RedState Predictions 2006
By Ben Domenech Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (80) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
You want to know what's in the crystal ball for 2006? Look no further - RedState knows the truth. Our regular cast of beloved editors are joined by RS friends Josh Trevino, Jeff Goldstein, Jim Geraghty, and more.
Read on, if you dare.
Pejman Yousefzadeh:
- The great, mighty, glorious and all-powerful Chicago Bears will win the Super Bowl.
- The great, mighty, glorious, all-powerful and not-so-lucky-as-of-late Chicago Cubs will win the World Series, wresting it directly from the hands of the evil and Satanic White Sox.
- Howard Dean will say something to cause people to raise their eyebrows and ask "Quoi?"
- Democrats will make marginal gains in the Senate and less-than-marginal gains in the House.
- The Dow will hit 12,000 and stay above it.
- The President's approval rating will continue to rise and stabilize in the lower to mid 50's.
- The not-at-all great, mighty, glorious or all-powerful Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks will tragically continue to suck.
Erick Erickson:
- Israel and Iran will finally trade military blows.
- Eastern Europe will take the lead in free market reforms in Europe following the collapse of the European Union over budgetary and fiscal matters.
- Western Europe will being cracking down on Asian immigration and violence will correspondingly escalate. The EU elite will intervene to undo the tightening.
- India and the United States will grow closer as we grow more distance from Pakistan and China, the latter of which will begin subtle aggression to topple Taiwan's government.
- Bush will be above 55% by the midterm elections.
- Alito will be confirmed and the Court will shift to the right as Roberts and Alito are able to draw Kennedy back into the fold and more frequently swing Breyer.
streiff:
- The Euro becomes a laughingstock.
- Economy continues to improve. Unemployment drops below 5%. The WaPo and NYT continue to snivel about the jobless recovery.
- Liberalism will be recognized as an endangered art form. Air America will get an NEA grant and the legal right to take money from Salvation Army Santas.
- The Iraqis will lay the ground work for a sustainable democracy. Both far left and far right will condemn it as a failure.
- GOP makes small Senate gains and slightly increases House majority.
- The NYT will call for Donald Rumsfeld to resign… more than once.
- South Korea will actively intervene to prop up the Kim Jung Il regime rather than pay the costs of reunification.
Blanton:
- Howard Dean will begin the year as DNC Chair and end the year as a political and social pariah.
- The Democrats will lose seats in the House and Senate.
- Tony Blair will be toppled and Labour will fracture.
- David Cameron will prove to be the un-Thatcher and will be replaced by Liam Fox.
- Democrats will fail to make significant inroads in state houses and governors mansions, causing a massive bloodletting in the party when coupled with their historic defeat at the federal level.
- Republicans will get serious about internal party corruption and moderate dissent. Mike Pence will become Majority Leader and with the Speaker will start cracking down on committee chairman with a mighty vengeance.
- By December, the White House will be sending subtle signals about who it wants as Bush's successor. The grassroots will pay little attention.
- Democrats do not retake the House, but it's close, and the Senate
is a tie. (Alternate: or it's 51-49.) - In Iraq, say hello to an more or less independent Kurdistan as the Sons of Saladin overrun Kirkuk.
- In Iraq, the Shi'a finally abandon all pretense of rational co-existence and indulge in some fairly overt massacres of Sunnis.
- In Iraq, the Sunnis will deserve pretty much everything that's coming to them.
- The American left will continue to advance its thesis that sodomy is a moral imperative, but security is not. They will thereby guarantee at least two more years of GOP control of government
despite the GOP's best efforts. - The Republican base will react to Democratic gains by demanding more conservatism.
- The Republican leadership will react to Democratic gains by providing more leftism.
- For the fourth year in a row, the Hot New Thing That Will Transform Politics will be -- blogs!
- Blogs will not transform politics.
- Yet another major media profile will be written about Markos Moulitsas, exploring the roots of his website's influence, thoughtfully assessing his effect on the national discourse, and mentioning in passing that he is an ass.
Augustine:
- The Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl, since the only team with the ability to beat them indoors is out of the playoffs. This one's for Tony. (And Tuna or not, the Washington Redskins will sweep the Dallas Cowboys... again... let's get out the kerosene and light some cars on fire).
- Ramesh Ponnuru's book on the culture of death will be the most significant publication on the issue in a generation.
- Suddenly, without anyone noticing, Bill Frist will disappear.
- Newt Gingrich will have a minor boomlet of conservative attention as the 2006 stakes ramp up, but that boomlet will disappear as soon as everyone realizes that Gingrich loves big roly poly fat-bottomed gubmint.
- Hollywood's string of thinly-plotted game and comic book adaptations comes to a crushing end after the box office failure of QBert: The Movie. Hollywood decides to stick to what it knows, and gets back to making flicks about gay cowboys eating pudding.
- Increases in: trolling, taxes, pompous libertarians. Decreases in: hope, morality, time til the Apocalypse.
- Unable to sneak in the wood planks and nails to crucify him, Boston fans stone Johnny Damon to death in his first appearance at Fenway. Yankees still win, 5-3.
- Not only will Brett Favre come back - he'll lead the Packers to the playoffs.
- Andrew Sullivan becomes so confused that he ends up simultaneously attacking and defending the Pope as secretly gay, a fashion plate, and a sniveling bigot, all in the same sentence.
- All at once, several longtime RS editors discover "spellcheck." I am ecstatic.
- Harriet Miers gets into a frustrating argument about her Starbucks order before inevitably caving to the barista on whether or not she said she wanted skim milk.
- Help us, Mel Gibson. You're our only hope.
Leon H:
- Samuel Alito gets confirmed with 60-65 votes
- Planned Parenthood v. Ayotte results in the end of the "undue burden" standard, but the "central holding" of Roe survives.
- The almighty and glorious Bears will indeed win the Super Bowl. Someone might have already covered this, but I thought it deserved emphasis
- The GOP will gain, not lose, seats in the House.
- The GOP will lose at least 2 seats in the Senate.
- Johnny Damon has consigned his soul to an eternity in burning torment. That's not so much of a prediction as it is a necessary observation.
- Joss Whedon will begin work on a sequel to Serenity. At least, he better.
- Howard Dean will end the year as DNC chair. All predictions to the contrary are just the usual conservative pessimism.
- Donald Rumsfeld will not finish the year as SecDef. Joe Liebermann will not be his replacement.
- By election day, fewer than 40,000 American troops will be in Iraq.
