Astroworld

The eclipse opposes my Uranus in Leo and is conjunct my Chiron. I am in the process of getting into another online school and waiting for the application to come.

Rick Sanchez on CNN just interviewed Manfred Nowack ( UN torture expert) in Vienna,)
He stated clearly tha ere is evidence that Rumsfeld, & Gonzalas have committed torture, and storongly advised OP Obama, he needs to hold an investigation into the others from the administration.
He was Quite stern!

And on with the show, Paul Krugman destroys Repug talking points in NYT a nice little snippet is on DKOS, kind of makes you grin, big.

http://tinyurl.com/aek75w

Carol this new moon trines my sun (6 Gemini and squares my Jupiter 6 Taurus)...I bought lotto tickets.

Ok Krugman is just too sweet all on his own, if you can read it. I know some folks have problems accessing NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26krugman.html?_r=2

tiny url

http://tinyurl.com/b52bj8

Ok check out Senator Feingolds DKOS Diary

http://tinyurl.com/ajb4zq

"A new effort to empower the people"

'Our founding fathers did a remarkable job in drafting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Their work was so superb that in the 217 years since the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution has only been amended 17 times, and one of those amendments struck down an earlier amendment (prohibition). But every so often, a situation arises that so clearly exposes a flaw in our constitutional structure that it requires a constitutional remedy. '

OOps, typed that fast, but there is no link on
the CNN site yet.....and I didn't want to forget.
That is refreshingly new and not something we have heard before....a lecture from the "OLD Countries" ON ONE of the cables................
tearing aside the neptune curtain for Americans.
I just looked at the US chart again..........it is eerily connected with mine.I guess thats the channel through which my revolutionary ancestors are calling to me!?

qop who knows you may be the embodiment of your revolutionary ancestors coming back around to fix things!

Excellent, richly textured article Morgana, I loved it.

Carol, what house is your Uranus? and what house does it rule? Looks like President Obama (that seems strange I could not call Bush President for 8 years, I have to get used to the salutation) anyway President Obama seems to be taking on Limbaugh, I don't know if that's stupidity or genius. Look what happened to McCain when he just snubbed Letterman. Limbaugh could really whip up the crazies who listen to him, but if Obama's throw of the dice works it could be a big win and Limbaugh ends up a whimpering Valdemort.

Sally, Limbaugh as the whimpering Valdemort is perfect! I can even see his pig like face on the lump of charred flesh.

Obama sure is busy today..yahoo!

Interesting you say that qop about your ancestors calling, does that mean you are going to be part of the revolution or that you understand one is coming? Either way, you're valuable. I must say qop, I have loved your stories you occasionally share about your New England family that goes back to before this was a country.

I was thinking about the youthfulness of Thomas Jefferson, just about the founding fathers period, they didn't know what they were doing and most of the constitution they wrote came from the tribe Six Nations. The point is the Founding Fathers had help to lead them into a collective brillance, they sure didn't necessarily have it individually (except Jefferson was smart so was Franklin). I think about those who where shot out of the Galactic Center just a few short years ago, will they eventually become a new group of "founding fathers?" Who knows. My point is I don't think President Obama knows exactly what he is doing in every instance, but I do think like the original founding fathers shot from the cosmos to form something anew on this land, President Obama is about to learn, oh yes really learn.

My Uranus (6 Leo) is in the Ninth House, co/rules my third (Capricorn is on the Third)

The first I ever heard from the ancestors, back in
'61 or '62, I had dropped my hubby off at the airport, and picked up a paperback at one of the stands here. It was "Arundel" by Kenneth Roberts, the Maine writer from Arundel ( next door to Kennebunkport), about a band of Patriots who made their way over from Maine, to Lake George to join the battle with General Schyuler.
My parents in their mid-life crisis, Uranus return, had sold out their share of the family wallpaper business and bought a dude ranch in North Creek NY a little Northwest of Lake George.
I took the kids up for a visit, and while driving RT 9 through the South end of Lake George, ( now amusement parks, boat rides, restaurants, and cabins......I thought in passing, "What a shame to mess up this natural beauty", followed by a VERY clear vision, as it must have looked, before the battle with solders encamped, tents and campfires, and trees cut down. ( sloppy mess!)
I discovered in 1991, when I read the book, pub. 1911, & passed down, from my Father's librarian cousin,that Herman Stout my ancestor HAD BEEN there! He and 2 other officers carried $300,000. in gold from the Continental Congress in Philly, in a chair, to Schyuler to fund the battle.
During the 4 or 5 years, they were there, my younger Brother,9-14,( Nov 4 1951,) was OBSESSED, with revolutionary War history! He drew charts with the battles and little figures, 2 dimensional toy soldiers with the correct uniforms..... He heard the call of the ancestors earlier than I did.
Actually , Sally they weren't NE they were Philly/NewYork. Pierre Faucoinnier, came to NY as the secratary to the Governor, Lord Edward Hyde, Earl of Cornbury, 1st cousin to Queen Ann, and cross dresser! Also....crooke! ( early Repub.)Yes the family has had to deal with weirdness for several centuries!

Geitner is in!
I have understood that a revolution is coming......
and tried to educate people I encountered, to the ills they were ignoring........
NOW????? waiting to see what happens next.
OOOOOOh Rove has been subpoenad, has a letter from bush written 2 weeks ago protecting him from prosecution ( sneaky B!)
I recommend reading K Roberts or rereading. The books are very timely NOW!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Roberts

My favorite weather blog by Dr. Jeff Masters has this to say about the winds that hit France and Spain before the eclipse. Too bad we don't get to name the storms that hit the West Coast, we've had some nasty storms of the Klaus class.

Powerful Winter Storm Klaus, similar in strength to a Category 1 hurricane, brought high winds that killed at least 26 people in Spain, France, and Italy on Saturday. Wind gusts as high as 124 mph (199 km/hr) occurred along the northern coast of Spain. Sustained winds of 59 mph were measured at Santander, and wind gusts as high as 69 mph hit Barcelona, where a roof collapsed at a sports center, killing four children. Klaus knocked out power to at least 1.2 million people, and likely did hundreds of millions in damage to Spain and France. It was the worst storm to hit the region since Winter Storm Martin hit in December 1999, killing over 100 people in France and Spain.

A few top wind gusts in Spain from Winter Storm Klaus:

El Musel-Gijon (Asturias): 124 mph (199 km/hr)
Malpica (A Coruña): 114 mph (183 km/hr)
Ancares (Lugo): 113 mph (182 km/hr)
Gijon (Asturias): 104 mph (167 km/hr)

For more info:
Tropical Weather Underground Dr. Jeff Masters blog. My favorite place to follow hurricanes.

http://tinyurl.com/cgyuef

Obama is just alluding to the the obvious about Limbaugh, a smarmy and verbally smelly gas bag of a distraction whose peak effective time has come and gone with Pluto leaving behind the worst of opinionated Sagittarius and all of its zealotry and religious extremism. The country seems more than ready to finally move on to face long overdue and more pressing matters. But the dwindling and increasingly ignorant core of the Republican Party still tightly and fearfully clings to a distant and grossly distorted vision of an idealized past, which Limbaugh romanticizes. Flying in the face of urgent, mandatory changes in the way we collectively live and exist upon this planet, both Limbaugh and the GOP are at increasing risk of being swept aside into history as irrelevant and useless obstructionists who can't comprehend the true depth of the shift at hand.

NEOBuckeye,
"Flying in the face of urgent, mandatory changes in the way we collectively live and exist upon this planet, both Limbaugh and the GOP are at increasing risk of being swept aside into history as irrelevant and useless obstructionists who can't comprehend the true depth of the shift at hand."

Boy isn't that the truth of it?! Huge global shift. On the previous thread was the latest Matthew channeling or whatever you want to call it which draws attention to the shift and the depth of it.

The Iroquois, a member of the Six Nation Tribe and the guiding light for our Founding Fathers and the Constitution, is the oldest working Democracy on earth. They have rights we can only dream of, particularly if one is a woman.

Drawn by JOSEPH KEPPLER
SAVAGERY TO "CIVILIZATION"
THE INDIAN WOMEN: We whom you pity as drudges
reached centuries ago the goal that you are now nearing
The use of Indian women to provide an exemplar of feminist liberty continued into the nineteenth century. On May 16, 1914, only six years before the first national election in which women had the vote, Puck printed a line drawing of a group of Indian women observing Susan B. Anthony, Anne Howard Shaw and Elizabeth Cady Stanton leading a parade of women. A verse under the print read:

"Savagery to Civilization"
We, the women of the Iroquois
Own the Land, the Lodge, the Children
Ours is the right to adoption, life or death;
Ours is the right to raise up and depose chiefs;
Ours is the right to representation in all councils;
Ours is the right to make and abrogate treaties;
Ours is the supervision over domestic and foreign policies;
Ours is the trusteeship of tribal property;
Our lives are valued again as high as man's.

The following link is just a small part of the history they played in the 1700's trying to help a new nation stand. It's long but well worth the read. Jefferson, Paine, Franklin and Patrick Henry went to Europe and decided they did not want to re-create that model for their country. Their conclusion was that everyone was either a hammer or an anvil and the anvil's were being pounded into the ground. Here this country is trying to do the same thing, in fact they have had some success so far.

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp8.html

'looks like President Obama (that seems strange I could not call Bush President for 8 years, I have to get used to the salutation) ........"

Sally, that was funny. I'm sure you have a lot of company.

Morgana, I'm so sleepy, I just realized that I'm posting under a new article - your new moon eclipse - yup yup (with permission from QOP).

From the previous thread by JoannaO -

"Health care should never have been tied to jobs in the first place! It was the plutocrats' major tactic to keep the populace under their control."

Never heard it put that way before, but that's another yup yup.

Jefferson was always one of my favorite presidents - very forward looking.

This guy waited until it was safe, to publish his book.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week906/profile.html

http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaffairsbooks-cgi-bin/display?book=1586483692

What I'm surprised is that business allowed themselves to be the gatekeeper to healthcare for so long. Imagine dealing with all that paperwork, intrusion into employee lives, stress over making the right decision about the amount of insurance to buy and all the rest.

It would have been easier to simply pay somewhat higher taxes like Social Security, and leave the rest up to the Government. I believe it was the Republicans lying about universal health care (protecting big Insurance) that kept smaller businesses at least from demanding universal health care.

My big fear (prediction) is that the Health Care system will be the next big domino to fall. With millions losing their jobs and insurance, and the state Medicaid funds going dry, how many hospitals will be able to keep up with the costs?

We may get universal health care (and a lot of other things as well) by sheer default-the federal and state goverments taking over a lot of things by the fact nobody else can afford them anymore)

No college application yet, but the weather is fierce.
One thing I have noticed is that in the wintertime around the eclipses, weather gets very snowy. It will be at least 6 inches by the time it ends on Wednesday.

OOOH! Morgana that is one sexy piece. I wasn't around last night to read it after I got home-the family has a virus and the apt looks like a Hollywood scene of Civil War hospitals with downed people all over the palce; sooo- no computer last night.
Well the eclipse opposed my Saturn and squared my Venus and on the other side squared Chiron and it made a grand trine between Sun/Mercury (mid point) and Neptune. So i am taking steps to clean up money/home issues and feel good about the support that was offered.
Enough about me this is a great piece encouraging. Yes there is pain when the entire ship must turn 180 degrees and I do worry about my little part of th world/

+++++++++

"Health care should never have been tied to jobs in the first place! It was the plutocrats' major tactic to keep the populace under their control."

++++

I beg to differ. If it weren't for employer sponsored healthcare, millions would be without. Don't forget that employers must contribute at least 50% of the employee rate for premiums without which many, many, many people would not be able to afford any insurance at all. The insurance companies would like nothing better than to get rid of employer based insurance in exchange for a mandate for compulsory individual insurance from govt. They would be like pigs at a trough. Just like medicare Part D was for big pharma. And just like with big pharma, we would be screwed. PS in the interest of disclosure, I'm an insurance broker.

But Marta....I used to have my own private Blue Cross Blue Shield for $20. per month! ( pre reagan)
WHen I turned 65, SS with held $66. from my income, until I signed on with Mainecare ( low income program) They now pay $93.00 per month for me, that's $1,116. I have incurred 1 Dr. bill, about $100. That sucks!
AND I SMOKE!
How did THAT happen? Why did it go up so high?
Oh I know because women insist on having 8 babies at a time with 46 in hospital personnel and 4 delivery rooms.............
Rugged outdoor types insist on getting lost in snow storms on mountain tops or plunge over cliffs while recreating.

QOP, you're lucky to only pay that much. The premiums these days are INSANE. If it weren't for corporations still picking up most of the tab for those lucky enough to have corporate health insurance, NOBODY would be able to afford it. My premiums cost me $6,000 a year with a $2,000 deductible. I get to go to 1 free doctor visit a year. How 'bout that!

What's happened is a loop de loop. Pharma selling drugs on tv, doctors telling patients, it's only a pill, people just popping pills right and left without thinking of the damage they're doing to their systems. As a society we are over medicated, overweight and eat terrible food. All that costs money. But greed is a factor too. I think these companies would do better as not-for-profits. They all went public and the (#$*&# hit the fan as far as pricing. Now they want the public to pay high premiums and never use the plans (don't even think about the high deductible health plans unless you're super healthy and even then those premiums are sky high). Anyway, it's complicated (like everything).

Marta,
The company I work for could no longer afford the regular insurance companies most of the staff is well over 50. We're on one of the government approved high deductible HSA tax deductible accounts, the only way I'll hit the deductible is if my husband has another heart issue, then walking in the hospital door will meet the deductible.

Cobra for my husband and I was $2000.00 a month back in 2002, I'm sure it's higher now.

I don't know what anyone is really going to do about it. Hope we don't get sick.

For one of the most advanced industrial countries in the world, America's healthcare system is abysmal. I know all too well about tha COBRA, that companies make you believe that you are so lucky to have. Well, try paying $600 a month out of your measley unemployment ck just to keep your healthcare. Was never able to afford it.
I grew up in what was suppposed to be a "third world" country in the 50s & 60s, where nobody had healthcare insurance, but healthcare was very affordable for the middle class, doctors' fees were not exorbitant, and people hardly got sick anyway, because we ate fresh natural food, breathed clean air, and drank good water. The quality of life was good, but none of us indulged in excesses - everything in moderation. The whole social fabric was completely different. The poor had special clinics in every district that they could attend if they fell ill. It was just a very cohesive society - somewat different today though. I've never been overweight, but we didn't have the excesses that you have here, and I don't know, the whole way of life in America now is very artificial. But maybe it was good here too in the 50s, I don't know. What type of healthcare was there in the 50s in America? No matter what district we lived in back home, there was always easily accessible, a marketplace where everyday, vendors brought to market spices, fruits, and vegetables that they had picked from their gardens a couple of hours earlier and meat that was slaughtered a couple hours earlier, and everything smelled so good. We had some small supermarkets too, but they didn't sell meat/veggies/fruits, because nobody would buy. Everybody went to the market, and a fish vendor came through in a van twice a week, crying "fish, fresh fish". Oh, those were the days. Life was so normal, and natural, but no Madison Ave. glamour. Hehehee.

