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Starcats: The Survivor Series!
December 29, 2003
 Bush-Cheney Crisis -- Jim Shawvan is onto something! See his "Crisis Before the Ides of December, 2003?" below!
While the Democratic candidates battle for the presidential nomination in the first half of next year, Republicans will face a difficult choice of their own.
No, it will not be for the presidential nomination, which George W. Bush – adding daily to his unprecedented campaign war chest by hopscotching to various gold-plated fund-raisers – has already sewn up.
Rather, the main battle is likely to be over the Number Two spot, specifically over whether Vice President Dick Cheney will be on the ticket.
Officially, all systems are "go" for a Bush-Cheney rerun. Indeed, you can already see "Bush-Cheney" bumper stickers on the enormous vehicles that rumble through the capital's streets.
And in a nationally broadcast television interview last week, Bush himself insisted that, while all cabinet positions are wide open if he wins a second term, Cheney will be the man whose arm he will grasp high over his head at the conclusion of this summer's Republican National Convention in New York, where the ticket is to be formally decided.
But even that has not quashed continuing speculation that Cheney has a large bull's-eye on his back, painted there by Republican "realists," who largely controlled the party through most of the Cold War.
For them, Cheney has become a major liability, not only to Bush's reelection chances, but – as the leader of the administration's imperialist faction with the greatest direct influence on Bush himself – to U.S. economic and strategic interests abroad as well.
Within the administration, the realists are led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who remains by far the most popular cabinet official. More important players, however, are outside the administration, albeit well within the Bush family circle.
They include top officials of the first Bush administration, including former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who chairs Bush Jr.'s president's foreign intelligence advisory board, and former secretary of state James Baker, who just moved back into the White House as Jr.'s personal envoy charged with persuading Iraq's creditors to forgive tens of billions of dollars of that country's foreign debt.
They also include the former president himself, according to knowledgeable sources who say he has encouraged both Scowcroft and Baker – as well as other prominent foreign-policy Republicans like Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel – to try to get Cheney dumped from the ticket next year.
Cheney, of course, served as Bush Sr.'s defense secretary. In that capacity he clashed frequently with Scowcroft and Baker on key issues, particularly how to deal with then-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev – he remained distrustful to the end – and on US reliance on multilateral institutions like the United Nations.
While the others favored continuity with what is sometimes called a US "hegemony" strategy, where Washington pursues its foreign policy in close consultation with its traditional allies and through multilateral mechanisms, even while acting as the ultimate guarantor of global peace and stability, Cheney leaned more to a unilateralist and frankly imperialist course.
He was urged by then-undersecretary of defense, now deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, and then-Wolfowitz's chief deputy, now the vice president's powerful chief of staff and national security adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
A growing number of analysts have come to see Cheney as the key administration figure in moving the United States to war with Iraq, even sanctioning what Newsweek recently referred to as a "parallel government" that circumvented normal policy-making and intelligence channels to persuade Bush to take unilateral action.
Without Cheney running interference for them, according to this view, the neo-cons and other hawks, will quickly be marginalized in a second Bush term.
While the invasion's quick success boosted Cheney's influence, as well as that of the neo-conservatives in his office and around Rumsfeld, the botch-up of the postwar occupation – brought home to the public in the steadily rising number of US casualties – created a major opening for the "realists" this autumn, particularly as Bush's poll numbers began falling precipitously, and his top political aide, Karl Rove, sensed disaster.
It was at this time that the administration began wooing Baker to become Bush's personal envoy and that the national security council, under Bush Sr.'s former Soviet specialist Robert Blackwill, began taking more authority for both making and coordinating foreign policy – particularly in Iraq – largely at the Pentagon's expense.
Shortly after, a series of articles began appearing in the mainstream press questioning Cheney's role in preparing the way to Iraq.
In addition to a Newsweek cover story that noted Cheney's views on the war on terrorism "seem to be shaped by flaky ideologues," a lengthy story in The New Republic, another influential Washington publication, detailed many of his more "far-out" views.
Those included his refusal to accept the painstaking findings of US intelligence agencies that Saddam Hussein did not have a role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center or that an Iraqi intelligence agent had not met with one of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Prague five months before the attacks.
On Capitol Hill, Cheney, as Bush's chief legislative strategist, was having an increasingly difficult time shepherding key legislation, including his pet energy bill, through Congress, while reports of overcharging in Iraq by Halliburton, the construction company that he headed in the 1990s and in which he retains a financial interest, prompted even loyal Republicans to speak out for an investigation.
