Monday, Sept. 19, 2005

Dear Ladies, Gentlemen, Canines and Felines (and Birds, and Trees),

Today is the day I get to tell you I'm going out of the daily blogging field of reality. Effective immediately, after one heck of a nonstop year (with a stand-in by Jude in the spring), this blog is on hiatus, perhaps to return, perhaps not. I am pulling back from geopolitical analysis and the daily blogosphere and all of that. Being an astrologer is more than adequate, and just as much as one little Fish can handle.

This is part of a commitment to reduce my workload to human proportions. Many of you write to me asking how I do it, and the answer is, I really don't know.

The CafeBlog will continue every day or two on the subscriber homepage, focusing on the latest astrological developments. To get that, it's best to become a subscriber, which has many, many benefits (particularly an astonishing archive) and of course helps us because that's how we pay the small but solid bills that this Web page creates. I heartily invite you to join in the fun, even if you only do it once.

If you have not seen our genuine, unsolicited, unedited, authentic subscriber feedback, take a look -- and perhaps you too will be inclined to send some soon:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/feedback.html

You will see the subscribe link from there.

Photos will continue to rotate every two days or so on the homepage; I feel a lot better saying what I have to say in pictures rather than in words, to the extent being a writer permits that.

Thank you for your devoted readership, for checking in every morning to see what I have to say, for your vast majority of kind, insightful letters that keep me thinking, and most of all, for working together with us to help make Planet Waves happen.

Yours truly and gratefully, with the Aries Moon trine Pluto, and Pisces rising,

ERIC FRANCIS
In the 5th Arrond. of Paris



Monday, Sept. 19, 2005

With the passing of yesterday's Pisces Full Moon, we are now in the Zone -- or rather, the first of two distinct brief, intense and concentrated phases of cosmic movement associated with the solar eclipse of Oct. 3 (Libra New Moon/annular solar eclipse). We have been living with the eclipse for a while now; such are not one-time events, but exist more like a standing wave pattern that affects everything around it. They are what you might think of as rather significant alterations in space-time.

While the effects are more often seen lasting for years after an eclipse, the condition is just as pronounced before, particularly right before; and that's where we're at now.

This Full Moon to New Moon is the last little lunar chapter before the eclipse. The next time there is a Moon-Sun conjunction, that's it. We are in new territory. This particular eclipse in Libra is conjunct many planets in charts for the hurricane, NOLA itself, the acting president, and the progressed charts for the above. And we are now days away from the Mars station in Taurus.

To say that this portends something intense is ridiculous. Life is nothing now if not intense. Whether you watch TV or not, whether you can stomach the newspaper or not, you and I and all of us have been in the onslaught of a series of changes that have blown through relentlessly. The same astrology that affects the collective affects us as individuals.

Let's recap a second -- starting (speaking in rather local terms, just 11 months) we continue with the most recent stolen election. There was an emotional, impassioned windup to that event that many people threw their hearts, minds and souls into all through the summer and early autumn. No sooner did we get used to that than we witnessed the Asian tsunami and all the death and suffering that came with. Then there were the aftershocks 90 days later; then the death of the pope at the last solar eclipse. We can pause there a second for an example of how eclipse energy feels -- it spreads far and wide. And it usually represents something that we could see coming (if we looked) but somehow missed. It brings a lot of people together. In the case of the pope, the gesture was largely symbolic.

The spring was relatively quiet, astrologically; but when the astrology of summer came along, there were the London bombings and then New Orleans and its aftermath. In the background of it all has been the televised war in Iraq. I don't blame anyone for feeling overwhelmed and honestly I wonder how we do it, how we get by, particularly the less strong among us.

Whatever way we turn, the Libra eclipse seems to represent a point of turning. It could be a point of balancing. Libra has a way of seeming mild mannered, till you plug in the electric guitar.

One thing I'm noticing lately is how angry I am. For some reason, it's coming to the surface, and I don't think commentary about how anger is not appropriate or spiritual are in order. We have a lot to be angry about. We are witnessing crimes against humanity. We are having our spirits ground down on a daily basis by fear and negativity. We're watching our country and our world get ripped off in big degrees. And America's leading export is still pain and death in Iraq.

That is an outrage.



Sunday, Sept. 18, 2005

It dawned on me yesterday that this morning's Full Moon is in an close square to the Galactic Core. The core is at about 27 even Sagittarius. The Full Moon was at 25+ Pisces/Virgo, so we're close. Over the next 36 hours, the Sun and Mercury make an exact square to the core; they make a conjunction every year about three months from now, just before winter solstice. I forgot to mention this; remember, sometimes I miss really big, obvious things.

I don't have an easy summary of the symbolism, effects or archetype of the Galactic Core. But I'm gradually getting  there. As for what it is physically, it's the center of our island in space, our local universe of some 300 billion stars. We can see many other galaxies from Earth but we cannot see across our own galaxy because it's too dusty.

One idea for the core is "that which is within us but seems to be outside us." That's another way of saying God. Or another way of saying The Source. The headwaters of the great river of life.

Squares are about push and pull, either or, tension and integration. Let's see what we can notice over the next 36 hours and maybe we'll get some clues.

The Moon is now void of course in Pisces, about to cross the Aries point within a -- nope -- the Moon is in Aries now. That's another one to listen to, take notice of, and see what we observe. Astrology is natural. In some ways, it's like listening to bird calls.

    e



Friday, Sept. 16, 2005

What I like about my job is there's never any question about whether I'm actually productive. What I don't like about it is how fast I have to go sometimes, which is in the nature of scheduled writing within which one vaguely hopes to convey anything meaningful. I've made a bunch of corrections and a few revisions to the "Yod and the Moon" article, the latest version of which is posted to this link:

http://planetwaves.net/contents/yodandmoon1.html

I'll likely be pausing entirely from writing this weekend, and instead posting Jude's excellent commentaries and article selections from Political Waves in this space.

For now, you can find them here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

Thanks for all your excellent email. It's good to hear from you. Hang loose and enjoy that Fishy Full Moon.

    peace & passion,
    your resident Fish,
    e



Friday, Sept. 14, 2005 (revised)

From today's Planet Waves essay:

We may wonder why "Republicans" -- I am loathe to even call them that, as it seems to be yet another piracy scam -- refuse to admit that global warming even exists. But their violence toward those who do reveals something we need to look at. The oil industry controls the government and the oil industry is THE great producer of CO2, which is turning the Earth into a greenhouse. This is not merely denial on their part; it is intentional fraud. I would love to see the internal memos and technical papers being fired around amongst oil industry scientists, managers and executives admitting their early knowledge of the problem -- what in the law is called "scienter," or guilty knowledge. Shall we venture a guess as to how far back in history that knowledge goes? If the patterns of industry's early knowledge of environmental disasters hold true, based on copious studies of other environmental issues (cigarettes, PCBs, dioxins and others), we will probably find the most extensive and sophisticated documents, resources and computer models pertaining to the global warming issue within the private document holdings of the oil companies themselves.

These will be arranged neatly next to a folder full of press releases and public relations strategies designed to prove that the whole phenomenon is nonexistent, complete with fake studies that prove it's not happening or that the scientific findings are ambivalent -- therefore, media bosses will be put on notice that to report the truth would be "unfair." There will be the obligatory profit and loss statement that analyzes profits in different scenarios, such as if the public wakes up and alternative energy takes root, or if the government finally gets serious about regulations, and so on. I promise you will see the statement, "the truth will be very bad for our profits."

We have, furthermore, been hearing for years -- decades -- how oil companies have bought up alternative energy patents, thus suppressing new technology. Energy is the most abundant resource in the universe. When the stoplights went out in Los Angeles last week and there were pictures of television of intersections with the traffic lights out, the first thing I thought was: do we really need to connect these traffic lights by wires powered by oil while they bake out in the southern California sunlight?

Please subscribe to Planet Waves Weekly at this link:
http://planetwavesweekly.com/why.html





Thursday, Sept. 14, 2005

I've rounded up Mark Fiore to stand in for my blog today. I'll be back somewhat soon with some new writing. For now, introducing... Petrotheism. Flash player required.

http://www.mojones.com/commentary/fiore/2005/09/petro.html



Arctic Folly

By Jimmy Carter
The Washington Post
Courtesy of truthout.org

Tuesday 13 September 2005

CONGRESS IS ABOUT TO make one of those big decisions that marks an era. Unless wiser heads prevail, it may do it badly - making the wrong decision in the wrong way and about the wrong place. At stake is America's greatest wildlife sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To dissuade Congress from this environmental tragedy, Americans must rally, and quickly.

     Congress had its Pyrrhic energy victory this summer, with a new energy policy that ignores much-needed conservation measures and gives the oil industry large new tax breaks regardless of where it drills and pumps. Surely Congress has done more than enough to increase the profits of the oil industry.

     Yet now, in a separate decision, the White House and Big Oil are pressuring Congress to allow drilling rigs to rip into the ecological heart of America's preeminent wildlife sanctuary. We must not confuse this with Prudhoe Bay, which lies west of the Arctic refuge and is already an industrial landscape resembling Houston more than Yellowstone.

     With increasing gasoline prices bringing economic hardship and concern to many Americans, we must not be misled by oil lobbyists who are trying to convince us that our energy security is singularly dependent on sacrificing the Arctic refuge. They promote the false premise that development will touch just a few thousand acres when, in fact, it would introduce roads and pipelines spider-webbing across hundreds of thousands of acres on the fragile coastal plain.

     We cannot drill our way to energy security or lower gasoline prices as long as our nation sits on just 3 percent of world oil reserves yet accounts for 25 percent of all oil consumption. An obvious answer is to increase the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles, at least to the level we set more than a quarter-century ago.

     Instead, the administration recently proposed a tiny increase in gas mileage for SUVs, minivans and pickups. Not effective until the 2011 models, this would save about one month's current consumption of fuel over the next 20 years - far less than will be saved in just one state by a new California law. The new ruling offers automobile makers an opportunity to avoid the reductions by modifying the size of various models as they persist in manufacturing gas guzzlers. It is not a coincidence that Moody's has just downgraded the debt of General Motors and Ford to junk status, while makers of efficient vehicles prosper.

     I have been to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to study the wilderness wildlife. Far from being the frozen "desert" some suggest, this is a rich, Serengeti-like haven of life: nursery for caribou, polar bears, walruses and millions of shorebirds and waterfowl that migrate annually to the Lower 48. To sit, as Rosalynn and I did, watching a herd of musk oxen circle-up to defend their young and then to find yourself literally in the midst of thousands of caribou streaming by is to touch in a fundamental way God's glorious ark of teeming wildlife.

     We Americans use a lot of energy, and millions of us want to do so in a more efficient way that also allows us to cherish our disappearing wilderness heritage. In the Arctic refuge we cannot have it both ways. In the next few months Americans could lose this special and amazing place through a backdoor legislative maneuver.

     Each fall Congress endeavors to combine budgetary directives covering the nation's $2.5 trillion dollar annual budget in a single "reconciliation" decision. In a tricky ploy to avoid full debate, drilling advocates have buried their despoil-the-Arctic goal in this mammoth measure. So, conservation-minded Americans must ask our elected representatives to vote down any final budget reconciliation bill that would allow the sacrifice of our Arctic sanctuary.

     Now is the time to speak up for the ecological integrity of this unsurpassed 18-million-acre wilderness. Many Americans will be in Washington on Sept. 20 for the Arctic Refuge Action Day rally on the Mall and to contact congressional representatives personally.

     If we are not wise enough to protect the Arctic refuge, future generations will condemn us for needlessly sacrificing the wilderness of their world to feed our profligate, short-term and shortsighted energy habit. The pathway to a better, more sustainable energy future does not wind through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

     Former President Carter is the founder of the Carter Center in Atlanta.




Wednesday, Sept. 14 2005

Heyo. I'm working on some new astrology articles this morning, which with any luck at all will begin to post tomorrow night, so I'm going to pass on a blog today. But I will share this commentary by Bill Maher with you, in red, below (sent in by a reader); and a link to the Harpers Weekly Review.

http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2005-09-13.html

---

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more.  There's no more money to spend -- you used up all of that.  You can't start another war because you used up the army.  And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.  Listen to your Mom.  The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out.  No one's speaking to you.  Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away.  Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team.  It's time.  Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man?  Now I know what you're saying:  there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't.  I know, I know.  There's a lot left to do.  There's a war with Venezuela.  Eliminating the sales tax on yachts.  Turning the space program over to the church.  And Social Security to Fannie Mae.  Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now.  Why?  Because you govern like Billy Joel drives.  You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal.  You're a catastrophe that walks like a man.  Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

"On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans [plus the entire federal treasury -ef].  Maybe you're just not lucky.  I'm not saying you don't love this country.  I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you.  What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.' "

-- Bill Maher



Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005

OKAY: our current moment of history includes a wave of riots in Belfast, a blackout in Los Angeles, publication of evidence that one of the New Orleans levees may have been blown up with high-tech underwater explosives, the beginning of hearings for the new chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, the actual resignation of someone in the Bush administration, embattled FEMA guy Mike Brown (who is seeking "new opportunities"), the ongoing total evacuation of New Orleans and occupation of the city by a mercenary army (Blackwater Security, a private security firm, its heavily armed members newly back from Iraq and complaining about the low pay -- $350 per day), a massive battle in a place called Tal Afar in Iraq, and the discussion of the preparation for the effects of global warming on the cover of the International Herald Tribune. Did I forget a lot of stuff?

