Mideast Assembly Thread

[ZuWo]

An Amendment to reduce the size of the Mideast Assembly

Section 1 of the third Article of the Mideast Constitution shall be amended to read as follows:

1. The legislative power of the Mideast shall be vested in the Mideast Assembly.
2. The Assembly shall be composed of three members, each of whom shall be registered voters residing in the Mideast Region.
3. The Assembly shall have the power to choose its own officers, including a Speaker, and judge the qualifications of its members.
4. Elections to the Assembly shall begin between 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the third Thursday of January, March, May, July, September and November and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
5. The method of election shall be PR-STV, as specified in Sections 4 to 17 of the Atlasian Proportional Representation Act (F.L. 21-2), unless the Assembly shall provide otherwise by Law.
6. Vacancies in the Assembly shall be filled in a manner specified by Law, and until such determination is made, by Gubernatorial appointment.

[ZuWo]

Mideast Anti Marijuana Bill

The Mideast Marijuana Legalization Statute and the Mideast Marijuana Taxation Act are hereby repealed.

1. The possession, sale, and consumption of marijuana shall generally be unlawful for all individuals in the Mideast.

2. a) Medical marijuana use is legal for individuals of at least 18 years of age under clearly defined conditions, i.e. only in cases of HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and epileptic seizures.

b) Individuals who suffer from any of these health problems are entitled to receive a specific amount of marijuana which a certified physician in the Mideast region deems necessary for the medical treatment directly from the physician in question.

c) Any physician who intends to treat a patient with marijuana must request written permission from the Mideast Department of Health in every single medical case and is, upon receiving such permission, entitled to possess a small amount of marijuana to treat his/her patient.

d) The Mideast Department of Health is required to respond to a request for a written permission by a physician within 2 weeks.

[ZuWo]

Gentlemen; it's been a pleasure

Thanks for the hard work you put in the Assembly!
... and don't veto too many bills as Governor, please.

[ZuWo]

Any other nominations for speaker? 

Nope, let's elect Inks for Speaker.

[ZuWo]

Vote Sanctity Act

A voter who edits his ballot any length of time after it has been posted in the voting booth thread for any Mideast Election nullifies it. Election authorities shall not count a ballot altered in the above manner.


This bill comes from the Northeast, I've just adapted it to fit our region. It is an idea that I think we should really discuss.

[ZuWo]

I thought we would start debating the bills which we haven't had time to debate during the last session in this session, but if it's necessary to introduce these bills once again I will do so. (Maybe we can discuss the two bills by Assemblyman MOPolitico first because he introduced them earlier.)

Mideast Anti Marijuana Bill

The Mideast Marijuana Legalization Statute and the Mideast Marijuana Taxation Act are hereby repealed.

1. The possession, sale, and consumption of marijuana shall generally be unlawful for all individuals in the Mideast.

2. a) Medical marijuana use is legal for individuals of at least 18 years of age under clearly defined conditions, i.e. only in cases of HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and epileptic seizures.

b) Individuals who suffer from any of these health problems are entitled to receive a specific amount of marijuana which a certified physician in the Mideast region deems necessary for the medical treatment directly from the physician in question.

c) Any physician who intends to treat a patient with marijuana must request written permission from the Mideast Department of Health in every single medical case and is, upon receiving such permission, entitled to possess a small amount of marijuana to treat his/her patient.

d) The Mideast Department of Health is required to respond to a request for a written permission by a physician within 2 weeks.

[ZuWo]

Amendment to the Mideast Abortion Statute II

Section 1 of the Mideast Abortion Statute shall be amended to read:

"1: No abortions shall be permitted except in the cases of threat to the mother's health or a pregnancy caused by rape and/or incest."

[ZuWo]

Leave of absence

From August 14th to August 21st I will be absent and won't have any internet access. Thus, I will obviously not be able to cast any vote during the next week.

[ZuWo]

Constitutional Amendment to Article 4 of the Mideast Constitution

The passage “Voters shall be allowed to edit their ballots within 20 minutes of posting their original ballot or until the official end time of voting, whichever comes first.”

in Section 1 of Article 4 of the Mideast Constitution shall be amended to read

“A voter who edits his ballot any length of time after it has been posted in the voting booth thread for any Mideast Election nullifies it. Election authorities shall not count a ballot altered in the above manner.”

[ZuWo]

I'll give it a last try because I want to see whether we can find common ground on a mere reduction of the ballot editing time.

