Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Predictions for the Future
In late 2000, somewhere around the time of October or November, my wife made some predictions about the election of George W. Bush as President. She said that if he were elected that the economy would go into the toilet, he would ruin the environment, that he would cut education spending, and that he would take us to war.
Sadly, the last of her predictions was joking yet within two years all of that had happened or was well in the works. We are now borrowing over 1 billion dollars per day that is not even put on the budget, no less any attempt to balance the budget. We now have the "Clear Skies Initiative" that allows more toxic mercury to be put into our atmosphere and hence end up in our drinking water. We now have the "Clean Water Act" that allows industries to put more sulphour dioxide into our water. And, we are at war.
Well, we never wrote her predictions down, so there is no way that I can prove that she said those things. This time around I will put some predictions down in writing.
I predict that within two years of this date that the following things will happen:
- The Supreme Court will rule that the president is not bound by the laws passed by the congressional branch of the United States government.
- The Supreme Court will rule that having varied methods of voting throughout the United States is "discriminitory" to the poorer areas of the U.S. The will insist that the Federal Election Commission establish one method of voting throughout the United States. The FEC will then make paperless, non-auditable voting machines the standard throughout the U.S. thus ensuring that we cannot trust the voting methodology for the foreseeable future. I get bonus points if the machines that the FEC decides upon are Diebold machines.
- The Supreme Court will rule that soldiers may not sue the government in order to gain medical or disability benefits for service related injuries and ailments that the government refuses to acknowledge, such as Gulf War Syndrome.
- The Supreme Court will rule for censorship of pornography on the Internet.
- The Supreme Court will rule that police do not need to advise suspects of their rights prior to interrogation.
- The Supreme Court will rule that handicapped persons cannot sue the state for not making courthouses wheelchair accessible.
- The Supreme Court will overturn campaign finance law on the grounds that limiting donations from large donors (such as corporations) limits free speech.
Bonus points if the Supreme Court allows execution of minors. Major bonus points if they overturn the 22nd amendment. I believe that both of these will happen within 8 years if the Republican party maintains control of all three branches of government, but if they happen within two years I'm claiming bonus points.
If you are wondering where I came up with all of these, well...
The first one is because the Bush administration has been trying to expand presidential powers since they took office. This stacking of the Supreme Court will allow them to finally make some of the things they are doing legal, or at least avoid prosecution on them. Alito was the brain behind the presidential "signing statement"... you know, where he can sign an act of congress into law but with a little statement that it doesn't apply to him.
The second one is because this administration will not want to lose the power they have gained, and with a 38% approval rating they aren't going to maintain it if the voting is done legitimately.
The third one is because the government never wants to give benefits to its injured soldiers. Republican governments most especially. They may be the ones that cry "support our troops" the loudest, but they hate actually doing it because that is "entitlements". Entitlements are the anti-thesis of the neo-conservative movement.
The rest are from major rulings over the past two years that were split 5-4 in the court and are against the wishes of the Bush administration.
So, there ya go. I'll post them as the rulings come in.
