Mideast Assembly Thread

[tmthforu94]

I would like to bring this up as an Amendment to the current bill on the table.

The Animal Protection Act
The Mideast Region recognizes that it is our duty to protect Animals. Therefore, the following shall be enforced:

1. The Mideast recognizes animal cruelty as the following:
a. Neglect
b. Malicious killing
c. Beatings
d. Animal Fighting ie Dog fight, cock fight.

2. The Mideast doesn't recognizes the following as animal cruelty:
a. Hunting for food or sport
b. Killing Animals for food.
c. Killing any rodents or insects.

3. Any person under the age of 18, who is found guilty of animal abuse is required to undergo psychological evaluation to determine if the child needs individual or family counseling. If found sane said person shall serve a maximum of 2 years in juvenile jail and/or 2,500 dollars fine.
a. Parents or Guardians of said person under 18, are liable for all cost for the evaluation/counseling/fine.

4. If a person over the age of 18 commits animal abuse, said person shall serve a minimum of 30 days in jail and a maximum of 5 years in jail and/or 5,000 dollars fine.

[tmthforu94]

I would like to bring this up as an Amendment to the current bill on the table.

The Animal Protection Act
The Mideast Region recognizes that it is our duty to protect Animals. Therefore, the following shall be enforced:

1. The Mideast recognizes animal cruelty as the following:
a. Neglect
b. Malicious killing
c. Beatings
d. Animal Fighting ie Dog fight, cock fight.

2. The Mideast doesn't recognizes the following as animal cruelty:
a. Hunting for food or sport
b. Killing Animals for food.
c. Killing any rodents or insects.

3. Any person under the age of 18, who is found guilty of animal abuse is required to undergo psychological evaluation to determine if the child needs individual or family counseling. If found sane said person shall serve a maximum of 2 years in juvenile jail and/or 2,500 dollars fine.
a. Parents or Guardians of said person under 18, are liable for all cost for the evaluation/counseling/fine.

4. If a person over the age of 18 commits animal abuse, said person shall serve a minimum of 30 days in jail and a maximum of 5 years in jail and/or 5,000 dollars fine.

I accept this amendment as friendly.

[tmthforu94]

Aye on "The Animal Protection Act".

[tmthforu94]

C'mon, new members, get your act together! Get some legislation on the floor.

I spent another 30 minutes this morning brainstorming. I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure which one to go with.

[tmthforu94]

The Public Smoking Act
1. It shall be illegal for any citizen of the Mideast to smoke in a public area.
2. If a person is found guilty of smoking in public areas, that person shall face a fine up to five thousand dollars.

[tmthforu94]

I interpret this as Dan's resignation from the Assembly. The Governor is directed to fill the vacancy.

I am in favour of the new bill and will bring it to the floor once we have a 3rd member.

He probably meant for that, but he didn't specifically say. And, wouldn't have have to go this to resign, which he didn't do?
I'll ask him. Hopefully this will be resolved quickly.

[tmthforu94]

The Public Smoking Act
1. It shall be illegal for any citizen of the Mideast to smoke in a public area.
2. If a person is found guilty of smoking in public areas, that person shall face a fine up to five thousand dollars.

5000$ does sound very harsh. The maximum fine should probably be much lower, otherwise it's a great law.

That's the maximum. It doesn't necessarily mean anyone who is guilty will pay $5,000.00. If someone had done it several times before, then the judge would have the option of going up to five thousand, which would be very severe, and likely put a stop to it.

[tmthforu94]

Thank you, voter. I greatly appreciate your concern on this bill, and I'm glad you spoke up.
The reason I put such a maximum fine is in special circumstances. For example, if someone continued to broke the law and smoked in public, the option of fining up to five thousand dollars would be optional. I don't support a fine of five thousand dollars every time. That's just so the judge will have a high ceiling, for special circumstances.

However, I do appreciate your concern, and I think it's important that we give as much power to the people as we can. Other people have also spoken that the maximum is harsh. Therefore, I will make a compromise, and will amend my own bill.

The Public Smoking Act
1. It shall be illegal for any citizen of the Mideast to smoke in a public area.
2. If a person is found guilty of smoking in public areas, that person shall face a fine up to two thousand dollars.

[tmthforu94]

The following bill is placed in the queue.

Xth Constitutional Amendment

Article IV, Section 1, Clause 7 is amended to read:

In order to be a candidate on the ballot, a candidate must declare their candidacy at least two days before the election.

An excellent idea which I fully support. May I suggest (as a constituent) that the assembly modify language to:

"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 (48) hours prior to the beginning of voting, other than absentee balloting, for said election."

The modified language would avoid confusion and guaranteed resulting litigation in a couple ways.
With the "two days" language there would inevitably be an election with the voting booth scheduled to start at (e.g.) 12:01 AM on the 3rd of the month, for which a candidate will declare their candidacy at 11:58 PM on the 1st and argue they declared "2 days before the election". "48 hours" will nip such lawsuits in the bud and is consistant with the amendment's goal of discouraging last minute candidacies.