- The New York Mets will finish third in the NL East.
- Air America will not broadcast through July.
- John Conyers will attempt to institute impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Failing to get them to the floor, he will hold them in the basement of the Capitol building. Dana Milbank will not bother to attend.
- More Democrats than Republicans will be dragged down with the Abramoff whirlpool.
- Deal or No Deal will succeed as a television phenomenon in the United States. Conversely, American Idol will experience a devastating drop in ratings.
- Russ Feingold will attempt to take all the credit for the aforementioned troop levels. The media will assist him in this venture. The public will not buy it.
- "The Deal" will not survive.
- Jay Cutler will make one NFL team very sorry they spent a draft pick on Matt Leinart.
Thomas Crown:
- The loss of Dave Barry's regular column will be unnoticed until July, when we all suddenly realize that the only thing keeping us laughing is the Democrat Party.
- Someone, somewhere, in the blogosphere, will talk about how important we are, and will be, for at least three days, the single-most linked author in existence. He will never score more than three links thereafter.
- The GOP, despite itself, loses only one seat in the Senate, and somehow gains in the House. John McCain takes credit for this. The New York Times agrees.
- Tony Kennedy, confronted with the monster of his own making that is Casey, will bravely kick the ball down the field again.
- He will, however, author a plurality opinion finding that gay marriage is an inherent right, blah blah, something about liberty and being happy, blah blah.
- Someone will declare Bush a conservative President, and be wrong. That someone will be a nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
- Someone will declare Bush a non-conservative President, and be wrong. That someone will quite possibly be the same nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
- Florida will be hit by three hurricanes of Category 3 strength or more. Millions of people will decide that Florida never got hit by hurricanes before global warming. Thousands of plaintiff's lawyers, apparently intent on bankrupting the insurance industry, will allege that the insurance industry caused global warming in Paragraph 4 of Count III of their institutional bad faith suit against Nationwide, Allstate, Allianz, State Farm, Citizens, and Liberty Mutual.
- Hillary Clinton will up her national profile, thereby bringing the country's polling numbers on her into a curious, mirror-image view of New York in 2000. She will nevertheless gear up for a Presidential run, after Bill suffers a brutal, accidental beheading while brushing his teeth.
- In a move of unparalleled brilliance and elan, Redstate will absorb National Review, The Weekly Standard, and Commentary. Leon's head will explode when he realizes that John Derbyshire posts in RedHot. I giggle like a schoolgirl the first time Ramesh Ponnuru says something nice about one of my pieces of dreck. The combined site becomes the launching point of Streiff/Goldberg'08, a political juggernaut that overwhelms the Republican primaries, and brings back happy memories of Ronald Reagan, as the pair go on to crush Hillary/Gore. Krempasky is the campaign manager, with assists from Blanton. Erick is the campaign lawyer. Pejman handles polling analysis. Adam is the devil's advocate. Augustine writes soaring rhetoric. Nick and Clayton run the website and destroy rival servers. I'm the drunk guy in the back of the campaign bus who hopes to score a nice appointment.
Nick Danger
- The outing of Valerie Plame will be shown to have been orchestrated by elected officials of the Democratic Party, Walter Pincus, Tim Russert, and Joseph and Valerie Wilson
- Democrats will lose seats in both the House and the Senate in 2006
- The "situation" in Iran will be resolved not by destroying the nukes, but by overthrowing the Mullahs. The result will be a somewhat secular (by Islamic standards), democratic Iran that is a nuclear power
- NBC will drop its Nightly News broadcast in favor of its cable news network. Murdoch will respond by tip-toeing into broadcast nightly news on the Fox network in some markets. A year later, the Fox network will have the #1 rated broadcast nightly news program, by then nationwide
- There will be at least one London-like terrorist bombing in the US involving domestic sympathizers of al Qa'eda
- Peter F. Paul will win a judgement against Bill and Hillary Clinton for fraud in the matter of the Hollywood fundraising gala which Paul financed
- Internecine warfare-by-leak will erupt between the Pentagon and the CIA
Jeff Goldstein (Protein Wisdom):
- Filmmaker Michael Moore will leave his wife and begin a torrid affair with an 8 lb. summer sausage.
- The above affair will last exactly 47 minutes, or until the honey mustard and Townhouse crackers run out -- whichever comes first
- Barbra Streisand once again comes out of retirement to put on a concert. Bent on changing her image, Hillary Clinton will appear on stage, sing the Neil Diamond half of a "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" duet, then -- as per instructions from Naomi Wolf -- will tongue kiss Ms Streisand. Dressed in earth tones. Seated in the front row, Bill Clinton will quip to a member of his security detail, "now there's one sandwich I can do without."
- David Schwimmer will try to take his one man "Friends: the Puppet Show" off broadway; investors won't return his phone calls after they find out he played Ross and not Joey.
- The long-awaited "Blossom" reunion show finally airs. A grateful Joey Lawrence scores with a pair of NBC interns and uses his check to get his Miata out of hock.
- Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are revealed as figments of our collective imagination. Unfortunately, Chuck Schumer remains all too real.
- As I've been warning for a decade now, 2006 will be the year the crickets finally launch their long-plotted coup and take over two midwestern states, claiming autonomy from the union. Congressional Democrats counsel the President against a civil war -- right up until the crickets announce an economic system based around flat taxes, health savings accounts, free trade, and an ownership society. At which time, Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) demands "a s***load of DDT and some really tricked-out crop dusters."
- Bill O'Reilly's head explodes on air. Luckily, his ass is able to keep right on with the segment. FOR THE CHILDREN!
- On his new TV sitcom, the "Reverend" Al Sharpton becomes only the second ever ex-Presidential contender to utter the words, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" The first contender to do so, John Kerry, uttered the phrase in 1988, when his personal valet informed him that he'd forgotten to replace the Paul Mitchell ultra-hold mousse.
Mike Krempasky
- The Indianapolis Colts do not win the Super Bowl
- The team drafting first in the NFL trades down to let someone else draft Reggie Bush.
- President Bush gets the chance to nominate another Supreme Court Justice, but Democrats stonewall until after the midterm elections. The nominee is confirmed when Dems fail to take back the Senate.
- John McCain's "torture Amendment" is signed into law. President Bush's nominees to the Federal Election Commission are confirmed. Coincidence?
