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Warning: This article is considered EPIC and Long....But sooo cool…I have too much to put in these lately 😛

Welcome to yet another edition of the Anvil! Tis the season of Presidential Elections and the pickings are plentiful and amazing with a tangible after taste of awesomeness. This edition as the deletion is upon u I got the candidates to answer an all important question that I’m sure many people would like to know the answer to. I also have an interview with the one and the only man that is just about as awesome as Emerick…..yes many of you are going impossible! But even Emerick can’t deny my guests awesomeness.

In world news after a brief cool down in the conflict, World War III has heated right back up again with the all out PEACE attack on half a dozen or so EDEN/Bros nations. The primary objective of the massive and all out risky assault was the EDEN nation of Croatia, in an attempt to wipe out the small country before the MPP cost change came into effect today. The attack failed miserably for the most part as Croatia was able to batter away the desperate strikes of an enemy quickly losing its grasp on the reins of power. The problem you need to see is, were family, never screw with family.



Some PEACE nations have even begun to openly question PEACE including much to my complete and utter surprise the French President Lyne Faynel actually denounced the latest moves by PEACE in her newest and shocking Article as an unjustified and useless attack. Under pressure from some PEACE nations she refused to attack America calling it a “hopeless battle”. What surprised me even more was her response to these names being tossed at her. “Go to hell.” My best friend in RL will probably read this when I post it and call me to berate me but I have to say this…the French President and some of the French people have actually gained some respect in my eyes. For that almost impossible achievement I tip my hat to you and would gladly shake your hand.

I would love to list all of my votes in Congress but that would simply extend this edition way to long as it is. If you want to know how I voted or responded to certain issues ask me in here or on IRC and I’ll answer you as soon as you can. Letting you know how I voted is important, but If I did I would need to cut out other goodies in this edition…and I’m sure quite a few people would want to scalp you for that.

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On the domestic front the race for president is drawing to a close as Election Day is almost upon us. But I got each Presidential Candidate to give me five sentences on a simple yet very tough question I asked them. These will be listed in order by which they were received.

“Why do you want to be President?”

Mattoze5
"I want to be president because I think eAmericans need another option. One that follows the example of Emerick the Great. I am right-winged in-game and right-winged in real life, and I believe that even though these policies often can't be used for the game itself, the values that go along with being Conservative are still present. I want to be president, so that the eAmerican people have the best possible example of a representative leader who is willing to respect the spiritual rights of others. We can still make this game fun again if you just give myself and the Conservative Party another chance."


Jewitt
“I really feel that I want to be President because I feel like I owe it to the American people. I have worked since December to change this nation for the better - I have rivaled BETA Giants stuck in their time and V1 babies that believe conservatism is applicable to the game. I have battled to bring this nation a working and superior economy, and have striven to bring it greatness. I was part o every administration since the war's beginning, and like to think of myself as being contributory to our success. So I guess now this is my chance to step up and continue my work, in the highest office of the land.”


Josh Frost
"I think the presidency is the position where citizens can make the most change. We need to reform the educational system in the eUSA to educate and retain players so we can remain strong in the game. We must also not allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security now that our enemies are out of North America. The Indonesian/Hungarian empire must be challenged at every turn if we are to maintain our security and the security of our allies. I think I am more than capable of doing these things."

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I thank these candidates for their time and their patience at answering this question. I personally know whom I will be voting for, but in the interest of fairness I will keep that to myself until after the election. Now we move on to the…

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Today we have a very special guest with whom I am privileged to introduce and to have interviewed. Since his time living in the United States he has long since moved to our northern friend, Canada. He has become the de facto representative to the world of the unity and friendship of the Brolliance. He is an eight time congressman five of which he served in the US Congress and three in the Canadian Parliament including his current term. He currently serves as the Canadian Minister of Justice and is a former USWP Party President. When Uncle Sam was impeached by Congress he as the runner up in the previous election became President of the United States. He served three and a half terms and is one of the most well known and respected men in the world. That’s right ladies and gentleman, my guest for this Edition is none other than…

Scrabman



1. After all your time in the game, what do you think is your greatest achievement thus far?
That's a tough quesiton to answer. My first reaction is to say bringing more structure to the eUSA government as Forum Admin and as President. But personally I feel my greatest achievement is bridging the gap between eUSA and eCanada and being able to work within both governments. This wasn't something that I set out to ... it just happened and it has been a lot of fun helping me to enjoy the game even more. I guess, in the larger sense, I think my greatest achievement has been all of the great friends that I've developed while playing though. I think that's more important than the positions because that is why I play this game ... if it weren't for the great people it would totally suck. So long as there are cool people in the game it will be hard for me to walk away from it.

