2004 Predictions

Everyone is looking back at the year(s) gone by, but it's the first day of a new year, and an appropriate time to look ahead with some predictions.

But for clarity, let's break up this list into two separate parts, divided between what we'd like to see happen in 2004 and what we're very much concerned may happen.

What Should Happen in 2004:

* Congress will stop acting like a rubber stamp for the White House
* The economy really will turn around for all, and not just all multi-billionaires
* We'll realize what short shrift our kids are getting with education and start diverting away from Donald Rumsfeld back to the three Rs - remember, an ignorant generation is a national security threat as well
* Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Peggy Noonan, Ann Coulter, and Jonah Goldberg will all choke on their own lies, piousness, and deceit [that's the one reality TV show I'd like to see]; Joe Scarbrough, on seeing O'Reilly fall over dead, will do his best to imitate him (poorly, of course)
* We'll stop creating wars to improve the finances of the Bush dynasty and the military-industrialist complex
* We'll elect a real human being to the White House: one who thinks and acts on what is needed by the people he/she serves rather than the corporations who bought him or her
* Judges will continue their still-fledgling start at questioning some of the irrational policies that have been forced into place like mandatory minimums for non-violent offenses, indefinite confinement of detainees, etc.
* Journalists will go back to actually researching their work rather than accepting White House press releases at face value

What Probably Will Happen in 2004 Unless We Smarten Up Right Fast:

* The 2004 presidential election will be stolen in even more egregious ways than the 2000 election and we'll be so deluged by terror threats that people will let them get away with it after we promised ourselves we would not let it happen again
* By the end of the year, we'll be ignoring Iraq as much as Afghanistan as we pursue war against another nation
* Saddam Hussein will die in custody; we'll never hear what he might be able to tell
* All the people currently predicted to leave the Bush Administration after Election 2004 will be replaced by even worse types
* Moves will be made to force our country to become a Christian nation when our forefathers were very careful to try to preserve the religious tolerance it was founded upon
* More people will be put to death than ever before; not just through the carrying out of death penalties but through loss of health care, the religious right's lack of interest in any poor child past its fetus stage, increased violence on the streets and in our homes as the economy becomes much more dominated by a few top players with little left for the workers