The raw_input() doesn't provide anything. I'd just drop that and pass the string directly to shlex.split.

"Do not put an argument-taking option together with its argument as a single item in the *args* list"
-- Something like "Argument-taking options should not be grouped with their arguments in the *args* list." may be a cleaner read, and avoids the big scary "do not".

"Because that is incorrect"
-- Maybe something like "shlex.split would suggest the following" instead?