Blue Birds

Once again it is time to put the finger on the pulse, the thermometer up the butt (or in the ear) to find the mood of America as it tries to live up to its wartime glory.

Needlessly cynical there, that last comment. Maybe it’s just that things are feeling quite flat right now – could be the end of winter, the not-quite hereness of spring.

The first conviction of one of Cherub’s officials has been obtained in the person of Scooter Libby, former chief of staff of VPOTUS. Mostly perjury, it seems; eventually they all get caught lying.

On Wall Street two weeks ago the stock market tanked miserably, though it is slowly climbing back to pre-tank levels. Gas prices are now at $2.60 a gallon and predicted to be $3.00 per gallon throughout the coming summer. The housing market has slowed down, causing no end of worry to this writer’s wife, a realtor. Funniest of all, though, is the recent news that Halliburton, formerly headed by VPOTUS, and the recipient of billions of dollars in contracts for the Iraq war, is now moving out of the United States. Its new headquarters will be in Dubai.

We have a presidential race in full swing though way too early. Democrats Clinton, Obama, and Edwards are chewing on each other (and clearing the way for a late, late bid by dark horse Al Gore – you heard it here: maybe not first, but you heard it), while Manhattan goofball Rudy Giuliani is well ahead of stumbler and formerly Straight-Talker John McCain. The problem here is that no one wins this game without money, and the money must be sought early before potential supporters commit.

A feeling comes out of Washington that the First Bush (Dubya) has pretty much given up on a legacy of anything other than being far and away the very worst president this country has ever had. No domestic agenda is being seriously pushed on the Democratic Congress, and foreign policy has finally been ceded to SECSTATE Condoleeza Rice, whose primary job seems to be undoing the messes we have perpetrated upon the world during the past six years. This past week Bush has been on a goodwill tour of South America where he has been greeted by riots and protesters from Colombia to Guatemala.

All in all, I’d say the country is sailing along about as smoothly as it ever has.

(from Cherub: An Iraqi War Diary, © 2007 by G. K. Wuori; photo by the author at the Madison, Wisconsin zoo)