2. What were your first thoughts when you first heard that Sweden had attacked Germany, the harbinger of Atlantis’ demise and did things turn out as you expected?
Things did turn out like I expected, unfortunately. My first thoughts were "shit" and that I wanted to support Germany where my friend Starkand Rorlikson was President. Starkad had befriended me when he was living and working in Canada and running a secondary market for products and he had moved on from there to Germany and into their Presidency. So it really pained me when my top advisers and military brass told me that we had to back Sweden because they were our ally for longer and were a stronger and more powerful friend. I fought against this for a while and intentionally dragged my feet by asking Congress to initially vote down the peace proposal that I was obligated to make via our ATLANTIS obligations. Eventually I was brought to a place where I couldn't afford to put off cutting our ties any longer. The American people were very involved in the war and it was eating into our ability to maintain our security. The Americans were very caught up in the war and were pouring their resources and hopes into it at a time when PEACE was threatening to invade several of our other more important allies while Germany was a lost cause. It was a terrible decision but one that ended up helping the USA later when we needed Sweden's support for some key battles. I still feel bad about it and wish that we could have had another option. If I was acting for my own then I would have supported Germany and so I look at that as one of my most Presidential moments because I had to make the tough decision and take the heat for it ... which I did. Many people seem to think that you can be the nicest of guys and be President and you can't. Presidency forces you to make some very difficult decisions and sometimes it means you have to be an asshole or compromise your own beliefs. Starkand and I really haven't spoken much since then and I regret that as he was a good pal and a business partner that I had invested with. If there was a way to make it up to him I would ... but I'm not sure that there is. This is part of why I made the German Relief Fund to help them rebuild their Q5 hospital ... we raised something like 100 gold (I don't remember exactly how much) and passed it along ... but it really doesn't make up for it and I'm sorry for that.

3. Why did you decide to move to Canada in the first place?
I moved there to help them to prevent a PTO in July in the last election before the implimentation of the citizenship module (the last major PTO attempt of the game). Then when I won the seat I decided to give it a shot because most eUSA Presidents just fade away into obscurity after their term is up ... being in Canada gave me a chance to find a new political life ... and I have ... and I like it!

4. You seem to be moving up the political ranks once again into more prominent positions, do you think you will run for Prime Minister of Canada one day?
It's funny. Many people ask me that. I currently have no ambition to be another Country President or Prime Minister again but that is not to say that I wouldn't enjoy it. I've spoken with some of my friends (in both countries) about this and I just don't see myself investing the time that it took to be eUSA President into the Presidency of another country. It really dominates your life and turns you into someone you don't want to be ... making those decisions and trying to address all of the stuff that people are always asking of you. It takes a great staff to get those things done and people who you trust implicitly and who understand that there is an exchange of power and prestige ... those who help add to the legend of the Administration and their participation gets recognized in terms of being in the middle of the action, knowing what is happening at the highest levels, and trading on that to climb up a few more rungs on the ladder because information is power in eRep. That last part is also the scary aspect because information is so often traded to the enemy with little rhyme or reason other than the ego trip of doing it. So I had a group of people who helped build the success of my Administration and all of the things that we got done and I don't see myself doing that to myself again. I do enjoy being involved in government because it's something that I understand but I don't see myself running for the big chair again as much as I did enjoy seeing the game from that vantage point. Maybe for VP or some support role but I've also been enjoying getting back to some of the things that I enjoy in my personal life away from the game ... I can honestly say that when I was eUSA Pres I didn't have much of a life outside of the game. Maybe there are countries where you can have a life while being CP but I know that eUSA isn't one of them and I doubt that eCan is either. Sometimes when I hear people talking about my term as President (whether in positive or negative terms) I think about how it gave me a chance to really have a lasting impact on the game and I miss that ... but I don't miss it enough to try to invest what I had to do to make that work ... I wouldn't want to half-ass it.

5. Who is your favorite RL President?
My favorite RL President is probably Harry S. Truman. Truman did a lot for the USA that others have gotten credit for. FDR worked on getting the USA into gear for WWII but it was Truman who had to carry it out upon FDRs death in office. From there he did carry on with the war and brought it to a good conclusion making difficult choices along the way (like the decision to use nuclear weapons). After the war he did a lot to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into Congress and pushed those policies in his Administration. He issued Executive Orders that desegregated parts of our military years before desegregation was official (it wasn't till Vietnam that the military was fully desegregated). He issued other Executive Orders that carried out other policies that would later be advanced by The Civil Rights Act (what we call Title VII). JFK gets most of the credit for The Civil Rights Act but most of it was already done before he came to office and signed it into law. This doesn't make Kennedy a bad President ... but Truman paved the way. Truman had a lot of other aspects to his Presidency that I also liked ... but they are more esoteric things ... and he didn't have a middle name either LOL.

