Last night, a measure authored by Duncan Hunter which called for the immediate termination of U.S. forces in Iraq, was voted on twice by the House of Representatives and was soundly defeated on the second vote. Hunter was apparently inspired to author the bill after hearing of a speech given by Representative Murtha.
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GAO Document Summary

“According to the election officials surveyed, about 423,000 provisional ballots were cast in 13 of the 14 jurisdictions, and 70 percent of those votes were counted. Also, 8 of the 14 jurisdictions reported challenges implementing provisional voting, in part, because some poll workers were not familiar with provisional voting or staff did not have sufficient time to process provisional ballots.”

GAO Full Report

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Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel to the Grand Jury, has indicted I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States on multiple charges. Here’s the PDF indictment.

The charges are: Obstruction of Justice, two charges of False Statement, and two charges of Perjury.

It is a bittersweet day when deception and deceit is officially alleged to be found in one of the closest advisors to the Vice President of the United States and consequently within the White House.

If this charge is true, then what other lies have the citizens of the United States been told? If a high Executive Branch official is brazen enough to make false statements to the Grand Jury under oath, then what other false statements have been made to reporters, and hence to citizens, over the years?

Is there a relationship between the Salton Sea earthquake swarm near Obsidian Butte and the hurricane Katrina of 2005? Astrology says maybe.

First I decided to check Google to (hopefully) determine whether science makes any claims of relationship between terrestrial magnetism and earthquakes, hurricanes, or weather.
weather “terrestrial magnetism” earthquake “terrestrial magnetism” hurricane “terrestrial magnetism”

While I found no absolute yes or no answers in the few results I checked above, I found it interesting that some of the same sites tended to display in each search result.

My attention was drawn to the swarm of earthquakes that occurred at Obsidian Butte near the Salton Sea of California, and I noted the concentrated earthquake series started during Katrina on Aug 28, 2005. It’s ‘out there’ in concept, but whether the answer is yes, no, or maybe to the question posed in the title, it appears there is an astrological relationship between them.

I’ve checked some of the earthquake times and there are mundane angles running through Louisiana in many of them. The data for the first quake of the swarm beginning on the 28th: 2005/08/28 23:19:52 33.183N 115.596W 1.2 4 km ENE of Obsidian Butte, CA Source: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/116-33_full.html (data older than one week not shown.) There was at least one Obsidian Butte quake prior to this after Katrina had been identified, but I chose the 28th as the first in an unbroken serial sequence that lasted through the 29th.

Here’s the AstroClick Travel map for that moment, the earthquake’s PDT has been converted to CDT by adding two hours. Astrodienst’s maps make use of cookies, therefore, it’s possible these maps may not be viewable by all. If you cannot see the map, you might try creating a login ID at their site and try clicking on the link above again.

What the map shows astrologically is a line representing the geographical locale where Pluto conjuncts the Descendant, and that line runs either right through or very close to New Orleans. Also, slightly to the west is the Uranus conjunct MC (midheaven) line.

This time is about 5 hours before the storm is reported to have hit the coast. There are 21 other Obsidian Butte earthquake times that curiously, of the several I’ve checked, have various mundane angle hits near Louisiana.

Another AstroClick Travel map for the time Katrina first hit the Louisiana coastline as reported by WDSU timeline: 5:34 a.m.: Katrina Makes Landfall.

This maps shows a line representing Chiron conjuncting the DS (descendant) running through the Salton Sea area. It also shows another line representing Mars conjunct MC (midheaven) slightly west of New Orleans, approximately bisecting the state of Louisiana.

In summary, the time of the first Obsidian Butte earthquake swarm shows astrological mundane angle (AS, MC, DS, IC) relationships to New Orleans, Louisiana: the time of Katrina first hitting the Gulf Coast states shows mundange angle relationships to both the Salton Sea (Obsidian Butte) and Louisiana.

I really don’t know what to make of it, other than forming the question regarding correlation posed in this article’s title.