- Mike Pence stays at the helm of the RSC, where for the first time in a long time, Conservatives stage a revolt over a rule - and win. Likely candidate? President Bush's immigration "reform"
- Sean Hannity overtakes Rush Limbaugh in weekly listeners
- Pajamas Media has a major overhaul of it's business model.
- Pajamas Media has another major overhaul of it's business model.
- Wal-Mart has a very, very good year.
- The most important story of the year will be the end of the status quo in Iran . Sometime in spring, Israel will do what it deems necessary to protect itself, attempting to shut down Iran's nuclear program through airstrikes, sabotage or an assassination attempt on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The result will be a mixed bag for the Middle East – the Iranian program will be set back, but America is seen as the de facto sponsor of Israel's defense moves, and rage against America and Israel flares to heights not seen in years. The Middle East will remain a dangerous and depressing place.
- The Middle East will also remain a hopeful place, as various incremental democratic reforms take two steps forward, one step back in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt , Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States.
- There will be no successful al-Qaeda attack within the continental United States . There will be an attack, or an attempted one, on a U.S. interest overseas – an embassy, military base, or naval vessel.
- Either Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or Ayman al-Zawahiri will be killed, not captured. The consensus response from the Democratic Party will be, "Big deal. Why hasn't Bush caught Osama bin Laden?"
- President Bush will stay on rhetorical offense, with only minor lapses into his "occasional communicator" mode. His approval rating will range from the mid 40s to the high 50s, ending the year just above 50 percent.
- Democrats will gain three seats in the Senate and a few in the House. They will celebrate as if it's their 1994. Sharper observers will wonder how well they would have done if they hadn't been weighed down by a pacifist, outlandish, wimpy, dovish Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi if they would have done better in purple districts.
- Nonetheless, the Deaniacs will begin encouraging their idol to pursue a 2008 presidential campaign. Dean will do nothing to discourage this talk.
- Alito is confirmed; Reid backs down from a filibuster when he realizes McCain would lead the Republican half of the Gang of Fourteen to a successful use of the nuclear option. Stephens and Ginsburg remain on the court through 2006, with the assistance of advanced medical technology.
- It's a big year for conservative books, as mainstream publishers recognize the significant profits from a vast, previously-underserved audience outweigh any ideological hesitation about the "conservative" market. Books by my NR colleagues Kate O'Beirne, Rod Dreher, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jonah Goldberg and John Podhoretz are hits. My effort, released in August, does well enough to not embarrass myself.
- The conventional wisdom on the Democratic nomination in December 2006: It's Hillary's world, the rest of us live in it. Competitors from Feingold to Warner to Dean are fooling themselves.
- The conventional wisdom on the Republican nomination in December 2006: Both McCain and Giuliani start polishing their conservative credentials and have more credibility than expected; George Allen is generally liked but some wish he had bigger accomplishments as a senator; Mitt Romney gets good reviews despite my insistence that to be the GOP nominee you ought to have won more than one race in your life. Condi Rice remains the ideal running mate. Everybody else is an also-ran.
- The New York Jets do not trade down to get Reggie Bush, and later regret it.
- The latest X-Men sequel, despite awful early buzz, will be pretty good.
Mark Kilmer:
- John McCain will find something against which to take a stand. He will draft legislation of which the Bush Administration will not approve but which the press will, thus leading to more reportorial/editorial criticism of the President as "authoritarian." McCain will flash that wicked grin and continue carving his bedpost.
- Mitt Romney will drop out of the Presidential race after entangling his tongue on itself trying to explain the Big Dig. Joe Biden will inherit Mitt's hair designer, who will go mad after trying to figure out what's going on up there.
- Scientists will discover the fossilized remains of Chuck Schumer and declare them to be evolution's missing link. Schumer will try to use this to his political advantage, but Judge Sam Alito will be confirmed anyway, after proving that Darwin is not contained within the emanations of the penumbra.
- Dan Froomkin is forced to leave his position at WashPost's dot-com. No one will explain why and those who wonder are committed.
- In all due seriousness, in 2006, all but the most in transmutable media diehards will stop talking seriously about Rudy Giuliani in the context of the '08 GOP Presidential nomination.
- Iraq will have a new government under a satisfactory Constitution, but there will continue to be wars of words and sharp disagreements, with various factions threatening this or that, perhaps shutting down the government for a few days or pulling the parliament into closed session to discuss nothing of import.
- And the universe continues to expand.
Gerry Daly:
- My Giants will win their home playoff game, but will lose the following week, committing a dozen penalties and giving up a few long passes. Afterwards, many in the media will blame the loss on Eli Manning being erratic.
- President George W. Bush's job approval rating will rise to the mid-fifties following the State of the Union address. It will then slide to the low 40s by election day, causing many to speculate that "Bush fatigue" will be a major factor in the 2006 elections.
- The 2006 election will reinforce the status quo; there will be little change in the House, and no more than a swing of one in the party representation in the Senate. There will be a few stories about how "Bush fatigue" did not turn out to be a factor, but not many and there will be no follow-up on the matter.
- Senator Rick Santorum will make his re-election race a lot closer than it appears it will be now. He will still fall short.
- Tom Kean, Jr. will win Jon Corzine's Senate seat in New Jersey.
- Paul Hackett will not be a successful candidate. He may not even get the nomination.
- Notre Dame will secure a bid for the BCS Championship game.
- Kos will finally back a candidate who gets elected, breaking the o-fer drought. His winning percentage will still be below .250.
- Hillary will prove to be a highly divisive figure for the online-left. It won't slow down her candidacy-- showing that while online activism is increasing in importance, it still is a relative raindrop in a lake.
- A Republican frontrunner for the 2008 nomination will have health issues that will remove him from consideration.
- Conservative activists will be very unhappy with the top contenders for the Republican nomination. There will be no apparant conservative consensus alternative candidate-- instead, several will be splitting the conservative support.
- Two former Presidents will pass away.
- The New York Times will remain predictably liberal and demonstrably partisan. An unsettlingly large portion of the public will believe that the Times is biased against the left.
- Iraq will be more stable than the left wants to believe. Iraq will be less stable than the right hopes it will be.
- There will be military action in some country other than Iraq. The United States will not be leading it, although we may get involved to some extent. This will be a source of division within the Democrats.
- In the 2 months after the 2006 election, recriminations about the Democrats' failure to make significant gains will result in a real battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. The liberal faction will lose this fight. Howard Dean will be ousted. Some liberals will openly toy with the idea of going Green or forming a new party, should Hillary run too far to the center.
