May 30 | Welcome to the Working Week

Note, I'm running late on my planned blog...thanks for your patience!

Hey there. I'm in a place where I have to drive 10 miles to check my email, which is actually pretty nice sometimes, though it does not facilitate easy blogging. And it's strange not having the 24-hour IV Internet drip; I am just starting to get past the withdrawal symptoms and getting used to the idea of Starbucks. At the moment it's midnight and I'm sitting on their front stoop.

I do plan to be back online in the afternoon Eastern time Tuesday, with a look at the astrology in the days from now until the Sagittarius Full Moon.

These days I'm spending a lot of time in and around New Paltz but somewhat coincidentally have not set foot on the SUNY campus or taken my sampling kit into their contaminated buildings. It's a lot of fun hanging out on one of the thicker layers of my life and in the place in the world that feels most like home.

Thanks for tuning in -- catch you soon.

    e



Just one question: Why doesn't the Pope meet a few Abu Gharib survivors?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/28/auschwitz.pope.ap/index.html



Just a reminder to check in with Political Waves for the latest updates. A lot of news is moving with the New Moon in Gemini -- almost faster than anyone can keep up. You can read Pol Waves directly at this link:

http://planetwaves.info/polwaves.php

See you over the weekend!

    e

PS here is a holiday bonus -- all our birthday reports from 2005. If you like what you read, you can sign up for Planet Waves Weekly at the link below. Really a twice weekly service, you get two horoscopes a week, plus lots else besides.

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



Enron's Prize | from this week's Planet Waves Weekly

CHART: http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=enron

DOES CRIME PAY? Thursday at 11 a.m., the jury in the trial of Kenneth Lay, founder and former CEO of Enron and close compadre of George W. Bush, convicted him of six counts of fraud and conspiracy and four counts of bank fraud. Jeff Skilling, former president of Enron, was convicted of 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and one count of insider trading. The two men face sentences that could keep them in jail the rest of their lives. In a synchronicity reeking of irony and almost so glaring it begs to be overlooked, Lay will be sentenced on the 5th anniversary of the the Sept. 11 attacks.

Both men are expected to appeal their verdicts. But due to one factor in the chart -- Saturn in Leo, exactly in the ascendant -- I don't suggest they hold their breaths. If Saturn in Leo does one thing, it's stick around for a while. (For the history of this, I suggest looking for my series on Saturn in Leo from last summer -- see Astrology Secrets Revealed archive.)

Enron's bosses (including many other people besides Lay and Skilling) not only stole hundreds of millions of dollars from their employees' retirement funds; they also rigged a scheme to systematically gouge the ratepayers of California (remember the famous quote about screwing over Grandma Millie), pushing energy rates through the roof for no good reason, creating shortages and faux blackouts to stir up chaos and push the rates even higher, buying and selling their own energy to drive the price up still more, betraying the public trust and profiting wildly all along.

Continued in Planet Waves Weekly, the subscriber edition...



Hello...there is way too much news coming through all at once to comment on, so I'm going to refer you to Political Waves. Jude has a handle on it... Interesting, exciting moments as the extreme waning Moon sweeps up some of the dust. News on Kenny Boy and Jeff Killing, as well as the Rovak and a little on Dick and also on Net Neutrality. The Taurus Moon just blew through the same grand cross that keeps showing up, and which will be with us constantly for the next four weeks. Venus is trine Pluto and the Galactic Core.

How many days till Fitzmas? How many days till the Man burns? Good stuff here -- enjoy, and stoke that flame.

http://planetwaves.info/polwaves.php

Here is the best data on Enron I have so far, which I will be covering in tomorrow's Planet Waves Weekly:

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=enron



Note to readers: I'm in the Hudson Valley these days. If you'd like to get in touch, you may drop me a note at francis@planetwaves.net and I'll get back to you. Please include a phone number or two. Note, I am not doing astrology consultations, I'm just here to see friends and meet readers.

Thursday, May 25, 2006 | Another World

YESTERDAY I shared a little about the history of Squire Student Union, which had been the heart of the University at Buffalo until it was closed in late 1981. The atmosphere of the building, the way the light poured in through the high windows everywhere, the fireplaces, and the way the space was organized to create both focus and flow, provided an environment where students were self-aware of being a community and a relevant part of the university.

Squire Hall (originally called Norton Union) replaced an older union (the old Norton Union, later called Harriman Hall) when the campus outgrew the original, and it was an architectural masterpiece, funded by a special private endowment (not the by state) and was designed to serve its purpose beautifully.

One of my favorite details of Squire was the blue tile archway that surrounded the enormous main doors at the two ends of the place. The central corridor through the building was a place thousands of people would walk through on the way to someplace else, just because they could. On the outside, at either end, the bands of royal blue (the school color) that surrounded the doors, were about six feet wide and rose high over the doors to just below the second story windows. About four or five different shades of blue tile were used in a mosaic, composed of one inch squares, with occasional white ones interspersed. When sunlight hit the face of the building, it would reflect a bluer-than-blue color that would vibrate out a peaceful, loving energy you could see glowing a mile away, inviting you nearer and then inviting you in. The union was open to the campus community and was the meeting point where student life and city life merged.

I never noticed how the bluer-than-blue effect was created with a mosaic until I had a piece of the edifice on my desk after it had been torn down.

When I first visited the campus when I was about 16, Squire was the impression the campus made on me. When I arrived as a first year student a year later, the union would exist for just one more semester. I've always regretted that I had not been at the university longer when there was a true home-space for student life, but visiting this past week, I realized how fortunate I was that I had experienced it at all. Having seen, felt and with the help of mentors, understood the role of the union, I could take a piece of that spirit with me into my own student organizing work and then on what I knew would be a long journey into the future.

For years, Generation, the magazine I founded and edited, was located next to Squire, and we slowly watched the building be torn apart and gutted for a new dental school facility.

Even though a new campus was being built out in Amherst, I had no desire at all to move the Generation offices out there. Besides the fact that we loved our space, it seemed a betrayal to remove the last really strong student organization from the old campus. I also knew we wouldn't get any decent space on the new campus, particularly since the administration refused to even plan for a new student union, despite the constant pressure that a group of us were exerting on them year after year. Instead, student organizations were being scattered around the new campus in a "non-centralized" arrangement. The term non-centralized was another word for "riot proof."

Memories of Squire were still fresh in the institutional memory. The centralized student union had become a kind of fortification against police during antiwar protests, particularly during the tumultuous spring of 1970 -- when students were shot at Kent State, Jackson State, and on our campus as well.

The short version of that story is that in April, Richard Nixon announced that he had secretly been bombing Cambodia, a neighbor of Vietnam. This revelation set off a wave of protests that led to nearly a third of campuses in the US being shut down early by their administrations; Buffalo was eventually shut down early and everyone sent home without academic penalty. In the midst of this, National Guardsmen opened fire on students at Kent State University, killing four, who happened to be pedestrians or photographers. The Kent State deaths, memorialized in the Neil Young song "Ohio," set off yet another wave of protests around the country.

You know the words. They go:

Tin soldiers and Nixons coming
We're finally on our own...

Next to my office in the basement of Harriman was a weird little room wedged into a corner, and somehow a collection of old copies of Buffalonian, the campus yearbook, had been dumped there when parts of Squire were moved. Among these were dozens of copies of the 1970 edition, which to this day remains one of my favorite printed works ever (and which I just put my hands on tonight -- I had it stashed at a friend's house in New Paltz, my current stop). The yearbook documents much of this history in photographs and long captions describing the scenes. The cover is a stylized image of Prometheus carrying his fire, brilliantly appropriate for the times.

In running a student organization on the campus in the 1980s, I was fully aware that I was the inheritor of a legacy. I knew that despite the times having changed and the campus, indeed, all campuses, being extremely quiet at that time, it was my responsibility to keep that flame alive and pass it on. Others had passed the flame to me, including Reg Gilbert, who I mentioned yesterday, as well as my American Studies professor Michael Frisch, who had spent hours showing me photographs and news cuttings he had saved, and explaining the politics of activism and citizen participation in the world.

Photos of Squire from that era look like a scene from a war, with police cars and ambulances parked outside, as well as a K-9 corps truck, and riot police standing next to the entrance. The words "Off Themis" are graffitied onto those gorgeous blue tiles -- a reference to an underwater military program that was being developed on the campus at the time.

In other photos, hundreds of city riot police are seen parading around like soldiers, with the campus described in the yearbook as an "armed camp." The decision to bring in city police, made by interim president Peter Regan, was a big one -- SUNY has a long tradition of only allowing its own [then unarmed] Public Safety officers on campus.

Student Association meetings, held in an enormous lounge or a gymnasium, were packed with participants, and the expressions on students' faces were determined and intense. There was not an inch of space to move. Students voted, on a "polity" basis (that is, everyone participates in the vote -- not just elected student reps) for a university-wide strike, and formed a peace patrol. The yearbook reports that three members of the peace patrol "were beaten by the police and others threatened by more radical factions of the university" and as a result, it was soon disbanded. Around this time, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was thrown off campus by the faculty as a protest against the war in Vietnam, and as a statement that the university would be used for peaceful purposes only. In another episode from that spring, 40 young professors took over the office of college president Peter Regan, protesting the police presence, and were arrested.

It is difficult to describe the sense of commitment, urgency and passion of the campus community. It is more difficult to understand the energy beneath it, pushing it upwards. But in the dedication to the yearbook, the editors summed it up well. The '70 edition is dedicated to Linda T. Hanley, who was editor of the campus newspaper, The Spectrum, and to Dorothy M. Haas, the student union director and a rather extraordinary member of the administration.

"Contemporary reality breeds an atmosphere for crisis," the dedication begins. "It is during these critical times that a whole society becomes a pressurized system of conflicting roles. American culture has, indeed, experienced the full impact of such moments.

"One manifestation of modern crisis is the campus riot. The Buffalo campus has crossed the threshold into this relatively new phenomenon. As a result, attention has been focused on the student media and the student union."

Referring to Linda Hanley's writing, it says: "It was when the administration's phantom-like authority made Hayes Hall [the admin building] nothing more than a facade, her controversial editorials gave an outraged student community a voice in the affairs of the university. These same editorials proved that today's student realizes that a university is an important instrument for social change; and that requests for change cannot be met with administrative belligerency. Negotiation can hardly be considered an unreasonable demand."

What they are saying here is that students, angry at the way the world was going, demanded a role in the governance of the entire university -- not, for example, what was served for lunch or what movies were shown. This participation they viewed as taking a role in the wider world, understanding that universities are institutions that have traditionally been influential in many societies around the world. They continue:

"The Spectrum's in-depth analysis and interpretation of the rapidly succeeding events gave an otherwise chaotic situation some kind of direction and coherence. It was this kind of scope that the paper possessed throughout the year...It is during times of crisis that social responsibility of individuals is increased. By placing emerging trends of the university into an understandable social context, Linda Hanley has displayed the new consciousness of the contemporary student. It is this consciousness that will, hopefully, regain the integrity and relevance of the university in America."

SO, READERS of Planet Waves: That was then. This is now. The planets have moved. The Uranus-Pluto conjunction is long gone (except in many of our natal charts). Squire Student Union may have been taken from students, plastered over till it was unrecognizable, and its blue edifice torn down and replaced with galvanized aluminum panels. Its enormous welcoming doors may have been blocked, its fireplaces torn down, and its marble floors replaced with synthetic tiles. Maybe there's a sterilization unit where the bowling alley used to be.

The University is an idea, not a campus or a building. It is the idea that we are free to think, to gather, to make inquiries, and to form communities that are based on learning, personal growth and exploration. We don't need to be spiritual, only to recognize that we are free to seek understanding, to express ourselves, and to take a role in the way our world is run, because it is our world, if we remember.

Or as Jude put it so eloquently yesterday in Political Waves, "Seriously -- if there's a pony in all of this horseshit, somebody better trot him out NOW!"

That pony...would be us.



Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Twenty years ago today

YESTERDAY was the day I set aside to visit the Amherst Campus of SUNY Buffalo, where I graduated 20 years ago this week. That's the new campus, which has grown up beautifully. I spent the day in Starbucks, writing horoscopes and looking out at the new Student Union building that was built after a long, relentless campaign by a succession of student editors educating the student community that one really did belong there.

The evening before, I made a disturbing visit to the Main Street campus, the old campus, where Generation, the student magazine I started in 1984, had its offices when I was editor. Disturbing because any trace of the campus as I knew it had been erased, torn down, renovated, converted, covered over, trees planted, unrecognizable. There was a little lawn where my Service Vehicle parking spot used to be, constantly adorned by my gold 1972 Dodge Dart.

I attended UB, as it's called locally, in a time of enormous transition for the university. The original campus, located in the city and more than 100 years old, was being converted to a health sciences center. A new campus was being created three miles away in the town of Amherst on some swamplands. The crux of the transition was around 1982, when Squire Hall, the student union on the old campus, was closed down (amidst a pretty huge controversy) for conversion into a dental school. The closing of Squire was in part a practical move; that really was the place the dental school was planned. But it was also a spiritual gesture, taking out the heart of the campus and the place that had served as the student headquarters during the anti-Vietnam War protests and riots.

Some student organizations were moved out to Amherst immediately, and others were moved into an ancient, previous student union called Harriman Hall that was taken out of mothball status put back into service. Gradually, those were moved out as well.

Generation was one of the last student organizations in that building since nearly everyone else had been moved out to new space in Amherst. As one organization after another was relocated to the new campus, Generation's suite of offices expanded regularly. I used to have keys to about 14 rooms down there, and in many ways the magazine was the last vestige of student organization life on the Main Street Campus, the last little trace of the Squire Student Union spirit. We shared Harriman Hall with the Theatre and Dance department. It happened, as a result, that I had a lot of occasion to see my dance professor, Tom Ralabate, even after I stopped taking jazz dance classes, because his studios were right upstairs from my offices.

When I went back to the Main Street campus Monday night, I saw for the first time where the whole end of the building where my old offices and the dance studios were had been razed and replaced with a few trees. Dreams of the Generation basement suite of offices had haunted me for many years after I'd graduated. I had been aware for years that at some point that side of the building would be removed (to move construction equipment into place, the administration told me). So I was prepared for what I would find, but it was still pretty strange.

I went into the remaining part of the building and instinctually walked down to the basement like I had done thousands of times before. Instantly familiar. I was in a maintenance corridor off to the side of the student activity rooms on that level. But all the corridors and rooms where I had worked and in truth lived for years were gone; they had been buried. It was like being in a dream where the adjoining dream was inaccessible.

