The following article is reprinted from BBC. Here is the Raw Story version of the story. We are attempting to determine whether this is a “ceremonial” indictment or whether it will stick. Check back for additional information, which we will share as it becomes available. What I am trying to figure out is why this is such a nonstory in the MSM (ala, mainstream media, a catch-all phrase that sweeps through who we think of as the biggies, from the NY Times to CNN to the broadcast networks. It is generally held that MSM is a consensus team; that there is a narrow spectrum of that which is held to be mentionable). In other words…it would appear to be deemed irrelevant. But so was Watergate, for a long time. –efc

A Texas grand jury has charged US Vice-President Dick Cheney for “organised criminal activity” related to alleged abuse of private prison inmates.

The indictment says Mr Cheney - who has invested $85m (£56m) in a company that holds shares in for-profit prisons - conspired to block an investigation.

A judge has yet to approve the indictment against Mr Cheney.

The indictment has not been seen by a judge, who could dismiss it.

Mr Cheney’s spokeswoman declined to comment, saying his office had not yet received a copy of the charges.

One Texas lawyer said the charges were politically motivated.

‘Conflict of interest’

The indictment was overseen by county District Attorney Juan Guerra, an outgoing prosecutor at the end of his term of office.

He cites the case of Gregorio De La Rosa, who died on 26 April, 2001 inside a private prison in Willacy County, Texas.

The grand jury in Willacy County, near the US-Mexico border, accuses Mr Cheney of committing “at least misdemeanour assaults” of inmates by allowing other inmates to assault them.

It said there was a “direct conflict of interest” because Mr Cheney had influence over federal contracts awarded to prison companies.

US grand juries weigh evidence to decide whether a case is worthy of being sent for a full trial, before issuing formal charges known as indictments.

The three-page indictment also alleges that former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “used his position…to stop the investigations as to the wrong doings.”

The grand jury wrote that it made its decision “with great sadness,” but said they had no other choice but to indict Mr Cheney and Mr Gonzales “because we love our country.”

Several other related indictments were brought against a host of public officials in what one lawyer called a circus act by the outgoing prosecutor, Mr Guerra, who he said was seeking revenge in his final weeks in office.

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published in The Sun, but we felt the information was important enough to call to your attention. –Rachel Asher

It has now been confirmed that Hitler only had one testicle.

AN EXTRAORDINARY account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one ball.

War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down.

The priest’s document has now come to light – 23 years after Johan’s death.

The war tyrant’s medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.

The lyrics are: “Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall. His mother, the dirty b****r, cut it off when he was small.’

Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic – the medical term for having one testicle.

But the document tells how Johan saw the proof with his own eyes. In the account, he relives the horror of serving as an army medic in World War I.

He died aged 94 in 1985, but had told his secret to priest Franciszek Pawlar, who kept a note of their conversation.

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Dear Friend and Reader,

AFTER THE RANCOROUS presidential primary between Senators Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton for the nomination, one wonders why we’d be watching a Hil-and-Bill show once again as we ponder Obama’s possible appointment of Senator Clinton as Secretary of State?

Bill Clinton on the campaign trail, before the US presidential election. Photo by Don Heupel/AP.

Utilizing talent from previous administrations to staff a new one is nothing new. In fact, one would not want to approach the Office of the President with its myriad trap doors, secret deals and back-door diplomacy without at least a few people on the team who know where the bodies are buried. And I am certain that the Clintons and people from their administration know a few locations.

The Clintons learned about the need for having some “graybeards” on board the hard way when Bill Clinton first took office in 1993. Going in as a unified and experienced team can help move your agenda through the already rough terrain of a hostile opposition party or even a recalcitrant party-in-power.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” on the Lincoln Cabinet is the current frame of reference on the forming of President-elect Barack Obama’s new cabinet. Looking at today’s events, Goodwin suggests picking Clinton would be similar to Lincoln’s choice of political rival William Seward for the same gig in 1861. “The parallel with Hilary is almost eerie,” Goodwin says.

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Dear Friend and Reader,

Today finds us in the midst of a trine between Eros and Uranus. Both of these deities in myth are said to be primordial: Eros is one of the fundamental building blocks of existence, and Uranus is the starry sky, who conceived the gods with Gaia, thus giving them form.

Photo by Danielle Voirin.

Kim Falconer of falconstrology.com relays a tale told by Aristophanes of Eros coming into being from a germless egg layed by Night (or Nyx). After a long time, Eros sprang from this egg and mated with Chaos in the depths of Tartarus, thus bringing the immortal Olympians into existence.

Another myth claims the goddess of rainbows and the god of the north wind are the parents of Eros. Still another traces the heritage to Uranus and Gaia, or Artemis and Hermes. Falconer writes:

“The mixed parenthood of Eros, as well as his transforming images, (some versions of [the] myth have him assisting Aphrodite at her birth and in others he is her offspring), may illustrates ongoing changes in the collective awareness of the concept of love and creativity.  As the son of chaos, he has no tangible form.  He is the power of attraction that co-ordinates the elements of the universe bringing harmony to all creation.  In this image, Eros is more a cosmic force than an actual god of passionate or personal love.”

