Office of Zanas46 - Get out to vote !

[Zanas]

Howdy y'all !

I would like to take the occasion that I'm running for the Imperial Legislature for the Labour Party to : a) explain my motives, convictions and ideas a bit, and b) get to answer the voters' questions on particular issues or bills.

To introduce myself, I'd say I am quite a political UFO. I've been a radical leftist since I was 15. I started as an anarchist, close to Proudhon but heavily influenced by the realizations of the CNT-FAI in Catalogne and Aragon in 1936. Then I shifted towards parties that actually believed in participating in elections and got my election "fetish" which brought me on this forum. I was a revolutionary communist, but got tired of their will to protest without getting to act and govern.

I am now what you'd call a "responsible socialist", my objective is that the party of the working people achieve government for the benefit of all.

I am a UFO because I did all that path in a mostly conservative suburb and my friends are all more conservative than me, some more than others. That means that I was always trained in discussing issues from various points of views, and I always try to get to the point where I can find the least common denominator between my contradictor and myself, and try to build from that point on. I usually get to some results, and I am always satisfied when I've succeeded to turn one of my conservative friends' point of view on a question from right-wing to centre-left or even centre. That's because I'm nearly 0% dogmatic, and I don't try to hammer in 100% of my personal view from scratch.

So enough about myself. The policies I would like to support in the Legislature, and maybe propose after a bit, are mainly on the preservation of the environment, the conquest of new rights for the workers in the companies, the protection of the most vulnerable (infants, disabled people, seniors, minorities), all that with the help of much more sharing on the economic ground, that is to say redistribution of wealth.

I'm now open to questions. If you have a question on a particular bill, please link to it in your message, as I don't necessarily have the time to browse the entire forum for it.

Thanks, and vote for me ! :-)

[Zanas]

It extends to the embryo then the foetus in the uterus. I don't know about children in wombs.

[Zanas]

It extends to the embryo then the foetus in the uterus. I don't know about children in wombs.

The embryo/fetus= child in the womb.

I make a distinction between the two. I'm not one who considers the embryo or the foetus have legal personhood. A child however has, once he is legally born and living.

[Zanas]

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

No, and never have, IRL or in Atlasia (don't know if there ever has been such a party here ?). However I'm used to work with them on several occasions, as with other more moderate parties of the left or the centre.

[Zanas]

Whereas in general I'm not that much into one-topic-based lobbying parties, I found that supporters of the Mustafinist-Komovist may have a slight Communist kinship of some kind when I saw this picture on their website :
So I'd say I am benevolent towards the Movement, waiting to see them in their acts.

[Zanas]

Thanks, Mr President, that's an honor !

[Zanas]

- We must unite against our common enemy !
- Judea's People Front ??!!!
- No ! The Romans !
- Oh, yeah...

That scene is one of the best pictures of groupuscular trotskyism I've ever seen. I've been raised with Monty Python's since I was 10 so...

Romani eunt domum !

[Zanas]

I will certainly look into it. And thanks to both of you.

[Zanas]

Thanks very much ! You'll have my 3d preference as an exchange of good wills.

Also : I hereby declare that should I be elected, the members of the Mustafinism-Komovism movement can count on me to push the declaration of September 30th as Aliya Mustafina Day, as I think we should have a day that promotes grace, sportswomanship, tininess and cuteness.

[Zanas]

I would like to take a moment to thank all the good citizens of the Southern Region that got me elected to their representative body, the Imperial Legislature. I'll do my best to guarantee that your vote shall not be in vain.

If my fellow Labour members allow me, I should be addressing an acceptance speech in a few days at the Labour Convention in Birmingham, AL.

This thread will stay open and serve as my parliamentary office. Questions from Southern citizens, fellow Legislators, or any citizen in Atlasia or elsewhere are of course always welcome, and I'll do my best to answer them asap.

[Zanas]

One could think that clientelism should suppose actually voting for the person from which a favor is expected...

But I grew fond of that refreshing movement so I'll include it in my agenda.

[Zanas]

Hello there !

As my seat in the Southern Region is up to election in a dozen days from now, I'm reactivating this thread to serve any useful purpose as it may.

