Office of Chairman TNF: Red Army takes NM, UT, ID, AZ

[PJ]

There's no need for the hate, TNF, I was planning on endorsing you for reelection...

[Adam Griffin]

Good to be serving with you as co-star of today's faux outrage rounds, comrade.

I wasn't talking about my extreme agenda I was explicitly talking about yours.

That's the problem: we never do.

And yeah, about the only way that the Federalists themselves can sow discord that doesn't already exist among the various factions of the left is to vote strongly in polls. They've certainly never been as good in other attempts.

[tmthforu94]

What a great way to win over the support of your constituents...

[Gass3268]

Endorsed!

[TNF]

What a great way to win over the support of your constituents...

>implying you were going to vote for me anyway

[windjammer]

Endorsed

[TNF]

Endorsed

Thank you for your endorsement, comrade!

[TNF]

Endorsed!

Thank you for your endorsement, comrade Gass3268!

[tmthforu94]

What a great way to win over the support of your constituents...

>implying you were going to vote for me anyway

Before you starting going on this Federalist rampage a couple weeks ago, yes, I'm fairly certain I would have voted to re-elect you.

[PJ]

What a great way to win over the support of your constituents...

>implying you were going to vote for me anyway

Before you starting going on this Federalist everyone but Labor rampage a couple weeks ago, yes, I'm fairly certain I would have voted to re-elect you.

[TNF]

MIDWEST SENATOR TNF GIVES LABOR DAY ADDRESS

Minneapolis, Joy - Comrades, I address you today from the great city of Minneapolis because it is in this city that 79 years ago, a great strike put capital on notice here in this city. I am here today to put capital here and in all of Atlasia on similar notice today - great things are happening in Atlasia today, and you can work with labor in making those changes, or you can be swept aside. There is no middle ground to straddle here in the forward march of the Atlasian worker.

By all accounts, the Fifty-Sixth Senate has been a productive one for Atlasian workers. We have seen the enactment of the Protecting Worker Privacy Act, the Pacific Crisis Stimulus Act, an Amendment to the Labor Rights Act of 2012 that banned the use of strikebreakers by employers, and the Responsible Federal Contracting Act. While the Senate did not pass the recent bill that would have normalized the 32 hour workweek across Atlasia, I am happy to announce today that I have reintroduced that bill and hope that the Fifty-Seventh Senate will be more considerate of Atlasian workers than was the Fifty-Sixth when it comes to the vital issue of free time in Atlasia.

I have also introduced legislation that I hope will be considered with all due haste by the Fifty-Seventh Senate. The Paid Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, Recognition of Labor Act, Sex Work Act, and the "You Can't Fire Me, I Quit!" Act all stand before the next Senate. I hope that the Senate will vote to pass all these pieces of legislation, as they provide ample improvements for the lives of the average Atlasian workingman and workingwoman.

All of this is evidence of the forward march of working people. Today is a day to honor those working people - and I want to ask that my fellow Senators honor our working people with more than just words once this day is ended. Honor them with your deeds as well as your words, and we will all move toward a better, more just, and more humane society.

[TNF]

Working for the Atlasian Worker
October 2013 platform

A peaceful, solidaristic foreign policy
Fewer hours and higher pay - the 20 hour workweek and beyond
Economic democracy, co-determination, and public ownership
Equal rights for transgendered Atlasians
An Atlasian policy for the Arts
Real education reform - universal access to pre-k and higher education
End prescription drug charges and socializing big pharma
A home for every Atlasian - affordable and livable public housing
Public auto insurance and free mass transit
Abolishing the security state and bringing diplomacy into the open
Shuttering the prisons and ending the war on the poor
Collective ownership of patents and intellectual works
Protecting animal rights

Note: These planks will be introduced and filled out as my campaign continues. The first of which will call for a peaceful and solidaristic foreign policy, and it should be rolled out sometime in this week. If you have questions concerning a single plank before I announce it and its provisions, please feel free to ask them here.

[Maxwell]

What do you mean by "Shuttering the Prisons"?

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Our health care policy already covers prescription drugs.

[TNF]

What do you mean by "Shuttering the Prisons"?

