American Commonwealth 2010 election poll

[lord caedus]

And you've still got Henri VI instead of Henri VII ruling France.

OOC: Fixed

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: Rather than do a series of Asia-Africa-Oceania posts, I decided to do the entire rest of the world as one super-info dump!

Africa

• The Union of South Africa incorporated Bechuanaland (later OTL Botswana), Basutoland (later OTL Lesotho) and absorbed Swaziland. Apartheid still existed ITTL and ended around the same time.
• The existence of the American Commonwealth instead of an independent USA meant that Liberia was never a separate colony ITTL, but it was incorporated into Sierra Leone. ITTL's Sierra Leone is one of the least-developed, poorest and most war-torn nation in the world.

Asia

• Commonwealth (of nations, not the AC) involvement in Vietnam was minimal, mostly military advisors & trainers, and a token force meant to repel North Vietnamese invasion from the north (but not the Viet Cong). The Vietnam War still ended with a North Vietnamese victory, not due to North Vietnamese military superiority, but through the Viet Cong quickly showing the lack of control South Vietnam had over its citizens, which resulted in provincial warlords slowly but surely pledging their loyalty to Hanoi until the entire south was communist.
• No major western involvement in Vietnam meant that the precarious balance in Cambodia's civil war was not tipped into Pol Pot's favor, so Cambodia still has a monarchy, but the country is really run by its prime minister. The Khmer Rouge remained in the rural hillsides and eventually disintegrated under royalist military pressure (helped in large part by bankrolling from the west) and the unwillingness of the Viet Cong to assist after the end of the Vietnam War.
• The communists won the Chinese Civil War, but the inclusion of the American Commonwealth's military power and close connections with Britain made them very wary of invading and annexing Tibet. Instead, the communists decided to invade Tibet, but keep the Dalai Lama as a figurehead and not annex Tibet, with a puppet regime acting as Tibet's government and the Dalai Lama as the nominal leader of Tibet. The Chinese continue to use Tibet's claims to South Tibet & Arunachal Pradesh (which the PRC claims OTL). The control over which group will choose the next Dalai Lama (like OTL) is a contentious issue.
• West Papua is an independent state, as the referendum Indonesia passed by unanimous vote of the elders to join Indonesia is instead made a true referendum, which just narrowly votes to stay independent. Indonesia's government renounced its claims to West Papua after Suharto was forced from power and has signed several trade treaties with West Papua that greatly benefit Indonesia. West Papua remains a very poor nation, however.

Oceania

• Guam and the Northern Marianas are under British control, as they were seceded to Britain instead of America after the terms ending the Cuban War (ATL equivalent to the Spanish-American War, this time sparked by stories of atrocities in Cuba as well as healthy British/American expansionist attitudes).
• There is only one Samoa (no American Samoa/Samoa difference) and it is a dominion of Britain. It is moving towards independence and a referendum on independence will be held in June 2012.

 

[lord caedus]

ABS News Roundup, 23-30 April, 2011

Royal Wedding
​

• Prince William married his long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton yesterday (29th) at Westminster Abbey in London. The lavish wedding prompted a bank holiday in the UK and the royal wedding was watched around the world. The future king and his bride had their marriage blessed by Her Majesty, who created the prince Duke of Cambridge hours before the wedding, making the the former Miss Middleton the Duchess of Cambridge.
• Polling for support of the monarchy has risen in the American Commonwealth after the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the ABS Research Group has reported, the a favorable opinion reaching 70%, neutral opinion 19% and a negative opinion dropping to 11%.

Domestic News
​

• A massive outbreak of tornadoes in some of the southern American states has left over 300 people dead and thousands without homes. Alabama Premier Richard Shelby (Con.) has asked Prime Minister Sanders to declare a state of emergency for his state, which the Prime Minister did. RAG* troops have been pouring into the state and in select counties of several other devastated states.

Foreign News
​

• British and French forces, supplemented by American logistical support, continue to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya during the fighting between Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and pro-democratic rebels. Qaddafi's son was one of the casualties, although both British Defence Minister Jim Murphy and American Defense Minister Chuck Hagel deny the purposeful targeting of Qaddafi or his family.

