Larry Williams

Larry Williams is a Shazbotian Politician, former Political Analyst, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the current Supreme Emperor. Ruling the Empire since 2007, he has been instrumental in the expansion of the Shazbotdom Empire on the world stage, the advancement and readiness of the Imperial Navy and the modernization of the Marine Corps, with the development of expanding the Marine Air Corps into its own independent entity.

His Most High Larry Williams
Supreme Emperor
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Deputy	Stephanie F. Alridge (Prime Minister)
Preceded by	George A. Loak
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 1997–2007
Monarch	Galen Q. Leotardia (1997-2001) George A. Loak (2001-2007)
Deputy	Under Minister Tony Ardenthal
Preceded by	Anderson Gergei Coopsto
Succeeded by	Kennith G. Terrance
Office Cleark
In office 1989–1997
Monarch	Shazbert Bot
Preceded by	Multiple People
Succeeded by	Multiple People
Personal details
Born	Larry Williams (1968-08-03) 3 August 1968 Jamestown, Shazbotdom
Nationality	Shazonite
Political party	Shazbotdom First
Spouse	Stephanie Williams (m. 1990)
Children	Thomas Williams Stephen Williams Stephanie Williams
Residence(s)	Shaz City, Shazbotdom
Alma mater	New Chicago Community & Technical College (A.S. Political Science)
Occupation	Political Analyist
Profession	Supreme Emperor for Life

Early life

Larry Williams was born during the great expansion when the Empire began looking for land outside of the mainland. He spent much of his early years in public schools, getting grades that were above average, normally in the middle to high 90% range. Upon entering the 7th grade, the Williams Family moved to the other side of Jamestown and he was enrolled in Stonewall Academy, a Private Academic Institution located at the edge of town.

According to school records, Larry struggled for the first quarter, his grades dropping into the 75%-80% range. Within the next couple years of his school, though, he excelled in his grades and was admitted into the Advanced Studies program. He graduated from Secondary School with a 4.6GPA on a 4 Point Scale at the age of 16. He was admitted to New Chicago Community and Technical College, where he graduated at the age of 19 with his Bachelors Degree in Political Sciences. He went on to be an Analyst at New Chicago Television, a local Television News Station.

Working for a couple years at NCTV, he saved up some money and then moved to Livingston, where he became a Political Analyst for a local subsidiary of Shazbotdom News Network. Earning several national awards for news spots he did over a 2 year period. He continued to have low-level jobs in Political Analysis for the next couple years.

Early Political Career

As a Clerk

Doing much volunteer work for several organizations, Larry built up a network of friends and colleagues which helped him to get basic governmental jobs when he moved back to New Chicago at the age of 27. Beginning his political career as a simple clerk, he worked his way up the ladder of the political scene. Within a year and a half of his first job as a clerk, he was promoted to section chief, a year after that he was promoted again and moved to upper management. Within the next three years, his efforts were noticed by then Under-Minister of Foreign Affairs Gregory T. Simonson.

Within two months, he was hired directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work beneath the Under-Minister. His direct duties at the time included conversing with various Ambassadors that were assigned to foreign nations as the eyes, ears, and voice of the Emperor abroad. At the time, he conversed with fifteen ambassadors of whom were assigned to nations that were classified as Friendly to the Empire. His main tasks included passing along information between the Ambassadors and the Under-Minister, including reports on activity of Shazbotdom Nationals within those nations, reports of how relations were going between the Ambassadors and the nations they were assigned to, as well as passing along information of possible threats to the safety and security of the Empire directly to the Ministry of the Military.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs

In 1996, after working hard within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a couple years, his thorough work was noticed by a man working within the department. After the initial decree from the Emperor at the time, Mr. Shaz Bot, the man who noticed him began to make his bid for the position of Emperor. Galen Q. Leotardia was successful with his bid and became the Second Emperor of Shazbotdom. Right after the coronation ceremony, Emperor Leotardia entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and spoke directly with the then Minister. Within the next couple days, that Minister had been fired by the Emperor. It was unclear at the time who would replace him.

