The National Weekly Atlasian

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A Drop-out in the District 2 Race?
by South Park Conservative

18 August 2007- With Ernest's confirmation hearing for External Affairs Secretary happening, it looks likely that the four-man senate race in District 2 will be narrowed down to three. If Ernest does get confirmed, it will be good news for incumbent DWTL. With an Ernest withdrawal, DWTL will have a better chance at making it to the final round of voting. This would, of course, be bad news for AndrewCT, who was previously considered to be more likely to make it to the final round.
   However, Ernest has stated he will continue to run until he gets confirmed or if he doesn't get confirmed. This would mean that, if the confirmation hearing continues on into the election, Ernest will still be on the ballot. Having said that, it shouldn't be surprising if DWTL were to want to speed up the confirmation process. However, this would not necessarily be a bad thing, as we all know what happened the last time a confirmation hearing was stalled for two weeks.

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The National Weekly Atlasian is proud to announce that it will be holding its first ever presidential straw poll on the weekend of September 21-23 2007. All announced or potential presidential candidates will be invited to make a speech, while people from all over Atlasia cast non-binding ballots for president.


The National Weekly Atlasian is also pround to announce that it will be undergoing a format change starting the 24th of August.

[SPC]

The National Weekly Atlasian is proud to announce that it will be holding its first ever presidential straw poll on the weekend of September 21-23 2007. All announced or potential presidential candidates will be invited to make a speech, while people from all over Atlasia cast non-binding ballots for president.


The National Weekly Atlasian is also pround to announce that it will be undergoing a format change starting the 24th of August.

I plan to run in the potential Progressive primary. Would I be in the straw poll?

Sure. Any candidate or potential candidate*will be on the straw poll ballot, and will be free to make a speech. However, everyone regardless of party will be allowed to vote.

*Except GPorter


Here is what the Straw Poll ballot will look like. I will be updating it up to the Straw Poll. Please save your voting for the actual straw poll.

President
[  ] Fmr. SoEA Speed of Sound*
[  ] Fmr. Lt. Gov. Sensei*
[  ] Chief Justice Texasgurl*
[  ] Fmr. Gov. Polnut*
[  ] President Wixted
[  ] Write-in:__________

Vice-President
[  ] Vice-President Jas
[  ] Write-in:__________


*Candidate has stated/implied they will run or declared candidacy in declaration thread.

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Here is what the Straw Poll ballot will look like. I will be updating it up to the Straw Poll. Please save your voting for the actual straw poll.

[  ] Senator Keystone Phil
[  ] Fmr. SoEA Speed of Sound
[  ] Lt. Gov. Sensei
[  ] Senator DWTL
[  ] Attorney General King
[  ] Write-in:__________

Until President Wixted declares his intentions, he will remain a candidate under write-in.

More institutional bias against gporter, I see.

As we at the National Weekly Atlasian have stated before, GPorter is a hack and doesn't deserve our attention. However, if people are really enthusiastic about a GPorter candidacy, they can just write him in.

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The National Weekly Atlasian is proud to announce its senatorial report cards:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

These are out of a total of 18 votes. As indicated in the report card, there are four senators (PBrunsel, DWTL, BrandonH, and Sam Spade) who are very good fits of the National Weekly Atlasian's [classical] liberal platform. There were also two senators (Keystone Phil and Ebowed) who did a mediocre job at following the [classical] liberal platform. Lastly, there were four senators (Al, Rob, EarlAW, and Lewis Trondheim) who were terrible fits for the [classical] liberal platform. It is with these report cards that the National Weekly Atlasian delivers their endorsements:

District 1 Verily
District 2 DWTL (Ernest is likely to drop out to become SoEA, so DWTL gets the endorsement)
District 3 PBrunsel
District 4 BrandonH
District 5 King

A link to the votes can be found here.

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An "F" from a paper that's just endorsed Down the Brain Dead Clown? Excellent.

My paper had no personal biases. I just compared the voting record of all ten senators to how the National Weekly Atlasian would have liked the senators to have voted. It just so happened that DWTL got a 93% voting record in comparison to our stances. It is at least less partisan that Ebowed's ACLC, where no conservative go more than a 20% (except for Sam).

It would have been nice if other candidates were able to make their case and be ranked according to these criteria

EDIT: To be a wee bit clearer, I wanted to ask how can you endorse one candidate, over another when you don't investigate the stances of his opponent? You can, correctly state that PBrunsel scores highly against other sitting Senators based on these findings, but you can't say he scores higher than his opponent and is therefore more worthy of an endorsement in that race than I would be, without looking at his opponents positions.

