OUR MEN AND WOMEN ARE DYING IN IRAQ TO CREATE A DEMOCRACY

James Babb rants on another list:

... Obviously you are angry. You should be. Everyone should be. However, the problem is not a lack of D or R candidates. It's much worse.

First of all, nobody is dying in Iraq for democracy. They are dying for the wallets of the rulers and their friends.

As for the lack of opposition candidates, even with candidates from both government approved parties, our democracy is seriously flawed. In fact, it's a total sham that has mutated our "free and equal" system beyond recognition. The only remaining purpose of our electoral system is to give the masses the feeling of participation and perpetuate the illusion of legitimacy for the plunderers.

The courts and legislature successfully collude to block any outsiders from the ballot. They won't even count write-in votes. The only choices they allow are big-nasty-government-A or big-nasty-government-B. That is not a choice. Independents and new parties are forbidden.

The laziness of parties A & B has further removed voters from the process. Take a look at a map of the districts for state reps and US Congress. Each district looks like a rorschach test because the rulers have been carefully gerrymandered them to avoid any real competition. They don't even want to bother competing against each other. The livestock has been divvied up.

For national offices, Pennsylvanians have even less say. How many republicans know that their vote for President means zilch? Delegates choose the nominee, not voters. The delegates themselves are mostly hand-picked by party leadership. Besides, the candidates are coroneted, long before our primary.

The only wasted vote is one you cast!