Constitutional Amendment – reduction of ballot editing time

The first Section of Article IV of the Mideast Constitution shall be amended to read:

Article IV - Election Regulations

Section 1: Election Procedure

1. All those considered to be qualified to vote from a State within the Mideast Region for federal elections, shall be qualified to vote in all elections, propositions, initiatives, recalls and Constitutional Amendments of the Mideast Region, except as where Regional Law may provide.

2. All candidates for electoral office in the Mideast Region shall be qualified to vote in the Mideast Region.

3. Voters shall be allowed to edit their ballots within 4 minutes of posting their original ballot or until the official end time of voting, whichever comes first.

4. No person shall campaign in the thread in which voting shall occur. If a person does so they shall have their vote(s) counted as invalid and shall be subject to further trial and punishment as the law may provide. A person's username and signature are exempt from this clause.

5. The Governor shall administer all elections, propositions, Constitutional Amendments and recalls, unless it be his recall or he shall be unavailable, in which case the Speaker shall administer the elections. If he or she is also unavailable, then the Judge shall administer the elections.

6. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.

7. In order to be a candidate on the ballot, a candidate must declare their candidacy for that office on the Candidate Declaration Thread at least forty-eight hours prior to the earliest possible commencement of the election for that office.

8. Those elected shall take office at noon Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday after their election.

9. In order to exercise their powers, all officers of the Regional government must first be sworn into office.

10. The oath of office shall be as follows: "I, [state name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of [state office name] and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Mideast Region, so help me Dave."

[ZuWo]

Guidelines for Private Language Schools Act

1. A private language school in the Mideast is only allowed to offer language classes if it is licensed by the Mideast Department of Education.

2. In order to receive a license by the Mideast Department of Education, a private language school must meet all of the below-mentioned criteria. It is the task of the Mideast Department of Education to review and assess a language school which applies for a license and to grant, refuse or withdraw a particular language school a license based on its interpretation of the below-mentioned criteria:

a) All teachers of the language school in question must have the necessary professional qualifications to teach in a particular language.

b) All teachers of the language school in question must regularly take part in training courses related with their profession.

c) The main educational goal of the language school in question must be the long-term satisfaction and success of every student.

d) The language school in question must ensure that it constantly strives for the preservation of and the improvement in educational quality.

e) The language school in question must strive for a customer-oriented, economically efficient and effective management.

[ZuWo]

3. Voters shall be allowed to edit their ballots within 4 minutes of posting their original ballot or until the official end time of voting, whichever comes first.

That violates the Atlasian Constitution.

Article IV Section 1:4 "Regions are autonomous of the federal government and may govern themselves and their elections as they wish, except where otherwise provided for in this Constitution."

Article V Section 2:8 "Persons who edit the post in which their vote(s) are contained at the place of voting after twenty minutes shall have their vote counted as void."

I see. It is not made explicit in the Constitution, but I ask myself whether this doesn't count for federal elections only. The previous parts of this section of the constitution seem to deal with federal elections, so I'm not sure about this part.

But if it is indeed unconstitutional what I proposed in my amendment, I guess the same can be said about the Northeast "Vote Sanctity Act" ...

[ZuWo]

Once all new Assemblymembers will have sworn in, we should elect a Speaker. We have to get back to work!

Speaker Inks, your internet is apparently still down, isn't it?

[ZuWo]

Any nominations for Speaker at this stage?

Inks, if he still wants to do the job and has a working internet connection.

[ZuWo]

I'm not sure if I even have the authority to ask this, but are there any nominations for Speaker besides Inks?

[ZuWo]

I'm not sure if I even have the authority to ask this, but are there any nominations for Speaker besides Inks?

No one else seems to have dropped by. You could second the nomination

I think I sort of did that a few posts above, but I can do it in a more formal way: I second Inks' nomination for Speaker of the Mideast Assembly.

[ZuWo]

Guidelines for Private Language Schools Act

1. A private language school in the Mideast is only allowed to offer language classes if it is licensed by the Mideast Department of Education.

2. In order to receive a license by the Mideast Department of Education, a private language school must meet all of the below-mentioned criteria. It is the task of the Mideast Department of Education to review and assess a language school which applies for a license and to grant, refuse or withdraw a particular language school a license based on its interpretation of the below-mentioned criteria:

a) All teachers of the language school in question must have the necessary professional qualifications to teach in a particular language.

b) All teachers of the language school in question must regularly take part in training courses related with their profession.

c) The main educational goal of the language school in question must be the long-term satisfaction and success of every student.

d) The language school in question must ensure that it constantly strives for the preservation of and the improvement in educational quality.

e) The language school in question must strive for a customer-oriented, economically efficient and effective management.