- RedState will continue to flourish.
« Today is worthy of celebration — Comments (7) | From the Mailbag — Comments (11) »
RedState Predictions 2006 80 Comments (0 topical, 80 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Our time has come.
Out of control spending.
Record debt.
Runaway Government control.
Time for us to save the day.
And Augustine....think Seahawks.....Colts will be "Alexanderized".
Agree:
- The Dow hitting 12,000+
- House and Senate GAINS
- Gingrich imploding
- Bush at 55% approval
Disagree:
- The Bears pulling it off
- Only 40k in Iraq by Election Day
- The Iran conflict "resolving" within the year
Further Prediction:
- Justice Stevens steps down
- Notre Dame vs. Penn State in the National Title
Howard Dean will begin the year as DNC Chair and end the year as a political and social pariah.
Won't both statuses apply at both the beginning and end of the year?
Will be joined by Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe in an MTV News protest and issue another demand for an immediate end to the war and the unconditional withdrawal of American forces. The audience's attention span will run out after 20 seconds and everyone will boycott Green Day concerts by mistake.
will step down, persuaded by the charms of Chief Justice John Roberts, who will become a conservative hero by leading the court to historic 5-4 rulings which began to restore some sanity to SCOTUS.
President GWB, after reading an editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Robert Bork, will select Edith Jones as his replacement.
Ted Kennedy, in a fit of rage, will begin his "Edith Jones America" speech, will have heart palpitations and eventually be forced to retire.
Governor Mitt Romney will replace him with an unknown, claiming it was the only Republican he could find in the state of Massachusetts who was not a high office holder.
- China will become a significant security concern as it builds up its blue
water navy and makes military overtures toward Taiwan. - The Global Warming movement will morph into the Climate Change movement.
They are getting tired of being embarrassed by record winters and European
ice ages. The new focus will allow them to blame any extreme weather (hot
or cold) on white, male capitalists in the United States. - Democrats will scrape more egg off their faces as the Impeach Bush for Domestic
Spying strategy unravels like a cheap suit, but not before Keith Olbermann
sells a record number of tin foil hats and moonbat decoder pins.
Joss Whedon will begin work on a sequel to Serenity. At least, he better.
I predict that it'll be a prequel.
And, although it's an unbelievably foolish move, Krempasky's prediction is probably right: Bush's immigration reform plan will be rejected. Instead, we'll get a second-tier version of the war on drugs, with a tenth of the benefit -- but twice the bureaocracy, regulations, and expense -- all targeting that most dastardly of evils: small manufacturers without the resources to perform detailed background checks. (Large businesses have the wherewithall to move to where the labor is.)
You mean 20,006, not 2006. I figure the LP should be competitive by then.
The US will cap a remarkable run in soccer's World Cup by defeating France 4-0 in the final. After losing his bet to George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac will be forced to wear the stars and stripes uniform for one day at a U.N. conference on global warming.
All MSM outlets will run Katrina retrospectives beginning in July and ending the weekend before the general election. Broadcasts and print stories will be filled with quotes from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
That is insane! Hannity is losing audience where Limbaugh continues to gain. I for one cannot listen to Sean interviewing far left wackos like Sharpton, Malvo, or some PETA Jerk just to beat up on them. No one cares what they or she think. Limbaugh continues to hold you near the radio all 3 hours and if you lack the time then later you run to your Ipod to listen. Laura Ingraham passing Sean is much more feasible.
My full predictions bit is up, but here's the meat:
* The Lakers make it to the playoffs with or without Ron Artest (but not without Kobe).
* The Dodgers overcome some injuries to their aging lineup to have a good pennant race with the Padres, taking it at least to the middle of September. I will not say whether they win or lose that race.
* USA PATRIOT stalling backfires on the Democrats, and their foreign policy weakness partially negates whatever momentum they got from the legal troubles of Reps. Delay and Cunningham. This means the 2006 elections leave the Republicans as much in charge in 2007 as they are now.
* Governor Schwarzenegger trades a tax hike for some reduced spending growth, failing to get any cuts in place as he sells out his party. Fearing for his re-election hopes as a Republican, he then turns on the conservative Republicans in the Legislature, and leaves the party, because they block his tax hike.
* The votes and opinions of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito (who gets confirmed with 62 votes) get conservatives excited about the possibilities of a third pick by President Bush.
* Investors irrationally dump Apple stock when the company hints that it cannot keep up crazy growth rates for iPods and the iTunes Music Store, but the pair keeps the company healthier than it was during the period between Jobs' departure and return.
* Americans continue to drop their guard from the highs of 2002.
* American troop levels in Iraq dip below 100,000, and any mainstream press attention to the milestone is slanted as a cave-in by the President to defeatist Democratic pressure.
Well, my neck's stuck out here. We'll see what happens.
Teddy Kennedy will get scirrhous of the liver/ Bill Clinton will undergo plastic surgery for wrinkles and that red nose/ Howard Dean will suffer a stroke while screaming"Republicans burn books"/ Continued growth of the economy will be ignored by everybody to the left of Dennis Hastert/ Bush will remain stupid while people who are never right will remain brilliant and urbane/ Pinch Sulzberger will finally get around to reading "See Dick and Jane Run"/ Hillary will gain weight and her hips will be entered in the Guiness Book of Records/ Obsidian Wings will still be doing posts everyday on American Torture/ And Kim Il Jung will die of starvation. Last and least, I will finally get around to reading Von Clauswitz's On War, which has sat on my shelf for twenty five years. The last prediction is the shakeiest.
But I don't think they will - not because of Alexander, but because of Hasselbeck.
They're a fantastically good team, though. I saw their loss to the Redskins, which literally only happened because of one semi-bad snap.
I don't get the Hannity attraction in an election year... but we'll see.
and I don't want to pay for the 24/7 access ... but a day without Laura Ingraham is too dismal to contemplate.
if for no other reason than learning that each hour of broadcast is about 26 minutes of commercials.
that each individual minute of commentary is worth more!
is worth it for the podcasts.
I listen to it some at work (can't use the webcast because the IT nazis where I work forbid it) so I find getting the 100 or so minutes of mp3 files each morning really convenient.
I think you are wrong about Hasselbeck and he will prove his value in the playoffs... I am not saying they will beat the Colts, but I think this is a guy who has been defined by a few stupid BIG moves in his past. He is solid.
As a Seahawks fan; however, I fear the Bears and the Redskins, before I fear the Colts.