I roamed around, reluctantly took some pictures, then took a tunnel to the old student union, Squire, which was now very much a dental school. The conversion began right when I arrived on the campus, and went on long after I had graduated. But I did have memories of Squire Student Union, including one from when I visited the campus as a high school senior, walked through the building and felt the life and vibrancy pulsing through it, and knew I had to come to that university. That was the deciding moment. Twenty-six years ago.

I explored the basement a little, went into one of the pre-clinical labs, took some photos, using a flash -- nobody questioned me...I roamed around with perfect freedom...either security was pretty casual, or some of my old walk-through-walls magic that had taken me through nearly every inch of that campus was still at work. This was the basement that had housed a Rathskeller, bowling alleys, and student organizations, and the last time I had been there it was packed with students, and vibrating with intensity that was really the residue of the student spirit of the 1970s. Now there were things like Central Sterilization and a flammable materials storage room.

Enough.

I looked for the nearest stairwell and went upstairs. I looked down at the steps. Despite a total renovation, they were the exact same steps. Instant flashback. My feet knew where they were and I could very nearly hear the echoes of so long ago.

Finally I headed off campus to Anacone's Inn, looking for Andrew Galarneau, Generation's first writer, who would be there watching the Buffalo Sabres in the playoffs. The walk seemed endless. Neighborhoods that had once been off-campus student housing were now like a slum. Block after block, unrecognizable. I kept reminding myself that everything, all the undergrads, had now moved out to Amherst, that the life and student culture existed somewhere else. But it was like another world with the same layout as the real one.

Finally I got to Anacone's. Andrew was there, screaming at the television with a bunch of other Sabres fans. It really had been twenty years since I had seen him. He was a little heavier, a little older, with a picture of his three kids in his wallet, which he showed me 15 seconds after I got there; but still very much the person I knew, the extremely intelligent, cynical, loving, wiseass, not quite a badboy but not quite a good boy, either. Andrew, at age 18 or so when he showed up in my office, was the writer of the column that, from the first issue, guaranteed that there would never be a leftover copy of Generation -- a series that ran for four years consecutively, written anonymously by "Bitter Twisted." Back then, hours before deadline, Andrew would need to be located sleeping and hung over somewhere, dragged in front of the computer, propped up, given coffee and cigarettes, and then he would come out with the most brilliant thing in the magazine every week. He now writes for the Buffalo News.

A while later Reg Gilbert, who had been a kind of mentor to Generation, arrived, wearing pajama bottoms because he refused to get dressed at 9 pm. He was one of the people who taught me how to write, in particular, to write persuasively. Then Doug Levere walked in, someone who I was not expecting to see. He was a photographer who joined the magazine shortly after I stepped down as editor. Reg summed up the 32 years it took him to finally get his undergraduate degree. Doug, who had recently moved back from Manhattan, told his story of refusing to photograph the World Trade Center as it was burning. We talked about the world and where it was going, a strange experience considering that I had not hung out with these guys since Ronald Reagan was president. At the table with us was a guy named Chris, who was something like the 22nd editor in chief of the magazine.

I kept buying the drinks and nachos.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=andrew



Tuesday, May 23 | What We Cannot See

I THINK we're in the middle of an invisible turning point right now, going back about two weeks. I say this in the midst of some culture shock, both of plunging back into American society for the first time in nearly a year, and spending time with very old friends whose viewpoint is mainly political and removed from a backdrop or context that has become increasingly meaningful to me, which is astrology. Doing astrology every day it's easy to take it for granted. Writing to an audience that is either familiar with astrology or expects it to be discussed is part of why.

What I'm finding interesting is what shaky ground I feel like I'm standing on when that viewpoint is removed from the discussion. It's pretty difficult to explain why an astrological idea matters at all to people completely unfamiliar and uncurioius about the whole field. Tonight in the midst of a discussion, I tried to interject, "Okay, you can say that, but Pluto is going into Capricorn..." and I realized how ridiculous it sounded.

But what was stranger was feeling how baseless the whole political discussion is without an astrological context. Not that I could ever prove or even demonstrate that -- but astrology does add a wider view, and a birds-eye view, and a sense of the energy of what it means to be Now.

One of my other big culture shocking experiences tonight (after my first full day Stateside) was Fox News. I've read about Fox, I hear about Fox, I know about Fox, but it happens that I've never seen Fox before now; I would know because I would recognize it, and I've never, ever seen anything like this. I happened to doze off on the couch while it was on, so I had the benefit of an hour or so only semi-filtered by my cognitive mind. Then I started to hear stuff that was so weird and so interesting that I had to wake up and pay attention. And I was just as confounded, really, stunned not only by the political perspective that seemed to be no perspective at all, but by the emotional pitch of the commentators and the way they treated their guests. Basically, if you had views they described as "liberal" you would get the snot beat out of you, like it was a sport.

Liberal meant dared to have your own opinion, or take a sensitive view, or express an idea that defied doctrine.

The segment that stood out was their discussion about protestors at Boston College turning their backs on Condoleeza Rice on Monday, when she received an honorary degree and gave an address at commencement. What I can say is that the people they chose to speak against the war were sincere, intelligent and emotionally grounded -- and these people were then presented as a freak show, almost pornographically. The way Fox handled it was to focus on the protest and the protestors, then to attempt to ridicule them. Anything that raised a question or revealed a viewpoint that went against their idea of "mainstream" was smacked like a pinata. They went so far as to characterize people who voted for John Kerry as radicals, but also hypocrites, because Kerry supported the war.

I kept trying to parse out a viewpoint of the network that I could identify. And finally, I could only find it in the emotional tenor of raging contempt for anyone who would dare to question the Fox News version of consensus reality. Oh, and everyone who worked for the station seemed to wear an American flag on their lapel. One thing about those dumb-ass flag pins that Bush, Cheney and apparently the entire Fox "News" team wear that really surprises me is how their attempt (collectively) at branding the Red, White and Blue, is never questioned by anyone. Why does Bush wear the American flag? Are we really supposed to have that big a question of what side he's on? I keep forgetting to ask, so I can't complain. But just imagine for a moment Tony Blair wearing the Union Jack on his suit jacket. It would be ridiculous, like putting American officials on TV with a big yellow finger pointing to them that says "Patriotic!!".

The tone of the rhetoric is so desperate as to belie something. It would not even be recognizable as "conservative" in another era -- say for example the Vietnam era, because it's so shrill as to belie its lack of a base in reality. When you have no base in reality, you really need to keep a poker face, but in our era, you just go on the attack.

Anyway, about the week we cannot see. I'm getting the information a lot of different ways, but one of them is Dick Cheney's progressed horoscope. I published this chart for the first time when Cheney had his hunting incident, coming within a millimeter of killing one of his friends in a hunting accident in Texas. I noticed that Cheney's progressed Moon was about to progress from Cancer to Leo, and then go over his progressed Pluto on May 11.

A progressed hit of the Moon to another planet really goes on for about four weeks as an exact aspect and then functons for a month or so on either side, where the pre- and aftereffects can be seen. The exact contact, to the arc minute, was about 12 days ago, so we're still in the peak.

Something has changed or is changing. Something is different and getting more different. We may not see the effects right away, but an aspect like that cannot have no demonstrated expression. The delicacy of this moment is not lost on me. I am as hopeful as anyone that the truth will come out, but I'm also aware enough to know that all I can hear is the thumping on the other side of the wall, and that I get the clearest picture from the planets. Some of that thumping involved the whole Jason Lepold situation.

My sense is that there is a desperate struggle for power going on behind the scenes right now. It's not being reported, and we're only getting the public relations screen thrown in our faces. But a lot is moving back there, something is developing, and we're in the middle of a critical moment. It's a feeling like something is about to happen, but in reality something is happening. Here is Cheney's progressed chart, back to 11 May, the exact Moon-Pluto in Leo contact.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=cheney_progr_may11x



Monday, May 22, 2006 | And for your reading pleasure...

Here's a bit of Political Waves commentary, by Jude.

Awwww jeez, this Da Vinci Code blowback is just stretching the envelope -- is there justification for the continued use of the words "heresy" or "blasphemy" in a 21st century conversation?  The concept itself is archaic -- it represents a war on thought, a censoring of ideas!  My Americanism is showing here, but -- come on!  There are [still, for the moment] LAWS about that!
 
Christians in India will now starve themselves to death to protest this movie -- how different is that from Islam killing and burning to keep their Prophet from being "cartoonized?"  Not much.  You can't declare war on an idea -- and GOD is immune from attack!  Our ideas about God, that's a different thing ... and how Divinely Inspired is it to die ... cause yourself to die ... in God's name?
 
I'd suppose this is the intense tag-end of Pluto in Sag -- the truly dark and deluded notions about religion revealing themselves; we've got the rest of it playing out too, the legal, the higher learning, the international.  But the religious stuff just amazes me.
 
See, here's the thing -- I love my little dog a whole lot; he's a 14 year old long-haired miniature doxy named Widget.  The older he gets, the more eccentric -- and the more we pander to him.  My son and I have a "personal relationship" with the Widge ... we've developed a narrative over the years.  We give him "adventures."  If my son is watching races [he loves NASCAR,] at some point one of us will say, "The Widge used to ride with Jeff Gordon, he had his back."  The other of us will say, "Yeah, I remember when the pit crew .... [wah wah wah.]"  Widget has a lot of personal mythology, at this point -- he knew Adrian before Rocky did -- he waxed on and waxed off with Mr. Miyagi -- he personally supervised the counting of votes in Florida and argued the hanging chad issue before the courts -- and he considers the other four-legged's in the Pea Patch intellectually depressing.  And, known only to this household and the Wachowski brothers, Widge is actually The One, not that wannabe Neo.
 
The Widge takes all of these projections with a wag of his tail, a tip of his head and a loud bark for yet-another biscuit.
 
As much as we enjoy the Widget dialogues, the bottom line is -- Widge is a [beloved] DOG [read it backwards]. We could dress him up [we don't,] we can pretend he is as human as we are, we can attribute human emotions to his little pea-brain, but bottom line?  Read it backwards.  It is for our own entertainment and amusement that we make the Widge a hero; he graciously allows us to use him for alter ego projections [as long as the biscuits keep coming.]  The same dynamic here is being used as people view a movie that questions the historical accuracy of their personal mythologies. In order for them to have their "personal relationship," they've made God not only human, like themselves [discarding the warning against that by their own Biblical teaching,] but cranky, easily insulted and consequently, vindictive.  The Christians will only kill themselves, since their Jesus wasn't a warrior -- but they project their "hurt feelings" out in a thought-system that defines their God as One who will choose a side, guard His territory and ask His followers to die for His Glory.  
 
We do NOT know God's mind -- and He/She/It/They need[s] no defense or sacrifice from us.  If Jesus could walk on water, he could have saved himself from crucifixion; his story would have been that of a crusader rather than a teacher.  That's not what the Book says -- why do WE insist on saying it?  It's absurd, all of it.
 
[Widget, by the way, thinks that the Vatican should call a halt to this shameful business, and gain a bit of the credibility they lost when behaving MUCH more lethargically toward their responsibility for covering sexual abuse than they have for a movie based on fiction.  He thinks the last article is pretty good, too .]

-- Jude



Monday, May 22, 2006

HERE is the text of a statement released last night by Marc Ash, the executive director of truthout.org. Last weekend, truthout.org writer Jason Leopold broke the story that Karl Rove had been indicted for lying to investigators during the investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Leopold's story has been mired in controversy because nobody else was able to track down the facts. And because it made the mainstream media look pretty bad, since they didn't have something that in their minds may well have been true, and which they may well have known was true -- but did not report. Here is Marc's statement. Note, Planet Waves is a financial supporter of truthout.org.

Information Sharing on the Rove Indictment Story

By Marc Ash

Sun., May 21st, 2006 at 11:58:26 AM EDT

I'd like to break this posting into two categories: What we know, and what we believe. They will be clearly marked.

We know that we have now three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment either late in the night of May 12 or early in the morning of May 13. We know that each source was in a position to know what they were talking about. We know that the office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will not confirm, will not deny, will not comment on its investigation or on our report. We know that both Rove's attorney Robert Luskin and Rove's spokesman Mark Corallo have categorically denied all key facts we have set forth. We know we have information that directly contradicts Luskin and Corallo's denials.

We know that there were two network news crews outside of the building in Washington, DC that houses the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm that represents Karl Rove. We know that the 4th floor of that building (where the Patton Boggs offices are located) was locked down all day Friday and into Saturday night. We know that we have not received a request for a retraction from anyone. And we know that White House spokesman Tony Snow now refuses to discuss Karl Rove -- at all.

Further, we know - and we want our readers to know - that we are dependent on confidential sources. We know that a report based solely on information obtained from confidential sources bears some inherent risks. We know that this is -- by far -- the biggest story we have ever covered, and that we are learning some things as we go along. Finally, we know that we have the support of those who have always supported us, and that we must now earn the support of those who have joined us as of late.

We now move on to what we believe. (If you are looking for any guarantees, please turn back now.)

We believe that we hit a nerve with our report. When I get calls on my cell phone from Karl Rove's attorney and spokesman, I have to wonder what's up. "I" believe -- but cannot confirm -- that Mark Corallo, Karl Rove's spokesman gave Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post my phone number. I believe Howard Kurtz contacted me with the intention of writing a piece critical of our organization. I know that Anne Marie Squeo of the Wall Street Journal attacked us and independent journalism as a whole in her piece titled, "Rove's Camp Takes Center of Web Storm / Bloggers Underscore How Net's Reporting, Dynamics Provide Grist for the Rumor Mill."

We believe that rolling out that much conservative journalistic muscle to rebut this story is telling. And we believe that Rove's camp is making a concerted effort to discredit our story and our organization.

Further -- and again this is "What We Believe" -- Rove may be turning state's evidence. We suspect that the scope of Fitzgerald's investigation may have broadened -- clearly to Cheney -- and according to one "off the record source" to individuals and events not directly related to the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. We believe that the indictment which does exist against Karl Rove is sealed. Finally, we believe that there is currently a great deal of activity in the Plame investigation.

We know that this story is of vital interest to the community, and that providing as much information as we can is very important to our readers. We want you to know that this is challenging territory and that we are proceeding with as much speed as the terrain will allow.