Yes BC BS was a non profit back then. WHen I had my thyroid surgery, 1982....................all I had to pay was the $16. phone bill in the hospital, and the surgeon's fee ( $500.) I was in the hospital for a full week. I lost it in '85 due to a temporary move to Pa. & was "high risk".......
26 years later I have had NO Incidents!
Best was the insurance provided when I was an AmeriCorp VISTA. It was the same service provided to the COngress! I took advantage and got complete tests like bone density etc..............
So anyone who loses a job AND their insurance could condsider signing up for a ViSTA gig. The stypend isn't very high tho.

Crystal, I was born in 1942 in a small town, I remember milk and ice delivered by horse and buggy until 1948 and I think gas and food rationing was still operational until 1948/1950, at any rate I remember it clearly.

Where I grew up in the 50's we mostly grew our own food, but it was a small farming community, so you bought your chickens, beef, eggs, milk fresh from a farmer or a grocery store who bought from the local farmer. We didn't even have frozen foods except Ice Cream, I remember when the first frozen veggies came on the market. I churned our butter at my grandmother's, shelled peas for two families and snapped beans. We canned our own fruit and veggies to carry through the winter and made all our own bread and rolls until I was at least 17 and that was a habit I carried over to my family, even when it wasn't necessary any more.

My dad worked for the railroad and my mother was a teacher, our health care was completely covered by BC/BS and Doctors made house calls. We were not a wealthy family or even middle class. I asked my dad once if we were poor and he said "one is never poor, only temporily without funds" I never had the feeling of wanting for anything, we didn't have need for a lot of things. In the late 50's my family moved to the city because they had better jobs. Health care was still without even a co-pay, food was still brought in from local state farmers and I still churned butter up to 1963.

I went to collage in 1960, got married in 1965 and moved to CO. had my children and health care was totally paid for through my husband's work, no co-pay and still BC/BS the Dr. office submitted the insurance papers. It wasn't until the mid 80's that a co-pay came in and it was $5.00. By the 90's Insurance was a topic of conversation with rising costs and rising co-pays and BC/BS was no longer a non profit. Since then it has spun completely out of control.

During the war, myFather was a manager at the companythat invented frozen vegetables, Seabrook Farms/Birdseye.............
I remember riding through the grove with the ice man ( horse drawn wagon, perched proudly on a block of ice and he let me chip off slivers to suck on.) The grove, my Gr. Grandparents retirement cottage in a methodist camp meeting grounds.They had a 99 year lease.
DO you remember the first penicillan shots? They came in a needle that had solid bees wax needing to be warmed in a pan over the stove to administer the shot. My Mother had a platonic love with the family DR, ( they were both beautiful) and it became a game, my Brother & I leading them a merry chase though the house, requiring several warmings of the needle in the pan of water before the shots could be given!
Yes he was there on a house call.

I'm thinking of the USian assault on Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos... late 60s. So many families broken up (epidemic) by returning soldiers with PTSD, drug addiction, just wanting to start a new life with no "strings" attached, etc. (there wasn't even a name for it then... no, no, can't have that!) Wives/mothers began to experience, wholesale, bosses at work who hit on them for sex & other special favors, telling them they must really be "wanting it, needing it" & that they'd lose their jobs (health insurance for themselves & their children) if they didn't comply, which is why women began to demand laws against gender discrmination in the first place. How quickly we forget! Yup! "Work place" was a major area where women had a very rough time. Had there been nationalized health insurance, she could've at least changed jobs & corpos would've had to keep in mind the repercussions.

Wel I don't remember the first penicillan shots but I do remember stories of people lost to infections before we had antibiotics.
There is a jerk on tv suggesting that we adopt the Singapore medical savings account-HMMMM isn't Singapore the little fascist government? I am praying for Medicare for all with a sliding scale for co-pays or Medicare fees.
I have always had coverage,affordable coverage. Only in the past ten years has medical coverage gone crazy I have just believed that it is the thought that one can become a billionaire by practicing medicine that has created th problem. I now believe that my coverage is at risk. i cringe when people talk about how other people created the problems, people who are not as reasonable as themselves. Reminds me of the white boys saying that the economic collapse was created by those single mothers taking out mortgage loans they knew they could not afford.

I meant to include the 70s as well. But you know?! The whole of society has been skewed by corpos since that time of radical conflict/strife in particular... not that there hasn't been continuous "skews"... or would that be "screws."

Morgana-I am worried that we will lose our coverage and have to go to the county's plan which while cheaper is strung out in this county so that one must use a car to access the services. I went back to Kaiser so that I could have access to "urgent care" the county's "urgent care" is the emergency room.
There is such a feeling of gloom around the office with lay-offs and the installation of the phone answering programs.
Hippies as I knew us to be in the 60's and 70's lived a 'natural life"Crystal and we still do here in this old hippie home. I think having a "single mother"income helped keep our feet on the ground and here in the Bay Area we have Farmer's markets which while no longer cheap at least put us together with our local farmers to buy the best that is available locally. No peaches/cherries in January but apples and raisens and nuts and greens. Most eveyone I know is starting to grow something at home.

* 25 people at the heart of the meltdown ...The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part. In the 2nd part of a week-long series looking behind the slump, [Brits] Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economy

Joannaoregon, Julia Finch included in her list:

"The American public
There's no escaping the fact: politicians might have teed up the financial system and failed to police it properly and Wall Street's greedy bankers might have got carried away with the riches they could generate, but if millions of Americans had just realised they were borrowing more than they could repay then we would not be in this mess. The British public got just as carried away. We are the credit junkies of Europe and many of our problems could easily have been avoided if we had been more sensible and just said no."

Oh how cool...Al Gore is out there for POTUS stimulus package. Makes me smile.

http://tinyurl.com/b3t8c5

The Limbaugh party, formerly known as the GOP wants POTUS to fail. With Jupiter in Limbaughs first house conjunct n. Venus, he is so full of himself. Pluto was sitting on his mercury when he opened his pig snout mouth to wish failure on our new POTUS and by association the American People. We've seen what his party can do. Look at where we are after eight years of Limbaugh, Rush, tag team enabling Bush and his cronies. Listening to MSNBC this morning as the Limbaugh gang spewing their bile over the air waves at how they will not support POTUS stimulus plan. I'm keeping track of each of these degenerate pricks and will be contributing to their opponents in 2010. Their goal is to enslave and hobble the American people, completing the work Bushco had begun. Military enlistments are way up in the last few months. No job, food, health insurance? Enlist in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard to feed your family, sort of, most of those families are on food stamps. Oh and the age cap has been raised to 42.

The article from the UK Guardian laying the blame on the American People ticked me off pretty good. The American People were scammed by US government endorsed flimflam men and women. Maybe we should lay the blame for Britain's problems on the door step of the English folk. Same goes for the Chinese, it's the peoples fault that they exported tainted foods damaging or killing thousands of infants world wide, let alone the death of thousands of American's dogs and cats. Yes indeed it is the People's fault, they exported tainted toys. Bull pucky.

In the last blog, some one had asked about plutocracy word, how it came about etc. Per my research, plutocracy meaning the power of wealthy or of wealth is from Gk ploutos meaning wealth and kratia meaning rule from kratos - rule or power. Thus plutocrat since 1850. I'm not sure the word has any connection to planet Pluto. Does planet Pluto signify wealth like Venus stands for love or Mars for war or Jupiter for wisdom, Neptune ruler of sea

Another point, totally different to make. Let me tell you all these CEOs are overpaid at least 100 times compared to their ability or brain but the repug/cons always will say workers are overpaid. But it is total hogwash. Case in point, john thain ex Merryl Lynch CEO and ex Bof A exec is so stupid, he forgot to make sure his job is secure and instead spent millions in refurbishing his office etc. Now that he has been sacked, someone else will enjoy that suite he made posh, not him. So much for Thain's brains if he had any and he was one of the richest CEOs

Raj, to be Palinesque, "You Betcha"! I'm pondering the Pluto transit in Capricorn as it makes its way toward the US 2nd House and I'm wondering if we are not watching the fall of the uber wealthy, they like Thain, jumped the shark.
These are the ancestors of the same jerks that created the environment for the American Revolution when we tried to break the yoke they had laid upon the people. This time it seems they've done themselves in, or maybe they are devouring their own so that what remains are a very few huge players.

Ok Norah Odonnell on MSNBC just said to Rep. Mike "Obstructionist" Pence that Republicans on the hill are powerless and impotent, Pence agreed.

Pence sure is putting on a good act, prompting me to call his office yesterday!
Pluto wealth YES YES YES! Of course. Because he can be noble, or ruthless, it's all about power!

I'm not worried by O's reaching out to the Repub.. He is gutting them in the NICEST POSSIBLE WAY!

Around around around we go
Where we stop everybody knows
'Cause we've been around this track
So many times before
And where we stop everybody knows

I'm waiting for that NEW thing to show up... not same-old same-old same-old same-old...

The Economic Stimulus Plan just passed the House, not one Repug. voted for it. Round and round they go spinning their way like a whirl pool down the drain to the sewer.

I have 6:07 pm est Washington DC

Also saw on DKOS Gallup Poll only 5 States in the US of A are still Republican. Wow, followed the link within the diary wow.

http://tinyurl.com/bykxbp

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. J. Krishnamurti

DIck Armey was just on Hardball with Joan Walsh, and he was HORRIBLE.
Followed oon the show by G Bob Herbert who paointed out to Chris, that Armey needs to appologize to Walsh & the veiwers for his sexist remarks! ( He told K Joan "You wouldn't be MY wife." rraaaaazzzzzzzberry*@!
But he isn't in office anymore.

Dick Armey is a prime example of the Reptilian Mind in action. There is a reason he isn't in office any more...dinosaur.

Sally, thanks for that wonderful account of life in your neck of the woods in those times. I guess it was pretty much that way all over. Things changed when they made things "bigger and better", or "new and improved". I too remember that doctors made house calls, and you are right about the time these changes came into effect, because I remember working for the big advertising agencies in NYC in the 70s, and my health insurance covered everything, and cost only what co-payments are today! I was paying about $10 every 2 weeks. I guess everything went downhill when the big corps. got involved with the food and health sectors.
I think we could do with a lot less shopping malls, which should be replaced with organic farms.
All great posts here.

I am always at work when ya'll get to going but to touch back a little-I remember the extreme pressure applied through media to create a public image of a way of life that requires about $200,000 a year to pull off and while this has always been part of our cultural frame work in my lifetime it got absolutely crazy to the point that I felt the pressure I just simply didn't have the means plus i was older and have that hippie grounding. I have two friends who fell for the mortgage scam-strong women, steady who just wanted to be home owners and they were psyched by FRIENDS into no money down and counting on increased home values to finance themselves out of disaster-well you know how that play ends.
Personally I think this all has its roots in the lies Reagan told and people's willingness to believe fairytales rather than integrate to a wider more inclusive vision of "the world".

We really shouldn't forget the bushanutz admonition to shop-shop-shop the xmas after the judicial coup d'tate dropped it into the dirtyhouse. I think pundits, who blame The People, need to go play with masses of fire ants.

I was going through my Staples catalogue tonight.
Office suplies are OUT OF SIGHT EXPENSIVE!
I have a 2 wheeled cart that converts to a 4 wheeler at the WOolco closeout for about $25.
Today the price........over $300.!
Guess I;ll treat mine like solid gold!

Ohmy... a bit of a jump there, eh qop?! ;O) Are we in hyperinflation? I think so.

* Paranoia and Xenophobic Politics and Called It 'Moral Clarity'

Cons live in a world of seething aggression that most progressives can't even fathom.

As he was prepared to slink off into the history books as arguably the worst [rez]in American history, I actually sat down and watched gwbush speak.

There was one passage, in particular, that rang in my ears long after his final goodbye. It probably went over most Americans' heads--but it went right to the heart of Our Problem With george:

"As we address these challenges--& others we cannot foresee tonight--America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good & evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good & evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression & despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice & truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace."

That phrase "moral clarity"--cons use it a lot. And it always sounds absurd to progressive ears, coming as it does from members of an adm that shredded the Constitution, deprived people of due process, committed horrific acts of torture and lied the country into the worst military debacle in its history.

It's always bewildering to listen to such people lecture the rest of us on "moral clarity." What in the hell are they talking about?

They keep using those words. It turns out that they don't mean what we think they mean.

This was brot home to me over the holidays, when I devoured J Peter Scoblic's US Vs Them as part of my vacation reading. Scoblic's book looks at the way the cons penchant for "othering" (a word I coined to describe their perpetual need for someone to project their own demons onto, & then hate on) has shaped US foreign policy from the beginning of the Cold War thru the bush adm.

Thruout the book, Scoblic traces the roots of this recurring phrase--"moral clarity"--and discusses the very specific and narrowly defined meaning it has to cons.

The phrase first appeared in describing the Manichean worldview of the anti-communist right in the 1950s. To Wm F Buckley, Frank Meyer, Whittaker Chambers and other National Review writers, "moral clarity" meant fully understanding and accepting the essential good-vs-evil nature of foreign affairs. ... http://www.alternet.org/audits/121847

JoannaO, that article on "moral clarity" was so good, I had to proliferate it on other blogs. It's nothing new to me, and a lot of other like-minded I'm sure, but the author did a fine job putting it in black & white.

So very glad you found the article useful, Crystal.

I don't think Dick Armey needs to worry about being married to Joan Walsh, the proverbial "if he were the last man on earth" she wouldn't have him. He's only dreaming of the excitement of "tamin' that lil gal" We've been exposed to that type all our lives ladies. I actually thought he was going to stroke out on the set, his face was as red as a beet. Why I think the sounds of hierarchal power cracking all around him, right there in public, might have sent him home in a rage; and here we are on the eve of Obama signing his first law into the books - equal pay for equal work. Women's power is going to rise and rise all over the world. Obama himself was raised by two strong women, married to a strong woman and has two daughters, that's why he wants to do consensus building, because that's what women do. He is going to find out that it's not always effective, just like we have found out through the years, but consensus is where we first start on every issue. Dick Armey simply never entertained the idea that this day was coming, that a Joan Walsh on national TV would smack a former powerful Senator of the US. They aren't ready for a new day, not at all.

Crystal, I agree with you, the article Joanna put up was terrific

quote, Bill Meridian , Dell 2009 yearbook..........
"The Jan. eclipse @ 6o Aqu. was conj. Mars & Pluto, in the Battle of Yorktown horoscope, In addition it opposes Merc. & Pluto in the July 6 1945 eclipse horoscope, the one that coincided with the end of WW II.
THIS ECLIPSE MARKED THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR!
tracing a path from the US to the USSR over the North Pole. This eclipse ( 2009) is likely to set off concerns about national security and espionage."
Through a child's eyes: ( mine @ 6 yrs.) the war was OVER. How does Meridian's interpretation blend with the moral clarity folks? WIll they be the ones wimpering about Nat security now?

Joanna-what a wonderful way of explaining a basic insight of depth psychology.Thank you so much for directing us to that article.
Sally at work we have had two father oriented sups move in and the difference is shocking.I was talking about consensus yesterday during conference time with my sup a woman who maintains great leadership but who expects ALL of us to have opinions and experience and expects ALL of us to have input in everything we do as a unit. The new comers already have rebellion on their hands with their secretive attitude as sups and their desire "to lay down the law". We older women ,of course, just ignore them and deal with only our own,female, sup.
I think that I am sorry not to see Dick Army get his.

