December 31, 2003: Annual Predictions Show - Open Lines

Art Bell hosts the second night of the annual prediction show as the new year sweeps across the country, recording each forecast with an assigned number for the Bell Family Vault. He watches CNN coverage of celebrations city by city before mistaking footage of the shock and awe attack on Baghdad for New Year's fireworks, a moment that underscores the strange overlap between festivity and conflict heading into 2004.

Callers offer predictions ranging from Dick Cheney stepping down for health reasons and being replaced by Condoleezza Rice, to a massive hurricane destroying New Orleans, to an al-Qaeda-sponsored coup overthrowing Pakistan's Musharraf government. One caller from Hawaii provides a chillingly specific forecast of twelve simultaneous dirty bomb detonations across major American cities, naming each target from Seattle to Miami. Another predicts a major bank losing three billion dollars through a covert bookkeeping scheme, with two additional banks suffering similar losses.

Art reviews the remaining 2003 predictions, noting hits on increased terrorism and the revelation that the U.S. supplied Iraq with weapons materials. He observes that the 2004 crop of predictions runs overwhelmingly dark, with very few positive forecasts among the dozens recorded. One notable exception comes from a caller who insists there will be no major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, arguing that the psychological impact of September 11th has already served its purpose.