Yankee, you're just making things difficult for my darling Duke.

I wouldn't really care personally, but in the words of a certain recent Vice President, "The rules do care".

Edit: While we are on the subject of your friend and lover (lame 60's song reference ftw), when is the VP gonna fill those slots like I asked him to three days ago?

[We have bad weather coming again to North Carolina very soon, so there might be some delay, unfortunately]

Final vote tomorrow if there are no further problems discovered. We have bad weather coming again to North Carolina very soon, so there might be some delay, unfortunately. In that case I want either Duke or Ben to start this vote if I haven't by noon tomorrow.

I f**king knew it!

3 days, 300-400 dollars worth of food and a stove. Time for smart grid bitches!


AYE

4-3-0-2

I think Hagrid and sbane haven't voted yet. I can't see all the votes on the page of the post box, because of the ongoing debate. Which is good of course, I mean good that the debate is occuring.

It just seems that I can't win with this bill for some reason. Every time I get close to being on track, something f**ks everything up.

Nix, talk to me now!


Not even evul corporate suits and their incompetent managmenet of the power restoration following tha sh**t storm will protect you from me.

[Getting Guns Off Our Streets Act]

Getting Guns Off Our Streets Act

1. $500,000,000 is hereby appropriated to the Treasury Department for the purposes of establishing a handgun buyback program.

2. Rewards for individual submissions of handguns to this program shall be distributed in $100, $200, or $300 increments.

3. All guns collected through this program shall be dismantled, and the parts destroyed.

4. There shall be a limit of ten cash rewards per citizen, though no limit on overall submissions.

Sponsor: Averroës Nix

Vote on the Same Day Registration Amendment:

Aye (5): HagridoftheDeep, Kalwejt, Napoleon, NC Yankee, and sbane
Nay (4): Αverroës Nix, Ben, MaxQue and Snowstalker
Abstain (0):

Didn't Vote (0):

Vacant Seats (1): jdb.

The amendment has failed to achieve Senate passage.

[Mt. Atlasmore Act]

What the hell people?

Vote on Amendment 55:12 by Ben:

Aye (3): Αverroës Nix, Ben, MaxQue
Nay (4): Kalwejt, Napoleon, NC Yankee and sbane
Abstain (2): HagridoftheDeep and Snowstalker

Didn't Vote (0):
Vacant Seats (1): jdb

The amendment has failed.

Mt. Atlasmore Act

A national park shall be created near Keystone, Vitality, Most Serene Republic of the Midwest.

$10 million is appropriated to finance the construction of a stone carving featuring the faces of four great Atlasian Presidents who shall be selected by a special committee composing one member selected by the President, one by the Senate and one by the Midwest government.

Only former Presidents that were absent from Atlas Forum for more than a year shall be considered.

Sponsor Feedback: Hostile
Status: A vote is now open one Amendment 55:13 by Kalwejt, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain

We do not have Adolf Hitler Day celebrated as a holiday, we do not honor the British monarchy and Mussolini doesn't get honored with a day in his name anywhere in this nation. We do, however, have locales that believe that a man such as Robert E. Lee deserves a day in his honor. A traitor, a racist, a killer. These areas have the nerve to celebrate a man who fought to preserve slavery instead of Martin Luther King Jr Day. What does this say about our country?

I have no issue with defunding "Robert E. Lee Day", I even said that in the previous communication. I just want a clear list of leaders, so it can't be used to defund various Confederate soldiers which just had the bad luck to live in the wrong area of the World during that War.

Also, it doesn't consider at all the actions made by men after the War, when they may have redeemed themselves. And what is a "Confederate concept"? Are Line item vetoes and regional autonomy are Confederate concepts? It's in the Confederate Constitution, after all.

It's so badly worded than it's way overreaching.

