parody of Our Ne'er-Do-Well Son

No, I can't really apologize for the new rhymery just posted at Lim's Limericks: Our Ne'er-Do-Well Son so I must take full bad-poetry responsibility for its perpetration!

The photo you'll see there of Chief Grumpy Red Face is complimentary.

Today in Washington and NYC

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." --Thomas Jefferson

So do I, as should we all. (Physical) water is not the only thing in short supply.

Image: sunrise 7:33:01 am edt, Washington, DC, Oct 26, chart-ruler Mars in 9th house of foreign enemies, conj Fixed Star, Alhena, to have a mission. Mars is inconjunct Chiron at IC. (You'll find Chiron mentioned below.)

Click-to-enlarge chart to read my scribbles because it's on to New York...

As the fairy dust settles from last evening's Full Moon, we find that at 3:00 am edt in midtown Manhattan, Explosives in NYC's Mexican Consulate so explosive Mars is still busy in 'the homeland' (Cancer), out-of-bounds and lobbing makeshift explosives from a bicycle.

3:00 am in NYC brought up Bush's natal Virgoan Mars, just after tr Saturn, whose Hour it was. Saturn Hours are good for things like taking responsibility and for control, with an air of restriction and inhibition involved. This lobbing was a diversion of some kind, and indicates that activist Mars has more trouble in store. What else is new, right?

So Bush has this goin' on: Mars/Saturn = ASC: obstacles caused by others; illness; separation; bereavement; struggling for every step of advancement; possible health threat. (Will his colon come back to haunt him?) (midpoints: Tyl; Ebertin.)

Saturn will be restrictvely conjuncting his natal Mars soon (health concerns continue.) It's a period when circumventing rules is ill-advised and relationships with males may be interrupted or broken off entirely. Loneliness increases, yet a reaffirmation toward long-term goals is also possible. Kind of a 'stay the course' transit (ad nauseum.)

But back at the Mexican Consulate:

At the WHY Point of the chart (MC) was tr asteroid, Midas, the King, greedy lover of gold, and at IC (the HOW Point) was asteroid, Bacchus, keywords: denial; substitution; management of uncomfortable emotions. This lobbing occurred only a couple of hours after the Full Moon, Moon 3Tau46, "4Tau": "The rainbow's pot of gold."

3Tau08 is the Discovery Degree of Chiron, the Wound or the Wounded Healer, which is again splat upon Dick Cheney's natal Sun (10AQ48)--a transit which may spiritualize (Chiron) one's purpose in life (Sun), or indicate wounded vitality (health issues--with Cheney, probably heart-related. They do say he has one.)


And speaking of Politics in America, have you ever been to the Edge of Petrified Forest?

Fiery Mars in California

Having just posted Mars and the Fires of California at Jude's Threshold, you may wish to check it out concerning the similarities between out-of-bounds Mars 2007 and out-of-bounds Mars 1993, which was also a year of California wildfires causing great damage and misery--and the year of the FBI-ATF's siege at Waco.

As you know, the natal chart I use for the NWO is set for Oct 24, 1993, timed by the third and final conjunction of Uranus and Neptune. These two transpersonal era-defining planets hooked up all through 1993.

Plus...

Two Burned Bodies Found in SoCal which may turn out to be more mysterious than we now know or may ever be told.

do we bask in the moonshine of war?

On their march to the sea, Sherman's Army burned many towns in Georgia, towns already suffering horribly from the loss of war. So I guess Sherman's opinion on the subject carries weight even from the mists of time, for war doesn't change, just our misconceptions and the lies that take us into it:

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. Some of these young men think that war is all glory but let me say war is all hell."

--William Tecumseh Sherman

Some old men in the White House who never served pretend to think highly of war, too. Profits, you know.

Well, here's a website about the town of Madison, Ga where some of my ancestors lived out their lives. Named in honor of President James Madison, the town was spared destruction because a pro-Union Senator lived there, Joshua Hill (and some say an old girlfriend of Sherman lived nearby.)

From experience I can tell you that visiting Madison, Georgia is like taking a stroll back into a charming and gentler time. That's what a lack of war can do.

Comet erupts in Perseus!

Space Weather News for Oct. 24, 2007:

ERUPTING COMET: Astronomers in Japan and Europe report that Comet 17P/Holmes is undergoing a spectacular eruption. The 17th-magnitude comet has brightened by a factor of five hundred thousand or more during the past 24 hours becoming a naked eye object in the evening sky. This may signify a breakup of the comet's core or a rich vein of ice suddenly exposed to sunlight--no one knows.

Look for a yellow 2.5th-magnitude fuzzball in the constellation Perseus after sunset. ("2.5th magnitude" means a little dimmer than the stars of the Big Dipper.) At present the comet looks more like a star than a comet; it does not have a discernable tail, but it might grow one as the outburst continues.

Visit SpaceWeather.com for a sky map, photos and updates.#

The constellation of Perseus the Prince is a member of the royal family and orbits around the North Pole. He was known by the Hebrews as Parash, a horseman, or sometimes as Ham, son of Noah. In Egypt he was called, Khem, the young black son of Cepheus the king.

