Sounding Off:

Editor’s note: The following is the second of two parts on Chuck Cassity’s predictions for 2010.

Here are my New Year’s predictions:

8. The partnership of Orange County and Costa Mesa will submit a competitive bid to buy the Orange County Fairgrounds. Unfortunately, before the bid can be opened Sacramento will have closed.

9. A Force 5 hurricane will strike the Southeastern Seaboard in August. Congress will convene a committee to assess blame. They will determine it was George W. Bush’s fault.

10. Owing to the many miles flown since President Obama took office, and as a result of the alarm sounded by the environmentalists, worried that he will single-handedly kill the Earth, I predict that Congress will pass legislation proclaiming that Air Force One emits no greenhouse gases at all, thus ending the controversy.

11. The American Civil Liberties Union will sue the federal government, contending that those who use the term “illegal alien” are guilty of hate speech. Obama will agree and will issue an executive order banning this term. The new and approved description for this segment of our society, according to Obama, will be “undocumented Democrats.”

12. Joe Biden will give a speech late in the year during which, for the first time ever, he makes no gaffes or mistakes, and utters no malapropisms or non sequiturs. The reporters who are present, having fallen asleep, will fail to notice.

13. Congress will stop messing around and finally increase taxes on the evil “rich” to 100% of their income. The rich will pack up their goodies and move to Panama, Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands. All remaining Americans will have then finally achieved total equality. They will all be equally poor.

14. Upset that the American people are choosing not to buy hybrid and electric cars manufactured by government- and union-owned GM and Chrysler, preferring rather to continue buying pickups and SUVs from Ford, the only company that didn’t belly up to the bailout bar, Congress will simply outlaw pickups and SUVs, thus solving the problem forever.

15. Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, will lose his campaign for reelection. He’ll be offered a job as a greeter at the new Wal-Mart in Searchlight, Nev. There will be so many complaints about his dour, gruff and condescending demeanor that he’ll be unceremoniously fired within a week.

Happy New Year!

CHUCK CASSITY lives in Costa Mesa.