The Examiner: Election Tracker

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A Senate is only as active as its members allow it to be. Most Senators were basically inactive in the last Senate; including you, DWDL.

[Јas]

Can you think of a reason I would make a bad PPT? 

Having spent a great deal of time in the Senate with you, I don't believe you understand the rules of the Senate.
For example, in the last few hours, you called for the opening of a Senate hearing on Deputy SoFA-nominee TCash however the Senate doesn't hold hearings on DSoFA appointments.

[Јas]

The Examiner

17 March 2009

PPT Saga Continues

Time is running out in the Senate PPT race which remains too close to call. HappyWarrior currently leads 5-3 in the official vote with Sen. Smid and Sen. realisticidealist left to vote. DWTL remains confident though that he will get the votes, stating on the Senate floor: "all indications point to a 5-5 tie at this point".

While the decision of the Senate is still unclear,the decision fof the people is clear-cut.  The Examiner Poll on the race has shown that by an almost 2-1 margin, Sen. HappyWarrior is the preferred candidate.

DWTL to seek re-election
Reneging on his earlier promise to retire at the end of his current term, DWTL will be running again in the upcoming Senate election. Ironically, having argued against HappyWarrior's suitability for PPT as an "anti-DWTL candidate", DWTL gave his reason for the re-election bid as that"I [DWTL] must stay in the senate to oppose you [HappyWarrior]".

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Earl's Position Remains Unclear

President bgwah has given an indication that the position of EarlAW as SoFA has not yet been fully resolved. Speaking at The White House, the President said: " I'm still talking to Earl about the SoFA situation". Watch this space...

[Јas]

The Examiner

18 March 2009

PPT HappyWarrior

Sen. HappyWarrior has been elected PPT of the Senate with what turned out to be a surprising 6-3 margin of victory over Sen. DWTL. Though DWTL expressed confidence in winning this election right up until the end, his failure to maintain the support of his own party colleagues sealed his defeat. DWTL's hopes of attracting non-RPP support withered away when the deciding vote of Sen. realisticidealist (JCP) was cast for HappyWarrior.

HappyWarrior expressed his thanks to his supporters and offered to work with DWTL to ensure the smooth running of the Senate.

DWTL Reaction
Sen. MasterJedi's support of HappyWarrior and Sen. Smid's abstention are signs of some concern for the RPP leader - reflected in his having already implicitly accused MasterJedi of treachery. As of yet , DWTL has not passed comment on Sen. Smid's abstention.

DWTL has not though allowed the defeat to affect his public persona. Reacting to the news, he said: "Say hello to two months of an inactive senate" and "I will be vindicated".

[Јas]

The Examiner

19 March 2009

AG Confirmation Hearing Opens

The confirmation hearing of Attorney Gereral Marokai Blue has opened. The nominee seems to have been warmly received by most Senators, and early indications are the the nomination is very likely to be confirmed.

The chief focus of the hearings has been Marokai's plans to revitalise the AtlasiaWiki. The nominee announced his "plan to introduce a big public initiative to repair the wiki", envisaging public involvement in a collaborative effort to update and maintain the project.

Marokai also discussed the matter of the 'Julian Francis' account. He stated that he believes either Xahar or Conor Flynn of operating the acccount - indicating that he has evidence that Xahar has utilised the account. Marokai said that he will "investigate the matter fully" believeing that there is a case of voter fraud to be answered.

[Јas]

The Examiner

20 March 2009

Senate Back in Business

Following its recent sojourn, the Senate has returned to activity. PPT HappyWarrior has been quick to ensure that the Senate agenda is in full flow. Bills currently on the floor include Sen. DWTL’s Free Palestine Bill, Sen. Lief’s criminal legislation (introduced on behalf of Peter) the Voting Whilst Banned Bill and the Contempt of Court Bill, and the first tranche of Sen. SPC’s anti-government legislation.

SPC: Down With This Sort of Thing
Within his bill seeking to repeal environmental regulations, SPC proposes, among other things, a reduction in required motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards and the removal of a restriction on the supply of drinking water which doesn’t meet EPA standards.

SPC has also set his eyes on reducing access to subsidised day-care through his other bill on the Senate floor. His fellow Senators have been quick to seek to table the measure though given the newfound strength of the right in the chamber, attaining the requisite votes may prove difficult.

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Marokai Confirmed

Marokai Blue has been confirmed as the enw Attorney General by a vote of 6-0 and is expected to take office shortly. The new Attorney General has promised to work on improving Atlasia’s wiki.

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Editorial: Resign!

In sharp contrast to the re-energised Senate, sit Atlasia’s regional governments. Some would have us believe that Regional Government is crucial to Atlasia must be preserved. Unfortunately, though the RPP leadership is keen to underline their electoral record, they seem perfectly content to continue to ignore their chief shouting point.
   
