Senate Protest and Analysis Thread

[tmthforu94]

...and Marokai just proved that he should have been in the Senate even earlier.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I can't confirm myself you know

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Email the Vice President.

[Frodo]

Comprehensive Protection of Nuclear Power Act

1. The Nuclear Safety Act of 2011 is hereby repealed and shall be moved to the Repealed Statute wiki page.

2. Before permission from the federal government, or granting of any federal funds toward the construction of a new nuclear power plant, a full and comprehensive environment safety evaluation must be made from geological surveyors.

3. Any area that has been deemed geologically unsafe may have a nuclear power built on or near it.

4. All nuclear power plants in current operation must receive complete safety evaluation from regulators every four months (or roughly 120 days) and may not withhold any requested information from examiners.

5. Every existing nuclear power plant, as well as all nuclear power plants built in the future, must be fitted with a generator capable of producing power to the main portions of the facility for at least 72 hours in the event of catastrophic failure or natural disaster.

6. $2.5 billion shall be appropriated for the development of more advanced equipment capable of cleaning up and/or containing potential nuclear disasters, as well as safety equipment to prevent such disasters.

Co-sponsor: Senator Duke

I have no particular objections to the rest of the bill, but Senator Duke might want to take a closer look at section 3.  

 

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I need to find out the answer to something as I work on calculating the budget:

Were all prior welfare programs repealed by the CSSRA, or just those with analogues in the final bill?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I need to find out the answer to something as I work on calculating the budget:

Were all prior welfare programs repealed by the CSSRA, or just those with analogues in the final bill?

I'm going to just assume the latter.

Not a single Senate post on Thursday! ( not complaining, just interesting.)
Did the Senate have the day off?  Or was everyone just too distracted by Newt?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Not a single Senate post on Thursday! ( not complaining, just interesting.)
Did the Senate have the day off?  Or was everyone just too distracted by Newt?

Was a bit interesting! I was distracted by home stuff and it seems like everyone else also had their own priorities. Most things are tied up in votes at the moment, which probably had something to do with it.

[Mopsus]

I need to find out the answer to something as I work on calculating the budget:

Were all prior welfare programs repealed by the CSSRA, or just those with analogues in the final bill?

I'm going to just assume the latter.

Not a single Senate post on Thursday! ( not complaining, just interesting.)
Did the Senate have the day off?  Or was everyone just too distracted by Newt?

I have drama practice from noon to five every Thursday, so that explains at least some of my absence. Of course, it doesn't explain why I didn't post after I came home .

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I spent hours on this new machine just trying to get it to open the Atlas Forum, at all. I couldn't get on AFE/AFG, or the 2012 boards for hours after that. They just wouldn't load.

[Frodo]

Oil Spill Protection Act

Section 1: Oil Profits Tax

1. Any oil company that does business within Atlasia and earns a larger quarterly profit than one billion dollars shall be subject to a 5% tax on all profits above one billion dollars in that quarter.

2. Revenue from the oil profits tax shall be diverted into a newly created Oil Spill Protection Fund which shall be used to promote research and development of new technologies to prevent environmental damages in the event of an oil spill or similar disaster, as well as to fund emergency clean-up and rebuilding measures in the aftermath of such an event.

Section 2: Regulatory Effectiveness

1. All oil rigs and drilling platforms operating within Atlasian land and waters, regardless of their supposed nationality, shall be subject to Atlasian regulatory rules and will be inspected regularly by personnel from the Department of Internal Affairs.

2. All oil drilling platforms are required to install and regularly test each month 'emergency blow-out preventers' and evacuation drills.

3. Companies operating any oil drilling platforms that do not meet Atlasian safety regulations may be required, at the discretion of the Department of Internal Affairs, to pay additional taxes into the Oil Spill Protection Fund.

Section 3: Responsibility

1. In the event of an oil spill or another oil-related disaster, the oil and drilling companies in question shall be entirely responsible for cleanup measures. If deemed necessary by the Secretary of Internal Affairs, the financial resources of the Oil Spill Protection Fund will be made available to ensure a swift and full cleanup process.

