I think this country is headed for a breakdown

[RagingInMiami]

And it's going to be huge.

The warning signs have been up for years. We've seen evidence of it in Seattle during the world bank meetings. We've seen evidence of it in Los Angeles after Rodney King (where it was all races rioting and looting).

And we've seen inner city riots break out in several American cities over the last few decades, three in Miami alone during the 1980s.

This next explosion is going to be a class riot, and it will include middle class and lower class whites; middle class and lower class blacks; middle class and lower class Hispanics and many more subgroups.

Our country right now is like that levee in New Orleans. It's about to burst.

[Beam Me Up]

1. Feels that way to me, too.

Question is: Can we get the police, the foot-soldier level of the military, the rescue workers, the firemen, so on and so forth ON OUR SIDE. If we can do this -- then we can turn this situation on its head.

[Broken_Hero]

2. Yeah...

Tension is high, the hurricane, the Iraq War, and the sky rocketing prices of gasoline...there is a lot of tension there....

[Democrats_win]

3. We have deep societal problems. Unforseen events may be the catalyst.

Just like NO.

[wli]

4. The enormity of the casualties such an act would cause is staggering

but similarly, it's not clear anything less will rectify the corporate police state being assembled in the country.

I, for one, am just about guaranteed to be on the sidelines. I make public-domain software work for corporations and am physically unfit for even civic duty. I suspect the tiny portion of the "fight" I can contribute to is largely limited to supporting open-source software with labor, if that even counts.

[Lindsay]

7. Everyone can help, in one way or another.

Not all of us can be on the front lines. We just have to do what we can.

[fooj]

5. That's exactly what the bastards are waiting for.

Chaos! Death! I can't stand it anymore.

peace.

[enid602]

6. Bushco

Maybe you've touched upon the reason for Bushco's inaction. If the American populace becomes restive and violent, it might make it easier to impose martial law. I feel that Rhenquist's (who, although conservative was for limiting government's and corporations' powers) death might also help Bushco in this regard.