stern, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, August 20, 2003 “How America Created a
Terrorist Haven” http://www.why-war.com/news/2003/08/20/howameri.html
While there is no single root cause of terrorism, my interviews with terrorists over the past five years
suggest that alienation, perceived humiliation and lack of political and economic opportunities make young
men susceptible to extremism. It can evolve easily into violence when government institutions are weak and
there is money available to pay for a holy war. America is unlikely to win the hearts and minds of committed
terrorists. After some time on the job, it is hard for them to imagine another life. Several described jihad to
me as being "addictive." Thus the best way to fight them is to ensure that they are rejected by the broader
population. Terrorists and guerrillas rely on getting at least some popular support. America's task will be to restore
public safety in Iraq and put in place effective governing institutions that are run by Iraqis. It would also help if we
involved more troops from other countries, to make clear that the war wasn't an American plot to steal Iraq's oil
and denigrate Islam, as the extremists argue.
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Terrorism – Defense (2/2)
4. Cyber attack is inevitable
Steven P. Bucci– P.h.d IBM's Issue Lead for Cyber Security Programs, 6/12/09 “The Confluence of Cyber
Crime and Terrorism” http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/hl1123.cfm
Terrorists will recognize the opportunity the cyber world offers sooner or later. They will also recognize that
they need help to properly exploit it. It is unlikely they will have the patience to develop their own completely
independent capabilities. At the same time, the highly developed, highly capable cyber criminal networks want
money and care little about the source. This is a marriage made in Hell. The threat of a full nation-state attack,
either cyber or cyber-enabled kinetic, is our most dangerous threat. We pray deterrence will continue to hold,
and we should take all measures to shore up that deterrence. Terrorists will never be deterred in this way. They
will continue to seek ways to successfully harm us, and they will join hands with criminal elements to do so.
A terrorist attack enabled by cyber crime capabilities will now be an eighth group of cyber threats, and it will be
the most likely major event we will need to confront. Some would say that cyber crime is a purely law
enforcement issue, with no national security component. That is a dubious "truth" today. This is not a static
situation, and it will definitely be more dangerously false in the future. Unless we get cyber crime under control,
it will mutate into a very real, very dangerous national security issue with potentially catastrophic
ramifications. It would be far better to address it now rather than in the midst of a terrorist incident or campaign of
incidents against one of our countries. Terrorism enabled by cyber criminals is our most likely major cyber
threat. It must be met with all our assets.
5. Terrorists wont use WMDs—Operational risks to high
Brian Jenkins, senior advisor to the president of the RAND Corporation, 2006 “Unconquerable Nation: Knowing
our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves,” http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG454.pdf
Showmanship in carrying out spectacular attacks demonstrates prowess. Operations therefore must be successful. It
is not necessary that the attackers survive—martyrdom demonstrates their commitment and adds to the enemy’s
alarm—but the operation must not be seen to fail. Ambitious operations must be weighed against risks of failure,
since failure brings humiliation to the attackers and embarrasses the enterprise. Even more seriously, jihadists believe
that God’s will is expressed in success and failure. To succeed is to have God’s support. Failure signals God’s
disapproval. As a consequence, jihadist planners are conservative. Typical of terrorist planning, the suitability of the
operation comes first, feasibility second. Considerations for operational feasibility include access to relevant
information, the accessibility of the target, the level of security, the availability of reliable people, physical
requirements, complexity, and costs. Old playbooks predominate. Catastrophic attacks with unconventional
weapons remain jihadist ambitions, but determined fighters with conventional explosives remain the most
reliable weapons. Multiple attacks increase death and destruction, but operations with too many moving parts risk
failure. Jihadist planners continue to think big but execute conservatively.
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Ext 1 – Muslim Land
Occupation breed’s terror
Anouar Boukhars 6/22/09--director of the center for defense and security policy @ Wilberforce University
“There are many ways to exploit Al-Qaeda's vulnerabilities”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_ id=5&arti cle_id=103318.
"Occupation breeds terror," declared former Israeli soldier Seth Freedman. "Every incursion, every raid, every
curfew and collective punishment, drives the moderates into the welcoming arms of the militants, who
promise to return their honor and their wounded pride by fighting the oppressors' fire with fire of their
own." Prodding Arab regimes towards political reform that is inclusive of Islamist participation is the second most
effective antidote to political radicalism.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Ext 2 – No root cause
No root cause of terror
Swati Parashar -- Associate Fellow with the International Terrorism Watch Programme 29. 08. 2005
“Terrorism: The ‘root causes’” http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers16%5Cpaper1521.html
The ‘root causes’ debate especially in the current context seems more like an eyewash to thrust the blame on
particular regimes, cultures and societies, instead of a genuine attempt to look closely at the deeper issues
underlying the problem. It is quite convenient for the US and its allies to argue, in the light of their failures in
Iraq and Afghanistan and to curb terrorism, that the roots of terror lie in the backward looking, fundamentalist, non
democratic societies which continue to breed terrorists. Are the US and its allies willing to accept our root causes?
We might argue and even rightfully so that it is America ’s policies, Western neo colonialism and imperialism
and a hegemonic international system that are the real ‘root causes’ of terrorism. Will it be acceptable if we
claimed that Pakistan is the ‘root cause’ of terrorism? It is the occupation of Iraq , the Western support to the
Jihadis fighting the soviets in Afghanistan and the unjust economic policies that have led to unequal societies that
breed terrorism. The convenient ‘root causes’ like poverty illiteracy, backwardness, fundamentalism,
authoritarianism are hardly the considerations in sustaining terrorism or in winning recruits. Thus like
much of the debate on terrorism, even the ‘root causes’ debate has already been defined.
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A2 Poverty = Root Cause
Poverty is not the root cause of terrorism—simple data
Micheal Radu – P.h.D, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. 2002 “the futile search for the root
causes of terrorism” http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2002_07-09/radu_futile/radu_futile.html
Those who hold to "poverty as the root cause" do so even though the data does not fit their model. Even
leaving aside multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, the backgrounds of the September 11 killers indicates that
they were without exception scions of privilege: all were either affluent Saudis and Egyptians, citizens of the
wealthy Gulf statelets, or rich sons of Lebanon, trained in and familiar with the ways of the West—not exactly
the victims of poverty in Muslim dictatorships. Many poor Egyptians, Moroccans, and Palestinians may support
terrorists, but they do not—and cannot—provide them with recruits. In fact, Al Qaeda has no use for illiterate
peasants. They cannot participate in World Trade Center-like attacks, unable as they are to make themselves
inconspicuous in the West and lacking the education and training terrorist operatives need. Indeed, ever since the
Russian intellectuals "invented" modern terrorism in the 19th century, revolutionary violence—terrorism is just
one form of it—has been a virtual monopoly of the relatively privileged. Terrorists have been middle class, often
upper class, and always educated, but never poor. The South American Tupamaros and Montoneros of the 1970s
were all middle class, starting as cafe Jacobins and graduating into urban terrorism, as were their followers among
the German Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Italian Red Brigades, France's Action Directe, the Sandinista leadership in
Nicaragua and, before it, Fidel Castro's Cuban revolutionaries. Considering the composition of many of the
antiglobalist groups today, it is a safe bet that middle class, prosperous, and self-righteous as they are, they will
soon provide the recruits of a new wave of terrorism in the West—as we may already be seeing in the revival of
Italy's Red Brigades. To say that economic conditions are not the root cause of terrorism is not to say that
the there are no conditions that correlate strongly to political violence and terrorism. There are phenomena
we should be concerned about in this regard, it is just that they are far less obvious than poverty and much
more complex to address.
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Ext 4 – Cyber Terrorism
U.S. is increasingly vulnerable to cyber-terrorism
Kevin G. Coleman, Technolytics, 6/22, 2009 “Information Security: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
http://it-cost-reduction.tmcnet.com/topics/security/articles/58483-information-security-good-bad-the-ugly.htm
The United States is by far the most technology advanced country in the world. That status is what makes us
so vulnerable to cyber attacks, cyber crime and potential cyber terrorism. Security must begin at the
specification and design level of software development and continue on far after the program is delivered and in
production. All too often the first thing to get cut when software development project go over budget or run late is
testing. That has to stop and stop now. Due to the issues presented above, much of our critical infrastructure will
have to be replaced to secure them. That will drive the overall costs into the tens of billions of dollars over the next
several years. The economic impact of a successful cyber attack is difficult to calculate. According to a
Congressional Research Study into the stock price impact of cyber attacks, they were able to deduce that a
publically traded target (business) of a successful cyber attack suffer losses of 1%-5% in the days after an attack.
There are no figures available that represent the true impact of a successful cyber attack on the nation’s critical
infrastructure, but we should look at the Northeast Power Blackout for guidance. A study conducted by Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory researchers Kristina Hamachi-LaCommare and Joe Eto for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution estimates that electric power outages and blackouts
cost the nation about $80 billion annually. Now add to that the mental impact that we experienced after the
last terrorist attack and the number becomes even higher. The problem of information security must be
addressed at an enterprise level. Data is a valuable asset and as such needs to be properly protected. We can’t
just keep going at the security problem using a piece-meal approach. History has shown that this approach is
inadequate. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!
Organizations need to take a different approach and establish a security strategy with programs that address
physical and information compliance, governance and integrity. We in the United States seem to wait until after
something really bad happens before we do what is necessary to fix the problem. What do you say we do
something different for a change?
U.S. denial of information security puts security at risk
Kevin G. Coleman, Technolytics, 6/22, 2009 “Information Security: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
http://it-cost-reduction.tmcnet.com/topics/security/articles/58483-information-security-good-bad-the-ugly.htm
Our attitude towards information security is one of our biggest issues. We seem to accept these attacks and the
likelihood of our systems being compromised as business as usual. Many professional I talked to at a recent
conference use to say “It can’t be that bad.” Now they are all saying, “I can’t believe it is this bad.” The dramatic
increase in attack sophistication along with the explosive growth in the number of attacks organizations in
the public and private sector are experiencing have combined to make information security a critical issue for
organization of any size. That being said, you would not expect staff reductions hitting information security, but
they are! The rapid deceleration of our economy has made it necessary for organizations to reduce overhead.
Unfortunately, information security is in the overhead bucket. Cuts in staffing have increased the risks of
information security breaches. With the reduced staffing models, the time from an availability of a software patch
until it has been tested and applied has increased. One patch cycle (patch availability to application across all
computers) took 81 days. So for the 81 day period, from when the vulnerability was publically announced until the
company applied the pact, hackers could have exploited the vulnerability. As IT support staff is cut further, the
length of exposure time will surely grow, thus increasing the risk of being compromised. The reports of
computer compromises that we see and hear about are only the tip of the iceberg. Technical staff often do
not report or cover up incidents for fear that they may lose their jobs or the breach will make them look bad.
In one incident, two staff members discovered a compromised server. One looked at the other and said, “I don’t
think they went any were – do you?” At that point they began completely rebuilding the server. The entire event
from discovery to when the rebuilding began was under 5 minutes. In doing so they hid the breach and destroyed
any evidence their might have been if they had bother to look further. I saw one report that suggests that between
75 and 85 percent of organizations are compromised each year with only about 20 to 25 percent of them reporting
the incident.
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A2 Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda will inevitably disappear—they can’t beat this card
Anouar Boukhars 6/22/09--director of the center for defense and security policy @ Wilberforce University
“There are many ways to exploit Al-Qaeda's vulnerabilities”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_ id=5&arti cle_id=103318.
Eventually, Al-Qaeda is doomed to disappear. Its excesses as exemplified by its intransigence, indiscriminate
brutality and dismissal of politics as a perversion of religion automatically banish it to the fringes of Muslim
societies. Al-Qaeda's hostility to powerful Islamist movements like Hamas and Hizbullah, which derive their
powers from the ballot box, deprives it from broadening its alliances. Its categorical opposition to democracy
alienates it from the overwhelming majority of Muslims who support such a system whenever given the
opportunity. Such are the many vulnerabilities of Al-Qaeda and its loose groups of die-hard followers. In
Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda's weaknesses have already been exposed. A number of
surveys have shown support for Al-Qaeda and suicide bombings dropping significantly. In Morocco, major figures
and theoreticians of the Jihadist Salafism like Mohammad Rafiki, alias Abou Hafs, Mohammad Fizazi and Hassan
Kettani have publicly renounced terrorism and denounced its perpetrators as non-Muslim. In Egypt, one of AlQaeda's founders, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, who goes by the nom de guerre Dr. Fadl, launched a fierce ideological
attack against Osama bin Laden. Saudi Arabia has also seen its share of religious and intellectual revolt
against Al-Qaeda's radicalization and methods. Obama's policies are geared toward capitalizing on and
accelerating Al-Qaeda's internal divisions and continuing loss of Muslim support. His emphasis on tackling
the main grievances that Al-Qaeda thrives on is a good starting point. Of course, it will all depend on policy
execution but the president's emphasis on reasonable negotiations with Iran rather than belligerent militarism and
his early engagement in the Arab-Israel conflict have certainly muddied Al-Qaeda's audio, video, and internet
messages, at least for now. The new administration's military and increased economic aid to Afghanistan, Pakistan
and other weak governments is also critical in helping them extend their writ over large swathes of their
ungovernable and under-governed areas. The president and his team seem to understand that Al-Qaeda can only be
defeated if its narrative is shattered and legitimate Muslim governments are empowered to provide for their
citizens and police their borders. America's support for former Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf was
short-sighted. Authoritarian regimes might deliver short-term stability but in the long-run they create the
seeds of political radicalism. Democracy might not always produce results to the liking of the United States,
but it does have a moderating effect on those who use religion as a reference (Morocco's Islamists) or ideology
(Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Islamists that are constantly harassed or thwarted by governments supported by
the United States will adopt uncompromising ideological positions. Some, as have already happened in Egypt and
also Algeria, will ultimately resort to violence locally, then internationally.
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A2 Biological/Chemical
Too many obstacles—technical difficulties
Audrey Kurth Cronin, Specialist in Terrorism Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. March 28, 2003
“Terrorist Motivations for Chemical and Biological Weapons Use: Placing the Threat in Context” CRS
There are at least four reasons why terrorist groups like Al Qaeda might avoid using chem-bio agents in
attacks against the United States and its interests. First and most important, the technical difficulties in
carrying out such attacks continue to be significant. Aum Shinrikyo is a good example of a group that had unusually favorable
circumstances for producing chemical and biological weapons, including money, facilities, time and expertise, yet they were unable to do so
effectively. Some experts argue that Aum Shinrikyo’s experience, which included problems ranging from obtaining biological seed cultures to
effectively disseminating them to chemical leaks and accidents, is as easily a warning of the technical challenges involved as it is an example
for future groups.20 For most nonstate actors, difficulties with acquiring materials, maintaining them,
transforming them into weapons, and disseminating them effectively are numerous. While many technical
advances have occurred in recent years, arguably reducing the barriers somewhat, there are still considerable
obstacles to terrorist development of chemical and biological weapons.21
Bio-Chem weapons not effective
Audrey Kurth Cronin, Specialist in Terrorism Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. March 28, 2003
“Terrorist Motivations for Chemical and Biological Weapons Use: Placing the Threat in Context” CRS
Second, as mentioned above, there are far easier and potentially more “effective” (at least in terms of casualty
numbers) alternatives to chemical and biological weapons. On the rare occasions when they have been used,
CBW have not resulted in large death tolls, especially compared to conventional weapons such as truck bombs and
individual explosive devices.22 It is worth bearing in mind that the attacks of September 11th accomplished
mass destruction without any unconventional weaponry. If measured strictly in terms of their proven capacity
to kill people or the frequency of terrorist use in the past, CBW weapons are not the most worrisome.
Terrorists animosity against WMD attacks
Audrey Kurth Cronin, Specialist in Terrorism Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. March 28, 2003
“Terrorist Motivations for Chemical and Biological Weapons Use: Placing the Threat in Context” CRS
Third, the incentives and disincentives for individual terrorists to use chemical and biological weapons are
complex and may not be exactly the same as those that guide the use of more conventional weapons. Recent
suicide attacks indicate, among other things, an apparently growing willingness on the part of terrorist
organizations to plan and condone the death of their own operatives in the service of the cause. It is difficult to
handle many chemical and biological agents without putting the handler at risk, especially in the absence of the
kind of top-quality equipment that is more commonly available to states. But instantaneous death in a dramatic
explosion is a far cry from the agony of a slow death from smallpox or exposure to a nerve agent. Of course,
there are many unknowns; but from an individual perspective, the incentives and disincentives for dying in a
CBW attack should not be assumed to be the same as those that factor into other types of attacks. Indeed, the
existence of larger numbers of religious terrorists could actually imply a decreased likelihood of the use of chemical and biological weapons.
Although this point should not be overstated, violence whose primary aim is to kill as many perceived enemies as possible may not be likely to
employ these agents. It is difficult in most scenarios to execute an attack with chem-bio weapons that kills a large number of people.
No reason next attack will be WMD
Audrey Kurth Cronin, Specialist in Terrorism Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. March 28, 2003
“Terrorist Motivations for Chemical and Biological Weapons Use: Placing the Threat in Context” CRS
Finally, groups tend to mimic previous successes. Although terrorists do innovate in various ways,23 groups
have most often preferred to use weapons that have a proven track record. There are no guarantees, but going
strictly on the odds and the historical patterns of terrorist behavior, most experts posit that there is a higher
likelihood that the next major attack will use conventional not unconventional means. But, again, the caveat
is that terrorism seeks to shock.
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AT: Nuclear Terrorism
Nuclear terrorism will never happen
Dr. Ian Storey is a Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. His research interests
include ASEAN’s relations with external powers, particularly China and the United States, maritime security, and the
insurgency in southern Thailand. Dr. Storey has published articles in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Parameters, Naval
War College Review, Jane’s Intelligence Review, Harvard Asia Quarterly, Yale Global Online, China Brief, Terrorism
Monitor, and Terrorism Focus.He has held positions at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Hawaii
and Deakin University in Australia. Dr. Storey received his bachelor’s degree from Hull University, England; his master’s
degree from the International University of Japan; and his Ph.D. from the City University of Hong
Kong. 1/24/08 (“Nuclear terrorism: Not going to happen” http://totalwonkerr.com/1584/nuclear-terrorism-not-gonnahappen
In this paper we will argue that the likelihood of nuclear terrorist attackis so slim as to render it virtually unthinkable.
Contrary to contemporary conventional. false equivalences and a fundamental misreading of the way that recent events
implicate our broader understanding of terrorist strategy. Building on a combination of organization theory and recent
empirical work on the basic rationality of terrorist groups and strategies, we propose an approach to terrorist
strategy that describes in formal and informal terms the process of strategic choice (and particularly choice of
certain strategic tools over others, a variable almost universally neglected in current approaches) during terrorist
campaigns and suggests that nuclear terrorism remains improbable in the extreme. Although the names of actors
have changed and terrorism has come to dominate strategic thought across the globe, America’s metropolitan centers
have no more to fear than they ever have from the possibility of nuclear terrorism. In this paper we will argue
that the likelihood of nuclear terrorist attacks is so slim as to render it virtually unthinkable. Contrary to
contemporary conventional wisdom, our theorizing demonstrates that there is no one-to-one linkage between acquisition
and “use”.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Legalize Drugs Canada CP
CP Text: The Government of Canada should permanently abolish its prohibition on illegal
drugs.
Legalizing drugs cuts terrorist finance—ending terrorism
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
We cannot maintain prohibition and yet still hope to deprive terrorist and criminal organizations of the
profits associated with the drug trade. It is as simple as that. The only measure with any realistic hope of
stopping the flow of drug-related money to terrorists is to dismantle drug prohibition. After decades of
propaganda about the evils of drugs, ending prohibition seems an extraordinary and almost unthinkable solution. It
is not. If Canada is serious about attacking the financing of terrorism, it must get serious about abandoning
prohibition. The efforts of this committee should be directed at the admittedly challenging task of dismantling
prohibition. It is completely irrational and destructive to maintain prohibition while acknowledging that
prohibition fosters the trade that is now the leading source of funding for many terrorist and criminal
organizations. As long as we continue to pretend - and it is only pretending - that significantly reducing drug
profits through traditional, failed, measures of supply and demand reduction is a realistic possibility, we will
continue to provide terrorists an alarmingly simple source of enrichment. Without prohibition, the drug trade
would not be a factor in terrorism. Because of prohibition, the drug trade is the major source of financing of
terrorism. We must decide which version of drug policy we want - one that fosters terrorism and enriches
terrorists, or one that does not.
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Legalize CP Solves WMD
CP solves WMDs
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
Some terrorism costs relatively little to accomplish. Carrying out the September 11 attacks in the United States
may have cost only a few million dollars.(2) However, many of the most feared forms of terrorism, the socalled weapons of mass destruction - biological, chemical and nuclear - can be very expensive to produce and
deliver. For example, Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult, put about 30 people and an estimated $30m into producing
the chemical sarin that was released in the Tokyo subway in 1995.(3) Profits from the production and sale of
prohibited drugs can therefore be useful to terrorists planning these more expensive forms of terrorism.
Attempts by governments to limit the financing of terrorist organizations generally focus on two main themes:
*
eliminating sources of financing, and * reducing the capacity of terrorists to keep and move and launder money
about the globe. This paper deals principally with the first theme - eliminating the sources of financing for
terrorists. Specifically, it deals with drug prohibition as an important source of money for terrorism. It
explains how drug prohibition - not simply the drug trade, but rather the drug trade under a system of
prohibition - has become a major, if not the major, source of funding for many terrorist groups. It argues
further that focusing on traditional measures to suppress the drug trade, including law enforcement, crop
substitution and measures to reduce the movement and laundering of drug money, will fail to significantly reduce
the flow of drug money to terrorists. The analysis concludes that because these other methods of attacking the
drug trade are ineffective - and cannot be made to be effective - governments must reconsider and, ultimately,
dismantle prohibitionist drug laws. Refusing to address the role of prohibition in financing terrorism will
enable terrorist groups to continue to build the resources they need to engage in even more extensive acts of
terrorism than we have witnessed to date.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Legalize CP Ext
Absence prohibition—terrorists no longer have money
Eugene Oscapella, Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy ‘01“The Links Between Drug Prohibition and
Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/terror.htm
* 1. Laws prohibiting drugs ("drug prohibition") have enriched criminal organizations around the world
by creating an enormously lucrative illegal market ("black market") in drugs. Prohibition has also often
helped finance terrorist groups. In 1994, Reuters News Agency quoted Interpol's chief drugs officer, Iqbal
Hussain Rizvi, as saying that "Drugs have taken over as the chief means of financing terrorism."62 (However,
Reuters did not report whether Mr. Rizvi gave a source for his estimate, so it cannot be said with certainty that it is
the main source of financing, although it is clearly a major source for many groups.) Terrorists and criminals,
sometimes both made wealthier by prohibition, may also join forces if their interests coincide, creating an
even greater threat to the countries they target.
Remember that it is drug prohibition that generates huge profits for these groups. Without prohibition, the
drug trade could not finance terrorism to any significant degree, since profits from the legal sale of drugs
would be a small fraction of the profits that are generated in the black market created by prohibition.
Politicians and policymakers typically don't appear to understand -- or they deliberately choose to ignore -- this
central point about how prohibition creates such a lucrative black market in drugs. They often simply make the
claim that the drug trade, or drug use, supports terrorism, without further explanation. They completely
ignore the role of the laws they enact to prohibit drugs in making the selling of drugs so profitable to
terrorists in the first place. The following are examples of this blindness:
Conventional policy makers overlook legalizing
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
The media, police, policymakers and politicians often describe the problem simply as the financing of
terrorism through the drug trade. Their analysis stops there. They ignore the role of drug prohibition.
Prohibition alone is what makes the drug trade so profitable for terrorists.
We access the best internal link to international security
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
Drug trafficking has, throughout this century, been an international enterprise and hence an international
problem. However, the ever increasing scale of the traffic, the apparent efficiency of organization and
sophistication, the vast sums of money involved and the increasing links with transnational organized crime
and terrorist organizations constitute a threat which is increasingly serious in both its nature and extent.
Illicit drug trafficking now threatens peace and security at a national and international level. It affects the
sovereignty of some states, the right of self-determination and democratic government, economic, social and
political stability and the enjoyment of human rights.(21)
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Drug Money  Destabilizes “terror countries”
Prohibitionist foreign policies destabilize governments of all countries
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
The pursuit of prohibitionist foreign policies can generate serous consequential harms in the countries where
those policies are imposed - defoliation and other environmental harms due to crop eradication, adverse
health consequences from the use of herbicides on drug crops, loss of livelihood for already desperately poor
farmers. Because prohibition is often enforced selectively, production and trafficking by some ideologically
favored groups is tolerated, enhancing their power. This enables them to brutalize(22) the population and
destabilize the otherwise democratic governments. Colombia is perhaps the best example. Both the left-wing
guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia are known to profit extensively from the trade in
cocaine.(23)
Thus, prohibitionist policies both empower those domestic terrorist groups that are able to profit from the
drug trade and often create other hardships within the countries on whom those policies are imposed.
People undergoing such hardships can become hostile to the foreign powers that have encouraged these
prohibitionist policies. This hostility can itself lead to violent acts, sometimes against Western interests and
nationals abroad, and sometimes against them in their home countries.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
A2 CP is Stupid
That logic justify 9/11
Eugene Oscapella -- Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, October 29, 2001 “How Drug Prohibition Finances
and Otherwise Enables Terrorism” http://www.cfdp.ca/eoterror.htm
The events of September 11 have made it abundantly clear that we must do more than we have been doing
to address the causes and mechanisms of terrorism. Relying on the same ideas, showing the same reluctance
to look at the real impact of drug prohibition, will only continue to facilitate the terrorism that has rocked
countries in other continents, and that may have just begun to rock our own.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Warming – defense
1. Global warming isn’t real
Joseph L Bast, President, Heartland Institute, 2003 “Eight Reasons Why Global Warming Is a Scam,”
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=11548
Our most reliable sources of temperature data show no global warming trend. Satellite readings of
temperatures in the lower troposphere (an area scientists predict would immediately reflect any global warming)
show no warming since readings began 23 years ago. These readings are accurate to within 0.01ºC, and are
consistent with data from weather by heat generated by nearby urban development, and are subject to
human error. balloons. Only land-based temperature stations show a warming trend, and these stations do
not cover the entire globe, are often contaminated
2. Warming is slow—their impact is on the scale of centuries
3. Apocalyptic warming scenarios are exaggerated
"Hans von Storch and Nico Stehr 01/24/2005 “How Global Warming Research is Creating a Climate of
Fear”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,342376,00.html
The pattern is always the same. The significance of individual events is turned into material suitable for media
presentation and is then cleverly dramatized. When the outlook for the future is discussed, the scenario that
predicts the highest growth rates for greenhouse gas emissions -- which, of course, comes with the most
dramatic climatic consequences -- is always selected from among all possible scenarios. Those predicting
significantly smaller increases in greenhouse gas levels are not mentioned. Every prediction has to trump the
last. Melting Antarctic ice is one of the current horror scenarios du jour. Who benefits from this? The assumption
is made that fear compels people to act, but we forget that it also produces a rather short-lived reaction. Climate
change, on the other hand, requires a long-term response. The impact on the public may be "better" in the short
term, thereby also positively affecting reputations and research funding. But to ensure that the entire system
continues to function in the long term, each new claim about the future of our climate and of the planet must
be just a little more dramatic than the last. It's difficult to attract the public's attention to the climate-related
extinction of animal species following reports on apocalyptic heat waves. The only kind of news that can trump
these kinds of reports would be something on the order of a reversal of the Gulf Stream. All of this leads to a
spiral of exaggeration. Each individual step in this process may seem harmless, but on the whole, the knowledge
imparted to the public about climate, climatic fluctuations, climate shift and climatic effects is dramatically
distorted.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Warming Rhetoric Turn
The affs phrasing of global warming as an extinction scenario makes it more difficult to solve
Bjørn Lomborg -- the director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center July 1, 2009 http://www.detnews.com/a
rticle/20090701/OPINION01/907010318/1008/opinion01/Stop-scaring-kids-about-global-warming
The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us
unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20
feet (six meters) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh and Shanghai, even
though the United Nations estimates that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that and do no such thing.When
confronted with these exaggerations, some say they are for a good cause, and surely there is no harm done if the
result is that we focus even more on tackling climate change. A similar argument was used when George W.
Bush's administration overstated the terror threat from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.But this argument is astonishingly
wrong. Such exaggerations do plenty of harm. Worrying excessively about global warming means that we
worry less about other things, where we could do so much more good. We focus, for example, on global
warming's impact on malaria -- which will be to put slightly more people at risk in 100 years -- instead of tackling
the half-billion people suffering from malaria today with prevention and treatment policies that are much cheaper
and dramatically more effective than carbon reduction would be. Exaggeration also wears out the public's
willingness to tackle global warming. If the planet is doomed, people wonder, why do anything? A record 54
percent of American voters now believe the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is. A
majority of people now believes -- incorrectly -- that global warming is not even caused by humans. In the
United Kingdom, 40 percent say global warming is exaggerated and 60 percent doubt that it is man-made.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Geopolymeric CP
CP Text: The United States federal government should offer the necessary incentives to
encourage the use of Geopolymeric cement in the United States.
