Case Idea?
Have your case adopted by the federal government already? Looking for a new winning affirmative after your 1AC went 0-2 last weekend? Here is an interesting idea that I read about today on the New York Times – roundabouts. It’s pretty clearly topical – I’m not sure how much more reforming of roads you could [...]
Case Idea? Require broadband…
Not sure if this would be topical or not but it sounds really interesting – require any new construction to install broadband telecommunications cables. My initial thought is that this is a perfect example of reforming the infrastructure. Currently, highways are not required to have broadband – this reform will require them which will greatly [...]
Writing a Disadvantage
So on this year’s topic you should have a wide range of generic positions to run against almost any case. Because the affirmative could, realistically, run a new plan every single round, it’s going to be very common for you to debate against cases you have little to no evidence against. In that instance you [...]
Climate Change case?
Looking for something new to run in the Spring? Here is a new report linking climate change and transportation. Might be a fun way to integrate the global warming debate into your rounds. It even has a great states counterplan answer right in the executive summary! Climate must be taken into account Because transportation infrastructure [...]
You’re good through December
It looks like the USFG is kicking the can again to deal with transportation policy: The House of Representatives voted by a 335-85 margin on legislation to extend federal surface transportation programs for three months through December 31. The legislation has been sent to the Senate … While this extension may be able to keep [...]
Public Transit & Light Rail Neg
Here is an article I found that has some great neg cards against a public transit case or light rail. It is a bit dated (2003) with one particularly damaging quotation regarding public transit: The “race” between the automobile and public transit is over. The auto has won. Nothing short of an economic debacle that [...]
On Being Negative at the start of the year
Mat brings up an excellent question in the comments section of this post on a possible affirmative case. Thanks for bringing up the question about how to prepare for the negative. As I mentioned at the RCC camp writing your affirmative was the #1 goal back in August. Hopefully by now everyone has at least [...]
Back to the financial debate
Saw this article in the NYT today on Road and Rail Spending Proposals Stall as Lawmakers Punt on Revenue Fix Off the Hill, however, most transportation experts agree you cannot address the nation’s infrastructure without a new revenue source. As some contended on this post (and this one on funding) this quotation is proof that [...]
Good Funding post
Given that funding is all the rage right now in the comments I saw this article in my handy dandy google alerts that came in my mailbox today regarding American public opinion and toll roads – perhaps an inherency press here or just some good resources on this potential (I’d argue non-topical!) case. A new [...]
23 USC Section 101
We will likely become very familiar with 23 US Code this year as it has lots of official policy information about domestic transportation infrastructure. Here is the definitions section which may help people when they are researching. It includes 35 definitions of key terms for domestic transportation policy. There could also be a lot of [...]
A good year for counterplans?
While last year seemed near impossible to run good counterplans based on the requirements of the NFA-LD rules for counterplans, this year seems really solid. Specifically, the rules state that counterplans: The negative may present one counterproposal specific to the affirmative problem area. By this, we mean that the counterproposal must deal with the problem [...]
Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 Case
For next week’s camp at RCC I wanted to put together a quick beginner case to hand out to participants. This way, in case anyone is lost with this topic, you’ll have some evidence. Here it is, on the STA ACT – 1AC – Aug 2009 (here are all the STA ACT – cards 1 [...]