We might ask what planetary activity is associated with this cluster of events, which sounds like a mock news summary out of a sci-fi novel. All that's missing is the story about the man from Mars being the legal owner of that entire planet. I would associate the following planetary developments with this cluster:

1. The approaching solar eclipse in Libra. Based on this fact, the events of the eclipse window are just getting heated up and we have yet to see the most "interesting" of them. The Oct. 3 eclipse, which I get the feeling will be somewhat infamous, sets off many different charts with strong Libra signatures, particularly that of Mr. Bush. As well, Saturn crossed the acting president's ascendant on Monday morning.

1A. Saturn in Leo. We promised you some changes! But really, I had no clue. In the immortal words of Patric Walker [on excellent authority], referring to astrology, "This sodding stuff works!" Too bad it works so bloody well.

2. The approaching Mars retrograde in Taurus. This begins Oct. 2. Mars goes retrograde for about 10 weeks every two years and is often associated with a heightening of intensity in world affairs. The last time, it came with a heat wave that killed thousands in Europe as well as occurring near the beginning of the Iraq war. Mars is making a long, slow yod involved with Jupiter and Pluto.

2A. We are thus having a major eruption of Pluto in Sagittarius. It's all about "ideology," isn't it. Okay, well, money factors in.

3. The recent Full Moon on the summer solstice, reaching across the first degrees of Cancer/Cap, setting off the June 21, 2001 total solar eclipse (this was the pre-9/11 total solar eclipse on the summer solstice, the first of the 21st century). Then there was the second Capricorn Full Moon one month later. In actual fact, Katrina, the Asian tsunami and Sept. 11 are DIRECTLY related, if you take any clues from astrology.

4. The conjunction of Chiron and Nessus in Aquarius, which was exact for the first time in May and which is now moving into the last degree of Capricorn. This process could also be summed up as "the transition of Chiron in to Aquarius" for the first time in about 44 years. Notably, this conjunction, between two of the earliest Centaur planets (Chiron, the first, and Nessus, the third), occurred exactly at the point of the Chiron square of the discovery of Chiron.

5. The discovery and announcement of Xena, which we can now nickname Hurricane Xena. This is the first planet discovered that is larger than Pluto. Many, many planets have been discovered since 1930, some further than Pluto, some close in size. This is the first that is larger, and apparently, it turns out that for once, bigger makes a difference.

6. The approach of Pluto toward the Galactic Core. We don't see this aspect reach exactitude until December 2006, but we are definitely close, and we are well on the way.

7. The associated galactic astrology connected to 2012 -- which is the approach of the Capricorn point to a sensitive area of the Galactic Core region and the final days of the 1.85 million day Mayan Day Count and the end of Baktun 13, the last Baktun in the Mayan day count.

Much more on many of these subjects is covered in the 2005 annual horoscope, Bridge to the Core. That section of Planet Waves is located here. http://planetwavesweekly.com/twdco99~/

If you're considering subscribing to Planet Waves, have a look here. Your subscriptions support this astrology-news project, make sure our Web pages get updated, provide customer support and pay me enough to sit here and write all day. We are also generous supporters of truthout.org. Not a bad deal! Please subscribe today.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/why.html



Monday, Sept. 12, 2005

Hello and thanks for visiting. I want to call your attention to several features from Political Waves tonight, our free news affiliate list. Basically, the last five or so postings are all one more shocking than the rest. This includes the "What to do..." post that reports explosives found on burned debris under the ruptured levee.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

    e



Monday, Sept. 12, 2005

FIRST, A MATTER of in-house business: I've nuked Google ads from Planet Waves. They made a brief appearance on the cover, beneath the banners of our good friends which have also recently been added, those graphic links for London Astrology and Sally Brompton and others. Google ads seemed like a sensible and modern experiment; I am always game for trying (most) things, and that "Ads By Goooooogle" bit is everywhere you look. The way this program works is that Web sites put the little box on their page(s), with some corresponding code, and every time that site loads on a user's screen, Google serves some links that are supposedly related to the page they reside on. You click; the site makes a few cents each time. However, what I noticed is that the ads that kept coming up were basically the bottom feeders who can afford to generate hits for their "services" but which few people would bother with otherwise.

Fortunately, exceedingly few readers were clicking, so there was neither a loss nor a gain. I've replaced it with the Planet Waves Weekly banner, which takes you through to our subscriber service: weekly horoscope, bonus Monday horoscope mailed to you, lots of other stuff, including three years of article and horoscope archives not available to the general public. We guarantee our work; you can subscribe free if you don't have the money; I know what you're getting because I'm the one who writes it. So please click.

I'll make a special offer for the next few days: subscribe for three months and we will upgrade you to a year. That should bring the service closer to the reach of those who want to subscribe but, like many, won't ask for a comp subscription. So, if you want to take advantage of this, subscribe and then email chelsea@planetwaves.net or call (206) 567-4455 and let us know you want an upgrade. Then next year, we'll send you a renewal in a year at the regular price.

The Moon is now in Capricorn and Venus is now in Scorpio. I'm feeling it, cousins: it's emotional and a little dark, at least in my sensorium. There's a favorable enough aspect coming next, Moon to Uranus by sextile; I'm hoping that will get me through the next few writing projects today smoothly enough. Then, Luna is about to square a bunch of points in Libra at the same time it trines the Sun and Mercury in Virgo. A bit of mild chaos, but harmless enough. I am also noticing that the six times per year Mercury-Sun conjunction is sneaking up on us. When Mercury is direct, as it is now, this is the midpoint between Mercury retrogrades; we're quite nearly halfway through the all-clear zone, and a month away from the next shadow phase; thus approximately seven weeks from the next retrograde (of Mercury).

But as retrograde planets go, the big news is Mars. I've got some excellent research support looking at historical cycles specifically for Mars retrograde in Taurus, and they are interesting. Over the next two weeks, I'll present our findings from three centuries of Mars Rx specifically in Taurus. Mars Rx is associated with an eclipse of the Sun on Oct. 3, so in experience and feeling, anyway, the two events are inseparable.

Today is the day that Saturn in Leo crosses George W. Bush's ascendant; indeed, it's happening right about now. This is the branching of the road for Mr. Bush; the day he leaves the past behind him; the day he meets the future. Sometimes there are dramatic effects the days of major transits; sometimes they take a week or a month to show some results; but they are never without some kind of progression of events.

I've been sent this article by a friend -- it's one of those things that summed up my own thoughts better than I could. It's from the Manchester Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1567841,00.html

Expect a week of lighter blogging -- I've got quite the writing schedule for the next five days. But if you're in Paris, feel free to show up with coffee. Thanks for tuning in.

Yours and truly,

    e



Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005

One last for now...not to make your head spin...but this is the kind of link we have to send to every cousin in the address book. It's published on MSNBC, you know, Bill Gates from Seattle, not LoonieLeftieFringe.info or ConspiracyMonger.org.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9282533/

    e


PS, the Moon is in Sagittarius, sitting on the Great Attractor, about to make a conjunction to Pluto later today, as well as a sextile to Jupiter, and is currently making an exact sextile to Neptune, and in a little while early Sunday in the US we reach first quarter Moon. This is a wholesome, cooperative Moon if there ever was one.

But the most interesting that happens over the next 24 is that Venus changes signs to Scorpio. This could add some dark tones to the news, but at the same time, will help with the process of moving through all this emotionally -- there is a lot, a lot of people are feeling fear (so if you are, you're not alone), and this is ALL difficult to understand.

The best things you can do are to NOT push your feelings or yourself underground. Stay in touch with people, and consider moving -- gradually or not -- into some kind of action mode. Action is the opposite of despair.

Email me to vent or share your stories at francis@planetwaves.net.

PPS, the Sept. 11, 2001 chart is having QUITE the solar return. The ascendant is piled high and the Moon just passed through the Saturn-Pluto opposition. If I were not supposed to be taking a day off today, I would go diving into that chart, but you are welcome to. The data is Sept. 11, 2001, Manhattan, NY 8:46 am. Look at the solar return and the "secondary progressions" (quotidian, if possible), set for Manhattan. Guaranteed interesting. Please tell me what you see.



Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005

For today's blogcast, I'd like to reconnect you to our ad-hoc News Department, the Political Waves list.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

Scanning through the earlier posting of Sept. 11 articles, there are two that I want to point out. One was written by the Planet Waves staff in 2002, called "I Was There." It's a series of personal accounts of Sept. 11, 2001 by people all over the country and a few abroad. It's a touching, personal and early private description of what we all went through at the time, when the event was much closer to memory and consciousness than it is now. Looking through it, I'm reminded of people who, in their time, made excellent contributions to Planet Waves, and who I miss dearly. Many are lurking in the background of the project to the current day, staying in touch as friends or helping out when and how they can.

http://www.ericfrancis.com/issues/0209/0209nine11essays.html

Then there's a piece called "Were It So." Reading this, you'll find out that I am one of the nut cases who thinks there was no jetliner crashed into the Pentagon. That is correct; that's what I think, feel and believe. Something definitely hit that building, but it was not a big airplane. I believe it was a small drone called a Global Hawk, armed with a little bunker buster conventional warhead that pierced through a bunch of layers of the structure. The article below was written six months after 9/11, at a time when it was still very nearly like committing blasphemy to not go along with the official line. After I finished the article one Friday evening, I felt a true sense of liberation like I've rarely ever felt in my life.

Four years after the fact, with the political religiosity of American society toned down a little, it may even seem plausible that something other than a 757 created that explosion. I mean, no wreckage and no fireball? With the impact on military headquarters happening 59 minutes AFTER the Trade Center was hit? It's an outrageous notion. I have not read the piece in a while, but I've seen an excellent Flash animation that's been going around the Internet and which I've linked to here previously. I am familiar with many of the facts they present in that video. Since writing the article below, I have been given a lead that there was a hushed-up plane crash near the West Virginia border on Sept. 11, but I have not been able to track it down. Maybe you've heard something.

http://www.ericfrancis.com/articles/wereitso.html

Have a good Sunday. Yes, I'm taking some time off today -- thanks for your reminders. And thanks everyone for your excellent news leads and astrology research. It's really a pleasure to be in touch with so many readers. If anyone out there in Internet land would like to do a stint as a volunteer webmaster for a news section of Planet Waves, we do have the material, as many people suddenly seem to be taking an interest in journalism for some strange reason. Please do let me know.

Meanwhile, we refer you to Political Waves and our friends at http://truthout.org.

Catch you soon. I am sure you would like to read about astrology in this space one of these days. Let's make that next.

    e



Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005

Dear Readers:

On the sad anniversary of the Sept. 11 incident, here's a mostly complete compilation of my writing on the subject, and related subjects -- including a couple of early pieces on Iraq.

These articles are all from the open archives, as well as from Chronogram, rather than the subscriber archives; I would suspect there is a bit more on the subscriber side. I included just one article specifically on the astrology of the Bush administration, which is a different genre.

In 1814, Thomas Jefferson said, in a letter, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." I think that today, we need to take these words to heart. Part of the vigilance we need is to know when we are being mislead, when we're being emotionally manipulated, and when someone in power has a hidden agenda.

Being trusting is a great human virtue. But that is different than being naïve.

We live in a time when we're both confronted with vast amounts of information, and when we doubt that there is such a thing as the truth. We can leave the truth out of the discussion and look for certain basic facts that point to other basic facts. It is easy to say, "There is no such thing as the truth, therefore, I will not consider the facts."

It's also easy to say, "These facts are disturbing, therefore I'm not going to deal with them." A little too easy.

I doubt these articles will lighten up your day, but I hope you'll at least find them evocative, perhaps even informative, whether or not you agree with where I'm coming from.

