Oh, and another thing!

We have been quite open about supporting Al Riddle and Dana Applewhite for county commissioner, and we have also been pretty straightforward in our analysis that the dynamics of the election pretty much boils down to the "ins" versus the "outs".

Ever since the first band of cavemen squatted around a mammoth-dung campfire and organized a tribal council, there has always been people in power who want to keep that power, and those shivering in the cold on the fringes who want a place around the campfire.

The system favors the "ins", in today's world, because they have access to the taxpayers' money and bureaucracy to help them. That's the reason that years ago there were term limits, because it insured there would be some kind of rotation in office, although it was often thwarted by chicanery.

One of the key components of government is law enforcement, and corrupt systems can also bring it to bear to suppress opposition. We like to think that only happens in crapped-up Third World nations, but the fact is there is an old charming tradition in Mount Pleasant of candidates being arrested right before an election to ruin their chances for victory.

It's happened at least twice in recent memory, to candidates for mayor as well as the school board. A political stooge makes a false accusation to someone in the legal system who is willing to accept it at face value, and a warrant is sworn out for the candidate's arrest.

They later get the charges dismissed, but the last thing voters hear as they go to the polls is that the candidate got thrown in jail.

We hope no one is stupid enough to again provoke this kind of skulduggery, but if you hear it the next few days that Al Riddle or Dana Applewhite got arrested for something, you heard it here first. They've got big fat targets on their backs.