Starting in roughly July, all-Democratic TV will come as the elections near and the nervous Dems that run the entertainment and media industries in this country try to boost their pals. This will include:
- Howard Dean on SNL (maybe he could do John Belushi's samarai chef "You want sandwich cut? HEAHHHHHH!")
- Hillary Clinton on Larry King at least 4 times between July and November.
- David Letterman and Leno having a contest to see how many Dem politicians they can book per week.
- Episodes of Commander-in-Chief and West Wing showing evil Republicans getting away with dastardly deeds because they control Congress and no one can stop them.
The man is a committed ideologue. He won't relinquish his robe until they cut it off his cold, dead body.
Oh, and Paterno will slump back into irrelevancy. The 2006 title belongs to my beloved Sooners.
Canada will fall apart and no one will notice. And Democrats will have no place to run to!
That would be a tough one considering that they play on Sept 9th and the national championship game is rarely a rematch.
There will be much outrage and calls for impeachment over CookieGate. I mean, what are we fighting the GWOT for? If we let the Whitehouse monitor usage of their website the terrorists have won!
1)The Patriots will defy medical history by winning their 4th Super Bowl.
2)The Red Sox will defy logic by winning 93+ games without a center fielder or shortstop. Pitching, pitching, pitching.
3)The UConn Huskies will beat Duke(Duke is our b*tch)on their way to NCAA title #3.
4)Rush Limbaugh will take another "sabbatical", probably around July. He will return to a steadily dwindling audience.
5)W hits 53% by election day(as if it matters).
6)Repubs lose 3 Senate seats, 4 House seats.
7)Steven Spielberg rushes out a "Munich" remake, this one admitting that, yes, PLO terrorists really aren't nice guys.
8)Reese Witherspoon wins Best Supporting Actress("Walk The Line").
9)Israel finally gets it over with(watch out, mullahs).
10)Mitt Romney enjoys a boomlet until the country finds out(thanks to Dem slime machine) that he's a Mormon.
Dodgers. Period.
The Republican Party will lose EVERY election because all of their candidates will be in jail.
Bush runs for a third term just because he can and no one notices.
The war becoems endless and self-perpetuating. Cheney becomes richer than God or Ted Kennedy
Laura Ingraham finally confesses that she is a he. No one cares. Ditto for Ann Coulter. Laura and Ann marry in Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Rush Limbaugh admits that he is the best argument for legalizing drugs.
Sean Hannity's head explodes on live TV. Fox News is there.
John Gibson writes a book about why his hairdresser should be President. His hairdresser then wins the New Hampshire primary.
The Lakers hire their dancers to play and the girls post a better reocrd than Kobe et al.
- The San Andreas fault gives way and California becomes an island. What's left of the state succeeds from the Union and is renamed "Azteca".
- The 9th Circus Court of Appeals gets taken to the wood shed by the Supreme Court.
- Iran gets the spanking it's asking for.
- Google stock tanks.
I know of only one mat pruitt who spells his first name with one T...
Good to "see" you buddy.
Seattle Mariners will be god-awful...
Seahawks beat New England in the Super Bowl by 3 when Adam Viniateri misses a short FG...
Alito confirmed after a "deal" ends the filibuster... McCain takes credit. Lindsey Graham has bad hair. No other vacancies in '06... But lots of rumors keeps Redstate readership at an all-time high...
Final Four - Washington, Connecticut, Duke, UCLA... Washington over UCLA in the final (their fourth win of the year over the Bruins, who nonetheless claim the season more of a success than UW due to great recruiting by Ben Howland)...
House - Dems gain 3 seats... Senate - Dems gain 2 seats... The "victory" causes the Dems to become even more liberal - thinking Americans now like them more, which causes a dem disaster in '08...
More Value then anything else I could buy. I like to listen to Laura but sometimes need to tune out because she is conversing about something not interesting. i never have to tune Rush out. I am no Football fan but he keeps your ear 100% of the time
It takes a disgusting level of chutzpah to compare Mike Mars and Nikki Sixx, two of the greatest musicians of all time, to that parasite Cindy Sheean.
Let the truth go out to all redstaters NOW: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS ANYONE ON THIS SITE EVER ALLOWED TO COMPARE MOTLEY CRUE TO CINDY SHEEAN EVER AGAIN!!! Are we clear?
Anyone caught comparing Motley Crue and Cindy Sheean on this website (or any other website), from this point forward, will be hunted down and killed by myself.
Are we clear?
- Dodgers suck. NL west will be three team race btwn. Pads, Giants, D-Bax. Giants win when Bonds discovers new designer steroid.
- Arnold reacting to special election loss by appeasing liberal establishment sucks A LOT more.
Howard Dean hosting SNL would rock!!! Al Gore was one of the best hosts they've had in the past 5 years.
BTW, I've thought for a long time that, after he's done spreading freedom to the Middle East, Dubya would be the greatest SNL host ever.
You know I'm right people!!!
Prediction: I purchase Johnny Damon jersey before spring training starts.
Speaking of predictions: Toronto Blue Jays will compete with 1992 Mets as most overhyped team to lose 90 games of all time.
What is J.P. Ricchardi smoking and where can I get some?
Am I the only one who notices that, as good as Billy Beane is, two of his major protoges have sabatoged what were originally strong orgainzations.
Here goes. Other than the first three, I don't expect any of these to come true:
- I get the girl
- I get to write the book I pitched during New Year's celebration last night. Said book goes on to be #1 NYT bestseller
- 2006 blows all previous years out of the water as the greatest year of my life
That said, here are some I'm not as certain about:
- Yankess fail to win World Series. Failure comes because of some bitch move by ARod in the ALCS. I say this as a Yankee fan.
- Yankees do, however, get back to losing to the team that ultimately wins the WS.
- Said team is not the Boston Red Sox, who, despite September hot streak, fail to make playoffs.
- Though it's too soon to tell, said team will probably be the Cleveland Indians.
- Chad Pennington returns and is better than ever. NFL MVP!!!
- During that two week window btwn. the Super Bowl and Spring Training, when everyone in New York takes a second to pay attention to the Knicks, Larry Brown quits.
- Nobody in America outside of New York cares.
- ESPN goes out of business when a competitor emerges during ESPN's blanket coverage of the Larry Brown fiasco.
- New Competitors slogan: "We will only focus obsessively on GOOD new york teams. That said, our Yanx-Sox coverage will not have an obvious Red Sox bias"
- Bush goes to Baghdad, gives 9/20/01 level speech to Iraqi assembly.
