The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Yelnoc]

     Anyway, how much would this cost? Perhaps we could contract a private company for this project, require that they hire Southerners for the construction & staffing, & encourage them to hold tours of the facility to help make money.

Sounds good.  I dunno about money matters.  Maybe we should consult His Eminence Ramsey?

[Yelnoc]

     Anyway, how much would this cost? Perhaps we could contract a private company for this project, require that they hire Southerners for the construction & staffing, & encourage them to hold tours of the facility to help make money.

Sounds good.  I dunno about money matters.  Maybe we should consult His Eminence Ramsey?

     According to the last news we heard, the region was $2 billion in the black. However, that was a while ago, so it might have gone in the red since then.

Well, we are evil.  There's nothing on the books against forced labor.

[Yelnoc]

     Anyway, how much would this cost? Perhaps we could contract a private company for this project, require that they hire Southerners for the construction & staffing, & encourage them to hold tours of the facility to help make money.

Sounds good.  I dunno about money matters.  Maybe we should consult His Eminence Ramsey?

     According to the last news we heard, the region was $2 billion in the black. However, that was a while ago, so it might have gone in the red since then.

Well, we are evil.  There's nothing on the books against forced labor.

     I think that's a pretty sure way to get an ass-kicking courtesy of the federal government. Evil does not necessarily mean self-destructive.

Maybe if we give them evil cookies they will see reason?

[Yelnoc]

     Anyway, how much would this cost? Perhaps we could contract a private company for this project, require that they hire Southerners for the construction & staffing, & encourage them to hold tours of the facility to help make money.

Sounds good.  I dunno about money matters.  Maybe we should consult His Eminence Ramsey?

     According to the last news we heard, the region was $2 billion in the black. However, that was a while ago, so it might have gone in the red since then.

Well, we are evil.  There's nothing on the books against forced labor.

     I think that's a pretty sure way to get an ass-kicking courtesy of the federal government. Evil does not necessarily mean self-destructive.

Besides, the whole premise of this is to put people to work so they can earn money and stimulate the economy.

If we were going to use forced labor though, the Constitution does allow it in the case of convicted criminals.


As far as the giant pentagram maze idea goes, I approve. I don't know about making it an asylum though - remember it has to be something for tourists. Also, we'll need a way to make it vertically imposing, so unless the walls are going to be really high we'll want to add some towers to it.

You have a point.  So scratch the asylum and forced labor.

And I was thinking the walls would be black slate, very thick and about as a tall as a five story building.  This way, the winding passages are always dark unless the sun is directly over head (of course they are narrow and formed in a maze). 

[Yelnoc]

Pentagram Creation Act
1.  A giant structure is to be built in the shape of a Pentagram.
          a.  The interior of the Pentagram is to be an intricate maze.
          b.  The walls are to be several stories high and made of black marble.
2.  The construction of said Pentagram shall be contracted out to a regional construction company.
3.  The Pentagram should, upon completion, be designated a tourist attraction.


How's that for my first bill?

[Yelnoc]

     What if we put it in Memphis, across from the IDS government complex?

That sounds good.  And if you want to edit the bill you can just repost it with your additions.

[Yelnoc]

That's good with me.  Think it's ready for a vote?

[Yelnoc]

     it just occurred to me that we have not allocated an amount to budget the contract, or specified where that amount would come from.

We would need these contractors to give us an estimate, at least in real life.  And don't we have a budget surplus?

[Yelnoc]

     it just occurred to me that we have not allocated an amount to budget the contract, or specified where that amount would come from.

We would need these contractors to give us an estimate, at least in real life.  And don't we have a budget surplus?

     Fair enough. If we defined an upper limit on what was to be allotted to it, they'd try to get us as close to that limit as possible.

     Last we heard, but that was a while ago. It might have changed since then.

We might've used up the surplus on the education bill.