Political News
​

• Tory leader Mitt Romney has apologized for a remark he made earlier today during a speech, criticizing Liberal Shadow Finance Minister Harold Ford by saying they needed to "hang this [allegations of Ford's improper ties to bailed-out Wall Street firms] around his neck.", which some commentators felt evoked lynchings of black Americans common in certain areas of the commonwealth for over 120 years after the end of slavery. Ford accepted Romney's apology and called it "a simple slip of the tongue, nothing to be upset about."

• Polling for the May 20 Governor-General Election (ABS Research Poll):

Rudy Giuliani: 42%
Al Gore: 35%
Lorne Nystrom: 21%
undecided: 3%
​

• Polling for each party if a general election were today (ABS):

Progressive Democrats: 43.5% (-0.9%)
Liberal: 24.2% (+0.8%)
Conservative: 19.9% (-0.4%)
Libertarian: 6.7% (-3.2%)
Green: 2.5% (-0.2%)
American Heritage: 2.1% (+-0%)
other/undecided: 1.1%
​

*-OOC: Royal American Guard, equivalent to OTL National Guard

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: Bump with content. Here's 3 wiki sidebars from TTL's version of Wikipedia.

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: I'm debating whether I should start a separate thread so that there won't be a long-closed poll greeting people when they look at this thread with new content. Thoughts?

IC: Damn, it's been a crazy May for news already!

First off, we finally got Osama bin Laden! Sure it took us almost a decade and 4 different PMs, but we got the job done, finally! It still shocks me to that he actually authorized the raid into Pakistan, seeing as he's so dovish, but I guess the possibility of killing the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks can make even Comrade Bernie into a killer.

Also exciting (at least to me, since I'm a politics addict) are other couple of interesting news bits out of Philadelphia:

First off, Romney handled the Tory convention pretty damn well, and seemed pretty good at walking that fine line between endangering the coalition by playing to the backbench and appearing to be Bernie's pet. Which makes me kind of nervous since he's usually never displayed this amount of political skill before.

Second, Layton hinted at a fixed-term parliament bill in the works when he was giving an interview! I don't really know if it will fly or not, since he made it sound like there is some pretty serious wheeling and dealing going on to even look into fixed-term parliaments, which I expect will make this DOA.

Then there's Donald Trump's implosion as the Tory candidate for NYC mayor. My God, he made about 3-4 different ignorant or out of touch remarks in a row this weekend at a conference to the League of Women Voters. Add media attention and BAM! His numbers drop like a rock. Trump basically handed this election to Weiner, the idiot.

Last but not least, when Bill Rompkey hits 75 next week, Bermney gets a majority in the Senate (right now it's 50/50). That is, unless Bernie tells Powell (which also means that this will Powell's last Senate appointment ) to appoint someone other than a Tory or a Prog Dem (which is doubtful, but still plausible since even Bush had American Heritagers appointed & Bernie himself allowed Clinton's last-second appointment of Paul Hodes to sail through) to the appendix of Parliament.

OOC again: Here's the Wiki table showing the current AC Supreme Court. The Court's powers, requirements for service & mandatory retirement dates are all the same as OTL Canada's SC. The unwritten rule for PMs is to promote the longest-serving puisne justice to chief justice, which has not been broken yet (unlike Canada OTL). The chief justice serves as Deputy Governor-General of the American Commonwealth and becomes acting Governor-General if the current G-G dies, resigns before a successor is appointed (or now elected) or is incapacitated.

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

IC: Damn, it's been a crazy May for news already!

First off, we finally got Osama bin Laden! Sure it took us almost a decade and 4 different PMs, but we got the job done, finally! It still shocks me to that he actually authorized the raid into Pakistan, seeing as he's so dovish, but I guess the possibility of killing the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks can make even Comrade Bernie into a killer.