Please note this article will be undergoing some edits and additions as time allows: this is a rough draft. I will try to put some standard astrological charts up in this article that will show the same angular relationships as the astromaps (astrocartography), but they won’t be overlaid on a geo-graph because I don’t have the necessary software.

(click on image for larger graphic. Image source: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/116-33_full.html )

The above image was captured on Sept 1, 2005.

“Officials with the USGS said that a geothermal plant in the area may be the cause of the temblors, because when water is re-injected back into the ground, it can cause the earth to shake. San Diego State University geology professor Pat Abbott said that what is taking place in Imperial County is not a common occurrence. “It happens — not on a regular basis, but certainly every decade anyway, there’s big earthquake swarms,” said Abbott.”

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According to a Justice Department press release, KPMG LLC, the US member firm of KPMG International, a major international accounting and consulting firm, has agreed to pay $465 million in fines, restitution, and penalties, the result of tax evasion and shelters that cost the United States $2.5 billion in taxes not received.

How does this settlement deter future corporate fraud? If I said to you, “I’ll give you change for $1.00 if you give me $5.00,” would you be dim enough to take the deal? The actual figures were $465 million in exchange for $2.5 billion.

Shades of Enron and Arthur Anderson? When does the pattern of Robber Baron behavior consume all corporations? Is the corporate structure itself the problem?

CEO Timothy P. Flynn, in a PDF file says: “The resolution of this matter allows KPMG to confidently face the future as we provide high quality audit, tax and advisory services to our large multinational, middle market and government clients.”

In an unrelated(?) news item of the day, the Small Business Administration has reported that 23% of federal contracts awarded were to small business, but according to the Small Business League, this is likely not true.

“The latest SBA small business statistics ignore the findings of seven separate government investigations and two private studies that have all concluded the SBA has dramatically overstated the governments true level of contracts with small businesses by reporting billions in awards to many of the largest firms in the country as small business awards.”

One of the reasons given for the awarding of contracts to some of the largest U.S. firms is reported by the SBA to be “vendor deception.” The American Small Business League needed a court ruling upholding a FOIA request in order to obtain this information.

“What is in this report that the SBA doesn’t want the public to know?” asked Lloyd Chapman, president of the ASBL. “Instead of spending six months in court trying to suppress evidence, the SBA should be working to stop big corporations from stealing small business contracts.”

Well, now we know: Corporatist Crime still Pays

A new planet has been discovered by astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology that’s larger than Pluto. It must be exciting to discover a planet. I mentioned it in a prior post.

Astrologers are going to have some issues with using this planet in their practice. With UB313’s declination of about +/- 45 degrees (!), the planet will only pass through some of the typical zodiacal signs at nodal points +/- some number of threshold declination degrees. Will these nodal points themselves cycle through the zodiacal signs? Probably, but I don’t know right now at what periodicity or cyclical pattern that nodal movement might follow, and the nodal points are not the same as planetary location except for the briefest of time periods. I’m sure programmers of astrological software will include the planet in new versions shortly, but there are technical matters that I hope they consider, one of which is inclusion of all planets nodal points and apside line placements.

As an mental illustration, what movement would happen in the typical astrological chart if a ‘hypothetical’ planet is discovered that has an declination of +/- 90 degrees and its movement is to be viewed in a natal chart display? Let’s further stipulate that with this hypothetical there will be no nodal movement through zodiacal signs. In this case, planetary movement would appear solely digital! In other words, no movement on the standard astrological chart would occur over time until the planets orbital path passed through a line defined by its perpendicularity to the ecliptic plane and drawn through the Sun. Once that orbital path conjuncted the perpendicular line, either north or south of the Sun, then the chart symbol would “jump” to some point on the opposite side of the same chart, and remain there until it passed through the opposite solar side of the north-south line. This would mean that the traditional zodiacal assignment would only be accurate in sidereal for a small amount of time when the planet is near the nodes—the planet’s orbital intersection points with the ecliptic plane.