After a couple of telephone calls, Emperor Leotardia announced via Shazbotdom News Network's main station that he was nominating Larry Williams to become the new Foreign Affairs Minister. At this time the legislature was out on their seasonal recess. After the announcement, Emperor Leotardia called in Parliament, of whom went into a special session to hash out the appointment, debate it, and come to a conclusion. After four days, the House of the Senate within the Parliament came back and confirmed Larry as the new Foreign Affairs Minister in a decision of 72 to 2 with 1 Abstaining.

Larry hit the ground running, revamping the entirety of the Ministry. Within the first month and a half, he had gutted all Fifty-Seven departments. Revamping it, his decision was to dwindle down the entirety of the Ministry into a handful of departments, each under Two branches. Foreign Affairs, which handles any outside relations with foreign entities, including any and all Embassies within the Empire and the Empire's Abroad. The second main branch was the International Assistance Programs. Which included issuing loans and other monetary assistance to foreign entities who have hit an economic slump and need money to fill holes in their budget.

While Larry was head of the Ministry, he expanded the influence of the Empire around the globe, assisting in the Empire joining four alliances at the time, including the Commonwealth of Independent Nations and the Grand Imperial Alliance. He also worked at getting the Embassy program to accept more than 40 different nations and allow them to set up an Embassy within the Empire, causing the Empire to have better relations with a wide range of nations with varying political ideologies. He was praised by his fellow Ministers as "a shining beacon of the Imperial Government" and "someone who deeply cares about the people of the Shazbotdom Empire, and her stance in world politics".

With his programs and revamping of the entirety of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, he was asked to continue to be the Minister through the George A. Loak administration. His tenure as the Minister of Foreign Affairs endured with less governmental oversight within his Ministry and caused their working budget to drop from nearly 28 percent of the national budget, which was a strain on the entirety of the national budget, to be roughly 17% of the budget by the end of his time in office.

As Supreme Emperor

After serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs for 1 Emperor and 1 Supreme Emperor, Larry decided to run for the position under the Shazbotdom First ticket. The election hailed as the closest election within the history of the Empire. The first election saw 6 total candidates, with Larry running the lead head to head against George A. Loak. They both tied with a percentage of the vote for the election and it went to a run-off. This stayed the same way for several run-offs. After the fifth run-off, Larry pulled ahead just slightly enough that he won with 51% of the vote to George A. Loak's 49%. George A. Loak held a very heartfelt but defeated sounding concession speech from the main audience chamber of the Imperial Palace.

First days

As previously with his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Larry hit the ground running. His first order of business was to revamp the entire system like he did with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Consolidating the offices of more than 50 different departments into 10 Ministries, he created a much more streamlined governmental structure. Some programs were cut out altogether as they were found to be wasting money on a large scale, using budgetary funds for personal luxuries of their heads. Anyone found to have stolen funds from the budget was tried within the courts in the first few months and then sent to a minimum security prison for whatever term the judges found applicable.

Larry and the Parliament

In 1999, under the stewardship of Galen Q. Leotardia, the Parliament of the Shazbotdom Empire was forcibly dissolved due to problems with widespread corruption. The Military of the Empire stormed the Parliamentary Building and arrested nearly half of the Parliament in relation to charges stemming from bribery to money laundering. During the time-frame after the very end of the Leotardia administration as well as throughout the Loak administration, any and all decisions of law were done by the various Ministers and whoever was the Supreme Emperor at the time. With public skepticism about the Parliament, it was the decision of Supreme Emperor Williams to continue to have power done this way throughout the Empire.

It wasn't until 2009 when public opinion began to shift in the direction of allowing a representative body back, that Larry began to question the validity of having the Ministers be the main lawmaking body of the Empire. In August 2009, Larry called for elections to be held for the immediate reinstatement of the Parliament. Within three months, thousands of candidates pledged that they would run in an election. The election date was set for the 15th of December. After the dust settled, all 750 seats of the House of Commons and 75 seats from the House of the Senate within the Parliament were filled from all the holdings of the Empire, from the mainland to the colonial holdings.

