The Mideast: Dead?

[Talleyrand]

One incredible thing that's happened over the past week is that one has pointed out something quite troubling- the current state of Atlasia's biggest region.

Governor Riley Keaton, despite having been online as recently as today, and continuing to post on the forum, has not posted in Atlasia since August 11th, when he made these two posts.

Chairman:

[X] Senator North Carolina Yankee

Vice-Chairman

[X] Assemblyman JCL

Not Labor.

And he has not made a post relating to his duties as Middle Eastern envoy since August 8th, which saw a series of posts.

The briefings will be postponed until the matter has been discussed in appropriate channels.

But most strikingly, he has not performed any duty as Mideast Governor since August 7th.

Let's get a vote going.

That is the only post he has made as Governor since August 2nd.

Right. I'd like to work with Hagrid and Napolean to get estimates on the legislation we've passed.

The most recent Assembly was sworn in on July 31st, with a legal case forcing the third member, Franzl, to swear in on August 2nd.

On August 4th, Spiral resigned from the Assembly.

I resign from the Mideast Assembly.

I, Spiral, do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of At-Large Senator and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia, so help me Dave.

On August 9th, Cassis resigned from the Assembly.

I, Cassius, do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of Mideast Senator, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia, so help me Dave.

Since August 9th, the Mideast Assembly has been dead, and by no fault of the single remaining assemblyman, as a legislative body cannot operate with one member.

The inactivity of the Governor and virtual nonexistence of the Assembly are part of an ongoing trend of inactivity in this region.

This is the second time a mass disappearance without warning by the Governor has happened. The last was only last month, which also coincided with an Assembly blackout for three weeks.
 

While Lt. Governor TJ and Senator Cassius have been active in their roles, a region cannot survive with two active officeholders. The Mideast has the numbers to be active- and a number of participants who'd be willing to serve in office, so what's the matter here?

[Talleyrand]

I do think it is very sad for the Governor not to be around, he may have valid RL issues, so I am not calling him into question. However, it does reflect badly on the Mideast. And JCL is active so you can't the region is entirely dead, just on life support. The Pacific has an active VP Candidate, At-Large Senator and Senator (well at least when he was governor . . . but he announced a LOA) and the Midwest has the soon to be Governor, Cris, and myself, along with Fritz, and our Althing has had contributions from all members.

He has been posting quite regularly on the forum during this whole period, with the most recent post just two days ago.

[Talleyrand]

Hagrid, I think it was pretty obvious no one was referring to literal death.

While I don't mean to excuse Riley or the Assembly, part of the blame must rest with the left-wing members who left the region in a fit of pique, transforming it from a conservative-leaning but thriving nexus of heated debate into another bland one-party stronghold.

I can't disagree that the mass exodus seven months ago hurt the Mideast pretty badly in terms of activity, but continually using that as an excuse for the current situation is silly (I understand what you're saying there, but some citizens in the region, instead of trying to improve activity levels, constantly bring this up to deflect attention from themselves).

Pretty clear that Riley and those who failed to point out this situation for almost two weeks are to blame here.

[Talleyrand]

I would be fine with that, as would most other leftists in favor of consolidation, I think. But is there any concrete idea/proposal you have which could accomplish that?

I think the hope with last year's consolidation bill was to have two sets of regional senators and six at-large senators, which I think wouldn't cause a stranglehold on the seats. Although one could argue that the process by which the new regions were to be drawn (by a committee of Governors) could have caused a bad split in the allocation of the six regional senate seats (though  due to the right-wing majority of Governors that existed at that time, I doubt it would have).