The modified language also mandates declaration for specific office(s) on a prominent atlas thread designed for such purpose, to avoid anyone (for whatever reason) running a stealth campaign by posting an intent to run for "anything/everything" buried in a little-followed thread then claiming that met the technical requirements for ballot access, even though it clearly goes against the spirit and intent of the law.

Again, as I am not an assembly member at this time, I can only suggest such modifications in the hope others who are will formally propose an amendment for this worthwhile law.

Agreed. I mean, isn't it like, 7 days now? If I was running for the Mideast Assembly, I probably would have missed the deadline too. Maybe it would have been better if someone would have notified that you had to declare by a certain day.

[tmthforu94]

One thing I've been reading into that I would be interested in having a law passed for is something saying that you can't make a certain breed of dog illegal.  In many counties and states dogs like pitbulls and Staffordshire Bull Terriers are illegal.  I know some people think these breeds are dangerous it isn't the breed but the owners that create the danger.

That's a great idea, and the statement bolded is 100% correct. Dogs are not born mean.

[tmthforu94]

Just to give my input - I'm not comfortable forcing this on people - I don't plan on signing it.  If you want to make this something voluntary, go right ahead, but I think this is a violation of private property.

I'm going to have to agree with Governor Inks. It's called "private property" for a reason.

[tmthforu94]

Hey guys, decided to move here.

Pacific region is mostly none moving and the Mideast here seems pretty fast and up to date.

Welcome to the region!

[tmthforu94]

Thank you Badger.  Exactly the sort of bill I was hoping for.

[tmthforu94]

If it would be all right, I have enough money stashed away from lobbyists that I could easily afford to buy Peter a pony.

[tmthforu94]

Then we should bring the Lt. Governor position back. That is a spot that usually goes to the Lt. Governor. I don't see why we don't have one. Barnes has shown that Lt. Governor's can be very active, and make a difference in their region.

[tmthforu94]

I personally think that either the third assemblyman must make a choice or the bill simply fail on that basis.  This solution I think would give too much power to the Governor.  We must preserve seperation of powers.

But, what is we had an assemblyman on vacation? Then we'd have to hold the bill up. I don't really agree with "forcing" someone to vote "Aye" or "Nay". If we do that, why don't we just ban voting "Abstain" all together?
Bring back the Lt. Governor position. It's the easiest option.

[tmthforu94]

I once again must object to any effort at expanding our assembly for the same reason as before.

How would you feel about 4 instead?

[tmthforu94]

I know the question wasn't posed to me, but FWIW I would oppose any even number of legislators as it makes the liklihood of a tie vote go up dramatically.

Well...
*clears throat*
Then it would be a great time to bring back the Lt. Governor position. The Lt. Governor can break ties. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

[tmthforu94]

I know the question wasn't posed to me, but FWIW I would oppose any even number of legislators as it makes the liklihood of a tie vote go up dramatically.

Well...
*clears throat*
Then it would be a great time to bring back the Lt. Governor position. The Lt. Governor can break ties. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

I would not like to put that much power over assembly results into the executive branch, even if elected separately from the governor. It's one thing to risk the occassional tie in a 100 person senate, but quite another in a legislative body of only 4 or 6. I think 5 will still work just as well as 4 without the increased risk of repeated tievotes.

How many close votes have there even been in recent sessions? It would rarely happen, and if it did, the person who breaks the tie would be someone elected by the people to serve that cause.

[tmthforu94]

I know the question wasn't posed to me, but FWIW I would oppose any even number of legislators as it makes the liklihood of a tie vote go up dramatically.

Well...
*clears throat*
Then it would be a great time to bring back the Lt. Governor position. The Lt. Governor can break ties. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Not really. Those who oppose the Lt. Gov position, do so because it's just another office to fill, and 4 Assemblymen + 1 Lt. Governor is as many as 5 Assemblymen.  

But Assembly elections would be more competitive with only 4 in, since the Lt. Governor position would be tacked on with the Governor position.

[tmthforu94]

What's the problem with this? It will definately ease congestion, as many people have no clue what's going on here.

[tmthforu94]

The Assembly is only "well organized, and easy to navigate" to those who check on every 5 minutes to see if there is a new post. For an outside observer, like myself, it is very hard to see what is going on. It's kind of like organized chaos...

[tmthforu94]

If I may...
I disagree with this legislation. If someone on the Troll List can be a great Assemblyman, who are we to stop them? If the person is a loon, than I trust that the people of this region won't elect them to the position. And what if a moderator had a vendetta against a member, and put them on for no good reason? That wouldn't be fair to that member to keep him from holding office or voting.
Though this has a good intent, there isn't one part of it that I can agree with. I urge all members of the Assembly to vote "Nay" on the final vote.

[tmthforu94]

I still don't think this law is necessary.  We are usually busy debating other legislation; we don't need to take up time debating legislation that is 3 years old.

Meh, the activity of this Assembly has decreased a lot. Actually, I think the decrease has started ever since we switched to a 5-member Assembly. This bill would help us eliminate useless bills, and would increase activity.

[tmthforu94]

I think a possible compromise would be reducing the number of Assemblymen to 4 and creating a Lt. Governor. If there ever happened to be a tie in the Assembly, the Lt. Governor would break the tie. This would make Assembly elections more competitive, and would mean another contested election, which could potentially boost regional activity.