I don’t doubt that the fondest wishes of the neo-con set would be violence erupting in Denver and spreading like wildfire. A. it could all be blamed on the darkie with the Muslim name and B. it would be the perfect excuse for the big clamp down. Nor do i doubt planned infiltrations and provocations. This is why the DNC had damned well better solve their squabbles long before August.

~Okay, here is why I believe the Repugs want to run against Barack Obama this fall.

First, it is a given that they will do their damnedest to steal the election just like they did in 2000 and 2004. If you still have any doubts about that, watch this video of Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking last May Day about how the Repugs did that very thing.

Second, keep in mind all the draconian legislation the Repugs have rammed through Congress, little horrors like The Military Commissions Act which, among other things, makes it possible for US citizens to be designated ‘unlawful enemy combatants’ and held without any form of legal recourse whatsoever.

Third, if you’re not already aware of this – and it still surprises me how many ain’t – lots of black folks in this country are pretty pissed off at how badly they’ve been treated throughout American history [just Google 'lynching'] and often still are. [can you say Jena 6?]

As a member of The Oppressor Class [an upper-middle class white male], I have a certain cynical perspective upon all of this and, I if was running the Repug operations, I’d want Barack, too.

What I would do is steal the election in the most egregious manner possible; do it in a real Fuck You fashion. I would do this because I’d hope – and quite probably quite rightly given number three above – that black folks in various urban areas would ‘get’ that Fuck You and lash out publicly.

Now we have Civil Insurrection!! and all the ‘extra judicial’ mechanisms put in place [see number two above] come into play and the Repugs get to declare Martial Law…and that, boys and girls, is just about that.

Paranoid? Baby, if you ain’t paranoid by now, well, just get another beer and go back to watching American Idol.

And some of you Obots? *sigh* Just last night on my Flist a black female friend of mine said, “if Hillary gets the nomination I’m voting for McCain”. Shit, why not just go down to Homeland Security and turn yourself in right now? I’m sure they have a cot ready somewhere.

Of course, the Repugs are going to try to steal the election if HRC is the Dem Nom. But, frankly, A) do any of you think people will riot over Hillary? and B) would any of you want to cross Hillary Clinton? [I didn't think so] And don’t think she ain’t ready for this. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of her supporters for a while now.

As I said to someone else on my Flist last night, “Politics is not a game for the faint of heart.” And that’s the name of that tune…

— Phil Ochs, Ringing of Revolution

#2 It is a well rehearsed Pirate tactic to work for dissension and violence in the opposition. I remember many such stories about plans for violence in demonstrations in the Nixon years, and when the stories got to court long after the real demonstrators had been sidelined during the important timing it turned out that the instigator of the violence, and planner of all the mean stuff was in fact the FBI agent sent in to destroy the group. Something very well accomplished.

The same tactic of two pretend support groups of Dean and Gephart fought it out on TV in 2004, turning voters off of both men, only to turn out that both groups were Republican Swiftboaters out to remove Dean as the likely candidate. And again quite successful.

You can bet that the same groups are both active in both the Clinton and Obama camps, and likely have a few Astroturf groups outside both as well, and not a few like Lieberman even among the superdelegates.

So fight out for the rest of the elections, and fight the dirty tricks, especially from your own camp (and mark well those who create them), but no matter what happens, make peace at Denver and then go fight like hell against the real enemy of freedom.

Once and If there is an election, then we need to make the mountains shake, to be sure that the rule of law is returned, truth outed by Congress and courts, criminals of the past prosecuted, and real reform of the destruction begun. That is the time to vent your spleen, do so in Denver and your spleen will be vented for you.

I fear you’re exactly right, Jim.

Google tells me SDS is Students for a Democratic Society. Is that what you meant?

If, however, the media chooses to depict televise rioting, they will do so in a way to cause more fear and anxiety in “silent” America. And you’ll be one step closer to streets patrolled by Blackwater types for “the good of the country.”

“The revolution will be televised” may become “the enforcement of ‘normalcy’” with all the scariness that the measures “deemed necessary” your imagination can suggest….

The trick is to realize that we’ve done it when someone points it out instead of fighting to the death over something that doesn’t make any sense. And far too many people find arguing easier than thinking.

I wonder how a bit of genuine fear might impact the official actions of serial malfeasants like Pelosi, Clinton, Reid, Reyes, and 99% of the Republican Party. Hard to say, but what are they going to do about it? Suspend habeas corpus? Conspire with the…

Also, Dr. B., keep that terror-ier on a leash!

I think it’s just a question of when.