I just found this inthe P Inq. onine and it is a prefect example of the bush/repig overview of "small business".
When in response to the chinese sending harmful toys.....I am sure that more than one cottage industry crafter stepped up to fill the gap producing Made in AMerica products for kids.....
With his typical cluelessness,w's admin. passed this law........ The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, to go into effect on Feb 14.09
"Generally, the law requires that manufacturers of products for children younger than 12 - that includes toys, jewelry and clothes - obtain a certificate attesting that their products are free from lead, certain chemicals such as phthalates, and choking hazards. To obtain that certificate, items must be tested by a lab. And as part of that testing, the item is destroyed. The act is overseen by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, an agency that aims to protect the public from products that could pose a health hazard. Testing can run anywhere up to $4,000," said Aikens. "It's one thing if I just have to do it once, but if I have to do it every time I switch materials, for a company like myself, that's several weeks of sewing just to make that kind of money. So what's the sense in doing business?"
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20090129_Craftspeople_see_safety_proposal_as_threat.html?nlid=2187679
My Congressman Mike Michaus d is already working on creating changes to this bill! ( He's pro little guy workers.)

Morgana, about that $2,000 Cobra cost, is everybody aware that the Cobra rates are the rates your former employer WAS paying (or contributing part of) towards your insurance? By law, the Cobra premiums cannot be higher than the corporate premiums. The only additional cost is an admin. cost of (max.) 2% of the premiums to cover the cost of administering the Cobra benefit. I keep on hearing about the high cost of Cobra. There is no high cost of Cobra. Everybody's premiums remain the same as the premiums that were negotiated by the Company on behalf of the employees. Since the corporations pay a substantial amount of the premiums to cover their employees, it's obviously in their best interest to negotiate the lowest premiums possible with the best benefits possible. (Hence their use of brokers, like me). What happens is most people are not aware of how high those premiums are because the corporations pay a substantial part of the premiums. It's only when the employee terminates employment, leaves the Company and elects Cobra that they keel over about the high cost (again, these are the same rates that the company has been paying all along ...). But for some reason, they are under the impression that the Cobra rates are higher than what is being paid for the employees. Wrong.

To give an example of how outrageously high rates are becoming, right now I'm working on a renewal with BCBS where the HMO Employee Only premium rate is over $570 per person (the company charges the employees $57 per month for the coverage. Once people terminate employment and elect Cobra, guess what, they have to pay the entire $570 per month. So, be careful what you wish for when you want corporate insurance to go away. Don't get deceived by the lies and propaganda being spread around the press by the insurance companies who are dying to get rid of corporate insurance so they can charge large premiums, have no state mandates (like free mammograms, preventive care, no pre-ex as long as you've been continously covered, no exclusions, pregnancy covered like any illness, etc. Of course the insurance companies want to do away with corporate insurance. Why wouldn't they? It's in their best interest as long as there is a government "mandate" that everybody has to buy insurance. Whooeee! Jackpot!

On another note, thank goodness for Cobra. I can't begin to tell you how many people can't qualify for individual insurance, or who would have all kinds of exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Have high cholesterol, too bad; diabetes, excluded; hemophilia, declined. If it weren't for Cobra, these people would in a world of trouble.

Marta,
Pretty sad day when your Cobra payment is as high as your mortgage and no way no how would unemployment cover it. My husband has a bad heart, four stents currently. Not having insurance would have been a nightmare for me. We're both in our late fifties. My husband will be 60 this year so we still have a ways to go before he can can get on medicare. As I mentioned above were now on one of those HSA accounts with $3800.00 deductible, I would pay that and more walking in the hospital doors with my husband having another heart attack.

Yuk, my husband just told me Condi Rice is returning to Stanford, ick ick ick.

Terrific posts!

An internet friend sent me the following. Posted over a year ago, this blogger compares the five stages of grief with the five stages of economic and social collapse.

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com:80/2008/02/five-stages-of-collapse.html

Another friend recently went to a gun show, curious about whether or not the rumors were true. Sure 'nuf. This show had waiting lines winding out the door. Ammunition and gun hawkers were having a hayday. Further, they were fueling buying frenzies by loud-speaker selling the erroneous notion that "that *igger is gonna take away your guns."

Civil unrest could turn rather ugly here. I've no solution to being placed between scarcity and gun-toting yahoos.

Insurances -- including medical -- are certainly going to collapse under the weight of their exclusions and bloat. This untenable system is placing entirely too much strain on emergency rooms and hospitals. We've managed to create a convoluted system of moral decay.

Morgana, there is one benefit of those high deductible plans that most people are not aware of and that is that as long as you stay in network, the providers (doctors/hospitals) cannot charge you more than the insurance company pre-negotiated rate, which is usually a fraction of what they would charge, for instance, an uninsured person. Just try going to the ER with no insurance. Bill = $8,000, even though it may be like squeezing blood from a turnip. Go to the same ER with a BCBS high deductible plan, cost (I'm guessing here) $600-$2,000 depending on severity. Go to a doctor w/o insurance = $100-$120 or more (depending on specialty) w/ insurance $50 even though it goes towards your deductible, you still get the negotiated rate (and by the way, many copay plans already are charging $50-$60 copays for doctor visits, so you're getting much the same benefit, just packaged in a different way...). So, even though I consider those high deductible plans to be a huge ripoff for the consumer (many times the deductibles are way to high and the out-of-pockets are high also), they do have their place and can be well utilized (as long as you stay in the network, can't repeat that enough times). I do find the premiums for those types of plans to be mind-boggling high for what you get though.

This is disheartening!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4929085
So begins another morning in what may count as Washington’s longest-running conversation — a street-corner bull session between four old friends who suddenly find themselves standing once more at the busiest intersection of politics and media in Washington.

Carville calls White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel calls ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. A bit later, CNN commentator Paul Begala, who is not quite the early bird that his friends are, will complete the circle with a rapid set of calls to all three. Different versions of this round-robin chatter have been taking place, with few interruptions, every workday for nearly a generation.

“I refer to it as the 17-year-long conference call,” said Emanuel, who starts calling his friends at 6 a.m. “You can tap into it anytime you want.”

Marta
Thanks for the information it may be helpful to a lot of folks. I like that it lowers my taxable earnings, otherwise we've only been on the plan 6 mos., and so far I am not impressed.

Morgana, you are very welcome.

Okay... so certainly regular folks can't afford health care, corpos can't afford health care, and... around, arouond, around we go. For instance, how did it get so high in the first place. I smell a dead rat.

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/theater/reviews/30corn.html?th&emc=th
This was my ancester's boss!
Well, perhaps straight isn’t the word. Three centuries before Eliot Spitzer was brought down by liaisons with a prostitute, a governor of the territory encompassing New York and New Jersey was scandalizing the populace by publicly appearing in drag, according to some accounts from that period.

Yes joannaO WHy DID health care get so expensive????

Yes!! Why is medical care so expensive? I always think of that creepy man who was in congress,a doctor whose family own a medical company in the south (too early I can't get his name to come up but he was a big deal a few years ago and everytime I hear his name I shudder) at any rate he and his family are billionaires. Actually I don't know why things are so out of control.
QOP I love the image of your ancestor parading in public shocking the good people. HEHEHEHE.
At any rate I remember that medical attention did cost something but it was affordable with some effort and insurance was very affordable now only the wealthy can afford good coverage.And I hear stories at work of people arguing with their providers which is why I chose Kaiser and I do find increasingly that the doctors are open to herbs and homeopathy and diet and exercise. I could not afford the coverage though if my employer didn't pay the lions share as Marta explained earlier. and believe me this benefit is under attack. someone I read mentioned that France includes the medical corporations and the government but I don't know any of the details,

http://www.virtua.org/page.cfm?id=pressroom_showstory&pressID=1454
This is MY OLD hospital............used to be an EXCELLENT Dr. owned and operated facility.
Note it is now OWNED by a CORPORATION Virtua .........."virtuous" aggghhhh! bletch! They own the big county hospital in Mt Holly too as well as two others in the area. MONOPOLY!
"In early 2004, we formed a strategic alliance with GENERAL ELCTRIC to {redefine 21st century patient care."}
MIDDLE MAN CEO salaries.THAT"S what has happened to medical care!
( and on data base patient records.............I have NO CLUE what my blood type is. Would be nice to be able to look it up rather than calling this hosp. group and having them go thru their 26 year old records.)

Curiosity compelled me to call..............they have to mail me a release form to be signed, and it is $1.00.............
My currant near by hospital.............is also owned by a management company.. They dsend 4 page glossy brochures once or twice a year, with a very chatty dialogue about what they offer in services.
Don't you all remember when the hospital was there; if, god forbid, you were in an accident or got sick you went there for treatment. This particular hosptal is under scrutiny...... Christmas '07, they released an ER patient on Meds.they had given him...............and he froze to death in a snow storm in the parking lot!
Nobody checked to see if he was thinking clearly or had a ride home!
Also where my friend got a staph infection, ( during ELECTIVE knee replacement) and as a result had to have a pin in her lower leg and can't bend her knee!
At least the hospital 30 miles in the opposite direction, ( unlike Virtua of NJ, monopoly) is owned by another Corp. They are very good!

ANd then there is the Dr. in Bar Harbor, who was instrumental in getting a group of businesses going in Iraq ( 2003). He was able to retire after forming hospitals in the USSR in the early 90's.
I wanted to attend his weekend planning group, until I found out the price of admission was $1,500. Not a "club" for artists who though it might be fun to have a kiosk in downtown Baghdad selling MAine Made products! Originally supported by the University of Maine, they pulled their support right after Shock & Awe!
At that moment I knew exactly what they were up to!
Iraq wouldn't have needed hospitals if we hadn't invaded and bombed them to extinction!
Can we say Naomi Klein?

qop... that was Frist, Bill Frist of the Terry Schiavo fame. He reminds me of Dr. Mengele (not sure of the spelling) the German crazy doctor who did all the weird experiments during WWII.

Morgana-thank you. It was me, clymela, who could not bring up his name and yes!! he is a Dr Mengele type. Yes Frist a monstrous man who could just see how Terry Schiavo could be healed and returned to her family. OMG we need to reminded over and over of what we have been through as a nation.

"Shock & Awe"... oh yes, the name of that killers' drama. One thing for sure, the pink boyz love their dramas, particularly if they're lethal... get all gussied up in their fave costumes, get out their fave scripts, sell admissions AND departures... a regular circus of horrors!

http://www.auschwitz.dk/mengele.htm

Great posts on healthcare! Looking at the crazy, patchwork system we have (actually is a patched blanket, patchwork has several pieces well assembled), I'm not surprised the other countries long ago abandoned that for a more rational national system. If Truman had had his way, we too would have the same system. But back then the AMA started screaming, "socialized medicine" and stirred up cold war fears of tyranny through government control of medicine. Reap what you have sowed, AMA. How do you like the Insurance Company rules and a bean counter on the other end determining whether or not to treat a patient? At least a governmental system would allow both patient/voter and doctor/voter imput into policies.

Here's one good corporation to support.
Staples.
I had a credit ( reward) of $17.40 for past purchases. It expired today. 1/31.........
I have no money in the bank until 2/3 SS income day..........BUT needed printer ink.
They let me MAIL a check, which will take 'till the 3rd to get to MA & back to my bank.
My initial bill was $49.44, just shy of the shipping charges.......so I added another item, they discounted everything by $2.00. and the final was $44.66 with the extra item added.
It wasn't as if I was just buying things for fun. I really need the sdded item too.
Theyu do math like the SS people only to the advantage fo the buyer!
Massachusetts...........Blackwell & Decker another good business to deal with. It's the reminants of theRevolutionary spirit? Liberal state home of Kennedy Kerry?
What is it's horoscope?

Hey qop! Susan Collins is balking about the Stimulus Plan seems she wants to play with her GOP boyz, sad sad day.

I don't pretend to be a financially astute person however this article pretty much outlines what several economist have been saying and what I've suspected. This has been a dream of many since before WWII, in fact it was the reason Hitler existed, and others have been working toward this day for over 70 years, maybe even since the 1913 Federal Reserve Bank Act. None the less, the day is upon us, I don't believe every country will succumb but right now things aren't looking good.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x421441

Not only Collins..our Rep Michaud, Dem,. ( who co-sponsored Kucinich's bill to impeach cheney.....voted against the Stimulous in the House as well. Dang! I;ll call her again but obviously she isn't listening to me!
I saw an upbeat marketing idea.....but if Sally's post is accurate, guess it doesn't matter much.
Stark Bros nursery is selling a kids package...including a dwarf apple tree, a lovely book on how to plant it, equipment needed for nurturing it, and a children's book The Golden Apple a CInderella story. ( lovely illustrations) Package $41.78! A very desirable "green " package.

qop, that is a clever marketing idea, I would probably add a recipe book for using those apples that they grow.

So what then will we use to barter with if the dollar/monetary system are kaput?

My husband and I were just chatting about getting a potters wheel and all the other stuff needed. Particularly in light of that article Sally linked. My husband did pottery back in the day. Make the items people need at a price they can afford. Make dolls and toys again that are tainted. I buy a ton of stuff off the internet. I recently tracked down a tortilla press $8.99 and the little gal shipped it right to me. So in the future will be a trading bartering society? I wonder if the arts of knitting and crocheting will become vogue again? Really, I've been looking all over for a warm hand knit or crocheted shawl that does not cost over $100.00! The temptation to buy my own yarn and do it myself is quite tempting.

We also have friends that make their living doing the Renaissance Faire's in California. Twice a year, northern and southern faire. They vend their home made items. Their take for the year brings in a nice income. The faires run 6 weeks each, and the rest of the year they are home creating stock.

I guess we are not as far removed from the old ways as we think sometimes.

* Disgorge, Wall St Fat Cats

The president’s disgust at Wall St looters was good. But we need more. We need disgorgement.

Disgorgement is when courts force wrongdoers to repay ill-gotten gains. And I’m ill at the gains gotten by scummy execs acting all Gordon Gekko while they’re getting bailed out by us.

With the equally laconic Tim Geithner beside him, Mr Obama called it “shameful” and “the height of irresponsibility” for Wall St bankers to give themselves $18.4b worth of bonuses for last year.

They should know better, he coolly chided. But big shots — even Mr Obama’s — seem impervious to knowing better. (Following fast on Geithner’s tax lacunae, Tom Daschle’s nomination hit a pothole when he had to pay $140,000 in back taxes he owed mostly for 3 yrs’ use of a car and a driver provided by a private equity firm.)

At least the old robber barons made great products. When you make money out of money, unmoored from morality and regulators, it must unhinge you. How else to explain corpo welfare [kings] partridge hunting in England, buying French jets and shopping for Lamborghinis?

Mr Obama was less bracing than during the campaign, when AIG execs were caught going to posh retreats after taking an $85b bailout. He called for them to be fired and to reimburse the fed Treas. Now that he has the power to act, Mr Obama spoke, as his spokesman Robert Gibbs put it, “like that disappointed parent that doesn’t embarrass you in the mall, but you feel like you’ve let somebody down.” ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01dowd.html?ref=opinion

These people live down the road from me.....
http://www.loonmountainleather.com/
Barbara started out making hats and accessories for Renaissance Faires over in NY state, until Paul came along ...and added the leather thing.