While the reported 45-degree inclination of 2003UB313 is less than 90-degrees, the same type of synthetic chart phenomenon would still occur, but less severely. Therefore, its my current thinking, that if any typical zodiac such as Western tropical or sidereal is applied to this planet throughout most of its travel on a 2-dimensional representation such as a typical natal chart, most of the time zodiacal assignment will be wrong for the new planet, and the best that could be said is that it would be a synthetic assignment without much basis in background star influence except for the briefest of periods when it’s near one of the two ecliptic intersection nodes. Continuing to use old technical methods of astrology with this new planet will hide its truth to all but a few astrologers, and the same might be said of Pluto, as well.

Here are some illustrations, courtesy of JPL’s java applet. You may click on any of the images to see a larger version.

This first graphic shows Saturn through 2003UB313 and their orbital paths with Saturn’s orbit closest to the Sun or central point. The Sun is represented with a red dot and with a yellow north line and z-axis anchor.

In this next graphic I’ve rotated the representation to show the ecliptic plane as if one was looking at a plate on a table with one’s horizontal view positioned at the table’s top edge. In this and the next grapic, the perspective causes the ecliptic plane to appear as a horizontal line. In this graphic Pluto’s orbital path also appears as a line, the angular difference between the two planes is one way of conceptualizing declination.

In this graphic I’ve rotated the perspective so that 2003UB313 orbital path and the ecliptic are both viewed as lines, and Pluto’s orbit is circular. The new planet’s steep declination versus all other planets’ paths is quite visible, and it appears close to 45 degrees as measured against the ecliptic plane.

It should now be easy to visually understand why the new planet will not travel through the typical background constellations or zodiac signs, except at the nodal points where it’s path intersects with the ecliptic plane. Shouldn’t this create a large interpretive error for astrologers who will say that it travels through each one of the ‘typical’ or popular zodiacal constellations?

Another interpretive point of consideration is that when 2003UB313 is at steep + or – declination, how will astrologers ever be able to honestly say it’s conjuncting one of the more inward planets? At this point of declination, + or – 45 degrees approximately, a conjunction with another planet of 0 declination would at best be a semi-square, which curiously would change its aspectual ease or difficulty, wouldn’t it? There’s a similar issue with Pluto, but it’s also not as pronounced as it will be with this new planet.

Following this reasoning, and making the assumption that half of 2003UB313’s stated orbital period is a close approximation, then traditional zodiacal effects such as traditional aspects to it would imply they will only occur for relatively short periods of time and at a mean bisected-cycle of approximately 278 years (557/2). Because of the typical elongation of the apside line axis relative to the nodal axis, and the faster planetary velocity at perigee than at apogee, this crude average approximation is no doubt off by some amount. Further, if considering that there is likely movement of nodal points through the zodiac, then for interpretation, researching any historical (or real time) effects during 2003UB313s conjunction to its nodes will have changing zodiacal interpretive qualities at each period of nodal intersection with each return.

As far as I know, no astrological program graphically plots all planets’ nodal points, or apse line, but then I don’t have any of the latest and greatest commercial programs. Most do plot the Moon’s nodes and some plot the associated focal point of Lilith. Perhaps Astrolabe’s NOVA did plot these phenomenon, but I never had access to that program to play with, it was too expensive for me at a time way back when, when I was actively interested in such things :(. It’s an area for astrological software improvement, I think.

One way this might be addressed is with a more refined 2-dimensional chart that has circles within the typical circular placement of zodiacal sign. The inner (or outer) added circles would have different zodiacal assignments than the traditional ones, this added group of signs would be defined by the background star patterns on the plane defined by the new planet’s orbit.

There may be other valid symbolic ways of approaching this issue.