2. No monetary cap shall be put in place for oil spill cleanup and compensation for damages.

Co-sponsor: Senator Duke

I strongly support this act, but we need an equivalent for coal cleanup as well, so we can avoid any repeat of what happened in Tennessee back in 2008.  Also, an act guaranteeing the safety of coal miners might also be called for -this sort of thing happens too regularly in a country as supposedly developed and advanced as ours.  

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I strongly urge our senators to support the Constitutional anti-conscription amendment and reject the recently proposed amendment to the bill.  Conscription gives government permission to shape how a person pilots their own life and personal freedom should never, in my view, be sacrificed in peacetime or war time.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I strongly urge our senators to support the Constitutional anti-conscription amendment and reject the recently proposed amendment to the bill.  Conscription gives government permission to shape how a person pilots their own life and personal freedom should never, in my view, be sacrificed in peacetime or war time.

Mr Speaker,

I completely and utterly understand your position... but I cannot completely throw out the idea of conscription being used in a time of dire need.

[Napoleon]

Personally, I am uncomfortable with the notion that the People are to defend the State.....as a progressive, I believe the State should defend The People.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I strongly urge our senators to support the Constitutional anti-conscription amendment and reject the recently proposed amendment to the bill.  Conscription gives government permission to shape how a person pilots their own life and personal freedom should never, in my view, be sacrificed in peacetime or war time.

Personally, I am uncomfortable with the notion that the People are to defend the State.....as a progressive, I believe the State should defend The People.

^

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Precisely.  A government that coerces people into entering danger zones and risking their own lives can justly be compared to, quite simply, fascism.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Precisely.  A government that coerces people into entering danger zones and risking their own lives can justly be compared to, quite simply, fascism.

I think that's a touch melodramatic.

I just don't think it's right to rule out that there will ever, ever need to be a time to institute such measures. What I think as a progressive can't always win out over sheer practicality.

Make it next to impossible for the Senate to authorise it... but I can't responsibly consider the outside chance that it might be required in an extreme case.

Mind you, there's always the likelihood that if the country were attacked, the Senate would invoke some kind of emergency power.

[Napoleon]

This is only my personal view, but I would be more likely to defend a country that allows me the freedom not to do so. I have a stronger moral objection to a war if its fought through conscription.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

This is only my personal view, but I would be more likely to defend a country that allows me the freedom not to do so. I have a stronger moral objection to a war if its fought through conscription.

This.

It is also in my personal view that the military is better off having soldiers who want to fight purely for voluntary reasons like patriotism, and not just because the government will penalize them if they refuse to risk their lives or object to the war.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I'm not really sold on the philosophical arguments... but if my vote is a deciding one - I will re-assess.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I feel it's necessary to ask this question to those who believe conscription should be an option: if there was an attack on your soil and your country went to war without conscripting citizens, would you volunteer to enlist?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I feel it's necessary to ask this question to those who believe conscription should be an option: if an attack happened on your soil and your country went to war without conscripting citizens, would you volunteer to enlist?

As Napoleon said, if we get attacked on our own soil and no one is willing to fight, we deserve to lose.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I feel it's necessary to ask this question to those who believe conscription should be an option: if an attack happened on your soil and your country went to war without conscripting citizens, would you volunteer to enlist?

As Napoleon said, if we get attacked on our own soil and no one is willing to fight, we deserve to lose.

And that's probably true, but as lovely a romantic notion that that is, Polnut and Junkie are right, unfortunately. This has to be viewed realistically and pragmatically, and if we're getting invaded, the government should probably have the right to band us up.

And to Scott's question, yes, I would.

[tpfkaw]

Well not only that but it's a patently ridiculous scenario; if one thinks there is an imminent threat of being attacked on one's own soil by a power which would require conscription to defeat, kindly do explain what you believe said power to be.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Well not only that but it's a patently ridiculous scenario; if one thinks there is an imminent threat of being attacked on one's own soil by a power which would require conscription to defeat, kindly do explain what you believe said power to be.

I don't think it will happen, but such hypotheticals are irrelevent to the point itself.

[Napoleon]

Putting the rights of a government before the rights of its people is a hideously disturbing concept.