The Atlasian Sentinel

[Marokai Backbeat]

Good to see one my campaign ideas was implemented...

I was going to introduce the "Secretary of the Senate" idea, but I figured since it was Hashemite's idea, I didn't want to look like a thief.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Good to see one my campaign ideas was implemented...

I was going to introduce the "Secretary of the Senate" idea, but I figured since it was Hashemite's idea, I didn't want to look like a thief.

The Secretary of the Senate idea was my idea, not Hashemite. He just had the idea of the noticeboard.

Oh, damn, I'm getting nothing straight today

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'm curious as to why a socially conservative economically liberal pseudo-southern populist would support a west coast socially liberal free-trader, but not much ever makes sense here in Atlasia-land.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'm curious as to why a socially conservative economically liberal pseudo-southern populist would support a west coast socially liberal free-trader, but not much ever makes sense here in Atlasia-land.

Because he believes that PiT will be more active and knowledgeable on the issues (my opinion).

Ben would vote for a kitchen appliance if it was endorsed by the RPP.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'm curious as to why a socially conservative economically liberal pseudo-southern populist would support a west coast socially liberal free-trader, but not much ever makes sense here in Atlasia-land.

Because he believes that PiT will be more active and knowledgeable on the issues (my opinion).

Ben would vote for a kitchen appliance if it was endorsed by the RPP.

Thanks Marokai, Now I know "what" we can run in the Pacific against MaxQue.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Good interview. Especially fond of the last question, getting into the fun politics of the game.

I know I'm not part of any exciting races at the moment, but I'm always up for an interview.

As am I This is shaping up to be an excellent newspaper, I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Excellent!

I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised.

In truth I am a little bit as well.

Well, I will be conducting an interview with somebody tomorrow (not a government official), but I would certainly like to interview all you senators, especially as things quiet down in the off season.

My PM box is always open! I promise to make plenty of controversial remarks to get you lots of traffic.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Excellent!

I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised.

In truth I am a little bit as well.

Well, I will be conducting an interview with somebody tomorrow (not a government official), but I would certainly like to interview all you senators, especially as things quiet down in the off season.

My PM box is always open! I promise to make plenty of controversial remarks to get you lots of traffic.

Mine is open as well. I probably will generate some controversy as well especially with the ideas I am cooking up .

I look forward to hearing them

[Marokai Backbeat]

I could give a good humorous interview if people are up for a good laugh.

How to Get A Girl In 10 Days
By Governor Duke

[Marokai Backbeat]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, actually, and that's partly my reason for my serious drop in activity in the convention. I've been thinking that we should simply take the constitution we have now, make simple edits, compile all passed amendments into the Constitution, expand the Senate by perhaps 5 seats, shrink the regions to perhaps three, and just go from there, as opposed to an entirely new government.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the status-quo crowd in terms of retaining the government we have now, but changes are needed and our current system just isn't going to cut it. We need a lot of serious alterations and there have been so many changes over the years that it makes our current constitution clumsy and disorganized. I think the best way to do that is a constitutional convention, but perhaps myself and the delegates should re-think our approach.

[Marokai Backbeat]

This proposal has been dead for about a month and a half basically, and I've been doing something thinking.

Activity in Atlasia has taken a jump, even though of course some of the activity is from The 25's, I think that an entirely new government has lost considerable support amongst the people and this convention's activity, including mine here, has dropped to a record low. As such, I think we need to re-think our approach. We still have considerable problems in Atlasia and the best way to fix them IS through this convention, but let's take our current system as our model and make some improvements here and there.

• Take our current Constitution and combine it with all the passed Amendments so it's alot cleaner and more organized, and make some changes where necessary to deal with Regional Powers and other small areas, etc.
• Reduce the number of regions to three, the simplest way could be to divide the Midwest and the Mideast between the Pacific, Southeast, and Northeast regions. This still keeps the mode of some of the current regions but improves the system a bit.
• Expand the size of the Senate to 15, perhaps having two elected by each of the three new expanded (and consequently more active) regions, and the remaining six elected at-large.
• Deal with issues revolving around the GM, such as putting the position in the Constitution or putting it's responsibilities into a new job reminiscent of my "Department of Economic Affairs" or something.
• Fix other misc. problems such as Absentee voting, Presidential powers, or anything else we need to deal with.

We can do all of this within the framework of our current constitution without the need to build and entirely new government. So, if Lief is willing to hear me out, and PS is willing to possibly scrap and rebuild this proposal like we did with Presidential Universalism, I think we can fix Atlasia without building an entirely new house and get something we can all agree with.

Something I was thinking about and posted in the convention.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I made a bit of a typo with how to elect Senators. It could be two from each region and 9 at-large. Or three from each region and 6 at-large. Sorry.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I made a bit of a typo with how to elect Senators. It could be two from each region and 9 at-large. Or three from each region and 6 at-large. Sorry.

     9 at-large seems a little excessive to me for some reason. Never mind the inherent difficulty of passing a plan to reduce the number of regions.

I think there are enough of us who support shrinking the regions in combination with those who support eliminating them. If we can join forces through some compromise I'm sure we could overcome those who support five regions, which has been pretty much, a failure.

I support regional governments, but even I can see five regions have led to a couple good regions, and a couple HORRIBLE regions.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I have also been thinking bout this, less because I don't believe massive reforms are needed and more because activity in the Convention has all but disappeared.

However, what I have come to realize is that, while national reform may not be necessary on a large scale, the regions are in dire need of reform. Can this be done by the regions? Should the federal government step in and push these reforms? The questions are complicated and likely elicit strong feeling by most people one way or the other.

