Office of Leinad, At-Large Senator (ConCon Address--vote AYE!)

[Leinad]

Office of Leinad

At-Large Senator

Welcome to my office! Questions, suggestions, thoughts, hypotheses, threats, haikus, algebraic equations, or anything else are all welcome here. I'll release frequent updates and statements, and explain my various actions.

Information
Name: Leinad
State: Georgia
Party: Federalist
In Office Since: August 26th, 2015
Previous Offices:
Southern Legislator July 24th, 2015-August 26th, 2015
Southern Governor August 26th, 2015-May 6th, 2016

Archive
July 2015 Campaign
August 2015 Campaign

Official Statements
We Need a Constitutional Convention Last Week
Introduction of 3 New Bills
Campaign Announcement
EoM Act and Police Honesty Act
Presidential Pardon Amendment
First Statement as Governor

[Leinad]

First of all, I congratulate Co-Speakers darthebearnc and Spiral for their re-election, and look forward to joining up with them to legislate.

Second, I thank SWE for his vote:

1. Not Leinad

For future reference, "Not" isn't my first name. Actually, "Leinad" is the whole thing. It works for Brazilian soccer players and some pop stars, why not politicians, too?

Seriously though, upsetting allies of communist traitors (oh, and communist traitors themselves, with TNF's warrant and all) means I must be doing something right. Mahatma Ghandi said "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." I'm already at step 3, and I haven't even sworn in yet! Huzzah!

[Leinad]

ok bro

To your credit, I genuinely find your signature quite funny.

Congratulations on your victory!

Thanks, congratulations on your victory as well!

[Leinad]

Whoops, Leinad is dead!  Looks like we need a special election!  Sorry for killing him folks, TNF made me do it.

Nope, that's not how it works. You can't get rid of me that easily!

Also, I'd rather you refrain from delusional fake-assassinations in my office thread. I'd be happy to respond to any real issues you have with me, either publically or privately, but this office is a place of peace *points to pictures of Tolstoy and Gandhi flanking a peace sign on the wall* so I'd rather you refrain from violence, thank you.

[Leinad]

Official Statement: We Need a Constitutional Convention Last Week

Fellow Atlasians, new and old, left and right, north and south, east and west, our Republic is in a poor state. Many people are giving up, claiming that Atlasia is dead, while those of us who still have hope argue with each other on how to save it.

Now is the time for choosing. As Adam Griffin said in his must-read analysis, we will either save this nation together, or we will stay apart and nothing will get done.

Whether we restart the game or not, we need clear reforms. Dissolution with no plan is as foolish as keeping the status quo with no changes. Whether you're in favor of a reboot, abolition, or simply reform, the only way to get that is with a Constitutional Convention. It's the only method to save this nation from the demise our enemies want.

Atlasia isn't dead, but it's in a very poor condition of health, and we will only find a cure together. We all joined Atlasia because we want to see it thrive. If you want to make this nation better, please sign the petition for a Constitutional Convention if you haven't yet, and if you don't, I'm not even sure why you're here.

Together we can save Atlasia, but only through a Convention!

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

My fellow Southerners,

Now that I'm in the Legislature, I'm ready to start working for you, the people. Government is built for the people, and is only legitimate with consent of the governed. Because of that, I'd love to hear what you have to think in this thread. Any suggestions for bills, or comments on bills currently in the legislature are welcome here.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

I just introduced a few bills for the Legislature. I promised to be active here, and I'd like to start fulfilling that (apologies for the lull--I was spending my Atlas time guiding Mike Gravel to hopefully beat Nixon, being a pioneer (double-meaning!) with the Mock Parliament, exploring "the other site," and finding out why in the Sam Hill Griffin and BK were banned).

Here goes:

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Police officers lie to people too often; this needs to stop.

You might say, "well, if it's getting confessions, isn't it good?" But I disagree. Police can't be allowed to lie to people. They're supposed to be "the law." Remember when we were told to "respect people in uniform?" Hard to buy that one, anymore. Keeping them honest will help that.

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This is a bill that could use some work, but the idea is clear: abortion isn't a good thing, and I think two ways to reduce them are finding alternatives and simply reducing the need for unplanned pregnancies.

The first one seems obvious: after conception, the only two alternatives to abortion are adoption and parenting. If someone isn't ready or able to parent, adoption is the best path--#1 (borrowed from the Northeast) helps increase the ability to adopt (not to mention helping families who adopt children) and #2 helps women economically during the pregnancy, thus making it easier to go the adoption route. I'm flexible on the dollar amount, this was just $500 * 9. The overall cost of the bill is about $1.5-$2B--a lot, yes, but it's only a small fraction of our surplus, and I think it's a worthy cause.

The second one is also obvious. What's the worst strategy to keep teenagers from having unsafe sex? Telling them simply not to have sex. That often doesn't work. Telling them how to have sex safely, however, would work.

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[/quote]

This makes sense, doesn't it? The current law could help a company if it hires an employee from another country, this is a sensible approach to Atlasian jobs.