Marc Ash, Executive Director - t r u t h o u t
director@truthout.org








Monday, May 22 | Dipping into Fitz

GREETINGS from the US of A, to wit, Buffalo, New York, where I am an alumnus. This week you're gonna get a lot of fast, easy and interesting blogettes, because I have a gosh freaking big darned bunch of stuff to do and I have some friends to see here who I have not seen in a long time.

Tonight I was passed along data for Patrick Fitzgerald. Have a look. For those who are following the development of the Aries Point as the defining symbol in the astrology of our generation, this chart will provide a great laugh. Note also that Fitz's progressed Mars is stationing direct at 00 Cancer 00 according to Solar Fire, and 29 Gemini 59 according to Io Edition - Time Cycles software. This one arc minute difference is a normal fudge factor in calculations, based on the method of conversion from the ephemeris used. No matter how you slice it, however, it's an Aries Point event.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=fitz - he has a really really really interesting 12th house.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=fitz_progr - note that Mars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Fitzgerald

http://snipurl.com/qs63 - his minor planets in a 30 degree sort. Note that the Moon is the very last planet of the lot.

http://www.planetwaves.net/cainer/archive/003790.php refresher on the Aries Point.

Comments welcome at francis@planetwaves.net

I did a short article taking a preliminary look at Fitz's chart in Astrology Secrets back in October. The article is on this page, you have to scroll down. Note please that I used a sunrise chart, as I did not have the data. But I sensed this guy had an Aquarius Moon but then maybe it takes one to know one. Here is that article:

http://www.cainer.com/ericfrancis/oct28.html

I'm not going to say much new about this chart -- I want to give it some time to settle in. There is plenty happening besides...like for instance the big debate in the U.S. Senate about whether English shall be the official language of the United States. I am so glad they are finally taking up this important issue after 226 years of American history. Must have been my stern letter to Hillary demanding action.

But wot about the huge risk...of the official language becoming Spanish? Then wot? We translate the Declaration of Independence and the Federal Register...it just might add a little passion to Washington DC, which we have not seen for a while. Break out the guitars and the Flamenco dancers, it's time for the revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco




Sunday, May 21 | Gemini

Hey there. I've been hanging out in the background while the Sun made it's way through the last degrees of Taurus. The Sun and Mercury are now in Gemini, and we start a new cycle of experience, expression, and movement. We are already in the third sign of the season -- (northern) spring began more than 8 weeks ago and (northern) summer begins in about four weeks.

Friday, I published a fairly extensive article on Karl Rove and his astrology. The piece includes a rectification of his natal chart, which should prove to be helpful and provide a reference point for the many people who have written in over the months asking whether I have Rove's data. I think for our next rectification project we had better do Patrick Fitzgerald, who also has a date, a place and no published time. When you read the rove piece, bear in mind that Fitzgerald, his nemesis, was born exactly on the (northern) winter solstice -- with his Sun in the first degree of Capricorn. Here is the link. I'll catch you tomorrow.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/dadatemp/716494541.html

    e



Thursday, May 17 | Horoscope Archive Beta Test

WE'VE had a little project going behind the scenes -- a horoscope archive. It also doubles as a divination oracle. Without posting instructions, I would appreciate your feedback on whether it works for you, and whether you understand it easily.

If you are writing back and saying that you did not get a result, it's important that we know what combination of search inputs you used, because we are still de-bugging it. If there is something you don't understand, please tell us what that is.

If you get an error, please send the error. This is a beta test...so we are basically looking for places that it doesn't work, and seeing how well our planning for readers did work. You would (or might, unless you work in programming) be amazed how long this took (18 months), and how many people worked on it (about eight). But -- without your feedback I'll be clueless as to whether it works for you. So thanks!

Here is the link:

http://mypetprogrammer.com/clients/planetwaves/search.php

Please send your feedback to me at francis@planetwaves.net -- thanks!

I may delay a real blog this morning. I've done the chart of Hillary Clinton for Astrology Secrets later today, and Ursula Fugger and I have done the charts of Karl Rove for Planet Waves Weekly, which will be available to subscribers tomorrow. Ursula, a top-notch mundane astrologer, has done a rectification of Rove's chart that I like a lot. And the guy does have some astrology.

    e



Wednesday | Memphis Blues

ONE OF my favorite songs in the Dylan-Grateful Dead genre is called Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again. Man, I just googled it and found out this song first came out in 1966, on the album "Blonde on Blonde" -- the last record in the early era of Dylan's career. I fell in love with it after seeing Dylan perform it with the Dead playing backup at Giants Stadium in 1987. My friend JJH gave me a tape of the show...and I was transfixed. I lost the tape, and then a couple of decades later, thanks to one of the editors I write for, a friend of a friend of somebody in San Francisco who knows, well, whatever, I was given some CDs of the Dylan set as well as two Dead sets beforehand. Great stuff.

It's the Garcia guitar solos. They are these soaring intricate improvised melodies, and he plays three of them laced between the stanzas. Very difficult to describe, but...he steals the show. Not that this is new. As Mr. Leo with an Aries Moon, Garcia usually was the show, and these three melodies he basically makes up on the spot, in the middle of this long tale of Dylan's about being in the right place at the wrong time, tell the story so vividly.

The Dead covered this song hundreds of times. To tell you the truth I've never been a big fan of their cover. But I have this recording called "Nightfall of Diamonds" on my iPod. It's a commercial release of the Oct. 16, 1989 show, again at Giants Stadium. This is a special show because it's one of the later shows where an old, amazing song called Dark Star was played. There are those nights when Garcia was good and nights when he was so far over the top beyond brilliant that I could barely stay in my body. I was not at this 10/16/89 show...but...taking a nap a moment ago, Stuck Inside of Mobile came up on the guitar. This was two years after the Dylan-Dead tour...they had practiced it a lot for that tour two years earlier.

Bob Weir did the vocals as usual -- and his voice doesn't quite have that stinging, ironic quality that makes Dylan's so much fun. But, who cares. Garcia's solo came up and...in this state of half sleep, it just exploded into color. One of the reasons he is so amazing is how many notes he plays and how the rhythms all fit together. Another is now he just pulls these sounds you've never heard out of nowhere, out of thin air or the 19th dimension. Another is that he plays on the chromatic scale -- on a piano, that would mean the black notes and the white ones, so he can do nearly anything and still be in key, and he has that many more choices of what notes to play.

But then there is the energy, the radiant, exuberant celebration, like a peak moment on an acid trip. Notes and these exotic sounds going off in every direction, but in perfect constellations, bursting into clusters...reforming into new clusters, revealing their otherwise unexpressable idea, and then disappearing.

Then there's the story. Here's a little, in Dylan's words.

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Yep, right place at the wrong time. Here are the rest of the lyrics.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/memphis.html

The recording is called "Nightfall of Diamonds." Here's a link to the Grateful Dead store's page for the product. The album is amazing from the first note to the last, and has many of the Dead's best songs. http://snipurl.com/qltn



Wednesday, May 17, 2006 | How strange it is... (updated)

GET THIS. The USA government has released video tape of what it claims is Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. As some of our readers know, my own analysis of crime scene photos has determined that there was no jetliner involved in that incident. That is to say, I don't buy the official story that a jetliner hit the military headquarters of the free world an astonishing one hour after the attacks began at the World Trade Center.

Let's forget -- for a moment -- that the tapes were released in our Flea Wagging the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm moment, when any distraction from reality counts for extra. Let's forget that the government claims this is are video of an airplane crash; the fact that Defense Dept. officials are participating in the discussion just begs the question. Finally.

From what I can see, the tapes are the same as the security camera footage that came out (in the form of four or five selected frames) shortly after Sept. 11, showing a small, white projectile flying near the ground, and then apparently (judging from the fireball) hitting the building. But it does not look like the tall, elegant, shiny aluminum tail fin of a jetliner going by. It looks like a little missile. Which would be consistent with something, some kind of conventional (that is, not nuclear) bunker buster warhead, puncturing three of the Pentagon's rings. Photos of the puncture holes in brick walls several rings into the Pentagon's structure exist for anyone to see, and they are not in doubt. They are part of the official story.

A missile would also be consistent with the lack of skidmarks, the lack of wreckage (such as huge titanium jets or landing gear, which are not destroyed in a crash), the lack of a fuel spill on the lawn (which is green right up to the little road next to the building), the lack of a jet wake flipping cars over, and the fact that the damage to the Pentagon is an exit wound rather than an entrance wound. That is, when you look at a photo, notice which way the debris falls. Imagine 100 tons of aluminum, fuel and titanium slamming into a brick wall. Which way should the bricks go? Um, they should go in the direction of the airplane -- not the opposite direction. There would also be a fuel spill and a big messy fire. Instead, there was a perfect, tight little explosion inside the Pentagon, blowing up through the roof, that destroyed the infrastructure of the building, before the façade fell outward.

Note, the front face of the building stood intact as the building burned for 29 minutes before collapsing outward. [Photos below.] That is the really weird part. For half an hour, all that was apparent was a fire. Then, the building fell, outward.

Now, you can twist that in your mind into a hijacked jetliner piloted by Arab terrorists with box cutters, angry about our way of life, crashing into the building, but that doesn't make it so. Seeing images of other jetliners hitting the World Trade Center all day long made it easy to fill in the rather large blanks.

Let's not forget the fact that Hani Hanjour, the alleged pilot of Flight 77, could barely fly a plane, according to his flight instructors. Let's not forget how whatever hit the Pentagon was maneuvered in a high speed, spiral descent with extreme precision before hitting the building (on the newly renovated side, far away from Donald Rumsfeld) -- not so easy in a very large aircraft with an inexperienced, incompetent pilot.

At the beginning of this discussion nearly four years ago, I recall how nobody wanted to believe that anything but Flight 77 could possibly have hit the Pentagon. It felt like standing up in a crowded church service on Easter Sunday and screaming that God is a big hoax. Which is an apt metaphor because 9/11 was quickly made into a god we had to obey at all costs.

Sometimes I write for a media criticism journal called Extra!, and when I tried to discuss this in March 2002, my editor there would not even listen to me for 30 seconds. He was incredulous. It HAD to be Flight 77. He looked around the Internet and could find no photos of wreckage, just one little description, sans image to go with it. A spokesman for the Air Traffic Controller's Union in D.C. who I called the same week, to ask him a few basic questions, was so angry, he was screaming at me, and slammed down the phone.

Even as late as April 2004, when I was having dinner with a bunch of scientists at Jonathan Cainer's house, I could hardly drag anyone into Jonathan's office to look at the official Department of Defense photo I had put up on his iMac, to get them to show me where they thought the airplane was. One guy sat there on the office couch, refusing to get up and look, saying, "I'm not an expert on airplane crashes." Which is what lots of people were saying at the time. Yes, and if one abandons one's common sense, then anything you hear about on TV becomes the gospel truth.

There was one person who would talk to me: Steve Inskeep of NPR. I knew Steve from when we were both on the New York State Capital press corps in the early 1990s. It was Steve's familiar and friendly voice, reporting from the Pentagon, that was the only reassuring thing those first days after 9/11. He was soon assigned to Afghanistan to cover the invasion of that country. When I finally spoke to him six months later, I asked him: If you had arrived at the Pentagon not knowing what happened, not being told it was a plane crash, what would you have thought it was?

He said, "That's exactly what happened." He originally got in a taxi that morning, headed for the Pentagon, based on a report of an explosion -- not a plane crash. And he said the scene did not look like a plane crash, but that he had been to others that didn't look like plane crashes, either. Still: as we all know, no obvious wreckage; no obvious airplane crash. He wished me luck on the story, which he thought was worth pursuing.

But most people get quite uppity at the suggestion there was no jetliner. We might ask why this kind of defensive reaction, and we might ask what the effects would be of having a situation that nobody will, or would at the time, even consider the possibility of being different than we are told. Here is why, I think. On the eve of my birthday in 2002, six extremely intense months after the 9/11 incident, I decided to take a week off, to pursue my hobby of writing erotic fiction. So much for that plan; that evening, an email came in with a link to the "Find the Boeing" presentation created by http://asile.org/ in France.

I did try to Find the Boeing, and I could not. The link is below. This is the first but definitely not the best presentation on this issue. And then I clicked through to the high resolution Department of Defense photos and looked them over carefully, inch by inch, day and night, for a week. At the end of a week, I concluded that it was an obvious lie that a jet liner had hit the Pentagon, but somehow it had been perpetuated. Then I had my second revelation: if that was not true, then everything else was in doubt. For one glorious evening, I felt free. The whole façade of 9/11 crumbled.

The problems is this: it is metaphysical. The notion that Nothing Is True pretty much removes the ground of so-called reality that most people stand on. You need some experience to hold that thought in your mind and not be plunged into extreme fear. The bits and pieces of the 9/11 story that we still cling to are like trying to float on a the cork of a champagne bottle after the cruise ship has already sunk.

But as it took T.S. Eliot to say, "Human kind cannot bear very much reality."

Nobody is doubting that something hit the Pentagon; the question is what. And the question is what this implies, because it points to something much deeper. We do have the question of what happened to Flight 77, and I have personal knowledge of one life that was lost. I think we need to be looking for a fifth crash scene that day on the Kentucky-West Virginia border.

- - -

Crash scene photos:
http://911research.wtc7.net/pentagon/evidence/photos/bluehi.html

This is what a 757 hitting the Pentagon would look like, for size comparison. Contrast with recently released security camera image of missile hitting Pentagon.
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/images/sozen.pentagon.jpeg

- - -

Mandy Hall, our news editor, is hunting the story, and apparently the government producing the video tapes is the result of a long battle under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal law called the FOIA, that requires government disclosure of public information. Under the Cheney-Bush regime, the FOIA has suffered worse abuse than it has at any prior time, but there have been some unusual successes, too. From what I am gathering, after the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui ended, they could no longer claim secrecy on the Pentagon "crash" tapes -- even though they were not used as evidence against Moussaoui.

She writes:

They've got two clips looks like they're shot from two different cameras but basically at the same place.

First clip all you see is 'something' and then the explosion. Second clip, there is a white shape seen and then the explosion. (about 1.40 + ish into the recording.)

Essentially the videos show nothing more than the famous five frames that have been floating around the Internet for a few years now. (It appears to me that those frames are taken from these videos.)

The really, really interesting tape would be the one taken from the hotel that was confiscated by the FBI the day after the attacks and has never been seen again - that would solve the plane - no plane theory beyond any reasonable doubt - so where is it ?

