I want to put some predictions on here just for the record.
Saddam Hussain's trial has ended for now, with a guilty verdict and a pending hanging. This verdict will be appealed and I predict that the retrial and second verdict will happen in the months before the US elections in two years and that the result of that will serve to oust the currently "ruling" party out.
However, I also predict that, in order to save the rulling party, Mr. bin Ladin may well finally be 'found' and dealt with to offset the potential damage from the Hussain affair. If journalists and others can find and interview Mr. bin Ladin, and if there is someone collecting and distributing the occasional video tape, then why can't the US army find the guy? Because it has been instructed not to. Period.
I predict that GW Bush will also be outed around that time or shortly after, as one of the most dishonest presidents/politicians/men ever known to have held office in the US and I predict that even his father, who has developed quite a close relationship with Mr. Clinton, will have something to say in public. I further predict that Mr. GW Bush's ongoing problems with alchohol will serve to reduce him to "that poor guy" following the end of his presidency. Mr Bush has, even in the last few months, taken to various podiums very drunk. Sadly, there is little difference between the drunk and the sober GW in terms of the idiocies that come out of his mouth.
I predict that Stephen Harper, the Canadian PM is on the verge of massive unpopularity. When lifelong Conservative voters publicly state that they will no longer support their party due to its leader, one has to believe Mr. Harper's hold is in serious jeopardy. When big C conservatives say he is not to be trusted, then you have to know there are problems.
Today, finally, it was noted in our city's daily that Mr. Harper is NOT from the west as he toutes, but from Toronto.
Mr. Harper went to university in my city and even then he was only here two years. He is born and bred Toronto. He has seriously misread the minds of his constituents in this province. The changes to the income trust thing. His absolute flip on that one issue has left everyone wondering what else he's going to flip on. That was a biggie.
I predict that not only will Mr. Harper become very unpopular but that due to his reversals on significant campaign promises, that the previously hated Liberal government will be back in power within a year with Mr. Ignatieff at the helm - he of the "Next Trudeau" mantle.
I predict that in the UK, the National Rail system, British Airways, Air Canada and Cathay Pacific, which I believe are now mounting a massive and costly PR campaign against discount travel, will achieve their goals via a massive discrediting - and potentially via sabotage - hobble and, in some cases end, the discount carriers in that country.
There is a huge push to cause guilt in the minds of the UK traveller for using discount airlines - apparently nothing you could ever do in terms of reducing your impact on the planet will ever have as much impact as not flying on discount carriers - or flying at all, depending on who's speaking (and who's paying that person to speak.....)
But that belief is stupid: discount carriers use the same type of jet fuel as BA or Air Canada or any major airline. The discounters just don't make their client's bleed cash. Sadly, the British public, being very uneducated and, worse, very disinterested in reading, analysing or considering what's going on in their country, stand to be lied to and taken to 'the cleaners' because they don't give a damn.