This would be preferable to the 2-dimensional visual representation that outer planets orbits “mix it up” either zodiacally or by intersecting with other inner planets’ orbits such as Pluto currently does with Neptune, or which will be much more pronounced now with 2003UB313 in the typical and traditional astrological chart wheel. Astronomer Mike Brown has an image of such a “mixing it up” phenomenon when its viewed in two dimensions from above (or below?). Where the orbital lines appear to cross might give a false idea of the planet’s astrological energies.

In this last graphic, when viewed from a particular angle, it can still be seen that the outer planet orbits do not intersect.

I don’t watch much TV, but this evening I sat down to dinner and decided to see what was on MSNBC. Their top story? It was about a kid who had jumped into a net at some stadium. Wow. Big news, leading story, must be important. Right?

Why not cover the Cindy Sheehan peace protest in Crawford Texas, where President Bush is said to be vacationing while troops die in Iraq? Why not cover the 600 truckers in Florida who are protesting high fuel prices?

There are other much more important stories that happened today in the United States, but a kid jumping into a stadium and captured by a net is more important?

after watching this broadcast for a few minutes where they continued with talking heads analyzing the kid in the net, I switched the channel. Well, here’s my news for today, MSNBC, you just lost me as a satellite subscriber, if you can’t bring me the top stories of the day, you’re going to have to pay me to pipe your propaganda into my TV.

Is 2003UB313 the transneptunian Apollo? Or Admetos, Kronos, or Vulcanos? It’s orbital period most closely matches Apollo.

That guess is based upon the orbital period as defined by Astrolog’s calculation routines of about 577 years. In contrast Kronos is about 510 years, and Admetos about 614.

UB313 is reported to have an orbital period of 557 years.

However, if one goes by Brown’s quote, “… is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus,” then I’d have to modify my guess to Admetos, Hades, Kronos, or Vulcanos.

Admetos (614 years) Hades (360 years) Kronos (521 years) Vulcanos (663 years) http://finblake.home.mindspring.com/tnpdata.htm

We can probably eliminate Hades, since the orbital period is so far from the observations of 2005UB313, as too is the mean distance. The mean distances of Admetos, Kronos, or Vulcanos are the most likely candidates, if the new name is to correlate to any of Witte and Sieggrun’s transneptuninan hypotheticals.

Therefore, we’re left with Admetos, Kronos, or Vulcanos.

Isn’t there a lot of volcanic activity lately?

I just read a future prediction regarding the collapse of civilization, apparently written by the same oil-industry analyst Jan Lundberg who formerly wrote the Lundberg Letter, “the bible of the oil industry.”

Be forewarned it is a dark, disturbing read in the beginning. The end of civilization as we know it is accompanied by a huge population die off, and how that may play out as a result of the end of oil is explored. However, I have to remember while reading it that this is just one person’s sight-into-the-future.

“The fall of the U.S. may be the swiftest empire collapse in world history. It is obvious that the U.S. population and the nation’s infrastructure is heavily petroleum dependent. The U.S. peaked in oil production (extraction) in 1971. The world may be peaking now, as some evidence indicates, or in a few short years. As a severe energy shortage is on tap as soon as the gap between supply and demand is felt by the market, and the Earth gives noticeably less oil than just recently, there will be a cascade of impacts on the economy and people’s lives.”

Although not mentioned in the linked quote above, Lundberg’s particular views of a hydrogen ‘economy’ are curious, in the article’s English use he/she put the quotes around hydrogen as well as economy. She/he appears to completely discount any future for hydrogen as an energy source or storage medium.

There are promising developments in the direct conversion of sunlight and water into hydrogen without the use of “generated” electricity in the process. Older processes such as the electrolytic separation of hydrogen and oxygen using anodes and cathodes that many of us saw demonstrated in science classes and which were powered by wall-outlet electricity are being pointed to by detractors as a reason why solar hydrogen is not economic. Often, the phrase “solar hydrogen” is framed to mean photo-voltaic cells that produce electricity that in turn powers anode-cathode separation processes, and which isn’t as efficient as it could be: remember, baby-steps are taken first, walking and running come later. Newer technologies surpass these prior limitations, but detractors point to older processes as proof for why they will never work.

