@Sir Lüc Luc, you may have already sent it but I wanted to be sure. Is there anything else needed before sending the oath for Tong Mun Kit?

Just a reminder that I'll be chatting and drinking coffee with any Talossan who wishes to join in tomorrow morning!

-Txec R

So, inquiring minds want to know: will there be a debate tomorrow?

-Txec R

On this final day before Balloting Day, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some of our priorities for the upcoming term.  We're going to try to push for these things to get done, even if we don't win a majority -- just like we saw this past term, where we highlighted the unwieldy immigration form and demanded common-sense changes.  We've been a very effective Opposition, but the more seats we have, the more effective we can be.

One of our policies is to reject negative and angry politics.  You've seen the Seneschal's speech about how they are the "Good" and we are the "Bad," and you've seen the URL emails with lengthy personal attacks.  And while that might work for them, we're not going to take the bait.  The URL is a party of decent people who want to help Talossa, and we just have different visions about how to achieve that.  No matter how you vote this term: if you're a Talossan patriot, you're one of the Good ones.  That's our pledge to you.

We urge transparency in government.  The government should not have the power to secretly control who's even allowed to apply to immigrate... we need the bipartisan Public Process Act!  And let's make sure this power was never abused by anyone of any party or government.  If it was, the people deserve to know.  And on a different note, laws like this should be accessible to everyone -- let's get some regular citizens to read over our laws and figure out what's hard to understand!

We also want to make it easier for everyone to "do Talossa."  That means fixing up our website so that the links all work and the merchandise is available.  It means being vocal and supporting everyone's efforts -- the Seneschal should be an active booster of fun stuff, promoting it!  It means making space to be silly, and never yucking someone's yum.  And let's make sure we have plenty of people to have fun with us: let's turn our lucky breaks into sustained growth, and end these periods of zero immigration for months at a time.

I'll have a video out soon on our Tiktok, because we also want to put a human face on Talossa.  Let's get away from just message boards, since that's more interesting and makes it possible for us to reach a broader audience.  The people agree -- that's why the current leader in our poll asks for "regular Zoom meetings with His Majesty and the Seneschal."  We can make that happen!

It's time to move Talossa forward -- let's vote for the Progressive Alliance!

Mic'halgh, you could just rephrase your questions so they're not -- as Miestra calls them -- too provocative.  There's lot of ways you could ask these things without trying to make the moderators campaign for you.

I mean, take this other question they've asked to be rephrased:

Quote from: Mic'halghYour platform calls for the Government "taking a public stance", "being an active advocate", and being "an active voice right from the top" when it comes to the direction of Talossan culture -- a direction you feel should be more like the Talossan culture and internet culture of years past. Given this strong advocacy for cultural dirigisme, how would a Davinescu Government respond if citizens reject their attempts at "compulsory fun"?

You're not going to get them to ask why we're insisting on "compulsory fun" because that's basically just a URL campaign statement, and there's nothing specific to back it up.  But that could fairly easily be rephrased into something that's more reasonable and neutral.

I'm a little unhappy to hear that the moderators have been discussing their decisions with URL leadership, but I'm going to assume it's innocent complaining about the process with their old friends.  So no worries.

Anyway, I guess there's a day left for you guys to rephrase the questions that the moderators have asked be changed.  All three of them would be fine if the provocative campaign statements are removed.

@Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be I very much hope this bill will move forward in the coming term.

Jon Ranes - Verdens beste menneske

Whereas, it can be said that one objective in granting rights is to reduce suffering and enhance flourishing, so the use of sentience as a guiding characteristic may be more appropriate, and

Whereas, it was the trailblazing philosopher Jeremy Bentham who wrote in 1789, "The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?", and

Whereas, sentience is the characteristic of consciousness whereby an organism has a sufficient level of awareness to experience suffering, and

Whereas, sentience has been proven to be a characteristic not exclusive to homo sapiens sapiens, and

Whereas, it is therefore a fact that the restriction of the normative and legal discussion and codification of rights to humankind is an unacceptable case of anthropocentric speciesism.

Therefore, be it enacted that el Lexhatx F.5.3.13 (Culture) which currently reads:

Quote10 December. Human Rights Day. A suggested method to celebrate Human Rights Day is reviewing Article XI of The Organic Law and/or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

is deleted.

and the current el Lexhatx F.5.2.7 which reads:

QuoteDecember 12: Llimbaziua (Language Day).

is renumbered as F.5.2.8.

The following new article is reinserted as el Lexhatx F.5.2.7 (Culture) to read as:

Quote10 December. Sentient Rights Day. A day to celebrate the dignity and honor the rights of all sentient beings.

Yup that was well within the deadline. Will add it to the ballot shortly.

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