The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

A couple of predictions for the next four years...or at least wishes...

- We end up mostly out of Iraq by the end of 2005. I expect we will leave a permanent base or two, much like we did with Germany, Italy and Japan. Hopefully something in the southeast so we have a port and easy access to both the Persian Gulf and perennial trouble maker Iran (see below)

- We end up doing something to rein in Iran, maybe by blowing up their nuke facilities or letting the Israelis do it. Nothing happens with North Korea, but it doesn't get worse.

- Yasser Arafat dies and goes straight to hell to be bunkmates with Mohammad Atta and other fellow terrorists, and after the bloodshed of his succession the Palestinians either elect a new nutcase or they get a moderate that doesn't have blood on their hands that Bush can start working with immediately.

- Colin Powell leaves the admin, and with his departure we take a stronger stance on Taiwan. We can't in good conscience fight for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and abandon Taiwan to Communist China.

- The Federal Marriage amendment makes it out to the states. We cannot have a system where one state allows gay marriage and the rest don't. The rest of the nation has made it clear with an 11 for 11 sweep of laws preventing gay marriage that we are not willing to conform to Mass, and I think given the chance the people of Mass will also reject gay marriage. That assumes that they actually get a say.

- Tort reform makes progress. This is huge, and I think would have a great impact on our economy. Rather than spending tons of wasted money of legal fees that produce nothing but more legal fees, that money could be better spent on a variety of productive tasks, creating jobs instead of eliminating them.

- Bush gets three nominees to the Supreme Court, probably one moderately conservative and two more strict interpretationist judges. At least one minority and one woman. We could see Roe v. Wade fall by 2007, and when the sky doesn't fall afterward that is one less wedge issue for the Left to cry about.

- A flat tax gets serious consideration and at worst the tax code gets dramatically flattened.

A lot of this stuff, especially anything to do with social security, needs to happen quickly while the Dems are still stunned and it is not an election year. 2005 is going to have to be huge for Republicans, and for cryin' out loud they need to do something about spending like a drunken Democrat (yes, that was a slam on Teddy Kennedy)