The Atlasian Sentinel

[Napoleon]

It has been brought to my attention that this was not an isolated incident. The President should resign.

[Rowan]

Finally something interesting going on in Atlasia!

[tmthforu94]

Finally something interesting going on in Atlasia!

My whole intent.

[Barnes]

Sue! Sue! Sue!

Also, it doesn't matter to me who wins the Senate race. But the law should be served. And knowing Marokai, I think he'd agree.

[Antonio the Sixth]

OMG, what a sh*tstorm...

Whatever has actually happened, I'm confident in my friend Tmthforu's good faith and I hope all this story will be resolved in a mature and rational way. Of course if the law has been broken there needs to be a trial. And I just hope the final election result won't be determinated by such a regrettable incident.

[Insula Dei]

If tmth is condemned, does that mean I automatically become a Senator?

[tmthforu94]

If tmth is condemned, does that mean I automatically become a Senator?

No. Even if a case has been brought against me, I don't know of any law that says you can't be certified the winner of an election if you have a lawsuit against you. If I never take office, A-Bob would appoint someone to the seat. If I take office, then have to vacate it, A-Bob would still appoint someone to the seat.

[ZuWo]

If tmth is condemned, does that mean I automatically become a Senator?

I could imagine that a special election would be held, or the Governor of the Mideast could appoint a Senator. I hope both measures won't be necessary, though.

[homelycooking]

A disgusting scene, really. Does Marokai have any comment?

[Marokai Backbeat]

A disgusting scene, really. Does Marokai have any comment?

I've been away for the day until now. Lots of family issues going on around home.

First off I just want to make it clear that I PMed alot of people to vote, but I backed off if they weren't going to vote for me and just moved on to other people. Any attempt to try and connect this to me would be silly.

If Tmth sent a PM to Jake within the first 20 minutes of his vote to try and get him to change his vote, then I see nothing inappropriate. There's been cases in the past where people have PMed individuals to change their vote and they didn't change it in time or didn't realize the time constraints. Jake, in particular, has always seemed a little.. off the wall himself anyway. I otherwise know nothing about the details of what went on behind the scene.

[Lambsbread]

Jake, in particular, has always seemed a little.. off the wall himself anyway.

How so?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Jake, in particular, has always seemed a little.. off the wall himself anyway.

How so?

You're just young, that's all.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

Poll: Which Would You Prefer?
By Tmthforu94

For the past three days, the Atlasian Sentinel has been running a poll, asking citizens if they preferred a hotly contested election or one where their candidate easily won. The results are in!

65% of those polled said they prefer competitive elections, while just 29% preferred where their candidate easily won. 6% said they didn't like either. This is just about what I expected, though I'm sure the numbers would be much different if this was about a race you were actually in, not just someone you supported.

An interesting observation - those who would rather their candidate win easily must not feel comfortable sharing this, as no one who made a reply said they preferred this race. Everyone who responded were either not sure or preferred competitive elections.

While cakewalks may be relieving to the candidate (I speak from experience), contested elections are certainly much better for the game - turnout is higher and more are interested in the game. I can't imagine how inactive this last election would have been if I didn't have my scandal!

You can visit the poll by clicking here.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

President-elect Polnut Begins Assembling Cabinet
By Tmthforu94

Yesterday, President-elect Polnut began one of the most difficult processes a President must endure - assembling a cabinet. One of the most unenjoyable parts for me as President was the whole cabinet thing. Don't get me wrong, it's very essential for a cabinet, but difficult to assemble.

Back in February, when I was assembling my cabinet (I feel like this is shop class), there was only one position where I had multiple people contact me about. And for many positions, I had to personally recruit people to take a spot.

During my administration, I went through 3 Attorney General's, 2 Secretary of Internal Affairs, and 2 Game Moderator's. Almost every time a position became vacant, I had to personally reach out to anyone who I thought may be interested in it - no one ever really came to me. I've contacted quite a few people for the SoIA position, and not one of them would take it.

Napoleon, along with others, have stated many times we need to reduce the size of the cabinet, and that would honestly be great. The big problem with that, though, is when we merge positions, people won't take want to fill the spots. If we merged the SoFE and RG, like it used to be, we'd once again have extreme difficulties in filling the position and would be often stuck with people who couldn't always keep up. Probably the most important thing The Game Moderator Reform Act of 2011 did was make the GM position more desirable by giving it less power. Go figure.