For a bit of biting levity, The Onion has done a job on the flood story at this link:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40305

And there is a parody of the White House web page called http://whitehouse.org/

Here ya go on the 9/11 articles. Hold, on world...

    e

-------------------------------

Hold On World
http://www.ericfrancis.com/articles/holdonworld.html

Mercury Also Rises
http://www.ericfrancis.com/articles/mercury.html

Why Does the Moon?
http://planetwaves.net/contents/light.html

Sept. 11, 1984
http://www.ericfrancis.com/planetwaves/9eleven1984.html

Were It So
http://www.ericfrancis.com/articles/wereitso.html

I Was There
http://www.ericfrancis.com/issues/0209/0209nine11essays.html

Mars, Chiron & Iraq
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/marschironiraq.html

The Case of the Occultation
http://www.ericfrancis.com/issues/0308/kelly_astro.html

Lightwork Update
http://planetwaves.net/contents/light.html

All the Usual Suspects
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/londonterroristbombings.html

Bush for President
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2004/09/backbone/planetwaves/

The One We All Missed
http://planetwavesweekly.com/book/chapter17.html

The Anti-9/11
http://planetwaves.net/contents/anti_9_11.html

--------------------------




Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005

Here a bit more on Dr. Ben Marble, the guy who invited Mr Cheney to go fuck himself on national television. The URL is snipped here. Thanks to Linde for sending this in. http://snipurl.com/hkbw

In an earlier comment, I said that I would not consider this the height of activism, but rather an honest moment. However, I've been thinking about it a little and I think that Ben Marble's comment to Cheney qualifies as speaking truth to power, which is exactly what we've been missing for a long time, and exactly what Cheney & Co. barricade themselves away from with their carefully vetted audiences at "public" appearances.

In the next scene, we have Cheney doing a photo op in this guy's neighborhood to cover over the pathetic response of the federal government to the disaster, essentially taking advantage of the people who lost their homes to make themselves look good -- and in the process, he gets to hear from one of his constituents.

I got hold of Ben's email through some miracle, and wrote to him just now, thanking him for passing on my sentiments to the vice president.

Many times, I have stood within a few feet of lying, conniving public officials, watching them spew their self-serving venom as they put people in danger, and just as many times I've said nothing, or responded "appropriately" in my role as a reporter with a question, or a damning article the next day. And my Boy Scout leader, 4th grade teacher, and just about every editor I've ever worked for would agree that that was a better approach, preserving my theoretically more effective weapon against deception, my status and credibility as a journalist.

But I think Ben summed it all up a lot better than I ever did. And people seem to have heard him.

    e



Friday, Sept. 9, 2005

I'VE JUST FINISHED A SESSION with a client, my last for the day, and last for the week, after a rather intense week of writing. We ended on a note of "What's going to happen with America?"

I opened my mouth and talked. "I think that the United States is heading into a Get Real moment to dwarf any other," I said to her. And went on. The subject was her writing project; my sense, pouring in intuitively, was that those with the least sense of creativity, or of community, or social conscience, would be spurred to action by the events of the past few weeks. The existing pattern of things has been disrupted sufficiently, and we have been awakened from the trance of consensus reality, such that more people than usual will feel safe taking an unusual chance -- any chance at all -- to do something different, think something different, feel something different.

Any chance at all to be real.

Last night I received links to a now-infamous video of Dick Cheney clip giving a press conference in Gulfport, Mississippi, which I unsuccessfully tried to link to today. You may need to cut and paste this link into your browser window in order for it to work. Also, traffic to these servers may be high -- so you'll need to be patient and await your turn for a stream, or log in super early in the morning. But I trust you'll get through.

I would not call this episode the height of activism, but it is certainly honest, and funny, and a harmless enough moment of reality -- broadcast live on CNN. It is an unscripted moment; a glimpse behind the veil; and good, solid evidence of why the audiences at presidential events are hand-picked and people are plucked out of the audience of a presidential debate for having the wrong bumper sticker on their car.

Notice Mr. Vice President's reaction. Watch his face closely.

Here are the links.

http://hiro-tan.org/~ekoontz/cheney.wmv

http://streaming-west.americanprogress.org/cheney.mov

I'll catch you later in the weekend. Also, a new essay called The Anti-9/11 has been written and posted to subscribers. We're working on a page now for our general audience. Please stay tuned.

Rock on --

    e



PS for this morning: Here is a little mind candy. A real moment, broadcast live from a "campaign stop" in Gulfport, Mississippi on CNN. Depending on what time of day you click, it may take a while for the stream to start. Study the look on his face immediately after he hears it.

http://hiro-tan.org/~ekoontz/cheney.wmv



Friday, Sept. 9, 2005...of Freedom of Press and the Price of Gold

I'VE BEEN TRACKING with one ear the discussion of media restrictions in the disaster zone; the issue keeps percolating into my inbox. After FEMA said that there would be no pictures of bodies allowed (to preserve their dignity, as if there is any left), some of the more prominent reporters' rights groups stood up and made a fuss yesterday. Then the distinguished and adorable Brian Williams of NBC News piped in with a personal story. From his Sept. 8 column on MSNBC:

"While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

"At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history."

Here is the point: we MUST KEEP THE ISSUE OF FREE PRESS ALIVE. Not everyone is going to know about it, and not everyone is going to comprehend that the press must have ACTUAL ACCESS to what is going on until it is explained to them. Because their access is our access. "Conservatives" may feel we should save the flag and burn the Constitution, but if there is anything about which we can beat our chests and hum to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic and call American, this is it. We need to keep this discussion going on the ground, among our neighbors, at the supermarket, in the office, while eating big plates of snails in Paris, and wherever else you can think of.

I can tell you that as a reporter who specialized in cover-ups, including those at disaster zones, the government often cops a huge attitude that it's some kind of exclusive, private entity (with guns, note above) and goes into full-on Pravda mode; that is, only what they say is true is true and you had better like it and the press conference is at noon. No free coffee or anything.

So please pay attention to this issue, talk it up, adopt a reporter, call your local newspaper and offer support, call your local legislators and insist that they take action (they may or may not, but they need to tell their colleagues that the buzz is going) and as Jello Biafra said, become the media. Please keep the information moving, take pictures and publish them, if you find hot links, send them to writers who are currently publishing, do your part to keep the truth alive -- because for once, it is, and we need it that way.

In this spirit, here is a link I sent to James Ridgeway at the Village Voice yesterday after reading one of his pieces on the price of oil scandal. Jim hasn't heard from me in about 10 years, but he was the obvious person to get this one; I pass it onto you as well. As Jude (of Political Waves) wrote back to me when I sent it to her, "They would eat their young."

As I said, something is up with the price of gold. The funny thing is, it was a month ago, too. Wipe your hands when you're done reading this, it's greasy.

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/aug/1206.html





Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005

Thanks everyone for the clues on the 17th Street Levee break time. That is proving to be a brilliantly elusive chart to chase down, but we now have some solid leads and are working with them. The Cainer Q/A piece has been posted. That will be at:

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html

I'm onto the Planet Waves Friday essay this late night, and will be until my mind refuses to cooperate -- I'll post it where everyone can get to it (it's from the Friday subscriber edition) -- so please click on that little link below and subscribe. YOU are how we keep this Web project going, and are mighty appreciative of it. A buck a week goes a LONG way for us, I'm quite amazed myself.

If you would like to subscribe by phone and talk to the one and only Chelsea Bottinelli, you can call our USA freephone at (877) 453-8265 or internationally at (206) 567-4455 during Eastern business hours.

Thank you! Catch you in the morning...here's that link...

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

    e



Brief note to news junkies. We need to track down the time of the 17th Street Canal levee breaking. If anyone can come up with this, please drop me a note at francis@planet...

Thank you. Catch you soon.

    e



Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005

Hi there. As this is the peak of my weekly writing cycle [and I even appear to be on schedule], I'm going to save my words for tomorrow's Planet Waves Essay. The weekly Q & A column should post shortly, in which I go over three of the charts involved in the Katrina situation. The revelations are startling, and informative.

We are at a genuine, first class moment of history. Let's see what we do with it.

Received this from Houston earlier in the week. Someone has been writing to me who said they lost their ephemeris in the flood. I can't find your email! Please get in touch again!

Bon courage,

    e


Hi Eric,
 
I’ve been a native Houstonian all my life and I’m proud of the citizens of our city. People of all races, faiths and income levels have come together to help the victims in our city. You can feel the outpouring of compassion and love. The city is buzzing with relief efforts. I must say that the national reporters got it wrong Friday night. When the fire marshal said the dome was filled and the buses would have to be turned away – they weren’t, the mayor stepped in and said the evacuees had been through enough and that we were letting them in. That’s how government’s supposed to work. Below I’ve included an eye witness account of how things were going in the Astrodome over the first part of the weekend. The organization has greatly improved since then.
 
It wasn’t just the levees that broke in New Orleans, the damn of emotional outrage that has been smoldering since the presidential election also gave way. Aside from volunteering, I have spent many hours emailing – the White House, the Congress, FEMA to express my feelings about watching the elderly and babies bake in the sun without food or water. I have never felt so disgusted, sadden and hopeless as I did watching the coverage last week. We cannot allow how we felt to be forgotten or swept aside by some political side stepping. I also sent emails to the media praising them for finally finding the balls to confront the politicians. I ask that EVERYONE do the same. I know they count emails and it’s about time we all spoke up in a unified voice. I must say emails from my right-wing supposedly “Christian” relatives have been very disheartening. Blaming the liberals, don’t criticize the president, and it’s okay to let those people die because they were just collecting welfare.

They are truly on another planet and I pray there are more of us than them.  
 
FROM THE ASTRODOME [on our planet!]

"Don't know where to begin, how to describe what we saw last night. It's not total chaos inside, but about 2 steps from it. The smell meets you before you walk through the doors. Besides a name tag, there was little volunteer organization. 'Help wherever you can' was the order. We tried bringing food down from the upper levels, but made it back with very little. Everywhere people would stop us asking for the food, water, a cot, a blanket, clothes, phone...everything. Mainly they were pleading for socks as many were barefoot. There was LITTLE clothing. We
distributed what we had, but quickly ran out. People are walking around in clothing soaked in sewage. There is a medical triage station. Many people needed medical care. Bryan came across a refugee leaning against a rail, close to passing out. Bryan discovered he was a schizophrenic w/ a heart condition and hadn't had his medication in 5 days."
 
Thanks for all you do Eric…Karen



Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005

We've made a few tweaks to the front page cover, including a new article that was supposed to be last week's Planet Waves essay, "The Cosmic Voice of Reason." The one that replaced it is also posted above, which you've probably seen ("Katrina the Awakener"), but I thought you might be interested in reading about something besides Katrina and New Orleans. The Cosmic Voice article covers some of the subtler points of horoscope columns, which I'm sure have never been the topic of a psychology dissertation. I give it a go, looking at samples of lots of different astrology writers, and ending with a long section on Patric Walker. It's an innocent diversion from our weeks of stress and madness.

Just a reminder, everyone is cordially invited to become a supporter and subscriber to Planet Waves. We're able to do all this good work based on the generosity of our readers. Here's the subscription link:

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

I'm done blogging, writing and thinking for today. In fact, enough of today for today.

    e



Hi Eric,

I was reading your daily blog today and it reminded me of a story one of my clients told me a few weeks ago. 

He is an economist and used to work for the WHO and has done consulting work all over the world. He spends time in Canada, Europe, the States and the Middle East.  He was telling me that once he had a consultation project with Boeing.  He had a meeting with the CEO in the morning.  When he went into his office, he noticed that on the CEO's desk was a large plaque on his desk...the words on the plaque were, "WE PRAY FOR WAR."  The CEO looked at my client who was observing the words and asked him, "What do you think about that ?" My client looked at him and expressed some shock over seeing those words printed as a mantra on the CEO's desk.

The CEO said to my client:
  
"We basically manufacture two kinds of aircrafts, civilian and military...A civilian aircraft may give us a profit of 8-10 million (I can't remember the exact figure he told me Eric but it was around this)...and it generally has a lifetime of a few years.  A military fighter jet has profits in the 40-50 million dollar range (again my figures may not be completely accurate) and it has a lifetime of 4-5 months.  I have shareholders to keep happy...Now do you understand why, WE PRAY FOR WAR..."

L., in Canada



Overnight, Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 6-7

Well, another restless night. It's 3:30 a.m. in Paris and after a look at CNN.com -- this whole thing is still so surreal -- I've been perusing the Political Waves list, a project of Planet Waves run by Jude. There some truly excellent selections tonight, but Jude always does a fine job of boiling the day's news down to about the 10 most vital articles. You can read that on the Web free here, and also subscribe by email (about 45 posts a week):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/POLITICAL_WAVES/

Catch you in the morning with an astrology report for the rest of the week. Thanks to all the people who are writing in from around the flood zone. I will do my best to tie those together into something presentable, but it may take till the weekend.

    e



Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005

HERE IS A CLARIFICATION or at least beginning of a discussion of the financial costs of the Iraq war. I've referenced the cost of $1 billion per day, which I have seen quoted several places. This is either a high-side estimate, an overestimate, or wrong -- or absolutely right -- but it's important to note that at this time the actual cost of the war is not really known. Buying a war is a consumer nightmare. You never know the quality of what you're getting, and the price keeps changing. There are all kinds of hidden extras. It's extremely confusing. There should be an 800 number you can call to complain.