If it just defunded Lee Day of federal money, I wouldn't care either. The problem is that it doesn't just defund that but everything that receives federal support that such gov't entity is doing. It is excessive and I don't think that such conditions have ever been placed on federal funding in such a broad sweeping way for such a trivial matter really. Typically it is a condition of a related funding mechanism (highway funding - speed limit, and I think dringing age; education funding - curriculum changes). A system I find rather reasonable because it is narrowly within that issues spending and basically says if you use our education money then you better follow these speficied standards for education. It is a system I have utilized in bills before. In a similar fashion is denying funds to a region that abuses the money or misappropriates it, that is a reasonable standard as well. However, this setup is basically going back and saying, "You know all that money we been giving you, you betterlet us dictate your holidays, unless you are prepared to deal with out it, any of it".

It gets worse then that, and opens the door to the very things I warned about on the previous page. So if a gray uniform is a "confederate concept" that anyone who celebrates the cadets at West Point and VMI (the origination of the gray uniform if I am not mistaken) is going to lose all their federal money? Not to mention the MA regiment at First Manassas who arrived on the field in grey (and yes they paid for it immensly), just because some bureaucrat with a blank check to do what whatever he wants under this text can now shut down evey school in MA or maybe even the Northeast should they choose to celebrate this unfortunate regiment. 

The important thing was the setting the model and tone for future Presidents. Depending on who else might have been in his place, America might look very different today.

[Schuyler Colfax (R)]

Frederick Muhlenberg (P-A/A-A) vs. Schuyler Colfax (R)
Tip O'Neill (D) vs. Newt Gingrich (R)

You have a fairly free hand from what I can gather to "force" action however you want Mr. Chairman.

Also, PM your members about the vote so it gets done quickly and don't take any excuses.


Psycho Chairman can be just arousing as being psycho Pro Temp. I know from "experience".

I thought there was a coalition in the NEB legislation for doing this as well. What happened to that?

We have had an activity problem on the court to be sure; however, from what I can see Justice bgwah has been the more active of the three in some ways and while his public and very partisan presence in Atlasian society has had the effect of turning him into a left wing Clarence Thomas, it has had the effect of keeping him around and I don't reckon that it has affected his jurisprudence, nor do I see any reason to doubt his capibilities as a justice, therefore I don't think he should be impeached at this present juncture.

3-1-2-3


And here we come with with the abstention brigade again. SUN BRIGADE, CHARGE BAYONETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NAY]

NAY

[The Monday following the Super Bowl]

SECTION I: List of holidays
1.The list of holidays observed as federal holidays shall include:

    New Year's Day (January 1; shall be observed on Monday should the first fall on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)
    Inauguration Day (all applicable Atlasian inauguration dates)
    The Monday following the Super Bowl
    International Women's Day (March 8th)
    Conservation Day (Last Monday in April; a combination of Earth Day and Arbor Day)
    Emancipation Day (April 16)
    Labor Day (May 1st)
    Civil Rights Day (May 17th; observance replacing Martin Luther King Day, falls on the same date the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education, commemorates the struggle for Civil Rights for all Atlasians)
    Memorial Day (Final monday in the month of May)
    Independence Day (July 4)
    Immigrants Day (Second Monday in October; replaces Columbus Day; a day of celebration of our immigrant origins as a nation)
    Election Day (All Atlasian election dates that apply)
    Veterans Day (November 11th)
    Thanksgiving Day (Fourth Thursday in November)
    Christmas Eve (December 24)
    Christmas Day (December 25)
    New Year's Eve (December 31)


SECTION II: Holiday pay
1. All persons who work any amount of time on any of the holidays mentioned in Section 2 shall be paid 2x the regular hourly wage.

SECTION III: No sanction for bigotry, slavery, and treason
1. The federal government and any other government or non-profit agency that receives federal funding shall be prohibited from celebrating any holiday that recognizes or celebrates Confederate troops, leaders, figures, or concepts. Federal funding shall be withheld from any agency that fails to comply with this requirement.

Sponsor Feedback: Origination
Status: Objections entered by NC Yankee and I think Ben, but his text doesn't show clear intent. A vote is now open on the above amendment please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain. I expect this to be done by tomorrow.

