There are many skeptics that seem to think he's in the clear and have forgotten that Fitzgerald has another THIRTEEN MONTHS left on his fresh new Grand Jury.  

Karl Rove is going to be indicted, and I will take the day off from work to celebrate.

Happy New Year!

more than one Republican congressman will announce that he is not running for re-election or will spend his entire re-election campaign combatting allegations and rumors that he is under investigation in the Abramoff case.

more than one additional White House insider will resign or be indicted.

Democrats will win more than 5 New York State Senate seats to take control of the State Senate from the Republicans, Sen. Joe Bruno will subsequently be challenged and lose his role as leader of Senate Republicans.

Progressives in New York will then go to battle with entrenched Democratic Party elements in order to effect real change in correcting the problems of New York State government. Certain entrenched Democratic Party interests will fight change tooth and nail. The results of this battle will not be known for sometime.

If the Dems have control of the House...that will naturally stall the Republican agenda...and there probably won't be any maginal Repubs left!

(1) Dems retake House by 15-seat margin.
(2) Dems retake Senate by 2-seat margin.
(3) # of House Reps indicted >= 10.
(4) # of NEW WH Insiders indicted in Plamegate >= 2.
(5) Photos of John McCain in bed with Gary Glitter will surface, effectively ending his WH hopes.
(6) Tim Minear and Joss Whedon will both get hot new series NOT on Fox.

Coming in 2007:

(1) President Pelosi!

• Alito will be confirmed by somewhere around a 60-40 vote: less easily than Roberts, but with several Democrats crossing over. This will cause more outrage from the left towards moderate and conservative Democrats.

• Hurricane season will be hideous. A late hurricane (maybe around September) will thoroughly disrupt and throw off the dynamic of the elections in Florida.

• The presidential buzz will be louder in the MSM than midterm talk. Expect to hear names like Hillary, McCain, Rudy, and Warner more than names like Casey, Spitzer, or Angelides. By the summer we will know where the 2008 convention will be. Denver? New Orleans? Anaheim? Your guess is as good as mine.

• The economy will look artificially better than it is, prompting a brief surge in Bush's approval rating that calms down by November.

• Finally, in the elections Democrats will gain around 5 seats in the House, 2 in the Senate, and 4 or 5 governorships.

Senate: We win Rhode Island, Pennsylvannia, Ohio, Tenessee, Missouri, Montana, and Mississippi(only if Tren Lott retires).  While we barely lose Arizona and Nevada, so depending on Lott we might have a Dem  Senate.

Governor: We win Mass, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, California, and possibly Min, Alaska, and Nevada.  Also we retain Iowa.

More than one Republican member of Congress will be indicted.

The situation in Iraq will improve for a few months boosting Bush's #'s to around 53%.  Then something will go "terriably" wrong and he'll fall back donw to the low 40's.

The economy will strengthen in the beginning of the year, then slow back down.

Alito will be blocked (if any more documents come out about his views on abortion).

Hillary, Rudy, and McCain will all anounce that their running and as soon as that happens something will happen to McCain to make him lose the nomination.

ActBlue will supplant the national democratic fundraising machine, providing directed contributions to local candidates of choice.  Once the "bigs" realize they can cut out the middle fat layer, they will likewise contribute online.

Somewhere around March or April, the "prime time" bloggers in the political arena will reach critical mass with their cross-publication topical journal on all things progressive.  Similar to the "AP", the online-only publication will begin to penetrate the likes of Yahoo & Google News with daily releases, and downstream e-mail delivery.

What the hell, it's all just projection after all.

*    Jordan, Egypt or possible Saudi Arabia will become dangerously unstable. (Yeah, I know, how could you tell.)

*    A center-right election victory in Latin America (the only one actually), will be hailed by the Bushies as a sign of returning American influence in the region...they will take the opportunity to ignore Latin America for the rest of Bush's term.

*    On election night, it will look like Dems will pick up 6 seats in the Senate, but in a repeat of a story we all know, days later a Republican will take one of the seats, leaving a net pick up of 5 seats.

*    Cement and aggregate stocks with large developing market exposure will do very well.