Having said all this - the plane / no plane is merely a sideshow in the whole 9/11 story - the tip of the iceberg as it were - what right thinking individuals want to know is what lies below the waterline ...

-

Links with interesting visuals:

http://www.pentagonresearch.com/scenemap.html

http://killtown.911review.org/flight77.html

http://killtown.911review.org/flight77/video.html

http://www.pentagonresearch.com/029.html


Find the Boeing!
http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm

Were It So by Eric Francis (from March 2002)
http://ericfrancis.com/articles/wereitso.html



Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | Rove Riddle Answer Coming Soon

LET'S see. I once put a quarter in a slot machine and won enough money to buy a Macintosh G4. Later the same day, I was betting in a poker game in a Laundromat (this was in Reno, on the way back from Burning Man 2001) and hit four aces and a queen. On a one penny bet, I won $15! Imagine if I had bet a quarter.

I'm going to bet a whole dollar right now. Karl Rove's goose is cooked. He has done nothing but spew lies for the past five years we've had to endure awareness of the unfortunate fact of his existence. But I guess better to have him in front of the scenes than back in the clockwork. The comments of his lawyers and Republican ringers Monday calling Jason Leopold's article on truthout.org a "disgrace" mean nothing [article posted below]. The press getting shaky because such an explosive story could not be confirmed means nothing -- everybody else has to account for NOT having what will be the biggest story so far in the Bush administration's many scandals.

Either there is (or will be) an indictment, or not. I think that by Tuesday evening, we will have confirmation. Also, the Grand Jury meets Wednesday, and that may provide a turning point. Last night I reached Marc Ash, the executive director of truthout.org, and he said he was confident that Jason Leopold's story would check out.

The way the issue has been skewed is certainly interesting, and typical of Rovian disinfo campaigns of the past. There is some speculation in the blogosphere that the story was "leaked" (falsely, by Rove ringers) in order to damage the reputation of truthout.org, which reaches a quarter million people a day with political news and analysis.

The problem of the mainstream media has been solved by corporatizing it, that is, taking it over by big business. This ensures a constant flow of chaos, violence and trivia, all held up by people struggling to keep their jobs, hence, be good. But the Roves of the world have not solved the problem of the Internet. When your Old Uncle Eric was a lad, there was this thing called the 'alternative press', which meant magazines like In These Times that reached at most 50,000 people a week (maybe it was half that, come to think of it). Now we have many outlets like truthout that can reach five times that many in a single day with much more information.

This IS a problem for those who thrive on lies. And the best way to undermine this whole process in the long-run is to attack the credibility of journalists and news outlets who dare to dig out the truth, or even to try. Then, in their fantasies, we can go back to having only Fox News and CNN.

As for the reality of Rove getting indicted. On one level, it may come as little consolation if the man who engineered the theft of two elections, the Iraq war and, I believe, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, gets fired and prosecuted for much smaller crimes against the people he supposedly represents. But then his absence would leave absolutely no insulation between Bush, Cheney and the truth of what happened.

Remember what is at issue. Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, to convince you, me and conress to go to war. A former ambassador who had been sent to investigate, Joseph Wilson III, after much wrangling behind the scenes, finally went public with the fact that the nuclear program was nonsense; there was no uranium. Then the Bush administration retaliated by exposing that his wife -- Valerie Plame Wilson -- was a deep cover CIA agent (who happened to be working on nuclear weapons issues in Iran of all places). This in turn ruined years of undercover work, and exposed everyone who worked with her to danger or possibly getting killed. This is not chickenshit. This is treason, the real thing.

As for Bush sending 6,000 troops to the Mexican border: the flea is wagging the entire Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. I mean good heavens, acting like Mexico is invading the United States? Defending the border against who? The people who...make your dinner or repair your roof in Southern California?

Bush said tonight, "We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that."

He seems to want full control of everything, and fast. But he is right about one thing, they don't control that border; but does anyone have full control of any border? One of my best friends told me about the time he got a motel room in south Texas, crossed over to Mexico, and then successfully, illegally, crossed back over the Rio Grande. He stuck his driver's license in his sock, and, carrying nothing, waded across the river, crossed the field and the berm without being stopped. He said he sat quietly on the bank on the Mexican side studying the patterns of the search lights and the patrols for about three hours, made his plan, and went for it.

He made it, returning to his motel room covered in sweat and mud. The kid is a double Scorpio (Sun and Moon), and he's just as gutsy in his other projects, too.

Anyway, there's my dollar bet.

=

PS, check out this link. I'll post an excerpt later, but it's very interesting, courtesy of Pod.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13055.htm



Monday, May 15, 2006 | The Rove Indictment Mystery

    NOTE: SFGate has this update: http://snipurl.com/qi68
    Detroit Free Press adds this: http://snipurl.com/qi8o

WE ARE in an eerie moment of radio silence relating to the indictment of Karl Rove. For those who have been following this case for nearly three years, this is a tense moment because so much is hanging on its outcome, and on the investigation of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitsgerald is investigating the conduct of White House officials in lieu of the Department of Justice -- which recused itself from the case early on due to conflict of interest. In other words, if the Justice Department handled it, it would basically look bad, so a special prosecutor was named. If you recall, he has secured the indictment of Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

As the Scorpio Full Moon passed overhead, http://truthout.org published an article by Jason Leopold [see below] reporting that Rove had, in fact, been indicted by the Grand Jury for at least two crimes in connection with the coverup of the leaking of a covert agent's name as political revenge against her husband, Joseph Wilson. But there has been no announcement of the indictment, and no other media (alternative or mainstream) has published these facts, that I have seen. Now articles are beginning to appear questioning whether he really was indicted -- even though the initial news was not published.

A reader writes in from Washington State with this excellent analysis, relating to an AP article immediately below:

"I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did. There is Rove, at a conservative think tank, actually allowing his words to be recorded and transmitted to the world. Right at Bush's side, his partner, his compadre, there to the bitter end. Now why would Rove appear today, of all days? And which small court are his lawyers appearing in, in an attempt to block the Grand Jury investigation in any way possible. Bush, Cheney and company are pushing forward as if everything is perfecto - no problems. But let us be realistic. How many times has Rove ever appeared in print, making statements - and so very visible and available to the news media. And what is exactly going on in the White House, and how much panic is really whipping around those hallowed corridors? I think fear is probably so thick right now, we could actually smell it if we were there. Or is it just a stick your head in the sand attitude, no one can touch me, I am one of the chosen ones. I don't believe in the absolute premises of karma, but I do believe we have opportunities to make choices in our lives, and the people involved are now going to have to live with the choices they made."

Here is the article she is referencing:

Rove Blames Iraq War for Low Bush Numbers
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - Presidential adviser Karl Rove blamed the war in Iraq on Monday for dragging down President Bush's job approval ratings in public opinion polls. "People like this president," Rove said. "They're just sour right now on the war."

Rove said that Bush's likeability ratings are far higher than his approval ratings. "There is a disconnect" because of the Iraq conflict, Rove told the American Enterprise Institute.

"I think the war looms over everything. There's no doubt about it," Rove said during a question-and-answer session after a speech on the economy at the conservative think tank.

Rove, who is deputy White House chief of staff and Bush's top political adviser, brushed aside a question on his own role in the federal CIA-leak investigation, saying he would not go beyond statements by his attorney. "Nice try," Rove told the questioner.

On the economy, Rove credited the president's fiscal policies, particularly a series of first-term tax cuts, for a recovery that has gone on since late 2001. "The reality is, the tax cuts have helped make the U.S. economy the strongest in the world," Rove said.

He said the president in his address to the nation Monday night would propose "a comprehensive solution" on immigration, including tougher border enforcement.

Asked about criticism from some conservatives for his proposal for a guest worker program, Rove said, "This is about getting the right policy, and the politics will take care of themselves."

"I mean, we've seen this about four or five times before in American politics, and it's always seemed to work its way out politically, and I'm confident this will as well," Rove said.

"You'll hear the president talk tonight about steps that we're going to take to increase our security along the border immediately and to deal with the other part of it, which is we will not be able to secure the border unless we have a temporary worker program," Rove said.

The presidential adviser, widely credited with securing Bush's win in 2000 and re-election in 2004, was questioned about public opinion polls that show the president's plunging approval ratings. A recent AP-Ipsos poll showed Bush approval at 33 percent. Other national polls put it around 30 percent.

"Well, you know, it's interesting, because consumer confidence is relatively high. In fact, it is much higher than the average of the last 40 years," said Rove, who argued that typically should lead to a gain of congressional seats for Republicans in November's midterm elections.

"Their personal circumstances are good. They're feeling good about where they are. They don't like gas prices. Who likes having to pay more at the pump? But they do feel that overall the economy is good for them, that the prospects for their family in the near term and for the future are good," Rove said of Americans.

"They're worried about the long haul. They've heard about the problems with  Social Security. They're worried about globalization. But they're confident about where they are right now and where they find themselves," he added.

Rove accused the news media of being too fixated on polls.

"I love this mania which has swept through American media today which substitutes polls for coverage of substance," he said.

"There's, I'm sure, going to be a special Betty Ford addiction for those that are addicted to regular poll numbers, but you'll work your way through it," he said, referring to the former first lady's clinic for treating substance abuse.

Despite low approval ratings, "I'm sanguine," Rove said. "I know our own polls."

He said that Bush's likeability, his personal approval ratings, were in the 60s in some polls. "Job approval is lower. And what that says to me is that people like him, they respect him, he's somebody they feel a connection with, but they're just sour right now on the war. And that's the way it's going to be."

Rove spent about half an hour taking questions from the audience, including some from reporters. ++

Jude from Political Waves adds: David Corn tried to nail him in the q & a at this discussion earlier Monday...
 
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/15/corn-rove

CORN: David Corn from The Nation Magazine on a different subject. Scott McClellan told the White House press corps, many who are here today, that he had spoken to you and you were not involved in the CIA leak. Can you explain why the American public, almost two and a half years later, hasn’t been given an explanation and don’t you think it deserves one for that misinformation because it does seem you were to some degree, though maybe disputed, involved in that leak?

ROVE: My attorney Mr. Luskin made a statement on April 26th. I refer to you that statement. I have nothing more to add to it. Nice try, though.



Sunday, May 14, 2006 | truthout: Rove will be indicted

TRUTHOUT.org is reporting that Karl Rove, also known as "Bush's brain," engineer of stolen elections, bungled wars and many scandals, will be indicted by the grand jury in the Valerie Plame spy outing case. They are reporting that he will be charged with lying to investigators, though it's not known whether obstruction of justice will be among the charges. I am gathering that there will be a news conference by Patrick Fitzgerald Monday.

Here is the really weird thing -- none of the mainstream or alternative news outlets are not carrying this story. Even http://RawStory.com is not running this one, and they generally run 24 to 48 hours ahead of the news.

It doesn't really matter what Rove is being charged with; this is big news. The next rungs in the chain of accountability are Bush and Cheney themselves.

The astrology of this development is, pretty simply, the Scorpio Full Moon. Here is the lead from truthout.org, by Jason Leopold, linked in full below:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, did not return a call for comment. Sources said Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the charges against Rove, which include perjury and lying to investigators about how and when Rove discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306W.shtml

In other news, it looks like the affair is getting close to Cheney. Details as they are available. This story is all over the mainstream media, including being the front page of both major news portals. It is interesting that the focus has moved to Cheney, but not unexpected. My prediction that Cheney would be out one way or another by mid-May is running a little late, but, let's see. He does seem to be shark chum at the moment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12774274/site/newsweek/

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/13/cia.leak/index.html



Saturday, May 13, 2006 | Full Moon, Toronto

THIS is a great conference. First of all, I'm invited as a speaker, which personally adds a lot of fun. I'm not a big "conference guy" (with Aquarius Moon and Aquarius Saturn and a ton of gravel strewn between, I am fussy).
 
It's a small group, about 75 people, which is the perfectly manageable size; you can actually know all the faces. The classes range from being big enough to accommodate the whole group to seminars of 10. I thought both of my presentations so far went just fine, I had a lot of fun and felt the energy flowing.

I'm very much looking forward to Arwynne O'Neill's presentation later this morning -- she is doing a talk called Heavy Water, on the Saturn-Neptune cycle, based on work she's published on Planet Waves. She was placed in the prime time Saturday morning time slot to draw the biggest crowd of the event, and I've seen parts of her presentation -- it looks excellent and she's a high-energy, clever and friendly woman devoted to research astrology.

Yesterday I warmed up my Chiron talk playing a live version of the Grateful Dead's Terrapin Station, which includes my new key concept for Chiron: "Some rise, some fall and some climb to get to Terrapin." We made some extremely interesting discoveries of tree mythology connected to Chiron, which deserve a much closer look. Chiron's mother asked Zeus to turn her into a tree, a fact which I have not seen the rather rich symbolism of addressed much at all.

There was a brilliant synchronicity yesterday. During the discussion of the "Rabbi" Sabian symbol in a remote conference room on the 10th freaking floor of a hotel in Canada, an actual rabbi (guest at the hotel, not part of the conference) walked into the room! Heh. He said, "Well, I guess I belong here" and joined the discussion, bring some excellent info about Kaballa.

Somebody wrote to me yesterday and asked if I'm taking a little writing break and the answer is YES. I've actually gone an entire week without writing a horoscope column (whereas I usually write two to six a week). I've written a few short easy blogs like this which take about 15 minutes and just one essay. That's a vacation around here! But I do plan to gradually turn up the gaz next week. I'll catch you soon.


==

The annotated Terrapin Station
http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDead/aGDL/terr.html

Deadheads in the reading audience are ALWAYS welcome to contact me, especially if you live in the Hudson Valley!



Friday, May 12, 2006 | Chiron

THERE are few things I love doing more than teaching astrology. I don't get to do it often but I'm doing it these these days. Yesterday's class, a full day seminar, focused on the Aries Point. We began with the 6/21/01 eclipse, and the personal stories of people's lives that surrounded that event. Then we studied the Sept. 11 chart and then moved onto several charts for Iran. We concluded the day with a long discussion about the summer solstice chart that's linked from the latest edition of Astrology Secrets Revealed.

Today's class is a two hour combined lecture/practicum on working with Chiron. It is surprising how little experience many astrologers have working with Chiron, and also how eager people are for a viewpoint, and some experienced discussion. That class starts in about an hour, and then after that I will attend to some scheduled writing that, conveniently, addresses both subjects above. These are some busy days, but the beauty is that I'm spending more time in reality than in virtual reality, doing every trick in the book to keep my writing schedule down to a bare minimum -- heaven knows I've needed a break from that.

