Northeast Assembly Thread

[homelycooking]

I prefer accomplishing what needs to be done even if I don't like the sponsor of the law.

That was unnecessary. Our personal relationship has nothing to do with this.

Cincinnatus has the right idea as to specifying which rights Section 1 refers to. I would support those changes, and I believe that section 2 of the amendments needs to be repealed outright.

Also, the original NE Gun Safety Act contains this section:

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Unless you'd like to address this in your bill, Napoleon, I am willing to introduce legislation that would make "check customer identity" more clear - presumably by writing in references to driver's licenses, identification cards and the like. As it stands, salespersons are not explicitly required to use any documents at all to verify a customer's identity.

[Napoleon]

@hc: that bit was not at all meant to refer to you.

@Marokai: offering amendments usually works better than acting like a third grader in this Assembly.

Anyone else think that holding debate open longer at hc's request expecting an amendment or something is just terrible inactivity on my part?

[Cincinnatus]

Well.. I don't wrong you for waiting in expectations for an amendment.  We should however, try and stick to a timeline when someone requests a 24 hour extension.

My amendment is as follows regarding section 1;

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[homelycooking]

I never intended to propose an amendment to Napoleon's bill when I requested the extension of the debate - I only wanted to make sure that the discussion we were having was not abruptly terminated. I do, however, want to propose an amendment to the original NE Gun Safety Act, but since the bill being considered amends the amendments to the original bill and not the bill itself, it wouldn't be fitting to bring it up here.

[Napoleon]

Well.. I don't wrong you for waiting in expectations for an amendment.  We should however, try and stick to a timeline when someone requests a 24 hour extension.

My amendment is as follows regarding section 1;

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Accepted. Unless there's anything else, I will have a final amendment before the vote.

[Cincinnatus]

I have no further amendments to offer but, is this passable with Section 2 as it currently is?  It seems Marokai, Jake, and HC are rather set against it.

[Napoleon]

I guess we have a final vote. 24 hours.

[Lambsbread]

I'm with Marokai.

I vote Nay.

It seems superfluous to over make an already complex legal system even more intricate.

Once more.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Nay

[Napoleon]

Aye

[homelycooking]

Nay

[Cincinnatus]

Aye

[Napoleon]

This bill fails.

[Napoleon]

Call to Vote Amendment

Section 3 of the Standing Order on Legislative Procedure is hereby amended with the addition of a sub-section (i), as follows:

(i) The Speaker of the Assembly shall notify all members of the Assembly via private message of an ongoing vote on the floor of the Assembly no later than one hour after the commencement of the voting period.   

We will now open the floor to debate this bill.

[homelycooking]

I designed that bill to have no real enforcement mechanism so that speakers aren't held responsible for looking after the duties of elected assemblymen. I just thought that since participation in Assembly affairs this past term was often sporadic, an informal measure like this might help.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I think something like this is essential for all legislatures. The most important person in any legislative body in Atlasia is the person running that legislative body. We place in them our trust that the legislature will continue moving forward seamlessly, and with as much activity as possible. Responsibilities like this for the Speaker of the Northeast Assembly is a no brainer, to me, and I hope that it passes easily, as it should.

[Napoleon]

I disagree with the basis for this law. The Speaker is not meant to be Babysitter.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I disagree with the basis for this law. The Speaker is not meant to be Babysitter.

It's a title of work that has responsibilities, not a title of prestige that's meant to be flaunted. Being a Speaker, or any other legislative equivalent (such as PPT for the federal Senate) is, by any fair assessment, the caretaker of the legislature. I suppose we could amend the resolution to include a more lenient time frame, though, but I hardly think it's unfair to encourage members, which the Speaker presides over, to vote.

[Cincinnatus]

I wouldn't support stringent enforcement upon the Speaker to tell Assembly members to do their job.  This bill doesn't seem to do so, and because it does not, I'm sorry to say that I see little purpose in it except formalities.  I don't think it's the duty of the Speaker to encourage the Assembly to follow through on their duties.  Perhaps if the size of the Assembly is reduced, those that fail to participate will no longer plague this Assembly. 

