I GUESS I’LL GO CATCH THE GRAY MEN WHEN THEY FALL FROM THE 14TH FLOOR: USA 2008: The Great Depression. On the other hand, I remember my grandparents’ stories of the Depression, and they didn’t include cable or big-screen TVs. And Bob Krumm notes the prevalence of iPods, cellphones, and sloppy dress.

Then again, it’s April Fool’s Day.

UPDATE: James Joyner: “We’re certainly not in a depression. And any of us old enough to remember the 1970s know that this doesn’t feel at all like a major recession. . . . But the boom times of the last quarter century have recalibrated our expectations. The milk and honey are now fully contained within the river beds rather than flooding the streets. So, naturally, people expect the government to stop pretending that it doesn’t have a magic wand to wave and get on with making it all better.”

WOW: IBM suspended from new federal contracts, as a result of suspicious interactions with EPA employees.

PRIME TIME FOR OPPO DUMPS: A roundup of all the dirt-dishing in the Democratic race.

HOW HARVARD has changed. Heh.

RANKING FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS via software.

MARSHA BLACKBURN on McCain’s short list for VP?

THE IMPACT OF VIRAL MEDIA: An email from a former student of mine in the UK:

It has been a long time since I e-mailed you.

Anyway, my wife and I have been living in the UK since early 2000 and have been experiencing the US political scene from a distance since then. I watched the anti-Obama videos you linked today with some interest. I have always been a conservative so I would not vote for the Democractic nominee in any event, but I haven’t been an enthusiastic McCain guy. He seemed too much like Bob Dole the Sequel to me. He came to London and I could have met him, but I couldn’t be bothered at the time even though I deeply respect the sacrifices he made during his captivity.

Now I have watched Obama’s commercial to “slow down” the development of weapon’s programmes and more importantly saw the “Man in the Arena” ad linked on YouTube. I have to say that now I am a convert. I am not like the fake Republicans that the NY Times seems to find that support whatever liberal agenda the Times is pushing at the moment. There is a lot I would not like about a McCain Presidency. On the other hand, I love my country and, notwithstanding what Mickey Kaus thinks about having a president with dark skin somehow deterring a potential terrorist, it does us no good if Obama throws away our real defences. I can never see Obama saying or even thinking that “Do not flinch. Stand Up. We’re Americans and we will never surrender. They will.” That is the most important issue for me. It must trump all others.

I must say that now I will have to donate to the McCain campaign. I was going to sit this election out (except for voting), but now I see I need to do everything I can to help. I am a father. How could I not do as much as I can to make the world safe for my little girl? Anything less is negligent.

That one commercial made me a reluctant convert to the McCain campaign.

McCain has to hope that this will happen a lot between now and November.

ANDREA HARRIS could use some help. If you’ve enjoyed her blogging in the past, consider hitting the tipjar. I did. (Via Bill Quick).

A SHORTAGE OF O’DOUL’S: Of the nonalcoholic beers that I’ve tried, the Old Milwaukee NA is surprisingly the best, given that I don’t like regular Old Milwaukee all that much. I should try a side-by-side tasting. Or not.

ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS:

Got that? The New York Times reporter was an officer in Saddam’s army. Nice. By the way, officers were not drafted (that’s how the enlisted ranks were filled). Officers had to be selected and regularly vetted for loyalty and effectiveness. So Saddam decided that he could trust our intrepid correspondent and so did the New York Times. . . . This is Seinfeld reporting—“news” about nothing.

As for the New York Times, one wonders why they didn’t embed a reporter with the Iraqi forces streaming south. Like Dr. Zaius, were they afraid of what they might find?

Ouch. (Link was bad initially; fixed now.)

UPDATE: A journalistic shell game.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sadr’s triumphant surrender: “The media appear to be unanimous: by getting his butt kicked, surrendering control of Basra, and being mocked as an Iranian catspaw Sadr has… succeeded. . . . I haven’t seen the media swoon this hard over a militant anti-American in decades. Is Sadr the new Che?” Well, Che was an incompetent buffoon who was a media hero, so . . . .

MORE: Heh.

STILL MORE: A lengthy defense from Damien Cave of the New York Times. I’ve known Cave as an honest reporter since before he went to the NYT, and his reporting on Iraq has been good. It’s a bit lengthy, so click “read more” to read it.

YOUTH CRIME in Britain.

UPDATE: Related item here. And interesting discussion in the comments at the link above.

YOU AND YOUR RACIST FRIENDS. This is where the Party ends. . . .

I EAGERLY AWAIT THE HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER BASED ON THIS REPORT: EU Soldiers Accused of Torturing Civilians in Congo.

UPDATE: Too snarky? Sorry, but no. Snark is called for when dealing with rank, self-righteous hypocrisy.

REZKO TRIAL: Partying at the Purple Hotel. Was Eliot Spitzer invited?

ROSS DOUTHAT ON LIEBERMAN DEMOCRATS: “Lieberman is factually correct: The Democratic Party has shifted leftward over the last decade, on the fronts he mentions as well as others. Moreover, among many of Lieberman’s left-liberal foes, this leftward shift is viewed as a great achievement, which suggests that they would be better served treating his comments as a compliment than as a calumny. It’s fair to pillory Lieberman for failing to change with the times; it’s a little strange to pillory him for merely pointing out that times have changed.”

BOY, YOU CAN’T SLIP ANYTHING BY Stephen Green.

Yeah, I know, dog-bites-man. But still . . . .

QUESTION: Is Barack Obama a centrist, or not? Based on evidence so far, I’d say he has the manner of a moderate, but not the underlying views. Or maybe it’s the adrenal glands of a moderate . . . .

THE TOP 5 APRIL FOOL’S DAY PRANKS you can build in the office.

HILLARY CLINTON’S 3 A.M. Call of Duty: Mission Bosnia. “I’m goin’ in — cover me, Chelsea!” Because it takes a village — to take a village . . .

FEARS, CERTAINTY, WHATEVER: Zimbabwe on a knife edge as fears deepen that result is being rigged. This should end with Mugabe and his lieutenants either fleeing the country or strung up. We’ll see how it actually goes.

BETTER FUEL CELLS via nanotechnology.

DO SOME DEMOCRATS hate Hillary more than they love the Democratic Party?

OUCH: “The professor gazing at rows of laptops in her classroom is gazing at a roomful of witless celibates.” That doesn’t actually seem to be true, however, from what I can observe.

OVER THE WEEKEND, I mentioned J.D. Johannes’ Outside the Wire Iraq documentary project. You can buy ’em via his site, but you can also get ’em via Amazon if you prefer. I’m sure he gets more money if you buy directly from him, though.

The trailer is here.

OBAMA: LIFE IN A COCOON: “Today he got into a bit of a back and forth with a reporter over his Iraq position. What strikes you is that he’s not very good on his feet, hemming and hawing about what forces he would leave there and for how long. (He then resorts lamely to John McCain’s ‘100 years’ comment, feigning ignorance about using the comment out of context.)”