6. When you first heard that PEACE had launched its invasion of America what were your first thoughts?
My first thought was "poor Harrison" and my second thought was "I'm so glad I'm not President anymore". I was actually on a much needed beach vacation when it started and so I tried to stay detached from much of it. I would log in and tank where I could as Hokiehigh was still coordinating things with Harrison. My advice wasn't going to be very useful or relevant as I was out of the loop at that point and the military guys who had advised me were Harrison's as well. Eugene Harlot had said, in the last weeks of my Presidency, that there was a feeling that PEACE was waiting till the end of my Presidency to do something big. This was also something he said near the end of my 2nd full term which was part of the reason why I went into the 3rd term (or 4th depending on how you count that half term ... which I recently heard described as a "scrab term" on Kyle321n's podcast). I couldn’t tell people that was why I was going for that last term but it was one of the reasons why I did so. I have no idea why PEACE would be waiting for me to step down and I still don't know that I believe it. But that was my thought. I felt bad for Harrison that he had that mess he had to clean up. He was the best person for the job though as he was one of my closest advisors during that time and he knew who the players were and what he had to do. Unfortunately that war wiped Harrison out as well ... he was pretty sick of being President by the time that his first term was over even though he had been a shadow President during my last term helping me with a lot of different things as I started to burn out. It was a real hairy time but I wasn't really around for much of it.

7. What do you think about Uncle Sam now that he has all but left eRepublik?
Uncle Sam was a bombast and an egotist ... but he was also just a kid. I know that's easy to say since I'm 35 and one of my closest cabinet advisors (Harrison) was a year younger than Sam. But Sam thought and acted like a kid as well. I think that he really meant well but most of his time spent in the game was on IRC where he could have these spur of the moment interactions and live in the moment. The problem with IRC is that if you're not on when he's online you're not going to see what is happening. This is part of why I wanted to move the Presidency to the eUSA Forums where it really hadn't been conducted before because it's the sort of office that needs longer term planning and advice from a committee of people. I think that the Presidency has thrived since then and has become stronger ... which is something that Gaius is dealing with now as he and Congress seem to be in a bit of a chest bumping match.

But there is another side to my feelings for Sam. I have to honestly say that he annoyed the crap out of me when he was running for President because he was very very bright but also very obnoxious. He wrote long and involved articles and was very charismatic and persuasive. I squared off with him when I was USWP PP and took him on and that was easy for me to do since I'm a lawyer in real life but it's also something that I feel sort of bad about now. Sam is remembered as being a failure as a President and part of that is due to my term being so successful. Yet, the things that I used to snipe at Sam about when I was in Congress and he was in the Presidency I understand better now and know what he was going through. That is another part of why I feel bad because I know that it was hard for me to balance all of that stuff as a 35 year old adult and to think that Sam was doing all of that as a 17 year old and that Benn had done the same before him at the same age was just overwhelming to me. So when I think about Sam now I feel sorry for him because he got everything that he wanted and then utterly failed because he tried to do too much without asking for enough help.

I feel similar feelings when looking at how Justin's Presidency ended and Emerick's as well, though Emerick was a much more successful President than Sam or Justin were ... much to my surprise. Sam and I had some IRC chats during the time when I was President and I told him that I was sorry for giving him such a hard time when he was President because I now understood how hard it was. I thought I knew when I was asking to be elected but the week that I took over for Sam was the hardest week I ever had in the game and Kyle321n was thinking that I was on the verge of giving up (something that had crossed my mind) until things started coming together and I got on top of it. I can only imagine how Emerick felt when he came into the picture after Harrison's term and I give Emerick a lot of credit for pulling the nation back with the help of our military and key allies. I am not going to buy into the legend that he did it singlehandedly as I know a lot of the behind the scene stuff but I also have to say that I'm proud of what Emerick did and how he did it and I'm sorry that his Presidency ended the way that it did. I still find him to be quite annoying in how he is always pushing buttons and limits but I have more respect for him now. I know how badly he wanted to be President as he and I used to talk about it. We don't talk much anymore but I am glad that he got his chance and was able to do something with it. I'll always admire him for that even if he does end up getting himself banned one of these days for his temper.