That’s key to reducing emissions
Dr. Joseph Davidovits, 1997 “A practical New Way to Reduce Global Warming” June 30, 1
http://www.welcomenews.net/geopolymer.html
One reason that the U.S. has made little progress in meeting commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is
that some new technologies designed to mitigate the problem have not been afforded the priority that would allow
them to compete in the market. An example is a remarkable cement/concrete technology called geopolymeric
cement that can significantly reduce global CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, while solving a host of other
problems without creating new ones.
Emissions of CO2 from cement production is increasing at a much more rapid rate than all other industrial sources
put together. Few outside of the construction industry are aware that the manufacture of Portland cement based
concrete, the material seen everywhere in buildings and pavements, emits greenhouse gases, especially CO2. By
the year 2000, almost 10% of all global greenhouse gases will come from new construction with Portland
cement based concrete. As countries develop, they build infrastructure and housing that utilize abundant
quantities of concrete. As global development increases, Portland cement manufacturers can be expected to
exert an increasingly greater influence on governmental policies regulating CO2 emissions, a situation that
needs to be corrected as soon as possible. By the year 2015, global CO2 emissions from the manufacture of
Portland cement is expected to be 3,500 million tonnes annually. This vast amount is equivalent to Europe’s
total current annual CO2 emissions. This equals 67% of present annual U.S. CO2 emissions (5,160 million
tonnes). Clearly, these figures show the dramatic benefit that would be realized if all countries converted to
geopolymeric concrete.
Manufacturing geopolymeric cement generates five (5) times less CO2 than does the manufacture of
Portland cement. Any country that converts to the manufacture of geopolymeric cement/concrete would
eliminate 80% of the emissions generated from the cement and aggregates industries. Newly developing
countries that elect to utilize geopolymeric concrete could increase their construction rate five times without
increasing present CO2 emissions.
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Dylan Gorman, Ana O’hara, Josh Thorn
Geopolymeric CP - Ext
Switch from Portland to Geopolymetric is key to solve warming
Dr. Joseph Davidovits, 1997 “A practical New Way to Reduce Global Warming” June 30, 1
http://www.welcomenews.net/geopolymer.html
Even if a technology is clearly superior, it is very difficult for it to displace an entrenched technology. Thus
special priority should be given to proven technologies that can dramatically mitigate the tragedies resulting
from the severe floods and droughts expected from global warming. Priority status is especially needed in this
case because the cement industry has been unwilling to embrace geopolymeric concrete or any other
concrete that might threaten to displace Portland cement/concrete. While President Clinton is probably so far
unaware of this matter, the replacement of Portland cement with geopolymeric cement will substantially
reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and should be among the measures expected to be recommended by
him.
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Domestic Famine – defense (1/2)
1. New diseases will wipeout food supplies
Holly Ramer 7/2 /09 “Plant disease hits eastern US veggies early, hard”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUaRHVqY9wF145J22CxSuZmkpuyQD996QTV03
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Tomato plants have been removed from stores in half a dozen states as a destructive
and infectious plant disease makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in the eastern United
States. Late blight — the same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s — occurs sporadically
in the Northeast, but this year's outbreak is more severe for two reasons: infected plants have been widely
distributed by big-box retail stores and rainy weather has hastened the spores' airborne spread. The
disease, which is not harmful to humans, is extremely contagious and experts say it most likely spread on garden
center shelves to plants not involved in the initial infection. It also can spread once plants reach their final
destination, putting tomato and potato plants in both home gardens and commercial fields at risk. Meg McGrath,
professor of plant pathology at Cornell University, calls late blight "worse than the Bubonic Plague for plants."
"People need to realize this is probably one of the worst diseases we have in the vegetable world," she said.
"It's certain death for a tomato plant."
2. Famine inevitable – oil vs. food
Debora MacKenzie 6/16/09 “Obesity and hunger: The problem with food”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227121.800-obesity-and-hunger-the-problem-with-food.html
Unfortunately not. We produce our record harvests by harnessing fossil-fuel energy for farming.
Thermodynamics rules: you can't get something for nothing. Oil prices have begun to climb, and will keep
climbing as oil sources diminish. Meanwhile, demand for food grows. So food prices are on the rise, boosted
further by climate change, demand for biofuel, and limits on soil and water. Higher food prices mean that the
impoverished eat less nutritiously - or simply less.
3. Demographics will escalate even the most minor disaster
Juniper Russo Tarascio, November 26, 2008 “Famine in America? Why 99% of the U.S. Is in Danger of Starvation”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1218309/famine_in_america_why_99_of_the_us_pg2.html?cat=3
This transition is a distressing one indeed. While demographic shift from rural to urban lifestyles may seem
like a blessing to many who loathe the hard labor associated with rural, agrarian life, it may spell disaster for
those who are struggling through life in the Big City, hundreds or even thousands of miles from their food
sources. During the Great Depression, formerly wealthy executives stood in line for hours waiting in ragged
clothes for a hand-out of hot soup, while the rural "poor" went about life as usual, barely noticing the Depression.
Survivors of the Depression who lived in agrarian regions often joked that they were "too poor to notice the stock
market crash", but they were, in fact, better off than the majority of inner-city workers in that they never went
hungry. As a result of this, the one-half of Americans with access to their own home-grown foods were exempt
from the horrors of the Great Depression. Now imagine that, instead of 50% of the population suffering from
the woes of an economic collapse, it was the 99.2% who are not involved in agriculture full-time. The
comparison makes 1929 look like a walk in the park. Worse still, our food transporation services are now
fully dependent on massive amounts of petroleum for transport, and the distances of food transporation
have increased from tens of miles to thousands, which makes the modern grocery network look even more
fragile by comparison.
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Domestic Famine – defense (2/2)
4. Alt caus—Health-care-famine
Clark Newhall 01.09.2009 “America's health-care famine is slowly killing us” Salt Lake Tribune
The famine has grown while insurance companies charge higher premiums and reduce coverage, while
employers cut their contributions and increase deductibles, while legislators reduce Medicaid and Children's
Health Insurance Program budgets, and on and on. We are in a health-care famine. Millions of us are suffering
and millions more will suffer soon. More than 20,000 people die each year in this famine because they cannot
afford the price of for-profit health insurance. The famine will not end until, like Jacob, we open the granaries and
give aid to the starving. The health-care famine will not end until we end the money-hoarding that health
insurance companies call "reserves" and "administrative costs" and "profits." It will not end until we open
our blind eye and see the plight of our neighbor. It will not end until we learn that tolerating a profit-making
middleman in the health-care system builds a wall between patient and doctor. It will not end until we learn that
good things for everyone can only be accomplished by the will of everyone. It will not end until we pay for
health care in the same way that we pay for everything else that we value highly -- our security, our freedom, our
laws. It will not end until we have a national health-care system that covers everyone equally and is paid for
by everyone equitably. It is time for national single-payer health insurance. It is time to remove the profit-making
middleman from medical care. It is time to see health care for the public good that it is and not for the profitable
business it has become. Support Medicare for all.
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Famine – Defense (International)
1. Ancient volcanoes cause famine
NASA October 2001 “The Fatal Attraction of Volcanoes” http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/stothers_06/
The complete human toll from these and other eruptions must be far greater, however, perhaps in the
millions. The reasons are tied, strangely enough, to the upper atmosphere. Powerful eruptions inject sulfur gases
into the stratosphere, where the sulfur combines with water vapor to form sulfuric acid aerosols. These tiny
particles scatter sunlight back to space and alter atmospheric circulation patterns. The result is that the Earth's
surface cools and precipitation increases. Crops then fail to ripen properly, and famine and pestilence follow in
scarcity's wake. This sequence of events is known to have happened after the seven greatest volcanic
eruptions of the past two millennia.
2. IMG economic models cause famine
Michel Chossudovsky 2000 “The Real Cause Of Famine In Ethiopia”
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2465/is_6_30/ai_65653645/
More than eight million people in Ethiopia -- representing 15 per cent of the country's population -- are locked
into 'famine zones'. Urban wages have collapsed and unemployed seasonal farm workers and landless
peasants have been driven into abysmal poverty. The international relief agencies concur without further
examination that climatic factors are the sole and inevitable cause of crop failure and the ensuing humanitarian
disaster. What the media tabloids fail to disclose is that -- despite the drought and the border war with Eritrea -several million people in the most prosperous agricultural regions have also been driven into starvation. Their
predicament is not the consequence of grain shortages but of 'free markets' and 'bitter economic medicine'
imposed under the IMF-World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
3. No threshold to impact-they can’t prove how much famine they need to fix to solve their
impact
4. Ug99 fungus will cause inevitable famine
Canwest News Service, 6/25/09 “Fungus threat hangs over world wheat production”
http://www.canada.com/news/Fungus+threat+hangs+over+world+wheat+production/1728850/story.html
OTTAWA — Scientists in Canada and around the world are racing to find a way to stop a destructive
fungus that threatens to wipe out 80 per cent of the world's wheat crop, causing widespread famine and
pushing the cost of such staples as bread and pasta through the roof. Canadian officials say that the airborne
fungus, known as Ug99, has so far proved unstoppable, making its way out of eastern Africa and into the
Middle East and Central Asia. It is now threatening areas that account for more than one-third of the world's
wheat production and scientists in North America say it's only a matter of time before the pest hits the
breadbasket regions of North America, Russia and China. "I think it's important people start recognizing what
a big threat this is. This could mean world famine. This is quite the deal," said Rob Graf, a research scientist
with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's research centre in Lethbridge, Alta. The United Nations calls Ug99 "a
major threat" to the world's food security.
4. Fertilizer divide causes famine
Andrew C. Revkin, 6/19, 2009, “Fertilizer Divide: Too Much, Not Enough” http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/fertilizerdivide-too-much-not-enough/?hp
Now a new analysis of agriculture patterns in three parts of the world where corn is grown shows that there is also a
glaring “ fertilizer divide.” The authors write that overuse of fertilizer, particularly in China, where chemical
fertilizers are heavily subsidized, is generating large amounts of air pollution, including the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, and big
water pollution problems. Among other findings, the authors said that fertilizer use on corn in northern China could be cut in half with no loss
of production. The United States has trimmed excess fertilizer use since a peak in the 1990’s, the scientists write, but runoff and releases from
livestock operations still create big water problems, most notably the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” resulting from nutrients washing from fields
and livestock around the Mississippi River watershed. (A separate study out this week projects that this summer’s oxygen-starved Gulf zone
will be particularly large.) In stark contrast, cornfields in Kenya are starved for nutrients, according to the analysis
in Science, which was led by Peter Vitousek, a professor of biology at Stanford University. In 2004 Kenyan corn
farmers were using about 1 percent of the fertilizer per acre that their counterparts in China do. In 2007, Celia
Dugger reported how Malawi went from the brink of famine to becoming a corn exporter in part through subsidies for fertilizer.
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Famine – Defense (International)
5. Desertification leads to prolonged famine
Sunday Gabriel 6/17/09 “Tackling the effect of desertification” http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/tac1762009.html
As for the impact of desertification, experts say that the most devastating is its disruption of the natural cycle of
water and nutrients. It also intensifies strong winds and wildfires.
Studies also reveal that the effects of dust storms and the sedimentation of water and streams can be felt thousands of
kilometres away from where the problems originated.
The cost of desertification is high, and not just in economic terms as it constitutes a threat to biodiversity.
It can lead to prolonged episodes of famine in countries that are already impoverished and cannot sustain large
agricultural losses. Poor rural people, who depend on the land for survival, are often forced to migrate or starve.
Desertification does not only mean hunger and death in the developing world, it also increases the threat to global
security for everyone.
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Bio-fortification CP
The United States federal government should allocate all necessary resources for the research
and application of plant breeding biofortification technologies.
Government investments in bio-fortification solves world hunger
David Kern 2006, Drexel University “The Role of Genetically Modified Food”
http://www.udel.edu/GPPC/kern2006.htm
Investments in plant breeding research and dissemination are far lower and potentially long lasting. Benefits
of agricultural research at a central location can be spread throughout the world and across time. Breeding
for staple plants with high micronutrient content in their seeds, referred to as ‘biofortification’, treats the
underlying cause of lack of nutrients. Although plant breeding can involve relatively long lead times of 8–10
years before nutritious varieties can be developed and their adoption by farmers can be initiated, such a strategy is
sustainable once breeding has been completed, and seeds have been dispersed and adopted by farmers. During the
research and development stage the US can continue with their present system of providing help.
Biofortification has the potential to provide coverage for remote rural populations, which present
supplementation and fortification programs may not reach, and it inherently targets the poor who consume
high levels of staple foods and not much else. Development of varieties of rice or wheat high in iron and zinc using
conventional breeding might cost as much as $42 million over 10 years, including the costs of nutrition safety and
efficacy tests, the costs of distribution in selected regions, and the costs of an evaluation of nutritional and
economic impact. Such an investment is projected to have far reaching impacts if efficacy and effectiveness are
achieved. A large part of the costs will shrink over time as the major research and development will occur in
the very beginning and then as time goes on less money needs to go into these processes as the GM foods are fine
tuned. The $42 million cost over 10 years is a $1.25 billion difference compared to our current strategy. In one
scientific model it was conservatively estimated that in the long run (11-25 years) a total of 44 million cases of
anemia would be prevented if nutritionally improved varieties were to be adopted on 10% of rice and wheat
areas in Bangladesh and India (Hunt 2002). That is a very big step in the direction to relieving world hunger.
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Bio-fortification CP - ext
GMO’s key to solve nutrition and world hunger
David Kern 2006, Drexel University “The Role of Genetically Modified Food”
http://www.udel.edu/GPPC/kern2006.htm
The debate surrounding genetically modified foods much of the time comes down to the subject of
confronting world hunger. A main goal of GM foods is that they make it possible to solve world hunger.
Critics of this theory, though, believe that the reality of GMOs is that they will become, or already are, a victim of
our corporate world, and that the world hunger issue will never be approached. This, though, isn’t an accurate
criticism and I will explain why shortly. First I want to concentrate on how genetically modified foods can help
alleviate famine in third world countries.
As stated before many countries depend on grains, specifically rice, as their main source of food. Many of
these countries, the ones we are concerned with here, are poverty stricken third world countries. Because these
people rely on rice for such a big part of their diets, it is important that there is actually nutritional value in
the rice. The problem is that there naturally isn’t a whole lot of nutritional nourishment in rice and other grains.
The biggest malnutrition problem in these countries is iron deficiency and lack of Vitamin A. People may not
feel hungry, because they are eating, but their bodies are breaking down from anemia, which can lead to poor eye
sight, impaired growth, cognitive development, higher rate of sickness, and even high mortality. It’s because of all
this that the general problem of poor dietary quality has been dubbed ‘hidden hunger’. Genetic modification can
solve this problem. The potential benefits of improving the nutritional quality of foods are higher for lowincome countries, where food budgets account for two-thirds or more of total expenditures and where poor dietary
quality and micronutrient malnutrition are widespread (Shunker 2003). Most consumers in rich countries have
access to a relatively inexpensive supply of safe and healthy food.
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Food Surplus  Famine
U.S. Surpluses destabilize world agriculture
Michel Chossudovsky 1995 “Global Food Surpluses Generate Famine” http://www.hartfordhwp.com/archives/28/039.html
Since the early 1980s, grain markets are deregulated under the supervision of the World Bank, US grain
surpluses are used (far more systematically than in the past) to destroy the peasantry and destabilize national
food agriculture. The latter becomes, under these circumstances, far more vulnerable to the vagaries of
drought and environmental degradation. Similarly, subsidized beef and dairy products imported (duty free)
from the European Community have led to the demise of Africa's nomadic pastoral economy. European beef
imports to West Africa increased seven fold since 1984 with the effect of displacing local level livestock
producers. In the Sahel, the deregulation of the grain market under the supervision of the World Bank was initiated
at the height of the 1983-84 drought with devastating social consequences.
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Human Rights Promotion - Defense
1. Burma and Sudan erode human rights credibility
Joshua Muravchik June 29, 2009 “The Abandonment of Democracy”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124631424805570521.html
Many human rights activists have been shocked at the administration's apparent willingness to consider
easing sanctions on Burma and Sudan. The Obama presidential campaign was scornful of Bush's handling of the
killings in Sudan's Darfur region, which Bush labeled as genocide, but since taking office, the administration has
been caught flat-footed by Sudan's recent ousting of international humanitarian organizations. While it is hard to
see any diplomatic benefit in soft-pedaling human rights in Burma and Sudan, neither has Obama anything
to gain politically by easing up on regimes that are reviled by Americans from Left to Right. Even so ardent
an admirer of the President as columnist E. J. Dionne, the first to discern an "Obama Doctrine" in foreign policy,
confesses to "qualms" about "the relatively short shrift" this doctrine "has so far given to concerns over human
rights and democracy."
2. U.S. capital punishment policies are the greatest human rights violations
Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, 2002 “The Death Penalty and Human Rights: U.S. Death Penalty and
International Law” Death Penalty Information Center. Google Scholar.
Nowhere do the principles of U.S. law and the ideals of human rights meld more completely than around the
issue of innocence. The concern about mistakes in capital cases is the most powerful driving force towards a reevaluation of the death penalty in the U.S. today. Supreme Court Justices, legislators, conservative political
leaders and commentators have all expressed deep concerns about revelations of innocent people on death row in
recent years. From a human rights' perspective, the danger of executing an innocent person has played a key
role in the abolition of the death penalty in other countries.66 Surprisingly, this issue has only been
peripherally explored in U.S. courts. While it is certainly true that guilt or innocence is the ultimate focus of all
criminal procedures, defendants who are convicted generally challenge their conviction tangentially by pointing to
unfair or unconstitutional procedures used in their arrest or trial. A bold claim of simple innocence is both rare
and disfavored.67
3. Guantanamo limits human rights promotion
Yuri Orlov et al – Helenski federation for human rights, June 2007 “US Advocacy: The Guantanamo Effect”
The polices symbolized by Guantanamo have had profound and potentially long-lasting impacts not only on
US leadership on but also on the broader protection of in the OSCE region. Above all, they have seriously
undermined or even reversed perceptions of the US as an example of a government respectful of and as an
essential ally of the region’s democratically oriented civil society movements, thereby weakening America’s
ability to contribute to the advancement of in the region.
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Ext 3 – Gtmo
Guantanamo has co-opted every global human rights effort—in addition it outweighs any effort
of the plan
Yuri Orlov et al – Helenski federation for human rights, June 2007 “US Advocacy: The Guantanamo Effect”
The polices symbolized by Guantanamo have had profound and potentially long-lasting impacts not only on
US leadership on but also on the broader protection of in the OSCE region. Above all, they have seriously
undermined or even reversed perceptions of the US as an example of a government respectful of and as an
essential ally of the region’s democratically oriented civil society movements, thereby weakening America’s
ability to contribute to the advancement of in the region More specifically, the following trends have been
identified in this contribution:
• The credibility of the US as a proponent of human rights has been severely damaged
and it can no longer effectively address problems such as torture, arbitrary detention
and disappearances in other countries;
• The US is perceived generally to have downplayed human rights in its foreign policies
and to have allowed security and other issues to take precedence over human rights in
bilateral political dialogues;
• The leverage of the US to address egregious abuses such as those perpetrated in the
name of fighting terrorism in Chechnya and Uzbekistan has been greatly diminished;
• Governments with inferior human rights records have been emboldened by the US
example of circumventing human rights principles and have sought to justify their
own policies by arguing that they are only doing what the US is doing;
• Non-democratic regimes have found a convenient opportunity to reinforce charges of
political bias and double standards in the US approach to human rights;
• The US and other western governments have been accused of seeking to meddle in the
internal affairs of countries of the former Soviet Union when leveling criticism of
human rights conditions in these countries, although they themselves violate
international rules;
• Authorities of countries in a weak position to challenge the US have been pressured to
allow security interests to override human rights concerns in individual cases in the
“war on terror”;
• Respect for the US and the US model of democracy has waned, and nationalist
movements have openly exploited alleged US abuses to fuel anti-American sentiments
in their countries;
• US is perceived to have withdrawn support for “politically sensitive” activities by civil
society groups in the region;
• Human rights NGOs have been accused of promoting political interests of the US and
other western countries when accepting grants from foreign donors;
• Those involved in efforts to promote human rights have faced a more hostile working
environment due to growing cynicism and disillusionment about human rights, often
reinforced by negative government propaganda.
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Soft Power Answers
1. Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Haditha, Renditions, Torture, Violation of Geneva convention
are all alternate causalities to soft power decline
Pamela Hyde Smith-- research associate and teaches a class on public diplomacy at Georgetown University's
School of Foreign Service, 2007 “The Hard Road Back to Soft Power”, Georgetown Journal of International
Affairs
The Pew Research Center's June 2006 Global Attitudes Project demonstrates what other polls have been saying in
recent years: world public opinion has turned ferociously against the United States. Favorable opinion has
plummeted in nearly all countries surveyed in Europe, Asia, and especially the Middle East. The United States has never been as unpopular in
Western Europe. Even in the United Kingdom 41 percent of those polled think the United States is a greater threat to world peace than Iran.
Most countries polled now view China more favorably than the United States. In Turkey, a NATO ally country, only 12 percent of those polled
have a favorable opinion of the United States -- down from 52 percent in 2000. In Indonesia favorable opinion declined from 75 percent in
2000 to 15 percent in 2003, and it has risen to 30 percent today chiefly because of our tsunami assistance. In not a single majority-Muslim
population country polled in 2002 did a majority believe that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks; these same majorities support Osama bin
Laden and evince sympathy for suicide bombers. Across the globe people believe that the Iraq war makes the world
more dangerous, and this perception undercuts support for the overall war on terrorism. American actions
at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Haditha combine with U.S. renditions, defense of torture, and violations
of the Geneva Conventions to blacken the U.S. image. In the past, when foreign attitudes faulted the U.S.
government, the American people still enjoyed favorable ratings, but this has been changing: between 2002 and
2005 favorability ratings of Americans fell in nine of twelve countries polled. As Roger Cohen memorably put it,
the world has "stopped buying the American narrative." A catalogue of further complaints completes the
picture. World opinion faults the Bush administration for its unilateralism and preemption, unflinching
support of Israel, and scorn for international organizations. The Bush administration's decision to withdraw
from the Kyoto Protocol and its dismissal of the threat of global warming have been met with dismay by key
Asian and European allies. Additional irritants include stingy assistance to the world's poor in comparison with
other wealthy countries and the slow and ineffective response to Katrina, which made the U.S. government
appear less generous and even-handed than America claims to be....
2. Soft power doesn’t spill over to other issues
Stephen Brooks and William Wohlforth, Professors Government – Dartmouth, ‘5 (Perspectives
on Politics 3:509-524)
Drawing on rational choice theory, Downs and Jones show that a far more compelling theoretical case can be made
that states have multiple reputations—each particular to a specific agreement or issue area. For this reason, they
find that “the reputational consequences of defection are usually more bounded” than institutionalist scholarship
currently presumes.” 67 If America has, for example, one reputation associated with the UN and another
regarding the WTO, then lack of compliance with the former organization will in no way directly undercut its
ability to gain cooperation in the latter. As Downs and Jones note, viewing states as having multiple reputations
“helps to explain why, despite the prevalence of the unitary reputation assumption, examples of a state’s defection
from an agreement in one area (for example, environment) jeopardizing its reputation in every other area (for
example, trade and security) are virtually nonexistent in the literature.”68 This conclusion is consistent with the
two most detailed studies of reputation in IR, which decisively undercut the notion that states have a general
reputation that will strongly influence how other states relate across different issue areas.69
In the end, the current lack of an empirical or theoretical justification for the notion that states carry a single
reputation means that we have no basis for accepting the institutionalists’ argument that America must endorse
multilateralism across the board because to do otherwise has consequences that endanger the entire institutional
order. That, together with theory’s lack of purchase on the issues of coordination costs and bargaining power,
invalidates the institutionalist argument about the high cost of unilateralism.
3. Plan cant sustain soft-power forever, unpredictable events in the future will unintentionally
damage U.S. credibility
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Death Penalty CP
The United States Federal Government should establish polices that:
* Prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders
* Prohibit execution of the mentally impaired
* discourage discrimination in application of the death penalty.
capital punishment reform promotes human rights abroad
Amnesty International USA. Human Rights Policy Paper (February, 1988)
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human%20Rights%20Documents/Amnesty_USHumanRightsPol.html
There is an adverse relationship between capital punishment and existing international human rights
standards. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 5: "No one shall be subjected to torture or
to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punish meet." In addition, imposition of the death penalty in the
United States and other countries which still permit capital punishment results in arbitrary and
discriminatory executions. The United States has a responsibility to review the existence of discrimination in the
administration and application of capital sentencing. The United States can promote human rights abroad by
demonstrating its commitment to protecting human rights at home.
The United States is one of the member states of the United Nations. It shows little sign, however, of joining
the world trend toward abolishing state-sanctioned killing. Therefore, the United States contravenes the
United Nations declaration that "in order to guarantee fully the right to life, provided for in Article 3 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights," member states should progressively seek to restrict "the number of
offenses for which capital punishment may be imposed with a view to the desirability of abolishing this
punishment in all countries."
Amnesty International USA calls on U.S. Government officials to commit themselves to work toward abolition
of the death penalty in the United States and specifically to:
* Prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders, a practice which contravenes the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights.
* Prohibit execution of the mentally impaired, a practice which contravenes the guidelines of the United Nations
Economic and Social Council.
* Eliminate discrimination in application of the death penalty.
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Death Penalty CP - Ext
Reforming the death penalty spills over—legitimizes human rights treaties abroad
Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, 2002 “The Death Penalty and Human Rights: U.S. Death Penalty and
International Law” Death Penalty Information Center. Google Scholar.
The U.S. is already a party to a number of fundamental human rights treaties that impact capital
punishment. To some extent, the U.S. has isolated itself from the most direct effects of these treaties through
reservations or by invoking domestic law. But the U.S. is committed to the underlying human rights
principles of these treaties and these instruments can serve as a starting point for reforming and restricting
the death penalty from a human rights perspective. The issue of innocence has particular ramifications for the
U.S. death penalty. The impact of over 100 people who faced execution walking free has raised moral, legal, and
constitutional questions in the U.S. It also provides an opening for those who approach the death penalty
from a human rights perspective: every country committed to the preservation of human rights will want to
avoid any unnecessary measures which threaten innocent life. While that ultimate question is being settled,
there is ample room for reform and restrictions on the death penalty. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions
have demonstrated an openness to the opinion of other nations in evaluating the evolving standards of decency that
will ultimately determine the boundaries of acceptable punishment. Within this framework, many perspectives
should be welcome.
The U.S. needs to revise capital punishment in order to promote human rights
Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, 2002 “The Death Penalty and Human Rights: U.S. Death Penalty and
International Law” Death Penalty Information Center. Google Scholar.
The thesis of this paper is that international law and an analysis based on human rights are useful means to
address the death penalty in the U.S. Although the U.S. uses other terms in protecting basic rights, and has
carefully insulated itself from key human rights treaties regarding the death penalty, there is now a new
openness to discuss the problems of capital punishment. Particularly around the issue of innocence, criticism
of the death penalty within the U.S. and the concerns of the international human rights community stand on
common ground. If the U.S. is headed toward the abolition of the death penalty, the next few years will be
crucial in determining whether that process is rapid, or drawn out over many decades.
The death penalty even damages specific policies—like extraditing
Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, 2002 “The Death Penalty and Human Rights: U.S. Death Penalty and
International Law” Death Penalty Information Center. Google Scholar.
Challenging the death penalty is not seen solely as an internal matter among nations. Many European
countries, along with Canada, Mexico, and South Africa, have resisted extraditing persons to countries like the
United States unless there are assurances that the death penalty will not be sought. The Council of Europe
has threatened to revoke the U.S.'s observer status unless it takes action on the death penalty.18 Mexico has
recently begun a program to provide legal assistance to its foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S.
As discussed more fully below, these Mexican citizens were usually not afforded their rights under the Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations. This same violation led Paraguay and Germany to pursue relief at the
International Court of Justice in the Hague for their foreign nationals facing execution in the U.S.
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Disease – Defense (1/2)
1. Disease spread won’t cause extinction
Dr. Clarence Peters and Chrystal -- Director of Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases @ UT, and
Dr. Ronald, Chairman of Genetics Medicine @ Cornell, FDCH Political Transcripts, 20 03“U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE CHRISTOPHER COX (R-CA) HOLDS HEARING ON COUNTERING THE
BIOTERRORISM THREAT”, 3-15
PETERS: I think we have one example from the movement of the Conquistadors to the New World. They
brought measles, smallpox and a variety of other diseases with them. They didn't wipe out the Indians, but
they destroyed their civilization and were instrumental in the Spaniards being able to conquer the New World with
relatively few people. I think we have something going on right now with SARS that we don't know exactly what
the end of it's going to be, but we already know that Asian economies are suffering tremendously. My prediction is
that they will not be able to control it in China. If that's true, then we will be dealing with repeated introductions
in this country for the indefinite future so that we may see a change in our way of life where we are taking
temperatures in airports, in addition to taking your shoes off and putting them through the X-ray machine. And we
may see emergency rooms rebuilt so that if you have a cough you go in one entrance and go into a negative
pressure cubicle until your SARS test comes back. So I think that while wiping out human life is extremely
unlikely, we have unengineered examples of bugs that have made great impacts on civilizations. COX: Dr.
