Mideast Region Senator's Thread

[MasterJedi]

Well since I'm the Mideast's Senator and I'll be working on new legislation. I will post what I'm working on and going to introduce in the next Senate session. I'll also go with what I would vote on things too.

Legislation Voting

Nuclear Restriction Amendment (Sam Spades)-Aye

Legislation I'm working on/will introduce


Atlasian Regions Amendment

I.   Regions
1.   The former regions of Atlasia are hereby disbanded.
2.   The new regions of Atlaisa are now the Pacific, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Southeast.
A.   Pacific: Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Colorado
B.   Midwest: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. 
C.   Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia and D.C.
D.   Southeast: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
E.   Northeast: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island
II.   Regions Constitutions
1.   The new regions of Atlasia may choose to adopt an old regions constitution or write a new one
2.   All constitutions from all former regions shall be put up to a vote for the citizens of the new region along with the option of None of the Above.
3.   For any constitution to come into power a simple majority is all that is needed from each new region. Also the same is in effect for NOTA.
4.   Any propositions that have passed on an adopted constitution shall come into power a long with it.
5.   If NOTA passes all propositions that have passed on any old constitutions but are not written into the new constitution shall be put on the ballet along with the new constitution for a vote.
III.   Elections
1.   Any office holder in Atlasia shall stay in office until they’re term expires then they shall seek re-election from their new region.
2.  If any office shall fall vacant before the old term expires there shall be a special election held from the old region until the next scheduled election.
3.  If after an election cycle a region would still be Governerless that region shall have a special election held to elect a new Governer.
IV.   Region Lock
1.   No state shall be locked into any one region.
2.   Each state has the right to switch region as long as the entire population of said state signs a petition for movement.


2005 Puerto Rican Statehood Bill

I.   The commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are hereby the 51st state of the union of the Atlasia with the name of Puerto Rico.
II.   The Senate shall vote on which region/district Puerto Rico shall be designated into.
III.   The State of Puerto Rico shall be given full rights from whichever district/region it’s placed into and be under full jurisdiction of the Atlasian constitution.


Alaskan Forestry Prevention

I.   All forests in the state of Alaska are hereby under the protection of the federal government for the prevention of forestry.
II.   Any company found illegally cutting trees shall be tried and charged fairly by the courts of Atlasia.

[MasterJedi]

You're still the Senator of District 3, not of the Mideast Region.

Well I'm just doing this so I don't confuse people when I'm running for re-election.

[MasterJedi]

It's fixed, King made a map before while I was talking to him and he can supply it!

I'm only working on one more piece of legislation which will be my last, it's to lower the drinking age to 18.

[MasterJedi]

Yes that was very helpful, thanks Joe!

[MasterJedi]

No the number of regions/districts is fine the way it is, we don't need to get really crazy by changing that!

I'd just like to say that nowhere does it say that Pennsylvania would have to be in the Northeast. New York is still very populous and to have 5 regions different we needed another populous state to be in the Mid-Atlantic for it to work!

[MasterJedi]

There was a long debate at the Constitution Convention before I got there over this particular issue:  as to the states in which Regions and as to how many there were.

Ironically, most of the people opposed to the 5 Region system wanted to have more Senators, like 12 and either squeeze the Regions down to 4 or up to 6.

Logically, the most widely supported of the two was squeexing the Regions down to 4, iirc, but it didn't have much support then, so the 5 Region system held, quite strongly I might add.

There probably isn't momentum to change it, but I could be wrong in my estimation of that.

what about there being momentum to change at least the boundaries of the regions as Sen. Jedi here is proposing?  i sense there is support for changing it, but i do not know whether there is enough to overcome Sen. Colin's rigid insistence that Pennsylvania be in the Northeast region -and not in the Mid-Atlantic. 

There's momentum, this only needs one more vote to be passed next session. Including my vote there's 5 others so there's a grand total of 6 and there needs t obe 7 to pass an amendment.

[MasterJedi]

I think everybody is jumping into this far too fast, and I'll raise exactly the same objections that I did at the Convention:

Any significant change of boundaries in the Midwest/Mideast/Northeast area (i.e. as proposed here) will be problematic from a legal standpoint - What happens to the Laws and Constitutions already passed by these Regions.

Either they will have their Constitution and Laws invalidated, thus destroying good work by quite a few people (I openly admit my own vested interest given my work in the Mideast), or Laws will be placed on large bodies of voters who never consented to them or had any part in agreeing to. Either way, a degree of sacrifice is necessary by whoever is involved in the changes for a plan that I am not convinced has any perceivable gains.

I'm not really sure why people want to change the Regions in this dramatic way: The Regions were never meant to have evenly distributed population, they are meant as a geographical area that holds its own body of Laws, something that may have to be reset in order for these changes to viably go through.

Then of course, this map will actually have the effect of throwing two Governors into one Region and leave one Region Governorless. The plan that has been laid down has singularly failed to address this very important issue - If you must present such a dramatic change, you must also present the plan for the transition with it, otherwise we'll be up the creek without a paddle if it goes into effect without proper consideration.

Presently the plan is ill-conceived simply because it doesn't have its details worked out. Anybody who votes for it in its present form would be reckless and irresponsible because really, you don't know what you would be voting for.

I added another part to the elections clause. And the regions get to vote on the constitution that they want.  You say they don't get to choose their laws but they do, the voting bodies go out and choose the constitution they want! And anyways this will have changes when it gets to the Senate floor anyway!

[MasterJedi]

Bump. How will you justify voting to cut education and child care funding? Are you showing off your conservatism for the sake of it? Also it doesn't seem your reelection campaign aims to unite the voters of our district.

Wow Dean I take it to seem that you're a little bitter. Please correct me if I'm wrong though. I doubt Texasgurl could unite the voters more than myself, Kodratos and M&C.