I'd like to point at my record on what has been my first ever office held in Atlasia (after my first ever campaign, but I won't gloat too much for that... ) :

- participated thoroughly in the debate upon the Is our children learning bill, proposed a few amendments that have been included and voted the final text which was adopted unanimously,
- proposed New Orleans as the Federally funded University's location, but ended up supporting the compromise proposal of Charleston,
- started discussing the bill on decent conditions of breeding for cats and dogs, but it hasn't been voted as of yet ; I favored it and just proposed a few adjustments,
- voted for Labor Party Federal Chairman Adam Griffin for Legislature Speaker, ended up tied with SJoyceFla, they're Co-Speakers now.

As you can see, I have been an active member of this Legislative Body, I don't say I was the motor of the discussion, but as a first time elected member I think nobody would expect me to. I don't think I made serious mistakes that would bar me from seeking reelection before you voters. My comprehension of the stakes and the functioning of this game have also greatly benefited from my office, so it would be a shame for me personally not to be able to pursue on that track.

In the next Legislature, I might step up a bit and propose my first bill initiatives. I would greatly welcome proposals from the voters of this region on the topics that I should concentrate upon, and I will also take any question and try to respond to it promptly and sincerely.

Thank you all for reading.

[Zanas]

I forgot that I also proposed some routes for our future high speed rail network extension in the South.

As you can see I must be one of the rare people here running for office without a sign to put in his sig, but anyway my campaign is more on substance than on form...

I also want to say once again I will be extra careful on all issues regarding the environment and its defense that will be debated in our Legislature.

You could say I am quite the political watermelon : I originated in black seeds, I developed a strong red flesh, and later on I wrapped that up with a smooth green skin...

[Zanas]

Zanas46 addresses workers in an Atlanta suburb factory :

My fellow Southern workers,

It is my deep pleasure to be here today to thank you for granting me reelection in our Legislature. It means the world to me to see that you trust me to keep on defending your interests in legislative action, as you are defending them in your everyday action in your workplace, in your union, in your political party and your associations. You know I've always had the best interests of the working class at heart, and the mandate you give me will ensure that this continues.

I chose to address this speech here in one of our factories to support the idea that we can produce our goods here, and there is still room for an industry in Atlasia and in the South. It is both good environmentally and socially to keep producing here, as we keep good jobs for our people, and cut on the gas emissions not having to import so much things from abroad. The world competition must not come to a hatred towards workers of other countries though, as they all have the same interest : take the power back from the hands of a small oligarchy that have cornered it for too long now.

Workers of the world, unite !

[Zanas]

This is what we're getting from the Southern Legislator of Texas, following the lawsuit filed in by Mr. BaconKing. I would just want to say that a lawsuit, as faulted as its ground arguments may seem to those who have not filed it in, stays a lawsuit. I think it qualifies as neither a "stunt" nor "an illegal attempt", hell if anything it is a "legal attempt" if there is one ! The court will rule it one way or another.

Given the recent attempt of Labourites to suppress the votes of 12 lawful citizens of the IDS - I am not surprised one bit to see the good citizens of this glorious republic rise in anger.

The South cannot and will not tolerate illegal attempts to seize control of the legislature. Nor will they tolerate unlawful attempts at insurrection from those unwilling to accept the will of the people.

Anyways, Pingvin has agreed to stand down. Should Labour attempt another stunt, I cannot promise to intervene. The Labourites have thus been warned by me, and the people of the South that their shenanigans are unacceptable.

And then we have the "warning", unspecified with the Legislator from Texas, but clearly specified regarding the Legislator from Florida, and Co-Speaker of our Body.

For my part, I will echo the warning of my fellow Legislator. Pingvin has agreed to stand down, for now. But if the soap box proves ineffective, the ballot box ignored, and the jury box opposed to the will of the people of this region, I would not be surprised to see the ammo box.

A Mr. Pingvin standing down is apparently seen as a great favor granted upon us, well I'd say : do let him stand up, just to see what our federal government has to say about it...

Let the court rule this thing, I'm very confident that it will be ruled in the best way possible for the Southern Region and its People at large.


(btw, which court is actually going to rule this ?)

[Zanas]

I just realised this : we have Napoleon, and we have Snowball...

This is the Animal Farm folks !

[Zanas]

I'm putting here a response I'm doing to my fellow Legislator's fallacious arguments on the environment and poverty. We sure need to introduce more ecological concern in our policies here. I will probably be advocating an ecosocialist caucus within the Labor Party in the future.

