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.

25/06/04 Book Launch for Not Happy John at Gleebooks in Glebe Sydney. Margo talks about the www.nothappyjohn.com website and how it will be a forum to comment on , add to and correct Margo’s analysis of where Australian Democracy is heading. She hopes the site will eventually morph into an Australian version of www.moveon.org. Margo signs my copy of NHJ :)

This project is based on a faith that everyday citizens, when they are well informed, are capable of making rational decisions about how their society should be managed. In other words this project is about democracy.

This site was born from Margo Kingston's book, Not Happy John! Timely, accessible and distressing, it sold way beyond expectations, and rang a clear bell for thousands of people. It also had a blue sticker and a website.

It soon became obvious that Margo's book and www.nothappyjohn.com were a part of something much huger. Many thousands of people were Not Happy John in a great variety of ways. Although it's a little sad to think of it, it was really exciting and many of us desperately tried to hope that Howard's end had come. Sadly, we were very wrong.