*    One of the Big 3 newspaper chains (Gannett, Knight-Ridder or Tribune) will go private. Surprisingly, most likely Gannett.

*    The Bushies will try to get Kurds to agree to long-term leases for military bases in the north of Iraq. They'll do it because the Shiite's won't agree to it, the Turks will increase limits on US operations from their bases, and the Gulf will look increasingly shaky. Of course, this is a tacit acknowledgment that Iraq is failed state...but hey, it's part of the NeoCon wet-dream for Iraq that's still doable.

*    At the end of 2006, things will look pretty much the same as now. The term "Malaise" will appear first in financial papers, but will work it's way into MSM framing.

--> Samuel Alito's move to the floor is blocked by Lincoln Chafee.

--> While everyone wonders what Patrick Fitzgerald will do about Karl Rove, testimony from his trial against Ken Lay reveals that Ahmed Chalabi was at the 2001 energy task force meetings with Dick Cheney and in an "active role".

--> Condi Rice's political future is dashed when photographers inadvertantly catch her with her lesbian lover.

--> Security threats puncture the World Cup, but not because of Al Qaeda. Instead the Polish squad finds itself under constant protest by European fans for its participation in the CIA secret jails program.

--> Singapore Airlines finds its debut of the Airbus A380 delayed until late June. Because it was used on the London to Singapore route, this has the added benefit to Airbus of being announced in the run up to the Farnborough Air Show.

--> The New Orleans Saints return to the Superdome for the 2006 NFL season. On hand are the President, NFL maven Condi Rice, Mayor Ray Nagin, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, and Representative Bobby Jindal, who's district is not in New Orleans. Jindal manages to get plenty of face time in a ploy to re-challene Blanco for governor in 2007.

--> The midterm elections go from boring to riveting after Tom Tancredo appears with Tennesee GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker at a rally in Chattanooga. With illegal immigration a growing problem in Tennessee, Corker hopes that Tancredo's embrace will cement him as doing something about the topic. Instead, in a speech evoking Blaine's "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" speech, Tancredo mentions that "a vote for the GOP is a vote for white Christian America".

--> Abramoff-related scandals put several previously safe districts in play, in addition to the Superme Court rejection of all DeLay style gerrymanders. The Democrats retake the House, but the Republicans retain the Senate after Lincoln Chafee pulls out a win on his record with Alito. New Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott talks about the need for "humility".

--> Fed President Ben Bernanke, having watched deflation eat at the American economy all year announces a turn to interest rate cuts to stem the tide.
-->

•  The defeat of liberals at the hands of moderates.  In other words, the center will move right.  

• More and more Democrats will become complacent, and more and more civil liberties will be jettisoned in the name of "freedom."

• We will have a House full of representatives who vote in fear of their constituents instead of voting to their constituents' benefit in 2007.  

• Yes, we will gain a majority in one of the legislative chambers, but that majority will be a spurious majority comprised of moderates, DLC activists, representatives beholden to Rahm Emanuel, and various other drones who will vote with Republicans more often than not.  

• I do predict a Scalito filibuster, and I will be in the gallery to witness it.  

• The Senate will become a free for all.

• Bill Frist will be more doddering than he ever was before.

• Lisa Murkowski will become more moderate.

• Blanche Lincoln will move more to the Left.

• Mary Landrieu will become more outspoken.

• Hillary Clinton will introduce at least three bills many Leftists will find problematic.

• Maria Cantwell finds her voice and emerges as the new star of the Democratic party.

• Hackett will win the Ohio Senate Primary by 6 percentage points.

• Cegelis will edge Tammy Duckworth, but mud will be slung.

• Senate Democrats will be forced to filibuster a marriage amendment.

• Anne Northup loses KY-03.

• Claire McCaskill edges Talent by 20,000 votes or less.  

• The South Carolina race for Governor becomes a competitive race.

• Blagojevich is relected by less than 1 percent.