There are several people around here who raise sheep, spin the wool and make knitted items, as well as several who make goats milk cheese.......
& pottery, and iron work..........

* Obama: Wall St 'Arrogance and Greed' Won't Be Tolerated
Says Adm Will Crack Down on Banks' Exec Bonuses

President Obama, usually cool, was visibly angry in his weekly address, chastising corpo bankers for the 2nd time this week for accepting taxpayer bailout money and then doling out $18b in exec bonuses.

Adm officials challenged a report in The Wash Post that suggested Obama was unlikely to tighten restrictions on compensation for banks that accept bailout funds, saying the report was "simply untrue."

WH and Treas officials said the president will soon crack down on those big bonuses, shareholder enrichment and overall accountability.

Banking exec have long argued that they need to pay bonuses to retain quality execs. ... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/CEOProfiles/story?id=6778419&page=1

Jeepers... talk about in your face thievery!

"Banking exec have long argued that they need to pay bonuses to retain quality execs." Now that's rich. Is it that hard to find first class crooks these days? These are the "quality execs" who ran the show into the dirt in the road, wow we don't want to lose them. What on earth is the deal here?

I'm sorry but then the next thing you know, another plutocratic bunch of crooks will be moved into the WH again. Around, around, around we go, where it stops nobody knows. Wish I could be more positive but I've watched that cycle too many times in my relatively short life.

Otoh perhaps as per Matthew's Messages et al things will work out different. Review: http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=97&z=2

My spirit sure is tired of being yanked this way & then that way & then the other way...

Oh I don't know......Chiron is gaining ground on T neptune. At the July eclipses.....it will be conjunct. Doesn't that meaning dispelling and healing the illusion disillusion, fogginess etc. that has clouded the political situation, so that it can be corrected?
( my assessment without any knowledge of history, when it last conjuncted etc.)

ISRAEL IS OUTGASSING ITS UNHEALED TRAUMA

By Paul Levy

In Gaza, a role reversal has taken place – the Jewish people, the victim of unresolved trauma that they suffered not only during the WWII, but thruout their history, have now become the perpetrators. One of the things unique about trauma is that in the process of integrating and healing from trauma, we are compelled to unconsciously act out the role of the abuser. Israel, to the extent it hasn’t dealt with its own trauma, has split-off from and at the same time internalized the abuser, while unconsciously IDing with its original aggression, which is a common characteristic of the traumatized soul.

To dissociate from and be unconsciously ID'd with the sadistic aggressor who perpetrated the original trauma is to become possessed by this figure, to be lethally compelled to act out its violence in a terrorizing, malevolent and life-destroying way. In an appalling reversal of the golden rule, Israel is doing unto others what was done unto it. In the open-air death camp by the sea which is Gaza, the Jewish people have re-created their experience in WWII, with the Palestinians playing the roles that the Jews played in the Warsaw ghetto. ... http://www.awakeninthedream.com/

Really nice Mark Morford... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/01/30/notes013009.DTL

One of his best!

Has anyone else been aware that Poppy Bush is experiencing his Uranus Return? (June 12, 1924, 11:38 AM, Milton, MA) His natal Uranus is at 21 Pisces, over which transiting Uranus has been moving back and forth since early 2008. Typically, a Uranus Return is supposed to represent a culmination of one's life during the current incarnation with a release/detachment/withdrawal from day to day interactions and responsibilities. Transiting Saturn, however is nearing it's next exact opposition to Uranus, thereby opposing Bush Sr.'s natal Uranus.

Junior leaving the White House in disgrace and the massive damage he did to the family brand must be weighing pretty heavily upon the old man these days. But alas, the sands of time have about run out on Poppy's ability to clean up yet another of his son's messes, and it's by far the biggest one of them all at that.

To top it all off, Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter will all be conjunct Poppy's South Node at 26 Aquarius (and natal Mars nearby at 25 Aquarius) in a few months. If that's "dispelling and healing the illusion disillusion" as qop says, then I think Bush Sr.'s South Node past which he has clung to his entire life -- the work and specific details (6th house) of his and his family's too long history of myriad dirty dealings and dark, despicable secrets -- may be about to be unearthed and revealed for all to see. Sooner or later, what he and his family have done absolutely must come to light before the United States can ever truly begin down the path towards healing and rebirth.

Good stuff, NEO! Thank you.

Good return Neobuckeye, ( on my serve!)
ANd my MC is 27 Aqu. is that why I have such an interest in seeing this happen?
News item on CNN last night: the Obama's & Biddens boosting the S DC restaurant trade by ranging around the city and going out to eat regulaly. Ben's Chile Dogs had a 5 block line of customers the other day. Nice to have normal people
occupying the WH!
& with moon moving into Taurus, I dreamed I was chosen to go first in one of those TV chef competitions. Mercifully I woke up before I started cooking!

joannaoregon @ Neo-thank you so much for your offerings. Dear Queen of Pentacles I am sure that you could come up with a respectable omelet correct for breakfast, brunch or supper-you could pull it off just because you understand so well what we need as versus what we want.
I love Paul Levy even is he does require some heavy lifting-psychicly/

Today is Feb. 2. Karl Rove was subpoenaed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, but Karl saw his shadow and returned to his burrow.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecf1eae2-f092-11dd-972c-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
India is planning to produce a laptop computer for the knockdown price of about $20 (€16, £14), having come up with the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car at about $2,000.

Happy Candlemas! Happy Ground Hog Day! Yippee California has some rain on the way! We so need it!!

I googled it and the Tata Nano has high efficiency and low emissions and is so cheap that many more people will be able to afford cars - which kind of undermines its efficiency. The name is fun to say though!

Tata Nano?!? Hahahahahahaaaa!!

Wish they listed the transits here, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what's going on... and what may be about to.

http://astrotransits.blogspot.com/2009/02/2009-february-we-are-almost-at-tipping.html

---

Sunday, February 1, 2009
2009 February. We are almost at a tipping point of a big change and set of events. We are still well before the very "hot" dates of around 15th April and May, when a set of very important events for the world shall occur.

These include secrets coming out, corruption exposed, the economic depression is accepted at a mainstream level and manifested clearly, some extreme climatic and/or geological events, riots and protests in several countries, big changes at a personal level, a gradual awakening to act and change.

Around the 9th February it is probably the next wave of protests and/or some war just after the last January events and wave of unemployment.

April and May should be bring more significant dramatic change, in this context.

By August the market shall crash, and by September the US and the world will have some really important events of change. These may include rioting, one civil war, a larger middle east war, economic depression, revolution in a few countries, and who knows disclosure of alien activity.

Let me make it, very very very clear: the economy will get really bad, and people will really revolt themselves!!!!! A few will stay sad, stuck, but many will stir individual unrest and action. Things will CHANGE! Because society will be seen unworkable!

This will last during the next 10 years, brining a radical new way for society, based in local and grassroot association of people.

Publicada por segurelha em 10:31 AM

Good read Neo on Poppy Bush, his Uranus is also in an exact square to his Sun, I'm sure you saw that. Wonder if he will have a massive stroke, he had a little one around election time when Uranus and Saturn last met close to his Sun/Uranus square. I have always believed that the Bush family secrets would come out and I don't think they will be pretty.

The April 15th date she talks about has a Venus Retrograde (gone retro on March 6th, I believe) and Mars conj. Uranus. There will be "secrets" about the US squeaking out, more than imagined. We will get a good look at the US and what we have become over the next few years, that's so we can let completely go of the past and create something new, as we find out the past was an illusion and the reality is dirtier than we thought.

Obama has a tough row to hoe and there is actually very little he can do as the military/corporate complex is running everything and calling the shots, I do think he will try to do the best he can. He himself said "if I cannot get this turned around in three years, I will be a one term president."

Adding to the predictions above, I would also add volcano and earthquakes being set off. That Saturn/Uranus opposition is brutal for that kind of activity, this is the second of the Saturn/Uranus oppositions this year, there will be two more and each one brings more restrictions to our lives, (the human race) restrictions due to civil unrest, war, finances, health, you name it we will be less and less able to move about freely. We will be far more safe if we keep our eyes on the big picture.

OOOOH Morgana-last night as I rounded the corner of our building I felt a strong,moist wind and I pray that rain from the south is on the way.
Sally-thanks for your words and thoughts even though we are going through a time of massive upheavel. This is the first time I have had an anxiety that there won't be money to pay my salary (well everyone's salary).
Neo I love your offerings they always stimulate my mind and get me going to connect all the strands of info rolling around in my conscious mind.

Yea, verily, Miss Sally... I'm quite sure also that folks going thru the times of let's say WWI & WWII thot the "end of the world" was going on for them, too... particularly if they were pink. Just the same old story in endless feedback imo. Nothing really new yet.

New electronic gadgets perhaps... but I don't think they count. What counts imo is a seachange in collective thinking/feeling at the soul level... you know, where humanoids don't run off in huge packs to slaughter their sisters & brothers... nor their babies nor the Living Earth. ;O)

Mebbe we'll just begin to have births that show our real propensity & heritage of our closest relatives, the insect... the war-ant. Infants will just start appearing in neonatal units of hospitals (or homes) with six legs, pinchers on their faces, deeply segmented bodies... yeah, that's the ticket! The real future for hominids! Then instead of "pink mists" from bombs & radiation, there'll be green-oozing chunks of bodies on the battlefields of everywhere.

Mebbe all the exoskeletons laying around everywhere could be used to make plutocrats even more powerful & rich... like making cement out of them to build greater palacial... um, dwellings... like a termite mound... full of rooms for nothing... or merely grotesque monuments to their own deformed egos.

* Why Are We Still at War? by Norman Solomon

The US began its war in Afghanistan 88 mos ago. "The war on terror" has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.

For the crimes against humanity committed on 9/11/01, countless others are to follow, with huge conceits about techno "sophistication" and moral superiority. But if we scrape away the concrete of media truisms, we may reach substrata where some poets have dug. ... http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/03

Norman Solomon is a journalist, historian, and progressive activist. His book "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" has been adapted into a documentary film of the same name. His most recent book is "Made Love, Got War." He is a national co-chair of the Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign.

Boy! The W H press corps is eating Gibbs alive! WHere were they with Fleisher, Scotty & Dana????

Well..the honeymoon is over!
O admin. can hang out with all those sleezy GOPiggys for cocktails, football.
BUT their admin "doesn't agree" with Howard Dean so they won't replace tax dodger Daschel with him for Sect. of Health.
Proof to me that the Health plan O comes up with will NOT bypass Big Pharma in OUR favor!
ANd Gregg repig acceptable even tho replacement will be another one, preventing 60 DEMS.in the Senate!

I feel something so ugly going down that I can't really describe it but today I m firmly back into the unObama land-the press is all over him and his movements all of a sudden they have found their brains and they are on attack unlike they were when Bush was placed in the White House. this is making me sick to see this and every time I think of his choosing Gregg even knowing that this move will only hurt us makes me nauseous.
I was wondering if Obama is doing what he is doing because his family has been threatened? This really appears as if the black man has been given the dirtiest job.
I am sad tonight really sad. Even my commute partner who is much more connecting than i is sad tonight saying he just can't see what Obama is doing with the Gregg move.

Me too CLymela..............but I am hoping what Neobuckeye wrote above @ 12:57, will reveal the undercover manipulators.........
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/dog-eat-dog-palin-patrons_b_163385.html
The night before, Malek hosted an even more intimate dinner at his home for Palin and her former running mate, McCain, who hadn't seen each other since that fateful evening in Phoenix, when McCain made his concession speech and Palin was left with tears in her eyes, forbidden from delivering a speech of her own.

In many ways, Malek would seem to provide the perfect entrée into Washington's conservative corporate elite for Palin. He fits nicely into the circle of corruption that has followed Palin throughout her political career. In a current blog of his, Malek declares that "Palin will have an important role in the future of the Republican Party."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-02-02/united-in-comedy/
This was a room whose head table of 45 guests groaned with power. Not just one president, but two: Bush 41 was up there, with the indomitable Bar down at the other end, seated beside Sarah Palin, who is surprisingly slight and dainty in real life, with star-struck glistening eyes.
In the normal course of events sarah palin would be washed up / finished...............

Yes... but they need Palin for one of the scapegoats. Dewy-eyed & petite. Perfect. She'll end up chained to the rock with the coming monster to eat 'er up.

I don't think we actually realize how choked countries are with the corporate/banking/military complex that rules media, governments, money, food, everything that touches our lives. How much Obama can actually do without being killed is limited. This country and others will have to find a way to break that chokehold on us. Not too different from the situation in the 1700's. John Kennedy said he intended to break up the Federal Reserve and three weeks later he was dead. Obama's task "should he decide to take it" is to begin the process of unwinding the tentacles of the viper choking us. I don't know if he realizes that we, as he says, not a red or blue country, but neither are we a Centrist country, we are a country in survival mode and that takes wisdom. He invites people to write or call him, boy I would absolutely do so, in fact I did.

Robert Reich wrote an excellent piece in which he said he didn't think anyone in Washington realized the anger out here and were stunned and overwhelmed at the emails, faxes, phone calls they have recieved regarding the Wall Street bonus', parties, and jets, Washington was stunned at the anger. Obama is really going to be stunned at the anger, it's been pent up for 8 years and now is not the time for "tax payer bailout money" to be spent on multi-million dollar parties, bonus' and toilets.

I don't know all about what Matthew is saying but astrologically I do know that it turns out differently than it seems right now, but it will be 10 to 20 years before it gets better. 10 years to get better and another 10 to right the ship so to speak.

I am not a person of wealth and I never have been in that group, I find myself asking the questions "if I were, would I be conscious of those who are struggling (that's my level) and fearful. Would I see them as just the masses, would I understand the intensity and fearful immediate need of help? I don't know. Would I be trying, as they are, to side step and turn away from the pain believing I couldn't save them all, so why try to save any. Would I be as angry over the situation as I am today?" I don't know the answers to all these questions within myself, but I am looking deeper inside to try and find them.

This is a really great article that gives a potential direction. I actually heard something about this a week or two ago. What is said about the Federal Reserve I think is accurate, I believe they are on the brink of self destruction and have been for a couple of years. I left the comments to this article on because they are pretty informative.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4975625#4976327

Without having read the DU article you posted......
My comment. LAst night Chris Mathews interviewed Bernie Saunders, who did speak of the 800 Vermonters who turned out for a Town Hall. ( And if they are anything like their coastal neighbors,
turning out for ANYTHING is a major effort.) They are furious he reports!
How I wish I could ship some of this frozen precipitation over to the West COast! I may have to climb out a window this AM to dig out my door... all three open out!)
It's hard to comprehend that they should be so unaware,.........
Yes I made my first angry call to the W H yesterday.
He SHOULD have chosen Dr, DEAN to begin with! I
bet HIS taxes are paid up, and wasn't it HIS 50 state strategey that helped Obama win?
If O a can watch football in the WH with the likes of mccain & mcconnell, then his people can JOLLY WELL get along with DEAN and the PROGRESSIVES!

