When I tried to log in to the forum of Europeia, a region that, in the two months that I have been here, has become more of a home to me than any other in NS, I got a message that said that the board was offline for some changes until about 9:00 PM EST. I thought, OK, maybe the board just needs some repairs. And then I cried, "PURPLE COLOR SCHEME! MY EYES!!!!! And what the hell? We're the Europeian Ascendancy now?" 
(As of writing, the color scheme is back to blue...)
After that, I saw this:
http://z6.****************/Europeia/index....showtopic=23206
:mellow:
For those of you who have not heard of this (i.e. been living under a rock), HEM has, in essence, torn up the Constitution by Executive Order. Now, to be fair, I greatly respect HEM. I think we all do- he is after all, the founder of our great region, and our Supreme Chancellor.
Also, his so-called "Constitution V" is actually pretty well-written and workable, although the only main changes that it creates from Constitution IV seem to be in the area of giving the "Premier" (the Supreme Chancellor with a new coat of paint) more power- mainly by adding the Speakership of the Senate, the power to appoint three Senators, and the ability to veto the President's EOs. And he claims that he is not doing this out of a tyrannical desire for power, but rather out of an intention to revive activity by kicking the Senate in the butt. And he has a point- the Senate has been very inactive lately.
However, even well-intentioned intrusions into Europeian liberty are still intrusions into Europeian liberty. And that is why I respectfully, yet vehemently disagree with HEM's move tonight. I hope that he is simply playing an April Fools' joke on us. If so, it would be a terrible one, but still a joke.
And even if he didn't mean it as a joke, if the High Court asserts itself and strikes this Constitution V down for what it is- a joke- the fact that one man has effectively obliterated our highest law without asking ANYBODY first is also a joke- a cruel one at that. I can see why he wanted to make the changes that he made, but in a democracy, which HEM claims we still are, founder or not, you consult the general population and/or its duly elected government before making these kinds of sweeping changes. P-E-R-I-O-D. Spells PERIOD. Anything else is a monarchy, a near absolute one at that, and that can only spell T-Y-R-A-N-N-Y, no matter if the man acting in this manner is a saint.
People who didn't know any better would reply by saying that HEM, feeling himself increasingly a smaller and smaller voice in this region, is simply trying to grab the spotlight back for himself a la George. I don't think that's the reason. Again, his intentions seem, at least on the surface, to be good. I commend his wanting to tweak the system. It definitely needs tweaking, as any system inevitably does.
But that does not excuse the fact that nowhere in the Constitution IV, the current and legitimately and democratically written one, does the Supreme Chancellor have the power to even make Executive Orders, let alone ones that contravene the current Constitution. And nowhere does it say that the root admin has that kind of power either. Hey, I applaud him for wanting to change the Constitution- but the way he has gone about it is wrong, for reasons that should be obvious to everyone here.
Moving on to the actual Constitution, the biggest change that has been made to it is, of course, the creation of the position of Grand Poobah- oops, I mean Premier. I said before that this simply a new title for the Supreme Chancellor. But that's actually not the whole extent of it. No longer is the Supreme Chancellor a ceremonial head of state whose main function is to keep our elections running on time...
Instead, by his own text, HEM has summarily given himself the ability to:
Oh, and this same person who appoints a third of the Senate will also act as Chairperson. Which effectively means that the unelected Premier can effectively dictate which bills go to debate by instituting Senatorial procedure. And if one of the appointed Senators disagrees- out the door they go. Of course, the Chairperson is not an overly powerful position; the elected portion of the Senate could easily vote against him and his block of three handpicked Senators- but since when have six Senators voted exactly the same way on a bill just to block three other Senators?
Don't forget that this Premier can now veto the President's Executive Orders. This is less of a concern for me than the Senate part of the Premier's powers, since the President can still veto the Premier's EOs, but it's very, very...interesting, to say the least that HEM has given himself this power. And not only that, but that he has given himself a great deal of power in BOTH the executive and the legislature.
Now, I want to emphasize that I am not criticizing HEM personally, nor, if he holds this "Premier" position, would I expect that he would abuse this position. He's served for too long and too well in the service of Europeia to do so. However, he has blundered horribly by creating a position in the first place that someone COULD take advantage of, and set a dangerous precedent by saying that it's OK for a single titular head of state to seize power in a self-proclaimed "emergency" a la George. Also, HEM isn't going to be around forever. Imagine if an LA figure somehow became Premier. I shudder to think...
You could say I am being a bit too dark and doomsday prophecy-like with this rant. Fair enough. The position of Premier, while much more powerful than Supreme Chancellor and a potentially dangerous position in the hands of someone more guileful and unscrupulous, is not a supreme and absolute dictatorship, and my criticisms of the actual position of Premier itself are more hypothetical than actual, since this hasn't even been officially implemented yet (and I hope that it never will.)
But I repeat that HEM has given himself more power, no matter how well-intentioned his expansion of his own constitutional role in Europeia might be, without any discussions, any debate, any referendum, any Senate vote whatsoever. I really do hope that this an April Fools' joke, and that HEM retracts this or steps aside when the High Court inevitably strikes this down. If this is allowed to stand, then will this really be a true republic any more? Or just another constitutional monarchy? Should we take this risk with our liberty? I SAY NO!!!!
