Tournament: UMKC | Round: 5 | Opponent: Arizona State | Judge:
Topicality – Restrictions

A. Interpretation - restrictions are prohibitions.
Northglenn 11 (City of Northglenn Zoning Ordinance, “Rules of Construction – Definitions”, http://www.northglenn.org/municode/ch11/content_11-5.html)
Section 11-5-3…permit or license.

B. Violation – the plan does not prohibit the President from engaging in targeted killing, it only adds a step in the process of decisionmaking to make it more difficult.

C. Standards –

1. Ground – not prohibiting presidential actions makes all DA links and counterplan competition impossible since the AFF isn’t required to stop the President from doing anything.  Access to this ground is key to negative preparation to check AFF topic selection and infinite prep at the beginning of the season.

2. Brightline – the plan text either prohibits or it does not – our interpretation establishes a clear division of topical and non-topical affirmatives, which reduces judge intervention and preserves clash in the debate.

D. Topicality   is a voting issue for reasons of fairness and competitive equity and should be judged on the basis of competing interpretations.
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Nonviolence Kritik

A. War is never justified and can never bring justice.
McCarthy 11 (Colman, director of the Center for Teaching Peace, teaching faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, American University and the University of Maryland, “Just War or Just More Slaughter?” 8/2, http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/just-war-or-just-more-slaughter/)
If linguistic precision…necessary to wage.

B. Legalistic reform opens the door to endless warfare and violence – lawyers and politicians will work constantly to ensure the discourse of ‘congressional restraint on presidential war powers’ codifies the continued use of military force.
Vlahos 13 (Kelly, contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine, Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today, 14 years of experience as national security, war policy, civil liberties, the drug war and returning veterans columnist and reporter, “Beware Lawyers Bearing AUMF Fix,” 4/10, http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2013/04/09/beware-lawyers-bearing-aumf-fix/)
Beware lawyers bearing…gotyourback.

C. Continued use of violence risks extinction – embracing the obligation to participate in nonviolence is the only alternative.
ALL of the Nobel Peace Prize winners from 2000 (Signed by: Mairead Maguire Corrigan, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Aung San SuuKyi, The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel, Mgr. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Adolfo PÈrez Esquivel, Yasser Arafat, Mgr. Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, JosÈ Ramos-Horta, Norman Borlaug, Oscar Arias S•nchez, UNICEF, Frederik Willem de Klerk, Betty Williams, Lech Walesa, Joseph Rotblat, Henry Kissinger, Jody Williams, John Hume, David Trimble, RigobertaMenchu Tum and the American Friends Society, “The Appeal For the Children signed by all the Nobel Peace Laureates,” http://www.agnt.org/node/88)
Today, in every…with their world. 

Targeted Killing CP

The term ‘targeted killing’ is a euphemism used to legitimize assassination as a legitimate tool within an ambiguous and ongoing space politically defined as war.
Jones 13 (Craig, PhD student in the Department of Georgraphy at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver, Scholar at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, “Legitimate Target?” http://warlawspace.com/tag/targeted-killing/)
I’ll leave you…interesting bit yet.

The institutionalization of euphemisms into policy discourse enables all forms of violence.
Bosmajian 84 (Dr. Haig, Professor of Speech Communication at University of Washington, 12/5, “Dehumanizing People and Euphemizing War,” http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1442)
Our nation has…defending the indefensible.

The term ‘targeted killing’ must be abandoned – it gives the illusion of due diligence that simply does not exist and masks the drone’s role in indiscriminate killing.
Woodward 13 (Paul, independent journalist, editor, designer, software knowledge architect, construction worker, and Buddhist monk, while living in England, France, India, and the United States, “The ongoing campaign to cover up Obama’s indiscriminate killing program”, War in Context, 5/10, http://warincontext.org/2013/05/10/the-ongoing-campaign-to-cover-up-obamas-indiscriminate-killing-program/)
Micah Zenko continues…in indiscriminate killing.

Wording matters – it’s the primary way the US is able to engage in counterterrorism.
O’Connell 12 (Mary Ellen, Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution—Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, “The Right to Life in War and Peace: A Legal and Moral Critique of Targeted Killing”, Remarks for the Institute of Theology and Peace (Hamburg, Germany, 8/15, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/1634-oconnell-the-right-to-life-in-war-and-peace)
Words, “propaganda” in…is the reality.

Tournament: UMKC | Round: 2 | Opponent: JCCC | Judge:
1NC - Framework

A. Definitions:

1. United States federal government 

US Legal 2012 (USLegal.com, http://definitions.uslegal.com/u/united-states-federal-government/)

The United States…to the people.

2. Should: indicating a desirable or expected state (The New Oxford American Dictionary 06)

B. Interpretation:

The affirmative is required to defend a world where at least an instance of the resolution is true, defending a policy action by the United States Federal Government.