Oh & Mathews interviewed McKAskell last night too.
He pressed her too hard on Dashle's, motivation ( mistake versus, wrongdoing ) Her body language was MOST revealing............Her words defended him; BUT her head was shaking negatively and her eyes were blinking rapidly! Her face said the opposite of her words! I've never seen her so flustered.

Opening yahoo in the morning certainly doesn't aid breakfast digestion...

Rove was a tragedy for milions. Now, this one is a farce. By the way, that face and the shirt color seem like perfect match for the red armband with a certain white-and-black emblem.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/18324

Feb. 3 is a festival of Setsubun in Japan. They chase the devil out of the house and call good luck to enter on that day. Across the Pacific a newly "civilian" devil chose the occasion to spit acid yet again:
---
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
---
"He called Guantanamo a “first-class program,” and “a necessary facility” that is operated legally and with better food and treatment than the jails in inmates native countries".
---
“The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama adminstration believes.”
---
“If it hadn’t been for what we did—with respect to the terrorist surveillance program, or enhanced interrogation techniques for high-value detainees, the Patriot Act, and so forth—then we would have been attacked again,” he said. “Those policies we put in place, in my opinion, were absolutely crucial to getting us through the last seven-plus years without a major-casualty attack on the U.S.”
---
That’s the one that would involve the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, and the one you have to spend a hell of a lot of time guarding against,” he said.
“I think there’s a high probability of such an attempt. Whether or not they can pull it off depends whether or not we keep in place policies that have allowed us to defeat all further attempts, since 9/11, to launch mass-casualty attacks against the United States.”
---
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090204/pl_politico/18390

Wonder why he's, in Rove's terms, "rallying the base" right now? Are the planning to take back the Congress in 2 years? Or has 2008 campaign started already. Or should we be thinking in terms of "aces up the sleeve"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterMedia_Partners
the company, that gave Daschle the car & driver.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1274383
the guy ..............
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Daschle
In 1994, he was chosen by his colleagues to succeed the retiring Senator George Mitchell as Democratic Minority Leader. In the history of the Senate, only Lyndon B. Johnson had served fewer years before being elected to lead his party. In addition to the Minority Leader's post, Daschle also served as a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. South Dakotans re-elected Daschle to the Senate by overwhelming margins in 1998. At various points in his career, he served on the Veterans Affairs, Indian Affairs, Finance and Ethics Committees.
THIS WAS WHEN FDA ALLOWED HFCS INTO PROCESSED FOODS!

Sally-I was once tlking to my silver-spon friend about what a struggle it was to raise my daughter on my welfare worker salary. the gross sounded good but I explained the difference between gross and takehome. wheb we got to taxes her comment was"taxes? yiu cab;t affird taxes! And I of course replyed I have to pay taxes which at the time totaled about a third of my gross (you know feds, fica,medicare,state,etc) Well she was just horrified and said to me "You know, Clynela,I paid taxes once for $1500 and I am still mad." this is by was of explaining the class struggle. although I do believe that even the wealthy are held in bondage by the so-called shadow government such as Dynamic Eorporation (Dyncorp),Balckwater,etc. Amy Goodman,Democracy Now, is excellent on this subject over the years

Friends I apologize for all the typos,etc. Rushing to get ready for work and all does not go well.

And I just googled Rahm Emmanuel.................
If I had done that before Nov 4, I might have voted for Cynthia K McKinney.
But then who knew Obama would plant him as guardian to the Oval office?
He is REPULSIVE TO ME! He sounds like a spoiled sociopath! He is prominent in the "New Democratic Coalition" composed of all those centrist dems who have voted wrong, & screwed things up for the past 4 years! NO NEW ENGLANDERS IN THE GROUP!
He was on the board of Dir. of Freddie Mac in 2000, 2001, when they were at their worst!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel
Emanuel is known for his "take-no-prisoners attitude" that has earned him the nickname "Rahm-bo."[13] Emanuel is said to have "mailed a rotten fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways."[10] On the night after the 1996 election, "Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting 'Dead! ... Dead! ... Dead!' and plunging the knife into the table after every name."[5][6] Before Tony Blair gave a pro-Clinton speech during the impeachment crisis, Emanuel reportedly screamed to Blair's face "Don't fuck this up!" while Clinton was present; Blair and Clinton both burst into laughter.
AND THEY are worried about Dr Dean's *manufactured* scream?
Then if you google Dean: His family is one of those WASPS, who have functioned from Integrity and truth rather than gain & greed. for centuries...........

Well the knives are out for Obama today. Cheney says we are going to be hit by a terrorist attack soon, Wall Street says Obama has made them mad, the GOP is hammering the stimulus plan, the Dems are setting him up over the HHS position. The Dems want him to be nastier and the GOP want him to buckle, and the country has finally gone over the edge, talk about a rock and a hard place, he is in it.

There may be a terrorist attack, but Cheney just loves to scare people and the world he lives in is under attack. He and Bush are trying to save themselves and their legacy, Wall Street doesn't like someone even hinting they need to pull in their greed because they believe the "little" people are to blame (all of us) This is going to get worse before it gets better. The GOP has had their way for so long with the rest of the country afraid of them they don't know what to do with the "Obama" presidency.

That Saturn/Uranus opposition has us all in a terrifying bind. We've been told to be afraid, be very afraid for so long I wonder if we know how to move away from it anymore and believe. There is no doubt Obama will make mistakes, he has already and is perhaps too nice a person to slap back but my hope is that he will slap back enough to put them in their place. I'm just working to get past my fear and get on with working toward something better than the Bush administration left.

Well, someone finally said it bluntly, Barney Franks to Bankers and Wall Street "people really hate you and they are starting to hate us because we are hanging out with you and you need to help deal with this situation." Good for Franks.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18372.html

Wonder what price Paterson will pay for smearing Caroline Kennedy? Judith Smith, the asp.

http://tinyurl.com/cqdluu

Cheney probably has another attack arranged much the same way he orchestrated 9/11. Which one of his peer groups will he target this time.

Well no moss is going to grow under any of us! Have keyboard will fight! I am not afraid of the GOP I am sick of them and will continue to do everything within my power to get them out of office. Sooner Obama learns they are sick sick sick and best left on the side of the road as so much road kill the better.

Wouldn't you think he'd know that by now?
Why isn't cheney back in Wyoming?

Ok maybe President Obama has more backbone then I thought.

http://tinyurl.com/bx2n2u

The President has asked for peoples input so continue to tell him exactly what you think. I'm on the Howard Dean for HHS position. Howard may not be the DLC bunch's bff but he is bff to the people.

oh bff=best friend forever I think.

Where do you tell your ideas? Is it still at change.gov?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Hello! Yes I used that address thanks Morgana.
It sounds as if he set Collins straight today. WIsh I had been a fly on the wall.
I think, like my Mother, she has a tendency to depend on the male viewpoint a little too much.
At least she's talking to PO rather than Liarman!

KO just started........He's going to do one of his rants tonight.
Directed to cheney who no longer has any business trying to fear monger........should be good!

Oh Great Rant! Catch it if you can in time zones across the country!

I heard part of Olbermann, and boy he did rip into Cheney. Cheney just needs to go home lie down and take it easy, we don't need him anymore, in fact we never did need him.

This sounds grim but read to the bottom for the solutions. They do need to do this right away. The ridiculous politics going on in Washington is over the top.

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/economic_disaster_are_you_next

Personally, I'd rather see cheney ground into dog meat...

JoannaO..........DO you hate dogs? WHy poison them?
Didn't cheney buy property in Dubai? He should go there and stay!
Well that was the 2ndinstallment of A Saturn uranus opposition! Fun..............

Well, no, qop... what should I say instead? ;O)

Cheney has Uranus transiting back and forth over his Moon at 22 Pisces, now moving forward towards its' last exact hit. Transiting Uranus with Saturn in opposition to his moon likely fostered his sudden, unexpected outburst. With Saturn transiting his 1st house, no doubt Cheney is having a difficult time transitioning back to civilian life, and likely feels physically restricted or limited in his ability to move about and express himself. He just can't stand not being behind the scenes in Washington anymore and having his say in national and foreign affairs as he did for more than 8 years. His outburst (Uranus) about terrorism seems to be his effort at stirring up the pot and somehow staying relevant (Saturn) ("That's right, folks. I'm still here and not going anywhere!")

Also, transiting Neptune is moving towards a conjunction with his natal Mercury at 24 Aquarius and a near opposition/half-return to his natal Neptune at 27 Virgo. Cheney is, of course as his natal Mercury-Neptune opposition suggests, already quite adept at deceptions and outright lies, which is also one of the lower end traits of Pisces Moon. I think it's a safe bet that Neptune on his Mercury will only enhance the deceptions and lies by several orders of magnitude.

With the upcoming triple conjunction of Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron at nearby 26 Aquarius, especially with Jupiter (expansion, search for truth, fortune) transiting his natal Mercury, I would expect Cheney to go into overdrive in the next few months, spewing forth even more of his lies, lies, lies and "fear and scare" nonsense. However, with Chiron in the mix (deep wounding & path to higher awareness), his ability to do so, around the time of the conjunction, will be massively and permanently blocked or severely and irrevocably impeded in some way.

As I noted previously, this triple conjunction is also a direct hit on George Bush Sr.'s South Node. It seems highly possible that the root of what Cheney has been trying to hide, as it relates to the Bush Family's long history of cunning deceptions and dirty dealings, comes to light in such a way that he can no longer effectively cover it up again with any amount of deceptions and lies, though he may try like mad to do so. It could also possibly transpire as a health issue (major stroke/heart attack?) that permanently blocks or impedes his ability to speak and therefore continue the deceptions. Cheney also has Pluto approaching the first of three squares to his nodes, North Node being in his first house at 2 Libra, with Saturn approaching a conjunction to his North Node late this year. At the very least, I'd say he clearly has a reckoning with destiny as it relates to his health. He needs to retire NOW, or else he may find himself finally forced to by circumstances over which he has no power or control.

Well that was exciting.....just as I turned on my hotpot for noon coffee.......the power went out, !
Once I realized that the 5 months old appliance hadn't gone fritz, that everything was off,that cspan had gone silent too, I stuck a pot into the woodstove nestled up to the coals........but 10 min. later the power came back on before it boiled.....oh well.

qop you inspired me to nuke a cup of coffee! We've got a propane range/oven, water heater, and a woodstove for heating. We also have a generator for use when the power goes out up here which happens several times a year, longest was 2 months, usually a few days. Lights flickering as I type...we have rain!!! Yippee!!

Well they ran new electric lines through here a few years ago and I am close enough to town, that frequently the power only goes out for 5 min. and the lines switch. Haven't been without for more than 5 hours in the 18 years I've been here. ( a And that was when soe clown knocked over the power pole down near the movie theater.
I have a propane camp stove for extreme measures............but I think I would have to use it out of the house! And if I could afford it I would buy a new gas range...........
I did buy a Brita water filter that screws on the faucet in the sink! One problem solved!
It's warming..I sat out on the back step and drank a cup of coffee under the waxing moon........
antidote for all that Senate drama.

Good idea, I've listened to some of it, ok a bare minimum I turn the channel when a Republican comes on.

"With the upcoming triple conjunction of Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron at nearby 26 Aquarius, especially with Jupiter (expansion, search for truth, fortune) transiting his natal Mercury, I would expect Cheney to go into overdrive in the next few months, spewing forth even more of his lies, lies, lies and "fear and scare" nonsense. However, with Chiron in the mix (deep wounding & path to higher awareness), his ability to do so, around the time of the conjunction, will be massively and permanently blocked or severely and irrevocably impeded in some way."

Neo from your words to God's ears. My hope is the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune Conj and Uranus, Mr. Cheney has a light bulb go off and he realizes he is of no consequence any more and maybe even understanding that he never was.

Here's karma at work................
http://www.hcn.org/wotr/on-second-thought-mr.-cheney
the venerable American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vt., a beacon for the nation's fly-fishers and a keeper of their rich tradition, had landed Vice President Dick Cheney as the guest of honor and speaker at its spring 2009 meeting.
Remember when Vt voted him a war criminal, subject to arrest if he came into the state?

Umm, the right hand never knows what the left hand is doing? ...or visa versa

For a guy who likes to hide out in "undisclosed locations" he sure has bounced out their in the Washington, DC "traffic."

Of all people, I never thought we would hear from him again and so soon. Yea Vermont, I have always loved that state.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/attentionlost.html
VERY INTERESTING..........
Our society right now is filled with lovely distractions — we have so much portable escapism and mediated fantasy — but that's just one issue. The other is interruption — multitasking, the fragmentation of thought and time. We're living in highly interrupted ways. Studies show that information workers now switch tasks an average of every three minutes throughout the day. Of course that's what we have to do to live in this complicated world.

Wired.com: How do these interruptions affect us?

Jackson: This degree of interruption is correlated with stress and frustration and lowered creativity. That makes sense. When you're scattered and diffuse, you're less creative. When your times of reflection are always punctured, it's hard to go deeply into problem-solving, into relating, into thinking.

I just posted.there was a problem........
My history ( computer website) showed a failure to post???????

Oh good! It was just delayed.
I am a having trouble posting comments on HuffPo too, session with the MAc tech tomorrow?
And this was posted on Nancy's blog.......I've been waiting a while for this!

The Aquarian alignment 14th February 2009

“At dawn on 14th February the day dedicated to St Valentine, the patron saint of Love, the Moon in Libra enters the seventh house of relationships. And Jupiter and Mars are aligned in Aquarius in the twelfth house of spiritual transformation.

Forty years ago, the intuitive words of a song called Aquarius, brought the dawning of the new age into our collective awareness:

When the Moon is in the seventh house

and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

Then peace will guide the planets

and love will steer the stars

At dawn on 14th February the Cosmos actually embodies this perfect alignment to support our collective manifestation of love and peace and dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

The Aquarian chart of 14th February reveals an incredible concentration of cosmic influences blending with the energies of Aquarius in the twelfth house. Expansive Jupiter and energetic Mars are aligned with the higher purpose of the North Node. The presence of Chiron the wounded healer offers us the opportunity to heal the schisms that have separated us for so long. Neptune emphasizes collective humanitarian movements and the co-creation of social justice. And the presence of the radiant Sun enlightens the entire alignment.

Mercury also in the twelfth house but just beyond the cusp in Capricorn, allies with transformational Pluto to communicate and anchor the Shift throughout our global structures and institutions.

The Moon in Libra in the seventh house emphasizes harmonious real -ationships.

Venus in Aries in the first house energizes and empowers dynamic co-creativity.

And whilst Saturn the great task master in opposition to Uranus the unexpected awakener is suggesting an ongoing confrontation as the dregs of the unsustainable old paradigm reluctantly give way to the untested hope of the new, their placements in Virgo and Pisces brings practical altruism and visionary inspiration to the transition.

At 7.25am on 14th February - and for the 18 minutes of the alignment, I invite you, in the universal heart, to add your own intention for love and peace and to co-create the dawning of the Age of Aquarius to that of the Cosmos. In whatever way feels appropriate for you, you may choose to align with7.25am (UT) or 7.25am your own local time energizing a wave of intention that will surge around the Earth.”