No to the Eurpopeian Ascendancy! The Republic of Europeia forever!
euro.gif
(As of writing, the color scheme is back to blue...)After that, I saw this:
http://z6.****************/Europeia/index....showtopic=23206
:mellow:
For those of you who have not heard of this (i.e. been living under a rock), HEM has, in essence, torn up the Constitution by Executive Order. Now, to be fair, I greatly respect HEM. I think we all do- he is after all, the founder of our great region, and our Supreme Chancellor.
Also, his so-called "Constitution V" is actually pretty well-written and workable, although the only main changes that it creates from Constitution IV seem to be in the area of giving the "Premier" (the Supreme Chancellor with a new coat of paint) more power- mainly by adding the Speakership of the Senate, the power to appoint three Senators, and the ability to veto the President's EOs. And he claims that he is not doing this out of a tyrannical desire for power, but rather out of an intention to revive activity by kicking the Senate in the butt. And he has a point- the Senate has been very inactive lately.
However, even well-intentioned intrusions into Europeian liberty are still intrusions into Europeian liberty. And that is why I respectfully, yet vehemently disagree with HEM's move tonight. I hope that he is simply playing an April Fools' joke on us. If so, it would be a terrible one, but still a joke.
And even if he didn't mean it as a joke, if the High Court asserts itself and strikes this Constitution V down for what it is- a joke- the fact that one man has effectively obliterated our highest law without asking ANYBODY first is also a joke- a cruel one at that. I can see why he wanted to make the changes that he made, but in a democracy, which HEM claims we still are, founder or not, you consult the general population and/or its duly elected government before making these kinds of sweeping changes. P-E-R-I-O-D. Spells PERIOD. Anything else is a monarchy, a near absolute one at that, and that can only spell T-Y-R-A-N-N-Y, no matter if the man acting in this manner is a saint.
People who didn't know any better would reply by saying that HEM, feeling himself increasingly a smaller and smaller voice in this region, is simply trying to grab the spotlight back for himself a la George. I don't think that's the reason. Again, his intentions seem, at least on the surface, to be good. I commend his wanting to tweak the system. It definitely needs tweaking, as any system inevitably does.
But that does not excuse the fact that nowhere in the Constitution IV, the current and legitimately and democratically written one, does the Supreme Chancellor have the power to even make Executive Orders, let alone ones that contravene the current Constitution. And nowhere does it say that the root admin has that kind of power either. Hey, I applaud him for wanting to change the Constitution- but the way he has gone about it is wrong, for reasons that should be obvious to everyone here.
Moving on to the actual Constitution, the biggest change that has been made to it is, of course, the creation of the position of Grand Poobah- oops, I mean Premier.
I said before that this simply a new title for the Supreme Chancellor. But that's actually not the whole extent of it. No longer is the Supreme Chancellor a ceremonial head of state whose main function is to keep our elections running on time...Instead, by his own text, HEM has summarily given himself the ability to:
At first glance, this doesn't seem like much. But read carefully, for our Supreme High Chancellor Premier-ness has deigned himself worthy to appoint a third of the Senate. This comes from here:
With our current size of six Senators, that would expand the Senate by three to nine...not a big deal, right? The shrinking size of the Senate has been thought by some to be a problem. But it is better that we have a smaller and more active and more democratic Senate (the Senate's activity was on the rise before THIS happened) than a larger, possibly less democratic Senate in which a third of its members are beholden to one man for their position.
Oh, and this same person who appoints a third of the Senate will also act as Chairperson. Which effectively means that the unelected Premier can effectively dictate which bills go to debate by instituting Senatorial procedure. And if one of the appointed Senators disagrees- out the door they go. Of course, the Chairperson is not an overly powerful position; the elected portion of the Senate could easily vote against him and his block of three handpicked Senators- but since when have six Senators voted exactly the same way on a bill just to block three other Senators?
Don't forget that this Premier can now veto the President's Executive Orders. This is less of a concern for me than the Senate part of the Premier's powers, since the President can still veto the Premier's EOs, but it's very, very...interesting, to say the least that HEM has given himself this power. And not only that, but that he has given himself a great deal of power in BOTH the executive and the legislature.
Now, I want to emphasize that I am not criticizing HEM personally, nor, if he holds this "Premier" position, would I expect that he would abuse this position. He's served for too long and too well in the service of Europeia to do so. However, he has blundered horribly by creating a position in the first place that someone COULD take advantage of, and set a dangerous precedent by saying that it's OK for a single titular head of state to seize power in a self-proclaimed "emergency" a la George. Also, HEM isn't going to be around forever. Imagine if an LA figure somehow became Premier. I shudder to think...
You could say I am being a bit too dark and doomsday prophecy-like with this rant. Fair enough. The position of Premier, while much more powerful than Supreme Chancellor and a potentially dangerous position in the hands of someone more guileful and unscrupulous, is not a supreme and absolute dictatorship, and my criticisms of the actual position of Premier itself are more hypothetical than actual, since this hasn't even been officially implemented yet (and I hope that it never will.)
But I repeat that HEM has given himself more power, no matter how well-intentioned his expansion of his own constitutional role in Europeia might be, without any discussions, any debate, any referendum, any Senate vote whatsoever. I really do hope that this an April Fools' joke, and that HEM retracts this or steps aside when the High Court inevitably strikes this down. If this is allowed to stand, then will this really be a true republic any more? Or just another constitutional monarchy? Should we take this risk with our liberty? I SAY NO!!!!
No to the Eurpopeian Ascendancy! The Republic of Europeia forever!
euro.gif
