The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

I regretfully inform you that, as of today, the former "Imperial Dominion of the South" ceased to exist and the Commonwealth of Midwest shall annex it's former territory.

Your service is no longer required. Please go home.

     Good show, agent. Keep the reports coming.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     At long last, it is finished:



     On the Is Our Children Learning Bill: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Now we should decide on the suggestions for the university location.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I actually think New Orleans could be a good choice. It's quite central in the South. With all the rebuilding taking place there, they wouldn't mind building a university on top, that would attract bright young people from all over the South to the city, and some of them would settle there and start flourishing businesses that the city can recover with.

Plus, if the students get too out of hand at some point, we'd just need to wait for another Katrina to wash them to the sea...

     I think New Orleans is more or less rebuilt at this point, and it already is home to a number of universities. It is still a fine choice, but maybe not an optimal one.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I'll point out that if we reject this, our taxpayer dollars would just go to fund a federal university in another region. We at least have the opportunity to bring taxpayer dollars back to our own region rather than send them off to somewhere else.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     As a specific suggestion, I think the animals should be given enough space in their cages to turn in place, though section 13 can be worked to take care of that. I also think the word facility should be specifically defined for the purposes of this bill.

     As a side note, I find section 11 to be fairly humorous. I guess Spot's going to be doing reconnaissance of the neighborhood to find cats to be targetted for rescue.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Yeah, we still need to decide on a university location, don't we?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Charleston is also a hugely significant location in the region's history, being the home of former Governor Duke's plantation.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Without any dissent, I will make my request.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I would like to ask a question of procedure.

Whenever I come on the Regional government forum to come here in the Assembly, I see multiple NE, MA, Midwest threads regarding pieces of legislation they are discussing. And only this one thread for the IDS. I understand it has been chosen by our region and its representatives at some point in time to work this way, and I don't want to revolutionize something that must have its reasons, but can these reasons be explained to me ?

Sometimes it just seems to me we are lagging on the same bill over and over, whereas we could be working fast on some other more consensual bill in another thread at the same time. Also, where can the roll of all bills to be discussed here can be found ? And where should I introduce one if I want to ?

I'm starting to like this game, I just want to start to get a step further into how it works.

     Few bills take any real length of time, so we can usually keep a good pace going. Personally, I think that the regional Legislature should be laid-back and easy-going. I suggested splitting the education bill off to another thread since that was taking forever and nobody responded to the suggestion, IIRC.

     I don't think there's any posted queue, though maintaining it is the responsibility of the Imperial Speaker. New bills should be posted here.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Since there is currently no formal powerholder in the Legislature, I think I'm supposed to open it. We've never had an actual speakership election before, so this has been very much a formality in the past.

     The vote is open for 72 hours, all Legislators please vote for your preferred candidate for Speaker:

[ ] Adam Griffin
[ ] SJoyceFla

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It's been three days now, but we have a tie. Duke has yet to vote here.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Can't the emperor split the tie?

     There is little that has been formalized about this process. Still, I am hardly any more enthusiastic to make this decision than the Legislator in question. I may do so if pressed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

What if I abstain? Then will I force PiT's hand?

I assume this position is non-partisan, correct, and when I look for a leader of the senate, I want someone who is active and has a history of being active. Both of these guys qualify and thus explains my dilemma. SJoyce did a good job with JBrase's absence, etc..

     The position is the prerogative of its holder, really. It has never been partisan in the past, but I wonder if that will remain the case. The voting breakdown of the other four Legislators looks vaguely partisan (small sample size, granted).

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If the Good Lord had intended for us to govern ourselves, he would not have blessed us with an Emperor.

I've heard that in other weak and puny regions, they have no Emperor altogether! Horrors. How will they then divine the will of God?

     The destiny of every region is guided by The People, and theirs is a force whose mystery confounds even an Emperor's wisdom. Why The People have decided to bless our region above all others with the bounty of Empire, I can but merely guess.

[Associate Justice PiT]

What if I abstain? Then will I force PiT's hand?

I assume this position is non-partisan, correct, and when I look for a leader of the senate, I want someone who is active and has a history of being active. Both of these guys qualify and thus explains my dilemma. SJoyce did a good job with JBrase's absence, etc..

     The position is the prerogative of its holder, really. It has never been partisan in the past, but I wonder if that will remain the case. The voting breakdown of the other four Legislators looks vaguely partisan (small sample size, granted).

I'm not exactly sure how I'd make it partisan. Refuse to introduce certain legislation? We've had enough times without legislation in the queue it probably isn't possible to keep up.

     Something like that. I don't know if we ever actually gave the Speaker the ability to not introduce certain bills, though.

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The honorable member from the delightful state of Florida is a well deserving candidate. I am privileged to have the opportunity to cast a ballot in his name.