QOP-Thanks for that link regarding the Grand Trine on 2/14/2009. I have a loose formation right now with those planets and my natal planets and have been feeling streams of creativity and love unlike anything I have felt before. I just started thinking this weekend-I bet this is from the meeting up of all the panets in Aquarius. Hadn't gone into what moon in Libra would add.

Where is everyone?

I'm here......I think the intelligent citizens are so "gob-smacked" we're avoiding the internet! No news is good news.
One Buzzflash commentor's suggestion for Obama:
throw all the repigs in jail for treason, and give a rousing speech from the W H balcony, waving a flag in one hand and a gun in the other: to get unanomous support for HIS spending bill!
Huf Po posted the pdf of the Senate stimulous bill, I downloaded it, over 750 pages.......
There were 20 pages if comments.....all sophmoric, sniping discussion of mostly the Grammy awards or other entertainment, conservs trolls Opposite libs....NOT ONE COMMENT ABOUT HOW TO IMPROVE THE BILL!
Happy lunar eclipse.@ 9:50am 10 min. from now (EST) Moon 290 Leo / sun 20 Aqu. sq. the US Mars.......

Hi qop clymela, I'm here too..sort of waking up. I've got an article percolating on the full moon lunar eclipse. Waiting for Obama to speak in Elkhart IN.

Obama speaking at Elkhart, Indiana at nearly the exact time of the Eclipse with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Chiron, NN, and the Sun in the 10th house and Neptune has just slipped over into the 11th at 23 Aquarius, both Chiron, Sun and Neptune are on the 11th house cusp, either from the 10th or the 11th house, also Pluto and Moon are on House Cusps (Moon at the 5th House Cusp, and Pluto on the 9th) in addition Mercury is just over the midheaven, making a total of 7 planets on house cusps, and the Eclipse falling just a few degrees from his Asc., all this adds to the importance of this speech and his follow up Q&A which is a prep roll out for his press conference tonight.

Whether this speech will be important for his agenda or the GOP agenda remains to be seen, but it will be important as we go forward over the next few weeks. I don't know or haven't heard how many people are in attendence but he did not carry Elkhart in the election.

As for the rest of us, where does this eclipse fall in your chart? What houses are activated? For me it fell across my 5th and 11th house cusps and lord knows this last weekend I was up to my eyebrows in grandkids and will be over the entire month of Feb. (that's a 5th house matter) It would have been great to have my 10th (career house) activated but not this time. So friends, relationships, creativity and kids are in the spotlight for me. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that none of my kids are planning on anymore kids during this cycle.

The Leo/Aquarius Eclipse does impact the US in their 5th and 11th house, on a Mundane level that, in part, covers our relationships in this country with others and hope wishes and dreams, the success or failure of the group. The rulers of this eclipse Uranus and the Sun, are struggling again between the old and the new, which the President laid out clearly "do we want to continue the old failed economic policies or do we want to go into a bold new direction." It's interesting to me that most of us GOP or Dem have had an expectation that he would solve the problems of Washington in his first three weeks in office, me included. I have a "kick them to the curb" feeling, but it's not all going to happen that fast, we didn't get here overnight and it won't be resolved overnight

eclipse in my 3rd-9th. Trying to communicate BUT toll free line to DC is totally: Not Busy.......
CIRCUITS ARE BUSY! Kyle's DC line is also busy
Had to call the Me Sens/ offices locally and Snowe's 8000 line was busy too. T Sun/Moon square my N moon, uranus, sun...........T Neptune sq my N moon EXACT, with Chiron on it's heels...... T *

**************

++

mars jupt conjunct my pro moon!
With T saturn conj my N neptunee opp. N jupiter conj T uranus 4th 10th.........just trying to peel back the foggy curtain and get m ywork done!

Well that Neptune is certainly evident by my post!
I was distracted by one of my favorite Senators,
Byron Dorgan! N Dakota. May 14 1942.He's So good with economics! 'What happened with us is deregulation: and we were stolen blind!"
So true.
Lines still busy............

Go get'em qop. Snow and Collins sure need challengers, they're making Maine look pretty chintzy.

They look nobl;e compared to some of the comments posted in the Bangor Daily News!
I wish they would ALL listen to Krugman!
We have a state political problem going on today too. Maine Public Broadcastring wants to terminate all three stations in the
Northern/Eastern part of the state!

qop,

Is Maine experiencing what the rest of the nation is experiencing? Unemployment, schools closing, military families on food stamps? No health care?

Or is this a more selective Recession/Depression hitting the manufacturing states and not so much the midwest, ie., Nebraska and Ben Nelson, or Maine which is self sufficent?

I don't get how these Senators can sleep at night.

Well..........Mainers have been living for years like the rest of the country is headed, But instead of yearning for that $500,0000 house, they sell Gr. Grandmother's old farmhouse for $250,000. and buy a trailer in the woods! Or cut off the woodlot in the back 40, and sell the firewood......
Collins doubled the LIHEAP, payments to the state so the old widows and widowers, won't freeze to death, and that's how she gets re-elected. THe kids don't have to buy oil for Mom & GrMom out of their $10.00 per hour from 2 jobs!
It's a big welfare state, which covers a lot of problems......People can make wreaths or rake blueberries, dig worms or clams, to make a little extra. Mainecare, picks up the slack in healthcare. Eric's whole illness & hospitalisation, hospice care, was covered because he was jobless. They pay monthly what would have come out of my SS income, and so far so good, although my 1 major Dr. bill was rejected last year. ( routine OBY Gen Pap smear) Dr. ate the fee.
Professionalism. aesthetics not so much........
They are jealous of the schooling, & defend it ( "like a Mother Grizzly" to paraphrase sarah palin although only about 48% of our local kids go to college, however the school boards are VERY conservative!
unemployment rate 7% according to Collins. ( I think it is 10% in Washington Co.)

Well..........Mainers have been living for years like the rest of the country is headed, But instead of yearning for that $500,0000 house, they sell Gr. Grandmother's old farmhouse for $250,000. and buy a trailer in the woods! Or cut off the woodlot in the back 40, and sell the firewood......
Collins doubled the LIHEAP, payments to the state so the old widows and widowers, won't freeze to death, and that's how she gets re-elected. THe kids don't have to buy oil for Mom & GrMom out of their $10.00 per hour from 2 jobs!
It's a big welfare state, which covers a lot of problems......People can make wreaths or rake blueberries, dig worms or clams, to make a little extra. Mainecare, picks up the slack in healthcare. Eric's whole illness & hospitalisation, hospice care, was covered because he was jobless. They pay monthly what would have come out of my SS income, and so far so good, although my 1 major Dr. bill was rejected last year. ( routine OBY Gen Pap smear) Dr. ate the fee.
Professionalism. aesthetics not so much........
They are jealous of the schooling, & defend it ( "like a Mother Grizzly" to paraphrase sarah palin although only about 48% of our local kids go to college, however the school boards are VERY conservative!
unemployment rate 7% according to Collins. ( I think it is 10% in Washington Co.)

Uh oh sorry.I went out to dispose of the ashes.

Rural Californians are doing the same as far as cutting down redwoods on their property. Plus logging the fallen oak trees, manzanita to sell for firewood. We don't have natural gas lines up here, propane tanks and wood stoves.

Arnie I hear is cutting heath insurance medical and folks needing food stamps are having to wait six weeks, they're told to go to churches and food distribution centers.

Unemployment is way high in California we're in the double digits. College is too expensive for the middle class here, hell housing is too expensive. I hear our state offices are operating 4 days a week.

I guess I am angry. Angry at the Republicans for holding up the rescue of America, much like how der leader dithered while NOLA drowned.

Snow and Collins, are like Di Fi, she does some good but also a lot of harm. She's had no challengers of merit so she continues on 'safe'.

I have an e-mail from O admin asking me to tell my economic crisis story.
I am not starving, or losing my house............
just trying to run a career in a straight jacket!
Can you tell the eclipse squared my scorpio moon today? HELL Hath no fury..............
for light entertainment I am making candied pumello rinds!

qop
I'm thinking about it. For anyone else who is interested in sharing their story, or that of a family member, or what you see happening to your neighbors and community. Sound off.

Share your story about how this economic crisis is affecting you and your family and join your fellow Americans in supporting bold action to speed our recovery:

http://my.barackobama.com/sharestories

I forgot to mention the small Repig elite here in Maine.
They are still hanging on to Gr. Gr. Grandaddy's profit from the Clipper runs to China. or the lumber barons.
( There were a LOT of "old fashioned" walk in safes in Portland.) When we were working on the mural in the Congress square, we kept our paints in one of them in the hall off Tony's studio, in the State Theater bldg. ( 5 story office rental )
All their purses have locks on them too!
A friend who is in PR, trying to break into free lance jobs, discovered the connecting social link among all the established comfy local businesses,which have always done well ( and locked out newcomers) They don't look muych different from the rest of us, no Manolas or facelifts.!

Ahh... one of the ultimate boyz clubs, richly involved with the bushaholic regime, the vatican. ;O) http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/papacy.html#alexander6

I have had people stop me in the parking lot of our building asking where the "unemployment office" was to be hound. I don't know and I believe that the only way to apply is over the phone and the citizens said that they had applied or attempted to but the lines were all tied up. Food stamps are backed up because my county has laid off eligibility workers and the clerical support needed to run the system and we are being told that more lay-offs are coming.
I am angry not only because of what is happening but because of the children raised in the years from Reagan on. Some of them are working with me now and they are unconscious of how hateful and cruel they are toward people in need and they are convinced that they are not in need because they have done all the right things-I even heard one young worker in my office saying that things will work out if only they can cull all the oldtimers meaning little ol me. I don't hate these kids but I hate the way they treat old people and slow people,etc and I know that most of these young ones will eventually discover the lie.

I know clymela, they've been telling me for a decade "Oh things change" hohum! They haven't a clue because they a have been rigorously schooled by their corporate employers...........and have NO HISTORY TO KNOW ANY BETTER!
When I was in school with them they were cruel and shallow! We were asked for life experiences as a preface to a Graphic Design assignment and one of the boys told about sledding when he was a kid, how i his buddy ran into a tree, impaled his eye on a tree branch; and when he had the presence of mind to break off the branch a & carry it home with the kid to his Mother; she mistook it and berated him for poking the branch in her son's eye.

oops........... the entire class thought that story was SO FUNNY, they almost fell off their chairs laughing!
The OTHER non traditional student ( with a 12 yr old daughter in NJ with her Grandparents; both of us there to try to keep up with a changing field, not because we were out of high school with rich parents to support our schooling...) Both of us wound up having screaming temper tantrums in class before Christmas break! SHe switched to education, but I grimmed it out in Graphic Design because at 57, I didn't want to be an elementary school teacher in Downeast Maine!
They are in their mid 30's now, the young lions who bring us all that savory advertising that supports the likes of Cargill Monsanto etc.!

Don’t know if the US media is covering the devastating bushfires in Victoria, Australia, but if any of you have a moment, send some healing energy to the survivors. Some of their stories are unbelievable. It has been totally horrific for all of them. Nearly 200 incinerated with numbers expected to go higher as the authorities actually get into these areas. Around 5000 now homeless. Part of the problem has not only been the fierce winds, but the volatile oils in the native eucalyptus trees just make everything in their path sort of explode and vaporize.

Yes I am thinking about the nice Australian Navy man I dated when he was here on a navy exchange program, in the 70's. Hoping he and his sons are alright!

Kiwi, I have been following it everyday and feel just sick for those people. It makes one heart sick to see Australia burn like that and I understand there are floods in other parts of the country. Is NZ ok? Also is NZ having some of the same economic problems that are besetting the rest of the world? Just let me know that you are ok, or let us know. I don't know how close you might be to the fires.

This is an excellent website and is following the issues between Obama and Petraus and another general in Iraq. They've pretty much tried to tell Obama and Congress they can do what they want, and this website is following the "chess game" Obama and Gates are playing with them. Morgana said today the President is for sure playing Chess on three different levels.

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/3634

Here's another link detailing what Petraus is trying to do, and that's turning the media info in his favor and to dismiss Obama by the American public

http://www.truthout.org/021009A

Hi Sally,
NZ is fine as am I. Economic slowdown is starting to hit here too, but so far not too bad. Weakening NZ $$ is good for our exports and foreign tourism, not so good for fuel and imported goods, but that was always the case. Its pretty much as I have been expecting for several years now.
I think the Enron shell game was the beginning of the domino collapse and the other bookend is the Madoff money. But of course the govt corp shills under Bush managed to cover everything up and only now are people beginning to realize the global reach, consequence, and magnitude of corporate malfesance. Hopefully now that light is being shone in those dark corrupt corners the rebuilding and remodeling of the global finance system can begin.

It has been a pretty dry summer here with a couple of areas further south having bush-fires, but pretty minor really compared to what the Melbourne area is going through.

Thank you Kiwi for writing back, I feel better knowing you are ok. I am sick about the Melbourne area and I heard on the radio today that these fires may have been deliberately set? Could that be true? I just cannot understand someone who would do anything like this, over a hundred dead, more with burn injuries, hundreds of homes lost, this is just incredible. Are the fires out or close to being contained or do they just have to burn themselves out with the eucalyptus trees. When there is a fire in Colorado it's hard to put out because of the pine trees and sap and I wondered if eucalyptus is the same thing or even worse.

Did anyone see the "bankers" in Congress today? Oh my gosh what a humiliating experience for them. How much do you think Goldman Sacs CEO might make a year? He said one of the lessons they had learned and didn't realize before this is " unless main street's economy is strong and prosperous, Wall Street cannot be prosperous, that the two must work hand in hand for economic health." He couldn't be serious, this is a lesson they JUST learned? An incredible statement and this guy must make millions. And they wonder why we don't believe them or trust them? In the Panic of 1887 in this country, people went into the banks and hauled the presidents out and hung them in the street. Not a good option but I sure understand why it was done. What kubuki theater.

It consistantly stuns me, to realize the "numb' thinking function of so many!.............Who raised them??? WHere did they go to school?'
Although I have been developing through observation and pondering,isolated experiences with: a very negative view, of the MBA Ivy business model!
This NYT blog is revealing.......
those opposed to Protectionism are all linked to the BIG CORPS, who might experience retaliation from WTO, in their operations.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/that-buy-american-provision/?th&emc=th
And this article about Anna Sui: who BTW was my sil's first name client for construction, 15 years ago...................

“It’s not just designers who are affected,” by the impact of the economy on fashion, she said. As a longtime advocate for preserving the Garment Center, Ms. Sui is attuned to the perils to the industry over all when any designer or collection fails. Long before the recession hit, high rents had driven businesses out of the area. Employment in the apparel trade has shrunk drastically from its 1950s peak of 250,000 jobs to fewer than 20,000 today.

Without a production core, it becomes increasingly difficult for young designers to set up shop in the city, Ms. Sui said. “When I was starting, there were wool mills in the U.S. that could make you anything,” Ms. Sui said. “The U.S. used to produce the most beautiful cotton denim in the world. Now all that is gone.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/fashion/12runway.html?th&emc=th

Lately my posts are not getting through. I love you all; hope this gets through.
I think that I am sick but going to work anyway.
I didn't catch anything yesterday with the bankers but I did think that the news that the big guys were taking mass transit was a little over the top.