[Napoleon]

Being Speaker has responsibilities?! Never would have guessed that on my own.

All this bill does is shift responsibility away from other members and discourage participation in debate. Who needs to participate in discussion when a nifty little message will arrive telling when to vote each time?

Every Representative has responsibilities.

[homelycooking]

I wouldn't support stringent enforcement upon the Speaker to tell Assembly members to do their job.  This bill doesn't seem to do so, and because it does not, I'm sorry to say that I see little purpose in it except formalities.  I don't think it's the duty of the Speaker to encourage the Assembly to follow through on their duties.  Perhaps if the size of the Assembly is reduced, those that fail to participate will no longer plague this Assembly. 

In the coming session of this legislature, we will most likely have four assemblymen - a majority of this body - who did not run for their office and merely wrote themselves in on the ballot. I, too, would prefer that this amendment to SOAP be made unnecessary by a reduction in the size of the Assembly, but that is not the case. In such a situation, I believe that it is preferable to encourage absentee legislators to participate via a PM call to vote than to wait until they have missed three votes before throwing them out. To my mind, it is better to attempt to do something constructive with our execrable situation than to fall back on the punishments intended for a less dysfunctional legislature.

If it is agreeable to anyone, I would be willing to change the text of my amendment from "ongoing vote" to "ongoing debate", since Napoleon's comment about reliance on calls to vote as an excuse to avoid debate is a relevant and important one. I realize that this won't solve the "babysitter" role that he has inveighed against, but perhaps it will nonetheless achieve the result that I'm trying to bring about.

[Lambsbread]

I disagree with the basis for this law. The Speaker is not meant to be Babysitter.

Whie this is true and I agree with this, it takes less than 2 seconds to send a PM that could create more activity. I ran for Governor on the platform of improving Legislative activity, so if this bill helps, I'm all for it.

[Napoleon]

I disagree with the basis for this law. The Speaker is not meant to be Babysitter.

Whie this is true and I agree with this, it takes less than 2 seconds to send a PM that could create more activity. I ran for Governor on the platform of improving Legislative activity, so if this bill helps, I'm all for it.

It doesn't help though.

It takes less than. 2 seconds to check the thread themselves. Remember there is a limit to the number of PMs one can send within a certain period.

[Napoleon]

I wouldn't support stringent enforcement upon the Speaker to tell Assembly members to do their job.  This bill doesn't seem to do so, and because it does not, I'm sorry to say that I see little purpose in it except formalities.  I don't think it's the duty of the Speaker to encourage the Assembly to follow through on their duties.  Perhaps if the size of the Assembly is reduced, those that fail to participate will no longer plague this Assembly. 

In the coming session of this legislature, we will most likely have four assemblymen - a majority of this body - who did not run for their office and merely wrote themselves in on the ballot. I, too, would prefer that this amendment to SOAP be made unnecessary by a reduction in the size of the Assembly, but that is not the case. In such a situation, I believe that it is preferable to encourage absentee legislators to participate via a PM call to vote than to wait until they have missed three votes before throwing them out. To my mind, it is better to attempt to do something constructive with our execrable situation than to fall back on the punishments intended for a less dysfunctional legislature.

If it is agreeable to anyone, I would be willing to change the text of my amendment from "ongoing vote" to "ongoing debate", since Napoleon's comment about reliance on calls to vote as an excuse to avoid debate is a relevant and important one. I realize that this won't solve the "babysitter" role that he has inveighed against, but perhaps it will nonetheless achieve the result that I'm trying to bring about.

That would be an improvement but I would still probably be opposed. This bill screams nanny state. We can't even expect our legislators to check a thread?

[Lambsbread]

I disagree with the basis for this law. The Speaker is not meant to be Babysitter.

Whie this is true and I agree with this, it takes less than 2 seconds to send a PM that could create more activity. I ran for Governor on the platform of improving Legislative activity, so if this bill helps, I'm all for it.

It doesn't help though.

It takes less than. 2 seconds to check the thread themselves. Remember there is a limit to the number of PMs one can send within a certain period.

Meh. This is true. Perhaps we could make an Amendment to the bill to allow the Governor to send the messages. I'd be happy to do so.