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The latest tranche is 1.7k per person in the IDS. Say 1/10th of the population is without an automobile, that's enough to buy everyone without a car a new car.

Given as a car is far more useful to the working poor, in terms of convenience, and effectiveness, if we are actually motivated by concern for the working poor, we should be buying them a car.

Telling people what they should do is never as effective as letting them choose to do what is in their best interest, and giving them the tools to accomplish their goals.

The question shouldn't be, "cars are icky, ergo we should punish icky poor people for wanting to drive a car", the question should be - "how can we give them the tools to better themselves.".

You say you are motivated to better the poor, and then you say the poor should be sacrificed on the altar of Gaea. Which is your real motivation?

I'm not saying any of this nonsense, and you're doing this on purpose.

I am indeed motivated to better the living conditions of the poor, which includes givng them good living conditions, aka breathable air, a sustainable planet and environment. As a matter of fact, I don't think buying cars to those who don't have one is neither "bettering them", nor enriching them in a broader aspect.

I'd rather have people live in conditions where their great-grand-children will be able to breathe without asthma and lung cancer, than buy them cars.

And while I'm on the subject, isn't buying a car to the poor actually "telling people what they should do" as opposed to "letting them choose to do what is in their best interest" ?

Of course, if you are short-sighted, you can be under the illusion that having a car for every citizen is the best interest of the people. Well it's not. Having the means to use cheap transportation to do what they'd like to do is. And it's only because our nation is decades late in the development of effective public transportations systems that you are presently under this short-minded illusion.

You say we shouldn't be telling people what to do but give them the tools to accomplish their goals. Well if we agree that the goal of most of our fellow citizens is being able to use transportation to come and go while ensuring a future made of breathable air for themselves and their offspring, the tools we should give all of them are good broad cheap public transportations systems, with as few cars as possible.

You cannot have cars for everyone, and a future. That's mutually exclusive. Sorry.

[Zanas]

Dreaming the dream of getting the world back on its tracks to collective survival is not dreaming a small dream : it's the biggest dream of all.

And all your philosophical messianic babbling isn't gonna change the fact that the more oil we burn and the more CO2, CH4 and other gases we emit in the atmosphere, the less our human race will have of a future to survive in. That is fact.

Now we can all have pedal cars, if you're so much into cars. More seriously, we're not talking about suppressing each and every car, but creating the conditions in which it will seldom be mandatory to use a personal car rather than collective transportation of some sort.

Of course, we shouldn't be stopping research to make cars cleaner, nor should we stop going to the moon and explore space. Knowledge is always good, but it's better still when it is then put to good use and not wasted.

[Zanas]

Oil is the best fuel for an automobile. It is cheap and it is common, and it packs an incredible amount of chemical energy in a small area.

Yeah. And sadly, there won't be anymore available in a few decades. 50 years, 100, 200, then what will we do ?

All the alternatives are more expensive, and they use resources that are hard to find and uncommon. We hear about 'Peak Oil', but nothing about 'Peak Lathanides'. We hear about using the sun for power, but we don't hear about the fact that you can't run the A/C, or the heater, or you can't go more than 50 miles. A horse would be more effective and faster and reliable than an electric vehicle.

All individual vehicles, electric or thermic, are unsustainable on the long term. Plus, believing electric vehicles are clean and could replace thermic ones is moronic, of course. Horses, well, not so much, but who are we to tell them what to do ? Right ?

Transit simply isn't sustainable

No. Massive individual greenhouse gas emitting transportation is.

- it requires a robust automobile industry in order to maintain the infrastructure to keep it running. It is an expensive luxury that gives us little bang for the buck. What it does give is transit planners and city planners more control over people as to when and where they go and when.

Ah, that's your fear, eh ? Well, and don't the roads already tell you where to go ? You can't go to where a road isn't already built, is that not too much of a freedom infringement to you ? We should get rid of roads, and be able to ride everywhere. This would be the only real freedom.

The Automobile

Now it even gets a capital letter. I guess Dave should be concerned about the competition...

is by far the greatest tool for freedom and mobility - which is why when a consumer has an opportunity - they try to purchase a car.

Actually I sold mine, as I hadn't the need for it anymore. But I live in a city where there are plenty of good public transportations so...

[Zanas]

     I haven't had a car in years and am happy enough for it. Once we run out of oil, I shudder to think of what will happen to suburban and rural areas.