"Cheney's own actions have made him an unusually inviting target," noted a November Los Angeles Times article, which argued that Cheney's failures and his ties to Halliburton were fueling doubts among Republican lawmakers.
"Cheney may prove to be a bigger domestic liability to Bush than he is a foreign-policy burden," the authors wrote.
To the little extent he appears in public, Cheney displays no doubts about his past role or his future. And this month's capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Libya's agreement to dismantle certain weapons programs – both followed by significant jumps in Bush's poll standings – are being depicted as vindication for the hawks.
Moreover, unlike Rumsfeld, whose wartime cockiness has given way to a more subdued manner in recent months, Cheney remains a picture of confidence – and has even hired new staff whose policy views, particularly vis-à-vis "reshaping the Middle East," are clearly on the far-right fringe.
Indeed, violating an informal administration ban on using the word "empire" to describe US policy, Cheney sent out thousands of Christmas cards this year that included a quotation from Benjamin Franklin suggesting that God supports the administration's imperial aims.
"And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" asked the Cheney family's season's greetings. Antiwar.com 12/27/03.
Bush and Cheney -- Crisis Before the Ides of December, 2003?
November 4, 2003
Bush and Cheney -- Crisis Before the Ides of December, 2003? by Jim Shawvan
On Sunday, Oct. 12, 2003, I took part in a panel discussion titled "Political Future: USA and the World" at the ISAR Conference in Anaheim, California. ISAR is the International Society for Astrological Research, and their web site is Isar Astrology -- on which site you can find two highly technical articles by Marguerite Dar Boggia (written in about 2001) regarding the stress that George W. Bush will be under in October and November of 2003. In preparation for the panel, I had reread these articles, and they had aroused my curiosity. I decided to look at Cheney's chart as well as Bush's.
As a panelist, I had just three minutes to show the audience of about four hundred astrologers that there is a serious possibility that Cheney might become president around Dec. 10, 2003, give or take a few days. Of course, there are other possible interpretations of the data, but both Cheney's chart and Bush's chart are lit up like neon signs during that period, most intensely around that date.
After three minutes were up, when I still had an alternate interpretation to offer, the audience demanded to hear it, much to my surprise. I offered as an alternate possibility that "Cheney might die at that time, leaving Bush without anyone to tell him what to do -- for about five minutes, until Wolfowitz comes over and knocks on his door."
Since then, I have become aware of an article on From The Wilderness which suggests yet another possibility -- namely that Cheney might be forced to resign, as Agnew was forced to do during the Nixon administration. Michael C. Ruppert, the author, believes that the CIA has already decided to get both Bush and Cheney out of office. Time will tell whether he's right.
Birth data for Bush and Cheney
George W. Bush was born at 7:26 am EDT on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, CT, according to birth record data (Rodden Rating AA) quoted on the Astrodatabank web site.
Richard B. Cheney was born at 7:30 pm CST on Jan. 30, 1941, in Lincoln, NE, according to a news story quoting birth certificate data (Rodden Rating A) and referred to on the same site.
Techniques used here: transits and three kinds of progressions (symbolic movements)
Transits are the positions of the actual planets in the sky at any given time, or their real movements through the sky.
Minor progressions equate one lunar month in transit with one year in a person's life, starting from birth. Minors are roughly 13.3 times slower than transits.
Tertiary progressions equate one day in transit with one lunar month in a person's life, starting from birth. Tertiaries are roughly 27.3 times slower than transits.
Secondary progressions (sometimes called major progressions) equate one day in transit with one year in a person's life, starting from birth. Secondaries are roughly 365 times slower than transits.
Bush's Uranus is receiving multiple afflictions in the second week of December 2003
At the time of the Full Moon on Dec. 8, 2003, one single planet in Bush's natal chart will be receiving multiple exact hard aspects in three different forms of progression as well as in transit. The probability of this happening is almost infinitesimally small. The "target" planet is his Uranus, which represents the ways in which he is different from his contemporaries, and where he might be drawn to groups with unusual goals. Uranus was conjunct the Moon's North Node at his birth, showing that Uranus represents a major direction of movement for him in this incarnation. His Uranus is in his 11th house of friends, hopes, wishes and goals, and it is the modern ruler of his 7th house of partners (and open enemies). In two widely-used house systems (Placidus and Regiomontanus), it is also the modern ruler of his 8th house, which is traditionally the "House of Death" -- but which more commonly refers to wealth coming from others, such as inheritances. The 8th house also has to do with brushes with death, as well as deep psychological issues and the process of psychological healing (for people who are ready to deal with that level of depth).
