RP: DION Senate Bill Two

Edward returned to his sofa and opened up the communication's dialogue once again. "Goodmorning gentlemen.â€

Alex was not overly happy with this bill, since it impeded on the rights of both consumer and corporation, both of which he had a more than slight interest in keeping happy.

"Lord Williams, I see some problems with this scheme of yours. First and foremost I do not think this proposal is in sufficient depth for the creation of such a crucial agency."

"For example although your intent is to create a 'government entity to deal with internal issues that include gangs, and economic security', this proposal only grant 'DART' power over weapons. While I will agree that weapons are of vital importance in the fight against the gangs of Nepleslia, simply power over weapons will not be enough. This lacks any description of organisation, relationship with the security forces and police forces of the planets in question. For establishing such a vital organisation, I do not think that two vague points is sufficient."

"I do think that licensing the factories of Nepleslia is vital, what about factories on our other planets? We do have some you know, and some of them do make weapons. Your point 2 also distresses me somewhat, with the wording talking of 'tracking and controlling all weapons'. Does this mean that we shall be tracking every weapon on Nepleslia? For that is a major invasion of privacy. And what is meant my control? This must be clarified I think."

"In order to tackle these two points, I believe that 'DART' requires a far more complete constitution, complete with codified power and an established set of rules in order to allow its smooth relationships both with the government, civilians and corporations."

"A last point, Lord Williams, as a member of the Senate, and one of our most active members, and representing and administering over Nepleslia and Funky City, by far our most populated and significant planet, do you honestly believe you will be able to find time to administer an organisation which plans to do nothing less than track every weapon on a planet of billions, the vast majority of which both own and are highly protective of their firearms?"

"Dart will have power over weapons, taxes, and factories.â€

Alex replied calmly, "I do understand your point about limiting the power of DART possibly leading to impotence, but as it is it simply has too wide a mandate. There is nothing to state what it can or can't do, what powers it can or can't use, or how it is meant to interact with any other body, civilian or governmental. As it is, this complete lack of rules or a constitution may lead to radically varying policy, as various members of the agency try to work out what they can actually do. As it is this organisation can do effectively anything as long as it can somehow relate it to weapons or taxes, and that is pretty much everything on Nepleslia. Everyone pays, or should pay, taxes after all. While the Sunlight measure is useful, it still does not really prevent DART from having almost unlimited power, given the vagueness of this mandate."

"I do agree that factories should be licensed, despite what you might think, however your wording states Nepleslia, which may well be interpreted to be the planet of Nepleslia only, or the system, not the Nepleslian empire and the planets that fall under our dominion."

Edward keyed in a few commands and changed the wording of the bill. "You do have a point, I have changed the bill to limit the organizations power to Nepleslia as that is the only planet where the gang problem is.â€

"I find the changes to the bill most acceptable," Alex nodded, "My one last request is that a committee reviews the actions of the organisation on a bi-monthly basis. This way we can make sure that the organisation does not go out of hand. Not that I do not trust you, my Lord." He smiled, "I suggest this committee report to the senate if it decides that DART is being excessive, and that the membership of this committee is carefully vetted. My apologies for this request, but I'm not sure if I will be comfortable if there is not one."

Edward nodded and made more changes to the bill.

(OOC: Nepleslia stands to loose much of its military industrial base if it passes this bill, which is severely needed if Nepleslia plans to expand. )

Robert Davis sat in front of his terminal, silently watching the proceedings. The formation of a senate pleased him tremendously, but there were murmurs among the royal family of a shift in power.

"You have your instructions, Master Admiral." The quick blurt registered from a second terminal before blacking out.

Emperor Jim Blackman. Davis sometimes disliked him, but he knew of the royal family's predicament. Blackman, whether he liked it or not, held his finger on the pulse of the crime syndicates of Nepleslia.

And, through their network of spies, they found quite the reason to be alarmed at the proceedings.

How the Master Admiral managed to keep the veil of secrecy shrouding his war on crime from prying eyes brought a sense of disgrace to the noble Davis. The bribes, the extortion, the killing, he had all turned a blind eye to it. And now, his team of experts in the field had not reported to him in all this time.

Maybe... they had found the temptation of the underworld too strong.

Nevertheless, Davis had to stop what was certainly going to cause an open civil war against the government.

Not wanting to be rude, he sent his request to join the council.

A green light blinked in the corner of the senators' screens...

Alex noted the little light flashing and looked at it quizically for a second. Interesting. Not completely certain what to do he extended one long finger and pressed the flashing area. What was a flashing light meant to represent?

Edward did the same.

Nathan continued to lounge, in a half asleep state for a few moments before shaking himself awake fully. "Well considering that it's impractical to have to license all of the factories, perhaps we can absorb them into our collective fold so to speak." he said. "Basically tell them that they face stiff penalties for putting someone other than the state before use?" Nathan said, he wasn't the best at politics but the lack of weapons...his primary concern botherd him. "As I see it, we should license the weapons themselves or limit their availability to the general populace and place stiff penalities for violators?" he said before noticing the green light.