The brightest star in Perseus is Mirfak (Algenib) and is associated with the young warrior who is proud of his strength, his hunting and fighting abilities, and of his trophy. People with Mirfak linked to planets in their natal charts are: Muhammed Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr, Margaret Thatcher, and Henry Ford.

So Mirfak represents young male energy that may not listen to the wisdom of others or take caution. There is a flavor of overestimating one's mental or physical abilities...guess you could say a flame-out may result as we're seeing with Comet Holmes! So Washington and the Pentagon--beware, because even you exalted types can't change the As Above, So Below nature of the world.


5:00 pm News from NPR:

State Department Security Chief Richard Griffin has resigned effective Nov 1--he oversaw entities like Blackwater. Seems the heat from the spotlight was too hot--flame-out!

Taurus Full Moon Oct 26, 2007

Full Moon 2Tau24, Oct 26, 2007, 12:53 am edt; Moon at MC over White House:

Hour of Mercury (thinking; communications; planning), with testy Mars still out-of-bounds in Cancer, sign of security issues. (On one level, Mars seems lately to be representing Erik Prince of Blackwater. Prince is definitely an out-of-bounds kind of guy.)

Mystic Rectangle pattern: Moon/MC, Saturn, Sun, North Node (NN) = practical mysticism. Disruptive rebel Uranus in 8th house of shared resources, conj Fixed Star Achernar, crises; risk of rapid endings; Moon conj asteroid, Aesculapia (health); and asteroid Hera (bringing to account) is rising...Hera and Aesculapia are Angular and thus have outlets for manifestation.

Grand Trine between Sun, Mars, and NN noted on chart--please click-to-enlarge. Water Grand Trines are mainly concerned with gaining security, North Node with associations, and connections with the public.

You'll find that Lynda Hill's Sabian Symbols analysis on Friday's Full Moon Clover and Rainbows and a Whole Box of Dice, gives details along with cautions for this Full Moon's degree--a Full Moon being the culmination stage of something begun two weeks ago at the New Moon, as you know.

This Full Moon is about relationships of all sorts and as you see here, it is exact (partile) immediately over the White House! What will the Full Moon bring to light?

The Taurus-Scorpio axis is the values/money axis, of course, but also relates to death, undercover work (sexual and spying), and other hidden or underground things.

I took a look at the Atom Split chart and was glad to see no particular correspondances between it and the Full Moon chart, but there are 'separation' and 'illness' connections to George Bush's natal chart...Moon conj Aesculapia, as noted.

The illness may be his or someone's in his environment, but even so, I believe it relates to bio-terrorism, the CDC, and Aviary concerns which (normal) people have these days, including the safety of vaccinations which are foisted upon us. And if they make ya sick, ya can't sue, remember, so don't even try.

More (previously unknown) undercover operations may come to notice in the next few weeks although many are in the news now...undoubtedly there will be more revelations and discoveries. (Plus, the 'Unmasking' Eclipse is coming up in Feb, 2008.)

With Apollo, the hero, conjunct Bush's natal Mercury, he's feeling his quixotic oats yet others are not cooperating as they should. As our leader (of sorts) his intractability and betrayals reflect unfavorably upon our nation and I'm sure you've been reading about Russia and other countries bucking the Bush line more and more. World domination is hard werk.

The Sept 11 Solar Eclipse 18Vir24 (9 New South Series) is in the 2nd house of money, earning ability, and values indicating that the financial effects of 9/11 are still reverberating through our economy even though our government and the Fed would like to deny it.

Brady's Predictive Astrology gives the 9NSouth Series as:

bringing to the surface long-term worries about loved ones, health, or paperwork and communications issues. Responsibilities with paperwork come home to roost (over the White House?) and news has a sense of destiny or fatedness about it.

Well, Cuba's loose canon is saying that our loose canon in the White House will start WWIII so you may wish to read the little ditty I wrote in early '06, called Chaos Blues...blues which have only intensified as the Bush regime has steamrolled along, demolishing what we once knew as America.


And now a few words about the presidency residency from 1970:

"When the President starts lying he begins to need evidence to back up his lies because in this democracy he is questioned on his statements. It then percolates down through the bureaucracy that you are helping the Boss if you come up with evidence that is supportive of our public position and you are distinctly unhelpful if you commit to paper statements that might leak to the wrong people.

The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself and to create a situation where a President can be almost, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting...."

Daniel Ellsburg to the US Senate on Foreign Relations, May 13, 1970#

Quote Shout-Out goes to Information Clearing House.


The Full Moon astronomically speaking from Space Weather News for Oct. 23, 2007

BIG FULL MOON: This week's full Moon (Oct. 25-26) is the biggest full Moon of 2007. It's no illusion. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and Thursday night's will be as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier this year. Check SpaceWeather.com for the reasons why.

SPACESHIP SIGHTINGS: Space shuttle Discovery launched this morning (Oct 23) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a two-week mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This means sky watchers should be alert for spaceship flybys in the nights ahead. Both Discovery and ISS will make favorable passes over many US cities with the possibility of double flybys later this week when the two spacecraft are about to dock.