Here is what is known. To date, according to truthout.org and other sources, about $210 billion has been appropriated for the war so far (including much smaller operations in Afghanistan, with whom we are still allegedly at war) through fiscal year 2005. The fiscal year ends at the end of September. If we assume the estimate is correct, then that $210 billion covers about 30 months or about 900 days. This works out to $233 million per day, actually about a quarter billion dollars. Stated longhand, that's $233,000,000.00 per day.

However -- this is only what we know about today. Think of it as the absolute rosy colored rock bottom take it home to your constituents wink wink bare minimum.

The real figure is likely to be substantially higher, as the administration has had a habit of hiding the actual costs of the war since before the beginning. Just going over some of the possibilities that might not be included, or included all the way, there will be much equipment to replace, families to pay death benefits to, disabilities payments to soldiers, and the costs of medical care for a generation to come. There will obviously be cleanup and reparation costs after the war is over, if it's ever actually over.

The armed services will have to put themselves back together, all with higher tech equipment that will cost tons of cash. There will be staggering rebuilding costs in Iraq that we're not hearing about today. It does not include intangible costs, like the cost to the environment. Cash values can be put on pollution and many other factors.

And there are secondary costs to American communities, lost investment potential that the money spent on the war could have had, for example, if spent in more productive ways. There is the cost to the economy in higher fuel bills, lost manpower, and many forms of negligence of the primary responsibilities of government. As we've seen in New Orleans, not fixing a levee, which is cheap, can have massive effects on the entire economy.

As far as I know, the quoted $210 billion figure is only a the "special appropriations" and does not include secret Black Budget expenses -- that is, expenses from the covert "intelligence" budget that nobody vaguely outside the very top echelons of the government ever sees. It may not even include what is spent out of the normal military budget. I will try to track that down.

And, most important, the cost as stated it does not include one very special item: bank interest. Depending on the percentage rate and how long the money is borrowed, the real interest rate -- that is, the actual cost of interest in cash, not as a percentage -- could be double or triple that daily quarter bil, which will be passed onto our posterity. In other words, your dog's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's (142 times over) puppy's masters will be paying for the war that we are now seeing and which is in fact going nowhere and which has been paid out at the expense of our national infrastructure.

Why do these people do it? Hmmmmmm. Can you say CARLYLE GROUP or HALLIBURTON?

Ever heard of a poem called War Profit Litany by Allen Ginsberg?

Here it is:

http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Allen_Ginsberg/3704

If anyone is a specialist in the cost of the war or amortizing debts into the trillions of dollars, please drop me an email.

    e



Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005

Drexcel in Fresno, CA writes:

Hi Eric,
 
I saw some coverage of this city just now. It's still up to its roof tops under water. People are getting around in different kinds of water craft. So many of them refusing to leave their homes. Disease is spreading and thousands are still missing. Some of them have committed suicide, not able to deal with this reality. One man, because he thought he lost his family only to have the family turn up safe later. Our newspaper says we are welcoming at least 400 of them here today. We must pray for these people and that city.
 
love, d

---------

MORE NEWS COVERAGE AT POLITICAL WAVES:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/POLITICAL_WAVES/

---------

NOTE: WOULD PEOPLE IN THE DISASTER AREA OR RELIEF ZONE WHO HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET PLEASE CONTACT US, IF YOU HAVE TIME TO CHECK IN, AT francis@planetwaves.net... thank you!!



Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005

To: Eric  Francis <francis@planetwaves.net>
From: Russ
Subject: Down in Houston, huge changes

Eric,

If the Bushes have a hometown, Houston’s it. The parents are here, Halliburton, Ken Lay, all of it.

And Houston has been flooded with an estimated 200,000, possibly a quarter million, evacuees. That in a metro area of about 3.5 million. Everyone in the area is collecting food and clothing, finding housing, helping the sick and injured. It’s staggering, incomprehensible, heartbreaking.

Bill Clinton was here today with Bush Sr. and in an interview after a tour of the Astrodome refugee center said that plainly the federal government had failed and when things were more under control those failings should be investigated.

The sense of shock and anger is at least equal to that of 9/11. But on top of it all is absolute outrage that this has been allowed to happen, and that the politicians showed up late, lying, and even joking, while Americans died horribly on television, while we all watched. All while the politicians denying it was even happening.

People in Houston certainly know it just as easily could have been us on television, the hurricane only had to have been nudged over slightly to hit here. And every American whose home could be hit by disaster, which is of course all of them, knows it could be them and their families dying on TV someday.

There is an enormous uprising of emotions -- resolve, compassion, righteous anger -- equal to any historic turning point I’ve ever experienced, and that goes back more than 50 years.

Things have changed irrevocably.

-- Russ


Dear Russ,

Thank you for that report from Houston -- please keep us posted. I've been calling Katrina the "anti 9/11." And it's good to see so many Americans opening up their hearts and homes -- and their eyes.

    e



Monday, Sept. 5, 2005

A rocker...sent in by Yasmin Boland
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4214516.stm

And a little closer to the center...
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/

The Moon is making its way across Libra now. For the next 36 hours, counting from Monday evening, the Libra planets in the New Orleans charts, the Hurricane Katrina landfall chart, and the chart of W. Bush will take conjunctions from the Moon, as will the transiting Soutn Node, Venus, Jupiter, Pallas Athene and the point of next month's solar eclipse.

The Moon can act like an energy condenser, and also like a giant weight that pulls our attention to the particular corner of the heavens where it happens to be. In an intuitive, emotional way that connects many, the Moon is calling out attention to what has happened -- because most of the connections are in Libra. A friend of mine in Paris who grew up in New Orleans, and whose mother was evacuated to Texas, said that tonight it was first sinking in tonight what had happened.

If we watch carefully into the early hours of Wednesday, we can get a vibe on what is likely to unfold over the next five or six weeks, make some observations and make adjustments. It's like living out this timeframe in a holographic miniature, which is less about predicting than it is about choosing, seeking confirmation and making corrections.

Though my contact with the United States is confined to the Internet and a few people I talk to regularly, I sense an awakening. I sense the "what would it take" point having been reached. What's happening is not funny, it's too big to deny, and it's happening to people we can all identify with. I guess what I'm saying is that quite a few people realize this is not more television, and television itself seems to be realizing that it's not just television.

Libra calls us to embrace a combination of sensitivity, justice and action. Many will be called; let's see who responds.

    e



Monday, Sept. 5, 2005

THE QUESTION REMAINS whether we will get the messages of Hurricane Katrina, which at the moment I see as being three in number. No, let's make that four.

The first is on the global scale. The United States has been criminally negligent in its refusal to participate in the global warming discussion, and the government has set a rather horrendous example for its citizens. Will we begin to get the global warming message and deal with it? Will we put the pressure on our political leaders and start adjusting our driving and shopping habits? We may not actually be able to turn back the clock on damage already done, and whether we can arrest the progress of climate change remains to be seen. But the choice is still between doing something and doing nothing.

The second issue involves observing what can happen when society breaks down: when food, water, sanitation and shelter disappear. Some lose their dignity, others lose their composure, others spring into service, others become violent. How much or how little pressure does it take for everything to break down? What is the snapping point? And how are we supposed to handle ourselves when that point comes?

Last, what is the relationship of the federal government to its people? What is the role of the federal government in our lives? We have to file our tax forms, serve jury duty, watch the speed limit and not go on any weird rampages. What does the government do for us? We need to study the existence and the strength of the social contract between we, the citizens of the republic, and the republic itself. In the event of a disaster, are we really just on our own?

A closely related issue is the extent to which local and national resources have been diverted to an illegal, that is to say, private interest war in Iraq -- and how badly those people, that money and highwater Humvees and Chinook helicopters are needed now in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. It's one thing to be spending a billion dollars a day to rain death and maintain non-existent order in Iraq -- that is, a thousand million dollars each day -- when you "don't need" the money (though from what I am reading, we are borrowing two billion dollars a day to support the government, much of it from China). But it's another thing when it would have taken six hours spending on the war to reinforce the levees in New Orleans, which actually started to give on Sunday -- long before the storm hit land. As I understood it, that's why we all pay federal taxes every time we make a phone call, set foot into work, or scratch our heads. But something seems to have changed.

The war in Iraq is a human travesty and an environmental nightmare; it's impossible to wage war without waging war on the planet itself. And in terms of how the resources of our country are used, well, we are now seeing some of the effects. We had best question the motives, too.

There is some mythology about what happened on Mars a long time ago that I don't think I've ever related. It's the kind of stuff that circulates around the "pyramids on Mars" movement that I don't quite exactly subscribe to, but which I think is rather interesting to consider fairly. I can't tell you if it's true, but I hold it among the modern myths that help us think about our lives and what they mean; myths always reflect some level of how we feel about ourselves and the world we live in.

As the story goes, there was actually a civilization on Mars, as many of us have come to believe and accept. One day, a meteorite hit the planet and ripped a big hole in the atmosphere, and as the atmosphere ran out or went away was ruined or whatever happened, the governments made war on one another. And, basically, that was that. Everyone died or was killed. A few million years passed and everything turned to dust. Now we look up with our telescopes and wonder about that pretty orange planet and what might have gone on there.

Can we imagine looking at the Earth and wondering the same thing? Wow, pretty planet --what ever happened? Well, it's happening. And trust me -- I am an optimist. But doesn't the Iraq-Katrina story sound a little like Mars, you know, big climate change and disasters and the government(s) make war?

Or let me put it another way. If you had to write a letter to posterity, what would you say? How would you explain to successive generations what is happening on Earth now? How would you account for who people are and what they believe? How would you account for your own choices?

If you write such a thing, please send it in for possible publication, and if I write one, I'll send it out.

    e



New Orleans Craig's List - http://neworleans.craigslist.org/





Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005

Once again I'm going to point you to the Political Waves list, a Planet Waves project devoted to moving news to our readers. Jude, the list's editor and moderator, has been keeping up with both Katrina news as well as that of the passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

In the abyss of concerns raised by both situations, it's scarcely possible to keep up with reading, much less with reporting. Political Waves is one way we compensate for this. We also strongly recommend our readers to http://truthout.org, of which Planet Waves is a financial sponsor. They select about 20 of the day's most important news stories, post them to their front page, and then archive them for long-term access. They have excellent multimedia stuff as well, including a nice selection of on-the-scene video reports.

In this space, I'll keep rolling with the more noteworthy observations I'm sent by readers or come up with, and continue pointing you to additional resources. And I'll keep a pulse on the cosmic perspective, which evolves rapidly over the next 45 days. More in-depth reporting will come each Friday in Planet Waves Weekly and the Q/A page on Jonathan Cainer's site.

It is overwhelming to be reading about, hearing about and processing all of this, even far from the epicenter or from the United States. In France, many people have no idea what has happened. This is not a news junkie country, and it's not a culture that's particularly interested in what is going on outside its own borders. Yet it's also true that the impact of what has occurred will be slow-acting and come on a little like the rising of flood waters.

The City of New Orleans is gone. Buildings cannot soak in standing water for weeks and still be usable, and it will take years to rebuild -- if another storm does not wipe out the recovery efforts from this one. The population is scattered; there will be nowhere to come back to for a long time. New Orleans is also a major port. It connects the Gulf of Mexico with a vast inland shipping network that connects with the Mississippi River. I heard yesterday that half of the nation's seafood comes in through New Orleans. And much of the grain that feeds the country is moved along the Mississippi and distributed from there; and for the moment this has become bogged down, just at the time of the grain harvest.

While troops have moved into New Orleans and are slowly getting control, this is really a local response, and it still appears to be dreadfully inadequate. I have not heard of any federal facilities being used to house refugees, for example. The federal response needs to be directed at many levels, including getting commerce moving again, and dealing with economic impact on many levels. There was a time when that would have been easy; when the current presidential administration began, the federal budget was balanced. But the vast resources of our country are now being directed at Iraq, to the tune of about a billion dollars a day -- money largely being used to destroy, not to build or create.

Each time I read a new contact point between Katrina and the Iraq war, my head spins -- levee repair money cut from the budget; state National Guardsmen sent abroad to fight, and thus unable to take care of their local areas; and so many more. The whole picture is enough to make one think that the Bush administration took over the U.S. government to fly it into the side of a mountain -- which is what many people thought, and had good reason to believe. But since Americans rarely feel the effects of their government's actions abroad, we could (in the past) cross self-interest off the list of why not to do something like start a war. Indeed, many believed it was a great idea because it would be a war for cheap oil.

Now in a very real sense, the war has come home. The effects of one storm are being felt throughout an enormous country and -- if you draw the lines, understanding the effects on commerce and the economy if gasoline prices are not brought under control, and food does not start moving out of New Orleans and other southern ports at some point soon -- it is very strange to think that a hurricane can bring the United States to its knees.