"We can't absorb the factories into government control without destroying free enterprise and wiping out growth. We need these independent factories to remain independent and producing but we need to license them so we can monitor and control what they are producing to ensure they aren't producing weapons, weapon parts, or anything like that to go to the gangs. Penalties are nothing to the gangs, we need strong enforcement.â€

Once he had everyone's attention, the Master Admiral nodded in greeting. He had made sure his facial appearance was sharp as ever: his beard was well-groomed and his hair kept neatly combed with his custom-made officer's cap adorning his head. He crossed his hands on the desk as he spoke.

"Greetings, senators. It is Master Admiral Robert Davis speaking on behalf of Emperor Jim Davis. Let me be the first to congratulate you all on the formation of the Nepleslian senate. Steps like these help to reassure that every citizen of our empire has a voice in how our empire runs."

Davis knew that sweet-talking wouldn't convince those who made a living persuading others to believe in them. It was time to get serious.

"Now that the formalities have been done with, I must discuss with you the implications of this bill. Having lived on Nepleslian soil, I'm certain you understand just how day-to-day life operates in the empire? Do you plan to make such a drastic, sweeping change with only a couple of pen-strokes? My friends, let me be brief: I understand your desires to create positive change, but this is not something one does with paper."

He paused for a moment, carefully wording the most critical part of his statement.

"Those who would hold a "dislike" for this law would most definately react with... a certain degree of... vigor... that I'm quite sure we all would not enjoy. Do you all understand?"

Davis cleared his throat. He HATED being a lackey, but right now this was the only way.

"Furthermore, although he enjoys the formation of the senate, Jim Blackman fears the current system which has no checks and balances. Therefore, on the Emperor's behalf, I propose the formation of a judicial system which will judge the legality of passed laws."

Davis leaned in to the screen, his face like a slab of concrete.

"I sincerely hope for your compliance in these matters."

"Creating a judicial branch more than the rather flimsy military courts that we have is something for another bill, this is deal specifically with the economic aspects that fuel the gang's war machine. Control of the economy in such a manner is needed in order to form the economic weapons to beat back the gangs. We can not let our economy go on un-regulated and simply allow factory managers to build anything that the gangs need unpunished. This legislation will give us the tools to start creating a working system.â€

Nate brushed his black hair behind his ear as Davis showed himself and began to introduce himself. A short to the point affair, as was expected; after all teh MA was a busy man after all. Nathan simply listened to his points and began to think, it sounded like there was a call for a semi-armed ....moderating action. "So Davis, in other words you mean sometimes you gotta put a boot in someone's ass before they listen to you huh?" he smirked deviously. "But a judicial system to judge how far the laws are?" nate started to laugh. "Seriously Davis, you are aware this is Nepleslia as it stands there's almost no laws that the civilians or gangs will even listen to." he said. "It's simply too rough out there for handholding anymore." He trailed off

"And Eddie old boy. you sound like you're trying to sell us on your own ulterior motives. I've met types like you that've always tried to do that." the black haired nepleslian growled a bit. "I agree that regulation is needed but it seems that DART may be goign a little overboard..."

"We have a fully trained and well equipped military going out there every day and the streets are still not under our control. These aren't kids playing gangs, terrorizing a few subdivisions, robbing a few people. This is war. People are dieing in the hundreds, maybe thousands, every day. The reality of it is that we do not control our own empire. These are desperate times and they call for desperate measures.â€

Davis felt the disrespect from Nate coming off in waves, but the Master Admiral would never show outwardly how offended he was.

"Senator... I'm not really sure you know the implications of what's going on. Are you willing to start a conflict with the crime syndicates just because YOU feel that getting tough will solve the problem? We have the advantage of them being splintered and fighting amongst themselves. We DON'T need something that would unify them against the government... that is... unless you are one to promote a coup."

Davis took a sip from his coffee mug.

"Besides, what power does a wobbly, newly-created senate have over the established crime syndicates? I'm afraid to say that leather chairs, big words and well-wishings do little to make change in our society."

Davis sadly sighed. He was like a puppet on the emperor's strings...

"The only thing keeping this society from degrading into chaos is the military... which I happen to run. But even I know what I can and cannot do. Jim Blackman has voiced his discontent over this bill. Won't you please understand that there's little I can do?"

"Strengthening the planet's economy is the first step towards being able to do anything regarding the gangs. A flexible tax policy will allow tariff barriers to be raised against foreign products so industry within our empire will have less competition and can thrive. Licensing factories will diminish if not wipe out fly by night operations that create a drag on the economy by creating extremely low quality goods that undercut reputable manufacturers. The money brought in from the tax system will increase the government's purchasing power allowing us to invest in stable corporations. This will create growth, this will fight poverty, and this will give us the tools to monitor the arms trade on the planet.â€

Nate shrugged at the MA and Edward's words. "Well if we star licensing the industry we might be able to cut supplies to the gangs and maybe they'll be able to either annihilate each other for us or significantly fight it out enough so we can march in and start obliterating them ourselves." he said. "I've heard we have agents out there. so whynot use them as sleeper agents or are you already doing that?" He said. "I'm siding with Edward here and voting yes and I support the introduction of this bill and again I vote yes on it."