Economic Cloverfield, Act 1, scene 2

Team Bush is facing the economic monster with little more than AK47s. The first high-level casualty of the housing market / economic meltdown is Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. While President Bush departed for Ukraine to down Vodka shots with Yulia Tymoshenko, (and, well, given the choice ... ) the economy continues to burn. But never fear, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's got a plan, but says he wants to wait after the housing crisis ends and that it will take "many years to complete."

Oh boy.

The 218-page proposal would expand the powers of the Federal Reserve, streamline existing agencies and expand regulation over certain sectors of the market. The Lame duck administration doesn't expect it'll pass before the end of the year but hopes it'll become part of the debate on the economy in the run up to the November election. Expect more homes to be smashed, the casualties to mount and kiss Manhattan goodbye.

A case of Sadrmy

In the wake of ongoing violence in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is offering fellow shi'ite Muqtada al-Sadr's militias a guns-for-cash program. The deal is scheduled to end April 8. Al-Sadr offered a nine-step peace program of his own Sunday in Najaf. In exchange for getting out of the way and cooperating, he has asked for the end of "random, illegal raids and arrests" and seeks a general amnesty and release of prisoners, mostly his own followers by the way. Apparently, Sadr's followers even started handing out sweets in Baghdad's Sadr City, probably an attempt to win hearts and minds. While the peace offering has been welcomed by the Iraqi government, it has vowed that the war on "criminals" will continue. Casualty reports range from 50 to as high as 290, depending on who you ask. Maliki has called this a "decisive and final battle." Good luck with that.

The unfriendly skies

New York had its legal wings clipped over a law that was designed to protect passengers in long delays waiting in airplanes at airports. The 2d U.S. Court of Appeals shot down the state of New York saying that while the laws goals were "laudible", it infringed on federal laws covering the same issue. And further, if states want to prevent the conditions that inspired this law, they'll have to get the federal government to change things.

Uh-huh.

And if you thought the feds were looking out for you, think again. It seems that there's not as many deployed sky marshals as we were led to believe. They may number as few as 1 percent of all U.S. flights, though the TSA disputes that. Perhaps the prospect of having an angry and armed sky marshal stuck for 13 hours in a delayed plane without a usable bathroom or food and drink may spur the Congress to pass a Federal "Passengers Bill of Rights."

Standing by her misstatements

Nothing like a suddenly released video to puncture a bit of verbal peacocking. There's nothing like claiming that you landed in a foreign country under sniper fire when you're trying to fluff up your foreign policy street cred. Barack Obama confronts damning video by turning it into a teaching moment. Hillary Clinton confronts damning video by claiming she "mispoke." It was a "minor blip." A "comma" if you will. By the way, if I ever claimed that I was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who reported while under fire in Somolia, I misspoke.

Maybe he's related to Lazarus

The reports of his brain death were slightly exaggerated. CNN

You wouldn't have wanted to have been there when it happened. NatGeo

Cigarettes may be declared an eyesore. BBC

You have to be this tall to get a new car in Ukraine. ChiTrib