Proposed Amendment - Referenda and SC veto of constitutional amendments

They can be impeached.

Actually, it might be more apt to say that I failed.

When we sat down to make a government, one of the primary goals was to create a simple system that protected minorities and wouldn't slowly be undone bit by bit through legislation. In practice however, it seems that humans naturally gravitate to rule by direct democracy, making decisions outside of the governmental structure. In N'burg this can be seen as the group coming to consensus in the forums on a topic and then post hoc formalizing the decision into law. In some cases, decisions made by the N'burg majority that violated the law (or Constitution) were executed nonetheless without ramification.

I have begin to learn that the most important branch in the city is not the RA but the SC. It is the SC that must enforce the structure (Constitution) on the government and protect the rights (Bill of Rights) of the people. Without such enforcement and protection a group such as this will decay into an ad-hoc heirarchical oligarchy or direct democracy.


As long as we're questioning the success of the project, there are other issues too. The expansion is still stymied, the sim and parts of the website are still built on intellectual property it does not own, losses due to exchange rate fluctuations still plauge the city despite laws being passed to solve the situation, there is no infrastructure in place to support the next election. I could go on and on (and actually might).

~Ulrika~

Which, of course, is not at all what this thread was about. It is about ammending the Constitution, which in RL the U.S Judicial Branch has no part of.

I appears to me that you attempted to revoke the right of a person to quote your own words, and only your own words, on a subject directly relevant to the appearance of your posts in this thread, with utterly no authority to do so. Except to determine that you could. It appears to me that you have attempted to disrupt an orderly process of considered debate with spurious and inflamatory comments. The Judicial system has not unraveled... quite the contrary... it has thrived since your January departure and engaged for the first time in constructive building and improvement.

Your inflamatory, divisive and destructive words and actions are not "threat of terrorism". In this virtual world, they are indeed terrorism itself. Aliasi's action to physically ban you from the Neualtenburg sim is perhaps not especially relevant... your acts are violence are carried out here in the forum. Think of it as a symbolic gesture.

On January 22 you realized that you had lost any remaining confidence of the citizens of Neualtenburg and you quite appropriately left. Now you have re-appeared with a destructive vengeance in your posts which are the epitome of spitefulness.

I'm sorry, but this project has not failed. You founded a great social experiment, you laid its foundations, and when it grew and proposered, you have tried to destroy it in a jealous rage. We can't ban you from this forum, which I can only pray we could. At least we can take the symbolic step of banning you from the sim.


Sudane

If that is to be the solution, we all need to come to a common understanding of what constitutes appropriate grounds for impeachment. in RL, it is usually reserved for those who have done something illegal. Currently it is the only way for Neualtenburg's citizens and government to react if they believe the SC is taking the city in the wrong direction.

Are we comfortable with impeachment becoming a tool of city politics?

Ulrika Zugzwang officially declared a terrorist by an N'burg official. That was a short trip from Thomas Jefferson to Osama Bin Laden let me tell you. So when the history books are written will I be waving a flag or burning a flag?

I recall leaving the project due to familial concerns complicated by folks being a pain in the butt, although that could be considered destruction by jealous rage by some.

Your prayers would go unanswered because God does not exist.


Anyways, I'm not here to deliver witty retorts to hyperbolic antiterrorist rhetoric (although that's what the fans from General are here to see) rather I broke my hiatus to warn with great seriousness all members of N'burg that the SC is a critically important branch of the government and that its powers should not be weakened. It is for the protection of freedom of speech, freedom of travel, and freedom of thought that it must remain strong -- without it the government official quoted in this very post would have it taken away from a minority.

~Ulrika~

Your actions are entirely hypocritical and juvenile.

If someone posted the kind of junk that you are posting now when you were a part of the project you would be calling for their head on a platter.

Sudane says it best:As of this morning Neualtenburg was doing just fine, prospering in fact, and everyone was getting along fine.

Now you come and spread all this slanderous crap about the project "failing" and it being "over." How much potential business are you destroying today? How many potential members are you turning away by this childish lashing out? I only wish we could sue you for it.

Neualtenburg has simply outgrown you and the worst thing that could happen for us is for you to come back. I think it's sad that you not only couldn't stay away, but that you feel you have to try to destroy our reputation in a stroke with some venomous posts in the public forum.

Deleting the words of people who dont agree with you is a pretty low thing to do also. You may technically be able to still moderate this forum but you must know you have no moral right to do so.

This to me precisely exemplifies one of the project's fundamental failings.