We are a resourceful country, and we need our resources. It was quite beyond belief to read that the State of Texas Army National Guard has borrowed Chinook helicopters from the Philippines, to use in rescue efforts in Louisiana. Then there are all the reports of the assistance the United States is NOT accepting, or remaining silent on.

I'll be back tomorrow with some perspective on the oil shortage situation. This is one area that is sure to be a vast rip-off and where permanent corporate profiteering off of this disaster is likely to become a way of life in America.

Meanwhile, you might find this link interesting. Cuba, quite close to Louisiana, has offered to send 1,100 doctors and tons of medical supplies. Do you think we'll be accepting that?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.world.aid/index.html

    e



Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005

Just when you thought things could not get any more weird, Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies at the age of 80. A 1972* appointee of Richard Nixon, Rehnquist was promoted to chief justice in 1986 by Ronald Reagan. So to lose his vote on the court is not exactly to lose a friend of civil liberties or an egalitarian system. We will hear in the media how he was an advocate of "state's rights" and a "strict constructionist" who believed that the only rights Americans had were those specifically outlined in the Constitution (there are not many, and despite this purported support, and in many respects they have eroded considerably under the Chief Justice's term -- particularly since the passage of the Patriot Act, as well as much restrictive legislation that attempts to regulate the Internet).

State's rights means Rehnquist felt that the federal government should leave many decisions to the states, and essentially not oversee the judicial process in ways some would say are invasive. In other words, this limits federal authority, but generally this is in situations where the federal government is actually in a position to protect people from inconsistencies and local yahoos.

Consistent with these positions, Rehnquist was one of two justices who voted against Roe v. Wade, which protects a woman's right to obtain a safe, legal abortion. He was part of the slim 5-4 majority that put George W. Bush into office in 2000. But Rehnquist was something of a true conservative, that is, someone capable of a modicum of restraint, rather unlike the people now in control of the government. Though they are called neoconservatives, their politics are genuinely extreme, entirely centered on business interests, and often bolstered by a massive, emotionally-driven grassroots fundamentalist religious movement.

So it will be interesting to see what names arise; probably, two new appointees, because it's generally considered better to appoint a new chief justice from outside the court (though this was not the case with Rehnquist). And also because if one is elevated from the current justices, that will create three senate confirmation hearings: one for the promoted chief, one for his or her replacement as an associate justice, and one for the associate justice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement in the spring.

This Wikipedia entry looks pretty good, though it does not detail the shenanigans within the Nixon administration that came with his appointment in 1971. Note that Rehnquist was a mid-level official in the Department of Justice when he was appointed justice by Nixon. I'll have more on this when my friend Steve Bergstein wakes up and I can shake him down for some judicial history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Rehnquist

Rehnquist was born Oct. 1, 1924, a Libra. With his death, we see yet another advance effect of next month's solar eclipse in Libra, which occurs just two days after what would have been the late Chief Justice's 81st birthday. He was born with the Sun high in the sky, holding the 10th house close to the MC -- an indicator of an affinity for government, and wide public recognition.

He had Jupiter in Sagittarius rising to within one degree. This is to say, his ascendant is 13 Sagg 54 and Jupiter is at 14 Sagg 27. Sagittarius is considered the sign of the higher courts (Libra rules the lower courts) and Jupiter is the planet of scholarship and justice. This is the aspect that says "Chief Justice." The duration of his term and the impact of his decisions and influence can be seen in the presence of the Great Attractor, a massive, intergalactic gravitational point at exactly 14 degrees Sagg and 2 arc minutes. This point often serves to create polarity: some people like you a lot, some don't like you very much, and there's not a heck of a lot they can do about it.

Indeed, he was one of those people who even his detractors had to admit had some positive points, including a biting, irreverent sense of humor, an informal personal style, and being a flaming liberal as contrasted with the current administration.

He had Chiron in the 4th house trine the ascendant and trine Jupiter, as part of a grand trine with Venus, Neptune and the North Node in Leo. At the time of his death, trans-Neptunian planet Quaoar, which addresses family patterns, was exactly in his ascendant.

---

* Confirmed by the Senate by a 68–26 vote on December 10, 1971, Rehnquist took his seat as an Associate Justice on January 7, 1972.



Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005

THE VIRGO NEW MOON happens later today, at 8:45 pm Europe time, 7:45 London time, and mid-afternoon in New York City, and so on. I've offered a somewhat detailed account of the lunation down a few entries, under Wednesday's blog, and also on http://Cainer.com in the Q/A section.

We come to a distinctive turning point with this lunation; we're now one month to the day from a solar eclipse (in Libra); six weeks to a lunar eclipse (in Aries); and these next 45 days will gradually gather intensity and momentum in a way that may feel quite unusual even for an eclipse, because they are mingled with the energy of Mars retrograde.

It is fortunate that the disaster in the southeast occurred at the end of a lunar cycle, and that help is arriving as another begins. But this chart suggests there are a few more surprises coming, because today we have a New Moon in a close opposition to Uranus, the planet of things we're not quite expecting. The Mars retrograde suggests a similar situation.

However, it's difficult to say that nobody was expecting this. In my daily scan of the news sites today, I uncovered this gem on the cover of CNN.com by Justine Redman. Read it and shake your head in bewilderment and wonder. Here is the snipped URL: http://snipurl.com/hesd

Apparently, it really is up to local communities to be prepared for local emergencies, because often the states are bankrupt, most of the local National Guard is in Iraq (which is not helping recruiting any), and the Feds can't show up for a week. Suffice it to say, shit happens, so keep your flashlight batteries charged and water and a case of dog or cat food in the trunk of car in case you have to evacuate with your critters on short order. Even if you don't eat for a few days, you'll feel better for knowing that your cat, dog or rabbit can.

In other astrology news, someone on the Centaurs list pointed out that Chiron is making an exact conjunction to Pluto in one of the most important USA charts -- Scorpionic America by the late, great David Solte. This is the chart for the 1777 signing of the Articles of Confederation, one of the two very reliable USA charts I've worked with.

Chiron transiting exactly over the US natal Pluto has the feeling of Uranus on New Orleans natal Pluto (see Katrina the Awakener article, below). Just as with Sept. 11, Pluto is a big player in this scenario, and we can be sure that this means progress -- of one kind or another, in one direction or another. Chiron to Pluto is particularly hopeful because the suggestion is that we will be waking up that often hidden, unconscious evolutionary process that Pluto signifies. An example of a Chiron to Pluto event was the first antiglobalization protest that occurred in Seattle in the autumn of 1999 -- the infamous "Battle in Seattle" against the World Trade Organization, where all those sweet little Seattle hobbits got in the way of imperial stormtroopers, their rubber bullets and CS gas.

That set off a chain of similar protests that went on for several years every time the banking and trade boys came to someone's town; now they seem to avoid this by holding their meetings behind 24 barbed wire barricades on the far side of the Moon.

Thanks for your emails, and please remember to save newspapers, save Web pages that get your attention, email me if you hear of anything strange, and please tape a few hours of the television news. You will be glad you did -- this is history in the making.

    e



Friday, Sept. 2, 2005

Dear Readers:

Well, Paris seems normal enough tonight. The rollerblade acrobats are doing their thing outside Notre Dame, Shakespeare & Co. Books is buzzing away, and the walkways along the Seine are full of life.

But I have a feeling the world is different.

My mind keeps surveying the devastation in New Orleans, and playing through some of the possible or even probable implications.

I have a little sample of the feeling at the scene because I once lived through a hurricane and regional flood, and I know it gets worse with time. It's a kind of disaster that settles in over a while. But very few of us in or from North America have lived through anything of this scale or intensity. And it's an extremely strange thought that a region of the country, or even part of one, has descended into armed anarchy.

Strange, but I mean terrifying. I don't know if fear is spiritual, but what we are witnessing is a warning. It is a real life what-if. New Orleans and it surroundings has a lot more in common with most of American than does lower Manhattan. It is more of a typical scene, and typical infrastructure of the country.

New Orleans itself is of course one of a kind; one of the great American cultural treasures. Cities are more than their land and buildings; they are human patterns, and the pattern is stronger than the weather and the effects of water -- usually.

What has been on my mind tonight is the subject of whole-systems thinking. What happened in one region of the country is spreading out and affecting everywhere. The price of gasoline is not merely a convenience. It is the economic blood of the country -- a rural country, where people have already been struggling to pay for the gas to drive to and from work. We are seeing how a stress on one part of a system, uncompensated, can begin to affect the whole thing.

We resist thinking in whole-systems terms because it's inconvenient, and because in reality it's impossible to take accountability and responsibility for every subsequent reaction of every action we take. My feeling, however, is that we're about to get a big lesson in whole-system dynamics. In the end, this will work to our benefit, but it may take a while. There is no reason why every bite of food we eat in the United States should be shipped 2,000 miles across the country. And that may finally start to come to an end.

However, it's not unreasonable to consider whether this disaster can have a ripple effect that sends the country into a depression. We can hope not; we can each do our part; we can participate in the ways most available and meaningful to us; and then we have to live, watch, and see.

The ultimate whole-system is the Earth itself. The way we have to live, at minimum, will continue to put a strain on the ecosystem for a long time, and the long run is exactly the terms on which we need to be thinking. This is difficult when you need to buy gas to get to work to pay the rent and eat; or when you don't have a home at all and don't know where half your family is.

I hope we get it this time.

    e



Katrina, the Awakener
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/neworleans.html



Letter from a Reader

Dear Eric:

Would you please ask people on your site to pray for the Hurricane Katrina victims especially over the next few days because the New Moon in Humanitarian Virgo combined with the transit of Jupiter and Venus... if a unified group of people in this world pray together, we can create pure powerful magic with this energy.

My whole entire family is from New Orleans. Most of my family escaped in time but my two uncles stayed behind and are missing. There are two kinds of people that stayed in New Orleans. 1) The huge group of people that have been living in third world situations for decades!!!!! They had no where to go to, they had no way of getting from point A to point B and they have no money. This is a whole other topic!!! 2) The second set of people who stayed were ride or die kind of people. It was their home. It was all they knew. And there is nothing wrong with that.... It's something to be proud of. People who are from New Orleans are passionate about their heritage. Its the Motherland to them. One of my uncles said "If my house floats away, I'm going to float away with it... because I'm not leaving!" I have to honestly say that I don't agree. I would have been the first to leave that city. You don't fool with Powers that are beyond. But I do respect them for being so noble.

My father is grew up the Calliope Projects. He was so unbelievable proud to be from New Orleans. He was thrilled about anything New Orleans. Right now my Papa has a brain disease and is passing over but I know that if he was present he would right now be saying "I'MA GO HELP MY PEOPLE!" He would be driving down there right now.

I just can't believe the president of our country is an icecube. Our Government went Hollywood. This is suppose to be one of the most wealthiest powerful countries on earth. How can he wear a stiff suit and give a rehearsed speech and show posed pictures of him looking out of the window of an airplane onto the greatest disaster in the history of America!!!! That's how he treats the people of his country. That's how passionate he is about his country. Completely cold. I would hate to have him around during a family crisis. Its shockingly appalling.

I don't understand why people are looking around in shock like the impoverished parts of New Orleans is a complete and total shocking surprise. There has been a third world situation going on down there for decades. I'm 37 and I remember as young as 5 years old being down there and feeling so sorry for those people. These are not people that are the poor that live from pay check to pay check. That's rich compared to them. They are the poor people who can't even afford a gallon of milk.

We have because people that are so shallow. We are absorb in chasing after material things and having our concerns focused on situations that are none of our business or ridiculousness such as Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitts personal lives. We need to gain strength to face our own lives and environment to see what has gone so desperately wrong. Poverty in America is not just limited to New Orleans. Eric you know that first hand. Plus there are other situations that needs to be reformed such as the grotesque living situations of Nursing Homes and how our elders are treated in this country. A large number of Americans have dumped their own family in the most horrific living situations and only visit for an hour on Christmas.

And while we are on the subject of "Superstars" who help third world countries.... MUCH RESPECT TO THEM!!! But your own country needs your help right now.... SOS!!!!

Eric - This subject is just so vast and so unbelievably wrong... I have no idea which way to go first.

One Thing that is for certain is:

The People of New Orleans are a tough stock. They are built like titanium. They don't go down easy.

The People of New Orleans are touched by Magic. They Shall Overcome!!!!!

Thank you.
-- Nichell



Friday, Sept. 2, 2005

Dear Readers:

Here's an article called Katrina, the Awakener, the first in the New Orleans series. I am hearing many strange reports from people in the United States and abroad -- the most recent being that news in Canada is reporting that the US federal government has not responded to a substantial offer of aid and mobile hospitals from the Canadian government. A search and rescue team of 45 has been deployed by the province of British Columbia at the request of the state of Louisiana, not the federal government.

