1. Imagine that we read of an election occurring anywhere in the third world in which the self declared winner was the son of the former prime minister and that former prime minister was himself the former head of that nation's secret police (CIA).
   
   
2. Imagine that the self declared winner lost the popular vote but won based on some old colonial holdover (electoral college) from the nation's pre-democracy past.
   
   
3. Imagine that the self declared winner's 'victory' turned on disputed votes cast in a province governed by his brother!
   
   
4. Imagine that the poorly drafted ballots of one district, a district heavily favoring the self declared winner's opponent, led thousands of voters to vote for the wrong candidate.
   
   
5. Imagine that members of that nation's most despised caste, fearing for their lives/livelihoods, turned out in record numbers to vote in near universal opposition to the self declared winner's candidacy.
   
   
6. Imagine that hundreds of members of that most despised caste were intercepted on their way to the polls by state police operating under the authority of the self declared winner's brother.
   
   
7. Imagine that six million people voted in the disputed province and that the self declared winner's 'lead' was only 327 votes: Fewer, certainly, than the vote counting machines' margin of error.
   
   
8. Imagine that the self-declared winner and his political party opposed a more careful by hand inspection and re-counting of the ballots in the disputed province or in its most hotly disputed district.
   
   
9. Imagine that the self declared winner, himself a governor of a major province, had the worst human rights record of any province in his nation and actually led the nation in executions.
   
   
10. Imagine that a major campaign promise of the self-declared winner was to appoint like-minded human rights violators to lifetime positions on the high court of that nation.

Note from Scotter: I have no idea who the original author of this work is and would definitely cite them if I did. I think it's a brilliant explaination of "American democracy".

If this type of "election" happened in a third world country, I believe the US goverment would not waste a moment invading the country to "straighten things out"
In other words....If voting actually could accomplish anything it would be illegal

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls; I give you the 43^rd President of the USA.
King George II - George Dubbya Bush

Further commentary from Scotter: I do not pretend to remotely understand the electoral vote system used in the States, but it is my understanding it was brought in during colonial times when rich white men made all the rules and were the only ones allowed to vote... no Blacks, no Asians, no Natives, no Women, no poor working class had that right. I understand that the number of electoral votes is determined by the number of representives (which varies from State to State depending on population) plus the number of Senators (which is two from every State). Now why one party or the other gets all (in Florida's case, 25) the "electoral votes" makes no sense at all. I've talked to Americans who can't explain it either. Now if Bush's opponent had a greater share of the "popular vote" nation-wide, he shold have got the job. I'm not saying if I was American I would have voted for Gore, but I view him as marginally the lesser of two evils. But that means you would have been stuck with the husband of the women who initiated the "Tipper Sticker" lead by her PMRC..

I don't know the original artists of any of these images are, but I'm sure that no disrespect was meant for the three chimpanzees, one bonobo and one Curious George plush toy or the creator of Curious George (sorry don't know who you are). Nor was any disrespect meant to any primatologists or primatological organizations -- at least that's the way I feel.

I neither have any disrespect for Mike Myers, Austin Powers or Dr. Evil

Please don't sue me. I have no money and I'm just excercising my alleged freedom of speach.

• "And there's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail. Failure is not a part of our vocabulary."
  
• "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
  
• "More and more of our imports come from overseas."
  
• "The old way in Washington is to believe that the more you spend, the more you care... My administration takes a new approach. We want to spend your hard-earned money as carefully as you do."
  
• "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right."
  
• "I've learned that you cannot lead by dividing people. I'm a uniter - not a divider."
  
• "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it."
  
• "We must have the attitude that every child in America - regardless of where they're raised or how they're born - can learn."
  
• "The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants."
  
• "I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."
  
• "I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch... and that difference is, they pass the laws and I execute them."
  
• "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
  
• "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."