Bush's natal Uranus, on Dec. 8, 2003, will be receiving oppositions from his tertiary progressed Jupiter, his minor progressed Mars and Chiron, and transiting Pluto -- as well as a quincunx from his tertiary progressed Chiron. It will be squared by his minor progressed Moon (the fastest- moving body in any form of progression, at about one degree per day, and hence an excellent timer). Within hours after the Full Moon on that date, the transiting Moon will conjoin his natal Uranus, and within two or three days, the transiting Sun will oppose it.
In Bush's secondary progressed chart, if one calculates the Midheaven by the very popular Solar Arc method, that Midheaven is conjoining his natal Uranus throughout the current period. However, if one uses the Mean Quotidian method, in which the progressed Midheaven makes a complete circle through the zodiac in just under a year (just as the transiting Midheaven does in just under a day), then on the morning of Dec. 10, 2003, we have the following:
-- Secondary progressed Saturn (frustration, blockage) is on the quotidian 7th-house cusp
(7th: partners, open enemies);
-- Secondary progressed Sun (the ego, vitality) is conjunct natal Mars (aggression, violence, assertiveness) on the quotidian 8th-house cusp in the Koch house system (8th: death, inheritances, brushes with death, deep psychological issues);
-- Secondary progressed Chiron (a wound, or the healing process) is on the quotidian 9th-house cusp in the Koch house system (9th: travel, foreign countries). Note that Bush is scheduled to be at a major international conference at this time.
The aspects made by the quotidian secondary progressed cusps last for only about two days, maximum.
Cheney's Mars is receiving multiple afflictions at the same time
On Dec. 8, 2003, one single planet in Cheney's natal chart will also be receiving multiple exact hard aspects in two different forms of progression as well as in transit. The probability of this happening is tiny -- and the probability that two individuals as closely involved as Cheney and Bush will have this happening by chance at the same time is unimaginably small. For Cheney, the "target" planet is his natal Mars, representing energy, drive, violence, and forcefulness, among other things. Mars is in his 4th house (home, personal life, private space) and it rules his 8th house (death, inheritances, brushes with death, deep psychological issues).
Cheney's natal Mars, on Dec. 8, will be conjoined by his tertiary progressed Moon and by the transiting Sun. It will be receiving oppositions from his minor progressed Uranus and from the transiting Moon, as well as a square from transiting Jupiter, and a quincunx from transiting Chiron (slightly wide but applying).
In Cheney's secondary progressed chart, if one calculates the Midheaven by the Solar Arc method, that Midheaven opposes his secondary progressed Mars throughout the current period. However, if one uses the Mean Quotidian method, in which the progressed Midheaven makes a complete circle through the zodiac in just under a year, then on the morning of Dec. 10, 2003, he has secondary progressed Venus on the quotidian 8th-house cusp in the Koch house system (8th: death, inheritances, brushes with death, deep psychological issues).
Also, about three days later, Cheney will have his secondary progressed Sun on the quotidian 8th-house cusp, in the Koch house system.
For serious students of astrology
For the serious astrologers among our readers, to see what's going on, run the following:
-- For George W. Bush, a four-ring chart with natal, true tertiaries, minors and transits for the time of the Full Moon on Dec. 8, 2003;
-- For Cheney, the same;
-- For each of them, a secondary progressed chart for Dec. 10, 2003, 0h EST, for the birthplace, using Koch houses. This could be a single wheel chart, so that you can see the progressed cusps. Alternatively, you can do it as a two-ring chart with the progressed chart in the center determining the cusps, and the natal in the outer ring.
I ran the secondary progressed charts using MC by Solar Arc and MC by Naibod as well as Mean Quotidian (Koch). For the Mean Quotidian charts, I used Progressed Day Length Q2 (Standard = Mean Solar Day). The Mean Quotidian method of progressing the Midheaven is by far the most revealing, since the cusps change daily (roughly a degree on the MC), but even the other two methods reinforce the issues shown by the four-ring charts.
Email Starcats -- November 4, 2003
"The arc of the universe is long, but it always bends toward justice." - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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