Please keep reports of anything you may hear on local news that you think might be relevant to others to me. PLEASE USE YOUR VCR AND TAPE THE NEWS. Buy tapes and tape as much as you can! Please archive newspapers from your local area, and save web pages that look interesting. Remember, versions of stories to the news sites will change by the minute, so what you see now may not be there 10 minutes later.

This will be even more astonishing in a little hindsight than it is today.

Here's the link to today's essay, which is on its way to subscribers:

http://planetwaves.net/astrology/neworleans.html

Stay in touch --

   Eric Francis
    francis@planetwaves.net

------------

Here is an out-take -- an unused portion -- of today's essay. These issues were too complex to get into, as were the minor planets. I will develop those next week.

We are witnessing the 9/11 of the second Bush term, with one exception, one not so small emotional factor missing: this time, there is nobody to blame, nobody to go to war with, just a very big mess, and hundreds of thousands of Americans converted to refugees. Meanwhile, gasoline is selling for more than $3.00 per gallon on the coasts, and $6.00 per gallon in Atlanta. Prices are rising by the day.
 
I keep wondering: who, exactly, is getting this money? Has anybody published a little pie chart?
 
What oil and Katrina have in common is global warming. While some say there is "no proof" of global warming, just what, we may ask, is happening to all the heat and greenhouse gas created by burning billions of gallons of fossil fuel? Essentially, the heat emitted by cars and factories turns to storms.
 
"For all its numbing ferocity, Hurricane Katrina will not be a unique event, say scientists, who say that global warming appears to be pumping up the power of big Atlantic storms," Agence France Press reported earlier this week. "More and more scientists estimate that global warming, while not necessarily making hurricanes more frequent or likelier to make landfall, is making them more vicious," the French press agency reported. Of course, this is coming from France; we may need to go out for some Freedom Toast.
 
Consider this. According to the same article, "Just a tiny increase in [ocean] surface temperature can have an extraordinary effect [on the intensity of storms], says researcher Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In a study published in Nature in July, Emanuel found that the destructive power of North Atlantic storms had doubled over the past 30 years, during which the sea-surface temperature rose by only 0.5 C (0.9 F)."
 
Climate change is not a popular subject in a government whose top officials include as many oil executives as you'd expect to find, well, in an oil company. This article also appeared on August 30, from The Guardian, one of the most respected British newspapers:
 
Republicans Accused of Witch-Hunt
Against Climate Change Scientists
By Paul Brown
 
Some of America's leading scientists have accused Republican politicians of intimidating climate-change experts by placing them under unprecedented scrutiny.
 
A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published.
 
Mr. Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairman opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change.
 
He is using the wide powers of his committee to force the scientists to produce great quantities of material after alleging flaws and lack of transparency in their research. He is working with Ed Whitfield, the chairman of the sub-committee on oversight and investigations.
 
The scientific work they are investigating was important in establishing that man-made carbon emissions were at least partly responsible for global warming, and formed part of the 2001 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which convinced most world leaders -- George Bush was a notable exception -- that urgent action was needed to curb greenhouse gases. [*article continued at link below.]
So let's see. One would infer from this that powerful oil business interests who have control of the government are attempting to quash information, and those who discovered it, which proves the use of oil is heating up the planet and causing huge environmental problems.
 
At the same time, oil companies are profiteering from these disasters. We can be sure that the $3.25 per gallon in Fresno or upstate New York is not going to the kid pumping the gas, or the cashier at 7-Eleven.
 
 
Introducing Peak Oil
If you think "global warming" is a kind of taboo, occult subject, at least you've heard of it. There are two words you don't hear uttered in the media, because the story is so large it's like the sky itself. The words are "peak oil." Peak oil is short for peak oil production. Peak oil production is different than saying that a marshmallow factory produces the most bags on a Thursday. Oil is a natural substance, and there is only one world to get it from.
 
We forget quickly that every thing we touch, use, eat, drink, and think about in a consumer society -- and much of the world besides -- involves oil. Everything plastic is made of it; that's a lot of stuff. Petroleum accounts for 90% of our transportation energy.
 
The way I understand it, oil first comes out of the ground like soda when you shake up the bottle: under pressure. It will surge out for a while, maybe a long while, and then when the pressure is lost, you have to draw the oil out. Peak production ends when the soda effect runs out. This both slows down the supply, as well as the quality of the product, meaning that more energy must be put into refining it, very likely with more waste.
 
While there is a global warming-like debate unfolding over when peak oil will happen, it is not a matter of if, and it is most likely happening now -- when the demand is the highest, and getting higher (think: the development of China.)

(end of out take)





Political Waves

While I'm pulling together some New Orleans coverage for Friday, I can refer you you to the Political Waves site for articles recently posted by Jude.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/



Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005

Hello. The Q & A on Jonathan Cainer's site has been updated with some new stuff, and part two in my series on how horoscopes work -- The Cosmic Voice of Reason -- is with Rachael, the proofreader in Los Angeles. The article includes reviews of the astrology writing of Rob Brezsny, Jonathan Cainer, Sally Brompton, Yasmin Boland, Jacquline Bigar and a number of other writers -- as well as a long section on Patric Walker. This will be available first thing tomorrow to Planet Waves subscribers, along with the Friday horoscope and birthday report.

The Q & A is here: http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html

It has been an intense week, and not a pleasant one in the history of the world. An entire U.S. city is underwater. The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is about to exceed 2,000. Just as troubling is that this week, the number of journalists killed in the 30-month war exceeded the total number killed in two decades in Vietnam. This is according to the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders.

The price of gas in California has exceeded $3.25 per gallon and has jumped 14 cents overnight some places. Hmm, where is all this money going? What ever happened to the war for cheap oil? This just came by email from Brad Blanton.

A Nation Rocked to Sleep       by Carly Sheehan

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done
They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
He must be brave because his boy died for another man's lies
The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave
But I believe he died because they had oil to save
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?

Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?
The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep
But if we the people let them continue another mother will weep
Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?




Wednesday, August 31, 2005 (updated)

Thanks for the two day break. It's that waning time of the Moon and your Cancer rising blogger is feeling a bit introspective.

We are approaching an eventful New Moon, exact Saturday, Sept. 3 at 8:45 pm CED. In the days between now and then, we have the exact opposition of the Sun (in Virgo) and Uranus (the planet of surprises and inventions) in Pisces. This should shake the cosmic tree, particularly with everything else going on astrologically and otherwise.

This would include the approaching conjunction of Venus to Jupiter in Libra, exact Sept. 1, which is to say, in full effect right now. This is an event that is occurring close to the South Node of the Moon, the point in the chart associated with history and the effects of the past. As such, it may be part of an older story, representing a reunion of some kind, or the benefits of past effort. This may include the benefits of a skill, knowledge or wisdom that can be put to judicious use now.

Everything about this conjunction -- a meeting of the two "benefic" planets in one of the most positively oriented signs -- needs to be handled with a bit of prudence and an attitude of careful observation as events develop over the next two months, which include an eclipse of the Sun in Libra just over a month from today (Oct. 3).

It is just around that point (on Oct. 1) that Mars turns to retrograde motion for about 12 weeks. Mars, now moving slowly, very slowly, through Taurus, is certainly making itself felt in people's lives, though there are many possible effects and they are not all "negative." Mars remaining in one sign for a long time (as it does once every two years; the last one was Pisces, in the summer of 2003) places great emphasis on that sign. Taurus is the region of wealth, financial security, comfort and self-esteem. This emphasis may come in as questions, reform projects or events with which we collaborate to shape the path of our lives. We are already in the retrograde effect, as Mars now occupies degrees wherein it will be moving backwards. In all, it's a time to keep complications to a minimum, to keep discussions above the boards, and to keep a handle on where the people around you are coming from.

Last is the New Moon itself. Between now and Saturday, we are in the extreme waning phase of the Moon; this morning was probably the last time the Moon was visible as a thin crescent in the predawn sky. The Moon entered Leo on Wednesday morning (for just all time zones except Australia, when it was Wednesday evening). This event still has the Sun in a fairly close opposition to Uranus, so it could be a kind of cosmic trigger of both personal and collective events. Many other aspects suggest that we are in a stable, dependable enough time of history to proceed with some combination of caution and determination.

Happy Birthday, Virgo!
You may finally figure out that your beauty and love are the real riches that you give the world, and if you do, you will be a lot happier. You have learned so much, yet there remains a little piece of self-knowledge that seems to be hiding from you -- and if you want to find it, you're going to need to look, within. You have every reason to give up the voices that have offered their criticism of who you are for so long, and this, too, is a decision you need to make. It starts with the awareness that you owe people nothing, and they owe you nothing.

(This is the short version of the Birthday Report. The full version is available to Planet Waves Weekly subscribers.)

    e


PS -- John Writes: Enjoyed and found useful your interpretation of the new moon, Sun/Uranus opposition, Venus/Jupiter conjunction, etc.  Thanks! I’m curious that you didn’t mention Pluto going direct Sept. 2.

Ah yes. I have noticed a tendency to miss outer planet stations, though I do keep seeing that one in the ephemeris, and it's interesting how it clusters right in with the Venus-Jupiter event, the New Moon and much else besides. Jupiter is stationing direct in a friendly aspect to that Jupiter-Venus arrangement. We are certainly living in Sagittarian times, Pluto-styled; it would seem that world beat music has given way to world beat gunfire. Let's hope there's a breakthrough in the peace process, if there even is a peace process.



Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005

Hello -- I've been taking a couple of days off from this column, unannounced. I'll see you back on Wednesday with a bit on the Virgo New Moon and some new cover art.

Thanks for tuning in.

    e



Sunday, August 28, 2005

The New York Times just did an article on 2003 UB 313 "Xena" recently, which I thought was fair and accurate and even going a little deeper than superficial. So we've repackaged it and are offering it to Planet Waves readers.

Interesting that, to my knowledge, the last thing speculated as a planet in The New York Times was Chiron, discovered in 1977 and I believe reported in 1978. In a sense, that seals the deal; the Times really is what Pacifica Radio commentator Dr. Gary Null sardonically refers to as "the voice of God."

Here is the link:

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/today's_horoscope.html

At the bottom you'll find a link to my brief coverage of the discovery on Cainer.com, but for your convenience, I'll put the link here as well:

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/aug5.html

    e



Dear Readers,

For the curious...a prior incarnation of the Planet Waves site is available almost in its entirety, for the moment. You can look around at this link to learn more:

http://ericfrancis.s418.sureserver.com/

To hear the official Planet Waves theme music, click the link at the very top that says "H.M.S. Pinafore."

Here's an archive of vintage essays from that site, going back to 1998 (a typo dates the earliest article as originating in 1999 instead of 1998).

http://ericfrancis.s418.sureserver.com/pwessays.html

This first link takes you into the approximate shape of the Web page between 2001 and 2003. It was really my first attempt at an organized web page, started in the summer of '01. It seemed like so much time had passed since first going online with Planet Waves, which had next to no organizational structure, in December 1998! In one introduction to the project, I describe the site as the "information bumper cars" rather than the information superhighway.

Some of my favorite old pieces (at the contents link above) are a series of four from 1999, under the general heading of Burning Man. The article, "Flashpoints, The continuation of Burning Man" captures some of the energy of the summer of 1999, in the pre-Bush, pre-Sept. 11 world.

I'm going to guess that the link below is the oldest document on the site, dating to August 1998, when I began coverage of the Aug. 11, 1999 grand cross and total solar eclipse. In 1998, I did most of my writing for RealAstrology.com, Rob Brezsny's old page. Unfortunately I don't have online copies of a lot of that stuff, mostly written in Germany.

http://www.planetwaves.net/thinking.html

For a while there was a series called For The Faithful. Here is an example from that project:

http://www.planetwaves.net/FTF0501.html

Anyway -- a bit of memory lane for you. It would be interesting to hear what you think has changed about Planet Waves and what you think has stayed the same. One thing that's changed a little is the design. Lots of pages used to look like this. I still like that dark, dreamy feeling of the original site -- introspective and late at night.

http://planetwaves.net/mainmenu.html

For those who want to see the artwork that used to adorn Planet Waves, check a site called http://www.psycherotica.com.

It's interesting watching, or perhaps feeling, time go by on the Internet. And space. I've written and for many years designed the site traveling one-way through Germany, northern New Jersey, Miami, Vancouver BC, Vashon Island, WA, Seattle, New York, Boston, London, Paris, Amsterdam, San Pedro in Spain, Bamburg in Germany, with long stops in Montreal and Toronto, and now back in Paris this late night. Lots of practice being here now, though writing this I can barely believe it's true.

    e



By the way -- before I log off for the weekend -- there's some great new stuff on Political Waves, our all-politics distribution list moderated by Jude. You don't need to be signed up to read it on the web for free. The address is here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

Here is a sample:

Dumbing Down Darwin

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
 by Michael Winship

As I walked home across Greenwich Village Friday night, my attention  was caught by a sign outside the Church of the Ascension, an Episcopalian  house of worship on lower Fifth Avenue.