That is why the oil that still is available should be reserved for those areas, and not for inner cities where we could easily manage to do otherwise.

[Zanas]

Hi there. I am introducing this piece of legislation in the IDS Legislature, strongly inspired by the wonderful one succesfully passed in the Northeast on a proposal by my comrade Barnes.

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Feel free to comment. Remember, political watermelon.

[Zanas]

In regards to all the jimble-jumble that's been going on in the South lately, I would like to make the following statement :

I find it at the same time hilarious, appalling and extremely sad that such an individual as Ben Kenobi, who has made an attempt at secession of a tract of land from our region, which is an outrageous offense, comes back smiling and waving and runs for keeping the seat he used to occupy in our Legislature.

I would say that someone who has attempted to secede, even if he quickly stood back, should not be regarded as legitimate to occupy further elected offices in the territory which he was once so eager to secede from. Even if I can consider some kind of pardon to that offense, surely this should at least mean the resignation from his office.

How on earth can one secede from a Region and keep his office inherently attached to this Region ? And to top that get it back when backing on the secession thing, and furthermore running to keep it in the next election... This is nonsense, or to quote Jack O'Neill : "Oh, for crying out loud. That's derentis!"

So I urge each and every citizen of the South to vote against that man, who turned his back upon us. How can we be sure his change of mind when stopping the secession was honest ? How can we be sure he has the best interest of the people of this region at heart when he actually left it ?

If he is elected, I might well be doing some pedagogy and start another recall election of him, just to teach some legal knowledge, maybe on no ground at all, or maybe on the grounds he wasn't speaking tagalog while riding a green unicycle around a naked virgin witch on the crescent moon when he announced his run.

Not decided yet.

[Zanas]

Birmingham, AL, June 29th, 1969

Citizens of Birmingham,

It is my pleasure today to address you in front of this glorious national railway legacy. It took me a few days to invent a time travel machine to come here, but it was worth the work. I would like to take the chance to thank your grandchildren that will re-elect me (with half the total votes !) to a seat in the Imperial Dominion of the South Legislature on the 20th of January, 2013.

I had promised to address them and thank them at the Labor Party convention of late September of 2012 after my very first election to this legislative body, but I hadn't fulfilled my promise. This promise is now retroactively fulfilled.

I ran on a platform of both social justice and environment preservation. It is my deep belief that one cannot go without the other. And even that one cannot go before the other. This is of course something you fellow people of 1969 are not used to, and I won't ask that the whole thing start now.

But you'll have to tell your grandchildren that they need to be aware of the necessity of ensuring their own grandchildren a future in which to live and thrive. Of course, you also have more social equality and justice now that your grandchildren will have, at least in the economic field. You'll have to teach your grandchildren to never let go of your hardly acquired rights and situations.

Now, if I stand before this Terminal Station on the day before the decision will be made to demolish it, it is to make an analogy. The preservation of our historic legacies is very much alike the preservation of the environment. You, the people of 1969, except for a few "lunatics", believe that the demolition of this fine piece of Beaux-Arts architecture will make place to better accomodation for travellers, in a nutshell that it's progress.

But don't be fooled. This will only go downhill for railway and public transport from today onwards. You will be invaded, overwhelmed, by oil-burning cars that will literally fill every space of your life and cities. Oh, yes, oil is a very cheap commidity to get. But wait for four more years...

So I ask you, not to change the course of history, but to keep this message in mind, and 44 years from now, to tell your grandchildren to go and vote Labor in the IDS election of late January 2013, to go and vote Zanas46. I know half of you people will ! And I promise that by then I will have left the state of Georgia to settle in Alabama, the first state there is, alphabetically and so on.

Powering the time machine now... Adios !

ZZZZZZZZWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSHHHHhhhhhhhhhh......................

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[Zanas]

Thanks Velasco, and I sure hope what you cooked was tasty !

I've come back from the past, and I have news for the present, that would've been too much for the 1969 people to cope with : I will be running for the office of Speaker of the South ! I have been bipartisanly re-elected, and I think I will be up to the task if IRL gives me a bit more time (which it should from now on).

I don't think I need to announce this in the candidate declaration thread though ?

[Zanas]

I would like to welcome my fellow Legislator jerryarkansas from, well, Arkansas, in the race for IDS Speakership. This will ensure the position is held by someone who won a good old democratic vote that will legitimate his action.

We should be holding the vote any time now.