I've been convinced that our democracy is a sham since John Howard sent Australians to invade Iraq on two lies - the lie that he had not promised Bush he'd go to war long before public debate began on the matter, and the lie about why he wanted war. To me, in a democracy, unlike a dictatorship, our soldiers risk their lives for us, not for our leader. Yet the process of voting every three years, the skeleton of democracy, did not punish Howard, but re-elected him.

In the wake of Abu Ghraib, fresh revelations of torture, murder & abuse continue to mount against the US.

Democracy presupposes the existence of the self-consciously well-rounded, competent, morally mature and socially active citizen. In turn Democracy cultivates such citizens.

Last week the industrial relations debate found an unlikely forum in the reality TV show of "My Restaurant Rules" when the owners of the Sydney contender attempted to put their staff on AWA's (Australian Workplace Agreements) and cut their pay. Only after popular outcry did Channel 7 step in and reverse the decision.

All posts are edited.

This will come as no surprise to those familiar with Webdiary. No ideological censorship occurs, and the intention is merely to weed out the illegal and offensive, and make the text look consistently formatted and of a high editorial quality. This will no doubt be debated vigorously, and at this point I'll just state my view that this editorial policy will enhance and abet good interactivity between users rather than impede it. We do envisage numerous editors, including bloggers editing their own comments like Margo does with Webdiary.

The ethos of Your Democracy is its essential character, its DNA. It is worth stating at the outset of the project for the same reason that the elements of a pre-nuptial contract are worth discussing at the beginning of a relationship: at the start of every partnership, anything is possible - or so it seems. Just think of falling in love. Our ethos statement is like a pre-nuptial contract, which may help us think through possible eventualities which might arise before we start working together on this project.