I must thank so many people on the Planet Waves staff everywhere, as well as here in Toronto and in Brussels who are helping keep me grounded as I move, keeping the Web pages going every night and putting some serious wind under my wings. Back in a bit.



May 11, 2006 | Here beside the rising tide

THUNDER and rain have visited Toronto the morning of my mentorship intensive here on astrology and activism -- the perfect weather. We have a meeting room on the 10th floor, digital equipment, an Internet connection into the space, and a group of 15 astrologers and astrology students. I've gone through several variations of what to do, and I've decided I'm going to take the morning session, project one chart on the screen (the total solar eclipse of June 21, 2001), and ask people to share the story of their life since that eclipse.

How intense the times we live in are entirely unacknowledged. There is so little reflection, so little assessing of the sweeping change, the pressure, the fear and most of all the sense that more is going to change faster. As Bob Dylan said in one of his lesser known songs, there's no time to think.

The full-throttle astrology goes back a bit further than the 6/21/01 total solar. There was the Chiron-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius on New Year's Eve 1999. There was the 8/11/01 total solar eclipse and grand cross ("before 9/11 there was 8/11"). So, I think that a time to reflect would be healthy and teach us a lot.

Astrology on one level is about ideas; on another, it's about the positions of the planets; on another it's about these things called archetypes and our relationship to them; and if you jump up one level it's about a lot of mathematical relationships between everyone, everything, and time. But in truth astrology is an experience. It is the flow, the feeling and the events of our lives as we move through the wild cosmos, uncertain of where we are or why we are all here.

We are living through dangerous days. For many people, uncertainty is a way of life; for many, fear is a way of life, and not because they want it to be. All day long we are confronted with news of war, of loss and of the threat of worse things. But life goes on, as it always does.

Many people feel the potential of our moment in history, the potential for an old way of thinking and existing to be cast off and a new one to be born. The words for this are "paradigm shift." Millions of individuals in our culture have devoted long years of their lives to self-study, spiritual practice, conscious living, personal growth, therapy, meditation and living in greater harmony with the world. But a new frame of reality has yet to take over; our civilization speeds dangerously toward a cliff. We don't know, for example, how long we have before the oil runs out and before clean water will be extremely scarce everywhere, as it already is many places.

I think this is an important time to assess reality, and to make decisions. As astrologers and astrology students, we have something rare, which is a cosmic perspective. We can look at longer cycles than a week or a year and explore their meaning, both collectively and in our lives. More than anything, astrology teaches us that we're intricately connected to the whole.

If we acknowledge that one fact, what, then, becomes apparent?

That's my proposed starting point today. I'll continue blogging on the developments of this discussion through the weekend as I can.


==

Note, I'll be taking the week off from Astrology Secrets Revealed and will resume next Thursday.

Uncle John's Band lyrics
http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/AGDL/uncle.html



Note to readers in eastern Canada: I'll be presenting a half-day workshop on astrology and activism on Thursday, as well as another on working with Chiron on Friday. This is part of the Astrology Toronto, Inc. mentorship intensive conference. If you're interested, please email me at francis@planetwaves.net and I'll get right back to you. Thank you!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 | Excerpts from the Iranian President's Letter

Here are two excerpts from the letter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to United States "president" George W. Bush. The letter was translated by the news service Reuters (an English translation by the French newspaper Le Monde is also available). Ahmadinejad reuses the salutation "Mr. President" repeatedly and refers to Bush as "Your Excellency," which is probably not intended as irony, just a mistake; this is not how the U.S. president is customarily addressed. The original text is linked on the cover, from the photo caption.


Mr. President,

Don't Latin Americans have the right to ask why their elected government are being opposed and coup leaders supported? Or, Why must they constantly be threatened and live in fear?

The people of Africa are hard-working, creative and talented. They can play an important and valuable role in providing for the needs of humanity and contribute to its material and spiritual progress. Poverty and hardship in large parts of Africa are preventing this from happening. Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth -- including minerals -- is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others?

Again, do such actions correspond to the teachings of Christ and the tenets of human rights?

...

Mr. President,

In countries around the world, citizens provide for the expenses of governments so that their governments in turn are able to serve them.

The question here is "what has the hundreds of billions of dollars, spent every year to pay for the Iraqi campaign, produced for the citizens?"

As Your Excellency is aware, in some states of your country, people are living in poverty. Many thousands are homeless and unemployment is a huge problem. Of course these problems exist -- to a larger or lesser extent -- in other countries as well. With these conditions in mind, can the gargantuan expenses of the campaign -- paid from the public treasury -- be explained and be consistent with the aforementioned principles?

What has been said, are some of the grievances of the people around the world, in our region and in your country. But my main contention -- which I am hoping you will agree to some of it -- is:

Those in power have a specific time in office and do not rule indefinitely, but their names will be recorded in history and will be consistently judged in the immediate and distant futures.

The people will scrutinize our presidencies. Did we manage to bring peace, security and prosperity for the people or insecurity and unemployment?

Did we intend to establish justice or just supported special interest groups, and by forcing many people to live in poverty and hardship made a few people rich and powerful -- thus trading the approval of the people and the Almighty with theirs?

Did we defend the rights of the underprivileged or ignore them?

Did we defend the rights of all people around the world or imposed wars on them, interfered illegally in their affairs, established hellish prisons and incarcerated some of them?

Did we bring the world peace and security or raised the specter of intimidation and threats?

Did we tell the truth to our nation and others around the world or presented an inverted version of it?

Were we on the side of people or the occupiers and oppressors?

Did our administrations set out to promote rational behavior, logic, ethics, peace, fulfilling obligations, justice, service to the people, prosperity, progress and respect for human dignity or the force of guns, Intimidation, insecurity, disregard for the people, delaying the progress and excellence of other nations, and trample on people's rights?

And finally, they will judge us on whether we remained true to our oath of office -- to serve the people, which is our main task, and the traditions of the prophets -- or not?

Mr. President,

How much longer can the world tolerate this situation?

Where will this trend lead the world to?

How long must the people of the world pay for the incorrect decisions of some rulers?



Note to readers in eastern Canada: I'll be presenting a half-day workshop on astrology and activism on Thursday, as well as another on working with Chiron on Friday. This is part of the Astrology Toronto, Inc. mentorship intensive conference. If you're interested, please email me at francis@planetwaves.net and I'll get right back to you. Thank you!

Also, from the "Too Rich for Words" file, this just in:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article362870.ece


Tuesday, May 9, 2006 | More on Probability Fields

NOW we may ask, what determines whether a probability field comes into play in 3D, that is, physical space and time? This is a big question. I have no certain answers. I have a few ideas, based on what I've lived and observed.

Intention is an important factor. If somebody wants something to happen, the probability increases pretty darned fast that it's going to happen, and this may be the single most important factor. This notion may seem to fly in the face of so many people who want so many things to happen, and they don't -- but it's a little like making dinner, you need the ingredients, you need to have a recipe, you need gaz in the stove, and you need to get motivated and like DO it. The ingredients don't just jump into the pan.

Those ingredients are resources. There are some things that are more likely to happen the more money you have. But that only goes so far. And plenty of people who don't have two quid to rub together can pull off some prettttty amazing things. There are lots of ways to beat the odds. Casinos have to work very hard to keep people from doing that, and if you win too much, they kick you out.

Another thing that helps is cooperation. If you can decide what you need to do, and if you know you need help, asking for help CAN help. There are times when other people can mess with your head, even cooperative ones, so you need to make sure you don't dilute your intentions with those of others. Focus and intention come first, then help.

But there does come a point where the more people who support an idea, the more likely it is to happen. That usually works. It does not always work, however. But usually, if you invent a kind of cookie and people start to really get into it, the more people who buy it guarantee that you're going to be the next Fig Newton. Even if you have to flog them into buying it with ads (I'll save the Ivory Soap "we've been around so long, let's stop advertising" experiment for another blog but in short, they stopped selling soap and went back to advertising.)

Now, sometimes what you need to get the job done is secrecy. Sometimes, to focus your intentions, you have to make sure that nobody gets in the way. Secrecy just means the people who need to know, know; and the people only know their little part. This is basically how they pulled off 9/11, as only the people who needed to know, got to know. It is true, there were a heck of a lot of people in on Sept. 11, but each knew his or her own little bit. It also worked well for the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It has worked well a lot of times, and as we've seen a lot of times, when the secrecy is gone, the plan (or that version of it) is screwed up. But, that can work as a diversion, and one makes another plan.

Regarding Sept. 11, along the way, somehow, it seems that somebody aligned with some kind of "wider intention" to increase the probability of the event happening. Or they saw an easy opening, and were very good at focusing intentions and having just the right kind of cooperation. They also got very lucky, whatever the heck luck is. They also fucked up (neither Flight 77 nor Flight 93 went off as planned, so far as I can tell).

Okay so, skip ahead half a decade (yes, it's been half a decade of this shit). We now have another rather intense chart that looks a little like it's connected to Sept. 11, which is the solstice chart coming up in June. There is only one difference now: a lot of people are talking about it. If the chart represents a high-probability field, why that would or would not work is the question. And right now there are a lot of people who are thinking, "Gee, it seems something big is about to happen soon," which very few people were thinking on Sept. 11.

Now, awareness can work a number of ways. It can work to avert one probability and it can work to emphasize another. The chart, any chart you see, is indicative of an energy source; it is a map to the possibilities. The energy can always be worked with and indeed, we always work with it. In this respect, the solstice chart is rather interesting, and it's something we can work with consciously. Oh, it's a big one, and the more consciously we work with it and make decisions, the better.

But I'll tell you something right now: thanks to certain factors of linear time, it's not a done deal -- but neither is the amazing grace that can come from working with it consciously.



Monday, May 8, 2006 | Probability fields

PREDICTIVE astrology is pretty amazing stuff. Imagine the feeling of actually looking at a chart, seeing something in the future and then having it happen. Imagine the sadness or sense of loss of not seeing something critical. As an example, while several astrologers did apparently see the Sept. 11 incident on its way, none that I know of predicted the sweeping global changes that came about as a result or consequence of the event. It's one thing to see terrorism; it's another thing to see the result of an event. As well, I have seen no discussion in advance of event of the extensive fraud and scamming that came about as a result.

There have been other times recently when something extremely specific was apparent to someone. For example, an astrologer named Jim Shawvan was able to describe the mess surrounding election of 2000 so precisely the summer before that you would think he had access to future editions of USA Today. And what of the consequences of that?

The idea of prediction, though, usually assumes a linear model of time. That model might work like this: You're driving down the highway, you see a sign that says "rest area five miles," you're doing sixty and you know that if you manage to keep going at the same speed, in five minutes you're going to get there and have a coffee. But the universe doesn't really work so simply. Imagine that actually getting to the rest area is one probability. Imagine that getting a flat tire is another. Imagine that there's an exit right before and you can take that exit and go someplace else. Imagine the rest area is closed or out of coffee.

You seem to be in control of some of those probabilities becoming real, and maybe not others. Maybe there's a nail on the road that causes a flat. Maybe you just put new tires on your car and it won't happen. Maybe you have really old tires and it does. You had an opportunity for influence -- earlier -- and may or may have not used it. Maybe, in the present, you have certain opportunities to take avertive action later on. Pretty clearly, you have no influence over whether the manager ordered enough coffee to get through the day.

When we look at an astrology chart, or hear a description of astrology that's coming in the future, what exactly do we do with it? We can look at it as a linear model and assume "rest area five miles" or as many astrologers will say, "big disaster five miles." Or we can look at the many possibilities that the chart suggests, and begin relationships with them.

I call these probability fields. There are many potentials; charts (and the cosmos) work on many levels. The question is tuning into the level we need to and working with the energy in the most constructive way. One thing is pretty much certain: we know the transits are coming. But hey we don't know everything. Astrology now has to deal with the fact that new planets are discovered. A new planet does not necessarily have a "big impact" (such as adding or subtracting Saturn from the situation) BUT it IS a factor and if we ignore it, we're only pretending it's not there.

Here's how I put it last night an email to David Roell, my friend and colleague at the Astrology Center of America book store. We have been discussing the solstice chart covered in the article on the Planet Waves front page (from Astrology Secrets Revealed) called From Beltane to Solstice:

Part of the issue is understanding how astrology manifests in 3D, how the various potentials associated with given transits or aspects manifest. Since there are a variety of possible outcomes...there needs to be some way that we choose or some determining factor...some path of manifestation...or some way we relate to the energy that makes the difference. It's like waves at the beach. The exact same wave can drown one person, be something another person dives into and is undisturbed by, and which a third person goes surfing on. Much of what makes the difference is awareness...imagine if we could not see these transits coming.

==

Note: Mandy Hall has sent me a page of supposed predictions of Sept. 11. I can't verify the text, but I can tell you I know Rob Hand, Robert Zoller and Jim Shawvan persnoally -- not well, but I do know these guys. Here is the link, it is interesting.

http://www.astrologyweekly.com/astrology-articles/911-prophecy-prediction.php

Reach Jim Shawvan
http://www.jshawvan.homestead.com/

Reach David Roell
http://astroamerica.com/

From Beltane to Solstice
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html

Sept. 11: The One We All Missed
http://planetwavesweekly.com/book/chapter17.html



Sunday, May 7, 2006 | Worth Reprinting

THIS came over Political Waves today -- it's an Associated Press article, and it seemed worth publishing here. Apparently there is at least one "reality based" judge left. The astrology is the Beltane chart, covered elsewhere.

Judge calls Net wiretap rules 'gobbledygook'

The Associated Press
FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/05/business/wiretaps.php

WASHINGTON - A U.S. appeals court panel challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for the police and the FBI to wiretap phone calls made over the Internet. One judge told the government that its courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook" and suggested its lawyer return to his office and "have a big chuckle."

The skepticism expressed so openly toward the government's case during a hearing in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia emboldened a broad group of civil liberties and education groups, which argued that the government improperly applied telephone-era rules to Internet services.

"Your argument makes no sense," Judge Harry Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm not missing this. This is ridiculous."

At another point in the hearing, Edwards told the lawyer his arguments were "gobbledygook" and "nonsense."

The court's decision is expected within several months.