President-elect Polnut: Congratulations! It's relieving to know I'll be handing the power over to someone who is just as dedicated to this game as I am. I'm going to give you a warning though - don't be surprised if you'll have several cabinet vacancies throughout your term. I thought I had a stellar cabinet too when I first announced it, but vacancies occurred within weeks of my swearing in.

For anyone who may be interested, here is the beginning of The Polnut Administration!

President - Polnut
Vice President - Bacon King
SoFE - Teddy
RG - Hans
SoEA - Benconstine
SoIA - Barnes
AG - TBD
Game Moderator - RowanBrandon
MG - TBD
Game Reform Panel (Great idea, btw) - Marokai Blue, BelgianSocialist

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Yay!  I'm essentially Atlasia's version of Bob Gates!

[Napoleon]

Yay!  I'm essentially Atlasia's version of Bob Gates!

HP, as I would vote for any other warmonger.

[tmthforu94]

Yay!  I'm essentially Atlasia's version of Bob Gates!

Freedom Fighter

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Yay!  I'm essentially Atlasia's version of Bob Gates!

HP, as I would vote for any other warmonger.

Wait, I'm a warmonger?  That seems a bit harsh, Senator.

[Napoleon]

Yay!  I'm essentially Atlasia's version of Bob Gates!

HP, as I would vote for any other warmonger.

Wait, I'm a warmonger?  That seems a bit harsh, Senator.

I was simply posting my opinion of Robert Gates, someone I wouldn't like to compare myself to, although I understand you were basing the comparison off of the caregiver.

I haven't seen you warmonger but if I recall you called for harsh action against Libya. That may have been someone else though, as I was relatively new.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I haven't seen you warmonger but if I recall you called for harsh action against Libya. That may have been someone else though, as I was relatively new.

So calling for tough action and the removal of a brutal dictator is warmongering?  Good to know.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

Voters Find SoEA Least Importation Position
By Tmthforu94

Over the course of three days, The Atlasian Sentinel conducted a poll to find out which cabinet position Atlasians felt was the least important.

13 citizens cast their vote, and the position that has been voted least important is the Secretary of External Affairs, which received 54% of the vote. Coming in second was the Secretary of Internal Affairs, with 31%, followed by the SoFE and AG, both receiving 8% of the vote.

As I promised in the poll, I'll state my own vote, which was actually in a minority here - I voted for SoIA. I actually find all positions to be fairly important to the game, but I feel that both the SoEA and SoIA are positions we could theoretically live without. Of those two, I have to vote for SoIA, considering over time, the SoIA has had less relevance. My opinion of this position could change, however, with Barnes as SoIA. Barnes shows real promise to the position, and hopefully thanks to the Game Moderator Reform Act of 2011, introduced by my administration, he'll be able to fully bring the SoIA position into relevance.

On top of my vote for SoIA, I expected SoIA to narrowly edge out SoEA, but it looks like I was wrong. It's tough to determine how this reflects Atlasia as a whole though, considering less than 10% of the population votes in it.

You can visit the poll by clicking here.

(I look forward to SoEA Benconstine's response to this )

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I mean, I've always known this was the public view; look at how little attention my posts get.  And SoEA rotates between me and Hashemite, essentially - the last time neither of us held the job was in March of 2010.  We're the only ones willing to take this job, apparently.

My biggest problem is getting people to give a damn; if more people cared, and there was more activity, then SoEA would become much more important.  So yeah, given the level of attention paid to it now, SoEA has a big problem - that nobody cares.  I've done my best to change that, and last Senate clearly paid some level of attention; I hope that is indicative of more activity in the future.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

Marokai Blue Takes Over as Game Moderator
By Tmthforu94

Yesterday, the Senate voted to confirm former Attorney General, Senator, Supreme Court Justice, Vice President (did I miss anything?) Marokai Blue by a vote of 6-2-1. This was certainly not a party line vote, as Antonio, Yankee, Officepark, Fuzzy, Duke, and Snowguy voted in favor, while Napoleon and Shua voted against. Bgwah abstained. The Atlasian Sentinel finds Marokai Blue very qualified for the position, and wonders what the breakdown would have been if Marokai Blue was in the JCP or even UDL.