Crystal? CRYSTAL: The natural examples of what you suggested were, as hundreds of years ago, with
smallpox and also with the plague. The plague wiped out one-third of the civilization. We now have
treatments for ordinances (ph) like the plague because they were engineered to be resistant. And if they infected a
number of people and had the capability of being spread rapidly from individual to individual, it would cause
enormous havoc. I agree with the panel -- I don't think it would wipe out civilization, but the consequences to
our society would be enormous.
2. Aff cant solve every disease hub globally—countries in Africa, china, India with poor public
health systems trigger their impact
3. Ere negative – a virus has never actually killed off any species
Ed Regis, Author of “Virus Ground Zero”, ‘97 New York Times, “Pathogens of Glory”, 5-18, l/N)
Despite such horrific effects, Dr. Peters is fairly anti-apocalyptic when it comes to the ultimate import of viruses.
Challenging the widespread perception that exotic viruses are doomsday agents bent on wiping out the
human species, he notes that "we have not documented that viruses have wiped out any species." As for the notion
that we're surrounded by "new" diseases that never before existed, he claims that "most new diseases turn out to be old diseases"; one type of
hantavirus infection, he suggests, goes back to A.D. 960. And in contrast to the popular belief that viral epidemics result from mankind's
destruction of the environment, Dr. Peters shows how the elimination of a viral host's habitat can eradicate a killer virus and prevent future
epidemics. This is what happened when the Aswan Dam, completed in 1971, destroyed the floodwater habitat of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes,
carriers of Rift Valley fever virus: "After the Aswan Dam was constructed, there was no more alluvial flooding. . . . Without a floodwater
mosquito, the virus can't maintain itself over the long haul. . . . By 1980, Rift Valley fever had essentially disappeared in Egypt." Still, Dr.
Peters isn't totally averse to doomsday thinking, and in his final chapter he lays out his own fictional disease scenario, in which a mystery virus
from Australia suddenly breaks out in a Bangkok slum. Throw in Malthus, chaos theory and the high mutation rates of RNA viruses, and soon
he's got the world teetering on the brink of viral holocaust in the finest Hollywood tradition. But he doesn't know quite what to make of his own
scenario. He offers "one valid, simplified equation to describe what we can expect from viruses in the future": mutating viruses plus a changing
ecology plus increasing human mobility add up to more and worse infectious diseases. Two pages later, though, he says that "it is impossible to
gauge how the actions of man will impact on emerging infectious diseases." If that is true, it discredits the very equation he's given us. In the
end, he presents no clear or consistent picture of the overall threat posed by the viruses he discusses. The empirical fact of the matter
is that today's most glamorous viruses -- Marburg and Ebola -- have killed minuscule numbers of people
compared with the staggering death rates of pathogens that go back to disease antiquity. Marburg virus,
discovered in 1967, has been known to kill just 10 people in its 30-year history; Ebola has killed approximately
800 in the 20 years since it appeared in 1976. By contrast, malaria, an ancient illness, still kills a worldwide
average of one million people annually -- more than 2,700 per day. More than three times as many people die of
malaria every day than have been killed by Ebola virus in all of history. Yet it's Ebola that people find "scary"!
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Disease – Defense (2/2)
4. Deadly muted disease impossible—cant be everything
Malcolm Gladwell --New York bureau chief of The Washington Post, 1995 The New Republic July 17, lexis
I could go on, but the point is obvious. Any microbe capable of wiping us all out would have to be everything
at once: as contagious as flu, as durable as the cold, as lethal as Ebola, as stealthy as HIV and so doggedly
resistant to mutation that it would stay deadly over the course of a long epidemic. But viruses are not, well,
superhuman. They cannot do everything at once. It is one of the ironies of the analysis of alarmists such as
Preston that they are all too willing to point out the limitations of human beings, but they neglect to point out
the limitations of microscopic life forms.
5. Technology will cure all diseases—stem cells
Han Dingchao, July 9, 2008 “Can We Cure All Diseases In The Future?” http://www.handingchao.com/can-wecure-all-diseases-in-the-future/
Now let’s be back to the title, can we cure all diseases in the future? This is a complicated question, it is difficult
to make an definite answer for it, but one thing is sure, as long as we don’t stop researching and we have fair
eyes on everything, we will have ability to cure most diseases in the future. And now we have ability to
expand the great results of stem cell research, we will use them perfectly in the coming years, this will be a
great news in medical industry. So now we have enough faith to believe we will have enough ability to cure all
disease in the future.
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Satellite CP
CP Text: The Center for Earth Observing and Space Research should collaborate with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish disease surveillance satellites that
use remote sensing data monitoring
Disease surveillance key to minimize outbreaks
Gilberto Vicente et al 2002 “The Role of a satellite intelligent system in the development of a dedicated health and
environment space based mission” http://www.isprs.org/commission1/proceedings02/paper/00087.pdf
Satellite remote sensing for disease surveillance will play a major role in public health in the coming years.
Although the ability to predict epidemic outbreaks is still limited by current research and technology, satellite
remote sensing has the potential to become an important tool for assisting epidemiologists in locating areas
where disease outbreaks are likely to occur. This will permit the optimization of resources and save lives,
especially in developing countries where health related resources are limited and disease outbreaks have farreaching social and economic consequences. In order to make satellite sensors reliable tools for epidemiological
research, we need to improve upon the capabilities of the current sensors, which are providing data on key
epidemiological variables. The most useful remote sensing systems for public health applications will require
instruments which can integrate data and information among spectral, spatial and temporal characteristics of
remotely-sensed images and disease vector profiles. The ultimate goal of an optimal sensor system, however, is
to achieve the capability of using remote sensed data to monitor areas in real time and predict disease
outbreaks so that effective preventive actions may be taken. This goal could be accomplished through the
creation of a dedicated mission comprised of a collection of instruments and sensors tuned to acquire information
directly related to the disease organisms, vectors, reservoirs, hosts, geographic specifications, and environmental
variables associated with health problems. To take advantage of the intelligent space-based remote sensing
systems potentially available by 2010 and beyond, we propose to initiate the process of selecting the ideal
suite of measurements needed for the development of a dedicated Health and Environment satellite mission. The
project will combine the flexibility and expertise in data management and product generation provided by
the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research (CEOSR) in the George Mason University (GMU) and its
long-standing relation with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
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Satellite CP Ext
Remote sensing stops pandemics before they occur
Jennifer Bender 6-Nov-2007 “NASA technology helps predict and prevent future pandemic outbreaks”
Research presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Meeting in Philadelphia.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/asot-nth110607.php
With the help of 14 satellites currently in orbit and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA)
Applied Sciences Program, scientists have been able to observe the Earth’s environment to help predict and
prevent infectious disease outbreaks around the world. The use of remote sensing technology aids specialists
in predicting the outbreak of some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases today such as Ebola,
West Nile virus and Rift Valley Fever. The ability of infectious diseases to thrive depends on changes in the
Earth’s environment such as the climate, precipitation and vegetation of an area. Through orbiting satellites,
data is collected daily to monitor environmental changes. That information is then passed on to agencies
such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense who then apply the data
to predict and track disease outbreaks and assist in making public health policy decisions. “The use of this
technology is not only essential for the future of curbing the spread of infectious diseases,” explains John Haynes,
public health program manager for the NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences Program. “NASA satellites are also
a cost-effective method for operational agencies since they are already in orbit and in use by scientists to collect
data about the Earth’s atmosphere.” Remote sensing technology not only helps monitor infectious disease
outbreaks in highly affected areas, but also provides information about possible plague-carrying vectors -such as insects or rodents -- globally and within the U.S. The Four Corners region, which includes Colorado, New
Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, is a highly susceptible area for plague and Hanta virus outbreaks, and by
understanding the mixture of vegetation, rainfall and slope of the area, scientists can predict the food supply of
disease transmitting vectors within the region and the threat they cause to humans. Because plague is also
considered a bioterrorism agent, NASA surveillance systems enable scientists to decipher if an outbreak was
caused by natural circumstances or was an act of bioterrorism. A particular infectious disease being targeted
by NASA is malaria, which affects 300-500 million persons worldwide, leaving 40 percent of the world at risk of
infection. The Malaria Modeling and Surveillance Project utilizing NASA satellite technology is currently in use
by the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Thailand and the U.S. Naval Medical Research
Unit located in Indonesia. Data collected at these locations is combined and used to monitor environmental
characteristics that effect malaria transmission in Southeast Asia and other tropical and subtropical regions.
Malaria surveillance provides public health organizations with increased warning time to respond to outbreaks and
assistance in the preparation and utilization of pesticides, which leads to a reduction in drug resistant strains of
malaria and damage to the environment. “NASA satellite remote sensing technology has been an important
tool in the last few years to not only provide scientists with the data needed to respond to epidemic threats
quickly, but to also help predict the future of infectious diseases in areas where diseases were never a main
concern,” says Mr. Haynes. “Changing environments due to global warming have the ability to change
environmental habitats so drastically that diseases such as malaria may become common in areas that have never
been previously at-risk.”
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Satellites – New Systems Key
New Systems key to public health management
Gilberto Vicente et al 2002 “The Role of a satellite intelligent system in the development of a dedicated health and
environment space based mission” http://www.isprs.org/commission1/proceedings02/paper/00087.pdf
The key to using RS in future human health studies are having accurate, affordable, reliable, and accessible sources
of satellite derived geophysical parameters. At the same time there is a need to continue developing and
deploying new instrument technology that provide better insight into problems. New instrument technology,
including hyper- spectral, SAR interferometers, and motion sensing synthetic aperture radar need to be
analyzed for application in human health research. Systems such as EOS and NPOESS that incorporate
multi-satellite systems, data production facilities and data archive and distribution abilities, need to
continue. There is also a need to continue working with the historical satellite data, such as AVHRR, improving
the accuracy of products and merging them with data from the newer satellites. In both cases the distribution of
the data needs to be flexible enough to support different data formats and map projections. Cross calibration
of instruments and algorithms is critical to these efforts and should be a key area of research for future instrument
development. The ability to cross calibrate with respect to instrument, spatial resolution, and time would
allow comparison of data that is now very difficult if not impossible. While the development of a completely
dedicated health and environment space-based mission may not be possible by 2010, much can be done to extract
the necessary information from the current and future satellite missions. This include linking basic research,
processing capabilities, training and outreach with operational health and environmental applications and
establishing stronger connections between the RS data/product generation centers and decision support systems
like the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Such actions will
permit the optimization of the resources currently available for health and environmental applications and allow
necessary changes in the planning phase of the coming missions to accommodate the needs of operational
applications in these fields. On the other hand, the experience gained in the management, organization and delivery
of remote sensing data as well as product generation and integration by institutions like the Center for Earth
Observing and Space Research (CEOSR) in the George Mason University (GMU) are crucial. By focusing on
research done from satellite platforms, including data, associated information technologies and applications as well
as fundamental science, CEOSR works as an interdisciplinary research center. It provides needed infrastructure,
including organizational and logistic support to research projects falling naturally within the focus of health and
environmental issues.
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TB – Defense
1. Logic—If TB is already drug resistant then the Aff is too late to solve
2. Vaccines will solve TB
Landry and Heilman ’05 *associate director- policy and program operations, National Vaccine Program
Office, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,**director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, “Future Directions In Vaccines: The Payoffs
Of Basic Research”
Promise of new technologies. The payoffs from these standard approaches are now beginning to plateau. In fact,
most of the "easy" vaccines have been developed, and many challenges lie ahead for new and improved
vaccines. New technologies may provide stronger, broader, and more durable immune responses than those
induced by some earlier vaccines. New vaccines are also likely to exploit genomics and high-throughput screening
approaches that are based on computational methods. These methods will allow for development of rationally
based approaches that select potential antigens more effectively and precisely. In addition, future vaccines will
use these new tools to get around the challenges of the remaining infectious diseases. [n2] These challenges
include the inherent ability of many viruses to change (antigenic variation), as is seen with HIV and influenza; the
need to develop vaccines that rely on cell-based immunity for protection for infections such as tuberculosis; and
tools for addressing a pathogen's ability to outsmart the immune system--immune evasion strategies, such as seen
with hepatitis C. [n3] Impact of new immune concepts. Research on the immune system has helped identify
new ways of fighting infections and is helping define the mechanisms needed for successful immunization.
Most currently licensed vaccines protect by producing neutralizing antibodies, made by the B cells of the immune
system. One of the advantages of stimulating this arm of the immune system is that it can be easily measured.
Researchers believe that vaccines against many of the infections that are of highest priority (HIV, TB, and malaria)
will need to have the other arm of the immune system--the cellular component, or T cells--pulled into action. [n4]
For the first time in sixty years, new TB vaccines are in clinical trials. [n5]
3. New treatments for drug resistant strains
Michael Carter, Tuesday, 6/9, 2009, http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/28D99D03-D943-4D36-94555D04A3197A33.asp “New drug for MDR-TB does well in trial”
TMC207 is a safe and effective drug for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), the results
of a randomised, placebo-controlled trial published in the June 4th edition of the New England Journal of
Medicine have shown. Patients who received the drug were significantly more likely to have a negative
culture result after eight weeks than patients who received standard second-line TB treatment.
4. India has ¼ of all cases—plan doesn’t reach
Zubeda Hamid 6/8 09 “Smoking, drinking increases risk of TB: Study” Express Buzz
It is a disease that affects thousands across the country and yet gets negligible attention. India as a country has 25
per cent of the world’s tuberculosis cases, a statistic that according to experts is only increasing. To date, the
disease remains a major cause of death in rural India.
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TB – Alt Causes (1/2)
Several Alternate Causalities to TB – keep in mind they have to win the Aff solves every single
one of these globally:
1. South Africa Prisons
i.o.l 6/30 “SA prisoners overcrowded” http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw2009
0630195140286C497712#more. Google
There are currently 115 753 sentenced offenders serving time in South Africa's prisons, Correctional Services
Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.Opening debate in the National Assembly on her
department's budget vote, she told MPs there were a further 49 477 awaiting-trial prisoners held behind bars.The
large number of awaiting-trial prisoners was one of the main reasons many prisons were overcrowded."By
December last year, 64 870 ATDs (awaiting-trial detainees) had been diverted from our system. [A total of] 49 072 offenders
had also benefited from our parole and conversion processes."In spite of these measures, the number of ATDs continues to
increase, primarily due to the fact that 77 percent of [them] do not have [money for] bail and cannot benefit from these
alternatives."The other contributing factor is that there is an increasing number of offenders serving sentences in excess of 10
years, especially in the 10-to-15 year bracket.This is also worsened by an increase in people serving lifelong sentences in our
facilities.The effect of these realities is that we experience a significant burden on our ability to manage overcrowding," she
said.Speaking during the debate, Democratic Alliance correctional services spokesperson James Selfe said it was necessary to
try "to the extent possible and responsible" to reduce the inflow into prisons."Not everyone who offends belongs in prison, and
this applies in particular to young, first-time and non-violent offenders."For appropriate offenders, suspended sentences linked
to community service will be much more beneficial than incarceration, with the additional benefit of reducing overcrowding
and reducing costs."Yet our prisons are full of inmates who are serving sentences for shoplifting and cellphone theft," he
said.Briefing the media at Parliament earlier on Tuesday, Mapisa-Nqakula said an additional 20 000 "bed spaces" had been
created in prisons over the past 15 years, but the overcrowding persisted.This was the result of a 75 percent increase in the
prison population over the same period.Responding to a question, she said 19 061 of sentenced offenders were HIV
positive.The African Christian Democratic Party's Steve Swart told members prisons were 143,3 percent overcrowded in
January 2009, holding a total of 164 518 inmates."Overcrowding remains a major problem, and is the root cause of
health problems and the spread of diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV and Aids in certain prisons."
2. Poor nations
Associated Press Oct 25, 2007 “Fighting drug-resistant TB spread from hospitals”
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyFKUdk1CCOGNK8gZfIppjPssqzA
PARIS (AFP) — An epidemic of deadly drug-resistant tuberculosis has spread from South African hospitals,
but a mix of simple preventative measures could cut the number of future cases in half, according to a study
released Friday.Extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis has emerged over the last decade as a major
health concern around the world, especially in poorer nations.While accounting for only a tiny fraction of the
nine million new cases of TB reported each year, XDR tuberculosis is on the rise, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
3. Misuse of medicine
HSTAT – Health Technologies Services/ Technology Assessment Text. October 16, 2008 “Chapter 6 - Summary
Statement on Tuberculosis” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=hstat5.section.25888
How did multidrug-resistant tuberculosis develop? Multiple reasons account for the increased incidence of
MDR-TB, but several factors warrant comment. Drug resistance has developed primarily as a result of
noncompliance with prescribed anti-TB therapy among patients with active tuberculosis. Many patients were
started on appropriate therapy, but adequate and complete medical followup did not occur. Such followup must be
consistently carried out to ensure ongoing compliance, completion of therapy, and successful outcomes. Failure to
do this left many persons in the community with partially and unsuccessfully treated TB. This unsuccessfully
treated population became the source of MDR-TB.
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4. Lack of early detection
HSTAT – Health Technologies Services/ Technology Assessment Text. October 16, 2008 “Chapter 6 - Summary
Statement on Tuberculosis” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=hstat5.section.25888
A second factor has been the failure of health care workers to suspect a case of active tuberculosis and
rapidly isolate infectious TB patients. Patients who are not recognized as having active TB may expose other
persons to the disease both in the hospital and in the community. Among HIV-infected persons, the
consequences of failing to recognize possible exposure or active disease have been devastating. In addition,
the absence of proper ventilation on hospital wards and in outpatient facilities, as well as in any of a number
of other care facilities, has led to the spread of TB in hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters, and other settings.
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Ultraviolet light CP
CP Text: The United States federal government should allocate the necessary resources to
increase the use of Ultraviolet light sterilization systems in hospitals.
Sterilization of hospital air via UVC is key to reducing the spread of TB
David Gutierrez -- staff writer 6/9 “UV Lights in Hospitals Could Reduce Spread of TB by 70 Percent”
http://www.naturalnews.com/026414_hospitals_hospital_disease.html
(NaturalNews) Sterilization of hospital air with ultraviolet light could reduce the internal spread of
tuberculosis (TB) by as much as 70 percent, according to a study published in the journal PLoS Medicine.TB is a
highly contagious respiratory disease that infects nearly nine million people around the world each year, killing
two million of them. The disease is an increasing public health threat as antibiotic resistant strains continue to
become more common."When people are crowded together in a hospital waiting room, it may take just one
cough to infect several vulnerable patients, said researcher Rod Escombe of Imperial College London. "Our
previous research showed that opening windows in a room is a simple way to reduce the risk of tuberculosis
transmission, but this is climate-dependent -- you can't open the windows in the intensive care ward of a
Siberian hospital."Ultraviolet-C (UVC) light is already commonly used to sterilize empty operating rooms or
ambulances. In prior studies, UVC light has proven effective at killing both normal and drug-resistant strains
of TB bacteria by damaging their DNA.
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Ultraviolet Light CP Ext.
Ultraviolet lights reduce the spread of TB
David Gutierrez -- staff writer 6/9 “UV Lights in Hospitals Could Reduce Spread of TB by 70 Percent”
http://www.naturalnews.com/026414_hospitals_hospital_disease.html
The simple intervention of using ultraviolet (UV) lights near the ceiling together with fans may reduce the
spread of tuberculosis (TB) in hospitals, and air treatment with negative ionizers may also be effective,
according to research published in PLoS Medicine.TB transmission in overcrowded health care facilities is an
important public health problem, especially in low resource settings, populations affected by HIV, and
locations where drug-resistant TB occurs frequently.
Hospitals are the breading ground for TB
Associated Press, Mar 17, 2009 “UV light can zap TB in hospitals: study”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5imda_bGKG4Dy6h1MCv6NuDMcxZeA
Sneezing or coughing sprays TB bacteria into the air in tiny droplets that can infect visitors, health care
workers and other patients. "When people are crowded together in a hospital waiting room, it may take just
one cough to infect several vulnerable patients," said Roderick Escombe, a researcher at Imperial College
London and lead author of the study.
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Aids – Defense (1/3)
1. There is no cure for AIDs
Alec van Gelder -- Network Director at International Policy Network, 2007-10-11 “There's no cure for AIDS”
http://www.policynetwork.net/main/article.php?article_id=866
Lara Santoro writes as if there were a cure for AIDS, saying cheap copies of medicines would help patients.
Unfortunately, there is no cure, just palliative care that can prolong life but only if strictly adhered to and
monitored under clinical conditions. It is the lack of those clinical conditions, of staff who can prescribe the right
drugs to the right people, that is the biggest problem in poor countries. The wrong drugs to the wrong people will,
at best, kill them or, at worst, help HIV to mutate and become even harder to treat.
2. Several Alternate causalities
A. Non-consensual sex
Daniel Whelan ‘99 International Centre for Research on Women, “Gender and HIV/AIDS: Taking stock of
research and programmes, March
Another manifestation of male power and control is nonconsensual sex, which research has shown to be a
pervasive reality of adolescent girls and womens lives and which is increasingly being recognized as a barrier to
reducing their risk of HIV infection. Elias and Heise highlight the growing body of evidence which shows that
many woman are frequently denied the freedom to control their sexual behaviour and are forced to have
intercourse against their will both within and outside of consensual unions [35]. In these circumstances, partner
reduction and condom use are unrealistic preventive options for women. For adolescent women, sexual
coercion is highly correlated with teen pregnancy. For adult women, it is associated in general with chronic pelvic
pain and unspecific gynaecological and psychological problems. In a study of female youth in South Africa, it
was found that 30% of girls first intercourse was forced, 71% had experienced sex against their will, and 11%
had been raped [36]. CR
B. Human trafficking in Asia
Ranga Sirilal Aug 22, 2007 “Human trafficking helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN”
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL22325220070822
CAbout 300,000 women and children are trafficked across Asia each year, accelerating the spread of
HIV/AIDS, the United Nations said on Wednesday. "Trafficking ... contributes to the spread of HIV by
significantly increasing the vulnerability of trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin,
HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Asia and Pacific, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"Both human trafficking and HIV greatly threaten human development and security." Major human trafficking
routes run between Nepal and India and between Thailand and neighbors like Laos, Cambodia and
Myanmar. Many of the victims are young teenage girls who end up in prostitution. "The link between human
trafficking and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International
Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.
C. Gender Inequality
NPR “Women's Rights and Spread of AIDS in S. Africa”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3360015
Experts say culturally ingrained gender inequality is contributing to the spread of AIDS. Women often say
they are terrified to admit to their husbands that they're HIV positive, even though their husbands caused the
infection. Jennifer Schmidt examines the cultural dynamic in South Africa that is making it difficult to stop
the spread of AIDS.
D. Drug use
Mary O'Hara 20 April 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/apr/20/hiv-aids-drugs, July 13, 2004
Non-sterile injection of drugs is one of the most efficient ways of transmitting the HIV virus. Even with
considerable investment by the Global Fund and others in the promotion of harm reduction, it remains
stubbornly prevalent compared with other forms of transmission, particularly in countries outside Sub
Saharan Africa.
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E. Russian drug crisis
Hayley Jarvis – works for Russian charity, 5/12 2009 “Russia’s heroin epidemic makes Aids risk spiral”
http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/russia-heroin-spirals-.htm.
Drug use in Russia is at epidemic level so serious that it threatens the nation’s existence, one of the country’s
top officials has admitted."It's a threat to our national security, our society, and our civilisation itself," said Viktor
Ivanov, Russia's top drugs official, at a meeting with reporters. There are more than two million drug addicts
in Russia, according to latest estimates. That amounts to one addict for every 50 Russians of working age, a level
that is up to eight times higher than in EU countries. Most of these people are addicted to heroin which is
reaches the country on its route from Afghanistan, through central Asia, and across the long border from
Kazakhstan into Russia. There are people addicted to heroin across Russia's 11 time-zones, and the country's antidrugs body says that Russia now uses more heroin than any other country in the world. Mr Ivanov, who is closely
linked to Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, blamed the occupation of Afghanistan and the "war on terror"
for Russia's epidemic. He was today (Wednesday) due to call for more global co-operation in solving problems in
Afghanistan at a special United Nations session on drugs, reported The Independent newspaper. Both government
and public health officials agree that the epidemic of heroin addiction in Russia has reached terrifying
proportions that could in the long run prove devastating. But while the government hints that the Western
intervention in Afghanistan is the cause of Russia's drugs crisis, some critics claim the policy on drugs is a
contributing to the epidemic. The country doesn’t use methadone as a substitute to treat addicts and needle
and syringe exchanges are highly controversial. This drives other devastating epidemics in the country, such
as hepatitis C and HIV/Aids. Russia has one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, with more
than one million people thought to be HIV positive in the country. Ten years ago, the epidemic was mainly spread
within the drug-using community, but now more than half of new cases are sexually transmitted, as the disease
spreads across the population at large.
F. Catholic Ban
Life site News, December 3, 2003 ‘Doctors Without Borders Charges Vatican's Anti-Condom Stand Helps
Spread of AIDS” http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/dec/03120302.html
VATICAN, December 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fanatic condemnations of the Vatican's pro-life stand
against contraception are expected from pro-abortion groups such as 'Catholics for a Free Choice' however,
today the President of the international council of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
accused the Vatican of spreading AIDS. "By not supporting the use of condoms and not advocating the use
of condoms as one of the preventative measures, I would say that the Catholic Church is helping the spread
of a deadly disease," said the group's president Morten Rostrup. The comments come after the Vatican released a
five page document marking World Aids Day November 30. The document signed by Cardinal Javier Lozano
Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care invited the international community and
governments in general, and the Church in particular, to fight the dreaded disease with policies which respect
human dignity. "Promote campaigns to sensitize and educate people (about HIV/AIDS) - based not on policies
which feed immoral and hedonistic ways of life, which in turn favor the spread of the evil, but instead based on
those reliable criteria and authentic human and spiritual values on which one can base a relevant education of
prevention, one in favor of the culture of life and of responsible love. In this way the virtue of chastity is
manifested as the most important and effective prevention in fighting HIV/AIDS," said the document. Rostrup
told Reuters, "condoms are one of the best ways of preventing the disease. We are surely not opposed to
behavioral changes. But to advocate against the use of condoms as a preventative measure ... is totally
unacceptable from a moral, ethical and medical perspective."
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G. Unregulated Porn industry
Kimi Yoshino and Rong-Gong Lin 6/12 II. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-porn-hiv12-2009 ]
"Rumor is rampant when the words 'HIV' and 'porn' are in the same sentence," she said. Mitchell said
AIM's clinic has been a leader in promoting prevention and testing. But, she added, "we are not the police
department of the industry nor wish to be." Public statements from clinic representatives downplaying the incident
-- which one clinic official called "not a major event" -- drew some criticism. "This industry screams for
regulation," said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "CalOSHA needs to require that condoms be used in any film. Yesterday." The positive HIV test has concerned
health officials and AIDS activists because the Valley is one of the leading producers of pornography in the
world, with about 200 production companies that employ about 1,200 people who work as adult performers,
and about 5,000 others. With some of the nation's largest pornography producers based in the Valley, any disease
has the potential to spread quickly. The 16 unpublicized HIV cases were not investigated by county public
health officials, partly because privacy rules before 2006 prevented the disclosure of the names of HIV-infected
individuals to government agencies. Because no government investigation of those cases took place, it is unclear
whether those performers contracted HIV at work or elsewhere.
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A2 Aids in Africa
Aids in Africa is miscalculated
Dr. J. Hardie June, 2008 “HIV/AIDS statistics in Africa are exaggerated”
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/21/635927
Further evolution of the AIDS story requires an understanding of how sub–Saharan Africa statistics on
HIV and AIDS are obtained. AIDS is diagnosed in Africa using the Bangui Definition.This relies on the
presence of prolonged fevers, weight loss of at least 10% and prolonged diarrhoea– common conditions in
Africa.A positive HIV test is not required. Population estimates are less than reliable for many African
countries. When HIV non-specific antibody tests are employed they are performed on pregnant women.The
results, using the crude population estimates, are then extrapolated into infection and death rates for entire
African countries.These factors grossly exaggerate the number of ‘HIV’ and ‘AIDS’ cases.It is only correct
that UNAIDS should use the same criteria to calculate HIV/AIDS statistics in Africa as it employs in developed
countries.Until this occurs attempting to equate excessively high infection rates in sub–Saharan Africa to particular
widespread cultural and sexual practices is an exercise in futility.