The truth is, a movement of citizens dedicated to regional reform is necessary to enact the reforms necessary, including elected regional legislatures and clear constitutions. There is no need to reduce the number of regions so long as there remains sufficient and sustained activity by members. I am willing to help any region that wishes to revamp its constitution.

That's a big leap though. It takes a lot to get & keep a region active. Five regions is too large a number and does ultimately been a failure in the grand scheme of things. A smaller number of regions would increase activity and competition.

[Marokai Backbeat]

     If we did four, we could have two Senators by each region, along with seven at-large. That would roughly approximate the current balance of regional vs. at-large in the Senate.

The issue doesn't seem to be national seats. There is barely competition for 10 Senators. Will there be any for 15?

How about we remove governors and lieutenant governors, create three person regional legislatures in every region that together form a House of Representatives and reduce the Senate to five.

The idea of creating two houses in a new bicameral system seems unnecessary. If we allowed people to hold two offices (regional and federal) then that would solve the problem, since regional offices largely don't hold the same importance.

EDIT: Also, keep in mind the whole idea here is to try and work within the system we have now.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Didn't we try districts before? We don't need to be too complicated here folks.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Guys, regional Senate elections, as evidence by the ones currently happening, are boring and awful. Why do we want more of them again?

Six months ago I might have agreed with you, but I think there are alot more people who would participate if given the chance and these elections aren't really unchallenged. The Mideast, Midwest, and Northeast each had at least two candidates for the seat. Duke ran for the Senate in the special election and probably would run for the Senate if there were other opportunities for him to do so. The Pacific is of course a special unfortunate case, but we would at least find more candidates, we have plenty of them.

The old canard of not being able to fill the spaces isn't so true now.

[Marokai Backbeat]

How about this:

Reduce the Senate to 5 at-large Senators, making sure all elections to the more prestigious body are exciting.

Create a House, with 15 members, 3 max from each region, made up of 3 members from each regional legislature (if they exist) to incentivize regional constitutional reform and activity.

Abolish regional executive and judicial branch.

Require national legislation to pass both chambers. All financial legislation must originate in the Senate. Other legislation can only be in one chamber at a time, may be amended by each chamber respectively, first by the originating chamber, then by the other, and finally again by the originating before it must be passed by the second chamber as it stands.

Would that just make sure that we have 5 really exciting elections and 15 really boring ones? I think now we're just trying to change and complicate everything again and go back to previously rejected proposals. I proposed a back-to-the-basics idea so we could work within the framework of what we have now, not just come up with something else entirely new.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I like regional governments.

As do I.

Ditto.

[Marokai Backbeat]

How about this:

Reduce the Senate to 5 at-large Senators, making sure all elections to the more prestigious body are exciting.

Create a House, with 15 members, 3 max from each region, made up of 3 members from each regional legislature (if they exist) to incentivize regional constitutional reform and activity.

Abolish regional executive and judicial branch.

Require national legislation to pass both chambers. All financial legislation must originate in the Senate. Other legislation can only be in one chamber at a time, may be amended by each chamber respectively, first by the originating chamber, then by the other, and finally again by the originating before it must be passed by the second chamber as it stands.

Would that just make sure that we have 5 really exciting elections and 15 really boring ones? I think now we're just trying to change and complicate everything again and go back to previously rejected proposals. I proposed a back-to-the-basics idea so we could work within the framework of what we have now, not just come up with something else entirely new.

Perhaps, but it would also free up people that hold high positions in the regions, such as justices, governors and lieutenant governors. My hope is that the regional legislatures are less competitive, sure, but also able to serve as an "introduction to Atlasia." It gets people involved in national politics, but forces them to do so through regional avenues. Also, regional legislatures with greater than three seats would have their own internal politics of who to send to the national level.

But you're really turning regional governments into skeleton crews. There's no reason to abolish regional executive and/or judicial branches, if you want to solve the problem all we need to do is allow people to serve in regional positions as well as federal ones if they choose to run for the Senate.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Why does your "Old Senate" only have 9 members?

By the way, relating to the whole Constitution problem, I've offered a major Amendment for consideration by the Senate. Feel free to tear it apart. Seriously though, I invite you all to jump into the debate when MasterJedi opens up the thread in the Government board. You guys are allowed to post in those deliberations and this is an important Amendment (that you will all, hopefully, ge tot vote on).

1. Ew.

2. We have a constitutional convention for these things, PS.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I support having a 10 member House. Maybe elected the 5 Senators based on Regions, and have a 10 member house elected based on STV (or better yet, MMP) with 2 month terms.

I'm sorry, but why? There's no need for those changes, you can establish pretty much the same thing just by changing some elections and tacking 5 more seats to the Senate.

I have no intention of going along with unnecessary change or shuffling.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Among those to not vote for the bill was Senator HappyWarrior(DA-MD), who said, "I like the bill but I think it violates the powers of the regions." He voted abstain. The only senator to vote nay on the bill was Senator Marokai (JCP-AZ) who, when questioned as to why he voted nay, said, "The bill, I think, unfortunately falls victim to the idea that if we make kids work, we can make all children scientists, mathematicians, astronauts, historians, football players, and so on, rather than giving all kids a basic education in all subjects, and focusing on what kids are most proficient in."

I appreciate you putting that in.

[Marokai Backbeat]

It took awhile, but it's an excellent decision. I'm quite happy that the Supreme Court made this ruling to say only what myself and others have been saying since the beginning.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Lord help me, he never gives up, does he?