An examination of recent regional activity leads to threadbare results. Indeed, when they are not compelled into action by federally directed matters, they tend to sit in stasis. In the Pacific, Gov. CultureKing has struggled to pursue an agenda since taking office. His last proposal, over 6 weeks ago, was the only regional matter to be considered this year in the region and failed to attract any significant attention.

In the Northeast, AndrewCT has recently taken over as Governor. Though he must be allowed time to succeed of course, but the region has been far from a hive of activity in recent times.
   
The Mideast has been, by some considerable degree, the most active of the 5 regions for some time now. However, it has failed to attract much interest. The initial spate of procedural matters before the newfound Assembly has dried up and so the pace of legislating is slowing considerably. A significant measure of the success of the Mideastern Assembly experiment may be that interest in membership of that body is proving exceedingly limited.

This leaves the two most damnable executives. The executives of the Southeast and Midwest have long since given up pretence of interest in activity. Gov. Duke and ilv. GMantis seem to be positively allergic to regional issues and has striven to avoid them at all costs. That the Southeast, bastion of the Regional Rights Party, cannot summon up the will to create an active, nevermind burgeoning, community of regional enthusiasts is indeed particularly telling.

The Examiner has long been sceptical of how our regional governments have been operating and hopes that the ongoing Constitutional Convention will honestly address the issue. Whatever the Convention may bring though, the performance of certain regional executives has simply been unacceptable. The Examiner therefore calls on those regional actors who have failed to incite any significant activity within their regions to resign their offices rather than allow their comatose administrations to continue their charade. 

[Marokai Backbeat]

A while ago MaxQue & I ran for Governor and Lt. Governor of the Pacific, and as anyone can see, we lost pretty badly. Cultureking was and still is the JCP Governor, and Alcon was elected for the fourth time as Lt. Governor of the Pacific.

Do I think we could have brought some activity to the region? I like to think so. Alcon was a once-active member of Atlasia turned-JCP placeholder, and hasn't really showed himself around the region ever since taking office. Anyone could be more active than that, yet..

I like the Pacific region a lot and have been active in Atlasia ever since I joined, but regional government is difficult to keep active. Outside of the obvious things, having five regions kills activity because there's often not enough active people to fill all of the offices and/or stay active in them. There's simply just not a great deal to do.

I believe in regions, everyone knows that, but reducing the number of regions to say , 3, would do us some good. However, if the Pacific region was more competitive, we would probably be more active. The JCP dominated de-facto one party region makes it almost impossible to shake up the system and there in my mind there's a pretty clear correlation between our unusually low number of officeholders and our low activity. I'm sure at least one or two other regions have this sort of problem as well.

Perhaps I'm rambling, and perhaps none of this will matter after the convention, but competition is key to activity, yet at the same time we have to maintain enough offices so people can make a difference, and even yet we need to make sure we have a ladder in place so people can keep working to climb up to even more positions of power. It's a delicate balance I hope the convention can properly address and something I will work towards as a delegate. (So long as we don't pick up the first proposal we see and run away with it.)

[Purple State]

It is unfortunate that the most active region in Atlasia can't attract enough interest to function as it should. This is partially due to the number of other offices filled by Mideast members; however, there are more than enough residents of the region to make it more exciting.

We have the potential to make Assembly races interesting and competitive, we just need active members. I am hoping, after the Assembly elections currently underway, to open up a new agenda that promotes more active membership. It was my hope that the new Mideast Constitution would have helped things along, but it is clear that a more radical approach will be required to maintain interest and attract new membership.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Letter to the Editor

I think I should draw people's attention to a piece of legislation currently on the Senate Floor; the Contempt of Court Act. I mention this because the proposed punishments for breaking this particular law seem pointlessly draconian.

What's the World Coming To, etc.

A.C.Sibboleth
No. 28, IngSoc Tower
War
West Virginia

[DownWithTheLeft]

Jas, no one is resigning because you do not like us.  Frankly, it only encourages us to keep running

[Јas]

Jas, no one is resigning because you do not like us. 

I'm shocked.

Frankly, it only encourages us to keep running

Interesting to note that I'm so relevant to your motivations.
That you keep running doesn't concern me; that you are hypocrites does.

[Јas]

The Examiner

27 March 2009

Senate Divided on HIV Policy Bill

The latest part of SPC’s extensive anti-Government agenda, Repeal of the Act to Establish Atlasian Policy Towards HIV/AIDS has divided the Senate. The bill seeks to remove the existing measures in place to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS through such measures as needle exchange programmes, condom distribution and sex education.