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A2 Airborne/Mutation
AIDS won’t go airborne – it’s an inefficient way to infect immune cells
Judith Feinberg, Medicine @ U-Cincinatti, 2001“Ask the experts about opportunistic infections,”
http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Infections/Archive/BasicInformation/Q41152.html
HIV is not airborne and is unlikely to become so. Its biology is oriented toward infecting a certain type of
white blood cell. being inhaled into the lungs isn't a very efficient way of encountering T helper
lymphocytes. This concern is the result of someone's fears getting the best of them.
No evidence aids will mutate
Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking, 2005 University of KwaZulu-Natal, http://www.hivan.org.za/cam
pussupport/FAQs.asp#16
As HIV/AIDS is a viral disease, how long will it take before the virus changes its shape and become airborne?
There is no evidence to suggest that HIV will mutate and become an airborne pathogen. Simply due to the
fact it is a virus, does not mean that this would occur. Multiple viruses require contact for transmission and are
not spread via the airborne/inhalation route (e.g.: herpes, HPV, etc….).
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Ext Africa
Malaria supercharges our argument
Kennedy Abwao 8 December 2006 “Malaria linked to catastrophic spread of AIDS in Africa”
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/malaria-linked-to-catastrophic-spread-of-aids-in-a.html
[NAIROBI] Research in Kenya indicates that the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS across Africa could be linked to
malaria.The work has important implications for public health policies in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the
need to tackle both diseases together.There is considerable geographical overlap between HIV/AIDS — which
infects over 40 million people in Africa — and malaria, which causes 500 million clinical infections each
year.People with both malaria and HIV/AIDS are more likely to transmit the HIV virus, according to the study
published in the journal Science today (8 December). This may have promoted the rapid spread of the disease in
sub-Saharan Africa."We have always known the relationship between [malaria and HIV/AIDS], but we did
not know the impact it had on the spread: now we have a reference point," says Ayub Manya, an
epidemiologist with the Kenyan National Malaria Control Programme.When someone with HIV/AIDS contracts
malaria, it creates a surge in their blood levels of HIV, making them more than twice as likely to transmit
the virus to a sexual partner.An HIV infection also makes someone more susceptible to malaria, which the
researchers say may have accelerated the spread of malaria in areas where HIV is prevalent.The team, led by Laith
Abu-Raddad of the University of Washington in Seattle, United States, used a mathematical model to examine
how these interactions affect the spread of both diseases.They tested their model on data gathered from Kisumu,
Kenya, and found that the interaction between the diseases was to blame for many thousands of HIV infections and
almost a million malaria episodes since 1980."While HIV/AIDS is predominantly spreading through sexual
intercourse, this biological co-factor induced by malaria has contributed considerably to the spread of HIV by
increasing transmission probability per sexual act," says Abu-Raddad.
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A2 South China Morning Post (1/2)
Ben-Abraham is a total hack
John Crewdson –Pulitzer prize winner 07/31/2001 “Scientific gadfly weaves intricate tapestry of deceit” Ebsco
Ben-Abraham has used his relationships, however ephemeral, with the high and mighty to forge connections
with the friends of friends and acquaintances. His purported credentials as a child-prodigy physician have
lent Ben-Abraham an aura of expertise on such urgent public health issues as cancer and AIDS, affording him
unparalleled access to important political figures, the media and wealthy investors on three continents. "He
has this ability to talk about anything and everything," said one man whose family befriended Ben-Abraham for
several years. "He is one of the most charming, one of the most amusing, one of the most entertaining, believable
people. He can cry in a split second. He can seem as solemn as the pope. The next second he can be cheerful and
show you the best time. He's a genius. Everyone felt they were dealing with an exceptional intelligence."
Ben-Abrahamn didn’t graduate high school
John Crewdson –Pulitzer prize winner 07/31/2001 “Scientific gadfly weaves intricate tapestry of deceit” Ebsco
The distinction that for much of his life has set Avi Ben-Abraham apart is found in the 1987 edition of the
Guinness Book of World Records: "The youngest to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree is Avi Ben-Abraham (b.
Nov 18, 1957, Kfar-Saba, Israel) who graduated with the MD summa cum laude on Mar 4, 1976 from the Univ of
Perugia, Italy, at the age of 18 years 3 months. Ben-Abraham has used that signal distinction, dressed up with a
photograph of the 18-year-old doctor in a white lab coat, to gain entree into exalted circles of wealth and power
and to persuade dignitaries, investors and the media that he is one of a kind. Never mind that Ben-Abraham's
celebrated entry in the Guinness Book of World Records vanished after three years in print. "It was never actually
accepted as a record," says a Guinness spokesman, Neil Hayes. "We never really received enough documentation
to back it up." Of this there is no doubt: Avi Ben-Abraham does have a degree in medicine and surgery from the
University of Perugia. But more than 100 interviews and hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the Tribune
paint a picture of a young Israeli boy who, despite his record as an indifferent student and his apparent failure
to even graduate from high school, managed to convince a powerful Italian professor that he was a geniusand then to fool Italian authorities into believing hat he had fulfilled the academic requirements for becoming a
doctor at the age of 18. Naftali Manheim, who taught Ben-Abraham chemistry at the First High School of
Herzelyia, remembers nothing out of the ordinary about the young man, "not at all." But someone at his high
school selected Ben-Abraham to attend a once-a-week, three-hour class at Tel Aviv University for youngsters with
an aptitude for math. Over the years, the program has spawned several world-class mathematicians. But Avi BenAbraham didn't prove an outstanding pupil. "Nobody remembers him," says Dan Emir, the retired
mathematics department chairman. "The really good ones you do remember." Although the program
involved no examinations and carried no academic credit, it offered the opportunity to enroll in real math courses
at the university the following year. But when Ben-Abraham tried to register, he was told that he first needed
to graduate from high school.
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A2 South China Morning Post (2/2)
Ben Abrahams a fraud—in case you didn’t already realize
John Crewdson –Pulitzer prize winner 07/31/2001 “Scientific gadfly weaves intricate tapestry of deceit” Ebsco
The experiment, which made headlines around the world, involved the transplanting of bone marrow from a
baboon to a San Francisco AIDS patient, Jeff Getty. The idea behind the transplant technique, developed by Dr.
Suzanne Ildstadt of the University of Pittsburgh, was that because baboons are resistant to the human AIDS virus,
baboon blood cells might help confer immunity in humans. Wagner-Bartak recalled being instructed by BenAbraham to send Ildstadt a check for $15,000. "He felt by giving it to this professor, he would own her,"
Wagner-Bartak said. According to Ildstadt, who vaguely recalls having met Ben-Abraham once, the check was one
of "many, many" donations in support of her work. Ben-Abraham's press release claimed he would "take
part" in the transplant. But according to Dr. Stephen Deeks, the surgeon who actually performed the pioneering
operation at the University of California Medical Center, Ben-Abraham was nowhere near the operating room.
"He came to San Francisco on his own," Deeks said. "He was in the hospital, but that was it. He kind of followed
us around. He wanted to be in the room, but we refused to let him. After it was over, he disappeared." According to
Wagner-Bartak, Ben-Abraham and Ildstadt later "had a real fallout, because Ben-Abraham claimed that what
she was doing was his work. He claimed that he was the catalyst of this baboon transplant." The transplant
ultimately proved unsuccessful. But following Ben-Abraham's announcement, the price of Structured
Biologicals stock rose by 31 percent. Visiting Hong Kong a few days later, Ben-Abraham recounted the
transplant experiment he hadn't observed for the South China Morning Post. "It was a remarkable day," he told
the paper. "As I stood in the hospital room, watching this simple blood infusion, it was as if while Getty was
accepting death with every drop, he was receiving hope. It was as if with every drop, history was changing."
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Circumcision CP
CP Text: The government of Swaziland, in cooperation with Israeli surgeons and the World
Health Organization, should initiate and expand a global male circumcision campaign.
The program already exists; it just needs to be expanded
Kaiser Family Foundation 04 Nov 2008 “Swaziland Increases Male Circumcision Efforts To Curb Spread
Of HIV”
Swaziland is leading African countries in promoting male circumcision to curb the spread of HIV with the
help of Israeli surgeons, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports. The country began to promote male
circumcision in response to studies showing that the procedure could reduce a man's risk of contracting
HIV by up to 60%, according to the AP/Mercury News. According to United Nations modeling studies, male
circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa could prevent 5.7 million new HIV cases and 3 million HIV/AIDS-related
deaths over 20 years.
The World Health Organization and other agencies are providing technical support to help the Swazi
government implement the circumcision campaign and increase the number of men receiving the
procedure, the AP/Mercury News reports. Teams of Israeli surgeons, led by Inon Schenker of the Jerusalem AIDS
Project, have trained 10 Swazi doctors on how to safely and efficiently perform the operation with limited
resources. Swaziland is the only country in which the Israeli physicians have trained local health workers on the
procedure, although other countries -- including Namibia, Rwanda and Zambia -- have asked the group to conduct
similar training programs, according to the AP/Mercury News.
Even though circumcision is not perfect—it could substantially slow the spread of AIDs
Marni Leff Kottle and Carey Sargent August 17, 2006 “Circumcising Adult Men May Slow the Spread of
AIDS” http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy.
-- Health officials say they may recommend widespread circumcision of adult men as a way to slow the
spread of AIDS, a disease that killed 2 million people in Africa last year. Positive findings in research results
due to be reported next year could lead the World Health Organization to suggest the procedure, said Kevin
De Cock, director of the agency's HIV and AIDS programs. Circumcision prevented 6 of 10 potential infections
with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among 3,300 men in South Africa, a study found last year. Circumcision
might stop as many as 2 million infections with HIV over 10 years in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a WHO
analysis. While such evidence helped researchers in Kenya enroll more than 2,000 participants in their study,
widespread adoption may not be easy in all parts of Africa, said Lovemore Gwanzura, a professor at the University
of Zimbabwe who studies AIDS.``There are strong traditional beliefs that don't tie up with circumcision,''
Gwanzura said in an interview at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. ``It's going to be an uphill
task.'' Circumcision may be one of the most effective short-term solutions to prevent the spread of HIV, said
health officials and celebrity advocates who spoke at the conference, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton
and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. It would cost about $50 per adult male.
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Circumcision Ext
Circumcision can reduce the spread of AIDs up to 60%
Donald G. McNeil, March 29, 2007 “W.H.O. Urges Circumcision to Reduce Spread of AIDS”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/health/29hiv.html
The World Health Organization officially recommended circumcision as a way to prevent heterosexual
transmission of the AIDS virus yesterday, setting the stage for donor agencies to begin paying for the
operation. The group acted after three clinical trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, overseen by the
national health agencies of the United States and France, found that male circumcision reduced the risk of
infection of men through heterosexual sex by about 60 percent. No countries have yet adopted circumcision as
part of their AIDS prevention plans, “but I hope this recommendation will lead some to do so,” said Dr. Kevin
De Cock, director of the H.I.V.-AIDS department of the World Health Organization. In some southern African
countries with very high AIDS rates, such as Lesotho and Swaziland, Dr. De Cock said, he has already heard
anecdotal reports that men were asking private doctors for the operation. Large donors, including the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, have already
indicated that they will be willing to pay for circumcisions if countries ask for money and can demonstrate
that the operations will be done safely and with the right counseling. It is crucial, the health organization said, that
men be taught that they can still catch the virus and pass it on even if they are circumcised, and so should still
lower their risk further by having no sex or sex with fewer partners and by using condoms. The organization’s
recommendation represents a triumph for a few public health experts who argued for years — in the face of
skepticism from prominent scientists — that circumcision had a protective effect. They had noticed that AIDS
rates were lower in African regions where it was common, such as Muslim areas. But, until the recent clinical
trials, it was impossible to convince mainstream experts that the lower rates were not because of other factors, like
polygamy or harsh penalties for extramarital sex under Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Koran.
Circumcision could substantially reduce HIV rates
Aamer Madhani, Tribune Staff Writer, November 19, 1999 “Circumcision urged as way to confine AIDS
spread” http://www.aegis.org/news/ct/1999/CT991101.html
The international public health community could help reduce HIV infection rates in Africa and Asia and
potentially save millions of lives by promoting the use of male circumcision there, according to an
epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Robert Bailey, a professor of epidemiology and
anthropology at UIC, said Thursday he has completed research with Daniel Halperin, assistant adjunct professor at
the University of California at San Francisco, that indicates African and Asian societies that traditionally do not
perform male circumcision want the procedure available in their countries.Several studies over the last 10 years
have shown that male circumcision helps prevent HIV infection, but the international public health community
has shied away from pushing the procedure in Africa and Asia over concerns that it would clash with cultural and
religious mores in non-circumcising countries.According to Bailey and Halperin's research, the risk of HIV
infection is two to eight times higher for uncircumcised men.
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Circumcision > Condoms/abstinence
Circumcision more effective then condoms and abstinence
Kaiser Daily Health 27 Apr 2006 “Circumcision, Fidelity More Effective HIV Prevention Methods Than
Condoms, Abstinence, Researchers Say” http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/42242.php
Promoting male circumcision and fidelity to one partner seems to be more effective at curbing the spread of
HIV than promoting abstinence and condom use, USAID researcher and technical adviser Daniel Halperin
said last week, the Chicago Tribune reports. As Halperin and other researchers analyze 20 years of studies on
HIV/AIDS throughout Africa, they have tried to "put aside intuitions, emotions, ideologies and look at the
evidence in as coldhearted a way as we can," Halperin said. During a speech at a meeting of the Southern African
HIV Clinicians Society in Johannesburg, South Africa, Halperin said he and his colleagues discovered that regular
sex partners rarely use condoms, and abstinence merely delays HIV infection among young people by one or
two years. For example, condom use in Ghana and Senegal seems to have helped in the reduction of the spread of
the HIV, which in those countries is particularly prevalent among commercial sex workers and their partners.
However, condom use in South Africa and Botswana has had little effect in reducing those countries' HIV
epidemics -- which have reached the general population -- because regular sex partners rarely use condoms
consistently. In comparison, faithfulness to one partner has worked at reducing HIV prevalence in Uganda and
Kenya, according to Halperin. Because a person is more likely to transmit HIV during the first three weeks of
contracting the virus, an HIV-positive person who has just one partner during that time is likely to pass the disease
to that one person. But if an HIV-positive person in the highly infectious stage has many sexual partners at a
time, "the virus spreads like wildfire" as those people in turn have sex with other people, Halperin said. In
addition, circumcision has been shown to reduce male-to-female HIV transmission by 60% to 75% (Goering,
Chicago Tribune, 4/23). A study published in the November 2005 issue of PLoS Medicine of men living in South
Africa finds that male circumcision might reduce the risk of men contracting HIV through sexual intercourse with
women by about 60%. Male circumcision might also reduce the risk of HIV transmission from HIV-positive men
to their female partners, according to a study of couples in Rakai, Uganda (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/9).
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50 State Circumcision Solvency
States can launch circumcision campaigns; they’re just not – New York Proves
Kaiser Daily Health, 2005 “U.S. Campaign To Promote Circumcision Would Be 'Premature,' Time Is Right
For Dialogue On Issue, Letter To Editor Says” http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene "has not planned, developed or announced a
campaign to encourage at-risk men to get circumcised," but the department is "encouraging people to discuss
and study this issue," city Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden writes in a New York Times letter to the editor
(Frieden, New York Times, 4/12). UNAIDS and the World Health Organization last month recommended the
procedure as a way to help reduce the spread of HIV in response to growing evidence that routine male
circumcision could reduce a man's risk of contracting HIV through heterosexual sex. According to final data from
two NIH-funded studies conducted in Uganda and Kenya published in the Feb. 23 issue of the journal Lancet,
routine male circumcision could reduce a man's risk of HIV infection through heterosexual sex by 65%. The New
York City health department has begun asking community organizations and gay advocacy groups to discuss male
circumcision with members and has requested that the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs hospitals and
clinics in the city, provide circumcisions at no cost for men who lack health insurance. The administration of
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it has not decided if it will pursue the campaign (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/6). "Because circumcision has the potential to decrease HIV transmission by more than
half," the health department hopes that men who want to receive the procedure "will have access to it,"
Frieden writes. A campaign to promote circumcision in the U.S. would be "premature without stronger evidence,
but the time is right for a communitywide dialogue," he concludes (New York Times, 4/12).
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Swine Flu (1/3)
1. No pandemic—the W.H.O purposely manipulates its definitions to attract attention
Michael Fumento 6/19 -- director of Independent Journalism Project, where he specializes in science and health
issues. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/06/19/michael-fumento-the-who-sfabricated-pandemic.aspx
The organization's definition for "influenza pandemic" once required "several, simultaneous epidemics
worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness." But in 2005, it promulgated a new one that virtually
ignores case numbers and completely ignores deaths. Now it requires "sustained chains of human-to-human
transmission leading to community-wide outbreaks" in two parts of the world, with this addition: The cause must
be an animal or human-animal flu virus; the latter known as a "genetic reassortment." Thus, under the 2005
definition, "community-wide outbreaks" of swine flu in two South American countries and somewhere in
China could qualify as a pandemic. No deaths required. Meanwhile, a pure human flu that killed 20 million
people would not qualify. The obvious presumption is that viruses with animal genes pose a greater threat. But
that's "a matter of faith more than science," says James Chin, a University of California, Berkeley epidemiologist
who was in charge of surveillance and control of communicable diseases at the WHO in the late 1980s. Indeed,
the science indicates the presumption is false. Since 1997, there have also been six confirmed human outbreaks
from four different non-H5N1 avian flu strains, together causing merely 96 confirmed cases and one death. Flu
transmission from pigs to pig workers is apparently routine; yet a 2007 review of the MedLine Database found
only 50 cases severe enough to make the medical literature. The WHO first warned of an H5N1 avian flu
pandemic in 2004, projecting up to 150 million deaths when it became readily transmissible among humans. Yet a
2007 study found that H5N1 -- though it's been rubbing shoulders with humanity at least since its 1959 detection in
Scottish chickens -- was many mutations away from such a transmission ability. We were also repeatedly warned
that if H5N1 reassorted with human flu, the combination would pack together the alleged severity of the bird virus
and the infectiousness of the human one. Yet a 2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found the
opposite: that a genetically engineered reassortment given to ferrets -- the best animal models for human flu -produced milder and less infectious flu than did pure H5N1. Reassortment didn't create a "super flu" but rather a
98-pound weakling. As to human-pig hybrids, a 1976 New Jersey H1N1 swine flu outbreak in the dead of winter,
when flu is most contagious, infected just 230 soldiers, killing one, on a crowded Army base. The WHO knows
its definition is faulty. The organization's Handbook for Journalists still states: "A pandemic virus can emerge" by
adapting "during human infections." And the WHO has warned that one way avian flu could become pandemic is
through a purely human mutation. But it also knows its allegedly "inevitable" pandemic, despite its halfdecade fear campaign, has virtually no chance of materializing. The swine flu outbreak gave the WHO a
chance to salvage its reputation, by simply swapping the word "avian" for "swine."
2. Swine flu parties spread swine flu
NYT Opinion 7/1/09 “Swine Flu Parties” http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/swine-flu-parties/
Social gatherings staged to spread swine flu, with the aim of contracting the virus before it becomes more
virulent. As rumors of people attending “swine flu parties” circulated in the U.K., the British Medical
Association warned parents against voluntarily exposing their children to the virus. As The Telegraph
reported:For many years, parents have deliberately exposed their children to playmates with chickenpox in
order to allow them to have the once-only disease at a convenient time. No firm evidence has emerged of
such events taking place with swine flu and Dr Richard Jarvis, of the British Medical Association, warned
parents against staging such events.
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3. Swine Flu Vaccine now
Associated Press 6/30 ‘9 “Vical surges on successful swine flu vaccine tests”
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/30/ap6603556.html
Biopharmaceuticals company Vical Inc. said Tuesday that animal tests of a potential swine flu vaccine were
successful.In the preclinical tests, Vical said all mice and rabbits who were injected with the vaccine were
protected from the flu virus. It said 75 percent of the animals reached or surpassed the protection threshold after
one dose. Vical said it is ready to move on to large scale manufacturing for testing on humans once it gets the
necessary funding.The San Diego company's shares climbed on the news, rising 45 cents, or 20 percent, to $2.65 in
heavy afternoon trading.Rodman & Renshaw analyst Reni Benjamin noted the speed of the vaccine's development,
as Vical received a sample of swine flu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 30, shortly
after the H1N1 strain emerged."These results provide additional validation for Vical's technology platform,
demonstrating not only efficacy and but also speed in generating a vaccine to an influenza strain that
emerged in April 2009," he wrote.
4. All drug resistant strains die out
Donald G. McNeil 6/29 –“Resistant Flu Strain Turns Up in Denmark but Doesn’t Last Long”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/health/30glob.html?hpw
The patient appears to have recovered without infecting anyone else, and experts said the recent history of
Tamiflu resistance made it unlikely that the short-lived Danish strain would have been good at spreading to
others.An executive of Roche, the Swiss maker of Tamiflu, held a telephone news conference to describe the
progress of the Danish patient, who apparently developed the resistant strain while being protectively
treated with a low Tamiflu dose because a close contact had the swine flu. Doctors switched treatment to a
different but related drug, Relenza, and the patient recovered.In the past, Tamiflu-resistant strains of the
seasonal flu have been found in Japan, which has used more than half the world’s supply of the drug each year.
But those strains were weak and did not spread. A Tamiflu-resistant strain of the H5N1 bird flu was also
isolated from a Vietnamese patient being treated with low-dose Tamiflu in 2005, but it also died out.
5. Air travel means swine flue has spread to 164 countries
Mike Stobbe 6/29 “Study charts swine flu's spread through air travel”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjdCHrP82YTFser5vD6CzTK1az6wD994J6G02
ATLANTA (AP) — In a startling measure of just how widely a new disease can spread, researchers
accurately plotted swine flu's course around the world by tracking air travel from Mexico. The research was
based on an analysis of flight data from March and April last year, which showed more than 2 million people flew
from Mexico to more than 1,000 cities worldwide. Researchers said patterns of departures from Mexico in those
months varies little from year to year; swine flu began its spread in March and April this year. Passengers
traveled to 164 countries, but four out of five of those went to the United States. That fits with the path of the
epidemic a year later. The findings were reported Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The
research shows promise in forecasting how a new contagion might unfold, indicated one government health
official who praised the work. "We share a common interest in this issue: If we map the global airline distribution
network, can we anticipate, once a virus emerges, where it is likely to show up next?" asked Dr. Martin Cetron of
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He leads CDC's division of global migration and quarantine.
The new swine flu virus was first reported in the United States in mid-April, but the first large outbreak was in
Mexico at about the same time. Health officials believe cases of the new virus were circulating in Mexico in
March. Scientists have long assumed a relationship between air travel and spread of the virus. But the new
research for the first time confirmed the relationship, said Dr. Kamran Khan, who led the study. He is a
researcher at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
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Swine Flu (3/3)
6. Swine flu cannot be contained in the UK
Sam Lister, Health Editor, 6/26 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6579151.ece
Swine flu is spreading so rapidly in some parts of the country that the disease cannot be contained and local
authorities are moving to “outbreak management”, the Government said yesterday. The policy of closing
schools is stopping in areas worst affected by the H1N1 virus, such as the West Midlands and London. Clinical
diagnosis of the disease, rather than swabbing and laboratory confirmation, is also being adopted in “hotspot” areas
to lessen pressure on resources, and antiviral treatments are being given only to people with symptoms. It comes
as NHS Direct is being overwhelmed with calls from members of the public worried about flu infections. A
recorded message tells callers that the service is dealing with emergency cases only. In London and the West
Midlands, the new policy means swabbing will take place only for a small number of cases to keep track of how
strong the virus is. Doctors will also use the drug Tamiflu more selectively, rather than prescribing it as a
precaution for anyone who has come into contact with a swine flu victim. Related Links Andy Burnham, the
Health Secretary, and Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said that the containment phase, led by the
Health Protection Agency, had stopped in some areas. These were now pursuing an outbreak management policy,
led by the strategic health authorities and local health trusts. Mr Burnham said that after a meeting of ministers
this week the Department of Health had written to all the strategic health authorities to alert them to the possibility
of a shift to outbreak management. “The vast majority of these cases have shown only mild symptoms, though
some cases have been more serious,” he said. “Our approach has focused on containing the spread and working
with the local NHS to identify cases, isolate them as quickly as possible, treat them with antivirals and treat those
around them and offer prophylactic treatment to those around them. This is very resource-intensive, but it has been
highly successful.” He added that, although containment had worked well, the Department of Health had never
been under any illusions that it would be able to prevent the spread indefinitely. So far, 3,597 cases of swine flu
have been confirmed in Britain but the true figure is thought to be higher. The number of confirmed cases in
Scotland increased by 111 yesterday — the largest one-day rise since the outbreak began. All cases in
Scotland are still being confirmed by laboratory tests and the Government has not moved to outbreak management.
However, a spokeswoman said it is trying to build more flexibility into the system so staff can better deal with the
number of cases.
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Ext 5 – Air travel
Prefer our evidence – 90% accuracy
Mike Stobbe 6/29 “Study charts swine flu's spread through air travel”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjdCHrP82YTFser5vD6CzTK1az6wD994J6G02
More than 90 percent of the time, Khan and his colleagues accurately matched air traffic volumes to which
countries did and did not suffer swine flu outbreaks as a result of air traffic. The top 11 destination cities
from Mexico were all in the United States. Los Angeles was the leader, receiving about 9 percent of all passengers
from Mexico, and New York City was second, with about 5 percent. In contrast, the only South American entry in
the top 40 destination cities was Buenos Aires, at No. 22. Passengers were even fewer when it came to cities in
neighboring Guatemala and other Central American countries. The data show not only how disease spreads out
of Mexico, but also that air travel is mainly among more industrialized countries, experts said. A second
study released by the journal found a sharp rise in pneumonia cases in non-elderly Mexicans from late March to
late April. Normally, only about a third of severe pneumonia cases in Mexico are in people ages 5 to 59. But
during the recent swine flu outbreak, more than 70 percent were in that younger age group.
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Ext 6 – UK Spread
Autumn super charges our link—swine flu’ will increase
Sam Lister, Health Editor, 6/26 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6579151.ece
Sir Liam emphasised that many parts of the country were still in the containment phase, but he also warned
that there could be “tens of thousands of cases” of swine flu each week by the autumn because the virus was
more likely to thrive in the colder months. “We still think we are heading for the largest surge of cases in the
autumn and winter,” he said.
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Swine Flu Turn
The 1AC’s policy
is just scare mongering—this leads to a panic of swine flu that
causes people to stop spending and collapses the economy
Mike Smith, April 29 09 “Swine Flu is exaggerated and overhyped” http://www.examiner.com/x-6265Burlington-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m4d29-Swine-Flu-is-exaggerated-and-overhyped
The reason these scare stories, including the present panic over Swine Flu, are potentially more dangerous
than the contagions that sparked the alarm in the first place, is twofold.
First, if you scare people badly enough, they'll stop spending money. By that, I mean they'll refuse to buy
certain products that have been targeted by the scare. Remember Mad Cow in the UK? After a resurgence in
the fear of an outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in 1995 – aided by a screaming media – Britain's
meat industry had practically ground to a halt. We're constantly warned that a global pandemic will have
devastating effects on economies, but nobody ever mentions the economic devastation wrought by baseless
fearmongering.
Global nuclear war
Walter Russell Mead, NPQ's Board of Advisors, New Perspectives Quarterly, Summer 1992, p.30
if the global economy stagnates-or even shrinks? In the case, we will face a new period of international conflict: South
against North, rich against poor, Russia, China, India-these countries with their billions of people and their nuclear
weapons will pose a much greater danger to world order than Germany and Japan did in the '30s.
What
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State Immunization CP
The fifty state governments of the United States should administer and coordinate a swine flu
immunization campaign, in coordination with the Center for Disease control in the United
States.
A swine flu immunization campaign can be initiated—it’s just unclear who will administer it
Associated Press 6/26 “CDC eyes 600 million doses of swine flu shots”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31571476/ns/health-swine_flu/
ATLANTA - A potential fall swine flu immunization campaign may involve an unprecedented 600 million
doses of vaccine, though officials said Friday they haven’t figured out how to administer so many doses or
accurately track side effects if a seasonal vaccine is given simultaneously. The swine flu campaign could far
eclipse the roughly 115 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine distributed each year, officials said at a national
vaccine advisory committee meeting. No final decision has been made about whether a swine flu vaccination
campaign will take place or whether all Americans would get immunizations. Health officials said that a swine
flu vaccination campaign could be only a few months away, and that as many as 60 million doses could be
ready by September. The timing depends on how fast a vaccine can be produced and tested, however. However,
health officials are clearly getting ready for a massive vaccination effort, and worry that illnesses could
continue or even accelerate in the fall or winter. Preparation discussions dominated a three-day meeting in Atlanta
of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel that guides U.S. vaccination policy.