In other words, solar hydrogen without a carbon cycle is just around the corner.

Fossil-fuel free solar hydrogen has already been produced in small quantities. From Australia we learn about their solar hydrogen contributions, a conceptual solar cell that produces hydrogen directly from sunlight and pure water. “This is potentially huge, with a market the size of all the existing markets for coal, oil and gas combined,” says Professor Janusz Nowotny, who with Professor Chris Sorrell is leading a solar hydrogen research project at the University of NSW Centre for Materials and Energy Conversion. Lundberg fails to mention these types of solar hydrogen.

It is clear to me that our current society is economically rewarding mostly corporations; therefore, an ‘economy’ based upon hydrogen would likely be a continuation of the same exploitation by corporate entities whose bottom line (money) reigns supreme over ‘all other considerations’. In the years that I’ve been alive, it appears that social welfare concerns such as environmentalism have been minimized by energy corporations and corporate welfare is increasingly legislated over the course of many more years. Lundberg reminded me of stories I’ve read elsewhere about how General Motors destroyed the electric trolley services that many cities had earlier in the 20th century, which was an obvious benefit for the petroleum and automotive industries.

What Lundberg is describing is one phenomenon of corporatism, how environmentally sounder technologies were forced out of existence by the greedy corporate machine. Cut-throat competition that forces mom & pop businesses to close is another manifestation of concentration of capital, the dangers of which are well known to historians.

The obscene pay of many CEOs is a different kind of corporatist phenomenon that is a sickness in our society today, it is one which increases the financial stress on all the rest of us. This is a market-distorting, relative-pay disparity problem versus the lowest paid worker, and is an abnormal concentration of capital: one of the reasons Will Durant, author of the acclaimed Story of Civilization series, teaches us that prior great civilizations historically fail. In the corporatist system, the CEOs want us to believe they deserve this financial welfare: in the same system the poor and even the middle class don’t deserve much, and whatever they do manage to earn will be a laborious task that is also of primary benefit to the overall corporatist system.

How just is it that poor people must now often work two full-time minimum-wage jobs just to pay their bills? There sure isn’t much time for the working-poor to be politically active after cooking their food and doing their laundry and working their jobs, they certainly don’t have money left over to contribute to political campaigns. In contrast, the pay of CEOs grants them ample leisure time if they so desire, and generous campaign contributions are routine in their pay-to-play political action system. Today this is all part of the corporatist system.

I digressed a bit. A question that Lundberg’s article brings to mind: Would it ultimately be good if the greedy’s support structure were removed from under them?

If Lundberg’s scenario comes to pass, it will be a painful transition, one that will be just as hard on the poor as the wealthy, but the society that might emerge from the chaos he/she describes promises survivors much more fulfilling lives.

***

To provide a little balance to the chaotic, dire scenario of Jan Lundberg, the Houston Chronicle published “Boring fact is oil not soon tapped out” by Scott Tinker, apparently the state geologist of Texas. (Via Peak Oil News)

“If there is an important peak of oil, it actually occurred in the early 1980s when oil consumption as a percentage of total global energy topped out just shy of 50 percent” and which he claims is now at 40%. The energy transition trend is consistent and well underway.

Hydrogen isn’t directly mentioned in this article, but at least it isn’t disparaged as in Lundberg’s article. I’m reminded of an old saying that goes something like, “It’s not what they’re telling you that’s most important, what they’re not saying is.”

The bright side of Tinker’s perspective, if it can correctly be considered bright, is that our New World Order corporatist society will keep ticking along, and he believes “investment” will be required. One question I have for Tinker is how will our corporatist society treat the poor if they don’t have money to “invest”?

I hope I helped to fill in a couple of blanks with this short rant, but please remember that my crystal ball is likely broken.