Also exciting (at least to me, since I'm a politics addict) are other couple of interesting news bits out of Philadelphia:

First off, Romney handled the Tory convention pretty damn well, and seemed pretty good at walking that fine line between endangering the coalition by playing to the backbench and appearing to be Bernie's pet. Which makes me kind of nervous since he's usually never displayed this amount of political skill before.

Second, Layton hinted at a fixed-term parliament bill in the works when he was giving an interview! I don't really know if it will fly or not, since he made it sound like there is some pretty serious wheeling and dealing going on to even look into fixed-term parliaments, which I expect will make this DOA.

Then there's Donald Trump's implosion as the Tory candidate for NYC mayor. My God, he made about 3-4 different ignorant or out of touch remarks in a row this weekend at a conference to the League of Women Voters. Add media attention and BAM! His numbers drop like a rock. Trump basically handed this election to Weiner, the idiot.

Last but not least, when Bill Rompkey hits 75 next week, Bermney gets a majority in the Senate (right now it's 50/50). That is, unless Bernie tells Powell (which also means that this will Powell's last Senate appointment ) to appoint someone other than a Tory or a Prog Dem (which is doubtful, but still plausible since even Bush had American Heritagers appointed & Bernie himself allowed Clinton's last-second appointment of Paul Hodes to sail through) to the appendix of Parliament.

Indeed! Can I get a hell yeah or what!?

I know, it's just so unlike him. I'm wondering where all of this came from, it's just so unlike him. Next thing you know he'll actually start showing some charisma!

Heh. Well Layton has really been doing great lately but I didn't expect this. I really hope it goes through because I'm sick of having elections just a year or two apart. It doesn't lead to anything good, just political instability. Sadly with both the Tories and Liberals opposing it, it doesn't seem very likely.

I am just so happy right now. For a while it actually looked like Trump could have a shot at taking it home, but now? Not a chance. Four more years of Weiner isn't exactly great news, but oh so much better news than four years with Trump.

I don't think that Bernie will appoint someone from another party to the Senate. There's not even that many Prog Dems in the senate right now so he'll see this as chance to put one from his own party in the chamber.

OOC:
Sorry for not posting in here, I just sort of lost track of this thread.
Nice work with the wiki stuff, BTW.

 

[lord caedus]

I know, it's just so unlike him. I'm wondering where all of this came from, it's just so unlike him. Next thing you know he'll actually start showing some charisma!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Heh. Well Layton has really been doing great lately but I didn't expect this. I really hope it goes through because I'm sick of having elections just a year or two apart. It doesn't lead to anything good, just political instability. Sadly with both the Tories and Liberals opposing it, it doesn't seem very likely.

Yeah, it's looking DOA. I don't even think Bernie can get all of the Prog. Dems. behind it if he brought it to the floor. I don't know if where the Libertarians are standing on this, so maybe that's what Bernie & Layton (I doubt Kucinich is featuring into any of this even if he is the deputy PD leader) are counting on to put the bill over the top, or at least use the threat of a divided Libertarian delegation (they only need about 1/2 of the Libertarians + all of the Prog Dems to pass a bill, not including the Greens or other left-wing parties) to railroad this through.

I am just so happy right now. For a while it actually looked like Trump could have a shot at taking it home, but now? Not a chance. Four more years of Weiner isn't exactly great news, but oh so much better news than four years with Trump.

Well, he's the best candidate who has a shot of winning, that's for sure. Between a pugnacious Liberal, a no-name Prog. Dem. & an egomaniac, ignorant and racially prejudiced Conservative, I'll go with the fiesty Liberal any day.

I don't think that Bernie will appoint someone from another party to the Senate. There's not even that many Prog Dems in the senate right now so he'll see this as chance to put one from his own party in the chamber.

True. The money's on former Premier Lorraine Michael being named following Rompkey's retirement. Not exactly a long-term pick (Michael would turn 75 in 2018), but she's probably the one Bernie will ask Powell to nominate, since he wouldn't want to take Jack Harris from his riding & cause the Liberals to possibly pick up the seat in a by-election.