States solve best at administering vaccines—flexibility on a local level
Tom Randall 6/26 “Swine Flu Multiple-Shot Vaccine May Overwhelm States”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aVIE0gXllfzQ
The CDC hasn’t yet determined the role state agencies will play in disseminating the vaccine, and it will be
working with states to ensure fast distribution, she said. “Probably each state will decide what works best.
There may be some states that lean toward the public sites and others that lean more toward the private,”
Santoli said. Because swine flu is a new virus, most people have no natural immunity. The first shot provides
an initial exposure, and the second shot boosts antibody levels in the body, Schaffner said.
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Flu – Generic
1. Flu vaccine is widely available
GAO Sep 28, 2004 “Infectious Disease Preparedness: Federal Challenges in
Responding to Influenza Outbreaks” http://www.gao.gov/htext/d041100t.html
For the 2004-05 flu season, CDC is recommending that about 185 million Americans in these at-risk populations
and other target groups receive the vaccine, which is the primary method for preventing influenza. Flu vaccine is
generally widely available in a variety of settings, ranging from the usual physicians' offices, clinics, and
hospitals to retail outlets such as drugstores and grocery stores, workplaces, and other convenience locations.
Millions of individuals receive flu vaccinations through mass immunization campaigns in nonmedical
settings, where organizations such as visiting nurse agencies under contract administer the vaccine.[Footnote 4] It
takes about 2 weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against
influenza virus infection. CDC recommends October through November as the best time to get vaccinated because
the flu season often starts in late November to December and peaks between late December and early March.
However, if influenza activity peaks late, vaccination in December or later can still be beneficial.
2. Normal flu has been around for a 1000 year, make them prove why now is key
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States Solvency – Flu
States can address flu pandemics
Dorsey Griffith & Edie Lau, Staff Writers, Jan. 19, 2006 ,“State readies pandemic response”
http://www.sacbee.com/504/story/6307.html
Reflecting deepening concern that a deadly flu pandemic could reach California at any time, state health
officials Wednesday released a draft response plan that tackles everything from setting up quarantine stations
to rationing anti-viral drugs to managing an accumulation of corpses. Wide-ranging as it is, the response plan is
just a first step. Officials at every level of government face a lengthy to-do list that begins with convincing the
public that the threat to health and the economy is real. "The biggest challenge is getting people to think the
unthinkable," said state health services director Sandra Shewry. "We feel we have a responsibility to get people
talking about it." Noting that as many as one of three Californians could become ill in an influenza pandemic,
Shewry said such an event would be "the greatest public health challenge of our time." Health officials worldwide
have been on heightened alert since a nasty flu strain that strikes chickens and other birds, known as H5N1, began
spreading to people. Since 2003, the World Health Organization has tallied 148 human cases of avian influenza,
resulting in 79 deaths. So far, the cases have occurred only in Asia and - most recently - Turkey. There is no
evidence the feared flu bug is present in North America, and so far, the virus appears to be transmitted to humans
only by direct contact with infected birds. If this strain evolves to become easily transmissible between people and
remains highly virulent, the germ could trigger a pandemic. Flu viruses that normally infect other species of
animals are a big threat when they "jump" to humans because humans have not had a chance to develop immunity.
While the seasonal flu kills 36,000 people a year in the United States, a flu type capable of causing a pandemic
could kill that many in California alone, health experts predict. The new state plan expands a more general one
developed in 2001 and piggybacks on the federal government's pandemic flu response plan released in
November. After fielding public comments, state health officials will issue a final plan in the spring. The
California plan sets up a surveillance system to detect the virus within state borders and to control the disease once
it infects humans or other animals. It includes measures to stockpile and distribute the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, and
it calls for strategies to ramp up availability of emergency supplies, health care personnel and facilities capable of
housing sick people. A flu pandemic could last well over a year and "could kill the most vigorous and productive
among us," warned Dr. Glennah Trochet, Sacramento County public health officer and president of the California
Conference of Local Health Officers. The economic impact would be significant, because businesses as diverse as
movie theaters and grocery stores could be forced to temporarily close. They could have too few employees or
customers willing to take the chance of becoming infected in such public places. The actual health impact would
depend on the ability of vaccines and drugs to prevent and combat the illness, how well the virus is contained and most significantly - the specific characteristics of a virus that doesn't yet exist. Because an actual pandemic flu
strain has not been identified, the response plan does not detail the actions to be taken in an outbreak. But it does
provide a guide from which local, state and federal agencies would coordinate their response, and it outlines the
responsibilities of the public and private sectors alike. The plan would kick in upon the first confirmed detection
of the virus in a person in the United States or evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus
anywhere in the world. Under that scenario, the governor could declare a state of emergency and health
officers could take steps to stop the disease from spreading. For example, they could quarantine anyone who
had contact with an infected individual. They could close schools and restrict access to other public places and
scheduled events. They could disseminate available supplies of anti-viral drugs. They could set up makeshift
hospitals or clinics.
State governors can order emergency flu shots
Dan Lorentz February 2005 “Shoring up the vaccine system”. Google
Emergency orders. In at least 14 states, governors or chief health officials issued emergency orders to give
flu shots to priority groups only. The orders conformed to CDC recommendations that the vaccine be
reserved for seniors 65 years old or older, all infants from six to 23 months of age, pregnant women, people
with certain chron-ic illnesses, residents of long-term care facilities, adults caring for infants less than six
months of age, children two to 18 years of age receiving chronic aspirin therapy, and health care workers
providing direct patient care.
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Hepatitis C –Defense (1/2)
1. Hep C has been around for centuries—make them prove why now is key
2. Hep C is decreasing
Arthur Schoenstadt (MD), “Hepatitis C Statistics,” MedTV. May 14, 2009.
Approximately 300 million people worldwide are infected with the hepatitis C virus. About 3.9 million people in the United States have
chronic hepatitis C. This represents about 1.8 percent of the population. How Common Is Hepatitis C? The number of
hepatitis C cases has been decreasing since its peak in the 1980s. Currently, there are fewer than 30,000 cases of
hepatitis C diagnosed each year.
3. Egypt is a Hep C. time bomb
Cam Mcgrath 5 May 2009 “Egypt: Viral Time Bomb Set to Explode” http://allafrica.com/stories/200905060002.html
Cairo — It is a health crisis of alarming proportions. Up to nine million Egyptians have been exposed to
hepatitis C, and tens of thousands will die each year unless they receive a liver transplant. Health authorities are
taking steps to stop the spread of the blood-borne virus, but must also contend with higher liver failure mortality
rates as the disease advances in those infected decades ago. "The prevalence of hepatitis C is not growing, but the
impact of an outbreak in the 1960s and 70s is appearing now as a clinical outcome," says Dr. Mostafa Kamal
Mohamed, professor of community medicine at Ain Shams University in Cairo. "Liver disease has become the
number one healthcare priority for the country and will continue to be so for the next decade. About 70 percent of
all liver deaths here are due to hepatitis C." Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C in the world, the
legacy of a well-intended health campaign that went horribly wrong. In the 1960s, the government turned to
modern medicine in the hope of eradicating bilharzia, a water-borne parasite that has plagued Egyptian farmers
since the dawn of time. In a tragic irony, the tartar-emetic injections given to Egyptians living in rural areas cured
their bilharzia, but spread another deadly disease among the population, the hepatitis C virus (HCV). "At that
time, bilharzia treatment was administered intravenously," recalls Dr. Refaat Kamel, a prominent surgeon and
specialist in tropical diseases. "There were no disposable syringes, so once the needle got infected, the disease
spread quickly from one person to another." Millions of Egyptians were inadvertently infected with HCV
before the World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsored anti-bilharzia campaign was shut down in 1982.
Scientists only discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1987, and it was another decade before they proved that its high
prevalence in Egypt was a consequence of the mass treatment campaign. While Egyptian healthcare workers
adopted disposable needles in the 1980s, HCV continued to spread due to improper blood screening and poor
hygiene practices. "There is a laxity in precautions in Egypt," says Kamel. "People are careless or ignorant where
blood is involved, and this has facilitated the transmission of HCV." The results of a national survey released last
month show that eight to nine million Egyptians, more than 10 percent of the population, have been exposed to
hepatitis C, of which approximately 5.5 million are chronic carriers. In some rural areas over half the adult
population carries HCV antibodies. About 30 percent of people infected with HCV spontaneously clear the virus
from their system within six months, according to studies done in Egypt. The rest develop chronic hepatitis, which
in about a quarter of cases leads to cirrhosis and liver failure in 20 to 30 years. Egypt's viral time bomb is about
to go off. Doctors estimate that some 30,000 Egyptians die each year of HCV-related liver failure - a figure that
is projected to climb as the disease progresses in those who contracted it during the 1964-82 anti-bilharzia
campaign. "We expect the number of mortalities will peak in 2012," says Dr. Wahid Doss, head of the National
Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH), a government body formed to fight the disease.
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4. Russian drug spreads Hep C
Hayley Jarvis – works for Russian charity, 5/12 2009 “Russia’s heroin epidemic makes Aids risk spiral”
http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/russia-heroin-spirals-.htm.
Drug use in Russia is at epidemic level so serious that it threatens the nation’s existence, one of the country’s
top officials has admitted."It's a threat to our national security, our society, and our civilisation itself," said Viktor
Ivanov, Russia's top drugs official, at a meeting with reporters. There are more than two million drug addicts
in Russia, according to latest estimates. That amounts to one addict for every 50 Russians of working age, a level
that is up to eight times higher than in EU countries. Most of these people are addicted to heroin which is
reaches the country on its route from Afghanistan, through central Asia, and across the long border from
Kazakhstan into Russia. There are people addicted to heroin across Russia's 11 time-zones, and the country's antidrugs body says that Russia now uses more heroin than any other country in the world. Mr Ivanov, who is closely
linked to Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, blamed the occupation of Afghanistan and the "war on terror"
for Russia's epidemic. He was today (Wednesday) due to call for more global co-operation in solving problems in
Afghanistan at a special United Nations session on drugs, reported The Independent newspaper. Both government
and public health officials agree that the epidemic of heroin addiction in Russia has reached terrifying
proportions that could in the long run prove devastating. But while the government hints that the Western
intervention in Afghanistan is the cause of Russia's drugs crisis, some critics claim the policy on drugs is a
contributing to the epidemic. The country doesn’t use methadone as a substitute to treat addicts and needle and
syringe exchanges are highly controversial. This drives other devastating epidemics in the country, such as
hepatitis C and HIV/Aids. Russia has one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, with more than one
million people thought to be HIV positive in the country. Ten years ago, the epidemic was mainly spread within
the drug-using community, but now more than half of new cases are sexually transmitted, as the disease spreads
across the population at large.
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Needle Exchange CP
CP Text: The Government of Australia should substantially expand its domestic syringeexchange programs abroad.
Australian needle exchange programs are key to reducing Hep - C
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report 2005 “Needle-Exchange Programs Have Curbed HIV, Hepatitis C Among
IDUs In Australia, Should Be Expanded, Opinion Piece Says”
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy
The Australian government's needle-exchange programs have "earned recognition around the world" for
helping to curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users, while deficiency of such
programs in other countries is an example of "ideology sometimes get[ting] in the way of saving lives," Australian
National Affairs Editor Mike Steketee writes in an opinion piece. The Australian government has funded
needle-exchange programs since the 1980s and has budgeted about $28.5 million from 2004 to 2007 for stateand territory-run programs at 3,000 sites -- including drug treatment centers, health clinics, pharmacies and
vending machines -- across the country, according to Steketee. Between 1998 and 1999, 32 million needles were
distributed in Australia, which has a population of 20 million, Steketee writes, adding that about 8% of HIVpositive people in Australia have a history of injection drug use while about one-third of U.S. HIV cases are
among IDUs and their sexual partners. The "intuitive objection to needle[-exchange] programs [is] that they
encourage drug use, [which] just happens to be wrong," Steketee writes, adding that Australia should allow such
programs in prisons, where an estimated 70% of women and 45% of men are living with hepatitis C.
"Governments should continue to look for ways to stop the flow of damaging drugs," Steketee says, adding,
"But until they succeed, they should devote more resources to doing what actually works -- curbing the most
harmful effects of drug use" (Steketee, Australian, 2/23).
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Needle Exchange Solvency Ext
Needle exchange is key to reduce Hep C
Drug Alliance Network, May 22, 2006. “Sterile Syringe Access (Needle Exchange)”
http://www.drugpolicy.org/reducingharm/needleexchan/
Increasing sterile syringe availability through needle exchange programs, pharmacy sales, and physician
prescription reduces needle sharing among injection drug users, which decreases transmission of HIV/AIDS
and hepatitis. Needle exchange programs and pharmacy sale of syringes have also been shown to increase safe
disposal of used syringes. In addition, these programs provide injection drug users with referrals to drug
treatment, detoxification, social services, and primary health care. Injection drug use is associated with a high
risk of infection by blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. Since the AIDS epidemic began, 34% of
all reported cases in the United States have been among injection drug users and their sexual partners. Up to 75%
of new AIDS cases among women and children are directly or indirectly a consequence of injection drug use.
Zero-tolerance drug policies, which in many states criminalize both the possession of syringes and the distribution
of sterile syringes, exacerbate the problem. These policies result in the re-use and sharing of contaminated
syringes, spreading blood-borne diseases and creating poor health conditions.
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Australia  Global Aid
Australia can give global aid
Commonwealth of Australia 2/05/03 “Working for a better world - the role of Australian foreign aid”
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/archives/secondary/casestud/economics/2/aus-for-aid.html
The Australian Government's aid program aims 'to advance Australia's national interest by assisting
developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development'. The idea is to help people in
low income/developing countries raise their standard of living and to use their resources more effectively to
promote sustainable economic growth. While in Australia there is some relative poverty, Australians in general
have access to health care, an education system, safe water and sanitation as well as unemployment and sickness
benefits. The majority of people in developing countries do not have these advantages. In many of these countries,
one baby in ten does not survive. Access to education is limited and there are fewer chances of finding paid
employment. And people who have a job earn so much less than Australian workers. For example, the average
income of people living in Indonesia is about 6% of that in Australia. People in China earn only 3% on average of
what we do. Some of these differences are highlighted in Table 1. One important motivation for overseas aid is
based on humanitarian compassion. Australians believe in a fair go for all. Further, Australia's commitment
to assisting with economic development overseas reflects a realisation that in an increasingly globalised
world, it is in our self-interest to help. Not to do so would harm our economy. By promoting economic growth in
developing countries, the aid program helps foster economic and political stability and expands trade and
investment opportunities for Australia. Australia is situated in a developing part of the world. Our standard of
living is much higher than the vast majority of our neighbours in Asia and the Pacific Islands. The prosperity of
our region is clearly in Australia's national interest - we pride ourselves on being a good neighbour.
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State Rights/Federalism CP
The United States Federal Government should permanently abolish the department of
education.
Eliminating the DOE solves states rights
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
The Constitution provides no authority whatsoever for the federal government to be involved in education.
Eliminating the department on those grounds would help to reestablish the original understanding of the
enumerated powers of the federal government.
Education is naturally a state right
Cato “Cato Handbook for Congress” 2003 http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/index.html
James Madison, who proclaimed that the powers of the federal govern- ment should be few and
enumerated, would be shocked at what the president and Congress are doing today in relation to an aspect of
family life that was never intended to come under the control of Congress, the White House, or any federal agency.
Congress should take the enlightened view, consistent with that of the nation’s Founders, and draw a line in
the sand that won’t be crossed. Education is a matter reserved to the states, period
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Patriarchy – Defense (1/3)
1. No threshold to impact—the case isn’t large enough to solve all the impacts of patriarchy
2. Patriarchy cannot be explained by a single causality
Steven Goldberg (Chairman of the Department of Sociology, City College, City University of New York), “The Logic of
Patriarchy,” Gender Issues. Summer 1999.
“Patriarchy is a result of the requirement of a hunting culture, or Christianity, or capitalism, etc.” If it is to be at
all persuasive, an explanation of universality must be parsimonious; the explanation must invoke a causal
factor common to the varying societies that exhibit the universal institution. Just as the explanation in
terms of capitalism fails to explain patriarchy in the many non-capitalist societies, so do explanations in
terms of any single factor other than the physiological fail to explain the host of societies for which that
factor does not apply. Non-hunting, non-Christian, non-capitalist, etc. societies are all patriarchal. A singlecause theory of the limits constraining every society need not, of course, be the neuroendocrinological one I
suggest. But the few alternative parsimonious explanations fail on empirical grounds.
3. Patriarchy is not the root cause of all impacts
Cat Maguire of EVE Online, an online feminist news source June 9 20 05 http://eve.enviroweb.org/what_is/main.html
It assumes patriarchy is the root cause of all our problems. While the patriarchal mindset is certainly
accountable for much of humankind's dysfunctionality, patriarchy is only 5,000 years old.
Emerging theories from thinkers like Chellis Glendinning contend that our dislocation from nature (and hence
from ourselves) goes back at least 20,000 years ago when humans moved from the gatherer/hunter stage to that of
domesticating plants and animals. As such, we have come to believe that anthropocentrism and speciesism—
the impulse to conquer and control nature—are conceivably a more accurate source of today’s problems
than is patriarchy per se.
4. Patriarchy is inevitable—feminists admit
Allan C. Carlson 04/22/08 “The Natural Family Dimly Seen through Feminist Eyes” (MA 49:4, Fall 2007)
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=597&loc=b&type=cbtp
Patriarchy is inevitable, as the more gloomy of the feminist theorists have admitted. Sylvia Walby
summarizes: “Women are no longer restricted to the domestic hearth, but have the whole society in which to roam
and be exploited.” [36] She errors only in failing to recognize the real source of patriarchy and to appreciate
her real choice. Paleoanthropologists now know that even before the first hominids on the African savanna had
gone bi-pedal, these promising creatures were conjugal; that is, they were pairing off in long term bonds, where the
females traded sexual exclusivity for the provisioning and protection provided by individual males. According to
C. Owen Lovejoy, these social inventions of marriage and fatherhood—not expansion of the brain case—were the
decisive steps in human evolution, and they occurred well over three million years ago. [37] Nothing
important has changed since. Women cannot successfully raise children on their own. When they try to do
so in large numbers, the results are poverty, violence, and misery (for proof, simply visit the average American
urban ghetto). Women need some entity that will help them gain food, clothing, and shelter and that will
control the boys. There are only two practical options: either the private patriarch (who is, in the end, simply the
conventional husband), a figure who is adept at breadwinning and taming the lads; or the public patriarch (i.e., the
welfare state), which provides food stamps, public housing, and day care subsidies and eventually jails a large
share of the boys. The first choice is compatible with health, happiness, wealth creation, and political liberty. The
second choice is a sure path to the servile state.
The New York Times
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5. The catholic church reinforces patriarchy
Peter C. Morea 2k “Catholic Patriarchy from Towards a Liberal Catholicism Psychology and Four Women”
SCM Press., pp.96-110. http://www.womenpriests.org/teaching/morea.asp
A patriarchal agenda, according to which women are held to be inferior to men and only what men do is
important, characterizes much of Roman Catholic history. This agenda is not confined to the Catholic Church
and characterizes much 3. The Adam and Eve story seems partly a myth about liberation and about every person’s
attempt to mature to psychological freedom. Eve is to be congratulated rather than blamed, since her disobedience
strikes a blow for freedom from patriarchy’s repressive power. Patriarchal societies are characterized by men
having authority over women, as in families where males, like Adam, have power over wives and children.
Patriarchy is hierarchical, stresses inequality, inclines to intolerance and wishes to dominate. Bishops and priests
have traditionally addressed lay Catholics as ‘My child’, and in recent times the patriarchal power exercised by the
Catholic Church has been more paternal; but submission is still expected. History shows that in the past the
institutional church has always been ready to resort to coercion and violence when necessary. Patriarchy, as
evidenced in the church, is characterized by middle-aged and elderly males exercising authority over youth
as well as women, and is threatened by growth in the power of women and the young. Patriarchy emphasizes
duty, what one ought and ought not to do, and praises and blames accordingly. The husband’s or father’s love has
to be earned, can be lost, and can be won again by repenting, obeying and submitting. In patriarchy, love is
conditional - conditional on good behaviour, conformity and achievement. In contrast, in matriarchy the mother
loves her children not because they do their duty or because of any achievement, but simply because they are her
children. In matriarchy, all children are equal in the eyes of the mother, and her love is unconditional.
Developmental psychology stresses that such unconditional love is essential for psychological development.
Julian of Norwich sees God’s love for us as maternal and unconditional, just there regardless of what we do. The
love of Julian’s God is not earned by good behaviour, nor lost by sin, and Julian is assured that, regardless of what
we do, we never move outside God’s protection. She repeatedly declares that God loves us even while we sin.
Julian stresses the value of our knowing that God’s love and mercy, for ourselves and others, is unconditional and
like that of a good mother. The Virgin Mary, as an image of maternal love, is an attempt - history would suggest a
largely unsuccessful attempt - to temper the patriarchy of the institutional church. Belief in male supremacy is
central to patriarchy. At the centre of Catholic worship is the mass; only priests can say mass and only men
can be priests. In the past, the question of women becoming priests has been considered. But Aquinas, the
thirteenth-century theologian, spoke of women’s condition of subjection as making them incapable of achieving
the eminence of priestly life. Aquinas seemed to regard women as incomplete, as if they were deficient and
defective men. So the church justified the exclusion of women from the priesthood, having decided that
women were inferior to men on the basis of a primitive account of human nature and biology. Our
knowledge of psychology and biology has developed since the Middle Ages, but the exclusion of women from the
priesthood and, consequently, from significant power within the church remains. The 1994 papal declaration of
John Paul II, in the Apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, stated that now, and for all time, women cannot be
priests. Thérèse of Lisieux records in her autobiography, Story of a Soul, that she felt in herself the vocation to be a
priest. Over the church’s long history, women have held positions of power in religious orders and have been
superiors in charge of large convents. Occasionally women have been abbesses in charge of monasteries for both
men and women; but their authority has usually extended only over women. By the twelfth century, when the
power of the papacy over the church was becoming absolute, even this small presence of women in church
authority had gone. Among the reasons why the Albigensians and later the Béguines were condemned was because
of their positive attitude to women, such as having women preachers. Significantly; until recently, the
overwhelming majority of saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church have been men. Many Catholics are
puzzled and troubled by the church’s perception of women and by the subordination of women to men within the
church. Christianity affirms full equality of all before God. But historians record that when in the fourth century
Christianity became, under Constantine, the official religion of the Roman empire, the church gradually developed
into a male-dominated hierarchical institution. Perhaps the psychologist is in a better position than the historian to
explain why the Catholic Church has remained so. Social psychologists suggest that organizations which
emphasize hierarchical authority are hostile to true equality, such as that between women and men. The
authoritarian personality is characterized by a preoccupation with power and control, particularly over people. A
patriarchal church manifests obvious power and control in its subordination of women.
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6. Military discrimination reinforces patriarchy
Brian Martin, Uprooting War (London: Freedom Press, 1984); this is the revised 19 90 version.
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/90uw/uw09.html
Military elites also strongly oppose participation of women and gays, especially in key roles such as officers
or combat soldiers. This opposition stems from the links between masculinity and violence and, more
deeply, between patriarchy and the military.
7. Patriarchy isn’t just going to disappear – it’s a 4,000 year old system
Glenn Collins – NYT, 1986 “Patriarchy: Is it invention or inevitable” Lexis **Gerda Lerner, P.h.d, founders of
the field of women's history**
Gerda Lerner, the historian, was talking about patriarchy, the form of social organization. ''As a system,
patriarchy is as outdated as feudalism,'' she said on a recent morning after a meeting of historians at a
Manhattan hotel. ''But it is a 4,000-year-old system of ideas that won't just go away overnight.''
8. Breast implants perpetuate gender discrimination
Clare Chambers -- Penn State University Press20 March 2008 “Sex, Culture and Justice: The Limits of
Choice”
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=401134&sectioncode=26
A particular concern throughout the book is gender injustice. Chambers argues that the mere fact of choice cannot
be sufficient in and of itself for liberal justice. One example on which she focuses is the practice of breast
implantation. Many Western women undergo this form of cosmetic surgery to enhance their body image, to
feel better about themselves or to improve their career prospects. Chambers argues that these choices are
socially formed and rest on a sex norm that both causes physical harm and is unjust, as it perpetuates
gender discrimination.
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A2 Patriarchy  Environmental Harm
Eradicating patriarchy cannot solve for the environment
William R. Catton, Jr. Professor Emeritus, Washington State University Human Ecology Review, Vol. 6, No. 2,
1999 http://www.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her62/62catton.pdf
The problem of adverse human impact on the planet upon which we depend is indeed serious, but a call to
arms against patriarchy and sexism is not likely to save the world. Because many attributes of today’s social
structure and culture are reprehensible, it does not follow that the necessary ecological redirection can be
attained (or even facilitated) by exposing the alleged connections of system flaws to patriarchal patterns and
sexist manifestations of power. Such an approach to the profound danger confronting human societies today is
just too simplistic. Continues… No social scientist should presume to answer (or dismiss) these questions without
having at least sampled the recent literature on animal behavior, ethology, and evolutionary theory. There is a
good deal of evidence that practices we can pejoratively label “patriarchal” and “sexist” arise in response to
challenges confronting many species. They are common among social bands of our nearest relatives, the great apes
(Byrne and Whiten 1988; Kano 1992; Rubenstein and Wrangham 1986; Standen and Foley 1989; Tanner 1981). If
sins against the laws of ecology are not uniquely human, they are unlikely to be eradicated by preaching,
however well it may document its castigations.
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Female Priest CP
CP Text: Pope Benedict XVI should issue an edict declaring female eligibility for all clergy
positions in the Roman Catholic church.
Female priests are key to breaking down patriarchal systems
Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan 7/20/06 “The case for women priests” Global Ministries University.
http://www.geocities.com/katolskvision/artikel35.html
It is not enough to ordain women into a patriarchal and hierarchical structure. The clerical structure needs
to be transformed from a dominator model with powers reserved to clergy into an open, participatory model
that honors the gifts of God in the people of God. The present gap between clergy and lay needs to be
eliminated. We need to move from an unaccountable top-down, hierarchical to a people-empowered discipleship
of equals. We advocate a community model of ministry based on union with the people we serve.
The goal of
the Roman Catholic Womenpriests community is to bring about the full equality of women in the Roman
Catholic Church. The movement Roman Catholic Womenpriests does not perceive itself as a counter-current
movement against the Roman Catholic Church. It wants neither a schism nor a break from the Roman Catholic
Church, but rather wants to work positively within the Church. We invite our Roman Catholic Church leaders
to join us in an open, respectful dialogue so that together we may serve the church faithfully and lovingly.
In her address, "Prophetic Obedience: The Experience and Vision of Roman Catholic Womenpriests" to the
Southeast Pennsylvania Women's Ordination Conference in March, 2005, Bishop Patricia Fresen, D.Th., said:
"Now we in the Church are on another 'long walk to freedom,' this time freedom from sexism, from unjust
discrimination against women in the church, freedom from oppression by the privileged clerical caste in the church.
Once again, we need to stand together in protest, to break the unjust laws because we cannot wait forever, and we need, at least
at the beginning, to move into the structures that exist, and change them."
It is time for holy disobedience. As Cardinal
Walter Kasper, the former bishop of Rottenberg-Stuttgart, Germany and currently president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council
for Promoting Christian Unity wrote: "Some situations oblige one to obey God and one's own conscience, rather than the
leaders of the church. Indeed, one may even be obliged to accept excommunication, rather than act against one's conscience."
In obedience to the Gospel of Jesus we are disobeying an unjust law that discriminates against women. Canon 1024 states that
only a baptized male may receive Holy Orders. This is in contradiction to Canon 849 which states that Baptism is the gateway
to the sacraments which includes Holy Orders. Baptism is the foundation for the validity of Holy Orders not male gender.
Thus, Canon 1024 denies full membership to women in the church and contradicts Canon 849 which opens all the sacraments
to all members of the church. In other words, the sacrament of Baptism makes us equals in Christ. St. Paul taught, "As many
of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there no longer
servant or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). For 1200 years
some popes, bishops and scholars accepted women's ordination as equal to men's. In the 10th century Bishop Atto of Vercelli
wrote about the early church practice of ordaining women to preside over the churches because of the great need. In 1976 The
Pontifical Biblical Commission concluded that there is no biblical reason to prohibit women's ordination. Pope John Paul II
contradicted the early tradition of women in priestly ministry when he wrote: "The church has no authority whatsoever to
confer priestly ordination on women and ...this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."
However,
Pope John Paul II did not consult the people of God (including the theologians and the bishops) before issuing this decree.
The church teaches that infallible teaching must reflect the sense of the faithful. Therefore, this teaching is not infallible
because it does not reflect the sensus fidelium, the faith of the believing community. In fact, according to recent surveys about
70 percent of Catholics approve of women's ordination, including some of the world's bishops. People ask, "But what of
your vows of obedience?" To a child, obedience is doing what you are told. For an adult, obedience is discerning and following
God's direction for our lives. Roman Catholic WomenPriests do not take a vow of obedience to a bishop. Our obedience is to
the Gospel as we discern together God's guidance for our community.
