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Debatepedia is the Wikipedia of debates - an encyclopedia of pro and con arguments and quotes on critical issues. A project of the 501c3 non-profit International Debate Education Association (IDEA), Debatepedia utilizes the same wiki technology powering Wikipedia to centralize arguments and quotes found in editorials, op-eds, political statements, and books into comprehensive pro/con articles. This helps citizens and decision-makers better deliberate on the world's most important questions. Debatepedia is endorsed by the National Forensic League.

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• Debate: American Jobs Act - September 17th, 2011.

Featured pro and con arguments from this article:

• PRO: Jobs Act could create over 100,000 jobs per month. Jacki Calmes and Binyamin Applebaum. "Bigger Economic Role for Washington." New York Times. September 13th, 2011:
  
  "The jobs package of tax cuts and spending initiatives could add 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month over the next year, according to estimates from several of the country’s best-known forecasting firms; the potential Fed actions could add 15,000 more jobs a month over two years.[...] the firm projected that the plan would add roughly 1.25 percentage points to gross domestic product and create 1.3 million jobs in 2012. JPMorgan Chase estimated that the plan would increase growth by 1.9 points and add 1.5 million jobs. Most bullish is Moody’s Analytics, which forecast that the package would add 1.9 million jobs, cutting the unemployment rate by a point, and increase growth by two percentage points."

• CON: Increasing taxes on successful corps will do harm. Motoko Rich. "Employers Say Jobs Plan Won’t Lead to Hiring Spur." New York Times. September 9th, 2011: "David Catalano, who helped found Modea, a digital advertising company in Blacksburg, Va., said that he was wary of the president’s pledge to ask the 'wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.' His company was organized as an S Corporation, in which profits are passed through to shareholders, so it would face higher taxes under the president’s proposal, he said. He added: 'My partner and I have reinvested 100 percent of the profits that our agency has made over the last five years back into the company. If the government takes a bigger share of that from me, it directly impedes my ability to grow the agency.'"

• Keystone XL US-Canada oil pipeline - September 5th, 2011.
• Teacher-student friendships on Facebook - September 2nd, 2011.
• Law school - August 29th, 2011.
• Balanced budget amendment - August 9th, 2011.
• US debt ceiling deal - August 5th, 2011.
• Obama executive order to raise the debt ceiling - August 1st, 2011.
• Pornography - July 27th, 2011.
• Legality of coca production and consumption - July 20th, 2011.
• Ban on sale of violent video games to minors - July 8th, 2011.
  
• Mandatory ultrasounds before abortions - June 30th, 2011.
• US intervention in Libya - June 19th, 2011.
• Should colleges ban fraternities? - June 15th, 2011.
• Random sobriety tests for drivers - June 7th, 2011.
• Home plate collision rule in baseball - June 1, 2011.
• Child beauty pageants - May 28th, 2011.
• Trans fat ban - May 19th, 2011.
• China "one child" policy - May 12th, 2011.
• Release of Osama bin Laden death photos - May 6th, 2011.
• Osama Bin Laden Sea Burial - May 3rd, 2011.
• Return of Israel to pre-1967 borders - April 30th, 2011.

See Past Debate Digest topics

• Debate: American Jobs Act US President Obama submitted the American Jobs Act to Congress at a critical time in the nation's economic history. Debatepedia looks at the bill and the arguments from its supporters and detractors.
• Debate: Does Obama deserve a second term? An unfinished article outlining the ongoing debate about Obama's merits in the 2012 election.
  
• Debate: US sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan "WSJ: Senators: Selling F-16s To Taiwan Would Provide Jobs." Wall Street Journal. September 12th, 2011
• Debate: Abortion Simon Van Zuylen. "A Radical New Ploy to Destroy Roe v. Wade—Which Just Might Work." The New Republic. September 2nd, 2011
• Debate: Legalization of Marijuana "California marijuana street fair fuels debate over legalization." Christian Science Monitor. September 3rd, 2011
• Debate: Death penalty Republican US presidential candidate Rick Perry executed 234 convicts during his ten years as governor of Texas [more than any other governor in modern history], reinvigorating a national debate on the practice.[1]

More Debates in the News

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• Debate: Voter identification cards has been hot in the news recently with multiple American states now requiring voter IDs. If you're interested, consider building up Debatepedia's article on the topi.
• Debate: Does Obama deserve a second term? is up next for the Debate Digest.
• Founder Brooks Lindsay is developing Debate: Keystone XL US-Canada oil pipeline for the Debate Digest. - August 31st.
• Myclob is experimenting with a new way of organizing argument pages, so that they are structured like main debate pages - in a pro/con structure with reasons to agree and disagree. See Argument: Polygamy leaves some men with no women to marry; socially destabilizing. A debate on the value of this kind of approach is occurring on Debatepedia's Facebook group. - August 26th.

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