I would support section Three if it was limited to just federal Govt', its agencies and the use of federal funds for these purposes on the part of Regional or local govt's. I would also support withdrawing federal education fudning for the any local education authority that purports Lost Cause Mythology in place of honest and factual history. That is the proper way to achieve this and the proper way to restrict the use of Federal funds in this matter. IF you educate the children properly, then these holidays will be abolished by the Regions and local goverments themselves.

Anyway, it is time for a vote on this amendment.

[AYE]

LOL, Damn I was tired this morning. I Change my vote to AYE the way I meant to vote this morning, hence why it was in green and I why subsequently posted a justification as if I voted Aye. 

Man that was weird.

Vote on Amendment 55:17 by NC Yankee:

Aye (7): Αverroës Nix, Ben, HagirdoftheDeep, Kalwejt, MaxQue, Napoleon, and NC Yankee
Nay (0):
Abstain (0):

Didn't Vote (2): sbane and Snowstalker They must love the pain!!!
Vacant Seats (1): jdb


The amendment has been adopted.

Final vote tomorrow if there are no further problems discovered. We have bad weather coming again to North Carolina very soon, so there might be some delay, unfortunately. In that case I want either Duke or Ben to start this vote if I haven't by noon tomorrow.

If they are supposed to be arguing it is the lamest argument I have ever seen. Where is the heated exchanges? They haven't said anything for FOUR DAMN DAYS. IF they are arguing then make them fight it out until a consensus is reached and don't let them stop until that time comes.

Ride thme hard like Jackson at Chancellorsville, or Reynolds at Gettysburg. Just don't get killed like they did in the process.

Come on just how many paragraphs in sun bright yellow do you want to have to read? 

I think I am getting a boner just thinking about how I can torture you guys.

Remember to look throguh list in OP of uncompleted work and then check the queue for any bills not included in the list that are within our jurisdiction. Also any issue or problem within our area of jurisdiction may be considered as well, so as to compose legislation on the matter. The special elections issue and the Committee consolidation are such examples. If you want to do the special elections thing so that you can pursue getting rid of the appointments at the beginning of AT-Large terms that is an option. I know you expressed interest in that before and we basically already have discussed it in thep revious Senate so we could move rather swiftly on it.

There is a lack of facilities in certain areasn and I would imagine some that have thme need improvement. This is a problem across all of Healthcare, not just Mental Health. Some states are better than others of course, for instance, I read that Arizona has some good facilities but no one bothered to utilize them to help Loughner or whatever his name is before the Tucson shooting.

We need find some way of increasing the number of qualified mental health professionals, increase the number of clinics and centers and locate them in the areas where they are needed most. Along with that comes the questions of how to fund it who selects the locations and whether or not this is something the Federal Gov't should do directly or it should be Regionally Administered. Most of the capacities established to supervise this effort is a Regionally administered (or at the very least the boundaries of the Federal Gov'ts districts are the same as the Regions, but they are Federally empwoer if you know what I mean) so maintaining that setup is probably the best response. As for the locations most in need, some of that is covered in my previously posted research and it is the usual suspects. The rural areas and some inner cities.

There is also the issue of providing transition support for family members of mental health patients who wont' be able to work once they start getting treated for their condition. I expect this a deterrant that puts everyone at risk, that of fear of no income. However, I am unsure what the current level of support is for such people and it probably falls into some general category with a bunch of other health related work interruptions and therefore doesn't receive the necessary "specialize" support necessary to address the problem, the problem of relatives not seeking treatment for a breadwinner.

I would prefer to actually get something concrete on this matter nad not just antoher bureaucratic directive or some committee of experts, which dominates the bulk of the rest of the bill.

I might need to use some other indication then just bold, perhaps italics since the numbers and headings are also in bold.

One the infrastructe issue, tis is one where I need some help, not because I don't know, but because there is litterally far too many options to be pursued to advance this. Do we provide funding? How much funding? How do we direct them to be distributed? Should it be paid for with cuts elsewhere or a tax increase?

These are simply and specific questions and that shouldn't overwhelm anyone, all that is needed is people to be paying attention.

I didn't wnat to lose a week here, but those storms last week, the weekend and the sheer depth of time required for this cause it to sink on the priority list, once again. Hopefully we can change that from here on out.