Anyway, if you have any comments/suggestions on those bills, or ideas for any others, let me know in this thread! (Specifically, if there's anything that hasn't been decriminalized, or something that needs reforming, I'm the guy to do it.)

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

Great job so far, Leinad!

Good to see adoption grants happening in the South too

Thanks!

And yeah, that was a good idea of yours. It helps people who adopt (a good thing), and in increasing the number of people who can adopt, according to the law of supply and demand it decreases abortions (another good thing).

[Leinad]

Hello everyone, I'm running for governor!

Don't confuse this with me losing interest in the legislature, or thinking I've gotten everything done. I will continue with my duties as legislator until the next governor is sworn in, and will continue legislating after that if I lose the election. The fact is that we need an active governor, and there's a dearth of quality choices for the job.

Whether it's as legislator, governor, or dog-catcher, I look forward to continuing helping keep this region great, and making it even better.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

And the Expansion of Marriage Act just became law! Now two consenting adults won't have legal restrictions on marriage based on if they've had other marriages. Some of you might think that's social libertarianism too far, but I think that's just far enough.

My Police Honesty Act has passed, and is awaiting the governor's signature. Even if Flo doesn't like it, considering that both candidates in the upcoming Gubernatorial election are active legislators and voted for the bill, it's hard to imagine this not becoming law as well.

Which is a victory in criminal justice reform, an area I think is very important.

Any suggestions for new bills are welcome, too! Until next time,

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

My Presidential Pardon Limitation amendment is currently up for a vote in the Senate, with 1 aye, 2 abstentions, and 2 nays.

To me, this is an obvious "aye," and I'm very puzzled why this is unpopular. To say that eliminating the President's ability to pardon someone without the ability to put it up for review is "giving the Vice President more active powers than the President" as retiring Senator Polnut said is shockingly absurd.

And this isn't even eliminating the pardon! The President can still pardon people! It's only that the Senate can overturn the pardon--but they need a HUGE supermajority to even do that! It's not even like pardons happen a lot! Again, to say that this takes away all the President's powers is ridiculous.

This is about checks and balances, which I'm a major supporter of. No one, not the President, the Senate, the Supreme Court, nor anyone else, should have unchecked power. I'm a fan of Senator Cris, but he's wrong when he says that he doesn't "think that the legislative body should interfere" in pardons. The Senate got it right when they determined that the President can't pardon themselves, so why is this common sense checking of unchecked power off-limits?

In the awkward absence of a segway, please get out to the polls and vote for me as South Governor!

   -Leinad

[Leinad]

I'm officially the Governor! To quote a great philosopher, coolcoolcool.

With my election win, this means two things. First, we'll need a new Legislator down here. I have some ideas, and I'll make my formal announcement within the next couple of days.

Second, it means it's time to get to work. The Constitutional Convention is officially on the way, which is both a positive thing, obviously (I've spoken in favor of this several times, including in this thread), but also spells uncertainty. We need decisive leadership in this time, and we need to continue our activity until the close of the Convention, and then after that, whatever Atlasia looks like.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

Matters of discussion for today:

Southern Legislator DarTheBearNC has officially deregistered, so I'll need to appoint 2 new members to the Legislature, not just 1. My appointments will be made before the end of the week.

In what I'm pleased to announce is my first official act as Governor, I've signed the Constitutional Convention amendment. While it's already passed via the petition, it's nice to sign that as well.

And in my second official act as Governor, I've signed the Police Honest Act into law, although I believe it was already made a law after 7 days of it not being signed. Either way, now officers of the law will be penalized for lying to people. The objective of law enforcement is to protect people, not extort confessions from them. Besides, a large part of being safe is feeling safe, and how can someone feel safe if you don't trust the people authorized to use lethal force?

Also, I've updated the Vital Civic Information Thread, so now it includes yours truly as Governor, Cincinnatus as VP, the new legislature (currently just Spiral--but that will change quite soon), and I've even added the At-Large Senators.

I'll do more soon, but that's a good start. Any more ideas, fellow Southerners? I'd certainly like to hear them.

   -Leinad

[Leinad]

Congrats, man.

Congrats Governor.

Thanks!

I look forward to your appointments.

Me too! One, at least, will be later today. Stay tuned!

[Leinad]

I'm happy to announce my first appointment to the Southern Legislature: former Senator Clarence! He has experience in the legislature, and he's currently running for President for a 3rd time. I think this will be a good pick given that he has both experience and enthusiasm to make Atlasia great again!

The second appointment will occur in a day or two, once I find a good candidate. Let me just say: the idea that there's not enough active players to fill all the seats isn't a myth.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

I hereby resign my position as Southern Judicial Overlord, Effective Immediately.

Thanx.
TexasGurl.

Sad to see you go, but thanks for your service to the region!

Unless I'm mistaken, by the time I'm done making appointments Spiral will be the only person in the regional government to be in the same seat as he was before the election.

