It’s that time of year. Gyms fill up. Pundits see the future more clearly than ever. And big, new dreams spring from the bottoms of wine bottles. Hey, we’re no different here at Colorlines. So we’re starting the year off with our own predictions, wishes and hopes.

Meet the Colorlines staff, and see what mad logic we’re each spinning this New Year.

JAMILAH KING, news editor

Prediction:
The FCC will be dragged to court by a telecom company still not appeased by the agency’s bogus net neutrality regulations.

Wish list:
Lots. I want the press to leave Lindsay Lohan alone. I want NeNe Leakes to finally leave Gregg. I’d also love to see the Eagles win the Superbowl and for (white) sportscasters to stop calling for a modern-day lynching of Michael Vick. The former could very well happen. The latter? Probably no time soon.

CHANNING Kennedy, community manager

Prediction: 
Republicans will use their massive state-level electoral gains to push through some really vulgar stuff–and while it’ll affect people’s day-to-day lives far more harshly and immediately than anything at the federal level, it also won’t get a tenth of the mainstream media attention it deserves.

Wish list: 
The Senate is abolished. Either of Matt Yglesias’ proposals would be fine with me; I especially like the duel-to-the-death one.

 

HATTY LEE, art director

Prediction:
Activism through design blows up even more in 2011. It’s already a growing trend with graphic design, architecture/urban design, product design. We’ll see even more projects like the DREAM Act and SB 1070 poster campaigns.

Wish list:
Reality shows, like the upcoming "K-town" (buzzed as a Korean American "Jersey Shore") be banned for life. That, and a housing market recovery.

 

 

JULIANNE HING, reporter/blogger

Prediction:
Deportations will continue rising under President Obama’s watch and at least one state will pass its own version of Arizona’s SB 1070. But the youth-driven immigrant rights movement that pushed the DREAM Act last congressional session will keep building too. And we’ll see them fighting at the local level as states and cities maneuver around federal immigration policy.

Wish list:
Individual states pass their own versions of the DREAM Act, granting undocumented students access to financial aid.

 

KAI WRIGHT, editorial director

Prediction:
House Republicans’ aggressive use of committee investigations to harass Obama will generate a significant scandal for the president. 

Wish list:
A home in Salvador, Bahia. That’s for me. A foreclosure moratorium for everybody. 

 

MONICA NOVOA, Drop the I-Word campaign manager

Prediction:
This spring will produce the strongest May Day rallies since 2006. And a mainstream news media outlet will drop the i-word.

Wish list:
The Department of Homeland Security puts a moratorium on the unjust immigration enforcement policies that stain this country’s human rights record, like Secure Communities and 287(g). Also, the banana clip makes a comeback.

 

JORGE RIVAS, multimedia editor / pop culture blogger

Prediction:
"Waiting for Superman" wins the Oscar for Best Documentary and the country falls in love with charter schools–even though the filmmaker has said that they can’t work for the entire nation.

Wish list:
Just one wish. For Oprah to read this and get me tickets to the last show of her farewell season. She’ll give away all her favorite things, including a house in Montecito, Calif., 100 iPads and a trip around the world (no cruises! only first class flights.)

OK but for real, I still dream of world peace. And gays being able to get married. And immigration reform, DREAMErs included.

 

SETH FREED WESSLER, reporter/blogger

Prediction:
The tea party "movement" will atrophy, but the candidates elected in November will holler ad absurdum about the deficit as Republicans and conservative Democrats chop more deeply into safety net programs.

Wish list:
Following a vivid dream involving will.i.am, President Obama will awake with a pair of crystalline realizations. He’ll recall that he was elected by a young, progressive, multiracial swell and that he is accountable to them. That very morning, following a week of massive national marches of jobless workers, Congress will finally implement a New Deal-style jobs program.