"Jesus died to take away your sins," it read, "not  your mind."

It's true. We're perfectly capable of losing our minds without His assistance.

Have a good weekend, or do your best, and I mean it.

    e



Friday, Aug. 26, 2005

From today's Planet Waves Weekly

Let's presume that astrology does not work. That is, that it doesn't matter to Libras that Venus is passing through their sign, or that there's an eclipse coming up; it's just a planet going by. Saturn in Leo is the same as Saturn in Cancer, it's just a little further to the left and that does not mean anything to people, or their cats or dogs. Let's pretend there's no effect on the human or critter realms, just like official skeptics claim. Forget the fact that people get wiggy around the Full Moon, or that more earthquakes happen, or that our bodies are affected by gravitational forces or that every bit of energy or matter affects every other, as quantum physicists know well. Let's forget that there's plenty we don't know about how lots of things work.

Let's look at astrology as strictly a social construction. The stuff has been around for a long time, and most people have noticed its existence. Most people know their astrological sign (called the Sun sign), and have a relationship to it; they will either identify with the traits or not; most people who can read have done some investigating, even if it was for 45 seconds in a book shop, or in The New York Post.

Independently of the planets and whatever effect they may have, astrology exists as a bunch of ideas that we share and exchange.

We'll be posting the whole article soon.



Thursday, Aug. 25, 2005

Continuing in the series of non-blogs as the week's astrology builds to a crescendo -- Mercury makes its last square to Mars, the Moon and the Sun are at last quarter, and Venus crosses the degree of the Oct. 3 solar eclipse -- all the same day. Today and Friday promise to be interesting days for the news, and also come with some personal revelations that help wrap up the mysteries of the past six or eight weeks.

Today I'll be writing the Planet Waves essay. I still  have not figured out what to do. I will soon do a general piece on Virgo, I was thinking of doing Betty Dodson's chart on the occasion of her 76th birthday, and I have an idea for a book chapter about how people respond to astrology columns. I think I may do that, because it's been calling me. One of my plans for the fall is to rekindle the process of writing chapters in a book I started in the spring that a few agents said they liked.

An easy way to do that is to run that in tandem with my other writing. I have done some of that -- but not quite enough to move things along. As you know, I always have the push to do something new, relevant in that moment, and to keep it fresh all the time...a good idea, if you're swimming in the lake of popculture...but the downside to that is that pieces quickly become about "past things."

So to do this, I need to write pieces that are what's called timeless, not linked to a particular time; or linked to a time that comes up over and over, like Virgo, but made relevant for every year. I think that this would be a worthy experiment, if you're willing to go along with it. I would really like to see the Planet Waves book happen, but it's not going to be by accident -- it needs to be both intuitive and follow at least an idea-to-idea scheme. That means essays that work as chapters, and that may not have anything much to do with "now" in the obvious sense.

So...in a moment I'll be pulling up my socks and heading out to my favorite writing haunt at Place de la Contrescarpe and see what comes up and out.



Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2005

Good morning America, good afternoon London. I'm in the thick of my writing week, so I don't have much to say in a blog. But some new stuff on Virgo and Chiron is in the works for this week. Today is also the birthday of my friend, mentor and hero, Betty Ann Dodson. Her web page is at http://bettydodson.com/

    e



Tuesday, August 23, 2005

GOOD MORNING WORLD, and welcome to Virgo. The Sun entered the sixth sign of the tropical zodiac about two hours past midnight this morning, Greenwich time. I've often noticed how at this time of year, at least some of the places I've lived, that the light changes as the Sun crosses the Leo to Virgo cusp. Something is obviously different; it looks and feels like late summer Sun.

Virgo is a mutable sign. Mutable means changeable. It can take different forms, sometimes assertive, sometimes passive, and often differing. All the seasons end with one of these mutables, when one season dissolves into the next; speaking for the Northern Hemisphere, Gemini ends the springtime, Virgo ends the summer, Sagittarius ends autumn and Pisces ends winter. Run that backwards for Down Under.

The astrological signs represent the oldest and most mysterious dimension of astrology -- and also one of the more obvious. They are the basic archetypes of human experience, as we experience it, you might say the trump cards of the astrological system. They tell a cultural story we are born into, repeat to ourselves often, go looking for, and rewrite as we go. The myths of the signs, more than any other set of symbols, connect to religion, art, folklore and much of literature. This works whether we believe in astrology or not; the myths are alive inside us, and we have relationships to them no matter what we think we think.

Virgo "the virgin" is the cult of the yummy, tummy, fertile young woman. Alice A Bailey relates her to Mary, and the Egyptian goddess Isis. Here's a bit on Isis from Encarta. We'll gradually update the photos on the site this week to keep in tune with the times. And much more on Virgo in Friday's Planet Waves Weekly.

"In Egyptian mythology, goddess of fertility and motherhood. According to the Egyptian belief, she was the daughter of the god Keb (“Earth”) and the goddess Nut (“Sky”), the sister-wife of Osiris, judge of the dead, and mother of Horus, god of day. After the end of the Late Period in the 4th century bc, the center of Isis worship, which was then reaching its greatest peak, was on Philae, an island in the Nile, where a great temple was built to her during the 30th Dynasty. Ancient stories described Isis as having great magical skill, and she was represented as human in form though she was frequently described as wearing the horns of a cow. Her personality was believed to resemble that of Athor, or Hathor, the goddess of love and gaiety."



Monday, Aug. 22, 2005

THE WEEK AHEAD looks a little calmer than we've been used to, with the Full Moon having passed. Assuming you still have your job and still have some friends, you ought to be getting along better with them now. However, we are still under the lingering influence of what seems like the longest Mercury-Mars square in galactic history, as Mercury is still stationing in early Leo square Mars in mid-Taurus. If I recall correctly, that aspect is exact on Aug. 26, with Mercury opposite Neptune in Aquarius.

Mars is now in shadow phase -- that is, it has entered the degrees where it will be retrograde later this year. This commences events surrounding its once-per-two-years retrograde. Interesting to note that Mars stations Rx on Oct. 2, just before an eclipse of the Sun on Oct. 3 at the Libra New Moon. That first week of October is super duper interesting, and October itself will have all the properties of the "venturi effect" that comes with eclipses. But we're a little ahead of ourselves.

Today the Moon is in Aries, and reaches last quarter Friday, Aug. 26 -- the same day that Mercury and Mars make their last exact square.

The Sun enters Virgo later today, or very early Tuesday, depending on your time zone -- anyway, about 12 hours from now, and it's about 1 pm in Paris.

Here's my article on Virgo from last year to get you started contemplating this unusually interesting sign of the Goddess.

http://planetwaves.net/astrology/virgoastrology.html

Carry on, cousins.

    e
 



And...unbelievable! http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=3



Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005

THIS IS WORTH REPEATING. It is a lie and self-fulfilling prophesy so outrageous as to be criminal. From MSNBC/Reuters, from THIS weekend, not three years ago. Who believes these lies? Really? People who really need to? Take it away, George:

Bush links Iraq war with Sept. 11 attacks
President says troops fighting to protect Americans from terrorism

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush said Saturday U.S. troops in Iraq were fighting to protect Americans at home from terrorism like the Sept. 11 attacks four years ago.

"Our troops know that they're fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail," he said.

Continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9020634/




PS

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9022420/

Remember, the official US involvement in World War II was just four years.

    e



Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005

Not a blog -- but a recommendation -- of a five minute truthout.org video. The link is below. The selection is the sixth down on the right side -- about Iraq Veterans Against the War. Many great video clips from truthout.org -- they know how to make the most of the Internet, supported entirely by donation.

http://www.truthout.org/cindy.shtml

Iraq Vets Against the War is at http://IVAW.net/

Catch you tomorrow.

    e



Saturday, August 20, 2005

THERE ARE certainly some interesting vibes in the air, which seem to be polarized between the most authentically friendly and the most ridiculously hostile, just judging from what I'm feeling and hearing go on around me. Some may be in one of those moments where "love brings up everything unlike itself," as was often said back in my spiritual bootcamp, Miracle Manor.

The planets have been spinning wild designs today, with an exact Moon-Mercury-Uranus alignment, Mars right in the neighborhood and Jupiter lingering around too -- quite a collection. The Pisces Moon could be one of those things that get some people really dreamy and light-hearted and others feeling like they have to defend their vulnerabilities. Whatever anyone's particular response, the setup is certainly cinematic, and the late Leo Sun is making its way into Goddess territory.

Before it does that, I want to wish a happy birthday to the three Leos on the Planet Waves staff -- Chelsea Bottinelli, who runs the USA office; Michelle Perrin, who supervises the Q & A project from here in Paris; and Anatoly Ryzhenko in the Ukraine, who does some of our Web work. Jeanne Treadway, a kitty in New Mexico, friend and long-time inspiration, is probably reading too -- MEOW to all of you.

Catch you Monday.

    e



Note: there are alternate covers at http://planetwaves.net and http://planetwaves.info. Note also that the Moon is full Friday in the sign Aquarius at 7:53 pm Europe time, 6:53 pm London time, 1:53 pm New York time, three hours earlier in California and, if I am not mistaken, very early Saturday morning down in Oz.

    e



Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005

My afternoon activity is a new [hopefully short] bit in Planet Waves Weekly on the Aquarius Moon -- currently the Full Moon of the Month -- so for today's blog leave you with a couple of my prior efforts.

Anyone interested in receiving tomorrow's full Planet Waves Weekly compliments of the house, please drop me a note, with a clear subject header saying "request" or such -- to francis@planetwaves.net.

Aquarius Moonwalk
http://planetwaves.net/contents/moonwalk.html

Brother Moon
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/aquariusmoon.html

Thanks for dropping in, and catch you tomorrow.

    e



Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2005

Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am
But you know life is for learning

THIS TIME OF YEAR is the anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, held August 15, 16 and 17, 1969 in Bethel, New York. Usually, I post a photo from the festival on the cover, but I wanted to use something new, and I'm having trouble getting a hold of my colleague Eliot Landy in [the actual town of] Woodstock, who took a lot of pictures at the festival and is a busy guy. So I'll leave it to a mention, a little reminder that the event happened.

The Sixties proceeded very rapidly from that day in late 1963 when John F. Kennedy was killed. Less than 16 weeks later, the Beatles arrived at the airport that would soon be named for JFK, and poured a whole lot of energy into American culture. Consciousness about Vietnam had been raising for some time (in part thanks to Bob Dylan, the first cultural figure to raise the issue). This was even before the war's official start in 1964 with the Gulf of Tonkien non-incident; an reported attack on a U.S. vessel that was really a fraud, but which President Johnson used to persuade Congress to get more fully involved in the war. Up to that point, the U.S. provided weapons, CIA "advisors," money and most of all, instigation.

As the years between 1964 and 1969 went by in a blur, the peace movement built momentum, the chaos of change, drugs, sexual energy being turned loose, progressive politics and insane politics carried life along at a pace nobody had ever seen. Everything was changing, all at once (since this is an astrology site, I can say that was about Uranus conjunct Pluto, opposite Chiron). The Beatles infused the culture with a message and a feeling of love. But the year 1968 brought Richard Nixon to office, the same year that Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were murdered. By the summer of 1969, there seemed to be such mixed feelings that nobody knew where to turn.

They turned to one another, on Max Yasgur's farm in the Village of Bethel, Town of White Lake, New York. I've been there, and it's a place you don't think of when you say those mythic words New York. It's really a huge pasture and two lane roads. It takes nearly an hour just to get to to the New York State Thruway, and two hours more to get to the city. You're quite literally in the middle of nowhere. But it's still the East Coast and it's still close enough to the city that many thousands of people came -- as did all the great musicians of the day, save for Dylan, the Beatles and a scant few others. (The Grateful Dead played what is regarded as their worst show ever, as rain fell on the musicians and they got electrical shocks from their guitar strings during a very short set, pardon the pun.)

What happened those three days was remarkable because young people were able to transcend the turmoil and bitter controversy of the time and hang out together in relative peace for a long weekend. This, at the height of Vietnam, of Nixon, of the loss of all the great heroes of the American left who were mysteriously disappeared.

Here is an interesting web page with lots of history.

http://www.yasgurroad.com/history.html

I'll leave you with the lyrics to the song Woodstock by Joni Mitchell. And hey -- thank you Max Yasgur, dairy farmer and revolutionary.