Women and men are created in God's image and both
may represent Christ as priests. Women as priests remind us that women are equal symbols of the holy and that the identity of
priests should reflect the experiences and spiritual authority of women. Women priests help the church to recognize women's
rightful place as equals in the governing structures of the church.
Patriarchy's dark lie that women are more
responsible for the fall of humankind has been smashed as women in priestly ministry defy an unjust law
that keeps women subordinate in the Catholic Church. The church can not continue to discriminate against
women and blame God for it. Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, women priests are shaping a more
inclusive, Christ-centered church of equals in the 21st century.
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The churches policies limit the success of women all around the world
Peter M. Marendy, Aug 2005 “Australian Ejournal of theology”
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_5/Marendy.htm
Also, feminist theology in particular looks askance at the Church’s maintenance of a male only priesthood. Two
such theologians are the prominent Catholic feminists Elizabeth Johnson[31] and Rosemary Radford Ruether[32]
who, along with other mainline feminist theologians,[33] would undoubtedly consider the Church’s stand on this
issue a transparent example of its patriarchal and sexist nature. A key component of mainline feminism’s
critical stance toward this and other discriminatory Church practices and teachings is the proposition that the
Bible, “apart from feminist reinterpretation,[34] [is] a vehicle for the furtherance of patriarchy”. In general, this
conclusion is reached through the application of a “hermeneutics of suspicion” to scripture, a type of
interpretation that places the “questions of woman’s identity and the role of patriarchy in circumscribing
that identity” at the forefront of their concerns when reading the Bible.[35] This contrasts strongly with the conservative “hermeneutics of
trust” that typically governs biblical feminist’s predisposition to scripture.[36] Biblical feminist theologians consider the Bible as an “inspired
witness to the grace of God in Jesus Christ” and something which “can produce and support a feminist vision”.[37] This approach leads them to
the conclusion that patriarchy should be dealt with by feminists in the larger “biblical category” of “human sin” rather than an entity in
itself.[38] According to Kathryn McCreight-Greene, this means that mainline feminist theologians hold a “reconstructed notion of authority
from that held by the narrative hermeneutic” – i.e. instead of interpreting the bible “as one overarching , continuous narrative,” mainline
feminists usually read it non-narratively and with a great deal of suspicion.[39] This is a significant distinction because McCreight believes it
exposes some of the weaknesses within the mainline feminist approach which are: a contradictory development of hierarchy where feminist
approaches are privileged;[40] an implicit, if not explicit, embrace of anti-Judaism in their theorising; and the ambiguity and inconsistency in
their use of the dichotomy of “Jesus of history and the Christ of faith” “as a conceptual crowbar to separate the Christic contents from the
historical nutshell” or, in other words, reduce the “theological significance of his maleness”.[41] While this essay’s positive stance towards
women’s ordination may suggest it favours the critical hermeneutics of mainline feminist theologians over and against narrative theology – in
the last of which some of its more conservative advocates apply a “hermeneutics of trust” rather than one of “suspicion” to the Bible[42] – to
the contrary, it considers elements of both approaches to biblical criticism and theology essential for the successful reinterpretation of scripture
and tradition that is needed for a more inclusive model of Church.[43] As mentioned above, Elizabeth Johnson is one among many Catholic
feminist theologians who have developed sophisticated and creative arguments against the Catholic Church’s persistence with a
male only priesthood and more widely the patriarchy that underlies and sustains it. One such argument is
the critique of patriarchy, which the Church inherited from Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures during the
classical era. Johnson persuasively argues this system discriminated against women by according men a
privileged place over and against women in virtually all areas of society, including the nascent Church.
Specifically, this meant, “society ran on the idea that men by nature were fit to lead in the intellectual,
political, and economic spheres… [while] women’s main role was to bear children for men and, in any way
possible, to support them in their difficult endeavours”.[44] In consequence, women had limited opportunities
to express their opinions publicly and play a decisive hand in shaping society.[45] Also, this sexiest attitude
towards women, which was naturalised or made to seem ‘normal’ by patriarchal discourses, devalued the words
and actions of the “women disciples of Jesus” to such an extent that “only traces” of these contributions in
scripture remain.[46] Thus, on this issue Johnson is clearly in disagreement with Inter Insigniores and various
theologians who believe Jesus and the early Church’s decision not to select a female apostle was not influenced by
societal norms.[47] Johnson also attacks the sexism of the Church’s prohibition on women’s ordination by citing
its teaching of ‘imago Dei’ found in the Vatican II document Gaudium et spes (The Church and the Modern
World) and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Mulieris dignitatem (On The Dignity and Vocation of Women) [1998].
For instance, she argues Gaudium et Spes’s affirmation of social justice for all peoples[48] based on the premise
that “all persons posses a rational soul and are created in God’s likeness…”[49] clearly demonstrates that
discrimination against women on the basis of their sex, as exemplified by its stand on women’s ordination, is
sinful.[50] This interpretation is supported by Pope John Paul II’s affirmation of the imago Dei teaching in this
transparent statement: “Both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree, both are created in God’s
image”.[51] Why then does the Church discriminate against women? Johnson persuasively answers such a
question by observing how the Church’s “dualistic anthropology”[52] “posits essential differences between
masculine and feminine versions of human nature”[53] which necessarily limits and thus justifies a division of
social roles within the Church.[54] For example, Pope John Paul II holds up what he proposes are the exclusively
feminine virtues of the Theotokos and her motherhood as things women should emulate.[55] This is why Johnson
believes:
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Catholic tradition renders western legal, social, economic advancement useless
Peter M. Marendy, Aug 2005 “Australian Ejournal of theology”
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_5/Marendy.htm
The Catholic Church’s prohibition on women’s ordination into the priesthood[1] is a very contentious issue
because it is arguably a sexist teaching which fundamentally attacks women’s hard won legal rights and
freedoms to work in any field for which they are qualified. Over approximately the last 100 years, many
women and their male sympathisers have been successfully campaigning for various legal, social, political and
economic rights predominantly in Western societies.[2] In Australia for instance, there are various federal and
state laws against many types of discrimination.[3] Moreover, internationally it is recognised that women should
not be discriminated against based on sex or gender in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.[4] Therefore, it is difficult not
to conclude that on this issue the Catholic Church is out of touch with the mores of contemporary Western
society.
Religion has the greatest effect on women – change needed
Roy F. Baurneister 2000 “Gender Differences in Erotic Plasticity: The Female Sex Drive as Socially Flexible
and Responsive” Vol. 126, No. 3, 347-374
Religion was also shown to have greater effects on female than male sexuality. Someone might argue that
religion is a tool of male oppression (which entails suppressing female sexuality) whereas education liberates
women and allows them to discover and pursue their own desires. This explanation has difficulty explaining
the powerful historical facts that Christianity has long appealed to women more than to men, both during its
rise to power in the Roman empire (see Stark, 1996) and during the transition into the modern era (Cott, 1977), and
that even today female church attendance and membership rates are higher than male. The selective control
explanation seemingly must propose that women wanted to be exploited and sexually stifled by Christian
doctrines (and still do), a stance that seems suffi- ciently questionable as to call for strong supporting evidence
before it can be accepted.
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LBGT Rights – Defense
1. Squo Solves
Nico Sifra Quintana policy analyst for the American Progress Institute July 1 20 09
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/07/lgbt_rights.html
Every day the LGBT community seems to be experiencing a new expansion of civil rights. President Barack
Obama signed on June 17 a Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination that
grants non-discrimination protections and some same-sex partner benefits for LGBT federal employees. On
May 6, Maine Governor John Baldacci (D-ME) signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making
Maine the fifth state—along with Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Iowa—to allow same-sex
marriage. And the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, which, if passed by the Senate and signed by the president, would expand protections under
the federal hate crimes law to LGBT people.
2. Employment discrimination is an Alt Caus
Nico Sifra Quintana policy analyst for the American Progress Institute July 1 20 09
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/07/lgbt_rights.html
Equal rights and protections under federal law would provide LGBT Americans with increased employment
security and help protect them from falling below the federal poverty level. According to the Williams Institute,
separate surveys have revealed that 16 to 68 percent of LGB people report experiencing employment
discrimination. And the Transgender Law Center found that 70 percent of transgender people surveyed in
California experienced workplace harassment related to their gender identity. Approximately half of survey
respondents also reported experiencing some loss of employment either as a direct or possible result of their
gender identity. Nevertheless, no federal laws currently exist protecting all LGBT workers from employment
discrimination.
3. Military discrimination is an Alt Caus
ABS News 3/8/09 “Wage 'all-out war' vs discrimination, LGBT group urges AFP” http://www.abscbnnews.com/nation/03/08/09/wage-all-out-war-vs-discrimination-lgbt-group-urges-afp
"We welcome the statements made by top military officials declaring that lesbians and gays are now accepted in
the military. However, this is not insufficient. There has to be a concrete and comprehensive nondiscrimination policy in the military," Project Equality spokesperson Jonas Bagas was quoted as saying. "There
has to be a clear policy explicitly stating that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, can join
the military provided that they qualify for military service," Bagas said. Project Equality also urged the AFP to
address other forms of discrimination within the AFP, particularly discrimination once gays and lesbians enter into
service. "Once inside, LGBT soldiers can encounter other forms of discrimination and abuse. That, too,
should be prohibited," Bagas added. "The military is a macho establishment. Hearing pro-LGBT statements
from its officials may be refreshing, but they cannot hide the strong anti-LGBT sentiment in the military,"
Bagas said.
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Disenfranchisement Turn
Appeasing gay right activists disenfranchise the majority of citizens and voters
Ernest J. Istook Jr. is a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation – and host of the think tank's satellite radio
show. May 17 2008 http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed051608a.cfm
By trying to appease homosexual rights activists, those who have refused to stand up for traditional marriage
helped to create this court ruling. They are the Neville Chamberlains of the cultural wars. In essence, California's
highest court yesterday decreed that society cannot have a "separate but equal" matchmaking plan for same-sex couples.
The moment California or any other state adopts civil unions, this decision makes clear, it's on the slippery slope that
makes same-sex marriage inevitable.
This ruling also further disenfranchises citizens and voters. The court not only usurped legislative power, it ignored
the clear will of the 61 percent of California voters who in 2000 placed into law this language: "Only marriage between a
man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
Continues…
It's time to hold accountable those lawmakers who have opened the door for this court ruling by trying to appease
homosexual rights activists with laws that allow civil unions. You cannot have peace at any price with those who seek
to conquer and vanquish our values.
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DADT Turn (1/2)
A. New administrative direction on gay rights would lead to the repeal of DADT
New York Times editorial “A Bad Call on Gay Rights” June 15 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/opinion/16tue1.html
The Obama administration, which came to office promising to protect gay rights but so far has not done
much, actually struck a blow for the other side last week. It submitted a disturbing brief in support of the Defense
of Marriage Act, which is the law that protects the right of states to not recognize same-sex marriages and denies
same-sex married couples federal benefits. The administration needs a new direction on gay rights.
Continues… If the administration does feel compelled to defend the act, it should do so in a less hurtful way. It
could have crafted its legal arguments in general terms, as a simple description of where it believes the law now
stands. There was no need to resort to specious arguments and inflammatory language to impugn same-sex
marriage as an institution. The best approach of all would have been to make clear, even as it defends the law in
court, that it is fighting for gay rights. It should work to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the law that bans gay
men and lesbians in the military from being open about their sexuality. It should push hard for a federal law
banning employment discrimination. It should also work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act in Congress. The
administration has had its hands full with the financial crisis, health care, Guantánamo Bay and other pressing
matters. In times like these, issues like repealing the marriage act can seem like a distraction — or a political
liability. But busy calendars and political expediency are no excuse for making one group of Americans wait
any longer for equal rights.
B. And the repeal of DADT would fissure the combat unit, destroying the dominance of the
American military
John Luddy policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation January 11 19 93
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Religion/EM349.cfm
Myth #1: The military's main objective should be to have the best person in the job, regardless of sexual
orientation. If battles were fought and won by individuals, this might be true. But combat is a team endeavor.
A military organization functions best when the differences among individuals in a unit are minimized. That
is why soldiers look, act, dress, and train alike. Why break down all of these differences only to inject the greatest
difference of all-individual sexual identity-into a unit? Civilians can easily avoid unwanted sexual attraction from
people of the same sex. But in the military lifestyle of forced association, such options seldom exist. Of course,
the military wants the best person it can get in a job-but only if that individual's abilities contribute to the
overall good of the team more than his personal differences detract from it.
Myth #2: Heterosexuals are unreasonably afraid of overt homosexual advances toward them. Most heterosexual
men who are likely to join the military are troubled by the notion of homosexuality. It is this profound
discomfort, not the fear of actual homosexual advances, which would destroy the personal bonds that bring a
military unit together. Men are able to show mutual affection only when there are no sexual implications.
"Straight" men will not bond with men they know to be homosexual nearly as well as with other straight men.
Without such bonds and the trust they create, men will not risk their lives for each other or put their lives in
each other's hands. This type of fissure will wreck a combat unit.
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DADT Turn (2/2)
C. US hegemony is key to preventing proliferation and global nuclear war.
Khalilzad, 1995 (Zalmay, Director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program @ RAND and current US Ambassador to Iraq,
"Losing the Moment? The United States and the World After the Cold War," The Washington Quarterly, Spring, p. Lexis)
Under the third option, the United States would seek to retain global leadership and to preclude the rise of a global
rival or a return to multipolarity for the indefinite future. On balance, this is the best long-term guiding principle
and vision. Such a vision is desirable not as an end in itself, but because a world in which the United States
exercises leadership would have tremendous advantages. First, the global environment would be more open and
more receptive to American values -- democracy, free markets, and the rule of law. Second, such a world would
have a better chance of dealing cooperatively with the world's major problems, such as nuclear proliferation,
threats of regional hegemony by renegade states, and low-level conflicts. Finally, U.S. leadership would help
preclude the rise of another hostile global rival, enabling the United States and the world to avoid another
global cold or hot war and all the attendant dangers, including a global nuclear exchange. U.S. leadership would
therefore be more conducive to global stability than a bipolar or a multipolar balance of power system.
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LGBT CP
The United States federal government should pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
ENDA is an extraordinary way to advance LGBT rights
Equality Texas, October 19, 2007. http://eqfed.org/eqtx/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=16274202
"I have never wavered from my conviction that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) must
include protections based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. It is gratifying to see that conviction
shared by so many people in all parts of the country. I will be working tirelessly to secure the votes necessary
to pass a gender identity-inclusive ENDA bill and urge all who share this goal to make their voices heard.
This extraordinary opportunity to advance LGBT rights in America is proud evidence of democracy in
which the people decide what is possible."
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ENDA CP – Ext
ENDA is significant LGBT civil rights legislation
Kenneth A. Kovach and Peter E. Millspaugh. 1996 “Employment Nondiscrimination Act: On The Cutting
Edge Of Public Policy” Volume 39, Issue 4, July-August 1996, Pages 65-73
Influential and outspoken supporters such as Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) place the ENDA bill in the
category of civil rights legislation The contention of this school of thought is that sexual orientation should be
removed as a basis for job discrimination in the same way that race, gender, religion, national origin, age,
and disabilities have been dealt with in previous fed- eral legislation. Most supporters of ENDA deny any
connec- tion between performance on the job and sexual orientation. They point to the lack of evidence,
scientific or otherwise, that sexual orientation relates to job performance in any way. Consequently, they
argue, consideration of one’s sexual orientation in employment-related decisions should be outlawed to
prevent potentially nega- tive outcomes that can occur when it is part of the decision.
ENDA is a major step in LGBT rights
Caleb Groos 6/25 2009 “Federal LGBT Discrimination Law Coming? ENDA: The Employment NonDiscrimination Act Re-Introduced” http://blogs.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1892
Yesterday, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced in the US House of
Representatives. It would prohibit employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender
identity in a wide variety of employment decisions. Though similar legislation has been repeatedly introduced
without success, increased support this year means businesses would be smart to prepare for compliance.
Representative Barney Frank, along with others, has introduced ENDA just about every year since 1994. This year,
however, he has 118 original cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. This year's bill (like some, but not all of its
predecessors) also includes protections for trans-gender individuals as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
Currently, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 puts race, gender, religion and national origin off limits as
far as employment decisions including hiring, firing, promotions, demotions, reductions in hours, along with
many others. ENDA would provide the same protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people. We also currently have federal protections against some age discrimination, as well as discrimination
against those with disabilities, but those are provided outside of Title VII. Discrimination based on sexual
orientation or gender identity, on the other hand, is so far left to state and local rules. As stated in
Representative Frank's press release, it is still legal in 30 states to fire someone simply for being gay. 38 states
allow it based on gender identity. The bill introduced yesterday would end this. As with the protections Title VII
gives other groups, it would ban employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating based on sexual
orientation or gender identity.
ENDA key to solve discrimination—state laws don’t cover
Lauren McGlothlin 6/24 “Employment Discrimination against LGBT Workers Shows Need for Employment
Non-Discrimination Act” http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2009/06/459-enda.html
Although employment laws intended to protect people from workplace discrimination based on their sexual
orientation and gender identity are on the books in local communities and states around the country, the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation reports that more than 3 in 5 U.S. citizens live in areas that do not have
these laws. Only 12 states and the District of Columbia have banned employment discrimination based on both
sexual orientation and gender identity. Eight states have outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual
orientation. Many businesses are finding that it is becoming more and more important to have policies prohibiting
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in order to remain competitive. The HRC
Foundation found that 85 percent of Fortune 500 businesses now have non-discrimination policies that include
sexual orientation, up from 51 percent in 2000. Thirty-five percent of Fortune 500 businesses have nondiscrimination policies that include gender identity or expression. In 2000, only three Fortune 500 companies had
this policy. Today, the House of Representatives re-introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA), a bill that would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
in all states across the country. ENDA would extend the same federal employment discrimination protections
currently given to race, religion, gender, national origin, age, and disability.
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ENDA Will Pass
Bill will pass in the status squo
Caleb Groos 6/25 2009 “Federal LGBT Discrimination Law Coming? ENDA: The Employment NonDiscrimination Act Re-Introduced” http://blogs.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1892
With over 100 co-sponsors, this year's bill has much more momentum than in any of the previous years. For
all employers whose states don't already have similar rules on the books, this could mean reviewing and
updating all anti-discrimination, hiring, and employment policies to make sure they accord LGBT employees all
the protections in place for workers of different genders, races, religions and national origins.
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Felon Voting – Defense
1. Felons can still vote – they just do it illegally
Miami Herald Staff Writers February 15, 1998 http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6263
More than 100 convicted felons -- muggers and con artists, drug traffickers and a few killers -- voted in the
Miami election last November even though they had lost their right to vote. A flasher voted. He fatally beat his
cellmate. A pot-smoking jailer voted. He helped two inmates escape. A convicted ex-Miami detective voted. He
covered up the murder of a drug dealer. And a homeless, crack-addicted thief voted. His voting address: the
apartment next to the place he burglarized. The Herald counted 105 ineligible felon ballots in last November's
mayoral election. But a three-week Herald study reveals no evidence that any candidate recruited the ex-convict
vote. The only thing that keeps felons from voting in any election is an honor system. And when it comes to
weeding felons from the registration books, the system simply doesn't work. Records show about 2,800
ineligible felons registered to vote in Miami-Dade alone. Continues… Felons have been voting illegally for
years, but the practice didn't get much attention until recent allegations of organized absentee-voter fraud.
2. Felons can vote – much flexibility
Paul Tiger 6/25 “Felons can vote”
http://denver.yourhub.com/Longmont/Stories/Voices/Columns/Story~630064.aspx
The most important one that I find bothersome is former felons who are absolutely positive that they cannot vote.
States have their own laws, separate constitutions, and election rules, and they are not the same. When one
moves to a different state, the laws of the old state don't follow them. A person convicted of a felony in
Kentucky may only vote again if they receive a pardon from the governor. If that person moves to Colorado,
they may register to vote and exercise their rights when the time comes. No special permissions or
paperwork is needed. When the sentence of a felony conviction in Colorado comes to end, the felon may
resume being a voter, or begin if they were not registered before. The sentence and obligation to the court is
over and rights are restored.
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State Felon Voting CP
The Fifty states of the United States should permanently extend all plausible voting abilities to
felons in their respective states
States call over voting rights
Bryan Knowles June 9, 2000 “Should Convicted Felons Have Voting Rights?”
The Fourteenth Amendment clearly demonstrates that the states have the Constitutional authority to
disenfranchise both currently incarcerated and former felons for as long as they deem fit. In limiting the
freedoms of convicted felons, incarceration is designed to punish inmates and impress upon them the magnitude of
their crimes. As a privilege to be enjoyed by law-abiding citizens, prohibiting inmates from voting further drives
this point home. Prohibiting former felons from voting for life ensures the integrity of the electoral process,
especially in states and jurisdictions where the populace directly elects judges, law enforcement officers and
district attorneys.
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Prisoner transfer CP
CP Text: The Federal government should make the necessary arrangements for the transfer of
all willing prisoners to federal prisons in either Vermont or Maine.
Solvency:
1st Voting rights depends on location
Paul Tiger 6/25 “Felons can vote”
http://denver.yourhub.com/Longmont/Stories/Voices/Columns/Story~630064.aspx
The most important one that I find bothersome is former felons who are absolutely positive that they cannot vote.
States have their own laws, separate constitutions, and election rules, and they are not the same. When one
moves to a different state, the laws of the old state don't follow them. A person convicted of a felony in
Kentucky may only vote again if they receive a pardon from the governor. If that person moves to Colorado,
they may register to vote and exercise their rights when the time comes. No special permissions or
paperwork is needed. When the sentence of a felony conviction in Colorado comes to end, the felon may resume
being a voter, or begin if they were not registered before. The sentence and obligation to the court is over and
rights are restored.
2nd Felons can vote in Vermont and Maine prisons
Washington Times January 28, 2006 “Vermont, Maine allow felon votes”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/jan/28/20060128-104343-6528r/
Felons in Vermont and Maine, including those behind bars, have never been denied the right to vote since
those states were founded more than 180 years ago, but neither state keeps data on the number of inmates who
vote. "In Vermont, the criteria for voting is based on the state constitution," and there is nothing in there
to prevent prisoners from voting, said William Dalton, Vermont's deputy secretary of state. Long recognized
as one of the most liberal states in the nation, Vermont even allows incarcerated criminals to run for political
office. Mr. Dalton said that happened in 2002, when a man serving time in a federal prison for tax fraud ran against
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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14th Amendment – Defense (1/2)
1. 14th amendment has limits
Thomas H. Burrell, M.B.A., Illinois State University; J.D., American University Washington College
of Law,12/12/2007 “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of
Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony”
For too long, individuals and the courts have treated the Fourteenth Amendment2 as the panacea for
unfavorable legislation.3 The Reconstruction Congress debated extensively on areas of civil rights, political
rights, and social rights: voices were heard, opinions were raised, and compromises were reached. 4 While many
argued for broader coverage, the Fourteenth Amendment was limited in its scope of federal protection.
Subsequent judicial use of the amendment has been unfaithful to these limitations.5 The central
proposition of this article is a critique of substantive equal protection6 and substantive due process7
jurisprudence following the passage of the Fourteenth The central proposition of this article is a critique of
substantive equal protection and substantive due process7 jurisprudence following the passage of the
Fourteenth Amendment.8 The article argues two positions. First, the amendment was not an open-ended
grant for the judiciary. Second, the Supreme Court, particularly the “judicial trusteeship” of Justice
Field,9 expanded the breadth of Reconstruction legislation, substituting buoyant, natural law10 principles
reflecting latitudinarian ideals which, when operationalized, distort the intended limitations of the
amendment.11 The evolution of Justice Field’s open-ended interpretations has resulted in a drastic
change in federalism and loss of state sovereignty.12
2. framers ensured the amendment wouldn’t be self executing
Thomas H. Burrell, M.B.A., Illinois State University; J.D., American University Washington College
of Law,12/12/2007 “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of
Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony”
A global criticism of modern constitutional law is that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment did not
intend for the amendment to be self-executing to the extent modern jurisprudence allows.127 In describing
the amendment prior to its adoption, and noting that the amendment supplied a main shortcoming of the
Constitution, Representative Bingham maintained: [Now it is within] the power [of] the people, the whole
people of the United States, by express authority of the Constitution to do that by congressional enactment which
hitherto they have not had the power to do . . . to protect by ational law the privileges and immunities of all the
citizens of the Republic and the inborn rights of every person within its jurisdiction whenever the same shall be
abridged or denied by the unconstitutional acts of any State. 128 When Bingham initially introduced the first
draft to Congress, he emphasized that the amendment would protect the spirit of Bill of Rights and the
enforcement of the “injunctions and prohibitions” which by oath, the states owed to the people.129 The
draft of the amendment, stated Bingham, would give the “people of the United States the power, by
legislative enactment, to punish officials of States for violations of the oaths enjoined upon them by
their Constitution.”130 Bingham held firm on his position that it is the power of Congress which is
enlarged under the Fourteenth Amendment: The Constitution is not self-executing, therefore laws must
be enacted by Congress for the due execution of all the powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States, or in any department or any officer thereof.131 Bingham, pushing for
congressional legislation protecting rights, did not believe the Fourteenth Amendment enlarged the
judicial sphere, but was merely a procedural door for Congress to legislate to protect rights:
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14th Amendment – Defense (2/2)
3. Turn -- Wide interpretations cause the amendment to lose legitimacy
Thomas H. Burrell, M.B.A., Illinois State University; J.D., American University Washington College
of Law,12/12/2007 “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of
Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony”
With this view of “liberty” and the Due Process Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment’s reach—construed
and operationalized solely by the Court—is as wide as the horizon. Any state regulation is subject to
reasonableness review by the Court.264 Through these unfaithful interpretations, Justice Field, along
with other justices, belied the limited Fourteenth Amendment and expanded the understanding of the
amendment.265 After reaching a majority, these expansive interpretations resulted in the wholesale loss of
the limited Fourteenth Amendment.266
4. No spillover – Conservative court means they will morally object to those policies
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Ext 3 – Legitimacy
Vast expansions cause the amendment to lose legitimacy
Thomas H. Burrell, M.B.A., Illinois State University; J.D., American University Washington College
of Law,12/12/2007 “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of
Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony”
Regarding expansive interpretations of Section One, the judiciary’s use of a colorful phrase of “absolute
equality,” “class legislation,” or “liberty” quickly loses its legitimacy when carried beyond congressional
enactment or existing national privileges and immunities and into political or social rights not covered by
the amendment.309
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Federalism Turn
Plan destroys state rights
Thomas H. Burrell, M.B.A., Illinois State University; J.D., American University Washington College
of Law,12/12/2007 “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of
Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony”
Bingham, described by some as the most liberal Republican, is generally considered the author of the
Fourteenth Amendment.73 Bingham articulated that the amendment was designed for the protection of
Americans of African descent and loyal white citizens.74 Bingham also quipped that a broader
construction of the amendment should apply to states that have laws “that are in direct violation of every
principle of our Constitution.”75 Representative Hale, a Republican lawyer from New York, took issue
with Bingham over the extension of the amendment to give Congress the power to “legislate upon all the
matters pertaining to the life, liberty, and property” in the several states, posing the question where would
federal power end.76 Joining Bingham and Hale, other members of the 39th Congress were also worried
about encroaching upon states’ rights and disrupting the existing balance of federalism.77 Some were
worried that a broad sweep in post-war congressional action would eradicate the concinnity between
sovereign state government and limited national government.78 Framers of the amendment changed the
language in the initial draft to reflect this concern.79 The evolution of the amendment illustrates the
moderation of the more radical proponents.80 While a few of the original framers of the Fourteenth
Amendment hoped to secure school desegregation and universal suffrage with the amendment, those
intentions were not shared by all and were not promulgated into the amendment.81
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Child Rights
1. Two billion children lack proper education—that’s a basic right
Cassandra Clifford 6/24 -- Founder and Executive Director of Bridge to Freedom Foundation, M.A. in
international relations “Lack of Education…the Root of Children's Rights Violations?”
http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com/author/cclifford/
Education is a basic right for all children around the world, yet in the developing world there are almost two
billion children, most of which are not receiving an a proper education, or any education at all. According to
the Global Fund for Children one in five children, 120 to 125 million children, are not enrolled in school. Of those
who do receive an education, mostly in the developing world, one in five will not make it past the fifth grade. The
lack of education for much of the worlds children is of grave concern, and continues to impact not only the life's of
the children themselves, but the development and progress of entire nations. If a large majority of a countries
children are not educated, the prospect of the future business, political, religious and government leaders of is
marred for many generations.
2. Child soldiers in Burma violate rights
VOA News 23 November 2007 “UN Chief Says Children's Rights Violated in Burma”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Burmese children are being recruited to fight armed
conflicts despite agreements to protect children's rights. Mr. Ban Friday released his report to the U.N.
Security Council that says the Burmese government, the Karen National Union and the Karenni National
Progressive Party continue to be implicated in serious children's rights violations.