• And, finally, Jim Bunning resigns early from the Senate.
  

b) Someone else in the WH will be indicted- who I don't know, it's just gut instinct.

c) Bush's numbers will go up slightly- maybe to mid 40s. They are artificially low right now because of a perfect storm that happened to early for us to use it.

d) I think the House also will flip, but ONLY if the Democrats are willing to take risks. This is my concern that they will not. That if the Republican polling numbers improve (which given their historic lows they will) then the Democratic response will be weaker.

e) Centrists (I don't use the term moderate) or centrist wannabes will continue to try to convince right that they are okay through various measures- pissing off the Democratic base, and not convincing the right of a single thing. Commentary: you would think by now in their own self interest the centrists would pick up on the one sided nature of their relationship to the right.

f) The MSM will continue to grow a pair. It will not be earth shatering.

g) The American will continue to become an disengaged electoral- not having a clue what people here and on the right wing blogs are up to. Not caring what's going on politically except when they are told to care on cue around the election. In fairness, they are too busy trying to survive and pretend like they are thriving rather than surviving to have time to care about anything on a higher political scale.

h) The Senate will see some pick up, but there are too many things that seem to have to allign in order to take the Senate out right. However, 2008 we will see a major shift in our favor on that front.

i) Gay marriage will increasingly become less and less of an issue- the Christian rights impact will lessen. The reason being is that some Republicans who want to win in 2008 don't see it as the best strategy. Whether that faction of Republcan will win out is anyone's guess.

j) Latinos if the Republicans use immigration will almost certainly become more and more Democratic as they have been trending for a while.

1. House: DEMS will gain some seats, but GOPs will have a majority about 220:215;
   
2. Senate: DEMS will gain some seats, but GOPs will have a majority about 52:48;
   
3. New GOPs will be indicted, including some members of administration;
   
4. Civil war in Iraq will grow to reality;
   
5. Economy will be in strange semi-stalled mode, when riches are becoming better, but rest will suffer more;
   
6. More jobs will be outsourced and overall American skillset will continue to decrease;
   
7. China will continue to grow at our expense...

• We will pick up the house by gaining 32 seats, giving us a good majority to stop anything bad coming from the Bush admin. We gain 5 seats in the Senate, and while it appears that we do not have a majority, a new Bush scandal emerges that causes Olympia Snowe to switch parties, giving us control of the Senate.
  
• Many Republican Congressman are indicted, causing us to pick up a lot of these seats.
  
• The MSM will finally stop the distortion when it comes to the Democrats (i.e. the Murtha Resolution) and finally report candidly.
  
• The Housing bubble will burst in late summer of 2006.
  
• Frist gets indicted.
  
• All of these factors become "the perfect storm" of 2006.

Iraq wil deteriorate.

New Orleans will fester racially and in the press as things go more and more sour and more corruption news hits the wires. Mardi Gras will put things in stark relief.

More Congressional indictments before SOTU, and quite likely Rove's.

Scalito and the NSA will overshadow SOTU.

Bush will not hit 50% before SOTU.

There will be leaks about specific deaths in the Plame affair.

There will be an assissination of a key political figure in Israel.

1. Democrats will gain 35 seats in the House and 9 Senate seats, including Mississippi, where Ronnie Musgrove will beat Chip Pickering.

2. Roy Moore will be elected governor of Alabama, defeating a lackluster campaign by Lucy Baxley, and instantly become the evangelical favorite for 2008.

3. Tom DeLay will resign by summer.

4. Insurgents in Iraq will pull off a spectacular assault on the Green Zone.

5. Kurdistan secedes from Iraq after cutting a deal with the Shiite south.

6. Netanyahu returns to power in Israel and Israeli forces retake Gaza.

7. Fidel Castro dies, throwing Cuba into turmoil.

8. Bob Woodward leaves the Washington Post.

9. Gold approaches $1,000 an ounce.

10. Reconstruction aid promised to New Orleans does not materialize.

Somehow or other the Economic Armageddon is swiftly followed by a largish terrorist attack. Which causes Bush to instinctively close all the banks and freeze all the ATM machines.

Bush then claims that the Economic Armageddon was a direct result of the terrorist attack that "forced him to close the banks and freeze the ATM machines."

People lose faith in the ATM cornucopia -- then in the computer voting system as well.

I make an obscene killing on my giant stockpile of aluminum foil (which is always worth 10 times its weight in gasoline).

Praise the Lord and pass the duct tape.