Judd Greg withdrew from his nomination as Sect. of Commerce: due to ideological differences.......

Yes I saw that, David Shuster on MSNBC is making a big tadah out of it. Who knows maybe Bill Richardson can untangle himself so he can still fill the position. Pres. Obama losing a Repug. cabinet member...I am playing the worlds smallest violin.

The GOP was quick to say it had nothing to do with the vetting process, made a couple of people I read a second ago feel like Gregg might be on the verge of a scandal. His former aide is caught up in the Abramhoff issues

PS Abramoff is no doubt stepping up his information to the FBI, they are his only hope of getting out of prison, he didn't get a pardon

Ah, ha!
Meanwhile next door............
http://bangornews.com/detail/99366.html
AUGUSTA, Maine - Residents of Washington and Aroostook counties will continue to receive radio transmissions from the Maine Public Broadcasting Network under an agreement announced Thursday.
Sen. Raye, is pretty good for a Republican. He 7 his wife have a stone ground mustard factory, store, & distributoership.

Hi and longtime no see! My progressed moon is finally leaving 7th hse (need for relationships) and entering 8th hse (need for personal growth) and more familiar ground for me. 7th hse taught me to seek the redemption of being a creative particle in the wave of God's ocean. ""Exclusive"" relationships do not satisfy and are oxymoronic where all things are connected.

I've often asked here what folks would like to see when we rebuild from the take-down of the status quo.
Myself I envision something like the village, Star Trek Piccard encounters, of very advanced people pursuing creativity inside sustainability. I believe we are here to create as our maker did; free and in the moment without the need or trap of regarding the future beyond what is practical. Perhaps the "Golden Path" according to Leto II from Children of Dune describes it. The writings of BASHAR are very enabling in this direction. In poetry I've found one place, Acadia, from where to begin to draw a portrait.
From here we came and here we shall return, but one rung up the spiral of social evolution pro-active in our choices.
Special thanks to Longfellow!

"THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers --

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre.
Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

Wow,! TimmyJ that gave me goosebumps!........
That's why I am here in Maine......45 miles downeast from Acadia National Park.
I was inspired to want to illustrate Longfellow's poem.........40 years ago! I actually did 2 woodcuts, which Canadian friends tried to sell in PEI, .And I wanted to live in the forest primeval!
( There is a piece of it, our Milbridge City Park, right down the road from my house!)
"I believe we are here to create as our maker did; free and in the moment without the need or trap of regarding the future beyond what is practical."
Unfortunately the above philosophy; isn't shared by people like the utilities company's which has delayed my self expression somewhat. Thanks for the Universal kick in the seat of the pants!
I did discover also just in the past year or 2 that my SIL is descended from those displaced Acadians..........Lafayette, grew up in Louisiana!
This is a good basis for a plein air workshop too!
Heartfelt thanks!

From my email...

MONITORING THE OBAMA ADM

What A Difference Ten Days Make (1/30/09) http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009010530/what-difference-ten-days-make

Consider how far we've come since 1/20. On Thur, the Senate followed the House in passing a reauthorization of a child health ins bill that will mean 4 million more children will have access to health ins. When the Congress passed similar legislation last year, then-[rez] bush vetoed the legislation - twice. This time, President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week. Increasing the number of working-class families who have health ins for their children is just one of the significant victories progressives can lay claim to in just the first 10 days of the Obama adm. (...) Then there is the economic recovery bill that dominated the news this week, a bill that my colleague Bernie Horn calls "the biggest and boldest progressive lege in 40 yrs," even with its concessions to business interests and con whiners. This bill makes a significant down payment toward addressing both the short- and long-term challenges of rebldg the economy and assuring that prosperity is more broadly spread than it was under bush. Yes, Obama adm proposals have had to be nudged in a more progressive direction by allies in Congress and by activist grps, and that will continue to be the case. But let's also appreciate how much change is already beginning to happen. CLIP Much more though http://www.ourfuture.org/ such as...

The 4.6% Truth: How Absurdly Small Stimulus Spending Really Is (2/9/09)
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009020709/46-truth-how-absurdly-small-stimulus-spending-really
(...) Now, as the debate over the economic stimulus has intensified, these same cons have simply updated their argument, insisting that our govt is too focused on spending money on social programs. But a look at the numbers shows just how idiotic that claim really is. Bloomberg News today reports that if/when the stimulus bill passes, the fed govt will, in sum, be on the hook for $9.7 trillion in total financial commitments to solve the economic crisis. Out of that, roughly $450 billion of that is the direct spending in the stimulus bill (58% of the $780 billion stimulus is spending - ie. $450 billion - while the other 42% is tax cuts). The rest is a mix of cash given to the banks (TARP money), FDIC guarantees for losses, and Fed Reserve Bank loans/swaps.In other words, out of the $9.7 trillion our govt is putting on the line to deal with the economic emergency, just 4.6% of it is actually being allocated to direct spending on social programs. The other 95.4% is going to either tax cuts (many of which tilt to the rich) or directly to the financial industry.

Job Losses Continue at Accelerated Pace (2/6/09)
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/02/job_losses_continue.html
Jan was a dismal month for US workers: Employers shed 598,000 jobs and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.6%. The economy has lost 3.6m jobs since the recession began in 12/07 and 1.8m jobs just over the past 3 mos. The US has not seen job losses of this magnitude over a 3-mo period since 1945. The spike in unemployment in Jan brings the total number of people out of work to 11.6m--4.1m more than a year ago. The unemployment rate has not risen this fast over a 3mo period since the recession of the early 1980s, and there have only been 2 mos since 1948 when there were more unemployed workers in the US, both during the recession of the early 1980s.

How Grim the Economic Downturn (2/7/09)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/020709b.html

Like the US, the nations of Europe are suffering from the dramatic drop-off in economic activity. Political economist Wm Engdahl says Italy is experiencing the worst economic crisis it has seen in 30 yrs, and the British economy is "falling off a cliff." But the European situation is "differentiated," depending on the exposure to the American toxic assets. In Europe, he says, "it is more an indirect knock-on effect of the US financial meltdown." He says the question now is whether the European Union is going to try and decouple its dependency on the US dollar and begin to form regional currency blocks like many nations around the world are starting to do.

Obama Meets Press, Nation Head On http://www.truthout.org/021009J

In his first press conference, Pres Barack Obama focused on the disintegrating economy and defended his plan for prompt and expansive spending by the fed govt to stem rising unemployment. Obama walked to the podium in the plush E Rm of the WH and spoke for 10 min before taking 50 min of questions from the press. He faced the American public in prime time and he faced the global economy. But his msg targeted the 535 members of the US Congress who control the govt ckbook.

The GOP's Jihad on Obama By Robert Parry (2/10/09) http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/021009.html

Only a few weeks into Barack Obama's presidency, a threatening political and media dynamic has rushed to the fore cutting short a very brief honeymoon. The Repubs and their rt-wing media allies are doing whatever they can to strangle the Obama phenomenon in its cradle; the mainstream media pundits are stressing the negative so they don't get called "in the tank for Obama"; and the Dems are shying away from holding the bush-cheney [regime] accountable for its crimes. None of these developments is particularly surprising. Indeed, they track closely to the political-media pattern that took shape the last time a young Dem won the WH, when Bill Clinton became President in 1993. (...) So far, however, the key difference-maker in the economic debate has been the President himself. Despite all the TV jibber-jabber about Obama's stumbles, he demonstrated his ability to reach past the Wash chatter and connect with an American public that, according to polls, wishes him well and desperately wants him to succeed. Obama's town-hall mtgs in the hard-hit communities of Elkhart IN, on Mon and Ft Myers FL, on Tue - awa his strong performance in a televised news conf on Mon night - left millions of Americans delighted to have a President who could both speak in paragraphs and cite down-home examples of how his stimulus package would help common folk. People in the audiences nodded at his explanations about money to winterize homes or to modernize schools or to build a 1st-class infrastructure. A refrain also kept popping up in questions, references to "for the 1st time in 8 yrs," an implicit contrast to bush's inarticulate oratory. Obama's speaking skill/personal charm may go a long way toward blunting repub hopes for a repeat of the nasty partisan fights of 1993-94 - which ended up with the GOP winning both chambers of Congress, rush limbaugh becoming an honorary member of the new House majority, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich launching his "Repub Revolution." But except for Obama's prodigious abilities--and an American public that may have lost its patience for some of the Wash gamesmanship--there are eerie parallels to the start of the last Dem presidency 16 yrs ago.

Oh but the American Public is VERY DIFFRENT NOW!
The CLinton era ushered in a lot of people focused on their "nest egg" playing the stock market etc. ( Aren't we clever?") They are now sadder & wiser & FURIOUS!
You can't get through to the Capital on the free line now, it is not just busy but the circuits are tied up. and when you break down and dial a toll call to the Congress person's DC office those lines are busy too. LAst week I dropped a dime to call Kyle's office in AZ, because the toll line to his DC office was busy.

Hahaha... yea, verily, qop. The public goes cheep. Cheep. CHEEP!! or is that cheap.

The USian "baby birding public" (which long should've grown up, becoming "wise as serpents & gentle as doves" [from the Old Religion donchaknow]) finally hatched out of their "nest eggs" & found there was nothing around but the broken shells. WhaddaRUDE awakening! Now they know how "the other" feels... perhaps.

Another plane crash, this time in London, England.

Ya'll will enjoy this quote

FDR on his political foes: "I welcome their hatred"

On the same day that House Republicans unanimously rejected President Obama's economic recovery plan, it's worth stepping back in time to recall FDR's words when confronted with the very same kind of partisan obstruction.

Excerpted from his 1936 campaign speech in Madison Square Garden, Roosevelt said "Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."

http://tinyurl.com/auohyq

I have got to get my article done...nutso week.

My posts are not getting through. this makes me feel weird. Is anyone else having trouble getting through?

So many plane crashes these days & so fewer people that could "talk"

* Buffalo crash kills 9/11 widow active in anti-terror work

Thur's upstate plane crash claimed 9/11 activist Beverly Eckert's life... http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-libeve1412459530feb14,0,7458182.story

No clymela.....but my e-mail sometimes fails to deliver to my SIL & ex-SIL, both in Fla.
No problem with any other location??????????

Clymela, what exactly happens? I know if I wait too long to send or go back and forth between this and other sites, my posts don't go through. What is happening to you?

"I welcome their hatred"? good shot FDR. That's a really funny one and perfect Morgana for the events of today.

The pundits are always mentioning the "code" words that the GOP uses for their base, words to rile up or confirm to their base that no matter what they said or did they would be true to their word to eliminate abortion, strengthen the NRA, conservative judges, tax cuts and their list goes on.

This is Obama's speech today in Springfield on the 200th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth. Please read it, particularly the last three or four paragraphs. Looks like code to me to the populist, progressive movement.

http://buzzflash.com/articles/node/7708

QOP your two senators Collins and Snowe are being hailed tonight as women of valor for breaking from the party. Maine looks pretty good tonight.

Now that I think of it qop, it seems to me that in the last six months to a year Maine has been "news" in one way or another. I don't remember quite so much attention being paid to your state, not that it isn't warrented or deserved, it's just that it seems to me people are talking about Maine for different reasons. I like that.

For anyone who admires and values the people who could and should actually be called our "forefathers" this will make you smile. Obama did not forget the Native American Indians

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8196294

Finally..........."As goes Maine so goes the Nation."
The old conservatives are dying off and running out of steam.............retiring Boomers, (the non greedy ones with the good value systems), are boosting the population, the military bases, have been closed.......Cutler, Winter Harbor, Naval , and , Brunswick; (bush) Loring, Airforce ( CLinton) *&$@# YOU Senators Collins & Snowe! MBNA credit card services pulled out..........despite their support...( voting FOR the bankruptcy bill)
and bleeding jobs in the state as a result. ( thanks george).
The most popular Presidential candidates Kucinich, Dean, Paul..................( not enough to sway the country but BIG here)......
AS I began work on the illustrations for the Machias Patriots last year, I wondered where was the "spirit of 1775", in the descendants of the brave 40 Patriots who captured the British ship & thus won the first naval battle of the revolutionary war. Cudos to the MD foundation who, made it possible to produce that book. It made an impact!
Small businesses , independant thinker jobs like fishing, and farming ( organic) are the engine of the state. Our brief flirtation with Corporate jobs such as MBNA,( home base WIlmington DE. ) is now leading to revelations in local newspapers of being forced to offer credit to people who shouldn't have it, in order to keep their jobs.
When I was collecting voter histories for the 50 states initiative, the 2 most speedy and well organized responses came from the 2 Indian Nations in the county! Yet the state, ( backed by Gov. Baldacci) keeps voting down the issue of having casinos there.
Perhaps "Black Eagle" will address that extremely cynical Senate vote ( from the 80's ?)to allow Native Americans to run gambling operations, illegal to others. What an AWFUL way to raise revenues!
Perhaps next the Senators will take up my suggestion that the Bath Iron Works, builders of battleships, might better pursue contracts to build cruise ships with the same skills &
equipment, although I don't think the world wide economic climate is ripe for constructing more of them right now.
Happy Valentine's Day all!

Sally, I woke up thinking that what is causing the problem is that I am posting while I do all the getting the family get off to school and work things and I go back and forth-I think that waiting so long to post alerts the security system. I guess I can always rely on our psychic connection but I find it hard to know fust who is talking.

Dickland's take on lottery:
"...would disproportionately hurt the poor and expand state government"
http://www.lotterypost.com/news/188980

this time I was "away" making coffee and soup for the boys so I just signed out and signed back in also the typos are from my hands which are all out of control the fingers roll on two keys etc.
Thank you for directing me to that speech. Oh my!he is beyond my wildest hope and too refined for this little mars rising in Taurus to get most of the time=I am still so angry after 30 years of being roasted in the anti-government philosophy which is nothing short of lawlessness-Clinton in the end had to give in or he was going yo be literally skinned alive as we know.
back to Obama I do better reading,listening to an analysis because he speaks from a higher understanding which includes those who disagree. I understand Roosevelt welcoming in the hatred-I am just slower.

Interesting Clemela, one thing I do if I am posting something that's taken me a while to write and I don't want to lose the material, I copy it before I send it, just in case I cannot get on and need to post it in another submission.

The Indians didn't have a ships log like Columbus, or a Mayflower or Jamestown so we don't know when they showed up in this country, but it's clear they were here before us. The Indians were here and established when Columbus arrived, there are Englishmen who traveled here in the 1600's and they wrote about the Indians, and by the way their civilization was in many respects beyond the Europeans, that's been written about and was recorded in their diary's. But we don't have an astrological signature for the Indians that were here and already living with a thriving community and economic system. There are hints somewhere in the dates they signed treaties with us and there are a few dates, but the treaties were never honored.

So, my point is, the Native American Indians were pivotal to the settlement of the colonies and to our Constitution and first they tried to live peaceably with the immigrants (the white man, us) then they tried to help us even fighting with us, then they tried negotiations, then they fought and finally gave in to the immigrants (us) and tried to live within our culture. By the time we moved west those indians were already ready for us and they fought harder, but it's the Indians in the East who were the piviotal point for the European and the settlement of the colonies.