I don't mind who you endorse in any race, including my own. But you have to admit you've given an unfair advantage to incumbents in your methodology

I understand why you have quelms with this. However, that is the reason why the National Weekly Atlasian held senatorial debates.

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The ACLC is not partisan.  The ratings were based on votes, not on partisan affiliation.

I'll see it when I believe it. I have asked on numerous occasions to see either which votes they were or a link to the votes. Since I have provided the former, and your organization has yet to provide either, I still have questions of the scores' validity.

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I still have questions of the scores' validity.

I still have questions over yours

Could you respond to what I've asked? You've rated PBrunsel against other Senators and you've endorsed him based on that rating, yet you've not rated his opponent in that race. Considering that you are endorsing candidates over other candidates, and not over other Senators, then the system on which you have based senate race endorsements is flawed.

This isn't a 'sour grapes' thing, if I rank below PBrunsel then fine, I've been rated below other candidates in endorsments in the past but I was never ranked (and then a comparison made) in the first place and the same may be true of other candidates in other races.

Well, the endorsements were not entirely made in correlation with the candidates' scores, For example, the National Weekly Atlasian was prepaed to endorse Ernest before he was appointed SoEA despite DWTL's high ratings. No offense intended, the free-market solutions on poverty, AIDS, and school choice proposed by PBrunsel sounded better to us than your solutions. I respect your criticism, however, and feel it is good for any society to be critical of the press.

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Well, the endorsements were not entirely made in correlation with the candidates' scores,

You should have made that clear in the report- afterall you did say It is with these report cards that the National Weekly Atlasian delivers their endorsements:

No offense intended, the free-market solutions on poverty, AIDS, and school choice proposed by PBrunsel sounded better to us than your solutions.

If you want 'free market' solutions to poverty then surely my tax cut proposals for individuals and small businesses as opposed to increases in welfare should strike a chord should it not? And I'm also in support of school vouchers in principle but wont back it till I see what's in the bill. And my HIV/AIDS policy is pretty much the same as the policy under the UK's Conservative/Thatcher administration of the late 80's. I hold free market positions on all three points you've just made

If your support for PBrunsel is simply personal then come out and say so.

My endorsement of PBrunsel is nothing against you personally. I simply agree more with PBrunsel than with you. Like I said before, you cynicism of the media is appreciated, and you would be more than welcome to become a writer for the National Weekly Atlasian.

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Another Withdrawal in District 2
by South Park Conservative

23 August 2007 - The night before the election, Senator DWTL unofficially withdrew from the senatorial race. He had run a lackluster campaign form the start, and the four-way race only decreased his chances.
   Interesting about the withdrawal, DWTL decided to endorse frontrunner Mr. Moderate rather than fellow Republican AndrewCT. This may be due to AndrewCT's primary opposition to DWTL.
   With that said, DWTL and Ernest's withdrawal makes it almost certain that this race is Mr. Moderate's to lose. Given how well Mr. Moderate has done in recent polling, a defeat in tomorrow's elections would be devastating to his political career.

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Commentary: "Pro-Life" Caucus Not Very Pro-Life?
by South Park Conservative

24 August 2007 - Over the last few days Ebowed and I have gotten into a feud over the former's "pro-life" caucus, and whether it actually stood for pro-life principles. Here is the caucus's official platform:

Welcome!  Today I am announcing the formation of the Pro-Life Caucus.  Our main objective is to support goals that protect and nurture a culture of life in Atlasia.  Our goals are as follows:
1.) Universal Health Care:  It is a moral imperative that every Atlasian, young or old, poor or rich, has equal access to the finest quality of health care.  We support a not-for-profit system where all health services will be covered, including preventative treatment.
2.) Open Borders:  We support the right of anyone who seeks a better life for themselves and their family to join Atlasia free of the hurdles and hassles of the bureaucratic immigration process.  We oppose deporting undocumented immigrants and object to the idea that any human being is "illegal."
3.) Culture of Executions:  The use of capital punishment on criminals guilty of certain crimes is nothing less than a moral travesty.  We will seek the complete abolition, in every Region, of the death penalty for every crime.
4.) Life-Saving Abortions:  We will support the right of a pregnant woman whose life or health is threatened by her pregnancy to seek an abortion, if she so wishes.
5.) Fair Treatment:  Any person, suspected or convicted of being a threat to Atlasian interests in some way, deserves the respect and dignity of anyone else, including the right not to be tortured.
6.) Rational Response to Epidemics:  The HIV/AIDS crisis calls for us to support condom distribution programs, to decrease the rates of sexually transmitted infections among sexually active persons, and needle exchange programs, to decrease the rates of HIV and Hepatitis B infections among intravenous drug users.
7.) Life-Saving Research:  We support government funding of scientific and medical research in order to help aid our understanding of life-threatening diseases and to develop cures for them.
8.) Preserving Our Planet:  The Pro-Life Caucus supports measures designed to protect the environment and its inhabitants from destruction by humans.  We support efforts to combat human-caused global warming including the carbon tax, the phase-out of incandescant light bulbs, and measures to encourage use of energy-efficient technologies.