Subscribers to Spaceweather PHONE (SpaceWeather) will receive email and telephone alerts of flybys in viewing range of their hometowns.#

Groovy. But the war-in-space plot thickens.

Sen Chris Dodd

Sen Dodd's HuffPost article, My Oath of Office sounds like just what America needs after the last few years' worth of the criminal undermining of our Constitution.

Because he's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it occurs to me that Sen Dodd could've been busier with these issues before the current Bush-Cheney rot set in so deeply, and the Clinton dissolutions, too.

Still if Dodd's name is on the ballot for 2008, he may be the lesser of two you-know-whats.

Born in Willimantic CT, May 27, 1944, Dodd's Sun Gem/Moon Leo is shared natally by Rudy Giuliani, Walt Whitman, Anne Frank, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Paul McCartney (!)

The positive, regal, centerstage-loving Sun Gem/Moon Leo combo has this Image for Integration:

A king holds court and surprises his audience by joining the mandolin player in a duet of song and story. (Sorry, but only Paul gets to sing!) (Sun Sign-Moon Sign, Chas & Suzi Harvey.)

As Walt Whitman wrote: "I celebrate myself; I sing myself."

R.W. Emerson adds: "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

Anne Frank: "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." (She wasn't taking Washington into consideration obviously...the varmints.)

This personality blend indicates that Senator Dodd is an 'ideas person' and a natural salesman with an eye toward the main chance. Values are rooted in the past, but he is in the here-and-now, dealing with practical problems.

His father, Sen Thomas Dodd, was a leading prosecutor during the International Nuremburg war crimes tribunals, and Chris Dodd was in attendance at JFK's Inauguration on Jan 20, 1961. Those are some heavy-duty contacts with US history.

However, Dodd's n Mars/Saturn midpoint is conj US (and George Bush's) n Sun...

Mars/Saturn = Sun: breaking down under stress; possible health threat; sense of loss; eking it out; inability to meet all demands or to master all situations.

But that's only one factor, of course. And he certainly has the experience, both foreign and domestic. Dodd's status as senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee makes him an enabler if not culpable in what's been going on in America the last several years. He should've known and done better by us and got others to go along. What good is having a Mars-Pluto conj if you can't threaten people to cooperate with you once in a while?

(Okay--you know all Washington politicians are considered culpable around here! They get elected to--or placed in--office in order to be at the top of the heap and "serve" in responsible positions so I let them be responsible--and if that's wrong, I don't wanna be right.)

Now you know that some people say the Peace Corps, instituted by JFK, was an organization created primarily for spying missions. Perhaps so. Well, Chris Dodd joined the Peace Corps in 1966, apparently taking seriously JFK's call to all Americans to be part of something greater than themselves.

(You remember Bush's "call"...go shopping.)

So it was off to the Dominican Republic for young Christopher, then back to join the National Guard and the US Army Reserves. Well, right there he's got it all over George AWOL Bush, doesn't he? Dodd's Mars-Pluto conj shows a person with personal courage who is good in a crisis because he knows how to withhold action until just the right moment (another big fat zero for Bush.)

Mars-Pluto tends to be aggressive toward goals, yet may not want what was desired once it's achieved.

Now wouldn't that be inconvenient if you attained the Oval Office only to find you didn't want it after all?

interview with Barbara Slavin on US-Iran

Barbara Slavin, senior diplomatic correspondent for USA Today since 1996 and author of the recently published book,Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation (St. Martin's Press), writes that,

"Iran and the United States are like a once happily married couple that has gone through a bitter divorce. Harsh words have been exchanged - husband and wife have come to blows and employed others to inflict more punishment. Apologizing is hard and changing behavior even harder. This relationship is unequal, with one side or the other feeling more vulnerable at any given time and afraid the other will take advantage of concessions."

Currently, the public faces of both nations, presidents George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been content to throw rhetorical bombs and raise the diplomatic temperature - increasing the likelihood of war. Indeed, at times it appears that conservative hardliners in both countries are eager for conflict as a means to maintain their respective grips on power.

Using her extensive contacts among the powerful inside Iran and the United States, Slavin documents missed opportunities for reconciliation between both countries during the administrations of the first President Bush as well as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The combination of her remarkable access to people such as Madeline Albright, Condelezza Rice, Iranian reformers like former President Mohammad Khatami, longtime establishment figures such as Ali Rafsanjani, as well as dissidents like Akbar Ganji and everyday citizens, allows Slavin to shed sunlight on a nation most Americans know very little about. She is also the first newspaper reporter from the United States to interview Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

Slavin has accompanied three secretaries of State on their official travels and reported from Iran, Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria. She is also a regular commentator for U.S. foreign policy on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System's Washington Week In Review and C-Span. This month, she joined the U.S. Institute of Peace as a Jennings Randolph fellow, to continue her research on Iran. Slavin also serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Slavin agreed to a podcast interview with me about her book, Iran and their turbulent relationship with the United States. Our conversation is just under thirty minutes.

Listen to, "An Interview With Iranian Expert and Journalist Barbara Slavin" in the Intrepid Liberal Journal.#


Published by permission. Thanks, Rob, great work!