Edwards appeared to be skeptical of the commission's decision to require that providers of Internet phone and broadband services ensure that their equipment could accommodate police wiretaps, under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as Calea. The new FCC rules would go into effect in May 2007.

Critics said the new rules were too broad and inconsistent with the intent of Congress when it passed the surveillance law, which excluded categories of companies described as information service providers.

The commission argued that providers of high-speed Internet services should be covered under the 1994 law because their voice-transmission services could be considered separately from information services. "Congress intended to cover services that were functionally equivalent" to traditional telephones, Lewis said.

"There's nothing to suggest that in the statute," Edwards replied. "Stating that doesn't make it so."

The panel appeared to be more willing to support the FCC's argument that Internet-phone services - which allow Internet users to make and receive calls from fixed-line phones - might be covered under the law.  ++




Saturday, May 6, 2006 | Not about those USB cables..

WELL after a week of daily horoscopes plus all the regular ones plus a few extra ones here and there, plus Astrology Secrets, I've said just about everything I have to say about the astrology of this weekend. I was planning a blog last night on the many different kinds of USB cables that exist, but thought the better of it. Better to say nothing than bring up a subject like that. However, I am fascinated by the USB-A to Ethernet that's in my collection. But that's as far as I'm going.

As for a potentially more important subject, the discussion of Sept. 11 is pretty vocal at the moment, though this may be an illusion of the tempest in my inbox. However, based on Mandy's C-Span blog (see below) I don't think so. A couple of nights ago, in response to a letter from a reader, I read through much of my coverage of the Sept. 11 astrology going back to October 2001 and was surprised how cautious I've been in stating what I really feel about these charts and why -- particularly the 8:46 am chart linked below.

But I do remember palpably the feeling of fear those first days and weeks -- that if you failed to snap to attention and salute the flag you would be arrested for sedition. Mr. Bush was elevated to the level of a demigod. Anyone who dared to question the newborn national mythology was a kind of instant heretic. Even The Onion managed to make its coverage mock-patriotic. Remember the woman who, after giving blood and donating to the Red Cross, didn't know what to do, so she baked a flag cake?

However, I was aware the whole story was going to come apart and consequently saved dozens of newspapers from the first days to preserve some vestige of the 'original story' on paper. What has come out in the subsequent four-and-half years vindicates the chart. Indeed, the chart pointed right to the real issues, which Michael Moore has covered better than anyone else in the mainstream media. And I am getting a sense that the issue is ready for discussion. Every salient fact is already established; there are reasons to question every stated fact in the 'official version' of events, starting with four hijacking teams batting 1000 within a 45 minute period, to the fact that relatively minor damage in two different solid steel and concrete towers caused them both to implode on their footprints instantaneously within a short time.

We then have the mystery of why WTC 7, a 40-story skyscraper, just collapsed around 5 o'clock that afternoon. It was not hit by an airplane. It just collapsed on its footprint. As I sit here typing this, it occurs to me that many people are not going to believe it's true -- but you can find it reported hundreds of places, you can watch the video, and you can track many discussions of just this one issue.

Let's start over on the chart. Here it is.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=911

Here are the minor planets from Tracy's page: http://snipurl.com/q3ov

Here are the secondary progressions, for Saturday. Take a look at the New Moon that's coming in the progressed chart. Take a look at that Jupiter rising.

http://planetwaves.net/chart.php?c=911-progr



Two notes, one is that Steve Bergstein has done a review of the Neil Young album in his Psychsound blog. This is about Neils new free album protesting the war in Iraq. You can click on the link above, or bookmark http://psychsound.com -- which points to his column, and that links to the free download.

Second is that Astrology Secrets Revealed has been updated with an article called "From Beltane to Solstice." Here is that link:

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

My daily horoscopes will continue to appear on http://cainer.com through Saturday.

    -- Eric Francis



May 4, 2006 | Live on C-Span, In Reality...

Mandy Hall, UK-based assistant news editor for Planet Waves, sends in this bit of information, email verbatim below. There has been quite a lot of correspondence flying through my inbox the past 24 hours relating to the Sept. 11 chart. Here is the short new interpretation I sent to some of my colleagues a few minutes ago: Mercury, ruler of the 12th house of secrets, is exactly in the ascendant. The truth is right in everybody's face.

Note, C-Span is a commercial-free live cable channel in the USA that broadcasts government meetings and some discussion of public affairs. It's a free channel created in 1979 that was enshrined as part of the cable companies' early broadcasting mission. It is not funded by the government but rather by the cable companies themselves. Here is the Wiki entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPAN

==

Mandy writes:

A report about a mainstream call in show: Incredible calls on C-Span RIGHT NOW!

I'm watching C-Span's Washington Journal right now (7:55 am EST). It's a live call in show, this morning asking for comments on the Moussaoui verdict.

At 7:15 woman called from NY saying that the wrong people got blamed for 9/11 and that the real person responsible was "George W. Bush".

This woke me up.

At 7:24 a guy from Baltimore called saying Moussaoui is a "scapegoat" and that Bush "BOMBED" the WTC.

At 7:37 .. another guy said we were lied to about 9/11.

And at 7:38 TWO calls in the same minute said the same thing with the woman in the second call saying "WATCH THE MOVIE LOOSE CHANGE AND YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT 9/11".

The show is still on for another 2 hrs.
    
We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

==

Mandy has assembled this resource area which has just about anything that's been put out there -- but if we missed something please use the feedback form at the bottom and let us know.

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/pworlds911.html



May 4 | Excerpt from tonight's Astrology Secrets Revealed

(This section is pertaining to the Summer Solstice chart, which is covered along with the Beltane chart for tomorrow...)

5. The lunar nodes are extremely close to the Aries Point. Notice, they are four arc minutes from being at exactly 00 Aries and 00 Libra. The Sun squares them at the same time. The Lunar Nodes reach these degrees once every nine years, but it's extremely rare to have an equinox or solstice that exactly squares the nodes. Looking at this chart, I cannot help but be reminded of all the numerous Aries Point charts stacked beneath this one. One thing we need to remember is that working in the background of both these charts is the 3/29 total solar eclipse, which was just over five weeks ago, which was an Aries Point event to the max.
 
I would like to conclude with a little note on fixed signs -- Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. They are symbolized by the bull, the lion, the eagle and a person. These are symbols that keep popping up everywhere. For example, have a look at this ordinary tarot card:
 
http://www.eosdev.com/Illustrations_Quotes/Cyndi/world.jpg
 
These critters also appear in the Book of Revelation, which is a treasure trove of occult symbolism (but following the advice of Kabbalah teachers, I don't suggest you read it at night).
 
The Fixed Cross is also the home of the four 'cross quarter days' or High Sabbats of which we are now visiting the first: Beltane takes place in Taurus; Lughnasadh in Leo; Samhain in Scorpio and Imbolc in Aquarius.
 
The fixed cross made a stunning appearance in 1999, with a grand cross and total solar eclipse on Aug. 11, covered in my article Thinking of You on Judgment Day. This is still remembered in Europe as "the eclipse." There was a potentially apocalyptic event: the Cassini Space Probe, which has long since reached Saturn, was being lofted past the Earth with its cargo of 72 pounds of plutonium. How quaint that seems in comparison to the current global situation. How nice to risk the end of the world, and at least get back some beautiful pictures of Saturn and data from Titan.
 
http://planetwaves.net/thinking.html
 
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
 
And wot have we got these days? I guess we shall soon enough see.



May 3 | Kite Pattern, Venus into Aries

TODAY'S entry will be brief: in a little while I need to wrap up my stand-in for Jonathan (always a busy week) as well as move the usual planets along -- a short edition of Astrology Secrets as well as Planet Waves Weekly. In Astrology Secrets, I'll be posting the charts for Beltane and then the Cancer ingress of the Sun (solstice) with a brief explanation of the aspects.

One of them looks like a grand trine, and includes a grand trine in the water signs: Mars trine Jupiter trine Uranus. I have not measured how tight the aspect is, and I haven't seen the exact chart (I'm looking at a chart animation for right now). But it's pretty tight in the Beltane chart.

But the Sun is in mid-Taurus and it's aspecting all the watery planets from an earthy sign, so that you get a triangle with an extra point at one end, making it look like a kite. This provides the ease and flow of a grand trine without the Bermuda Triangle feeling; you get all the water, but with the Sun grounding the experience in an the earthy element.

Today we also have Venus transiting into Aries. I touched on this briefly yesterday, but we get Venus beginning a new cycle of the zodiac as well as an Aries Point event that brings in the North Node of the Moon. The Aries Point normally has strong momentum; the node is exaggerating this effect. This will be a very good day to watch the news, and our lives, with an intuitive mirror and see what we notice.

My daily horoscope interpretations looking at this astrology are at http://cainer.com/ and the edition has just been mailed to all subscribers.

 
More on grand trines:

http://www.planetwaves.net/cainer/archive/001600.php

In a natal chart:

http://www.planetwaves.net/cainer/archive/001500.php



May 2, 2006 | World on the Edge of Time

DO YOU EVER just wish there was a big psychic umbrella you could get underneath and get some shelter from the intensity of the world? I sure do. As much as I enjoy and feel privileged to participate in the discussion, to be aware and alert and writing in this time of enormous change...to share ideas with so many people who want the best for the world...well...man, it's intense. And I've never felt the world in such a state as it's in now.

Maybe it's just the sweet little Moon-Mars conjunction that's brewing in Cancer (visible now, wherever you can see the Moon), exact early Tuesday in most time zones. That's an apt enough symbol of the emotionally edgy quality of existence, but not the only one. Protests have been erupting everywhere, including many pro-immigration demonstrations in the USA (and in regards to yesterday's edition by Paloma, I've just had a new report from Puerto Rico -- it's quite an astonishing scene there)...situations in many governments seeming incredibly and truly precarious, balanced on a knife edge...and the feeling that I'm hearing from many places that something, something big, is UP.

Yeah, something is definitely up. It's not quite Beltane now -- the Sun is not at the Taurus midpoint for a couple of more days, which will I think be telling and start to tip the balance of feelings and events in a more stable direction for a little while. However, I've just finished writing the Inner Space horoscope for June and had a long look at the summer solstice chart, on which I based the column. The solstice is connected with the 3/29 eclipse because both involve the change of seasons and 00 Aries being so electrified. In the solstice chart, this has the lunar nodes coming within a tiny fraction of a degree of the Aries Point exactly on the solstice, so the Sun squares the nodes to 1/15th of a degree as it changes signs. This sets off a whole sequence of extremely sensitive previous charts like a kind of domino effect.

And I don't mean just any charts. I mean charts from the summers of (pre 9/11) 2001 and (pre Katrina-Rita) 2005, as well as a very interesting (non eclipse) New Moon exactly on the Aries Point the first day of spring 2004. I have no doubt that there's something brewing in the ethers, and that it's going to affect a lot of people. If you read conspiracy-type websites (a satisfying project because it gives at least half a glimpse behind the veil of the mainstream media, if you don't mind the paranoia backlash) you'll see discussions of unreported troop movements and other events I am pretty sure have some basis in fact.

Personally, I am getting the feeling from the astrology and from the news that there's a flea wagging the dog episode in the works. But my intuition says this: there's no telling which way this cookie is going to crumble, or what the little fortune inside says. I don't care what's being proposed, planned, plotted or schemed right now. It's not quite what's going to happen.

Even the probability field of a worst-case scenario 'second 9/11' type event is skewed because too many people are expecting it, or feel it would be a logical diversion at this stage. Anyway, the other shoe has yet to fall regarding whoever was responsible for that day in Sept. 2001 and I for one have no doubt at all who it was.

Speaking from the best of my spiritual training that I can offer you, what's most likely to screw up any such plan is that there are too many light workers on the case. There are too many people with genuinely strong connections to Source who are tracking, in truth, stalking every move of the black T-shirts and I'm sure the boys feel about as safe as if they were wading across the Rio Grande with 25,000-watt halogen lamps blazing in their squinty eyes.

Meantime, we don't have to wait for the solstice to feel those points get hot, and the smaller transits sometimes offer clues as to the bigger ones that are coming. For one thing, right now the Moon is in early Cancer, just having squared its own nodes; it's about to square the 3/29 eclipse and then make a conjunction to Mars -- and today, on this very day, the People are vibrating out a message of peace and tolerance. For another, Venus is just in the last two degrees of Pisces, finishing her long trip around the zodiac and about to move into Aries and walk over the North Node, and we can study her Aries Point/node transit for clues.

Remember that the Aries Point exaggerates that sense of one's personal presence in the world. It amplifies the sense of the world's presence in one's inner life, and makes events seem so important. Everything feels so personal. Is it really? Is it a kind of grand illusion? Ah, are we really here, and where is here?

Mm, maybe here is the Hyperspeed Digital Sixties without the Beatles reminding us that love is all you need. Quick, somebody write a song.


=

Archive: The Personal is Political
http://planetwaves.net/cainer/archive/003790.php



May 1 | May Day In Puerto Rico by Paloma Todd

Editor's Note: Growing up in New York City, Puerto Rico is a lot more important place than it's considered in most other locales. In the city not long ago, people were either black, white or Puerto Rican -- and this social mix has played big part of New York culture, immortalized in the musical 'West Side Story'. Yet even most New Yorkers don't know that this mysterious little island that sits between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is an actual United States colony (an unincorporated organized territory), whose citizens are taxed and serve [valiantly, I might add] in every war, but have no representation in Congress (remember from 4th grade, "no taxation without representation?" It still exists...). Now the colonial government has gone bankrupt, a fact [theoretically] so inconsequential it has not even shown up in the mainstream news. But Puerto Ricans are rising up and this may be the beginning of reclaiming their prosperity and political power from a government entrenched in scandal and deceit. I asked Paloma Todd, a longtime politically-involved resident of the island (now living in Paris), to tell us a little about what was going on. She has more stories to tell.

PAYROLL money is unavailable to end the fiscal year. The Education Department shuts down. The government goes bankrupt. No line of credit is available to bridge the gap until next budget. There is no help from the federal government. Police and hospitals are the only agencies that will remain partially open. This was announced last week. May 1st, the government officially closes. The symbolism of the date goes beyond irony. It's the real thing.

As a result of the 2004 elections, the executive branch of the government is from one party, and the legislative from the other. The political parties in Puerto Rico, which define themselves on the theme of the what's called the 'status' they support (statehood? country? colony?) are bitterly at odds. It's a juicy long story. The government's bankruptcy solution depends on the consensus between fierce, lifelong enemies. It has been a two-year long political power play and now it's coming to a head.