     We probably did. May I suggest we recoup the costs through a certain share of tickets sold to tourists visiting the monument? It will have the side-effect of discouraging the contractors from over-charging us, since we will then just take more of their profits down the road.

Sounds good.  I don't have any ideas for a figure on an upper limit, do you or Deldem?

[Yelnoc]

     As I alluded to above, I think an upper-limit would be counterproductive. Basically, what I am thinking is that whoever runs the place after it's completed gets 80% of ticket sales while the contractor gets 20%. However, we take 10%, which comes out of the contractor's 20%, until we have covered the cost of funding the contract. As such, there is no incentive for the contractor to try to gouge us, since whatever they get paid for the job itself is essentially an advance on the percentage of ticket sales they get after the job is done.

Oh, ok.  I must have misread your last post.  Would you mind editing that into the bill for me?  I'm doing math homework

[Yelnoc]

Looks good.  Are we ready to vote now?

[Yelnoc]

Aye.

[Yelnoc]

Well, the whole "Imperial Dirty South" thing is annoying.  Let's think of a bill that pisses dem furr'ners off.

[Yelnoc]

How about a more serious bend for our next piece of legislature?

It would be nice if there was a list somewhere of problems the south is facing that we could address here in the assembly.

[Yelnoc]

With elections approaching, I would like to remind any citizen of the IDS who wants to run for regional office to declare in the Candidate Declaration Thread.  I almost forgot to declare that I was running for reelection

[Yelnoc]

     The election to the IDS Legislature is over a month away, anyway.

Oh, it is?  Could you remind me what a game-time month is again?

[Yelnoc]

     The election to the IDS Legislature is over a month away, anyway.

Oh, it is?  Could you remind me what a game-time month is again?

     Emperor/LoD/AG elections are in even-numbered months, Legislative elections are in odd-numbered months. There is no such thing as a game-time month, if I understand you correctly.

Oh, I see.  So I don't actually have to run for reelection until November?

[Yelnoc]

My Grievances

Article 1, Section 7, Subsection 4 states "No Region may grant any Title of Nobility".  I can see the titles being granted to IDS law makers being considered titles of nobility and would like some assurance that they will not be stripped from us after the ratification of this constitution.

Article 6, Section 1 states "Slavery or involuntary servitude is forbidden in Atlasia, except as punishment for a crime".  This can be taken to mean that slavery is an acceptable punishment to a crime.  It is not, and no provision for it must be allowed in this constitution.

[Yelnoc]

     As Dibble argued, the titles we grant are not titles of nobility, since the title of, say, Emperor confers no powers or privileges on its holder beyond those held by Governors of other regions.

     The clause on slavery & involuntary servitude is essentially identical to the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, & I imagine identical to its current wording in the Second Constitution. It's not as if including the clause worded as such will suddenly cast thousands of prisoners into bondage.

     With that said, I do think we could take an important stance in favor of civil liberties by eliminating that exception, & would second the suggestion of my colleague Darth Yelnoc that we do so. I merely would not consider its inclusion as such grounds to oppose the ratification of this Constitution.

I suppose if the first constitutional convention had the same provision on titles of nobility and our titles of office were not considered in the same category then I can let that one drop.

A government that will allow its citizens to be placed in bondage outside of a state penitentiary is not one that has any concern for the rights of its citizens and not one that I would feel comfortable administering Atlasia.

[Yelnoc]

Ok.  I will vote to ratify it.  Any grievances with it can be taken up at a later date.

[Yelnoc]

You have to go over to the thread in the voting booth subforum.

[Yelnoc]

So do we need to be announcing our candidacy for the legislature yet?

[Yelnoc]

Sounds good to me.  I would vote aye as it is currently.

[Yelnoc]

Looking at the election results thread, shouldn't either Freshly Baked Cookies or SPC be elected Lord of Darkness?  Or are they not members/not residents of the IDS?

What happens next?  Is there a special election to fill the vacancy?

[Yelnoc]

I would like to put myself forward as consideration for the speaker of the house.