[Leinad]

I'm happy to announce my appointment for the Judicial Overlord post recently vacated is Small L! He's been in the legislature before, and is eager to take up his new role. And he has a pretty nice signature, if I do say so myself.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

Since my appointment of Small L, I've asked two more people regarding the Legislature vacancy. One declined, the other is yet to respond. In the meantime, I think we should start getting back to work, and will contact the Legislature to do just that.

See, part of being in a leadership position is making appointments to fill vacancies, and another part is informing the public on the status of things. I mean, it's not like anyone important has been slacking off in those areas or anything...

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

I'm pleased to announce that the Small Business Growth Act of 2015 is now law!

As previously passed into law, Atlasian businesses will receive tax credits for hiring new employees, but now that only applies to Atlasian citizens or permanent residents. It's a common sense measure to help domestic job growth.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

And now I have a new Legislator! I'm happy to announce that Former Senator Goldwater will fill the second and so far only remaining vacancy in the Legislature!

So the South government is filled completely, with no vacancies, after about a week of appointing. It wasn't that easy, I guess, but it wasn't that hard either. Ask enough people and eventually you're good.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

I want to remind everyone that the Southern Legislature election is this weekend! No one has yet declared, which I'm afraid to say isn't a great sign for activity in the region.

Also, I recently introduced some new legislation:

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A crime is a crime. People should be judged proportionally for specific crimes. If they've served the punishment of a previous offence, there's no need to add any extra to later sentences, as they've already served the punishment.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

The Legislative Election voting booth is up: here's the link! Hopefully I did everything right. All citizens of the South should head over and vote today or this weekend.

No one declared (sigh), so it's entirely a write-in election. This means there's still time for anyone to run, if they'd like. I will contact people on whether they're planning to run or not, and then endorse the 3 candidates I'd like to see get seats from here. For anyone planning to vote, I encourage you to put several candidates on your ballot--given that we have no clue who's wanting to be legislators or not.

In other news: the Constitutional Convention is coming up, and people are declaring to run for a seat in that. Including, as probably expected, yours truly. I've been unhealthily active in Atlasia ever since I joined, and have been a public backer of the ConCon since not too long after the petition started (I was skeptical at first--but that's also a good sign, showing that I'm not one to jump on bandwagons, preferring careful consideration to make sure we think with our brains, not our emotions) so I think it makes sense to have me as one of the 25 delegates. Anyway, I'd be glad to have your vote!

Elsewhere, I think Cris and Classic Conservative are two no-brainer choices for the convention, given that no one did more to help start this than them. And PiT was in the last Constitutional Convention, way back in 2009--his experience will be a vital asset, so I encourage the Senate to choose him. There are other good choices that have declared, and that will declare, but I'll keep it to endorsing those 4.

   -Leinad

[Leinad]

Enthusiastically endorsed for Convention Delegate!

Thanks, and the same to you!

[Leinad]

Election Results:

Talleyrand's vote doesn't count as A) he hasn't been a citizen for 7 days. However, that wouldn't change the results, unless I'm incorrectly tabulating them.

The newly elected Southern Legislators are: Clarence, ElectionsGuy, and AHDuke99.

    -Leinad

[Leinad]

And it's confirmed, I will be a delegate at the Constitutional Convention! Huzzah! I certainly look forward to working together with the other delegates to restore Atlasia to the wonderful nation it was meant to be. And I also congratulate Senator Yankee and Registrar General Adam Griffin on their elections to the convention--two great Atlasians who have the experience and ideas that we need at the ConCon.

I wasn't able to post much Thursday because I was attending the ConConConcert in Atlanta. We had several great musical performances in a variety of genres: Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, U2, Hilltop Hoods, Sir Elton John, Snoop Dogg, and Georgia natives Jason Aldean, Outkast, Little Richard, and Childish Gambino. Guests included former Legislator Speakers Spiral and Darthebearnc, former Governors JBrase and Duke, former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Dr. Ron and Carol Paul, and a few thousand other citizens of this wonderful region. In between Rocket Man and 3005 the speech by South American Speaker Barnes was displayed live on two large screens around the stage.

Speaking of which, I think Speaker Barnes got it just about right, and so did Atlasia's Senate Speaker, Cris, when he addressed the South American Parliament. It would be great if we can co-exist peacefully, and I'd like to help make that happen on both sides. And no, that's not a flip-flop--I've never been anti-South America, it's just that I'm more skeptical about it than some, given the views of a loud minority over there, and that's magnified when I'm arguing with people who are unreservedly pro-South America. But I think it was a bit reactionary to boycott Barnes' speech--the Speaker is certainly not among the previously mentioned loud minority with an irrational hatred of Atlasia, but rather someone who I trust to help positively develop our nations' relationship.

Back to the matter at hand, the Constitutional Convention! Also, is there anything you, my fellow citizens of the South, would like to see done at the Convention? While only 25 people are selected as delegates, we're all Atlasians, and this is the convention for Atlasia--as your representative I will certainly consider input from any of my fellow citizens on these incredibly important times ahead.