Pretty much what it says. I want to end the system of permanent or long-term incarceration that we have to do and replace it with a rehabilitation-based system for prisoners. That means shorter terms, terms served entirely outside of prisons (with home arrest and parole becoming much more common), laws rewritten as to create fewer criminals by creating fewer crimes (people hurting themselves is a medical issue, not a criminal justice issue), and restoring dignity to those who have served their time by removing existing restrictions upon their movement and future employment (and I understand these are limited as is, but those limited strictures are too much, imo). I'll get into more detail there as warranted and as I roll out that platform plank. This is an issue where I think the progressive Laborites and the libertarian or libertarian-leaning Federalists have a lot in common and we could be able to get something substantial as a result, so please, if you've got ideas or want to be involved in the drafting of subsequent legislation, shoot me a PM.

Our health care policy already covers prescription drugs.

Oversight on my part. I'll be changing that to covering the cost of all drugs and taking the profit motive entirely out of health care by nationalizing hospitals, turning doctors into state employees, the whole shebang.

[Maxwell]

What do you mean by "Shuttering the Prisons"?

Pretty much what it says. I want to end the system of permanent or long-term incarceration that we have to do and replace it with a rehabilitation-based system for prisoners. That means shorter terms, terms served entirely outside of prisons (with home arrest and parole becoming much more common), laws rewritten as to create fewer criminals by creating fewer crimes (people hurting themselves is a medical issue, not a criminal justice issue), and restoring dignity to those who have served their time by removing existing restrictions upon their movement and future employment (and I understand these are limited as is, but those limited strictures are too much, imo). I'll get into more detail there as warranted and as I roll out that platform plank. This is an issue where I think the progressive Laborites and the libertarian or libertarian-leaning Federalists have a lot in common and we could be able to get something substantial as a result, so please, if you've got ideas or want to be involved in the drafting of subsequent legislation, shoot me a PM.

I don't entirely agree with doing away with Prisons period, because I think there is a purpose there, but I would like to see what future reform beyond the Prison Reform Act did. I'd be open to working with you on this matter.

[TNF]

What do you mean by "Shuttering the Prisons"?

Pretty much what it says. I want to end the system of permanent or long-term incarceration that we have to do and replace it with a rehabilitation-based system for prisoners. That means shorter terms, terms served entirely outside of prisons (with home arrest and parole becoming much more common), laws rewritten as to create fewer criminals by creating fewer crimes (people hurting themselves is a medical issue, not a criminal justice issue), and restoring dignity to those who have served their time by removing existing restrictions upon their movement and future employment (and I understand these are limited as is, but those limited strictures are too much, imo). I'll get into more detail there as warranted and as I roll out that platform plank. This is an issue where I think the progressive Laborites and the libertarian or libertarian-leaning Federalists have a lot in common and we could be able to get something substantial as a result, so please, if you've got ideas or want to be involved in the drafting of subsequent legislation, shoot me a PM.

I don't entirely agree with doing away with Prisons period, because I think there is a purpose there, but I would like to see what future reform beyond the Prison Reform Act did. I'd be open to working with you on this matter.

As would I you. I'll see what we can come up with and perhaps we can introduce a joint bill to that end.

[TNF]

STATEMENT ON THE PASSAGE OF THE BLACK FRIDAY ACT

Comrades, today I am proud to say that yet another piece of legislation I have authored has been signed into law by Comrade President Nix. This act, the Black Friday Means Black Friday Act of 2013, will make the day after Thanksgiving a paid holiday for Atlasians everywhere. This means that more stores which engage in the gross and rampant consumerism that comes with that day will likely close their doors and allow their workers the day off, while also meaning that those who do stay open will be required, as per the Holidays Act of 2013 (a piece of legislation introduced by Comrade President Nix while he was in the Senate that I am proud to have contributed to) to pay their employees double-time.

Does this mean that we should all be satisfied? By all means, no. We have achieved yet another great victory over capital, but capital still dominates and replicates a social order in which buying things is more important than helping people. I applaud the Senate, the Labor Party, and the President for helping me get this legislation enacted. I also thank the support I have received on this bill from Federalist Senators Sbane and Tmthforu94, two persons with whom I rarely see eye-to-eye whom nevertheless lent their support to the passage of this act. Your votes are much appreciated and your support welcomed, as it helps move us, all of us, forward to the creation of a society not based upon greed and hierarchy, but of good-will towards men and women alike. In the great tradition of Christ himself, you have voted to lend a hand to the working people of this country, and for that, they shall reward you.

As for I, I will be enjoying my Black Friday holiday with my partner, sipping coffee and perhaps devising yet another hair brained scheme for the overthrow of all unjust institutions that paralyze and keep down the worker.