Reintroduced from last session

[ZuWo]

With Inks out of action, the legislature is stalled. However in reading the Constitution I can't see where it requires the Speaker to formally table a bill; the power of the Speaker isn't defined. Which is actually no bad thing.

Simply 'The legislative power of the Mideast shall be vested in the Mideast Assembly.'

I see no reason why someone other than the Speaker cannot open the debate. If however it is the Assembly's understanding that no one other than the Speaker can do so, then I would recommend a constitutional amendment be tabled to confer a 'deputy' status on another Assemblyman when the Speaker does return.

You're probably right. Yes, the constitution doesn't say it has to be the Speaker. That's just how it was done in the past so I assumed we have to wait for Inks to return. But there's apparently no real base for this "belief".

I'll introduce the first bill, the Lighting Technology Act by TJ. Just to get things started.

[ZuWo]

Language Awareness Act

1. The Mideast Assembly hereby recognizes that while English serves as the primary language of the majority of people who live in the Mideast region there is no official language in the Mideast. Furthermore, the Assembly recognizes that the great language and dialect diversity in the Mideast is of great value to the region.

2. Public elementary schools and high schools in the Mideast are encouraged, but not required, to include the topic of local language and dialect diversity in their curricula. Elementary schools and high schools which opt to offer classes on this topic may request financial and/or logistic support by the Mideast Department of Education. Upon receiving a written request, the Mideast Department of Education is required to grant support to the school in question. Schools which receive support by the Mideast Department of Education are required to use all funding and/or logistic help for the purposes designed in Section 2 of this Act.

[ZuWo]

Muzzle for Dangerous Dogs Bill

The Mideast Dog Breed Equity Under the Law Act is hereby repealed.

1. Dogs of the following breeds or crosses or hybrids of the following breeds are required to wear a muzzle in all public places:

a) Pit bull terrier
b) Japanese tosa

2. A dog owner who violates these regulations once shall be fined. If a dog owner violates these regulations repeatedly, regional authorities shall take the dog away from the owner and the owner shall lose his/her right to own a dog for at least two years.

[ZuWo]

I thank A-Bob for his confidence in me! If a majority of Assemblymembers wants me to become Speaker, I'll accept that most gratefully.

However, In order to give the Assembly a choice and to express my approval of the current speaker, I nominate Speaker Inks.

[ZuWo]

Inks

(I still accept votes, though )

[ZuWo]

I accept my defeat!

Now let's go back to work.

Keep our Region Clean from Litter and Safe from Vandalism Act

1. It is a punishable offence

a) to dispose of litter in an inappropriate manner in public places (a practice commonly referred to as “littering”)

b) to commit acts of vandalism in public places

2. a) Any person who violates at least one of the two clauses of the first section of this Act shall be fined at least 50$. Severe violations of this Act may be punished with a prison sentence.

b) Any person who violates at least one of the two clauses of the first section of this Act and is subsequently fined up to 500$ may opt to work in a litter clean-up program for at least 20 hours instead of paying the fine.

[ZuWo]

New Mideast Marijuana Taxation Act

1. The Mideast Marijuana Taxation Act is hereby repealed.

2. There shall be a 20% tax increase on all marijuana substances in the Mideast.

3. a) 50% of the money collected by this tax shall fund the Mideast Victim Compensation Act.

b) 45% of the money collected by this tax shall be used for the establishment of the Mideast Cannabis Prevention Center, which shall be supervised by the Mideast Department of Health. The main task of the Mideast Cannabis Prevention Center is to inform the public on the harmful effects of marijuana and organize regular marijuana prevention activities in public schools.

c) 5% of the money collected by this tax shall fund the creation of community murals as specified in Section 3 in the Keep our Region Clean and Free from Vandalism Act.

[ZuWo]

I believe a requirement to wear seatbelts is an absolute necessity. The mere fact that they might be punished if they don't wear seatbelts makes most car drivers use them. If we compare the number of traffic casualties during times when no or only a few people wore a seatbelt with the number of today, I think we can conclude that the seatbelt requirement has had a very positive impact.