   The first plank isn't pro-life at all. Rather than allow people who can afford quality health care to purchase it, this plank would require that everyone have government-run health care. Considering ow the government handled hurricane relief two years ago, I doubt the government would run health care any better.   
   The second plank seems to ignore the issue of illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. It is easy to be "pro-life" at someone else's expense.
   The fourth plank would seem unnecesary, as nobody in their right mind would prevent a woman from getting an abortion if she would die otherwise. If this was Ebowed's true intent, to only provide abortions to woman with health risks, he could have also put opposing murder in his plank as well. I suspect that this plank is just a codeword for abortions on demand, not a very pro-life position.
   The sixth and seventh planks are nothing more than subsidies for special interests at the taxypayers' expense. Imagine if that individual taxpayer's money would have otherwise been used to purchase a life-saving operation.
   The eighth plank seems to be big-government solutions to protecting our environment, while completely ignoring the Tragedy of the Commons and the most obvious two-word solution to pretecting the environment: property rights.
   The third and fifth planks seem to be he only genuinely pro-life positions. However, with only 25% of the "Pro-Life" Caucus's positions being actually pro-life¹, this organization would seem to be more of an organization promoting socialism than a truly pro-life caucus.

¹ Not to mention the fact that the caucus's founder, Ebowed, was the only senator to vote for going to war against America.

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Imagine if that individual taxpayer's money would have otherwise been used to purchase a life-saving operation.

Oh yeah, the 2 cents of someone's taxes towards saving someone from using an HIV-infected needle will really help them pay for that heart bypass surgery.

No one should have to "purchase" a life-saving operation, in any event.

Well, they should have the option to purchase a life-sacing operation if they want to insure high-quality. Though we would all life to live in a world where everything was fre, the truth is that economics doesn't work that way and that an economic incentive is usually necessary to insure higher quality.

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Well, they should have the option to purchase a life-sacing operation if they want to insure high-quality.

They have that option at the expense of other people being denied access to essential medical care on the basis of economic status.

Well, if medical insurance didn't cover everything and it wasn't government funded, the prices would be lower. And even if theycouldn't afford it then, the person could always go to a charity hospital.

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UPDATE: Senators EarlAW, BrandonH, and Ebowed have been reelected. Mr. Moderate won Senator DWTL's seat and District 3 is headed to a run-off.

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UPDATE: Senators EarlAW, BrandonH, and Ebowed have been reelected. Mr. Moderate won Senator DWTL's seat, and District 3 is too close to call.

No offense, but isn't a bit premature to call races before the polls close?

Well, given the way the votes are going, it seems impossible for EarlAW, you, BrandonH, or Ebowed to lose.

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Mr. Moderate, EarlAW claim victory; District 3 Headed to Runoff
by South Park Conservative

27 August 2007 - Well, the elections finally happened, and the results surprised many. EarlAW pulled an upset against Verily in District 1, and Mr. Moderate won District 2, as expected. Ebowed and BrandonH both won reelection in their respective districts, to the surprise of no one.
   Perhaps the most interesting senate election of this cycle was the Battle of the Former Presidents in District 3. Whie PBrunsel was thought to be favored to win reelection, as the results came in, it appeared as though Aflietch would win an upset. Due to a last-minute vote by Governor ilikeverin, the end result was a tie, that would be headed to a run-off next weekend.
   Whoever wins the run-off next weekend, this election signifies a significant leftward trend in Atlasia. As of this election, the current makeup of the senate is 5-5, with onservatives and liberals having equal control in the Senate. However, the results of the elections will have the Senate makeup being 6-3, with an additional vote going for whoever wins the runoff.

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If Aflietch wins the runoff next weekend, then the liberal bloc will possess a veto-proof majority, allowing some of Senator Ebowed's extremer proposals, such as illegalizing lightbulbs and providing socialized health care, to pass.

Oh what a load of crap. Seriously, I've had enough of this. I'm not a member of any bloc, I've certainly not ran as a liberal and for somneone who organised the District 3 debate you don't seem to have read a bloody word of anything I had to say!

I embarrased this rag before and I'm prepared to do it again. Point out where I said I would support socialised healthcare or 'extreme' proposals.

-composure-

I'm sorry about that. However, the liberal bloc would still have a 6-3-1 majority, no matter which way you vote.

