The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Glorious day. Per the suggestion of Legislator Zanas, I will make a tour to the places of government for the other four regions before presenting our request to Dave Leip.



     On the IDS Independence Act: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I am proud to sign this bill, such that the citizens of this region may bask in the light of Aliya Mustafina.



     On the Declaration of Aliya Mustafina Day Act: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Didn't we already do something with this? Anyway, I do think that co-Speaker Griffin has a point; this is somewhat overboard with a decent amount of redundancy.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I already made a request, but it was considering rail connecting different cities. Re-reading the bill, I think it actually applies to rail within the metropolitan areas, rather than connecting them.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I would have liked more discussion, but there really are more pressing matters for us to attend to.



     On the Protect Our Dogs And Cats Act of 2012: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Quickly, I'd like to address the issue of the transportation bill. I'm thinking I might just propose a list of the 20 or so most populous cities in the region. Any comments or alternative suggestions?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I culled a list from Wikipedia:

Houston, TX
San Antonio, TX
Dallas, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Austin, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Charlotte, NC
El Paso, TX
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Atlanta, GA
Raleigh, NC
Miami, FL
San Juan, PR
Arlington, TX
New Orleans, LA
Tampa, FL
Corpus Christi, TX
Greensboro, NC
Charleston, SC

     I already took the liberty of replacing #20 (Saint Petersburg, FL) with Charleston, SC, an important city in the region's history. I am thinking about more replacements due to historical and social significance as well as improving geographical spread (say dropping Plano, TX for Jackson, MS), but I would like more input on it. Then I hope to submit a list to the SoIA before I check out for the night.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I forgot about San Juan, actually. It comes in at #14 on the list. Adding that in, the states currently left out of the list are AL, AR, and MS. I think the capital of each state is a fine choice, and I we can bump off #17-19 to accomodate them, if that's cool with The People.

It would be a heck of a feat to include San Juan in with these rail projects

And yes, in theory I would like to see one city in each region get access to these funds as long as it is reasonable. I think the capitol cities of each is a good place to start as they will likely be the cities most visited.

And thanks for including Charleston on the list. That city owes me so much considering all the handouts I have given it over the years - but it's well deserved after JBrase unilaterally moved the lovely Plantation to Memphis. What a sham.

     We actually misunderstood what it was about initially. These are for rail projects within the metropolitan areas themselves. Not connecting different metropolitan areas.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I surmise that The People approve?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I found out that we missed the deadline to amend our request anyway. Fortunately, the SoIA was pleased with our extant request.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     While the proposed amendment is still an issue of the utmost priority, there are also other important issues on the horizon:

1) Seatown has threatened to take his case to the Supreme Court. While there is no timeframe to act yet, we should probably get the ball rolling on choosing a Defender of the Realm soon.

2) Secretary of Internal Affairs Speed of Sound has apportioned us $1.75 billion for our rail project. He has given us two weeks to create a more comprehensive plan that would fall under that budget. Concrete planning has given us fits in the past, so we should probably get on top of this.

3) Hurricane Sandy has caused some damage to our region. It has not been that extensive and I think we can cover it without federal aid, but I think we should take care of the issues that co-Speaker SJoyceFla has covered in GM Shua's office, for the sake of an expedient return to normality.

     Given that we are faced with all of these projects of heightened urgency, I would strongly suggest creating multiple threads to debate bills, for the time being at least.

[Associate Justice PiT]

If you fine gentleman would not mind, I will put my name into the hat for defending our region in court.

     Given your record of defending our region, particularly against the HAEV, I will appoint you to such. Check my office thread momentarily.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't think the language specifications are particularly needed, as long as it is something that can be readily translated on the internet (which is probably everything). If someone casts a ballot in Japanese, Google Translate can handle it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I made a thread for it to be done in while we discuss the amendment here. We can hold the vote here, though.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I made a thread for it to be done in while we discuss the amendment here. We can hold the vote here, though.

We can do it in your thread. I was thinking that it was more of an announcement thread initially. I still haven't adjusted to having a thread for separate topics, yet.

     I've been hesitant to make the switch because I figured that we would burn through the queue too quickly and end up with nothing to talk about. There's just too much time-sensitive business now to handle all of it in one thread, though. If we like it, then we should consider making it a permanent feature of the Legislature.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It seems to me that the amendment is more or less ready. Vote?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Time to open the voting booth. Let's get this one done!

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What I wonder is, there was a federal bill that would have acknowledged the claim that we are making here. That bill failed. How much validity will our claim have in this case?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Sounds like a worthwhile cause. I think we'll endorse it at some point.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Huzzah!

[Associate Justice PiT]

So wait, is this saying that alcohol sales cannot be prohibited by local governments, or is it saying that said establishments are required to sell during those times? I am not comfortable with the idea of having mandatory minimum hours, as that should be something the individual business controls but I could see prohibiting purely dry municipalities.

     Yeah, I would think that bars and liquor stores should be able to sell or not sell alcohol whenever they please.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I think the last version of the text is fine with me. We have a minimum opening time span, and we let the possibility of expanding that time span to those who wish to do so. Of course, any given bar or restaurant can still choose to not sell alcohol if they want. But a local authority can't ban alcohol sale on its jurisdiction anymore, which I think is the whole point of the bill.

     I agree with that idea, though it looks to me like the current draft of the bill requires businesses with a liquor license to serve alcohol during those times.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Just saying, I'm not interested in creating a minimum hours requirement, though I suppose that is a lesser problem than that presented by the existence of dry counties. Any chance we can strike the minimum from the bill?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Just saying, I'm not interested in creating a minimum hours requirement, though I suppose that is a lesser problem than that presented by the existence of dry counties. Any chance we can strike the minimum from the bill?

I would argue that without a minimum, any jurisdiction could bypass the requirement of no longer being dry by implementing an alcohol sales period of one hour or so per day. That would effectively keep such jurisdictions "dry" in actuality.

     But we could say then that jurisdictions cannot legislate hours of legal sales. My problem is that the bill as written requires a restaurant with a bar to sell alcohol during these hours. Perhaps they want to start selling alcohol at 9 PM instead of 8 PM. Well, they don't get to do that unless they want to shut down for the hour of 8-9 PM. That just isn't cool, if you ask me.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Just saying, I'm not interested in creating a minimum hours requirement, though I suppose that is a lesser problem than that presented by the existence of dry counties. Any chance we can strike the minimum from the bill?

I would argue that without a minimum, any jurisdiction could bypass the requirement of no longer being dry by implementing an alcohol sales period of one hour or so per day. That would effectively keep such jurisdictions "dry" in actuality.

     But we could say then that jurisdictions cannot legislate hours of legal sales. My problem is that the bill as written requires a restaurant with a bar to sell alcohol during these hours. Perhaps they want to start selling alcohol at 9 PM instead of 8 PM. Well, they don't get to do that unless they want to shut down for the hour of 8-9 PM. That just isn't cool, if you ask me.

Can I interpret this to mean that you wish to allow an alcohol sales time-frame that is not regulated by local, state or regional government - rather, determined by private entities?

Furthermore, does this get us into amendment territory?

     Pretty much. I think that such decisions as the circumstances of selling a certain product to legal buyers thereof should be left to the sellers. I'm not sure why that would require an amendment, though.