As the latest nonsense occurs on the immigration front-our US Customs officials tipping off the location of the Minutemen to Mexican officials-it appears more and more the US "democracy" is a sham. Be it on the immigration front, political front or financial front, democracy is taking a beating.

Poll after poll shows a strong desire for a crackdown on illegal aliens pouring into this nation. What does our government do about it? Basically nothing. Something as simple as building a sturdy fence or wall along the border suddenly becomes "impossible" or "too expensive" to do. A war in Iraq? Keep the billions flowing. Ridiculous.

Insanity like "sanctuary cities" where various cities simply ignore the presence of an illegal alien becomes the norm. But if you ignore the traffic laws or paying your taxes, suddenly the "law" is invoked. To hell with what the people think. To hell with the laws. The government on a federal and local level only use the laws to their liking.

The Minutemen are actually building or propping-up fences along the border. They are using their own money. In other words, men and women making an average salary or using their pensions and social security, are the fence-builders. That is utterly pathetic. And it shows again the total disrespect our government has for the population.

But what is the shock? We still only have 2 political parties. We pretend we have independent parties somewhere out there. But when it comes to "crunch time," those independents better have massive amounts of money or else the two other parties will use non-democratic laws to keep them off of ballots. When Patrick Buchanan and Ralph Nader ran for president, they were knocked off of ballots and not allowed on televised debates. Some democracy.

Like or dislike President Bush, does anyone seriously think he would have had any shot at being president if his name were not Bush? The name Bush translates into power and money in American politics. It translates into owning the political party. Names like Buchanan and Nader simply have no shot in a process like this despite their credentials or wisdom. The deporting of jobs is also another attack on our democracy. Who voted for this nonsense? Were the masses of people voting for their jobs to go to Mexico, China or Guatemala? We must have missed that one.

Gas prices? Who the heck knows what companies are up to. It is a closed society that contributes big money to politicians, those people representing our democracy. Yeah, right.

Why is it all of the important things are done in private? Iraq, job-deporting, illegal aliens, oil prices, etc.? Maybe because our democracy is on a little shaky ground. The people yell and scream and the big-shots do what they want after the yelling and screaming. What a scam.

Robert Carberry is a freelance writer from New York