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National Weekly Atlasian Complaints Center

Due to some complaints that former President and Senate candidate Aflietch has made against our newspaper, we have decided to open a press complaints center. We at the National Weekly Atlasian apoligize to President Aflietch for some mistakes we have made in our articles, and would like to point out that, as we are understaffed (having only one active journalist), it is hard to rid our stories of personal biases. The National Weekly Atlasian invites the former President to join our staff in the event that he loses he Senate election, as we like his character and his willingness to stand up to media bias, even if we disagree.

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If Aflietch wins the runoff next weekend, then the liberal bloc will possess a veto-proof majority, allowing some of Senator Ebowed's extremer proposals, such as illegalizing lightbulbs and providing socialized health care, to pass.

Oh what a load of crap. Seriously, I've had enough of this. I'm not a member of any bloc, I've certainly not ran as a liberal and for somneone who organised the District 3 debate you don't seem to have read a bloody word of anything I had to say!

I embarrased this rag before and I'm prepared to do it again. Point out where I said I would support socialised healthcare or 'extreme' proposals.

-composure-

I'm sorry about that. However, the liberal bloc would still have a 6-3-1 majority, no matter which way you vote.

Then why say it? You said - 'If Aflietch wins the runoff next weekend, then the liberal bloc will possess a veto-proof majority' when if I don't win it still has a majority? By association you made it appear that I would be part of a liberal bloc that would vote in favour of the measures you outlined. I'm asking you for a retraction.

I have retracted the statement. Sorry for the inconveniece.

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Mr. Moderate, EarlAW claim victory; District 3 Headed to Runoff
by South Park Conservative

27 August 2007 - Well, the elections finally happened, and the results surprised many. EarlAW pulled an upset against Verily in District 1, and Mr. Moderate won District 2, as expected. Ebowed and BrandonH both won reelection in their respective districts, to the surprise of no one.
   Perhaps the most interesting senate election of this cycle was the Battle of the Former Presidents in District 3. Whie PBrunsel was thought to be favored to win reelection, as the results came in, it appeared as though Aflietch would win an upset. Due to a last-minute vote by Governor ilikeverin, the end result was a tie, that would be headed to a run-off next weekend.
   Whoever wins the run-off next weekend, this election signifies a significant leftward trend in Atlasia. As of this election, the current makeup of the senate is 5-5, with onservatives and liberals having equal control in the Senate. However, the results of the elections will have the Senate makeup being 6-3, with an additional vote going for whoever wins the runoff.

I guess I'm lumped in with the liberals now?

Well, you are a moderate liberal.

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Keystone Phil Resigns From Senate
by South Park Conservative

28 August 2007 - Tonight, Senatot Keystone Phil has resigned. He has not yet disclosed the reasons why he resigned or whether this will affect his Presidential campaign.
   Keystone Phil's resignation will give Governor Fezzy the power to appoint a replacement. Some people belived to be high on Fezzy's list are Rockefeller Republican, AndrewCT, Rin-chan, and Fezzy himself. It is expected that, due to Fezzy's conservative-libertarian ideology, he will appoint another conservative-leaning member to the Senate.

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Oh, I thought there was going to be a special election or something.

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Presidential Race Heats Up
by South Park Conservative

29 August 2007 - We at the National Weekly Atlasian realize that the presidential race isn't for another two months, but the presidential race is still starting to heat up. A list of the events that have happened in the past week:

*Joke candidate GPorter stated that he would announce his presidential candidacy on Labor Day.
*Former SoEA Speed of Sound officially announced his presidential candidacy.
*Senator Keystone Phil resigned and effectively dropped out of the presidential race.
*Senator PBrunsel has been subject to a draft effort for president.
*The Progressive Caucus announced its presidential primary on Septemeber 29, between Fmr. SoEA Soed of Sound, Vice-Chair Sensei, Chief Justice Texasgurl, and President Wixted.

   Now, along with these effects that will have an effect on the presidential campaign in the National Weekly Atlasian's presidential straw poll on September 16. Given that this is only two weeks before the progressive primary, it is likely that the leading liberal in the straw poll will go on to sucess in the primary. 

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The progressive primary is not aligned with the progressive caucus.

Oh, sorry about that.

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PBrunsel defeats Afleitch
by South Park Conservative

04 September 2007 - Over this Labor Day weekend's special election, former President Afleitch performed an upset over former president and Senator PBrunsel, defeating the incumbent 8-6. While this newspaper has gotten into two feuds with the former President, we congratulate huim on his victory. Senator-elect Afleitch will likely be a swing vote in a heavily liberal 21th Senate.


The National Weekly Atlasian would like to remind Atlasians to buy tickets to the Presidential Straw Poll on September 21-23.