At present the vote is split 4-4, the RPP voting to extricate the Government from involvement with this issue. Only Sen. Bacon King and Sen. Smid have yet to vote. Should Bacon King turn up, he is expected to be a safe Nay vote. Sen. Smid though has been equivocating.

It has become clear from the early votes of the 30th Senate, that Sens. Smid and MasterJedi are more independently minded than the core RPP group of DWTL, SPC and PiT. Winning over either or both of these Senators appears to be key for the 5 non-RPP Senators to be successful in the chamber. This can be seen, among other matters, in the PPT election, the Voting While Banned Bill and the Environmental Policy Bill of 2009. The latter of which started out as an attempt by SPC to remove the Government from environmental issues but has been amended to a more moderate position (notably retaining though a reduction in required automobile fuel standards).

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Editorial: Gesta Non Verba

As may have been noted, The Examiner takes some interest in the issue of regional activity. As part of that coverage, we include below a table noting the time passed since the various regional governors have taken some action in their official capacity which hasn't been mandated of them.

The table is not a perfect instrument - Gov. CultureKing's petition regarding British Columbia has been an on-and-off measure and the only matter of any standing the Governor has pursued in recent months. Gov. Inks has made more effort than the rest of the Governors combined, helped by an active assembly.

The remainder however are more noticeable by their absence than their activity. Neither Gov. AndrewCT nor ilv. GMantis appear to have done anything which hasn't been absolutely necessary. Tracking official activity by the long-standing Southeastern Governor wasn't easy and indeed our inclusion could plausibly be excluded as not actually official activity. The Governor has had time to flirt with the idea of a Presidential run (to revitalize Atlasia!) and remains keen to recruit members to the RPP to help out (to do what, one can't be sure though).

Days of Gubernatorial Inactivity*

Governor	Days	Last Relevant Action
CultureKing (PAC)	2	(Motioned to petition the federal government to seek cession of British Columbia to the Pacific)
Inks (ME)	4	(Worked on updating Mideast matters on the wiki)
AndrewCT (NE)	25	(None)
GMantis (MW)	76	(None)
AHDuke (SE)	105	(Issued statement on ‘death’ of KotBP)

*Excludes acts mandated of the office.

[Smid]

At present the vote is split 4-4, the RPP voting to extricate the Government from involvement with this issue. Only Sen. Bacon King and Sen. Smid have yet to vote. Should Bacon King turn up, he is expected to be a safe Nay vote. Sen. Smid though has been equivocating.

Statement from Senator Smid:

Contrary to recent rumours, I am not equivocating on the HIV/AIDS Bill.

My position on this legislation is clear. Until a Needle Exchange Programme is introduced in Atlasia, I cannot support the Bill.

I am drafting a Bill to introduce in the Senate and if passed, I will not hesitate to agree to the HIV/AIDS Bill.

/ends.

[afleitch]

At present the vote is split 4-4, the RPP voting to extricate the Government from involvement with this issue. Only Sen. Bacon King and Sen. Smid have yet to vote. Should Bacon King turn up, he is expected to be a safe Nay vote. Sen. Smid though has been equivocating.

Statement from Senator Smid:

Contrary to recent rumours, I am not equivocating on the HIV/AIDS Bill.

My position on this legislation is clear. Until a Needle Exchange Programme is introduced in Atlasia, I cannot support the Bill.

I am drafting a Bill to introduce in the Senate and if passed, I will not hesitate to agree to the HIV/AIDS Bill.

/ends.

However that will still mean that we will have no policy on HIV/AIDS prevention even if a needle exchange bill is passed. How can it be constructive to effectively abolish any policy on the matter, whether preventative or not?

[DownWithTheLeft]

I fully intend to support a needle exchange program either through a bill derived by Smid or through the heroin legalization measure I plan to introduce

[Purple State]

At present the vote is split 4-4, the RPP voting to extricate the Government from involvement with this issue. Only Sen. Bacon King and Sen. Smid have yet to vote. Should Bacon King turn up, he is expected to be a safe Nay vote. Sen. Smid though has been equivocating.

Statement from Senator Smid:

Contrary to recent rumours, I am not equivocating on the HIV/AIDS Bill.

My position on this legislation is clear. Until a Needle Exchange Programme is introduced in Atlasia, I cannot support the Bill.

I am drafting a Bill to introduce in the Senate and if passed, I will not hesitate to agree to the HIV/AIDS Bill.

/ends.

The current vote will expire before any such bill comes to the floor.

[Јas]

The Examiner

30 March 2009

RPP: United in Disunity

The attempt by anti-Government Senator and self-proclaimed Mexican leader/mercenary warlord SPC to end Government sponsored needle-exchange, condom distribution and sex education seems today set to fail following the casting of the 5th Nay vote by Sen. Bacon King and the continued refusal by Sen. Smid to cast a vote on the matter.