I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I’m going to join in a rock ’n’ roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an’ get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden




Tuesday, August 16, 2005

MERCURY IS DIRECT as of late Monday just before midnight in North America, early Tuesday morning in Europe and the UK, and Tuesday afternoon in Oz. The station direct occurred in Leo, with Mercury in a 1.5 degree square to Mars, so it's holding a rare, long, as in weeks long, 90-degree angle to the red planet. Mars, for its part, is working its way toward a square to Neptune. Continue to beware of self-destructive behavior in yourself and in others. I regret using the word behavior, but that's the word.

We are in a kind of astrological testing ground that takes us through the Full Moon later this week and into the waning cycle. Challenging aspects persist, as do a series of improvements to the general condition. In a day or so, Venus joins Jupiter and Pallas in Libra, and works its way toward a conjunction exact in two weeks on Sept. 1. The Venus-Jupiter-Pallas conjunction is trine Neptune, which is a big opening in the universe after quite a few tight squeezes.

As for the more immediate news of the Mercury direct, take this one step at a time, as Mercury is still slow and powerful, and square Mars. It can take a lot of practice to learn how not to hurt oneself under astrology that features self-attack, intense self-criticism and serious doubts about one's values. The whole purpose of being aware of astrology is to raise these aspects to another level, so we can work with them more consciously; indeed, self-consciously.

We are in extraordinarily challenging territory for people who suffer from any form of psychological or emotional instability. This is due to the two square aspects involving Mars, the fast changes to Mercury, and the fast-approaching Full Moon in Aquarius. Within yourself, be mindful of extremes of emotion, opinions you may hold of others, judgments and so on. These are especially dangerous traps now, and as the combined intensity of the Full Moon adds to the emotional waterflow, it's easy to say things you regret.

When in doubt, stand back, pay attention to what's going on around you and within you, and let the whole thing pass like a dream. It can be a truly creative dream, as square aspects in their highest expression are aspects of integration of inner energies, and making decisions to improve our lives. They may have a feeling of being forced, or made under pressure, or there may be the sense that long overdue changes are being thrust in your direction; but several points of movement, action and resolution are in the neighborhood right now.

Struggling, attack and fighting are just a few of the less creative uses of the sky as we're feeling it. As the spiritual aspirant, your job is to find others and put them to work in your life, or to play.



Monday, August 15, 2005

IT'S ALWAYS FUNNY to find out where your school friends ended up. I made a discovery tonight clicking on truthout.org, checking out a story about some alleged fraud associated with people connected to Tom Delay (R-Texas), that fabulous example of a Congressional representative and postmodern national hero.

When I graduated from John Dewey High School (a year early) in 1981, I was editor of the school's social science journal, Gadfly. It was my first serious editing project. Ronnie Reagan had just been elected; and so too had my successor at Gadfly, a kid named Adam Kidan, who lived around the corner from me. We rode the bus into school every day. My most vivid memory of Kidan is that he was the guy who told me John Lennon had been shot.

Even at the tender age of 17, and at the buttcrack of dawn of the 80s, Kidan was a Neocon. He espoused this curious New Conservatism with a smug, almost humorous confidence, and basically was the in-person herald that my own political views were about to become passé, that the world was turning Republican, and so was Gadfly. My other most vivid memory of Kidan is how he said the word "conservative" -- tucking his chin against his chest, and pronouncing it like the only word there was.

His favorite kind of sports car was a Bricklin. There was one parked in his driveway. I guess this was back in the days when being conservative still meant you bought U.S.-made products. That part at least made sense.

Ah yes; now I remember. He even tried to have me impeached with less than a month left to the school year. That would have been for an editorial I wrote putting the newspaper behind an effort to keep students and parents involved in the selection of a new principal.

Adam Kidan made something of himself; I am not surprised. He got rich as founder of Dial-A-Mattress and made some friends in high places. Then he got mixed up in a casino deal involving a "fleet of floating gambling parlors." Go Adam! I'm certain he would not be surprised to find out I was running a freaky little Web magazine from my apartment in Paris, still using everything I'd learned from day one at Gadfly.

Here's a bit from the Washington Post story I just read:

Washington lobbyist arrested in LA

    Miami -- Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday as part of a wide-ranging fraud case stemming from the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line from a businessman later murdered in Fort Lauderdale, the US attorney announced.

     Abramoff, a key figure in ethics investigations into House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), was arrested in Los Angeles in late afternoon Eastern time and was expected to be taken to a US magistrate there. He was indicted along with Adam Kidan, the former owner of the Dial-A-Mattress franchise in Washington. Kidan, 41, of New York City, will surrender to the FBI here by Friday morning, his attorney, Martin I. Jaffe, said in a written statement.

[I am going to presume that there's just one 41-year-old Adam Kidan, now verified to be Adam R. Kidan, from New York City entangled in Republican politics. If there are two, then there are two of me; the other one lives on Mykonos summers, is married to Bjork, and produces rock videos. The story continues...]

    Abramoff, and two business and political friends -- Kidan and Ben Waldman of Springfield, Va. -- purchased SunCruz Casinos in September 2000 for $147.5 million from Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Records and interviews show that Abramoff used his connections to members of Congress to help seal the purchase of the company. Waldman was not indicted in the case.

     The heart of the alleged SunCruz fraud was a record of a $23 million payment to a Boulis holding company intended to persuade lenders to provide $60 million in financing to Abramoff's group toward the $147.5 million purchase of the fleet of floating gambling parlors. The record of the investment was a wire transfer, faxed by Kidan and Waldman to the partners' key lender -- Foothill Capital, a specialty lender now a division of Wells Fargo Bank, according to records reviewed by The Post in federal bankruptcy court in Fort Lauderdale.

     The money was never really sent. The account on the wire transfer had long been closed. Other papers in bankruptcy court suggest that Boulis knew the $23 million wasn't sent because he instead accepted $20 million in notes.

[Here is the rest.]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081205M.shtml



Sunday, August. 14, 2005

We Have the Power
By Cindy Sheehan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/

MY DAY STARTED way too early today. After 3 hours of sleep, I was being shaken awake by someone at 6:30 a.m. telling me that the Today show wanted me to be on. I had come into town to sleep in a trailer because my tent had been infested with fire ants.

We had a very interesting day. We had Bush drive by really, really fast twice. I caught a glimpse of Laura. I was hoping after she saw me that she would come down to Camp Casey with some brownies and lemonade. I waited for her, but she never came.

The Bushes were going to a barbeque/fundraiser down the road from us. I was very surprised that they let us stay so close to Bush. The families of the fallen loved ones held their son's crosses from Arlington West while Bush drove by. I bet it didn't even give him indigestion to see so many people protesting his murderous policies.

I am a continued thorn in the side of right-wing bloggers and right wing-nut "journalists." One man, Phil Hendry, called me an "ignorant cow." But you know what, the people who have come out from all over the country to give me a hug and support the cause of peace, overwhelms me so much, I don't have time to worry about the negativity and the hatred. The people who are slamming me have no idea about what it feels like to unjustly have a child killed in an insane war. Plus, they have no truth to fight truth with, so they fight truth with more lies and hate.

Three active duty soldiers from Ft. Hood came to visit me and tell me that they really appreciated what I was doing and that if they were killed in the war, their moms would be doing the same thing. That made me feel so good after all of the negativity I had been hearing from the righties. I also got to hold a couple of toddlers on my lap while their mom or dad took pictures of us. I am honored that people have resonated with the action that I took to make our mission of ending the war a reality.

We are here at the Crawford Peace House now. I came here so angry and I have been so encouraged and overwhelmed by the support from all over. I was thinking that there is no reason for us progressive liberals to be angry anymore. We have the power. One mom has shown that ordinary citizens can make a difference. We the people have to hold George Bush accountable. We have to make sure he answers to us. If he doesn't have to answer to Congress, or the media, we will force him to answer to us. ++



Weekend Non Update - Aug. 13-14

It's been a fabulously intense couple of weeks and barring any really unusual news, I'll be laying low for the weekend. So, no blogs, though we will spare you and get Bush's face off the cover on Saturday.

I mention that I'm doing more chilling than the usual work partying in part for the many people I'm corresponding with regarding projects; I will catch up with you as the Mercury station straightens out, so please be patient, and if you have not heard from me in a while, please feel free to remind me you exist.

For news updates, I leave you in the capable hands of Jude, moderator of Political Waves, whose postings you can find here without signing up for anything:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/

And  t r u t h o u t, which has some nice video coverage of the goings-on down in Crawford, link here: http://truthout.org/

Till Monday,

Yours and truly,

    e



Friday, August 12, 2005

Not to miss, breaking news: t r u t h o u t interviews Cindy Sheehan, mother of Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. And there's an excellent followup with the founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace. For all formats and connection speeds, click here:

http://www.truthout.org/cindy.shtml



Friday, Aug. 12, 2005

http://planetwavesweekly.com/iimnc476/cainer/PW050812.html

I'm going to post Friday's horoscope a little early. There's a daily from the Cainer series and also a weekly that will go out to subscribers. I have not dared to compare the two so I have no clue how that will work out. I'll leave that project to astrology students and trust that I'm not sending anyone scurrying in three psychological directions.

The photo on Friday's horoscope was a surprise when I saw it in my iPhoto display. A lot of the time I'm not looking so carefully at what I'm photographing, or I will miss language details while I'm busy taking in the light and the geometry. But the words I discovered in this one sum up my philosophy of safer sex quite nicely. I've long been calling AIDS the Acquired Intimacy Dysfunction Syndrome. Some of the most shocking statistics I've seen are those which describe whether people will reveal their health status before engaging in unprotected sex. Too many don't.

That's what tipped me off, in a time when I was researching the subject daily back in the early 90s, that there was a bigger problem on the loose than a virus.

I've had a lot to say about sex over the years, and I've put plenty of it in writing. But long ago I gave up harping on a "safe sex, use condoms" message, reaching for another layer of the same onion.

To make sex safer, both emotionally and physically, I propose that we work through the jealousy (and fear of jealousy in our partners) that prevents us from being honest about our sexual experiences, feelings and needs. I'm not saying that we not experience jealousy or try to pretend it does not exist. To the contrary, I think we need to go straight for the heart of the matter, and address jealousy as the fundamentally spiritual issue that it is, involving the fear of death and the death of relationships.

I understand this is daring territory. That's the nature of intimacy. But the most intimidating thing is silence, and fear is a close second. If we move through one maybe we can move through the other. Then maybe we can experience erotic exchange as the truly mystical and equally earthy experience that it is. Yes, I believe that sex is one of the true paths to God/dess, and to experiencing our mortal life in a full and free way. And that path begins with self-understanding and consciously allowing others to be who they are, and feel what they feel, with a commitment to granting full amnesty for those feelings.

Here's an article, a long-time favorite of Planet Waves readers, that you may not have seen. It's by a guy named William Pennell Rock, whose contribution to my life I appreciated so much I had to track him down in the Bay area and managed to get myself invited to lunch in his backyard. Intense dude, very grounded and real.

http://www.planetwaves.net/jealousy.html

Here's my Sex Archive at the beautiful http://Sexuality.org site in sleepy Seattle.

http://www.sexuality.org/l/ericfrancis/

Yeah, take care of the people you love. Love yourself. Tell the truth. And while you're at it, as Steely Dan said, don't ever do it without your fez on.

Peace & Passion,

-- Eric Francis



Thursday, August 11, 2005

Good to be back in Paris, as usual -- though there are times when the whole place reminds me of a chicken farm.

London was really quite excellent, and I left with a whole different impression than I did after my 10 weeks there last spring. My friend Justine, who is a devoted squatter, said I was living in too posh of a part of town (West Hampstead, where I scored a cheap place on Craig's List), so her theory was that the people were probably just acting snooty for good measure. Or I was just waking up from the Thorizine Shuffle known as Seattle.

That all being said and probably better left unsaid, London felt beautifully down to Earth this time around, a little like New York did after Sept. 11 -- I think people have been shocked to consciousness and a sense of community. I rode the Tube a lot and noticed no stress in me or in others.

Talking to street cops (one of my hobbies, apparently), I found them to be in a good mood everywhere, even laughing -- impressive, given their current rather grim task of being terrorism deflectors and security blankets.

So kudos, London.

Here is your Thursday horoscope from the Daily Mail and http://Cainer.com.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/iimnc476/cainer/PW050811.html

Catch you tomorrow.

    e



Weds. Aug. 10, 2005

Today's cover photo is the latest in the mirror series, depicting Kezia Campbell, a British model who is a talented freelance photographer herself. I've included a link to her Web page. She is available for both modeling and photographic assignments. She specializes in live musical venues. You can see some of her work at http://keziacampbell.com .

In other news, Wednesday's daily horoscope is ready. Here is the link:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/iimnc476/cainer/PW050810.html

My friends, it's been one long day -- and I am ready to sleep. Catch you tomorrow.

    e

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