So here the country is again, on the verge of the "native Europeans" being overrun by immigrants and we are trying to negotiate with them, we have become the "culture" of this country and we find ourselves at the beginning of the issues with which the Native American Indians struggled, in fact we are well into the same issues with immigrants pouring into the country, not really at the beginning.

The Europeans, much like the Mexicans and middle Easterners, lived under harsh conditions in Europe and wanted a new life, so we took over this country. Certainly many Hispanics trace their cultural roots to the Indians of this country. Our culture, our economic system, our way of life is being threatened and if history is any measure, we will be overrun by immigrants no matter how we fight or try to stop it. This country, the Europeans need to look back to the lessons of history, they won't but they should, in the US, the white man is the old order and Saturn/Uranus bespeaks of the old shifting for the new. I wonder if we will be able to shift into the new culture like the Native Americans did in the 1600's, 1700's, 1800's. And in another three hundred years will we end up on a reservation like the Native Americans have.

If we do I hope our descendents remember how to set up casinos.

I was stunned Clemela when in the last paragraph he said "there have been times when it seemed fascism would take over this country" or something to that effect. That's a direct code word for the populasts and progressives because that's what the progressives and liberals have been talking about the last 8 years and what was talked about in this country in the 30's as Hitler was rising and people in this country were supporting his fascism and that statement in his last paragraph says he is very aware of all that's gone on in the last 8 years. What is done about it is another question, but they are aware and the constant referrals to "the union" says he intends for a fascist government not to happen.

Sally-y techie spouse has told me over and over to do that I haven;t done it because I want to keep up the pretense of spontaneity. Well now I give in to keep from losing my real spontaneous thoughts.
Yes I am hoping that we do go beyond code words or that we can-the world is truly watching and we will not be safe if se don't have the courage of our constitution.

We've already BEEN living under a fascist gov't... nothing new there... if the definition holds true which I think it does. Fascism is corporatism that is the same as the gov't. Why worry about something coming when it's already been here & done that. They'll go underground for a short time while they assess their "take" then start up again. That's how they have their fun... their fun, not our fun. All bah humbug. And the americos insist on continuing in their freakin' dream land.

Yeh! All this sound and fury over how "unhealthy cigarettes are and how they drive up medical costs...................Think I could pull off a class action suit against the food companies that use high fructose corn syrup?

Just a reminder: March 19, 09 is close. Martin Armstrong, perhaps the best business cycle timer of all time, tells us this date will be the next big leg down in the market. I'm not market wise enough to know what will drop. The FED hopes to stop the dollar demise at dx .52. The bond market is more than fragile, I read. Whatever happens it won't hurt to have an extra can of beans and a box of oatmeal. OMG, don't forget coffee!........According to Armstrong the US is at the end of its political cycle; which I'd say aligns with Sally's rebirth of the nation in 2012. Hi Sally!.........Pluto is tearing things down just fine, but I wonder what Chiron has to advise. It takes a breakdown (PLUTO) to make a breakthrough (Chiron).

There are inspirations out there. I believe we are on the cusp of the end of making things with our hands and the beginning of making things with our minds. Recently I did some of my best work as a REIKI Master. A friend undergoing chemo had such terrible confusion from it, she would awaken in the morning not knowing what steps to follow to relieve her bowels. I placed a virtual mind clearing device in her crown chakra to open when she was confused. It worked like a charm. I did have to renew it weekly......So take heart, there is real transcendence filtering through our mindspace. Politics won't be immune to it.

Hi TimmyJ.

Are any of you old enough to remember the song "This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius"?

Well, this morning at dawn, the Moon was in the 7th house and Jupiter was aligned with Mars. Saw that this morning, and then tonight a friend of mine sent me this article. "When the Moon is in the 7th House" refers to the Moon in Libra and I suspect strictly speaking in astrological terms Mars and Jupiter would be in Aries since that is Mars ruling planet and it would be a Jupiter alignment, still this is a fun and interesting article

http://www.judecurrivan.com/media-articles/articles/the-aquarian-alignment-14th-february-2009/

By the way in April 2011 Jupiter and Mars do align in Aries and the Moon will be in Libra that month.

By the way, there is so much aquarian energy around with six planets plus the north node in Aquarius, a few of them have been inconj. Saturn. Uranus rules Aquarius and Saturn co-rules and they are in opposition. I don't know about your part of the world but folks have been a bit ticked off about something and they don't know what, really grumpy, not too conducive to love in these parts. Be careful with knives, driving, thunder storms and generally the unexpected over the next few days there is a ton of electrical energy out there right now.

Almost forgot the same set up was there in the summer of 1998

Sally, I'm 54 going on eternity. I do love that song. I'll have to read the article later as I'm getting this in on a break at work........Yes, I'm wondering about that cluster of planets/stellium. This year my solar arc moon is squaring my ASC. The stellium is in my 4th house. When Jupiter hits 13* it opposes my Midhaven. I think that may trigger the solar arc moon. I've fallen behind on my astro studies and intuition, so we shall see......I shall be careful the next few days, and thanks.

Sally............"If we do I hope our descendents remember how to set up casinos."
I wanted to respond but the article I have is a hard copy Smithsonian Magazine from the mid-90's.
This Phila Inq article covers the same ground, including that the loan bankers for the casino's are Malaysans.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20090215_The_chips_are_down_for_casino-owning_tribe.html?page=1&c=y
TimmyJ I think we still need things made by hand to support things made by the mind. vesse;s tp hold out food, clothing, blankets...........a return to the crafting fad of the 60's I think is inevitable ( Joann Fabrics, & Walmart eu, eu, but they have bumped the others in the community!) are experiencing a surge in sales.

vesse;s tp hold out food should read
"vessels to hold our food!"

Wonderful Mark Morford...

* Eat the rich - Politicians? Lawyers? Not anymore. Time to loathe the *real* American monsters

Call it the backlash against the recoil against the collapse. Call it the completely natural response to the downward-spiraling times, tho that seems a bit feeble and pansy-assed and not at all in alignment with the general attitude of raging seethingosity.

Call it, then, the death of all we once held dear, if what you held dear consisted of 7 McMansions and 3 trophy wives and 5 revolving psychiatrists and 4 personal trainers and regular spa treatments for the Wheaten terriers, along with blatantly rubbing your aging genitalia against the stiff leather of your fleet of Porsche Cayenne Turbos after drunkenly nailing your mistress in your corner office at Goldman Sachs. Ahh yes, that's more like it.

Whatever you call it, there's a bitter tang in the air, a nasty streak of anti-Everythingism, a collective bullet of disgust and frustration that's most violently aimed at the most precious American commodity of all: the rich, the overly entitled, the uberwealthy, the manicured bankers and CEOs and Wall St cash jockeys we used to cherish like royalty but who now smell vaguely of death and foreclosure and Bernie Madoff. ... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/02/11/notes021109.DTL

WhaddaHOOT!!!

* It’s the Economy, Girlfriend

The economic crisis came home to 27 y/o Megan Petrus early last year when her boyfriend of 8 mos, a derivatives trader for a major bank, proved to be more concerned about helping a laid-off colleague than comforting Ms Petrus after her father had a heart attack.

For Christine Cameron, the recession became real when the financial analyst she had been dating for about a year would get drunk and disappear while they were out together, then accuse her the next day of being the one who had absconded.

Dawn Spinner Davis, 26, a beauty writer, said the downward-trending graphs began to make sense when the man she married on 11/1, a 28 y/o private wealth mgr, stopped playing golf, once his passion. “One of his best friends told me that my job is now to keep him calm and keep him from dying at the age of 35,” Ms Davis said. “It’s not what I signed up for.”

They shared their sad stories the other night at an informal gathering of Dating a Banker Anonymous, a support group founded in Nov to help women cope with the inevitable relationship fallout from, say, the collapse of Lehman Brothers or the Dow’s shedding 777 pts in a single day, as it did on 9/29. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/nyregion/28daba.html?_r=1

I just found this over on Nancy's blog s Starlightnews....................................
David Wilcox has suspicions too, for what it’s worth. He make the suggestion that Beverly Eckert
and Des Forges were possibly traveling together.

http://divinecosmos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=428&Itemid=70
let’s review these potentially manufactured disasters:

1. The possible assassination of Brown’s mother to pull him out of Congress when his vote was needed, potentially blocking his access to aircraft so he couldn’t vote, requiring unusual intervention to get him there;

2. The satellite collision this week as a possible threat to Russia — an act of war within secret circles, giving them a ‘friendly reminder’ of what else might happen if they pursue the defeat of the New World Order;

3. The fiery crash of a plane in Buffalo carrying two major political activists with demonstrated, very real power to bring down the New World Order. Forcing Brown onto a government plane in order to cast his swing vote against the elite (number 1) could thus be seen as another ‘hint’ that any NWO resisters could be taken down in similar ‘manufactured’ crashes and mishaps...............................
C-SPAN footage of Ron Paul and other Representatives ripping apart the Federal Reserve right in the middle of Congress might help:
This is not Business as Usual, dear friends. Believe it. This administration is not the same-old-same-old. Obama and cohorts have stepped up to attack the biggest threats to human sovereignty and freedom on this planet at a near-miraculous speed — far better and faster than we had even anticipated.
.................................................
We may even see our economy revert from Federal Reserve Notes — printed by private bankers contracted by our government with no real oversight, as this three-hour C-SPAN hearing reveals within the first few minutes — to Treasury Notes, as described in the Constitution......................................
This certainly does go along with the idea of everything spilling out in the daylight according to planetary action!

Ohmygoodness, qop! Very very interesting!! Some of those we've put together, I think, but this wins the prize!

I don't think this got through but earlier I wrote that even with all the shock I have felt this week what with satelites crashing and planes crashing and lawmakers scrambling I have also felt the newest type of love and peace that can even quiet this little mars rising girl. I still get very excited but for the first time I saw the truth in saying that "they just don't know better". My commuter partner is so young and he really understands that we are all in this together.
I also realize as I have said over and over that these dudes are not going to just walk away they bet the farm they can't-nbot only are they headed to prison but their families will lose the comforts they have counted on.

I feel more confident when I no longer see lockhead martin commercials on CNN!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/carolduhart

Check out my radio page.

In one of my last columns of 2008 I said that by 2012 the disparity between the rich and the poor would be lessening, not that they would have too much less money or the resources to find it, but that our belief in their omnipetence and superior intelligence would be gone, and that there would be truth upon truth spilling out, this is coming true beyond my wildest dreams.

My daughter has been dating a hot shot stock broker from Merrill Lynch for the last three years and oh my how he and his friends have gone from believing they were and could be the masters of the universe to eating humble pie. I don't take pleasure in their frantic search for work or to cover their massive losses but I am happy to see them wake up and take a look at how they really are part of the rest of the universe with a new appreciation of their family and friends.

Ah well, Miss Sally... the same phenomena happened to the medical docs & others which I can't think of right now, yes? Over & over & over again. I wish we, as a pink collective, would just get over ourselves. Then mebbe we could really start learning something. We haven't even started learning about our real potential... too busy playing ultimate god.

There's a film that's always stuck in my head... about a superrich bidness blockhead that was musing while looking out of the window of his superhighrise office... down at the "scurring 'masses'"... how he could squash all of them with a snap of his fingers (or something like that). He went from his office to his copter right outside his office, & never had to mix with the "common folk." He was crazier than a bedbug that'd smelled a warm body. Don't remember the name of the film but it sure left an impression.

The Old Testament story about the Tower of Babble probably is teaching something along those lines... get dissociated enuf from one's fellows (having no feedback) & one goes nuts... at least the ones in highrises. ;O)

This was, however, no isolated case. For months, similar cases have been found across Germany, all involving bits of metal contaminated with radioactive cobalt. And most of them come from the same source: three steelworks in India, in particular a company called Vipras Casting, based in Mumbai. Germany's environmental authorities are alarmed.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,607840,00.html#ref=nlint

Wow, Carol...that radio blog is really cool! All this Aquarius action has made you go live on the air.

I get a kick out of France & wish more power to them...

* IT COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE ... Could It?

PARIS--Most Americans don't care what happens in France. But the oldest country in "Old Europe" remains the Western world's intellectual capital and one of its primary originators of political trends.

The French are reacting to a situation almost identical to ours--economic collapse, govt impotence, corpo corruption--by turning hard left. Nat'l strikes and massive demonstrations are occurring every few weeks. How far left? This far: the late president François Mitterand's Socialist Party, the rough equivalent of America's Greens, is considered too conservative to solve the economic crisis.

A new poll by the Parisian daily Libération finds 53% of French voters (68% of 18-24 y/o) favoring "radical social change." 57% want France to insulate itself from the global economic system. Does this mean revolution? It's certainly possible. Or maybe counter-revolution: Jean-Marie Le Pen's nativist (some would say neofascist) Nat'l Front is also picking up points.

One thing is certain: French politics are even more volatile than the financial mkts these days. In yet another indication of How Far Left?, the Communist-aligned CGT labor union is on the defensive for not being militant enough. "We're not going to put out the blazing fires [of the economic crisis]," the CGT's secretary gen said, trying to seize the initiative by calling for another strike on 2/18. "We're going to fan them." ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20090212/cm_ucru/itcouldnthappenhere

Pres looks ANNOYED today! In Denver at stim signing.
Rick Sanchez twitter messages are sharing the
screen.??????/

Rove is going to have a rough ride very, very soon. His Sun at 3 Cap., Saturn and 2 Libra, Uranus at 4 Cancer. Nodes at 21 of Pices and Virgo, AND the recent eclipse at 7 Aquarius right on his natal Mars in an intercepted Aquarius in his chart! Too bad his Jupiter trines or sextiles some of these points (Jupter at 4 Pices).

On the silly side!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ries/fat-barbie-6y

Hello????????

Hi qop,
Fat Barbie,what a hoot. Maybe they'll come up with a healthy Barbie, not skinny nor obese, just normal.

Oh, fat skinny chance, Seestas. ;O)

From the silly to the sublime.............
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/geronimos-descendants-sue_n_168082.html
HARTFORD, Conn. — Geronimo's descendants have sued Skull and Bones _ the secret society at Yale University linked to presidents and other powerful figures _ claiming that its members stole the remains of the legendary Apache leader decades ago and have kept them ever since.

* When tax revenues fall and expenses rise, the fed govt can operate with deficits. State and local govt are required by law to balance their budget. That means complying with expensive fed
mandates is ever more painful, particularly while officials watch trillions go to bankers, instead of to real solutions.

States vs Feds http://solari.com/blog/?p=2127

* Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times by Clarissa Pinkola Estés http://www.mavenproductions.com/esteswindow4.html

You know there is just so much BS flying from the chattering class. The greed by so many and the hatred of those who would help the helpless is staggering to me. The CNBC guy feeding the lust of the traders/traitors at Chicago Merc, people hating that their neighbor may get a break on a bad mortgage or save their house. The lack of compassion so reeks of a civilization in decay.

Man oh man what times we are living in. So much filth being revealed. The whole illusion of what we thought (collectively) we were, to seeing what is really beneath the surface.

Who will carry on the legacy of dairy farming in Maine?
As owners get too old to upgrade their property, younger potential buyers can’t find the copious funding needed to take over....................
http://www.bangornews.com/detail/99883.html

THIS new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier........................
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20waters.html?th&emc=th