The vote highlights the surprising lack of party unity by the RPP in the chamber this session. With the swearing-in of the 30th Senate, the RPP threatened to dominate proceedings having grown to occupy 5 Senate seats. While RPP leader, Sen. DWTL has lauded the party as a ‘united front’, the 5 RPP Senators have though only twice all voted together in the 16 votes called in the 30th Senate so far – both occasions seeing unanimous Senate votes, including ironically, a vote to table one of DWTL’s own pieces of legislation. Contrast this disunity with the 5 non-RPP Senators, spread across 3 parties, who have voted identically on 9 occasions thus far – a figure which would certainly be higher but for some absences.

Despite being of the party with half the Senate seats, DWTL, PiT and SPC are the Senators least likely to be part of a majority vote in the chamber – doing so less than half as often as either Sen. Franzl and PPT HappyWarrior. DWTL has been keen to gloss over the surprising lack of control, and instead speak highly of these Senators and their apparent compromising spirit. Sen. PiT though disagrees with his leader’s assessment. “They're less compromising & more slowly re-writing bills to fit their own bleeding-heart agendas because they know that we're too fragmented to stop them.” The willing acceptance of DWTL of every amendment submitted on the Free Palestine Bill Middle East Peace Act of 2009 being a case in point.

DWTL though must clearly have noticed that his voice has been proven to be surprisingly easily drowned out in the chamber and that the compromising spirit he rejoices can quickly become a deaf ear. Despite the strong objection of the core RPP trio to the Voting Whilest Banned Bill, for example, the measure passed 7-3. The vote was not unique either - following on from SPC's effort at removing support for pre-school childcare and, of course, DWTL's campaign for PPT.

Key to this isolation has been the willingness of the more moderate conservatives of the RPP, Sens. Smid and MasterJedi, to side with the non-RPP group. Indeed, their voting records show they are almost twice as likely to side with their SDP, DA and JCP colleagues rather than their party leader. Until DWTL can reign in his team, the legislative agenda (largely comprising SPC's many anti-Government bills) is likely to get short shrift, or at best be the subject of substantial 'compromise'.

Perchance this explains why DWTL has sought solace recently in the Southeast, effectively displacing Gov. AHDuke and attempting to provoke some activity there (noticeably very shortly after this paper decried that Governor's inactivity). It may though be noted that it seems that whether in the Senate or the Southeast, he can still it seems only command Sens. PiT and SPC to follow.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I suspected my bleeding-hearts comment would end up in a newspaper sooner or later.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Apparently compromise equals failure in the eyes of this paper.  I think the editor is more or less just upset about the fact that this senate passed a bill instead of adopting one of his pointless angry statements

[Јas]

The Examiner

31 March 2009

Flat tax: On the Table?

Almost immediately after this paper highlighted the RPP’s disunity in theSenate this session, the party have found an issue that unites them against their non-RPP Senate colleagues – DWTL’s proposed flat tax. Well, not quite. The 5 RPP Senators banded together to prevent the Senate from immediately dismissing DWTL’s proposal without debate – however it seems that even they can’t conceive of allowing the proposal to actually be passed.

DWTL’s closest Senate ally, Sen. PiT has confirmed his intent to vote against the bill at final vote. Sen. MasterJedi has adopted a similar stance though offered some implied praise for his leader’s work, describing it as having “some kind of merit” and not having been “horrible [sic] done”. High praise indeed - is this the beginning of a rapprochement between party colleagues following their recent falling out?

The anti-tabling anti-flat tax antics though have caused some frustration for the non-RPP Senators. Sens. Franzl and Lief having voiced their disgruntlement at it as a "waste of time". Perchance a show of RPP strength was suddenly considered worthwhile?

[Marokai Backbeat]

I suggest just creating a second newspaper for your RPP obsession, since most of the recent articles and comments here seem to be all about them.

I have no love for some of their positions but this is getting silly.

[Purple State]

I suggest just creating a second newspaper for your RPP obsession, since most of the recent articles and comments here seem to be all about them.

I have no love for some of their positions but this is getting silly.

Agreed. These are non-starter stories. It would be nice to have some real news again.

[RI]

But political gossip is fun!

[Franzl]

I suggest just creating a second newspaper for your RPP obsession, since most of the recent articles and comments here seem to be all about them.

I have no love for some of their positions but this is getting silly.

Are you opposed to the freedom of the press?

[Purple State]

I suggest just creating a second newspaper for your RPP obsession, since most of the recent articles and comments here seem to be all about them.

I have no love for some of their positions but this is getting silly.

Are you opposed to the freedom of the press?

I think he (and I) would just prefer more meaningful discourse by the press.