- Shortly thereafter, Bush's approval rating is in 60's.
- Bush approval rating comes down to the 50's, but not until Teddy Kennedy and Howard Dean commit suicide.
- Said suicides will be the greatest thing to ever happen to the Democratic Party
- Said suicides will lead to Dems moving centerwards.
- Dems moving to center fores Republicans to govern like Republicans
- Republicans governing like Republicans energizes Conservatives like something fierce.
- Said energy will translate into a filibuster-proof majority for Bush's final two years.
- John McCain will smile for the cameras. Media will help him promote legislation that is bad for America.
- Realizing that it will only damper conservative energy heading into election, 55% approval Bush will FINALLY stand up to McCain.
- After nominating Janice Rogers Brown with his third pick, Bush nominates McCain with his fourth.
- Media, in typical cluelessness, interprets this a move towards Bipartisanship. In reality, it's a brilliant move that prevents McCain from becoming president.
- This won't happen, but it's a fantastic idea. Are you reading this Karl Rove?
- Mike Bloomberg fails to end corruption in Brooklyn judicial system.
- Arnold moves to the center, tries to appease left, then fails in his bid for re-election when conservatives stay home.
- David Dreier fails to become speaker, even though he should be.
- Mike Pence fails to become majority leader, even though he should be.
- Marsha Blackburn does not become majority whip, even though she should be.
- Thier influence, however, will still be felt as federal budget process is fundamentally reformed.
- Social Security reform will be postponed another year. Another $600 billion down the drain.
- Another round of Tax Cutz, making 6 Bush tax cuts in 6 years.
- I continue to talk about how feminism has ruined two generations of american men, no one listens.
- Same thing with McCain/Feingold.
- No energy exploration in ANWR
I could go on, but, in order to make my first prediction come true, I must break myself away from the computer and get ready.
...John Kerry says something incredibly stupid.
Later in sentence, Kerry says something else incredibly stupid and completely contradicting what he said before the comma.
I don't know the root cause, but FNC continues to lurch left.
It could simply be that they are based in NYC or keeping up the appearance of being Fair&Balanced, but FNC is really begining to PO me. For one thing few of their announcers have ANY sense of geography or physical sciences.
Don't get my wrong I love Brit and some of his panelists but it does not make up for the inaccuracy in reporting stories that have economics, science or place as a central feature.
I can really, really do without Bill (John-Boy Walton) Hemmer, pretty boy Shep the whinner, and the new info babe Harris ("Massive 20 acre grassfire in Texas") Faulkner. Then there's that idiot Bill ("gas-gouging-cabal) O'Reilly inviting guest to explain the oil-biz and not letting them put in a word.
I find myself fact checking there stories all the time and it is getting almost comical.
are also invaluable. I pay for Rush 24/7, The Wall Street Journal and The New Republic (its the best and most sober liberal website as they are pretty hawkish on defense and the spread of freedom with Peter Beinart as the Editor)online but find that Rush's website is the best overall and well worth the money. I have thought about paying for NRO online.
I also listen to Laura everyday!
But to have all of Rush each day with the most important parts on transcript and with all the articles he cites and to have his choice for the most important articles each day in all major newspapers and magazines online is awesome.
and I get the digital (download) version for free with my subscription. Until I install a computer in my bathroom, this is the only acceptable option for me.
Or did they lose a child in Iraq? But I will honor the request and never compare them to Mama Sheehan, so long as no one compare's the star of the band that made Motley Crue possible to Bono! Although I have no problem with Bono.
My allegiance is to Black Sabbath before Ozzy left. And Ozzy after he left! I knew Ozzy before he burnt out and everybody in America knew his name. I played Pzzy at every Halloween from 1976 till last year!
I was a Heavy Metal-Hard Rock guy raised on Hendrix-Led Zep-Black Sabbath-The Who and Motley Crue was kind of a second generation band.
We alsop liked the Allman Bros and Marshall Tucker southern rock.
have you got Bill James basesball abstract? I guess you read moneyball.
Will the Mets beat the Braves for the NL east in 2006?
from El Rushbo on redstate.
The bathroom installation would also require a large investment in Preparation H.!
Get in and out of that room as fast as possible!
Thats all Im going to say about this!
...I thought I had been seeing things.
Yes, it seems to me that Fox has considered its target audience saturated, and is now trying to attract other targets.
At the risk (and apparently also with the result) of alienating its "base".
I, for one, could also do with a little less of the religious pofessing among some of Fox's lesser-qualified talent. Although, admittedly, that may have been a recent and brief occurrence due to the Christmas holiday.
Fox's primary bias is a pro-American bias, not really a right-wing bias. Yes, the lineup of commentators does skew right, but the news bias is mostly just an American slant.
What keeps Fox from going really to the right in their news is that they deliberately hire as many people from CNN as they can get.
-- The Yankees don't win the World Series. Again.
-- Democrats take both houses of Congress. Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist both announce plans to leave Congress.
-- Bush finishes year with approval rating under 40%.
-- Newt Gingrich becomes one of the frontrunners for the GOP nomination. Rudy Guiliani announces that he won't run. Mitt Romney is laughed out of the race. John McCain continues to lead in the polls.
-- Schwarzenegger re-elected.
-- Alito confirmed, but court doesn't toss Roe v. Wade this year.
-- It becomes clear that Massachusetts is on track to permanently keep gay marriage.
Democrats take both houses of Congress.
Almost completely impossible without an as-yet unknown and devastating scandal. The House? Maybe, if everything goes wrong. The Senate? I'd bet my 401K that the Republicans will hold unless it is revealed that Bill Frist has been running a murder-for-hire ring employing most of the Republican caucus.
Jack Abramoff.
If the Democrats convince independent and moderate Republican voters that this election is about corruption, they're going to sweep the Republican Party out.
Of course, having to depend on the Democratic Party to do something intelligent is a very hard way to win a bet.
at you.
Jack Abramoff. When the dust settles, don't be surprised to see more than a handful of dems with their hands just as dirty.
Y'all had decades to become the Party of corruption; we've never yet had a Daley.
There are no massive waves of retirements to take golden parachutes, no huge demographic shifts, no late-breaking realignments. At most, the very best the Democrats can hope for is that their allies in the press ignore the incredible Abramoff money that went to Dems, and help hand the Senate, but not the House, back to the Donkeys. At most.