1. There is a government official (RA) who just banned a foreigner without precedent and as a member of the SC you have failed to intervene.
   
2. You have another government official who labeled this same foreigner a terrorist and as a member of the SC you are not investigating.
   
3. You are acting as part of an ad-hoc majority to silence an unpopular minority, instead of protecting freedoms of that very minority.

This is the purpose of the SC! This is why the SC needs to be strong! It does not exist to make cute police outfits but to be the voice of justice and reason.

~Ulrika~

So this is what has become of the great government project?

tisk, tisk.

Briana Dawson

Heh, where the hell is Kathy at?

If Ulrika is banned from Neualtenburg, consider my citizenship revoked. I'll seek asylum elsewhere.

Again, where is Kathy Y? This would be rich with her too.

shit!!!!

and I am all out of popcorn!

Yeah, me too, what's up with that?

I always considered Neualtenburg to be a bit of a joke anyway, because there was no real power anywhere. Everyone was just playing government, but the citizens (and even the 'government') has no real power at all. If everyone didn't cooperate and schmooze each other then it can't work anyway, and now we can clearly see what happens to dissenters. It's always nice to see that people can still trash anything by being people, Neualtenburg is now obviously the joke it always was. Play government all you want, you're no different than any other group in SecondLife, drama included. This should be fun!

Edit: Also, labeling someone a 'terrorist' just because they disagree with the 'government' is absurd. I guess that makes pretty much everyone in the world a terrorist at some point. Yay!

Technically, this is a real government with real power, in that citizens can be banned and have land revoked. It's this social and financial leverage that provides the government with its power over citizens. The amount of power is a function of one's desire to participate in the society and their financial investment in land (which can be large).

Amen.

~Ulrika~

Untrue, at least where constitutional matters are concerned, not ordinary law. Constitutional amendments, somewhat like the process proposed, are required to be ratified by the states; the Supreme Court has no say on the matter.

Given Neualtenburg is a city, not a superpower, it seems logical to make that citizens.

I have placed this statue in the Marktplatz in protest.

To a point, I agree. The problem is that in SecondLife that's not really true. The only person with actual power is the person who owns the simulator. Everybody else just has a sort of delegated power from that source, and only then to a limited degree. In real life, the government doesn't have the option of just deleting the world, and the citizens have the option of revolting if they so choose. There can be no revolt in SecondLife, assuming one was warranted. Land owners have ultimate rights (the way it should be here) and pretty much anything else is moot. The only real power anyone in Neualtenburg has is to just leave if they don't like it, which I suppose is more than you can say for some real governments, but it's still not any power over Neualtenburg itself. The functions for an actual government just don't really exist in SL.

But the Judical Branch cannot change the Constitution to suit its whims. It can heavily interpret, and anyone who's a student of the history of United States Law knows the twists and tortures things like the Commerce Clause have been put to to justify the silliest things. What the Supreme Court cannot do is, once an amendment has been put through one of the two procedures in place for passing and ratifying, veto that.

It is true that the United States is hardly the only model for a democracy. But to argue that a "democratic" government should ultimately be allowed to play Big Brother who knows best to the citizens... you've lost me.



I took a necessarily emergency action. You are not a citizen of Neualtenburg, yet - due to carelessness on the city's part, admittedly - you took it on yourself to delete a post from the forum, and furthermore, you have made the exact threat to delete everything you have made from the sim.

In short, I'm holding you to the same exact standard YOU held Kevn Kline to. If I'm wrong, then shortly Neualtenburg shall have it's first trial and impeachment hearing, eh?

I defect.

Until they veto the impeachment itself.

It needs an icepick in the side of her head. I hate to sound like Prok on this, but this is Ulrika's Trotsky moment.

But it's Aliasi's Sharon Stone moment.

Ha ha! You so funny.

~Ulrika~

Here's a simple example provided by someone just today in the forums (possibly in this thread). While a bill with similar intent would not make it through the Candian legislature, their courts extended the right of homosexuals to marry based on their founding documents. This is what a Judicial Branch does, it does not play Big Brother, rather it interprets the founding documents, which are typically based on shared ideals and moral principles.

General Threat Level has been elevated to RED! Ulrika has been seen in the forums making posts about ideas.

~Ulrika~

I visit Neualtenburg now and then. I've noticed that since Ulrika's departure it has become refreshed, energised, open and more beautiful. There are new ideas, new buildings, co-operation, a feeling of success and being alive. I'm quite sure this is not co-incidental.