The consistent legislative strategy has been to hang up all the governor's measures. It has worked. The government has been stuck since the elections, and so too, has the economy.

To solve the problem, a resolution presented by the governor calls for a 7% sales tax as a guaranty for a government development bank loan that would, he says, solve the problem on short- and long-term basis. It's the one and only solution. He insists.

The measure has passed the Senate's vote. It's been stuck in the House of Representatives for months now. Why? Because even if both branches are from the same party, they are divided and they too, are fierce enemies.

Since the government's closing announcement was made, the leadership has been accusing each other. Both sides are screaming, whining, pushing, pulling, attacking, accusing, forcing, defending, hiding, lying. Nothing new under the island's sun. Just a condensed experience of the everyday local political style. The image is beyond caricature. Yes, pathetic.

Just take your time, and picture this: 95,000 government employees are going through the devastating reality of loosing their source of income. The thousands of public schools students that won't be able to finish the academic year are facing the insecurity of the system simply failing. The failure of the government is an indication that society itself is unable to function; that it cannot take care of its responsibilities to the people, even if employees are willing to come to work.

Imprints of this crisis will have long-term and surely unaddressed social consequences that will deeply affect a nation's identity and relationship to itself. Not to mention the domino effect on the long-term economy. Not a pretty picture. The government's head has been in the sand. Today, it's the little guy who pays the price of irresponsibility. All this is the consequence of decades of different governments repeating the same errors. And yes, corruption. A lot.

The emotional tension and the stress that the Puerto Rican society is living at the present time is painful, sad and unfair. Desperation is the appropriate word.

The feeling of indignation is growing day by day. The people are claiming respect, action, decency and transparency from their leaders. They are awakening at the fact that the only solution offered is to pay more taxes. They claim. They march. They refuse. And they scream, feeling used, bounced, played, abandoned.

During this past three days, a collective rising voice have been slowly emerging: the rich should pay too. Corporations and banks should be taxed. The imbalance should be corrected. With time, it may become an organized social and civic movement. If anything could be, this would be a positive outcome of this nightmare.

A short-term solution is not in sight. Taking into account that Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, has no economic independence and very little means of supporting itself, one would think that the island political status solution is the long-term way to go. That, too, has been a stuck and long story.

So let's light a candle and see what happens. I say, go the way to go is soul level -- the soul of the people. And when we talk about collective soul my bet goes to the people. Puerto Ricans are strong, they are fighters, and they will rise to the circumstances -- of that I am sure.

'Lo que no mata engorda': a local saying for, 'what doesn't kill you makes you fatter'.

I say stronger.

==

CIA Factbook's Map
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rq.html

Wiki on Puerto Rico, interesting as ever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico

Planet Waves, Inc. is a supporter of the Wiki Media Foundation.



Hello!

Welcome (or welcome back) to readers who have clicked through from http://cainer.com and have arrived at Planet Waves. I'll be covering for Jonathan for a few days. Readers who started here and would like to catch my horoscope happening daily through Saturday, you can click back through and visit. The horoscope will be mailed each morning to subscribers of Planet Waves Weekly.

In case you're curious, here is some stuff to read about Beltane.

Wikipedia on Beltane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane

Beltane: The Tree of Life
http://planetwaves.net/contents/beltane05.html

Your Own Celebration of Spring
http://www.ericfrancis.com/issues/0304/celebrate.html

Day Zero: the Venus Transit of the Sun
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/transitofvenus.html

Yours truly,
-- Eric Francis



Sunday, April 30 | The Newest Hite Report

AS a follow up to the gender issues thread this week, I would like to pass along this link, a New York Times review of Shere Hite's new book: http://snipurl.com/putf

Hite is the author of The Hite Report, the detailed survey of female sexuality that came out in 1976. For the record, this book was profoundly influential on me when I was a kid, and its detailed surveys of women I read at around the ages of 14 through 16 deeply impressed me with their ideas of what a woman is, what she is capable of, what she needs and what I can offer her.

But it did not really address the issue of communication between the sexes. It was not about relationships. Hite's new survey of women looks at just this theme, and if you believe the Times review, it's basically a profile of a world of emotionally incapacitated men, and women who suffer lives with them. According to her respondents, men can barely utter a word about how they feel; they don't know how they feel; women are dissatisfied in love as a result. They don't get the intimacy they want. Women need to communicate, and they need to be understood. Men seem to not be available.

I can say from working as an astrologer primarily for women for 11 years, and as a tarot card reader for seven years before, the main thing that women need is to be heard. They tend to respond very well to being listened to; it is deeply healing. Women who talk to me do tend to feel there is no man with whom they can share their deepest feelings, experiences, and needs. Ah, but then, what to do about those feelings and needs? Hmmmm. This is more salient. This is much more controversial.

And isn't this true for everyone? Is there one man reading this who can tell me honestly that he does NOT need to be heard? That he does not long for contact? Well, like Shere Hite, we have a biased sample at Planet Waves: despite our rather intense political focus, women gravitate to this site much more than men -- which is potentially a clue about the kind of man who does show up (intuitive, aesthetically sensitive, spiritually searching, likes ideas put into words).

But let's pretend, for a moment. Let's pretend that women really are the ones who want to communicate, and men really are the unaware emotional cripples who can think of nothing but golf, sales reports and the last hot ass that walked by. Forget that this [common perception] is grossly sexist and denies the existence of so many men who have, through years of pain, alienation and loss, arrived at a real place of self-understanding and compassion. Forget the ones who were miraculously born that way. Forget the ones whose parents raised them to be people; to be a mensch, borrowing from Yiddish.

Where would women get their practice communicating with sensitive men? Well, this is a very good job for a therapist. Even if you go back every week and pay your $150 and learn how to communicate with a member of the male species, that's well worth the price of admission (most therapists charge a lot less, by the way). If you have one relationship with a man who demonstrates to you that men can listen, care, understand, and share their responses with you, that is enough (in my view). You will have your 'missing experience' and discover that another world is possible.

But most people don't go to therapy. Most people don't understand what it could possibly do for them. Many are way too scared of what they might find out about themselves (which almost always turns out to be far better than they thought). So, where then would women learn about how to communicate with men, where would they practice, where would they get the 'feel', if almost all men are so shut down? Under this model, who is going to teach the men to communicate?

I have an even better question.

Is it possible to be a sensitive, aware listener who happens to be male, and still be perceived, experienced and felt as a man, that is, sexually and amorously? Or, does that sensitivity tend to weaken the sense of polarity and take away some of the fun? Does it mean that (dread!) sex will be blended with intimacy? For now, men carry the whole burden of this issue in the Western world: we are allegedly the ones who want sex with no intimacy. And it's quite a burden to carry, particularly given that it's not true; that it masks a much more complex reality.

In my experience talking with men, and from my own life, I can tell you that being a kind, sensitive listener generally gets a guy female friends -- but not necessarily the relationships we want or need. A typical pattern is, the 'friendship' is going great, but then when the man is a man and responds to the woman as a woman, oh well, see? He's just like all the other guys! You can't trust him because all he wants is sex!

I would ask bluntly: is a man who can feel and communicate really a man? Or is he...scary? Is he just as scary as feminists (and many other women I know) have often claimed a smart, confident woman is to a man?

Who is going to lead the way out of this thicket? Who is going to be the gender, or the person, that embraces the 'other', and recognizes both polarities internally, so that the 'other' is not an alien? Do we really want to hear everything that the 'other' has to say? Do we really want to know about one another? Do we want to know ourselves? Are we willing to grant absolute amnesty to the other, and just listen for a while? If your [male or female] lover told you EVERYTHING, would you accept it?

Or do we smother in our cozy world of don't ask, don't tell -- and then wonder where the passion went?

--

Wikipedia on Shere Hite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shere_Hite



Sunday

While I'm passing along tons of news clippings, here is a new one from The Independent in the UK, sent by Urslua in Toronto. Astrology rarely gets good press. The Independent, one of England's smartest and most politically savvy newspapers, is pretty friendly to our craft, however. Here is the link.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article360644.ece



Um, can you say World Oil War? http://snipurl.com/ptkh

PS, can you say, Buenos Dias, Amerika? Apparently, the new Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner has stirred up quite a fuss. But does everyone know that the United States does not have an official language? From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, April 28—President Bush has never been shy about speaking Spanish in public, and he is known to love all kinds of music: country, folk and even Tex-Mex style rock. But one thing you will not find on his iPod: "Nuestro Himno," the new Spanish version of the national anthem that was released on Friday as part of the growing immigrants' rights movement.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/audio/national/himno.mp3

PPS, Who and what is the United States? Howard Zinn breaks it down.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042506F.shtml



Um, can you say World Oil War? http://snipurl.com/ptkh





Saturday, April 29 | T-Shirts, Resource Areas and the 10 Most Wanted

WE HAVE joined the ranks of websites that offer T-shirts. We have done this merely to improve our credibility. It's the next best thing to a White House press card. We've taken the Café Press business model -- they print the shirts on demand, and we don't have to turn somebody's kitchen into a drop-shipping agency.

The shirts are based on Deirdre Tanton's designs from the Parallel Worlds artwork. You can see them here:

http://www.cafepress.com/planetwaves/

After shipping and everything is paid for, we make $7 per shirt. We don't expect to make bank in the concessions industry, but they are nice shirts.

    
Next Case: Resource Areas

EARLIER in the week I introduced our Sept. 11, 2001 resource area. You will notice that my mascot for Sept. 11 is Orson Welles performing the greatest media hoax of the 20th century, "The War of the Worlds." This is me being literary. This is me putting up a tarot card that says Sept. 11 was essentially a hoax. Something real happened, yes, real people were killed, but -- what we think happened is something different than what did happen, as most ordinary Americans now seem to accept. Here is the link:

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/pworlds911.html

However, FYI, this is one of seven (rather diverse) Planet Waves resource areas. The others are: Alice Bailey; Avian Influenza; Options to Hysterectomy; Peace Groups; Sexuality; and Water. Please post these to your Internet site, pass the link on, and most of all, use it. Many, many people have contributed to these areas. I have actually done very little of the work and only some of the thinking; usually what I do is say, "how abut this or that?" and if somebody is excited about it, it happens. Mandy Hall has, however, been coordinating and doing the heavy lifting (research, evaluation of the sites, coordinating the various streams of input, coding the pages) on the newer areas. Here is the link to all of them:

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/


America's 10 Most Wanted

SPEAKING of resource areas, I came up with a really perverse idea earlier in the week, which was to base one on the FBI list of America's 10 Most Wanted. Who are these people? How can you collect your $25 million if you manage to offer information that gets one of them popped? How can you get on the list for yourself? So I wrote to Mandy Hall, our Resource Areas editor and we started poking around the page.

Here it is:

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm

I knew Osama bin Laden would be there, but I figured there would be a lot more "Arab terrorists" listed. There are actually not so many as there were the last time I checked. You will read about all kinds of interesting real-life outlaws on this list, you will see the "should be considered armed and dangerous" warning, you will meet a Mafia boss who travels armed with a knife at all times. It's an interesting lot, and some of these people have been fugitives for a very long time.

When you click on Osama, and read what he is wanted for, you may notice something extremely odd: he's not wanted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. Remember how many times his name and likeness have been used to promote the cause of Sept. 11 and the war with Afghanistan, which was a friend to Al Qaeda until we kicked out the Taliban and it really became a massive haven for Al Qaeda, opium growers, etc.? How many times was he blamed?

Why is Osama not listed as wanted in connection with Sept. 11? Well, presuming the FBI updates its web page at least once every four years, there can be only one reason. There's not enough evidence to even say that. Wot are they afraid he's going to sue for slander? They think nobody but nut cases such as myself reads their 10 Most Wanted page?

But, if anyone has an alternative theory, I would be excruciatingly thrilled beyond imagination to hear it. So please tap away to francis@planetwaves.net and join our first-annual competition for The Best Reason bin Laden is Not Wanted in Connection with Sept. 11.

And don't miss the ever so artsy FBI Art Crime Team internet logo:

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/topten/images/toptenartbanner594a.jpg

But this is really sad:

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/topten/iraqi.htm



April 28, 2006 | Dudespeak

I love women. Always have as long as I can remember, since before grade school. I enjoy their company, much more than I do being around men. For me, it's not so much being afraid of them as it is being ill-prepared to deal with them. VERY ill-prepared.

==

Here's the point; there was very little or no difference between the women and men in the feelings we were going through. Our hurts and fears and needs were virtually the same. I cannot say if our coping strategies were the same because that’s what we were there to learn. I can say that in this group those strategies worked equally well. Or when men identify their feelings as efficiently as women then the differences are far less.

==

Women were presumed superior and my brother and I were taught to treat them as if they were. My mother never had a kind word to say about my father except that he was honest about money. He is, but he has a lot of other human attributes that I was not allowed to acknowledge. It took me a long time to understand the damage to a boy when the mother shows no respect for his father.

==

I can't say exactly how much religion in general has contributed to humanity's sexual and relationship dysfunction, but it's been many moons going on. This bad direction piled on top of many generational tweaks and freaks compounds the problems every minute. Bad energy abounds, and we aren't taught that this needs some healthy outlet and/or solution, although the anti-depressant industry seems pleased.

==

My suggestion for anyone who is having chronic problems with the opposite sex is that you stop relating to people as members of a group and start seeing them as individuals.

==

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/world_returns4.html



Thursday, April 27 | A Liberating Experience

YESTERDAY EVENING I had a liberating experience with two young women. Both were born in Korea. One, named Kimy, I've known since the first day I lived in Brussels, when I promised her I would look at her natal chart. Everyone has been busy, but each of the past five times I've bumped into her she was more and more curious. Last night she showed up in the café/restaurant (arriving with a new friend) where I was finishing up some horoscope columns, and asked me if I could look at her chart -- on the spot. I said I needed about 45 minutes to wrap up and would come over.

When I finished the Monday and Tuesday dailies, I moved tables and sat down with them. I ordered dinner and theirs arrived right away: they each got a not-so-small pizza that was the house specialty. Kimy introduced me to her new friend Moon, who she had just met that day and was excited about because you don't meet a lot of down home South Koreans roaming around (though I seem to have a knack for it).

I looked up Kimy's chart, brushed off the question of how I knew the birth time when she did not (I had already rectified it the first time I saw the chart months ago), and while she was eating, asked the occasional question about this or that time in her life (following Chiron transits to see if and how her chart worked).