I get the girl
I continue to talk about how feminism has ruined two generations of american men, no one listens.
hehehhhehehhehe. You're a funny guy.
over 90% of Kossacks would go right out on that limb with you.
Gerry, this is a pretty bold predicition, but I found it so interesting and strange that I'm going to add to it by saying one is Gerry Ford (he's over 90 and ailing).
Jimmy Carter is too wrapped up in community service, his chruch, writing books and yes, liberal activism. He'll live for a long time...In fact I see JC breaking Dutch's record as the longest living President.
Bill Clinton, not even 60, is indeed unhealthy, but he's his whole life ahead of up.
George HW Bush? He's also got something to live for, seeing his son suceed. John Adams died while his son was President. (but Adams was 90, very old man, by the 1800s standards).
so who was the other one?
Log Cabin Republicans dissolve, becoming either independents or shifting into the Democratic party as single issue voters.
Andrew Sullivan remains vile as ever.
I hung out with the girl for several hours today. Let me just say it was the mother of all "f"ed up nights (right now I could really use a daily kos profainity policy). Too make a long story short, we're at such different points in our lives, it isn't even funny. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh....
I'm still going to get the girl, I just might change the girl the "the" refers to.
Sorry to trouble you redstaters with the Bill Clinton legalisms. I honestly hoped to be otherwise engaged tonight.
Good Lord, if Jimmy Carter finally dies, I'm throwing a massive bloody party (again, I could really use a Kos profanity policy at the moment).
Everyone's invited to my celebration of Jimmy Carter's death.
I spend a week in the Bay Area at the beginning of April. I bang more liberal girls in one week than Doug bangs in the entire year.
As I explained in an earlier post, getting the girl has become faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar more complicated than it was this morning when I wrote the original post. Since I'm not otherwise engaged, I may as well finish my list of predictions for '06:
- I double the number of women I've slept with. The current total is just under 30. 10 of those were in the past year. I can do this.
- I find a way to dramatically increase the influence of libertarians/south park conservatives within the Republican party at the expense of the Religous Right mofo's who tend to dominate this site.
- America is a better place for my actions in the previous prediction.
- Jimmy Carter survives, even though he doesn't even remotely deserve to.
- Hugo Chavez survives as well. This is despite the fact that it was good to agree with Pat Robertson for once.
- I talk till I'm blue in the face about how America needs to pursue regime change in Cuba. My friends call me a right-wing nutcase. I reply that at least I have a sense of humor about it.
- I say America needs to persue regime change in all of the following other countries (although all of them would be far more complicated than Cuba): North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Venezuala, Egypt, Vietnam (successfully this time), Bangladesh; god does anyone have a map?
- My friends call me a right-wing nutcase again.
- I agree with them, but continually remind them that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
- I say America needs to persue regime change in Iran. Israel, followed by the Iranian people, finally listen.
- I forgive Ariel Sharon for abandoning Gaza after his shows that @$$hole Iranian president who's boss.
- I don't get booted from Redstate for disguising a profanity in my last prediction.
- U.S. economy hits five percent growth in the fourth quarter. I continue to talk about how we reach this point more than a year before it happened in the previous cycle. A few people I know listen, but not enough to swing public opinion.
- My failure to swing public opinion doens't matter, as public opinion eventually swings because the evidence that the economy is in fantastic shape becomes even more overwhelming.
- 2006 budget reconciliation contains at least $200 billion in spending cuts. Mike Pence gets profile in NYTimes magazine. NYTimes magazine wildly misses the point.
- Iraq continues to improve, but MSM misses it in the daily drumbeat.
- Troops begin to come home because we are winning. CBS and NYT and Howard Dean trip over selves to give all the credit to Jack Murtha.
- Asscioating with CBS, NYT, and Howard Dean, combined with clear and unmistakeable American success in Iraq, causes Murtha's district to narrowly swing GOP
- The swing in Murtha's district causes Santorum to eek out an unexpected victory.
- Senate GOPers fail to make Santorum their leader, even though they should.
- Santorum sez something homophobic that makes me regret massively all the nice things I just said about him.
- the Religous Right mofo's who tend to dominate this site
We do have an unseemly number of lawyers, but to my knowledge none of them work for mofo.
My drunk @$$ just deleted about twenty predictions. Thus I posted the ones I still had. As you know, I'd hoped to be otherwise engaged tonight. I'm not. Deal with it redstaters!!!
- Iraq continues to prove on a daily basis that it's more of a functional democracy than California.
- Motley Crue continues to rock.
- Girl, don't go away mad. Girl, just go away.
- John Kerry continues to say idiotic things regarding foreign policy.
- Kerry's forign policy rantings make me even gladder I voted for Bush. I say this despite having voted for Bush due to economic, not foreign, policy.
- Bush's foreign policy leads to another two or three countries being freed from tyranny.
- Media fails to grasp what I just said.
- I sleep with a girl named Katrina in New Orleans.
- God I hope it's not Katrnia Vanden Heuvel
- It probably will be Katrina Vanden Heuvel.
- Unable to take a joke, Katrina Vanden Huevel links to this thread in an attempt to prove white, conservative, men are sexist.
- Seriously Katrina, if you're down, I'll pay for the hotel room and your plane ticket.
- I'm totally serious.
- Doug from SF gets smug liberal attitude regarding the fact that I just made a crude sexual joke regarding KVH.
- This doesn't help Doug, as he sleeps with fewer than 5 liberal San Fran girls during the entire year.
- April, Bay Area: 7 liberal girls in 7 days.
- It's on Doug.
- When redstate reluctanly links to my diary documenting said seven liberal girls in seven days, Doug still laughes at the idea of paying me to teach him how to seduce women.
- Seriously Doug, $1500 for one weekend.
- If you don't understand what I'm talking about, go to Amazon and look up "The Game" by Neil Strauss.
On a more serious note, I'd like to reiterate that, while this technically violates the comment policy, I'm saying all of this in good fun. Have a sense of humor RedState.org Censor!!!
Wow, I'm having fun. One more:
- During April, I get coffee one morning in San Francico. In background, I hear guy talking about how hot Nancy Pelosi is. With help of several liberal (albeit less nutty) friends, I manage to supress thunderous guffaws. I ask said guy what his name is, he says Doug. I reply with my real name. Someone is none the wiser. It's not me.
- Caveat: Pompous.
- Someone publishes a libertarian style diary entry about censorship. RedState promotes it with zero sense of Irony.
