Just when you thought it was safe to get away from these space-fillers, here comes Bubba’s late but never appreciated predictions for the upcoming new year.

Sports:
- The Patriots will win the Super Bowl and Tom Brady will be anointed by the Boston archdiocese (kind of joking).
- The Cubs will not win the World Series despite putting up a good battle. The Red Sox will still be scary good but watch out the Angels.
- NASCAR will deal with a performance enhancing drug scandal after years of flying under the radar.
- Basketball and hockey ratings will continue to sink. Nobody will care.
- The 2008 Olympics in China will go off without a hitch (aside from the usual drug and cheating scandals).
- Reality sets in for Barry Bonds as he watches Marion Jones report for prison. He instructs his legal team to plea bargain a similar six-month deal which he begins serving after a stint with the A’s (sorry).

Entertainment:
- The writer’s strike will settle in time for the Oscars.
- Movie box office receipts will not bounce back because folks are getting tired of lame sequel after lame sequel.
- The reality show craze will continue to sustain network television and Katie Couric will be shown the door.
- Britney Spears and OJ Simpson will not go away (sigh).

Politics:
- The Republican push to the White House will splinter due to too many candidates staying in the race for too long, and the formidable Christian bloc of voters will become fragmented over whom to support. The last man standing will be a compromise candidate that pleases nobody but is borderline-tolerable by the moderate GOP voter.
- Despite the Iowa scare, Hillary will lock up the Democratic nomination sooner than anyone expects and she will ask New Mexico governor Bill Richardson to be her running mate. Obama ultimately concedes in exchange for significant power in the Senate. His day will come down the road.
- Speaking of which, the Democrats will gain a firmer hold on both houses in November and, fair or not, will shoulder much of the blame for the economy.
- The President will spend most of 2008 on the road trying to cement his legacy as a peacemaker in the Middle East and will show only token support for the GOP candidate.

U.S.:
- The big three stories will continue to be the wars, the presidential election, and the economy. Of these, it’ll be the economy that impact the most Americans with the fallout from the housing crunch spreading to other aspects of their personal finances.
- The banks that invested heavily in sub-prime mortgages will stay afloat by raising credit card interest rates. This will backfire on them as credit card default rates and the number of subsequent bankruptcy declarations will go through the roof.
- The Fed will try to counter by cutting interest rates yet again, but it’ll be too little, too late as the “hidden recession” finally comes out of the closet.
- Massive layoffs will become practically a fad with Big Business as they find new ways to move jobs overseas. The unions will stamp their feet and hold their breath but ultimately will have no control over the changes.
- Gas prices will set new records as the cost of a barrel of gas finds a permanent home above the $100 mark.

Wars: Pretty much nothing changes in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The white House will make noises about reducing troop levels in the summer and even makes some symbolic gestures, but some military units will make news by going on their fourth and fifth deployments since the invasions.

IT: The story gaining traction will be the slowdown of the Internet, brought about by the rising use of video (which directly or indirectly continues the decline of movies and television). Previously free-use sites like YouTube will come under fire and Congress will get involved, possibly by laying the groundwork for a “internet regulatory” agency of sort.

Science: In all of the doom and gloom, it’ll be science that sparks the brightest news in 2008 with significant discoveries in medicine and outer space.