In solidarity,

Senator TNF

[PJ]

*Applause*

[TNF]

A peaceful, solidaristic foreign policy

Orient, Moxie - Comrades, I join you today from the little town of Orient, Moxie. With a population of roughly half-a-thousand, some may wonder why I have chosen Orient as the place to give my speech concerning the future of Atlasian foreign policy. I, of course, have chosen Orient because Orient is the hometown of a certain Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States from 1941 to 1945, a solid opponent of fascism, and later in life the candidate of the Progressive Party. From such humble beginnings, Mr. Wallace rose to the Vice Presidency of the United States; he had previously revolutionized American agronomy as Secretary of Agriculture, and we all owe him a debt for that.

Mr. Wallace had a vision of a world united by common cause; a world based upon mutual aid and development, rather than imperialism by any one nation. In his landmark speech, "The Century of the Common Man," Wallace made plain his opposition to imperialism of any sort -

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We of the Labor Party seek not an Atlasian Century, but instead a century of the common person. The man or woman that labors in the factory, that busses tables, flips burgers, cuts hair, teaches children, or puts out fires - these are the people that we wish to guarantee a decent future, wherever they may live. The Labor Party has expressed our desire for international solidarity with our comrades in the Canadian New Democratic Party, and we have further expressed this desire with our support for both the Socialist International and Progressive Alliance, umbrella institutions by which the working people of the Earth can organize across borders and unite to throw off the shackles of this unjust system - that is, capitalism, that impoverishes us all.

To this end, I support policies that will make Atlasian interactions with the whole world much less antagonistic, imperialistic, and reduce the potential sources for conflict, everywhere in the world.

I support the end of Atlasian military action in Afghanistan. For the past twelve years Atlasian men and women, and the men and women of our allied nations, have fought a war in Afghanistan with seemingly no end. Osama bin Laden has been eliminated; our purpose for being in Afghanistan is thus nonexistant and Atlasian troops should be removed with all due haste. I ask that the President use his power as Commander-in-Chief to quickly de-mobilize and return Atlasian fighting men and women to the Republic.

I support the immediate cut off of all aid to Israel. In the Senate I have helped lead the fight for tougher restrictions on the Israeli apartheid state, which has pushed further and further into Palestine with settlements and has, for all intents and purposes, established a disgusting facsimile of the apartheid regime that once existed in South Africa, it's former ally. I stand in solidarity with the working men and women of Palestine who wish to repel the invasive, imperial state that is Israel, and will support any and all efforts to throw up sanctions, cut off trade, and isolate the rogue Israeli regime at the United Nations. I encourage the Senate to take up stronger sanctions against Israel in the next foreign policy review, and would support moves to boycott Israel by the Republic of Atlasia.

I support ending all military-based aid to foreign powers. We should not be in the business of financing other national powers' militaries.

I support the abolition of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA serves no purpose in the post-Cold War world and it is debatable as to how much of a purpose it served beyond inflaming anti-Atlasian sentiment during the Cold War. The CIA, or at the very least, it's institutions that allow for and promote covert warfare, should be abolished.

I support an international treaty outlawing all weapons of mass destruction.

I support the dissolution of NATO.

I support a constitutional amendment that would require a majority vote of the public to declare war. As Eugene Debs, a personal hero of mine so eloquently put it - "If war is right, let it be declared by the people."

I support the right of soldiers to form unions and elect their immediate officers.


This is where I stand. I am open to any and all questions from the public, and I thank you for your time. We shall either live together in peace on this Earth of ours', or we shall all perish as fools.

[TNF]

POSITIONS ON QUEUED LEGISLATION

Ratification Amendment
DDT Ban Act
Checks and Balances Amendment
Atlasian Senior Care Act
Hiring Incentives Act: Take Three
Fiscal Year 2014 White House Budget Proposal
Fix the Regions Amendment
Basic Income Guarantee
SJoyce confirmation for Game Moderator
Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform Act
Abolition of the Supreme Court Bar Act
Paid Leave Act
Fair Labor Standards Act of 2013
Recognition of Labor Act of 2013
Repeal of Useless Laws Act
Permanent Improvements Act
Support for LGBTI Athletes Act
Veterans Support Modernization Bill
Comprehensive Sex Education Bill 2013
Education for the Future Bill 2013
We need less political parties amendment
Comprehensive Drug Reform Act of 2013
Sex Work Act of 2013
Party Hard Amendment
Life Imprisonment Abolition Amendment
Judiciary Branch Realignment Amendment
Support for Carers Bill 2013
The "You Can't fire me, I quit!" Act of 2013
Semi-Presidentialism Amendment
Transgender Rights Act of 2013
Amendment to the Productivity Equalization and Worker Employment Act of 2011
Honest Term Limits Amendment
Fair Amendment Procedure Amendment
Abolition of Conscription Amendment
Electronic Cigarette Regulation Act
The National Mandate for Jessica's Law Act
Native American Heritage Day Act