3. Alt cause—child right violations in Russia
Peter Roudik, Senior Foreign Law Specialist August 2007 “Children’s Rights: Russian Federation”
Protection of children’s rights is a serious problem for Russia, particularly because of the worsening
demographic situation and progressive involvement of youngsters in criminal and other underground
activities. Several presidential programs, together with major pieces of legislation, address this issue, which is at
the center of domestic public discussions; because of insufficient budget financing and restrictions on work of
nongovernmental organizations, however, legislative declarations remain largely unimplemented. It is expected
that the newly created institution of a Children’s Rights Ombudsman and introduction of the long delayed juvenile
justice system will improve the situation. This paper analyzes legislation that regulates the protection of children’s
rights and evaluates government attempts to enforce relevant laws.
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CRC CP
CP Text: The United States federal government should ratify the Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Child reaffirms the U.S. image as child rights
promoter
Jacy Youn, International Justice Project Legal Intern, 6/23, 2009.
http://humanrightsusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/treaty-ratification-why-should-us_23.html “Treaty ratification: Why
should the U.S. ratify international treaties?”
Earlier this year, when Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal) began urging the Obama administration to ratify a 20-year
old international agreement creating a full range of human rights for children, it revived discussions about
what role the promotion of human rights should play in U.S. foreign policy. The answer is simple: as the
world’s lone superpower, the U.S. has the rare and important ability to influence the behaviors of
governments and people around the globe. Although the U.S. has played a key role in establishing global
human rights standards – the UN Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) was inspired in part by Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, and partially drafted by his wife, Eleanor [i] – the country’s credibility has
been compromised because of its role in recent human rights violations. With this year marking the 60th
Anniversary of the UDHR, and it being the first time the U.S. has held a seat on the UN Human Rights Council,
the timing couldn’t be better for the U.S. to reaffirm its commitment to universal human rights by ratifying
international treaties. [ii] To date, the U.S. has failed to ratify several fundamental international agreements
intended to protect human rights, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (commonly known as “CEDAW”) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides a global framework for the protection of children by
vesting them with specific civil, social, cultural, political, and economic rights, is yet another example of a
human rights agreement the U.S. has failed to ratify. Although the Treaty was signed by the Clinton
administration in 1995, it has not yet been ratified – an important distinction as “signing” treaties is akin to a
symbolic gesture, while “ratification” gives teeth to the agreement by creating legal obligations. Despite publicly
stating its intention to ratify, the U.S. still stands with Somalia as one of the only two countries to not ratify the
Treaty, while worldwide atrocities against children – including enslavement, torture, abuse, and abduction –
continue daily.
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CRC CP Ext
Ratifying CRC boosts U.S. credibility and demonstrates our commitment to child rights
Jacy Youn, International Justice Project Legal Intern, 6/23, 2009. http://humanrightsusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/treatyratification-why-should-us_23.html “Treaty ratification: Why should the U.S. ratify international treaties?”
Overseas, the implementation of laws in furtherance of the Treaty has been largely successful. Recent reports
from many of the 193 countries that have ratified the Treaty indicate that much progress is being made as a result.
In countries such as Oman, Niger, Romania, and Bangladesh, governments have implemented laws
forbidding children in armed conflicts, combating child poverty, and improving the health and well-being of
children. The results have varied, from decreases in infant mortality rates to significant progress in the area of
education. Contrary to claims that U.S. children already enjoy the rights set forth in the Treaty, many American
kids still live in poverty, and nearly a million children suffer from child abuse or neglect each year. Though the
U.S. may not face all of the challenges seen in other countries, ratifying the Treaty will lend support to those
countries and encourage the addressing of challenges we do still face.In light of these considerations, it is not
difficult to see why the U.S. should ratify the CRC. Not only will ratification boost U.S. credibility overseas,
but it will demonstrate our commitment to ensuring the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are
entitled, worldwide. Global leadership, after all, is a privilege that we must not take for granted.
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A2 Parental Rights
No worries—treaty upholds parental rights
Jacy Youn, International Justice Project Legal Intern, 6/23, 2009. http://humanrightsusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/treatyratification-why-should-us_23.html “Treaty ratification: Why should the U.S. ratify international treaties?”
Regarding parental rights, the CRC clearly recognizes the principle that parents “have the primary responsibility
for the upbringing and development of the child,” and that parties to the Treaty are merely rendering “appropriate
assistance” to parents performing their child-rearing responsibilities. In other words, ratifying the Treaty will not give
the UN authority to control U.S. policies on children and there is no language in the CRC dictating how American
parents are to raise their children. In fact, the CRC frequently emphasizes the vital role that parents play and
recognizes the importance of a loving family atmosphere for the proper upbringing of a child.
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A2 CP not Constitutional
Treaty would not override the constitution
Jacy Youn, International Justice Project Legal Intern, 6/23, 2009. http://humanrightsusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/treatyratification-why-should-us_23.html “Treaty ratification: Why should the U.S. ratify international treaties?”
While some believe that, under the Supremacy Clause, the Treaty would trump all federal laws and undermine
parental authority and influence over a child’s development, in actuality, the Treaty would not override the
Constitution. For one, U.S. ratifications of international treaties are often made with explanations or caveats (in
what are called Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations or “RUDs”) to acceptance. If the U.S. agrees with the
general principle of the Treaty, but is troubled by a certain provision, it may clarify or modify those areas of the Treaty
before ratification. Furthermore, the Treaty is not self-executing – it cannot be “automatically implemented without
legislative action,” giving Congress another opportunity to clarify what the Treaty will and will not mean for U.S. law.
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Racism – Defense (1/2)
1. Plan can’t change mindset
BB Robinson, Phd “Responding to Root Causes – Not Symptoms: White Supremacy as the Root Cause of
Racism” 8/20/06 http://www.blackeconomics.org/BE&Future/RootCauses.pdf
Getting down to brass tacks, most Americans will tell you that racism persists, and that racism contributes to the
adverse outcomes that Black Americans experience. Moreover, if they are true to themselves, most Americans
will identify the root cause of racism as “white Supremacy.” That is, racism exists because of the unfounded
notion that Whites are superior to Blacks. Given that most Americans conclude that White Supremacy is the
root cause of the problems that Black Americans face, why are so many efforts [are] initiated to solve Black
American problems without addressing this root cause?
2. Racism inevitable—the state will co-opt all movements seeking equilibrium
Sumi Cho, American Asian Studies Professor, December 19 98 “The State Copts Movements designed to
challenge Racism” Boston College Law Review., p. 159
Racially based social movements that arise in the form of political projects defy and define the racial state by
creating ruptures that lead to the restoration of a new equilibrium. In turn, the racial state "co-opts" racial
movements by absorbing the least threatening demands through the creation of new rules, policies,
programs and agencies.
3. U.S. foreign policy is a form of institutionalized racism
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
In the US, racism is a well known issue. From racial profiling to other issues such as affirmative action, police
brutality against minorities and the history of slavery and the rising resentment against immigrants.
Since the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, Security concerns have
understandably increased, but so too has racial profiling, discrimination etc. In the early aftermath of the
attacks some Americans that were understandably outraged and horrified, even attacked some members of the
Sikh community where at least one was even killed, because they resembled certain types of Muslims, with beards
and turbans. Various people of Middle East or South Asian origin have faced controversial detentions or
questionings by officials at American airports. This web site’s section on the war against terror has more details on
these aspects.
4. Cant solve a large enough link to their impacts—post plan the KKKs along with every racist
group, organization, and idea will remain
5. Capitalist greed is the root of racism
Saswat Pattanayak is an online journalist Thursday March 2007
http://saswat.com/blog/crash_course_kenneth_eng.html
What needs to be done at this juncture is not for black commentators attacking Asian press or South Asian
commentators condemning Kenneth Eng. For all we know, Eng could well become a celebrity in a few months.
The root cause of racism is not one bigoted mind. Its capitalism that we largely let go unchecked for in its
practice. We must address the manner in which private capital creation safeguards specific group interests rather
than working for the betterment of the world. The racial tensions in the US are economic in nature. There is no
place for moral preachings here. No place for Crash finale! Lets admit and accept that as long as we refrain from
critiquing the capitalist causes (private monopolies) we will have to accept racism as part and parcel of the
deal. Till now, people other than white are being called in their suffixes. American history is differently noted than
African-American history! How will we expect Engs of the world to even feel grateful for immense sufferings of
generations of black people that must be acknowledged at every mention of America even as an idea? How will we
[Continued – No Text Removed]
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[Continued – No Text Removed]
expect white people to understand that Columbus was not after all some hero and that this land was indeed “made
for you and me”, and not just for the English speaking elites. Such expectations will bear fruit only if people are
treated equally irrespective of race in this country and elsewhere. However that would mean perhaps to quote Paul
Robeson, “adopting the nature and politics of Soviet Union where people are treated as people, not as black or
white”. Even adopting one-tenth of former Soviet policies would entail the reversal of centuries-old capital
accumulation policies that are in place in a flourishing capitalism. As long as a society is built on bedrock of
money as the only thing that matters--to buy health insurance to higher education--people will always be
treated as secondary subjects. And where people need to be treated as secondary subjects, to refrain those very
people from fomenting a revolution against their secondary status, it becomes imperative for the capital masters to
wage a divide and rule policy that keeps people ignorant about their collective struggles in everyday lives. While at
it, the economic system goes unchecked in its biases against working class by deliberately playing one group
against another when it comes to economic parity, share holding and accountability. No wonder, thousands of
discrimination cases at the workplace are filed every week based on racial disparities.
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Ext 1 – Mindset (1/2)
The root cause of racism is mentality, which the aff can’t address
West Africa Review, Committee on Racism Conference in 7 September 2001
http://www.westafricareview.com/vol3.1/racism-5.htm
Racism lies solely in the human mind. The root cause of racism and discrimination is thus a crisis of identity
at the individual and collective level. Bringing about the required change in attitudes and ways of life, and in
equality and justice, requires a process of healing, accompanied by the rediscovery of the true self and reidentification with the unity of the larger human family. In that regard, it is both parties involved in
discriminatory action who must be healed. Abuse defiles the victim, but its perpetrator also debases and
dehumanizes himself. Ultimately, only we can deprive ourselves of our own self-respect. Understanding the
sacredness of each person opens the door to perceiving the essential oneness of the human family. There is
but one race - the human race.
4 mindsets beyond the aff’s power that reinforce racism:
1. Stereotypes via media
Associated Content, April 22, 2007 “The 4 Causes of Racism”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211605/the_4_causes_of_racism.html?cat=47
One of the most common causes of racism is stereotypes. Through television, through radio, through the
internet, through music, through books, and the like, the potential for stereo types to build are a definite
possibility. When a person, especially one that is very young, is exposed to stereotypes of a specific group for the
first time, then that person will assume all are that way. Likewise, when a source is constantly displaying
negative things about a particular race, then that will affect the overall opinions as well.
2. Unfamiliarity
Associated Content, April 22, 2007 “The 4 Causes of Racism”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211605/the_4_causes_of_racism.html?cat=47
Another very common, and probably the most common cause of racism is unfamiliarity. People fear what they
do not know or understand. If someone hasn't grown up around a particular race before, then there is more
of a chance the person can be racist toward that particular group. Not all the time, but when the person has
already been fed negative stereotypes, and does not have the actual real life experiences with at least one within the
particular group, then the chances of racism are increased. This is why it is important for children to be around
other races at a young age: to ensure they get their minds used and adapted to being around them, and also to help
counterbalance any false stereotypes they may encounter in the future.
3. Selfishness
Associated Content, April 22, 2007 “The 4 Causes of Racism”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211605/the_4_causes_of_racism.html?cat=47
Selfishness is another obvious cause of racism. Humans are sometimes very selfish creatures caring only
about their own at the expense of others. If individuals aren't taught how to respect others, then the
potential for the person to become racist is increased as well. This is why you will find that most caring
individuals aren't racist. Neither are they sexist or anything else.
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Ext 1 – Mindset (2/2)
4. Genes and Environment
Associated Content, April 22, 2007 “The 4 Causes of Racism”
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/211605/the_4_causes_of_racism.html?cat=47
The lastly and probably the most surprising cause of racism is biology and genes. We are all made different
biologically and genetically. Our physical environment can affect our biology and therefore in many causes
affect our minds. This does not mean freewill and choice are not options, but that individuals' potential for
racism could possibly be increased though similar genetic traits of parents and other environmental factors.
Just as some people are more prone to getting heart disease, arthritis, or whatever when passed down through their
parents, so some people are more prone to become racist. This should not be used as an excuse that racism has
to persist, but more of a better chance to cure racism biological rather than thinking it can only be done by other
means.
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Racism – Other Countries
The Plan Can’t solve Racism—Other Countries key
1. Europe
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
Europe is often one of the first places people think of when racism is discussed. From the institutionalized
racism, especially in colonial times, when racial beliefs — even eugenics — were not considered something
wrong, to recent times where the effects of neo-Nazism is still felt. Europe is a complex area with many cultures
in a relatively small area of land that has seen many conflicts throughout history. (Note that most of these conflicts
have had trade and resource access at their core, but national identities have often added fuel to some of these
conflicts.)
2. Australia
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
Australia has also had a very racist past in which apartheid has been practiced and where indigenous
Aboriginal people have lost almost all their land and suffered many prejudices. In the past, the notorious
policy that led to the Stolen Generation was practiced. This was the institutionalized attempt to prevent Aboriginal
children (and thus future generations) from being socialized into Aboriginal culture. (This also ocurred in various
parts of the Americas too.) Aborigines are the poorest group in Australia and suffer from very much
preventable diseases. For more about these issues, you can start at these harrowing reports from John Pilger a
prominent Australian journalist who has been critical of many western policies. The Sydney 2000 Olympics also
brought some of Australia’s racist past and present to the fore. (On the positive side, many parts of Australia’s rich
diversity in people is slowly helping relieve prejudism. However, some more traditional and conservative
politicians are still openly racist.)
3. Middle east
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
The situation of Palestine and Israel is also very contentious. Extreme views on both sides by perhaps a
minority, but perhaps an influential and often violent minority, results in racism on both sides.
4. Africa
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
While most of the conflicts have resources at their core, and involve a number of non-African nations and
corporations, additional fuel is added to the conflict by stirring up ethnic differences and enticing hatred. (Also not
that the artificial boundaries imposed in Africa by European colonialism and imperialism during the divide
and rule policies has further exacerbated this situation and plays an enormous role in the root causes of these
conflicts compared to what mainstream media presents.) In Zimbabwe, there has been increasing racism
against the white farmers, due to poverty and lack of land ownership by Africans. South Africa until recently
suffered from Apartheid, which legally segragated the African population from the Europeans.
5. Canadia
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
A report from Survival International about the plight of the Innu people in Canada also reveals how racism
can be a factor. In the words of the authors, the “report reveals how racist government policies, under the
guise of benevolent ‘progress’, have crippled the Innu of eastern Canada — a once self-sufficient and
independent people.” (While this report is about the problems of an indigenous people in Canada, it is a common
story throughout history for many peoples and cultures.
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Ext 1 – Europe
Europe is the epicenter of modern racism
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
In “the century of total war”, and the new millenium, Europe is seeing an alarming resurgence in
xenophobia and racial hatred. A short review from the Inter Press Service highlights the rise of neo-Nazism in
2000 in Europe and suggests that “far from being a fringe activity, racism, violence and neo-nationalism have
become normal in some communities. The problems need to tackled much earlier, in schools and with social
programmes.” Ethnic minorities and different cultures in one country can often be used as a scapegoat for
the majority during times of economic crisis. That is one reason why Nazism became so popular. In France,
May 2002, the success of far right politician Le Pen in the run for leadership (though he lost out in the end) sent a
huge shockwave throughout Europe, about how easy it was for far right parties to come close to getting power if
there is complacency in the democratic processes and if participation is reduced. In various places throughout
Western Europe, in 2002, as Amnesty International highlights, there has been a rise in racist attacks and
sentiments against both Arabs and Jews, in light of the increasing hostilities in the Middle East.
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Ext 3 – Middle East
Additionally, 9/11 supercharges Middle Eastern racism
Anup Shah December 20, 2004 “Racism” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminEurope
With the terrible acts of terrorism committed by terrorists in America, on September 11, 2001, there has
additionally been an outpouring of violent racial hatred by a minority of people in Western countries against
people that look Middle Eastern (some who are not Middle Eastern, such as Indians, have even been beaten or
killed). Furthermore, with the American-led attacks in Afghanistan in retaliation for those terrorist attacks, from
Egypt to Pakistan, there have been minorities of people who have protested violently in the streets, and also
committed racist acts, attacking anything that appears Western, from Western citizens, to even UNICEF and
other UN buildings. Yet, this is more complex than just a clash of religions and race, as deeper an issue is the
geopolitical and economic activities of the past decades and centuries that have fueled these social tensions.
The Middle East is definitely a very sensitive issue politically.
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Stop Legacy CP
CP Text: The United States federal government should enact policies that discourage legacy
admissions in institutions of higher education. We’ll Clarify
Legacy policies perpetuate white elitism and deny social mobility to minorities
Gary D. Gaddy “To fight racism, end legacy admissions” Apr. 16, 2007. The New Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/559/story/564537.html
It is a great idea because it helps remediate the impact of past racist policies that excluded AfricanAmericans from the campus, except as groundskeepers, housecleaners and maintenance workers, thereby
helping to keep these poor people poor. But all that past isn't past us yet. The real, the literal racist legacy of
UNC is not a historical artifact; it's a current admissions policy. In the world of college admissions, legacies
are the children and stepchildren of university alumni, and a "legacy policy" really means a "pro-legacy policy,"
that is, giving preference to legacies in admission. Legacy admissions, by perpetuating the impact of past
discrimination, are figuratively the stepchildren of our state's racist past. In 2005 UNC's Advisory
Committee on Undergraduate Admissions reviewed then-current practices and "endorsed the general principle of
legacy admissions." In 2004 it was reported that UNC reserves about 80 spaces for out-of-state legacy students.
For those against quotas, here's a "quota" to be against. A purely merit-based admissions process provides
advantage enough for these children who had the benefit of parents who were Carolina grads. This is a real,
undeniable and irrevocable advantage. Having grown up in educated and relatively well-to-do Tar Heel families,
these legacies are likely to be better students. I do not propose that we discriminate against them. This is a case,
where we must acknowledge that life's not fair and get over it. But we also certainly don't need to promote and
enhance such unfairness. As affirmative action for better-off kids, legacy admissions don't have much to
recommend them as measure for promoting equality or social justice -- but they are a good way of getting
big donors to make big donations. And that's one of the main reasons that they still exist.
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Stop Legacy CP – Ext
Legacy admissions perpetuate the inequality that resulted from slavery
Gary D. Gaddy “To fight racism, end legacy admissions” Apr. 16, 2007. The New Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/559/story/564537.html
Because, even in the context of a supposedly non-discriminatory past, legacy policies still perpetuate the past
inequities. Even if Harvard in 1850 didn't discriminate against African-American students (which I doubt is
true), since most of the African-Americans were being kept as slaves and deprived of formal education, not
many were ever admitted. This left Harvard, Yale and other such schools with predominately white alumni
and thus predominately white legacies. Legacy admissions aren't an issue for non-selective colleges. Elizabeth
City State University may or may not have pro-legacy admissions policy; it really doesn't matter. Most applicants
can get in anyway. Harvard, Yale and Princeton do have pro-legacy admissions policies, and they really do
matter. If you graduate from one of these fine institutes of learning, whether you learn anything or not (cf.
George W. Bush, John Kerry or any Kennedy), you may get to run the country. Many brighter and harder
working students did not get the same chance, and most no doubt have succeeded in life, but perhaps did not
have the same opportunity to succeed at the national level. America is poorer for that.
Legacy policies bypass affirmative action progress
Marybeth Gasman & Julie Vultaggio, Jan 22, 2008, “Perspectives: A “Legacy” of Racial Injustice in
American Higher Education” http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10519.shtml
Yale has the Bushes, Basses and Whitneys. Harvard has the Astors, Roosevelts and Kennedys. Throughout the
history of American higher education, the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities have employed
legacy policies that preference the children of privileged alumni. In fact, during the early 1900s, prominent
graduates of the colonial colleges, fearing that their sons would be displaced in admissions processes, forced the
hand of college administrators in myriad ways, such as threatening to withhold donations and using their
connections with university higher ups to pull strings. Conversely, according to Dr. Marcia Synnott, the “demand
of upwardly mobile sons of Jewish and Catholic immigrants” for admission to the nation’s elite institutions
initiated “an institutional crisis, involving not only existing limitations of classroom space and campus housing,
but also questions of educational purpose — of whom to educate and why.” In the 1960s, as pressure toward
racial integration intensified, acceptance rates rapidly increased for children of alumni — in some cases, to
as much as three times higher than that of the past (Duffy & Goldberg, 1998). Given resistance on the part of
historically White institutions to enrolling Black students during the civil rights era, legacy policies may have
furnished an excuse to reject racial minorities without resorting to the quotas that had been used to exclude
Jews and Catholics earlier in the century (Gasman, 2007; Thelin, 2004). As a result, Synnott writes, colleges
became “citadels of Anglo-Saxon culture” and developed extensive legacy policies that continue to be used
today. The primary consequence, however, lies in the exclusion of groups whose parents did not attend elite institutions of higher education.
First and foremost, it is important to acknowledge the benefits that institutions gain from legacy admissions. Preferential treatment given to
legacies keeps alumni happy, has the potential to increase giving, and can strengthen the existing institutional culture. Generally speaking, most
colleges and universities aim to have satisfied, generous graduates. However, as Dr. Jerome Karabel argues in his 2005 book The Chosen: The
Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, advocating for legacy preferences with the goal of increasing
alumni donations is becoming less persuasive as endowments soar over $20 billion. Likewise, while many colleges and universities long for an
institutional culture rooted in history and tradition, when that culture is built on a tradition of exclusion, perhaps it should be changed. This
quote from Synnott (1979) illustrates the issue: Knowing precisely what they wanted, the prep school crowd created collegiate life. For the
most part, they shunned honor grades in order to devote themselves to extracurricular activities: editorships, managerships, and athletic
competitions. And not only were they paying customers, but they could usually be counted on to contribute generously both their time and
money to alumni activities and fund-raising campaigns (the expectation of future support was less certain from students from lower income
families). Because legacy admits are typically wealthy, White, fourth-generation college students, they offer very little to colleges and
universities in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. In fact, over 90 percent of legacy admits are White Protestants, especially at highly-selective
institutions (Duffy & Goldberg, 1998; Golden, 2006; Howell & Turner, 2004; Larew, 1991). Thus, legacy admits ultimately
reinforce the “high-income/high-education/white profile” (Bowen et al. 2005) of elite institutions and
systematically reproduce a culture of racial and economic privilege.
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War is Likely
Great power wars are not obsolete and are still on the table
Professor John J. Mearsheimer (1998-99 Whitney H. Shepardson Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; R. Wendell
Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago) CFR February 25, 1999
http://www.ciaonet.org/conf/cfr10/index.html
Now I think the central claim that’s on the table is wrong-headed, and let me tell you why. First of all, there are a
number of good reasons why great powers in the system will think seriously about going to war in the future, and
I’ll give you three of them and try and illustrate some cases. First, states oftentimes compete for economic resources. Is
it hard to imagine a situation where a reconstituted Russia gets into a war with the United States and the Persian Gulf over
Gulf oil? I don’t think that’s implausible. Is it hard to imagine Japan and China getting into a war in the South China Sea
over economic resources? I don’t find that hard to imagine.
A second reason that states go to war which, of course, is dear to the heart of realists like me, and that’s to enhance
their security. Take the United States out of Europe, put the Germans on their own; you got the Germans on one side and
the Russians on the other, and in between a huge buffer zone called eastern or central Europe. Call it what you want. Is it
impossible to imagine the Russians and the Germans getting into a fight over control of that vacuum? Highly likely, no,
but feasible, for sure. Is it hard to imagine Japan and China getting into a war over the South China Sea, not for resource
reasons but because Japanese sea-lines of communication run through there and a huge Chinese navy may threaten it? I
don’t think it’s impossible to imagine that.
What about nationalism, a third reason? China, fighting in the United States over Taiwan? You think that’s
impossible? I don’t think that’s impossible. That’s a scenario that makes me very nervous. I can figure out all sorts of
ways, none of which are highly likely, that the Chinese and the Americans end up shooting at each other. It doesn’t
necessarily have to be World War III, but it is great-power war. Chinese and Russians fighting each other over Siberia?
As many of you know, there are huge numbers of Chinese going into Siberia. You start mixing ethnic populations in most
areas of the world outside the United States and it’s usually a prescription for big trouble. Again, not highly likely, but
possible. I could go on and on, positing a lot of scenarios where great powers have good reasons to go to war
against other great powers.
Mandlebaum flows neg – he concedes that great power war is still likely with Russia and China
Michael Mandelbaum, American foreign policy professor at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns
Hopkins University, 1999 “Is Major War Obsolete?”, http://www.ciaonet.org/conf/cfr10/
Now having made the case for the obsolescence of modern war, I must note that there are two major question
marks hanging over it: Russia and China. These are great powers capable of initiating and waging major wars, and
in these two countries, the forces of warlessness that I have identified are far less powerful and pervasive than they are in
the industrial West and in Japan. These are countries, in political terms, in transition, and the political forms and
political culture they eventually will have is unclear. Moreover, each harbors within its politics a potential cause of
war that goes with the grain of the post-Cold War period-with it, not against it-a cause of war that enjoys a certain
legitimacy even now; namely, irredentism.
War to reclaim lost or stolen territory has not been rendered obsolete in the way that the more traditional causes
have. China believes that Taiwan properly belongs to it. Russia could come to believe this about Ukraine, which means
that the Taiwan Strait and the Russian-Ukrainian border are the most dangerous spots on the planet, the places where
World War III could begin.
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War not Likely
Nuclear deterrence prevents great power
G John Ikenberry Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University “The Rise
of China and the Future of the West” Foreign Affairs January/February 2008
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080101faessay87102/g-john-ikenberry/the-rise-of-china-and-the-future-of-the-west.html
The most important benefit of these features today is that they give the Western order a remarkable capacity to
accommodate rising powers. New entrants into the system have ways of gaining status and authority and opportunities
to play a role in governing the order. The fact that the United States, China, and other great powers have nuclear
weapons also limits the ability of a rising power to overturn the existing order. In the age of nuclear deterrence,
great-power war is, thankfully, no longer a mechanism of historical change. War-driven change has been abolished
as a historical process.
The international system prevents war—economic, military, and ideological trends have
changed.
Christopher Fettweiss, April prof security studies – naval war college, Comparative Strategy 22.2 April 20 03 p
109-129
Mackinder can be forgiven for failing to anticipate the titanic changes in the fundamental nature of the international
system much more readily than can his successors. Indeed, Mackinder and his contemporaries a century ago would hardly
recognize the rules by which the world is run today—most significantly, unlike their era, ours is one in which the
danger of major war has been removed, where World War III is, in Michael Mandelbaum’s words, “somewhere
between impossible and unlikely.”25 Geopolitical and geo-strategic analysis has not yet come to terms with what may be
the central, most significant trend of international politics: great power war, major war of the kind that pit the
strongest states against each other, is now obsolete.26 John Mueller has been the most visible, but by no means the
only, analyst arguing that the chances of a World War III emerging in the next century are next to nil.27 Mueller and his
contemporaries cite three major arguments supporting this revolutionary, and clearly controversial, claim.
First, and most obviously, modern military technology has made major war too expensive to contemplate. As John
Keegan has argued, it is hard to see how nuclear war could be considered “an extension of politics by other means”—at
the very least, nuclear weapons remove the possibility of victory from the calculations of the would-be aggressor.28 Their
value as leverage in diplomacy has not been dramatic, at least in the last few decades, because nuclear threats are not
credible in the kind of disagreements that arise between modern great powers. It is unlikely that a game of nuclear
“chicken” would lead to the outbreak of a major war. Others have argued that, while nuclear weapons surely make
war an irrational exercise, the destructive power of modern conventional weapons make today’s great powers shy away
from direct conflict.29 The world wars dramatically reinforced Angell’s warnings, and today no one is eager to repeat
those experiences, especially now that the casualty levels among both soldiers and civilians would be even higher.
Second, the shift from the industrial to the information age that seems to be gradually occurring in many advanced
societies has been accompanied by a new definition of power, and a new system of incentives which all but remove
the possibility that major war could ever be a cost-efficient exercise. The rapid economic evolution that is sweeping
much of the world, encapsulated in the “globalization” metaphor so fashionable in the media and business communities,
has been accompanied by an evolution in the way national wealth is accumulated.30 For millennia, territory was the main
object of war because it was directly related to national prestige and power. As early as 1986 Richard Rosecrance
recognized that “two worlds of international relations” were emerging, divided over the question of the utility of territorial
conquest.31 The intervening years have served only to strengthen the argument that the major industrial powers, quite
unlike their less-developed neighbors, seem to have reached the revolutionary conclusion that territory is not directly
related to their national wealth and prestige. For these states, wealth and power are more likely to derive from an increase
in economic, rather than military, reach. National wealth and prestige, and therefore power, are no longer directly related
to territorial control.32 The economic incentives for war are therefore not as clear as they once may have been.