- This person might be me.
- Motley Crue continues to rock
- Randy Johnson wins 20 games
- ARod wins triple crown
- Sheffield hits about 7000 home runs against Toronto.
- Sheffield fails to hit home runs against good teams.
- C.C. Sabathia strikes out Arod and Sheff a combined 10 times in the playoffs.
- When what I just said happends, Joe Buck says it all solumn.
- Despite being the best baseball announcer in the world, McCarver finally gets fired when, after Yankees blow ALCS to Cleveland, he shouts "Thank God, Thank God!!!"
- Sleeper Christmas gift of 2006: DVD's of the Major League movies.
- Speaking of christmas, next December O'Reilly and Gibson will be back with War on Christmas 3.0
- This will happen regardless of the fact that the evidence agaist said war on christmas will double in the next year.
- If you don't believe me, I had New Year's at an FNC employees house last night.
- Oh my god, I reccomended he check out this thread earlier today because of the post about FNC. He might see this.
- If he sees this, he's an adult. He can handle it.
- Yes, he's an on camera person.
- None of your business.
- Said on Camera person needs to pitch my book idea.
I'll stop now.
Redstate.org is nomiated for a James Joyce award based on my taking my catharsis online.
Sorry guys, I needed to do this.
I hope you can forgive me.
Happy New Year!!!
Love,
Cahnman
- This post ends up on the FNC bulliten board in New York. FNC employees try to figure out who I've talked to in the last few days. FNC employess fail.
- Juliet Huddy reads this entire post in a mix of humor and disgust. When she gets this far, she can't believe she's mentioned by name.
- Hi Juliet!!!
- If you want to know the truth about who posted this, use the world "carbuncle" during the Jan. 14 episode of dayside (if Jan. 14 is a weekend, do it the following monday).
You're either having a genuinely impressive drunk or a very dangerous psychotic episode.
Whichever, it's very entertaining.
I agree that it would surprise me if Hannity overtakes Limbaugh, but Hannity does have the prime time TV exposure that helps the radio program. His show is somewhat more lowbrow than Limbaugh's show, so the average guy can follow it more easily, which would account for his rising popularity, but I think Limbaugh is more nutritious..... :)
For years now. Their primetime lineup is horrible. They only have maybe a half dozen people on there that I can tolerate (Hume, Cavuto, Beltway Boys) and most of those are on weekend shows.
I can't stand Greta and Geraldo (who doesn't have his own show but seems to be on all the time) either.
Ahhnold gets reelected. There's still time for him to drop out, Jesse Ventura style. He has about as much chance to win as Jesse did. The Dems would really have to drop the ball to lose now.
You may not like President Carter, but the man has dedicated his life to public service, he's an honest and moral Christian, and he's a very much-loved husband, father and grandfather.
Partisan politics is good. I'm in favor of it. But comments like that are why on-line stuff makes so many people sigh and walk away.
...will he be seriously challenged in the Republican primary? If the answer is "yes," all bets are off. But I'm guessing no. That being the case, he only has to beat a relatively unknown, moderately-funded Democrat to get re-elected. In a sense, his only real opponent to re-election will be himself. I think he can figure out a way to re-package himself well enough to get the sequel funded, as it were.
I agree on that re-packaging. Unfortunately, my expectation is that he'll throw Republicans under the bus as part of his re-packaging.
His hiring of Susan Kennedy, an ex-director of California Democratic Party as well as former member of Governor Davis' cabinet, as his chief of staff seems to be a good first step in that direction.
The CA GOP couldn't do anything about him if they wanted to. They can't win their way out of a wet paper bag.
I think his challenge will have to be from the Dem side. The state already leans heavy to the Dem side and I could see a lot of Republicans staying home. The liberal Democrat Chief of Staff was the last straw for many. Like I said, I think it is the Dems to lose. Of course that may happen, they've managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the past.
I think that has already begun. But how can he successfully move to the left when he is hated by many on the that side (unions for example)? He will be at a great disadvantage to anyone with a D by their name among the lefties.
Since beginning. He took off like crazy because when Rush lent him the Golden EIB microphone he performed superbly thus build instant following. But since then he has to many way left wackos he beats on (who cares what they think) Rush is far and away above them all. I do like listening to Savage too. He is smart and very funny at times
after reading you post, I regret bringing Gerry's predictions back up for discussion.
I reacted with disgust when I read about the liberals who chilled a bottle of champagne and waited for the Great Communicator to expire. Your comment is no better. Carter was an awful President but he was and is a principled human being, however much you may disagree with those ideals. He has increased the visibility of Habitat for Humanities, among other philanthropic and charitable ventures. Are we no better than those we assail? Prove me wrong.
That's hardly saying anything since I'm gay. Though, most likely if you substitute "people" for "girls" the statement will, sadly, most likely still be true.
I really do wish you the best of luck in getting her, though.
The Global Warming movement will morph into the Climate Change movement. They are getting tired of being embarrassed by record winters and European ice ages
Climate change is just the new talking point dictated to the MSM by the central government, much like all phone lines used to go through Moscow even if you had to make a local phone call, so to do you have to take orders from the high command. We don't say "Estate" tax, we say "death" tax, and other Rovian bits. What do we expect, our government bureaucracy is filled with a bunch of lawyers (nuances), marketers, and oil-men. War on Terror (WOT?) war in iraq? War on Christmas (O'Reilly). Seem to keep coming up with a new name everytime they move the goal posts don't they?
While the govt is muzzling reknowned scientists, and Bush is conferring with his astrologist, I mean Michael Crichton, science fiction, aka Rasputin, the climate is changing. It's complicated people, don't worry if it's hard to grasp, it takes the most powerful supecomputers to crunch the numbers, and we still can't predict anything, just like no one could've predicted the levees breaking due to Katrina (except some scientists 1 year back). Anyway, about the European ice age, read more below but I'll summarize - there are some very complex processes which drive the world's currents, which partly depend on the salinity of the water to act sort of like a "switch", i.e. with the switch on, it's like you turned on your furnace, and the gulf stream flows up to England, and you have palm trees in Wales and it's rather balmy. But consider the arctic ice melting, and thus changing the salinity of the water, and thus turning the switch off, and then consider that Europe is much farther north in latitude than north america. In one sentence, global warming takes out the natural "buffers", so you'll have wild swings of weather, kinda like ... now.
I predict that the editors of Redstate will be hospitalized for collective observation and regrettably never released.