8. As you know I was recently appointed USWP PAC Director, I asked AidenAstrup to be a Regional Director, much to my surprise he agreed, having had him as Chief of Staff what do you think about him?
Aiden is a good guy. He has done a lot for the eUSA, for the USWP, and for eRep in general. There were times during my Administration when he just got very busy and I got very busy so we didn't communicate a lot. But I know that he did a lot of behind the scenes stuff coordinating things with Ananias and keeping us stocked with fresh minds and eager volunteers from the USWP and the base of people who they groom for leadership in the way that the party runs (which seems to be different than all of the other parties in terms of its complexity).

9. Who would you say has been your closest friend during your time in eRepublik?
Well, hokiehigh would be the obvious choice because he is my real life friend and he and I worked hard to do a lot of different types of things within the game. But beyond that the closest friend would have to be Harrison Richardson/Franco as he has done more than anyone else in the game to help me to advance to where I am (from the time that he made me Admin on the old Forums ... ironically when Emerick left his position as Admin there) to the amount of support, energy, and enthusiasm he has given me while we have worked on governmental affairs and have built things within the USWP and the eUSA government. In a way it has been a real symbiosis as I needed him to get established in the game and then when he disgraced himself and needed a second chance I had to decide if he was sincere and then decide how much he could be trusted at each stage as I helped him to rebuild himself in the game. Now I tend to refer to him as Harrison because Harrison is truly a different player than Franco was.

Of course, another close friend in the game is Alee Ann and he runs a very close race with Harrison in that he has done much to help me to shoulder the burden of being Forum Administrator while doing these other things that I like to do in the game. He took over my role as being the heavy so that I could be the eUSA President and it is a role he has retained as "troll hunter". Alee is a very misunderstood person in the game but he and I talk all the time in PM and I think that we understand each other pretty well. I like the guy a lot and we have very similar views toward many things. He often checks up on me and helps me to bounce ideas around when I'm trying to figure things out. We discuss ways of conflict management and avoidance in the Forums and he is really my right hand man when it comes to how to approach abusive behaviors on the Forums (something that seemed to naturally fall to me when it was just KT, MedyPi, and me in the beginning). Now we have all of these other Mods that I initially brought on and that Alee has continued to work with and groom into Forum leadership positions. Alee is very involved behind the scenes and because he and I share so many views I have to give him credit for a lot of things that work well with the Forums because he advises me or I advise him on so much that it really is a joint effort. I also like hearing about his personal life and he and I have shared many stories along that nature as well.

So my convoluded answers is Hokie/Harrison/Alee ... and Tiacha because she is the only gamer who I've met (and talked with on the phone ... though I did talk to Harlot once) who I didn't know before I started playing eRep. Tiacha and I don't talk regularly anymore but I admire and respect her and when we have talked those conversations have been pretty monumental. I am looking forward to my next Scrabble tournament in Northeast Ohio so that I can try to visit her again.

10. As a former President you are still widely respected in the USWP and in the nation as a whole, do you think you will ever make a return to the US Political Stage?
God I hope not ... but who knows? 😉

I'm never far from the eUS Political Stage and I owe that to my Admin status on the eUSA Forums. If I would ever give up my Admin then I'd probably drift off into two click land once my time in eCanada was at a natural end. So far though I've enjoyed straddling the line between the two nations in this new "Brolliance" that is all the rage now (thanks to Emerick). It's a position that I like to be in as I feel like I'm somewhat of an advisor in both places and that is a better feeling than being someone who everyone depends on for everything. I'm not sure that I'd like the hustle and bustle of eUSA Congress now. It was a simpler time when I was a Congressman back there ... but I've now served as many terms in eCanada's Congress as I did in the eUSA ... which is an odd feeling ... and I see no reason to give it up just yet.

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I send my personal thanks to Scrabman along with those of my reader for taking the time to answer these questions. Scrabman Rulez!

On a personal note, I would like to announce that a while ago I asked a very good friend if she would eMarry me. She said Yes 😃 I'm not going to say who, but this happened a while ago, we have just decided to let this out. For those of my friends who DO know who this girl is I ask you stay quiet. 😛 If people what to try and figure out whom let them, I would just rather be entertained by friends writing article to figure out whom then tell them and be bored.... I'm evil like that 😛

Well that’s all I have for you this time thank god, everyone should look forward to next edition, I’m not sure who the guest will be but It will be an interesting one! I want to wish the best of luck to the Candidates! They are outstanding citizens and great patriots. Thanks for reading! Now as we part as usual I leave you with a quote, this is not an America quote, but it is one I find intriguing.

“Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens.”
- Martin Sheen, “The West Wing”

Your Friend, Devan Kronos



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