The Economy:

It might be a recession:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke acknowledged yesterday for the first time that the United States may be in a recession, projecting that the economy could shrink during the first half of this year.

— reported by The Washington Post, April 3, 2008.

In the meantime, GW's in the gym, working on his pec's. Well, thank goodness for that. The man knows nothing about economics.

The number of people filing for unemployment claims last month = over 400,000. The last time the numbers reached this level was in the immediate wake of Katrina (another moment when GW shone). The last time the numbers reached that level and remained that high everyone admitted a recession was occurring.

Today in history: Today is the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "Mountain Top" speech, the last he would give before his assassination on the following day. (See and listen to the NPR story.) Just days before, President Johnson had shocked the nation by announcing that he would not run for reelection.

Speaking of memorable speeches: "But Iraq has—have got people there that are willing to kill, and they're hard-nosed killers. And we will work with the Iraqis to secure their future." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., April 2005. (Presumably, Bush wants to secure the future of hard-nosed killers, although, considering the man has no idea whether Iraq is singular or plural, one cannot be certain that he means anything at all.)