'On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.'

'Odd,' said Arthur, 'I thought you said it was a democracy.'

'I did,' said Ford. 'It is.'

'You mean they actually vote for the lizards?'

'Oh yes,' said Ford with a shrug, 'of course.'

'But,' said Arthur, going for the big one again, 'why?'

'Because if they didn't vote for a lizard,' said Ford, 'the wrong lizard might get in.'

Douglas Adams - 'So Long And Thanks For All The Fish'

Video: The Clinton Chronicles
The story behind Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Mena Arkansas cocaine smuggling operation, prior to the Presidency, while Clinton was State Govenor.

Video: John Pilger: The War On Democracy
How the US claims to support democracy yet it has has consistently undermined democratically elected governments in South and Central America - particularly Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Video: Police Agents Provocateurs
A peaceful demonstration against the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello was dramatically interrupted by the appearance of three masked 'protesters' weilding rocks with which they threatened the police.

The Con Game Called Democracy
Democracy amounts to collusion in one's own suckering
24th June 2004

Democracy Isn't Working - Martin Jaques
It is the West's Calling Card, but its Global Applicability is now in Doubt
22nd June 2004

Democracy as defined by dictionary.com:

Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

A political or social unit that has such a government.

The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.

Majority rule.

The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

When applied to the US model, this definition fails on all counts, yet it is democracy which is the banner under which recent conflicts have been fought.

In reality, the power is held by the wealty - the electorate hardly ever (if ever) have the opportunity to vote for anybody who is not placed in the position of electability by the wealthy elite. It would appear, then, that in the 'free world' we live in a plutocracy which is legitimised by a biased electoral system.