Increasingly, it seems that the most powerful states pursue prosperity rather than power. In Edward Luttwak’s
terminology, geopolitics is slowly being replaced by “geoeconomics,” where “the methods of commerce are displacing
military methods—with disposable capital in lieu of firepower, civilian innovation in lieu of military–technical
[Continued – No Text Removed]
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advancement, and market penetration in lieu of garrisons and bases.”33 Just as advances in weaponry have increased the
cost of fighting, a socioeconomic evolution has reduced the rewards that a major war could possibly bring. Angell’s major
error was one that has been repeated over and over again in the social sciences ever since—he overestimated the
“rationality” of humanity. Angell recognized earlier than most that the industrialization of military technology and
economic interdependence assured that the costs of a European war would certainly outweigh any potential benefits, but
he was not able to convince his contemporaries who were not ready to give up the institution of war. The idea of war was
still appealing—the normativecost/benefit analysis still tilted in the favor of fighting, and that proved to be the more
important factor. Today, there is reason to believe that this normative calculation may have changed. After the war,
Angell noted that the only things that could have prevented the war were “surrendering of certain dominations, a recasting
of patriotic ideals, a revolution of ideas.”34 The third and final argument of Angell’s successors is that today such a
revolution of ideas has occurred, that a normative evolution has caused a shift in the rules that govern state interaction.
The revolutionary potential of ideas should not be underestimated. Beliefs, ideologies, and ideas are often, as Dahl notes,
“a major independent variable,” which we ignore at our peril.35 “Ideas,” added John Mueller, are very often forces
themselves, not flotsam on the tide of broader social or economic patterns . . . it does not seem wise in this area to ignore
phenomena that cannot be easily measured, treated with crisp precision, or probed with deductive panache.36 The heart of
this argument is the “moral progress” that has “brought a change in attitudes about international war” among the
great powers of the world,37 creating for the first time, “an almost universal sense that the deliberate launching of a
war can no longer be justified.”38 At times leaders of the past were compelled by the masses to defend the national
honor, but today popular pressures push for peaceful resolutions to disputes between industrialized states. This normative
shift has rendered war between great powers “subrationally unthinkable,” removed from the set of options for policy
makers, just as dueling is no longer a part of the set of options for the same classes for which it was once central to the
concept of masculinity and honor. As Mueller explained, Dueling, a form of violence famed and fabled for centuries, is
avoided not merely because it has ceased to seem ‘necessary’, but because it has sunk from thought as a viable, conscious
possibility. You can’t fight a duel if the idea of doing so never occurs to you or your opponent.39 By extension, states
cannot fight wars if doing so does not occur to them or to their opponent. As Angell discovered, the fact that major war
was futile was not enough to bring about its end—people had to believe that it was futile. Angell’s successors suggest that
such a belief now exists in the industrial (and postindustrial) states of the world, and this “autonomous power of ideas,” to
borrow Francis Fukuyama’s term, has brought about the end of major, great power war.40
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War Not Likely
Major war is obsolete – nuclear weapons and rising cost check aggression
Michael Mandelbaum, American foreign policy professor at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns
Hopkins University, 1999 “Is Major War Obsolete?”, http://www.ciaonet.org/conf/cfr10/
My argument says, tacitly, that while this point of view, which was widely believed 100 years ago, was not true then,
there are reasons to think that it is true now. What is that argument? It is that major war is obsolete. By major war, I
mean war waged by the most powerful members of the international system, using all of their resources over a protracted
period of time with revolutionary geopolitical consequences. There have been four such wars in the modern period: the
wars of the French Revolution, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Few though they have been,their
consequences have been monumental. They are, by far, the most influential events in modern history. Modern history
which can, in fact, be seen as a series of aftershocks to these four earthquakes. So if I am right, then what has been the
motor of political history for the last two centuries that has been turned off? This war, I argue, this kind of war, is
obsolete; less than impossible, but more than unlikely. What do I mean by obsolete? If I may quote from the article on
which this presentation is based, a copy of which you received when coming in, “ Major war is obsolete in a way that
styles of dress are obsolete. It is something that is out of fashion and, while it could be revived, there is no present
demand for it. Major war is obsolete in the way that slavery, dueling, or foot-binding are obsolete. It is a social practice
that was once considered normal, useful, even desirable, but that now seems odious. It is obsolete in the way that the
central planning of economic activity is obsolete. It is a practice once regarded as a plausible, indeed a superior, way of
achieving a socially desirable goal, but that changing conditions have made ineffective at best, counterproductive at
worst.” Why is this so? Most simply, the costs have risen and the benefits of major war have shriveled. The costs of
fighting such a war are extremely high because of the advent in the middle of this century of nuclear weapons, but
they would have been high even had mankind never split the atom. As for the benefits, these now seem, at least from
the point of view of the major powers, modest to non-existent. The traditional motives for warfare are in retreat, if not
extinct. War is no longer regarded by anyone, probably not even Saddam Hussein after his unhappy experience, as a
paying proposition. And as for the ideas on behalf of which major wars have been waged in the past, these are in steep
decline. Here the collapse of communism was an important milestone, for that ideology was inherently bellicose. This is
not to say that the world has reached the end of ideology; quite the contrary. But the ideology that is now in the ascendant,
our own, liberalism, tends to be pacific. Moreover, I would argue that three post-Cold War developments have made
major war even less likely than it was after 1945. One of these is the rise of democracy, for democracies, I
believe, tend to be peaceful. Now carried to its most extreme conclusion, this eventuates in an argument made by some
prominent political scientists that democracies never go to war with one another. I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t believe
that this is a law of history, like a law of nature, because I believe there are no such laws of history. But I do believe there
is something in it. I believe there is a peaceful tendency inherent in democracy. Now it’s true that one important cause of
war has not changed with the end of the Cold War. That is the structure of the international system, which is anarchic.
And realists, to whom Fareed has referred and of whom John Mearsheimer and our guest Ken Waltz are perhaps the two
most leading exponents in this country and the world at the moment, argue that that structure determines international
activity, for it leads sovereign states to have to prepare to defend themselves, and those preparations sooner or later issue
in war. I argue, however, that a post-Cold War innovation counteracts the effects of anarchy. This is what I have called in
my 1996 book, The Dawn of Peace in Europe, common security. By common security I mean a regime of negotiated
arms limits that reduce the insecurity that anarchy inevitably produces by transparency-every state can know
what weapons every other state has and what it is doing with them-and through the principle of defense dominance, the
reconfiguration through negotiations of military forces to make them more suitable for defense and less for
attack. Some caveats are, indeed, in order where common security is concerned. It’s not universal. It exists only in
Europe. And there it is certainly not irreversible. And I should add that what I have called common security is not a cause,
but a consequence, of the major forces that have made war less likely. States enter into common security arrangements
when they have already, for other reasons, decided that they do not wish to go to war. Well, the third feature of the
post-Cold War international system that seems to me to lend itself to warlessness is the novel distinction between the
periphery and the core, between the powerful states and the less powerful ones. This was previously a cause of conflict
and now is far less important. To quote from the article again, “ While for much of recorded history local conflicts were
absorbed into great-power conflicts, in the wake of the Cold War, with the industrial democracies debellicised and Russia
and China preoccupied with internal affairs, there is no great-power conflict into which the many local conflicts that have
erupted can be absorbed.
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Monkey Throwing Darts
Political predictions are less dependable than monkeys throwing darts
Louis Menand 2005 PhD Colombia and Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Professor of English and American
Literature and Language at Harvard University., The New Yorker, 12-052005, http://www.newyorker.com/critics/con...205crbo_books1
It is the somewhat gratifying lesson of Philip Tetlock’s new book, “Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It?
How Can We Know?” (Princeton; $35), that people who make prediction their business—people who appear as
experts on television, get quoted in newspaper articles, advise governments and businesses, and participate in
punditry roundtables—are no better than the rest of us. When they’re wrong, they’re rarely held accountable,
and they rarely admit it, either. They insist that they were just off on timing, or blindsided by an improbable
event, or almost right, or wrong for the right reasons. They have the same repertoire of self-justifications that
everyone has, and are no more inclined than anyone else to revise their beliefs about the way the world works, or
ought to work, just because they made a mistake. No one is paying you for your gratuitous opinions about other
people, but the experts are being paid, and Tetlock claims that the better known and more frequently quoted they
are, the less reliable their guesses about the future are likely to be. The accuracy of an expert’s predictions actually
has an inverse relationship to his or her self-confidence, renown, and, beyond a certain point, depth of knowledge.
People who follow current events by reading the papers and newsmagazines regularly can guess what is likely to
happen about as accurately as the specialists whom the papers quote.Our system of expertise is completely inside
out: it rewards bad judgments over good ones.
“Expert Political Judgment” is not a work of media criticism. Tetlock is a psychologist—he teaches at
Berkeley—and his conclusions are based on a long-term study that he began twenty years ago. He picked
two hundred and eighty-four people who made their living “commenting or offering advice on political and
economic trends,” and he started asking them to assess the probability that various things would or would not
come to pass, both in the areas of the world in which they specialized and in areas about which they were not
expert. Would there be a nonviolent end to apartheid in South Africa? Would Gorbachev be ousted in a coup?
Would the United States go to war in the Persian Gulf? Would Canada disintegrate? (Many experts believed that it
would, on the ground that Quebec would succeed in seceding.) And so on. By the end of the study, in 2003, the
experts had made 82,361 forecasts. Tetlock also asked questions designed to determine how they reached their
judgments, how they reacted when their predictions proved to be wrong, how they evaluated new information that
did not support their views, and how they assessed the probability that rival theories and predictions were accurate.
Tetlock got a statistical handle on his task by putting most of the forecasting questions into a “three possible
futures” form. The respondents were asked to rate the probability of three alternative outcomes: the persistence of
the status quo, more of something (political freedom, economic growth), or less of something (repression,
recession). And he measured his experts on two dimensions: how good they were at guessing probabilities (did all
the things they said had an x per cent chance of happening happen x per cent of the time?), and how accurate they
were at predicting specific outcomes. The results were unimpressive. On the first scale, the experts performed
worse than they would have if they had simply assigned an equal probability to all three outcomes—if they
had given each possible future a thirty-three-per-cent chance of occurring. Human beings who spend their lives
studying the state of the world, in other words, are poorer forecasters than dart-throwing monkeys, who
would have distributed their picks evenly over the three choices.
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Nuc War  Extinction
Even a regional nuclear war would destroy all life on Earth – ozone loss and UV rays prove
Gabriel Gache, Science News Editor for Softpedia, an online science and technology news resource 8th of April 20 08
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Regional-Nuclear-War-Would-Destroy-the-World-82760.shtml
Global or not, a nuclear war would kill us all. And if nuclear weapons didn't do the job, then the Sun would.
According to recent studies, a regional global war would cause the ozone layer of the Earth to be destroyed in as
little as a decade, all living beings being at the mercy of the Sun's ultraviolet rays. Ultraviolet light has the ability to
alter the human DNA, but other organisms may be at risk as well. 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs would be enough to
determine substantial changes in Earth's atmosphere. Take India and Pakistan for example; both have a nuclear arsenal of
about 50 nuclear warheads bearing 15 kilotons of explosive material. In case the disagreements between the two countries reach very
high levels as to make use of their entire nuclear arsenal, global disaster is soon to follow.
"The figure of 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs compares pretty accurately to the approximately 110 warheads that both states reportedly
possess between them," says professor of non-proliferation and international security in the War Studies Group at King's College, Wyn
Bowen.
Michael Mills of the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, and colleagues used computer models to study how 100 Hiroshima-sized
bombs would affect the atmosphere. Michael Mills from the University of Colorado reckons that such a nuclear war in South
Asia would decay about 40 percent of the ozone layer in the middle latitudes and 70 percent in the high latitudes of the
northern hemisphere.
"The models show this magnitude of ozone loss would persist for five years, and we would see substantial losses
continuing for at least another five years," says Mills.
Mills extracted his results from computer models. Previous models were created during the 1980s, however those investigations
revealed that impact of the nuclear detonations would be much more moderate. This might be because the old models do not take into
consideration the columns of soot rising at altitudes of 80 kilometers into Earth's atmosphere, as Mills considers.
Once the soot is released into the upper atmosphere, it would block and absorb most of the solar energy, thus determining a heating of
the surrounding atmosphere, process that facilitates the reaction between nitrogen oxides and ozone. Ultraviolet rays influx,
caused by the decay of the ozone layer, would increase by 213 percent, causing DNA damage, skin cancers and
cataract in most - if not all - living beings. Alternatively, plants would suffer damage twice, as the current due to
ultraviolet light.
"By adopting the Montreal Protocol in 1987, society demonstrated it was unwilling to tolerate a small percentage of ozone
loss because of serious health risks. But ozone loss from a limited nuclear exchange would be more than an order of
magnitude larger than ozone loss from the release of gases like CFCs," says co-author of the study Brian Toon. "This
study is very conservative in its estimates. It should ring alarm bells to remind us all that nuclear war can destroy
our world far faster than carbon dioxide emissions," says Dan Plesch, of the Centre for International Studies and
Diplomacy at theSchool of Oriental and African Studies, UK, although he notes that no one knows how likely a nuclear
exchange is.
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Nuclear War  Ozone Impact
Nuclear war destroys the ozone – only our evidence assume stratospheric plume rise
Michael J. Mills et al -- Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Department of Atmospheric and
Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, February 7, 2008 “Massive global ozone loss predicted following
regional nuclear conflict” http://www.pnas.org/content/105/14/5307.abstract
We use a chemistry-climate model and new estimates of smoke produced by fires in contemporary cities to
calculate the impact on stratospheric ozone of a regional nuclear war between developing nuclear states
involving 100 Hiroshima-size bombs exploded in cities in the northern subtropics. We find column ozone losses
in excess of 20% globally, 25–45% at midlatitudes, and 50–70% at northern high latitudes persisting for 5 years,
with substantial losses continuing for 5 additional years. Column ozone amounts remain near or <220 Dobson
units at all latitudes even after three years, constituting an extratropical “ozone hole.” The resulting increases in
UV radiation could impact the biota significantly, including serious consequences for human health. The
primary cause for the dramatic and persistent ozone depletion is heating of the stratosphere by smoke, which
strongly absorbs solar radiation. The smoke-laden air rises to the upper stratosphere, where removal
mechanisms are slow, so that much of the stratosphere is ultimately heated by the localized smoke injections.
Higher stratospheric temperatures accelerate catalytic reaction cycles, particularly those of odd-nitrogen, which
destroy ozone. In addition, the strong convection created by rising smoke plumes alters the stratospheric
circulation, redistributing ozone and the sources of ozone-depleting gases, including N2O and
chlorofluorocarbons. The ozone losses predicted here are significantly greater than previous “nuclear
winter/UV spring” calculations, which did not adequately represent stratospheric plume rise. Our results
point to previously unrecognized mechanisms for stratospheric ozone depletion.
Ozone depletion causes extinction
Greenpeace, 1995. “Full of Homes: The Montreal Protocol and the Continuing Destruction of the Ozone
Layer,” http://archive.greenpeace.org/ozone/holes/holebg.html.
When chemists Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina first postulated a link between chlorofluorocarbons and
ozone layer depletion in 1974, the news was greeted with scepticism, but taken seriously nonetheless. The vast
majority of credible scientists have since confirmed this hypothesis. The ozone layer around the Earth
shields us all from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Without the ozone layer, life on earth would
not exist. Exposure to increased levels of ultraviolet radiation can cause cataracts, skin cancer, and immune
system suppression in humans as well as innumerable effects on other living systems. This is why Rowland's
and Molina's theory was taken so seriously, so quickly - the stakes are literally the continuation of life on earth.
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Magnitude > Probability
National leaders must address large impacts no matter how small the probability is
Peter Zeihan, expert on international relations and Asianå Politics, Vice President of global analysis for Stratfor April
23, 2008
Fear is a powerful motivator, even getting results when the threat is exceedingly remote. It makes us cross at
crosswalks even when traffic is thin, pay more over time for fire insurance than our homes are worth, and shy away from
snakes even when signs clearly inform us they are not poisonous. Humans instinctively take steps to prevent negative
outcomes, oftentimes regardless of how likely — or more to the point, unlikely — those unpleasant outcomes are.
As with individuals, the same is true for countries. Anyone can blithely say Cuba or Serbia would not dare
ignore the will of their more powerful neighbors, or that Brazil’s or Egypt’s nuclear programs
are so inconsequential as not to impact the international balance of power. But such opinions — even if they truly are
near-certainties — cannot form the foundation of state power. National leaders do not have the
luxury of ignoring the plethora of coulds, mights and maybes that pepper their radar screens every day. An analyst
can dismiss a dark possibility as dubious, but a national leader cannot gamble with the lives of his
countrymen and the existence of his state. They must evaluate even improbable threats against the potential
damage to their respective national interests.
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Nuclear War  Outweighs Everything
Nuclear war and extinction outweighs all impacts – a fraction of infinity is still infinity
Jonathan Schell, Fate of the Earth, pp. 93-96 1982
On the other hand, if we wish to ignore the peril, we have to admit that we do so in the knowledge that the species
may be in danger of imminent self-destruction. When the existence of nuclear weapons was made known, thoughtful
people everywhere in the world realized that if the great powers entered into a nuclear-arms race the human species would
sooner or later face the possibility of extinction. They also realized that in the absence of international agreements
preventing it an arms race would probably occur. They knew that the path of nuclear armament was a dead end for
mankind. The discovery of the energy in mass – of "the basic power of the universe" – and of a means by which man
could release that energy altered the relationship between man and the source of his life, the earth. In the shadow of this
power, the earth became small and the life of the human species doubtful. In that sense, the question of human extinction
has been on the political agenda of the world ever since the first nuclear weapon was detonated, and there was no need for
the world to build up its present tremendous arsenals before starting to worry about it. At just what point the species
crossed, or will have crossed, the boundary between merely having the technical knowledge to destroy itself and actually
having the arsenals at hand, ready to be used at any second, is not precisely knowable. But it is clear that at present, with
some twenty thousand megatons of nuclear explosive power in existence, and with more being added every day, we have
entered into the zone of uncertainty, which is to say the zone of risk of extinction. But the mere risk of extinction has a
significance that is categorically different from, and immeasurably greater than that of any other risk and as we
make our decisions we have to take that significance into account. Up to now, every risk has been contained within the
framework of life; extinction would shatter the frame. It represents not the defeat of some purpose but an abyss in
which all human purpose would be drowned for all time. We have no right to place the possibility of this limitless,
eternal defeat on the same footing as risk that we run in the ordinary conduct of our affairs in our particular transient
moment of human history. To employ a mathematician's analogy, we can say that although the risk of extinction may
be fractional, the stake is, humanly speaking, infinite, and a fraction of infinity is still infinity. In other words, once
we learn that a holocaust might lead to extinction we have no right to gamble, because if we lose, the game will be
over, and neither we nor anyone else will ever get another chance. Therefore, although, scientifically speaking, there
is all the difference in the world between the mere possibility that a holocaust will bring about extinction and the certainty
of it, morally they are the same, and we have no choice but to address the issue of nuclear weapons as though we
knew for a certainty that their use would put an end to our species. In weighing the fate of the earth and, with it, our
own fate, we stand before a mystery, and in tampering with the earth we tamper with a mystery. We are in deep
ignorance. Our ignorance should dispose us to wonder, our wonder should make us humble, our humility should inspire
us to reverence and caution, and our reverence and caution should lead us to act without delay to withdraw the threat we
now post to the world and to ourselves.
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War  Poverty
Warfare leads to entrenched poverty, turning the case
MSU WID Women and International Development a program within the Center for Gender in Global Context. WID
promotes teaching, research, and action on international development and global transformation October 03, 20 08
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/poverty-causes.htm
The material and human destruction caused by warfare is a major development problem. For example, from 1990
to 1993, the period encompassing Desert Storm, per capita GDP in Iraq fell from $3500 to $761. The drop in average
income, while a striking representation of the drop in the well-being of the average Iraqi citizen in the aftermath of
the war, fails to capture the broader affects of damages to the infrastructure and social services, such as health care
and access to clean water.
Warfare contributes to more entrenched poverty by diverting scarce resources from fighting poverty to
maintaining a military. Take, for example, the cases of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The most recent conflict over borders
between the two countries erupted into war during 1999 and 2000, a period when both countries faced severe food
shortages due to drought.
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Extinction Wont Happen
Humanity is resilient: extinction is highly unlikely.
Bruce Tonn, Futures Studies Department, Corvinus University of Budapest, 2005, “Human Extinction
Scenarios,” www.budapestfutures.org/ downloads/abstracts/Bruce% 20Tonn%20-%20Abstract.pdf)
The human species faces numerous threats to its existence. These include global climate change, collisions with
near-earth objects, nuclear war, and pandemics. While these threats are indeed serious, taken separately they fail to
describe exactly how humans could become extinct. For example, nuclear war by itself would most likely fail to kill
everyone on the planet, as strikes would probably be concentrated in the northern hemisphere and the Middle East,
leaving populations in South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand some hope of survival. It is highly
unlikely that any uncontrollable nanotechnology could ever be produced but even it if were, it is likely that humans
could develop effective, if costly, countermeasures, such as producing the technologies in space or destroying sites of
runaway nanotechnologies with nuclear weapons. Viruses could indeed kill many people but effective quarantine of a
healthy people could be accomplished to save large numbers of people. Humans appear to be resilient to
extinction with respect to single events.
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Index
AGENCY STUFF
ASPEC Card .......................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Generic Agencies Fail ............................................................................................................................................................ 2
NGO’s Key Federal Sucess ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Administration for Children and Families ............................................................................................................................. 4
Agriculture Department ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Department of Health and Human Services ........................................................................................................................... 6
Department of Education ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
States Solve Education ........................................................................................................................................................... 8
Department of Interior ........................................................................................................................................................... 9
Department of Interior (Natives Link) ................................................................................................................................. 10
Department of Interior (U.S. Territories DA) ...................................................................................................................... 11
Housing and Urban Development ........................................................................................................................................ 12
Department of labor ............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Department of Justice .......................................................................................................................................................... 14
Environmental Protection Agency ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Office of National Aids Policy............................................................................................................................................. 16
Social Security Administration ............................................................................................................................................ 17
ICE ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Veterans Health Administration........................................................................................................................................... 19
Ineffective Agency – Political Capital Link......................................................................................................................... 20
Poverty Answers
Poverty Frontline (1/2) .................................................................................................................................................. 21 - 22
Alt Causes – Poverty............................................................................................................................................................ 23
Global Poverty - Defense ..................................................................................................................................................... 24
Chinese Poverty Inevitable .................................................................................................................................................. 25
Advantage Answers
Economy .............................................................................................................................................................................. 26
Alt Causes – Economy ......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Ext 1 ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Economy CP ........................................................................................................................................................................ 29
Debt Forgiveness CP Ext ..................................................................................................................................................... 30
Terrorism – Defense (1/2) .................................................................................................................................................... 31
Terrorism – Defense (2/2) .................................................................................................................................................... 32
Ext 1 – Muslim Land ........................................................................................................................................................... 33
Ext 2 – No root cause ........................................................................................................................................................... 34
A2 Poverty = Root Cause .................................................................................................................................................... 35
Ext 4 – Cyber Terrorism ...................................................................................................................................................... 36
A2 Al-Qaeda ........................................................................................................................................................................ 37
A2 Biological/Chemical ....................................................................................................................................................... 38
AT: Nuclear Terrorism ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Legalize Drugs Canada CP .................................................................................................................................................. 40
Legalize CP Solves WMD ................................................................................................................................................... 41
Legalize CP Ext ................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Drug Money  Destabilizes “terror countries” ................................................................................................................... 43
A2 CP is Stupid.................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Warming – defense .............................................................................................................................................................. 45
Warming Rhetoric Turn ....................................................................................................................................................... 46
Geopolymeric CP ................................................................................................................................................................. 47
Geopolymeric CP - Ext ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
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Domestic Famine – defense (1/2) ........................................................................................................................................ 49
Domestic Famine – defense (2/2) ........................................................................................................................................ 50
Famine – Defense (International) ........................................................................................................................................ 51
Famine – Defense (International) ........................................................................................................................................ 52
Bio-fortification CP ............................................................................................................................................................. 53
Bio-fortification CP - ext ..................................................................................................................................................... 54
Food Surplus  Famine ...................................................................................................................................................... 55
Human Rights Promotion - Defense .................................................................................................................................... 56
Ext 3 – Gtmo ........................................................................................................................................................................ 57
Soft Power Answers ............................................................................................................................................................. 58
Death Penalty CP ................................................................................................................................................................. 59
Death Penalty CP - Ext ........................................................................................................................................................ 60
Disease – Defense (1/2) ................................................................................................................................................ 61 - 62
Satellite CP .......................................................................................................................................................................... 63
Satellite CP Ext .................................................................................................................................................................... 64
Satellites – New Systems Key ............................................................................................................................................. 65
TB – Defense ....................................................................................................................................................................... 66
TB – Alt Causes (1/2) ................................................................................................................................................... 67 - 68
Ultraviolet light CP .............................................................................................................................................................. 69
Ultraviolet Light CP Ext. ..................................................................................................................................................... 70
Aids – Defense (1/3) ..................................................................................................................................................... 71 - 73
A2 Aids in Africa ................................................................................................................................................................. 74
A2 Airborne/Mutation ......................................................................................................................................................... 75
Ext Africa ............................................................................................................................................................................. 76
A2 South China Morning Post (1/2) .................................................................................................................................... 77
A2 South China Morning Post (2/2) .................................................................................................................................... 78
Circumcision CP .................................................................................................................................................................. 79
Circumcision Ext ................................................................................................................................................................. 80
Circumcision > Condoms/abstinence ................................................................................................................................... 81
50 State Circumcision Solvency .......................................................................................................................................... 82
Swine Flu (1/3) ............................................................................................................................................................. 83 - 85
Ext 5 – Air travel ................................................................................................................................................................. 86
Ext 6 – UK Spread ............................................................................................................................................................... 87
Swine Flu Turn .................................................................................................................................................................... 88
State Immunization CP ........................................................................................................................................................ 89
Flu – Generic ....................................................................................................................................................................... 90
States Solvency – Flu ........................................................................................................................................................... 91
Hepatitis C –Defense (1/2)............................................................................................................................................ 92 - 93
Needle Exchange CP............................................................................................................................................................ 94
Needle Exchange Solvency Ext ........................................................................................................................................... 95
Australia  Global Aid ....................................................................................................................................................... 96
State Rights/Federalism CP ................................................................................................................................................. 97
Patriarchy – Defense (1/3) .......................................................................................................................................... 98 - 100
A2 Patriarchy  Environmental Harm.............................................................................................................................. 101
Female Priest CP ................................................................................................................................................................ 102
Female Priests  Patriarchy (1/2) ............................................................................................................................. 103 -104
LBGT Rights – Defense..................................................................................................................................................... 105
Disenfranchisement Turn ................................................................................................................................................... 106
DADT Turn (1/2) ....................................................................................................................................................... 107- 108
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LGBT CP ........................................................................................................................................................................... 109
ENDA CP – Ext ................................................................................................................................................................. 110
ENDA Will Pass ................................................................................................................................................................ 111
Felon Voting – Defense ..................................................................................................................................................... 112
State Felon Voting CP ....................................................................................................................................................... 113
Prisoner transfer CP ........................................................................................................................................................... 114
14th Amendment – Defense (1/2) .............................................................................................................................. 115 - 116
Ext 3 – Legitimacy ............................................................................................................................................................. 117
Federalism Turn ................................................................................................................................................................. 118
Child Rights ....................................................................................................................................................................... 119
CRC CP ............................................................................................................................................................................. 120
CRC CP Ext ....................................................................................................................................................................... 121
A2 Parental Rights ............................................................................................................................................................. 122
A2 CP not Constitutional ................................................................................................................................................... 123
Racism – Defense (1/2) ............................................................................................................................................. 124 - 125
Ext 1 – Mindset (1/2) ................................................................................................................................................ 126 - 127
Racism – Other Countries .................................................................................................................................................. 128
Ext 1 – Europe ................................................................................................................................................................... 129
Ext 3 – Middle East ........................................................................................................................................................... 130
Stop Legacy CP ................................................................................................................................................................. 131
Stop Legacy CP – Ext ........................................................................................................................................................ 132
Risk Analysis
War is Likely ..................................................................................................................................................................... 133
War not Likely .......................................................................................................................................................... 134 - 136
Monkey Throwing Darts .................................................................................................................................................... 137
Nuc War  Extinction ...................................................................................................................................................... 138
Nuclear War  Ozone Impact ........................................................................................................................................... 139
Magnitude > Probability .................................................................................................................................................... 140
Nuclear War  Outweighs Everything ............................................................................................................................. 141
War  Poverty .................................................................................................................................................................. 142
Extinction Wont Happen .................................................................................................................................................... 143
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