But, as I sat there, I noticed myself slowly going insane. Like everyone else in quaint, polite and proper old Europe, they were eating their pizza with knives and forks. Sitting up straight and tall and very ladylike. Not getting anywhere, not having so much fun, not even noticing they were even doing anything special.

Finally, I blurted out, Tourettes's Syndrome style, "Hey! Can I show you something?!"

Um, okay.

"Here, pick it up with your fingers."

They did, hesitatingly, discreetly looking around the room to see if anyone was watching. "It's okay. Now, hold the mushy part up with your other hand. Exactly. Now, take a bite. A little bigger than you think you should. Great, now Bend Over so you don't get it all over your blouse. Just like my grandmother used to say. Bend Over."

Aaaahhhhhhhh. What an incredible relief. Knives and forks abandoned. I felt so much better.

This was obviously some kind of cultural immersion experience for them. Traditional Korean food, some of the best Asian there is, try it if you can, is served in many tiny little bowls which you eat with metal chopsticks (more sanitary), usually monogrammed if you're in someone's household. But this is how you eat pizza, for sure, absolutely no question about it. I explained that I'm Italian from Brooklyn, I know exactly what I'm talking about.

As for part three in the Gender Series...here is Onward & Inward, five short essays.

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/world_returns3.html



Weds-Thurs | Overnight Reading for the Potentially Mad

AS PART of our work on Parallel Worlds, the annual edition of Planet Waves, Mandy Hall created a resource of information about Sept. 11. It's been growing in the three or so months since the annual edition came out, and it's now time to share it with our readers.

Here is the link. It is the result of many months of research and it would take about that long to read everything. But if it involves Sept. 11 and you're looking for it, this is a very good place to start. It is updated as needed. Even if you just scan the resource over and read the occasional sentence, I think maybe you'll notice the whole story goes deeper than we think.

Here's the link:

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/pworlds911.html

Thanks for tuning in. I'll be back in the morning with another installment in the gender series.

    e



Wednesday | A five-star video clip, and note to men

PS, this was sent in by a reader, who wants everyone to vote for it. Not to sound like the second grade teacher ("wot would happen if everyone sent in their thing to be voted for?" Why the blog would be nothing but...) however I thought I would post this. It's pretty clever, and I did promise. Thanks Nancy.

http://clips.mylifemycard.com/view.php?film_id=11483

To our readers: how are you appreciating the reader-contributed essays? Can we please hear from some men? We have heard a lot from women about why guys are scared of them, and their feelings about this. But I would ask you to go past the common perception that guys "don't put their feelings into words." Is that true? Well, from the look of the discussion, it is.

And no, to involve more male readers, we're not going to do golf.planetwaves.net. Oh, wait, I just got an IM -- that site is ready for testing!

True or not, it's time, and this is the place. I'm currently putting together tomorrow's edition and would love to have your thoughts included. Please do get in touch. Remember, type as close to how this blog looks as you can.

Here is the original post.

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/why_man_afraid.html

Thanks! francis@planetwaves.net

    e



Wednesday, April 26 | As The World Reflects

CONTINUING with our series of reader-contributed entries, we have four additional short essays for you. Thanks to everyone who has been sending in their heartfelt contribution to this discussion. Here are samples from today's four selections:

Last night I invited a guy I've been involved with over for dinner. Somehow over dinner we got into a fight about astrology. "It's too simple," he said. I gave him a dirty look to which he responded, "I mean, it's too complex." I suddenly got not horny at all.

=

I spent alot of time trying to date bad boys. I also heard alot of justification from them and from the world at large as to why they weren't really kind, loving people or how whatever abuse they were doling out was some code meaning they loved me. I was guilty of all manner of badness myself, I just contained alot of it. Maybe my abuse was socially acceptable.

=

As I read your blog about gender fears, I'd been going through a classic version of my own relationship pain, as a result of a miscommunication with a man. Because, I miscommunicate with myself, or have been unable to decipher the messages of my own psyche and have been actually afraid of it, of myself- like it is out there.

=

Instead of growing with me, I left him behind.  One more unannounced badly timed visit from his family and I would have said things better left unsaid.  Instead of trying to change and grow, and to talk to his family, he buried his proverbial head in the sand and hoped things would go away.  Needless to say, they didn't, and our relationship was never the same again.

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/world_returns2.html


PS I got a letter which referenced 'my' paris protest photos from earlier this month and last, and clarify here that the pictures of the mega youth/union protests, including the one of the fire-breathing high school student, are the work of Paloma Todd. You can find them easily by clicking through to the 2006 cover gallery from the home page.

Here is her URL, photos, photos and more photons: http://www.ojoazul.net

I heard a rumor that this site will have a blog soon. Looking forward to that one 4sure.



April 26 | As the World Returns

I love the reader-written sections of Planet Waves.

Here are three samples:

==

Our evolutionary journey seems to involve a deep deep need within each of us to 'marry' these forces within us, which of course are the forces that create the Universe, at least here on Earth. Two thousand years of patriarchy won't be easy to balance, but that is the agenda of the Divine Feminine in this century and beyond.

==

I think men are afraid of women because emotionally, men are more vulnerable. I see it in my children. My daughters were and are far more emotionally independent even from infancy than my son is.

==

I suppose it comes down to a willingness to look at "them" and discover what we have in common, rather than the differences. I suspect that this is something that's going to happen as a result of the entire human race having to pull together for survival. I speak of the environmental degradation. A friend came back from South America three weeks ago. They took a plane ride over the Amazon. The Amazon river in some places is only 1" (2.5 cm) deep.

http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/world_returns1.html





April 24 | Curiosity

BEFORE I get into rolling ahead with the many excellent responses I received to my freewriting therapy yesterday morning about the genders' fear of one another, I have a couple of afterthoughts. The three keywords are: self esteem, abandonment, curiosity.

These are factors that transcend gender and sexual orientation. By the way, I'm not a big believer in the deep, inherent differences between the sexes -- I just live in a world where everyone loves to clock everyone on the head with this apparently meaningful fact. I have always been more in touch with my female aspect than my male aspect -- I have both Venus and Mars in deeply feminine signs. I crave women and the comfort of women, but I have a feeling that it's not in a way that most other men would relate to; who knows.

So first keyword: Self esteem. This word is used more than it's understood. I don't understand it to be a superficial idea, but rather something of a core reality: actual admiration for oneself, faith in oneself, and more than both, a sense of oneself. I have spent most of my life not being so strong in this department. My 4th grade teacher used to say that I had a guilty conscience because I always thought I was the one doing something wrong. I show other signs of psychological abuse, and as I entered adulthood and that critical 20 to 30 stage where psychosis may manifest, my emotional life was pretty much a downward slide. Thank God, Goddess and everyone who has ever read one of my articles that I'm a writer. That was my safety net.

Having no real regard for myself nearly killed most of my relationships, but some other factor preserved their essence and I still carry those women with me today in my heart. It must have been very frustrating to try to love me and only find out that a sensible, kind person was really just made of emotional chaos on most of the inner layers. Some people could see right through that (hi Ginger!) and others could not. They could get past all the layers where I was hating myself and see the part of me that was love.

As I went through therapy and began to reassemble some idea that I, too, have a right to exist, the balance of power began to shift in my relationships. I began to claim some of my own space, my own right to my feelings and needs, and I began to hold my inner territory as inviolable. But there was still a good bit of chaos because I stopped going along with the programmed course of relationships, which is so pervasive that it's invisible. Coincidentally, it stopped doing anything for me -- the program was not nourishing. I was not happy and I needed to create something else for myself.

But something else happened, which is the more clear I became about how I felt about myself and my needs, the more I would encounter partners who were, mysteriously, lacking a sense of self beneath the exterior; who were threatened by what I knew about myself; who were depressed as I had been. And this was an extremely challenging phase.

I am someone who a lot of people might accuse of being superficial. Rather than merging with another person, I need to relate to them as an individual. I need the individuals in a relationship to both be bigger than The Relationship.

Here is the gist of my point: when relationships become a way to shore up missing self esteem, they are disasters waiting to happen. And that is the prevailing model: we are all, in theory, missing something possessed by the other. I realize this seems to be true and this two halves make a whole can be a very stable form of relationship -- until somebody in the couple starts becoming whole, and then things can get pretty shaky.

Second key word, abandonment. I did not begin to address this until a second therapy experience, in Seattle -- working with a Hakomi therapist and then doing some workshops and trainings in that particular form of process. Despite some lingering concerns about the leadership of the community, Hakomi therapy is a pretty amazing invention.

Anyway, the issue that came out of that process was my terror of abandonment. It's all over my childhood -- long story, but I was initially very sick as a child, and when I got well at around two years old, my mother began to get very sick, dad was not around, when he was there, they were fighting constantly and on and on. My brother's arrival stressed out the situation, and both my parents, far beyond its ability to stay together. He really took the brunt of the damage. My mother's entire generation of cousins got divorced (except for the one male cousin, Mario) in the years after she did, and she was blamed for ruining every woman's marriage.

After my parents divorced, when I was about nine (at the peak of the 70s) both of my parents proceeded to have a stream of partners that seemed to last from a few weeks to a year. So I bonded with literally dozens of people in surrogate parent roles who suddenly disappeared, and I never even got to say goodbye. This was between the ages of around 9 and 16. Both parents gave the impression that partners were dismissable on the spot. Note: what attracted me to the polyamory movement was the idea that relationships need to be designed to be sustainable, and that human bonding is the essence -- not romance. (Aquarius Moon.)

There was a parallel from my early childhood: there were numerous student nurses, nurses, housekeepers and female relatives all playing the role of mother. Mother herself was sometimes there, sometimes not, always in pain, usually checked out.

If you want an idea of the extent of my abandonment issues, notice that I rarely miss so much as day blogging; I rarely miss a horoscope; I strive to run a dependable business at all costs; when you get to Planet Waves, I want you to know somebody is home. I do my very best to reply to every email (when dozens come in at once, it's harder). I want to ensure a sense of community participation. Call it compensatory behavior; call it Chiron turning a wound into power, but I want the lights on around the clock at this URL.

I want to exclude nobody from what anyone has access to. Hence, anyone can ask for a free subscription.

How am I doing with my abandonment issues in personal relationships? A lot better. In the past few years, I have come to enjoy counting on people in the long run more than I ever have. I have come to accept the fact that they are there. I have seen how many times I am there, and what extraordinary circumstances it takes to have me back off. And I do back off, for one reason only: self preservation. Thank you Joe Trusso, the man who taught me to say goodbye.

Last word: curiosity. My interest in women and in people in general, and in life and in art, photography, astrology, politics, sex, drugs and rock and roll is driven by curiosity. I dare say it's a rare commodity in the world, except in kids and artists (and by artist, I mean anyone who brings a sense of curiosity and creation to their work or play). Dogs and cats are constantly curious. They smell everything they can. They want to know, see and feel. We could learn a lot from them. I love the feeling when a dog or cat is curious about me. Hey or even a person!

I have gone from being frustrated with myself to curious about myself, and the relentless passion with which I think, feel, write and express myself -- and travel, and meet people, and experience them -- I owe mostly to my curiosity. (It made me a very dangerous investigative reporter, and started me on the path of astrology. And if anyone is wondering why I care so much about sexuality, you have your answer in one word, but think of it as visceral and sensory rather than intellectual.)

It's sad to see how this precious and amazingly fun, useful resource is systematically extinguished by the world. Curiosity could save us all. It keeps our mind and senses alive. It makes us yearn for the new experience that life is every moment.

The killing of curiosity is intentional. At first it's not rewarded; then it's often punished; then it's made nearly impossible to express safely. If you have kids, protect their curiosity, and if you want to do them the best favor ever, fire up your own and bring it back to life. I think our relationships need curiosity more than anything. But it's very hard when insecurity gets in the way; when what someone feels or thinks or has experienced in the past or wants to experience now drives another person to feel like they're not safe.

One of the earliest and most palpable forms of curiosity is sexual curiosity. Do you remember when you were first discovering yourself, and your desires? That innocent spirit of wanting to know and feel more was curiosity.

I don't know how to make this point any better than I am, but curiosity keeps us growing and alive and it keeps other people interesting to us. Or not, and we find people who are interesting. But most of all, it keeps me interested in myself, in my response to the world, and to others, interested in what I feel and perceive and, in the end, I am driven to write, photograph, find out what people smell and taste like, make love, make out with dogs I don't know, talk to cats through windows, and view the world as a place that I can use to to explore, create, love and push things just a little bit.
 
With that being said in about 20 minutes(!), I will begin posting reader responses to the Fear of the Other Gender series early tomorrow London time. Thanks for all your letters. I am grateful for every single one of them.



April 24, 2006 | This Week's Astrology

I REALIZE we've been going through one of those "What on Earth is next?" phases of astrology, and the action of the nodes, Mars and Mercury in the cardinal signs (Cancer and Aries) has been stirring the pot from the bottom up. Currently the Moon is sweeping through sensitive Pisces and has been making plenty of aspects to other planets in the water signs: Mars, Juno and Vesta in Cancer; Jupiter in Scorpio; and Uranus and Venus in Pisces.

This is a lot of water, and that means that emotionally we may need to tread water. The important thing is to stay above your emotions and keep breathing. Mercury has just crossed the lunar node and the degree of the 3/29 solar eclipse; Mars has squared the node and is getting ready to square the degree of the eclipse. That is why everything feels so incredibly important, and why all decisions feel so life-altering.

Is it true, or is it just a feeling? Ah well that is one of the mysteries of the nodes. They are there to guide us, but not to compel us. There is an extraordinary amount of individualistic energy in the air, and many people are finding this is tough on relationships. Will this help? Well, one of the things our relationships struggle from is a combination of overcooked individuality and undercooked insecurity.

The lunar nodes in Aries and Libra are underscoring just this issue. Where is the line between I and We? How much investment can you expect people to have in your sense of safety? How much are you willing to do to make them feel safe? And the kicker of course -- is all of that really just a ruse? If nothing else, the nodes in Aries in Libra -- an 18 month transit that comes to a peak this spring -- are saying that we need to be fully conscious of our own security needs and our own identity as apart from any relationship we may be in.

This does not preclude the possibility of love, and in fact it leaves our loved ones breathing easier because we send the message that we don't need them to feel safe. One of the most precious gifts we can offer another is our own sense of security.


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