Marokai has gotten off to a hot start as Game Moderator, giving us a budget update, tax brackets, unemployment numbers, and other financial news. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up. The future looks bright in Atlasian storytelling, with Marokai Blue, Barnes, and Benconstine all hard at work. We look forward to seeing the progress that is made in the coming months.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

Polnut Starts Presidency With Strong Approval Ratings
By Tmthforu94

For the past three days, the Atlasian Sentinel ran a poll to determine the approval ratings of President Polnut. The answer is clear - the honeymoon is clearly not over yet for Polnut. Over 69% of Atlasians approval of the job President Polnut is doing, while 13% disapprove. Nearly half of Atlasia, 44%, strongly approve of the job Polnut is doing.

Polnut has clearly started off well, staying active, making several speeches, assembling a strong cabinet, and starting a game reform committee. It is my hopes that Polnut keeps it up. It'll be interesting to see if Polnut's upcoming tax proposal does anything to his ratings, as well as other policy goals the President has.

[tmthforu94]

The Atlasian Sentinel

Interview with Senate Candidate JBrase
By Tmthforu94

Thank you, JBrase, for your willingness to participate in a debate. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get all of the candidates together for one, so I'll just have to give you an interview instead.


Tmthforu94: What led you to your decision to run in this Special Election?

JBrase: I saw this as a chance to help bring activity back to the Senate. I also see this as an opertunity to help in efforts to reform Atlasia into a much more pleasant and prosperous place for all.

Tmthforu94: You speak of activity, however, during my administration, you had to step down just weeks after taking the position of SoIA due to lack of activity. I don't think any stories were ever published under your reign. How can we trust that you'll be fully devoted to your job and will stay active the remainder of your term?

JBrase: When I had accepted the postion I felt I would be able to have the time to do the job justice. However due to work and classes I was much less active than I would have liked, so out of respect for that office I would have rather resigned than continue to let the office go to waste. I do not have the issues with time as I once did and for that I will not allow myself to simply show up for final votes on bills, but to be an active participant.

Tmthforu94: That's good to hear. What would you say will be your top legislative goal if you're in the Senate? Do you have plans to introduce pieces of legislation while in the Senate?

JBrase: Well I have two that come to mind:
1. Allow the Regions to run their own Senate elections.
2. Give the people more influence in Presidential nominations.
   
That second one I have already started paving the way for in the form of my recently passed IDS law, the "Our Opinions Matter Dag Nabbit! Act" which has the IDS legislature hold a vote on whether or not we approve of the nominee, the results would then be handed to the senate with a brief statement from the winning side of the vote.

Tmthforu94: Tonight President Polnut unveiled his plans for cutting government spending, as well as a mixture of tax hikes and cuts. Thoughts on it?

JBrase: From what I have seen, I applaud the President's efforts to reign in spending without massive lay-offs. This is a good start and I support his efforts.

Tmthforu94: In President Polnut's address, he also brought up tax increases for the higher-brackets, who many on the right would argue are already paying insanely high prices. Would you support raising their taxes more?

JBrase: Not at all, but at the same time I am not calling for 0% tax either. I would like to see the taxes lower and flatter, but that simply cannot happen until the spending is reduced first.

Tmthforu94: Is there a specific area of government you'd like to see reduced?

JBrase: Well across the board every part of government can find some area to save money, but I would focus on defense spending to find the deepest cuts.

Tmthforu94: If you win this special election, do you plan on running for a full term in August?

JBrase: If I do happen to win, and voters seem to approve of time in office then it would not be out of the question.

Tmthforu94: Do you have plans to join a political party in the near future, or even create your own?

JBrase: I had thought of creating a party in the past, for independent minded Atlasians focused on reform, but there did not seem to be much interest in a new party. I am happy as an Indy, and if elected as an independent, I promise to remain independent of party throughout my term.

Tmthforu94: One final question, not really related to Atlasia...Casey Anthony, guilty, or innocent?

JBrase: The jury found her not guilty. So, regardless of whether she commuted the crime if not, she is not guilty. If she is innocent however is not and will likely never be known.

Tmthforu94: Thank you, JBrase. It was a pleasure interviewing you.

JBrase: Thank you for the interview my good sir. I only regret not being able to debate with the others.

...

If any other Senate candidates would like to be interviewed, even though the election begins very very soon, please contact me ASAP and we can work something out.