[Lumine]

We disagree in almost anything, but it's refreshing to see a different take in Israel that (even if it is extreme) does not imply our full and unquestioned backing of an aggressive country. That said, Senator, I'd like to ask a few questions about your foreign policy:

1.- Why do you think soldiers should elect their officers? Don't you think there would be negative effects on discipline?

2.- I understand that NATO might be outdated in light of the end of the Cold War, but taking the recent tensions with Russia and other states, wouldn't it be wise to at least have an alternate kind of military alliance with our allies around the globe?

[TNF]

We disagree in almost anything, but it's refreshing to see a different take in Israel that (even if it is extreme) does not imply our full and unquestioned backing of an aggressive country. That said, Senator, I'd like to ask a few questions about your foreign policy:

1.- Why do you think soldiers should elect their officers? Don't you think there would be negative effects on discipline?

2.- I understand that NATO might be outdated in light of the end of the Cold War, but taking the recent tensions with Russia and other states, wouldn't it be wise to at least have an alternate kind of military alliance with our allies around the globe?

1. Fundamentally I believe in a society that is democratic, rather than hierarchical. I extend that belief to the military, though of course, I would like to see managers elected, foremen elected, etc. by their workers.

2. On the contrary, I think that dissolving NATO would be a positive first step in repairing relations with Russia.

[TNF]

SENATOR TNF DECLARES BID FOR PPT

Denver, Mirth - Comrades today I join you from the grand old city of Denver in the great state of Mirth to announce my intentions regarding the President Pro Tempore (PPT) race ongoing in the Senate. Comrade Senator Gass3268 has placed my name in nomination for the position, currently held by Comrade Senator Yankee (a position he has of course long held) and I have accepted that nomination, with every intent of seeking the office and making plain what I intend to do if the Senate chooses me to be the next PPT.

It is obvious that Atlasia is in a state of flux, a kind of revolution of sorts. When I was elected to the Senate, there were five major Atlasian parties - Labor, Liberal, Light, Federalist, and NM-AM. Today there are three major parties - Labor, Federalist, and NM-AM and the small but growing Progressive Union. We have seen monumental leaps forward in legislative activity, and I am proud to say that I have led the fight in making the Senate not only responsive to the needs of bourgeios Atlasian society but of the working people of our nation, as have all my fellow Laborites. We have done great things and are poised to do more as we consider paid leave, among other vital pieces of legislation into the next session.

But there is no doubt that we, that is, Labor and the revolutionary elements of Atlasian society, are fighting a tough battle against the forces of reaction, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Senate. Perhaps this is not as much the case as it was at the beginning of the last session of the Senate, but time and time again frivolous legislation comes up and crowds out well thought out and well written legislation. We have moved to a partisan system and yet we pretend that partisan control of the Senate is somehow a great evil that must be avoided at all costs.

I am not afraid of change, nor am I afraid of partisan control of the Senate and partisan prioritization of legislation. As such, as PPT, I will propose wide-ranging changes to the Senate rules that abolishes the PPT position and creates in its place a Senate Majority Leader and a Senate Minority Leader, both of whom shall be elected by partisan Senate caucuses. Ideally, and if my proposed Semi-presidentialism Amendment is approved, this position might be called Prime Minister of Atasia, and that, I think, is what the position really ought to be.

The time has come for the Senate to change. We cannot change the Senate with the same old leadership and the same old tune - that is why I am seeking the leadership of the Senate. For revolutionary reform, for realistic rules, and for the good of all Atlasians, not just those who hold a Senate seat.

In solidarity,

Senator TNF

[Napoleon]

I agree with your prposals and ideas here but in the end I simply feel you are too immature and aggressive for the position. Sorry you feel the need to attack good Atlasians.

I will give you a chance to convince me otherwise.