For an excellent article regarding the myths involving Eros, including his origins and an impressive list of sources, please visit the above link. It’s a really interesting read.

Falconer also suggests that throughout the metamorphoses of Eros, one thing remains the same: it is his fundamental power to make things mingle. Without his assistance, there would be no striving and no interactions. This, in my opinion, puts him in close relation to Mars.

So here we have the god of elemental attraction and co-mingling in a trine with Uranus, also attributed with the formation of the gods. According to Wikipedia, Uranus is attributed as being lord of the night sky and of the stars. He was the first god in a long pattern of cannibal infanticide, ending with the young god Saturn castrating him with a scythe and tossing his balls into the sea.

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Dear Friend and Reader,

On November 18, 1978, 913 people lost their lives in Jonestown, Guyana in a community set up by an evangelistic religious leader by the name of Jim Jones. It was originally reported as a mass suicide under Jones’ direction, but I have lost a few nights of sleep after watching MSNBC’s special “Witness: To Jonestown” and doing some research which has led me to the conclusion that it was not a mass suicide at all.

People’s Temple members in Guyana, standing with Jim Jones (seen here with sunglasses on). The Jim Jones massacre occurred 30 years ago today.

Today is the 30th anniversary of The Jonestown Massacre, an event that is barely conceivable to me and to most of us who see the painful images taken on that day of all those bodies spread out like a quilt in the jungles of Guyana. The name Jim Jones is an urban legend among my generation, and it evokes a feeling of darkness and death. For some reason, I’ve really never bothered to look into what happened. I think the pictures said enough for me.

Now, as I’ve filled my head with the facts and the conspiracy theories that surround the event, I still come back to my original question which was not so much what happened, but how and why something like this could happen. I am fascinated by what motivates groups of people to participate in one common goal. How can an entire group consciousness be directed in such an awesomely evil and violent way?

The Jonestown Massacre stands out in a few ways for me. One is that unlike Nazis or slave-traders, who were doing something really obviously evil, Jim Jones was a comrade to many. I sat down with my Grandmother last night and learned that she had corresponded with him many times as a result of her political activism in the Bay Area during the 60s and early 70s. He was very critical of America’s treatment of Black people, poor people and the disenfranchised. He disapproved of capitalism, racism and classicism.

The apparent intent of setting up shop in Guyana was to have a Socialist community where everyone participated equally and was provided for and given all of the things that many of them were unable to afford in America, i.e. medical care, shelter, a job. But what has really blown my mind is finding out that he was more than just a powerful personality and one of those people who can charm honey out of a bee: he was politically astute, socially aware, racially blind and a kind, generous man. There seems to be this common association with the term “cult” that pre-defines the members as somehow “weak” or “psychologically deficient” in some ways. This is just not the case with the members of the People’s Temple.

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Dear Friend and Reader,

Today Venus slides into a semi-square with Neptune and shares a sextile with Deucalion. A semi-square is a term that comes from the Uranian Astrological tradition. A semi-square is a square, plus half a square which translates mathematically to 135 degrees in a chart. It can be described as a not-so-tense version of a square.

Because of this, planets that share this relationship bring a faint awareness of one another to the table. Put in normal terms, I would suggest that this aspect is about the power of love, or using love and attraction as a means of intoxication. Seduction comes to mind with this aspect, though it is not the right-out-in-the-open kind that a person can guess at from a mile away.

Photo by Danielle Voirin.

Venus is also in a sextile with Deucalion today, which gives me the pleasure of discussing the myth of Deucalion in as brief a way as I can. Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and the Greek equivalent of the biblical Noah. When Zues got tired of mankind’s hubristic tendencies, he flooded the world in an attempt to drown everyone alive. Deucalion’s father Prometheus warned him and gave him instructions for an ark. After the deluge, Deucalion and his wife stood on top of a mountain, totally at a loss of what to do next. Then a riddle came to them: “Throw the bones of your mother over your shoulder.” This they did, and from those stones came the new race of humans into the world.

Back in 2005, Eric wrote a piece delineating possible meanings for Deucalion. Feelings of being overwhelmed, or conscious of the burden of humanity are two ways of looking at Deucalion. I don’t really know what it means, personally. But I find it interesting that in the myth Deucalion is instructed to throw his mother’s bones over his shoulders. “Throwing the bones” is a term used to describe rituals involving the Norse runes. I am a student of the runes, and so this statement stuck out to me.

Also, some interesting observations can be drawn about Deucalion by looking at the Hurricane Katrina chart of 2007. For example, on that day, Deucalion was conjoined with Hebe when Katrina made landfall. President Bush did not get to survey the damage left by the storm for three days because he was hangin’ at the ranch. Hebe is looked at as a significator of co-dependency.

In other news, the Moon will be opposite to Pluto tomorrow. We’ll be discussing the energy of that on Wednesday.

Merry Met,

Genevieve

Editor’s Note: On Saturday, Nov. 15, an international protest was held against Proposition 8, the ballot vote that threatens to overturn gay marriage in California. Here are some videos from across the United States, and the world. They’re only a random selection — many more can be found on YouTube. –RA

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