     I'm not saying that either of the esteemed Legislators in question would use the post for partisan advancement.  I am merely...observing that the breakdown of the vote so far would not be unexpected were this a partisan office.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Yeah, the PPT in the senate evolved from a non-partisan to a partisan position during the height of the RPP/JCP domination of the game. Most notably when Kal voted to break the tie to throw NC Yankee out.

The problem is, both these guys have arguably been far more active than our last Speaker. I really think it would be unfair and I would be cast into some sort of bitter partisan depending on which way I vote because of the way the others have voted.

From what I have seen and know, Griffin is a strong and active legislator, and I have no doubt he would do a fine job in the position. I don't have the relationship with SJoyce I have with Griffin, but he's been around a long time as well, and I trust either one of these guys would do a fine job.

I just don't want to be the one to cast the tie breaking vote

     How about we make them co-speakers?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     No comments on my suggestion?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     No comments on my suggestion?

How would that work in a practical sense?

     The position is largely by the book. There's little potential for conflict in administering votes and such unless someone tries to be blatantly unfair and close votes early and such.

     The big obstacle I see is forming a queue of bills. I'd suggest making a post in the Imperial Almanac thread with a queue and just make sure that you both agree on it. One person could be a contrarian to cause problems and gridlock, but I am confident that you are both mature enough to do no such thing.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Mr. Speaker, this is a terrible proposition. A decision must be made, if not by Duke, then by the Emperor. We cannot have two speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I ask our Honorable Emperor if he chooses "High or low".

     I do not understand what you mean by "high or low".

[Associate Justice PiT]

     This is a waste of time. I am opening an immediate vote, to last 72 hours, on naming both Legislator Adam Griffin and Legislator SJoyceFla Imperial co-Speakers.

[ ] Aye
[ ] Nay

[Associate Justice PiT]

     With 4 votes in favor and 1 against, I will take the opportunity to close the vote and name Adam Griffin and SJoyceFla co-speakers. I'll admit that this arrangement is not what I had in mind, yet it is difficult to decide on one highly-qualified individual over another. This seemed to be a speedy means of resolution, and so I decided to pursue it.

     Ultimately, we have all been elected by The People to enact Their will. I believed that we had been spending too much time on this organizational matter. Now that that is done with, let us move forward and discuss legislative matters, those issues that the voters entrusted us to deal with.

[X] Yes

I vote Yes to the aforementioned proposal of making both candidates co-Speakers. I think it is a first time in Atlasia, even though I really only say that because it feels a bit newish.

I would like to apologize to my fellow Legislators for my absence these few last days, as I didn't have access to a proper computer the whole time. I have yet another week of holiday to go IRL so I will be active here as it should be !

Really this idea of a co-Speakership pleases me more and more. It is a truly wonderful way of representing the diversity that our Region is displaying nowadays, being at the same time the stronghold of the most liberal and the most conservative party of Atlasia. I'm sure our co-Speakers will work their way into good functioning of their office.

I'm guessing the Emperor should retain the power to organize a new vote on the office if any difficulty should appear, or if one of the co-Speakers should misbehave and cross a line.

     I don't know about the other regions, but we've never even had a contested election to the speakership before. Things have changed around here.

     The rules of the Legislature are largely a matter of tradition. We've always allowed the Speaker to oversee the Legislature for as long as he saw fit, though I am open to change. If the other Legislators have a complaint about the conduct of one or both of the co-Speakers, I think voting on the matter would be good.

[Associate Justice PiT]

      Wasn't there an accompanying bill in the Senate that would have supported this action that failed?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I found the bill. It failed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I support the proposal's intent and structure; it would be great if each region had its own forum. However, I feel currently opposed to this bill on a technicality.

While Dave is very responsive when it comes to general Atlas inquiries, we all know that he is not very active - even downright unresponsive - when it comes to forum modifications, changes and the like. In the (probably unlikely) event that such a forum were created, it would most likely stand that way indefinitely without modification.

This thereby would crystallize 'The Imperial Dominion of the South' as the official name of the region now and forever, which is something that I simply cannot support.

     Nothing wrong with doing that. Regions rarely change names anyway.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I'd be fine with calling this new board "the South". The old name was actually the "Southeast", which I always hated, as it seemed like an attempt to dissociate the region from its proud history and turn it into something generic. I usually abbreviate Imperial Dominion of the South as "IDS", but I've also used "South" from time to time.

     As for "Dirty South", that name is only actually used in statute specifying that it is a legally acceptable alternative to the Constitutional name. Maybe we should amend the regional Constitution to state as much. I was thinking that Article V looks kind of bare compared to the other articles of our Constitution. That amendment would fit great there.