The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Deldem]

I'm ready to start if you guys are.

Thanks for waiting the last few days, I didn't get home until late Saturday night and was swamped with all the work I had to make up from the previous three days on Sunday.

[Deldem]

    Looks good. Two comments, though:

1) using the terms Legislator & Senator interchangeably without including a clause establishing that they are in fact interchangeable could cause confusion.

2) establishing rules on legislation, such as how long debate has to be open, how long various types of votes are open, &c. Probably should take care to establish a cloture requirement such that attaining cloture does not entail enough votes to override a veto, which would be difficult in such a small body. Maybe have two-thirds of Legislators plus the Lieutenant Governor voting in the affirmative to attain cloture.

I agree with these sentiments.

Also, I'd say the rules are all good, but that I don't really think Rule 2 is absolutely necessary.

[Deldem]

Yay.

[Deldem]

[X] PiT (The Physicist)

[Deldem]

     Alright. So everyone can see, I have proposed that clause 3b be amended to read: "The Region Clerk shall be appointed by the Governor at the beginning of his term, subject to the approval of the Southeast Legislature, and shall serve for a term of one year."

     Do any of my colleagues have objections to this amendment?

Works for me.

[Deldem]

I'd like to amend the Fair Voting Requirements Act:

4. There shall be a probationary period of one regional election before those who move to the region under the provisions of this Act are able to vote and hold office.

[Deldem]

I'd like to amend the Fair Voting Requirements Act:

4. There shall be a probationary period of one regional election before those who move to the region under the provisions of this Act are able to vote and hold office.

     Do you mean to say that someone who has been removed by the HAEV that comes to the Southeast will have to wait to be allowed to vote here? That might be wise, since if the HAEV removes a bunch of people & this is the only region to have such a law, they may end up all coming here.

That's exactly it, and exactly what I was thinking.

[Deldem]

     Aye on the bill & on both amendments.

Seconded.

[Deldem]

Sorry I wasn't online, I had a lot of homework. Anyway, PiT seems to have interpret this law correctly.

     In that case, I think we ought to narrow it down to property more, maybe looking at the text of real-life castle laws to phrase it precisely. I can give it a shot, or if you wish to you can take care of it.

I agree, even though the abortion thing is a stretch even in the current text.

[Deldem]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Special elections are out for now because now law has been passed regarding them. If SPC doesn't come back by a certain time I'll consider the seat vacated and appoint someone new. how much time should we give him?

I know my opinion technically no longer counts here, but maybe give him until the weekend?

I'd also like to apologize for not being present at the last vote- things were a little hectic a few days ago, and I couldn't really find any time. I didn't check the legislature page until the day after the vote. In addition, for some reason I couldn't log on at all the last 4 or 5 days.

I'd be willing to serve again, and hopefully perform better, should SPC not return in a timely manner. I'd say that my overall participation in Atlasia and in the Southeast would merit my consideration, should such a need arise.

[Deldem]

     I, deldem, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the Southeast against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me Dave.

[Deldem]

I think Nuevas Tejas is unnecessary. There's no compelling reason to make it. Unless you could tell me how things would be improved by splitting Texas, I can't support doing so.

[Deldem]

Nay

[Deldem]

     I re-introduced SPC's bill that failed to attain a quorum earlier. Hopefully we can get it passed now.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Just a question, is there any sort of similar law on the books already?

Also, let's say the would-be defender thinks that his neighbor's property is in danger. Is he allowed to shoot, if say the occupants aren't at home and he believes the police would be too slow? I only ask this because a similar case came up in Texas a few years back, and Texas being Texas, it was ruled legal.

[Deldem]

Did we ever finish looking at the abortion rights bill?

[Deldem]

Did we ever do anything about that prison problem the GM wrote about?

That's the first i've heard of it.

     Same here. I guess that means we didn't do anything about it, then.

"A study of the region's prisons finds that 90% of non-free-range prisons are at or above capacity, with the remaining 10% nearly there. The packed prisons comes at a cost to both the taxpayers and the prisons, burdening the system with growing costs and making it difficult for prisons to account for all prison activities. The region should look into expanding capacity and staffing, lightening restrictions on free-range prisons or reducing penalties for some non-violent crimes."

This I believe is the prison problem.
Perhaps we could do a combination of the suggestions? I'd reduce penalties for drug user offenses for one and increase staff/maybe build a new prison or two. Early release program for the well behaved could also be good.
Also, not sure if anybody knew offhand, but what are the current rules on free-range prisons? Maybe we could revise some of the prison rules there.

[Deldem]

I think the edit to the abortion act is ok, though I still would like to get some of what was on the table for the proposed initiative awhile back passed as well.

[Deldem]

I think the edit to the abortion act is ok, though I still would like to get some of what was on the table for the proposed initiative awhile back passed as well.

     As would I, though that would take time that could be spent addressing the prison issues. I think we should address the major flaw in the abortion statute for now & look it over again later.

Fair enough. I think that after those 2 things are addressed we should immediately return to the bill from earlier, unless something more pressing arises.

[Deldem]

Aye

[Deldem]

     As I said earlier, I would like to add other provisions to this bill in order to deal with the prison overcrowding problem. Ideas, colleagues?

I think the drug provisions discussed earlier would be a good start.
Perhaps shorter sentences for non-violent crime in general?
Oh, is prostitution legal in the Southeast? If not, that's something to consider as well.
And we could expand eligibility for free-range prisons.

[Deldem]

     Shorter sentences for non-violent crime sounds good, perhaps a truncated 20% decrease on prison time?

      Prostitution is legal in all of Atlasia, per the Legalization of Prostitution Act. Terms for solicitation are short enough that I think everyone who was convicted of it before the passage of that law has been long since released.

     As for free-range prisons, I don't really know much about them. If you could write an amendment to that effect, I would be most grateful.

I don't really know much either, just know that we have them. Does anybody know who authored that bill? It's not in the wiki, so I'm not sure who is covered by the act.

I'd be more than happy to write it up, if we could find out who is covered in the first place.

[Deldem]

Alright, I found the Free Range Prison Act, and have amended it slightly:

Free-Range Prison Reform Act of 2010
1. Article 3.1 of the Free Range Prison Initiative is amended to read:
"Only criminals convicted of a felony with a sentence of five years or greater may be sent to this facility."
2. Article 3.5 shall be added to the Free Range Prison Initiative:
"All criminals convicted of a felony with at least five years left in their sentence shall be considered for placement in a free range prison, should they meet all previous requirements stated."

Original Text of Free Range Prison Act here: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=72914.0

[Deldem]

     How about I accept that as sections 2 & 3 of this bill & change the title of this bill to the Prison Reform Bill of 2010?

I'm fine with that, though maybe we should also have another article giving a blanket reduction of prison time to all those convicted of non-violent crime as well.

[Deldem]

     Agreed. I suggested a truncated reduction of 20% earlier. How about truncate it to the next week if the sentence is less than one year & the next month if it is more than one year?

That'll probably be good; if you'd like, make that section 4, and I think we've got ourselves a bill.

[Deldem]

I think we're probably ok with that bill. I can't think of anything else to add.