C. Reasons to Prefer:

1. Extra-Topicality - the only fairly predictable mechanism of affirmative implementation is the USFG. Voting affirmative for reasons not intrinsically tied to the resolution are bad
   a) it kills all research about the resolution in the instance of the affirmative - there is no research about our opponents engaging in policy change at a larger level. This forces us to instead focus on questions of credibility and emotional appeals based upon the type of people they are, causing shallow debates that focus on snap judgments and unqualified opinions about fellow competitors. This destroys debate as a pedagogical tool and an activity.
   b) deters collaborative focus - the topic selection process is democratic and valuable. It has demonstrated itself as a way to create collaboration between universities and produced ideas and topics that have forced the debate community to improve. Continuing to hinder the credibility of a determination of the resolution as a good or bad idea delegitimizes this process and hurts are ability to create debate as a platform for change both inside and outside of our community.

2. Policy discussion is good
a) advocating on behalf of social change is made more effective if done with state policy

Carothers 99
Carothers, 1999 (Winter, “Civil Society: Think Again,” http://carnegieendowment.org/pdf/CivilSociety.pdf)

Definitely not. The…each other's expense.

b) key to changing debate as institution – we must determine ways to collaboratively improve the activity we are all part of, much like changing the state and its policies. Both have been demonstrative of problematic norms, but your presence here signifies a commitment to its improvement.
c) policy is a locust for societal change – there are larger societal power imbalances and the state has been a tool of reinforcing them, but also remedying them – Brown v. Board, striking down DOMA, etc.

3. Roleplaying as the state is good
a) switch-side debate – it is integral to empathy and connection that we be able to imagine being on the powerful side of the state and the powerless side of the state. It is what makes improvement and democracy possible.
b) the state is key to social change

Branson 98
Margaret Branson, Associate Director @ Center for Civic Education, 1998 (September, “The Role of Civic Education,” http://www.civiced.org/papers/articles_role.html)

The fourth organizing…and responsible citizens.

4. Predictable rules are good
a) delegitimizes debate – without rules that we all come to agree upon before we begin, the entire purpose of this activity becomes squandered by those who wish to derail the larger pedagogical benefits of an in-depth discussion that we all come prepared for
b) key to deliberation

Ruth Lesl Shively, Professor of Politics at Texas AandM, 2000 Partisan Politics and Political Theory, p. 181-2
In most cases…agreement or harmony.

1NC - Kritik
The 1AC’s call for peace is a broader statement on the nature of humanity – humans must be peaceful.
Rasch 4 (William, Prof. of German Studies, Indiana U, Sovereignty and its Discontents, Birkbeck Law Press, pg. 12-13) my
I believe it…(Schmitt, 1976, p 35).
War no longer becomes a clash between nations, but one between good and evil. Outlaw states are deemed the enemies of humanity – with this trait stripped from them, conflict inevitably evolves into genocide.
De Benoist 13 (Alain, Head of GRECE, Editor of Nouvelle Ecole ("New School") and Krisis , Studied Political Science At University of Paris, Carl Schmitt Today: Terrorism, Just War, and the State of Emergency)
Total war marks…of this development. 

The alternative is to adopt a friend-enemy distinction in response to the affirmative’s liberalist mindset. This ‘drawing of lines in the sand’ ensures wars do not become limitless
Rasch 5 (William Rasch, Prof. of German Studies, Indiana, 2005, Lines in the Sand: Enmity as a Structuring Principle, p.260-61)
What is to…of absolute exclusion.

1NC – Counteradvocacy

I am you and you are me.  Terrorcrats, we’ll never be.
Uncritical deployment of the word “Government” invests power in a symbol of coercion – this threatens survival – we should speak of the ‘Government’ as ‘Terrocrats’ instead.
Mann 97 (Frederick, Founder of Terra Libra, BA in Communications @ Sanford U. “Why You Must Recognize and Understand Coercion,” http://www.mind-trek.com/reports/misc/coercion.htm)
In its strongest…called Freedom Technology.
“Government” does not exist – their routinized depiction of “Government” surrenders consent – the word “Terrocrat” threatens this systemic suthority.
Mann 98 (Frederick, Founder of Terra Libra, BA in Communications @ Sanford U. “Report #TL07B: The Nature of Government,” http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl07b.shtml)
We could also…definition of "government!"

1NC – Ex Flex DA

A. Uniqueness – Obama’s decision to include Congress in the Syrian strike plans show that executive flexibility and power is high now.
Posner 9/3 (Eric, professor at the University of Chicago Law School, “Obama Is Only Making His War Powers Mightier”, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2013/09/obama_going_to_congress_on_syria_he_s_actually_strengthening_the_war_powers.html)
President Obama’s surprise…it before him.

B. Link – Any legislative interference outside of the appropriations process undermines executive flexibility which is key to preserving national security.
Yoo 1 (John, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, research fellowships from the University of California, Berkeley, the Olin Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE DEPUTY COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT)
Constitutional Structure.Our…President's unenumerated powers.

C. Impact – Executive flexibility tempered by funding control is key to preventing WMD attacks and terrorism.
Yoo 8/30 (John, Professor of Law at UC-Berkeley, “Like it or not, Constitution allows Obama to strike Syria without Congressional approval”, Fox News, 8/30, http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/08/30/constitution-allows-obama-to-strike-syria-without-congressional-approval/#ixzz2dt2z2ocD)
We should not…we make war.

2.  Terrorism risks extinction.
SID AHMED 4 Mohamed, Political Analyst, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/705/op5.htm
A nuclear attack…all be losers.