OOC:
Sorry for not posting in here, I just sort of lost track of this thread.
Nice work with the wiki stuff, BTW.

OOC: No problem. I had the same problem before I realized I could subscribe to threads instead of checking the new posts until I found a thread or searching for it.
And thanks.

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

OOC: I'm debating whether I should start a separate thread so that there won't be a long-closed poll greeting people when they look at this thread with new content. Thoughts?

Go ahead. That could get more people interested in participating in this, but just put a link to this thread on the first post so they can read up on what's happened and they won't contradict things previously established.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Right, silly me.

Yeah, it's looking DOA. I don't even think Bernie can get all of the Prog. Dems. behind it if he brought it to the floor. I don't know if where the Libertarians are standing on this, so maybe that's what Bernie & Layton (I doubt Kucinich is featuring into any of this even if he is the deputy PD leader) are counting on to put the bill over the top, or at least use the threat of a divided Libertarian delegation (they only need about 1/2 of the Libertarians + all of the Prog Dems to pass a bill, not including the Greens or other left-wing parties) to railroad this through.

True. Well we know that the Greens have been supportive of fixed term parliaments and the same with some of the Libertarians so yeah it could really go either way.

Speaking of Kucinich, have you noticed that he's been really low profile lately? There have been some rumors of him stepping down with Andrea Horwath (Prog Dem MP since 1989) being rumored as a possible replacement. There's been some talk about Dean and Krugman as well however the Prog Dem Women's Alliance have really been pushing for a woman to get the post.

Well, he's the best candidate who has a shot of winning, that's for sure. Between a pugnacious Liberal, a no-name Prog. Dem. & an egomaniac, ignorant and racially prejudiced Conservative, I'll go with the fiesty Liberal any day.

Indeed.

True. The money's on former Premier Lorraine Michael being named following Rompkey's retirement. Not exactly a long-term pick (Michael would turn 75 in 2018), but she's probably the one Bernie will ask Powell to nominate, since he wouldn't want to take Jack Harris from his riding & cause the Liberals to possibly pick up the seat in a by-election.

Really? I've heard some talk about Olivia Chow as well since she lost her seat by a few hundred votes last year, and Sanders has been looking for away to get her back to Philadelphia.

• Polling for the May 20th GG election (ABS Opinion Research):

Rudy Giuliani - 38%
Al Gore - 38%
Lorne Nystrom - 20%
Undecided - 2%

• Polling for each party if a general election were today (ABS):

Progressive Democrat - 44.7%
Liberal - 23.8%
Conservative - 20.2%
Libertarian - 5.2%
Green - 4.0%
American Heritage - 0.9%
Other/Undecided - 1.2%

Political News
Liberal MP Christopher Dodd has resigned from Parliament following accusations of him taking bribes during his time on the Transportation Committee. The events transpired during 2008 when the committe was debating which company to hand the contract to construct a new high speed railway between New York City and Halifax. The contract was eventually awarded to Beringer Consolidated, a company that has since gone bankrupt and now evidence has surfaced of Mr. Dodd accepting things like a free cruise in the Caribbean from the company. A by-election is scheduled to be held on the same day as the second round of the GG election.

Entertainment News
"For Queen and Country", a theatrical movie based on 1851 Rebublicanist Uprising, starring Brad Pitt, Kiefer Sutherland, Mary McDonnell, and Jamil Walker Smith becomes the highest grossing movie since Avatar (2009).

The second episode of the sixth season of the popular British science fiction series Doctor Who gives the series its highest rated episode yet in America with 12,6 million viewers tuning in to watch "Day of the Moon" in its Saturday 9PM timeslot on ABS.

Looks like Giuliani is losing some points. Who else thinks that his campaign appearance with Trump this week, is to blame?

I'm hoping for a government pick up in the by-election. I hear that the Tories aren't even fielding a candidate so that leaves the Prog Dems.
​

 

[lord caedus]

OOC: The new thread is here. I'll ask a mod to close this thread as soon as I post a quick catch-up guide on the new thread.