In what would be described as the largest swearing-in ceremony to date, all 825 members of Parliament were sworn in during a joint session, of which the Supreme Emperor himself headed the swearing-in ceremony. Since then, three elections have taken place that has caused slight shifts within the Parliament, as well as the creation of a total of more than fifteen political parties, ten of which hold positions on the current Parliament.

Domestic policy

Economic Policy

Believing that a Mixed Market Economy is best, with the Government being in charge of certain parts of a person's life (including Postal, Police, Firefighter, Ambulance, Water and Sewerage Services) while having the private sector in charge of any and all other services throughout the Empire (including Power, Gas, etc.) , the Empire would become a strong economic nation. Regulation is something that the Emperor feels is needed, but over-regulation is something that the Empire tends to steer away from. One thing that he feels should be regulated is the creation of Monopolies, which he feels harms the Free Market. When one corporation forcibly removes others from the market, it hurts the people in the long run.

Environmental Policy

Believing that the Environment is exceptionally important to the future of the Empire, Larry believes that the vast forests and prairies of the Empire are to be protected at all costs. With allowing limited building into the vast green scapes outside the cities, he has opted to build up within the cities. He also has allowed the Imperial Ministry of the Interior to pass regulations on the dumping of chemicals from the industrial parks.

Under the stewardship of Larry, the environmental protection agency within the Minister of the Interior has issued only five fines in the past 10 years. This has lead to an era of Environmental Stability within the Empire and has caused the native plant and animal populations within the Imperial Mainland to flourish at unprecedented levels.

Energy Policy

Electricity

Under the Imperial Policy of Energy, as directed by Larry, the use of Fossil Fuels within the Empire has nearly halved within the last ten years, with the move to alternate forms of power usage. Residential houses now pay less than $10 a month for electricity and use the cities power grids for emergency use, as many of them have switched to using Solar Energy. Five years ago, skyscrapers have utilized Light Emitting Diode (LED) light bulbs, cutting their power consumption to nearly a third of their usage beforehand.

Even the Imperial Palace and the Parliament have begun using alternate forms of power consumption, switching to LED light bulbs and installing centralized air conditioning that uses 30% less power than EnergyStar certified equipment. The initiative began in 2009 when electricity bills across the Empire skyrocketed to nearly B$2,300 a month, causing citizens to strike across the Empire.

Natural Gas

Natural Gas has long since been something that is minimally used throughout the Empire. With the majority of the Empire in a region of the planet where temperatures do not get low enough for the use of conventional heating systems, the people of the Empire have moved towards utilizing electric systems for heating.

During the Mid 1990's, the previous administration allowed the creation of "Mustang" Power Stations throughout the Empire. This caused natural gas prices to skyrocket, as these power stations utilized local Natural Gas lines to pump gas into the facility and use that to create electricity. These were built due to them being a cheap way to quickly get a power plant built to generate electricity.

These plants were shut down in 2007 when it was realized that they were not regulating the amount of Natural Gas that was entering the plant and using more than was needed to create electricity for the Empire. The corporations that built these plants had charges filed against them by the Ministry of the Interior and several of the CEO's served at minimum 5 years in prison for violation of Environmental Regulations.

Cybersecurity and Internet Policy

While he has been a supporter of Limited Government, Larry has authorized a division of the Ministry of the Interior to assess and put forth rules and regulation in an effort to protect the corporations of the Empire and the Imperial Governmental Mainframes from attacks that originate abroad that have attempted to, and continue to attempt to, disrupt the Imperial Way of Life. This has lead to cooperation between the Imperial Government and Private Corporations to develop state-of-the-art firewall, spyware, malware, and virus scan software that has been made available to the people of the Empire.

Foreign Policy

The Foreign Policy as dictated by the Supreme Emperor is that of global neutrality when there are conflicts between nations that are, in no way, allied with the Shazbotdom Empire, unless there is a feasible reason that the aforementioned conflict is a direct threat to either the Empire, her territories, assets or allies.

The Empire also retains the right, by not being directly a member of the World Assembly, to possess weapons that are Nuclear, Biological and Chemical in nature, and reserves the right of free travel through International Waters and the ability to fire upon Pirates that approach their fleets and/or merchant marines under the protection of the Empire.