Fingering the will of the people

Dear Friend and Reader:

The House of Representatives earlier today approved a new version of the $700 billion bailout package. The New York Times conveniently gave the exact time as 1:21 pm. The Galactic Core was rising. I guess that’s good. Pluto is right there, right in the 1st house — that is always a sign of big change, a change in relationship to reality. The Moon is in Sagittarius, representing the public in a more optimistic mood than recently. Mercury is exactly, as in exactly to one-sixth of a degree, on the midheaven — the angle representing government. Retrograde indeed.

While Mercury is strong up there, mainly because it’s the highest planet in the chart, there is something weird about it — as if the cosmos is emphasizing the retrograde nature of the event by putting that planet highest, right on the 10th cusp (also called the midheaven). Mercury rules the 9th house of ethics and the 6th house of common sense. It would appear to be signaling a violation of both of those concepts.

Mars is also in Libra — at the edge of the very last degree. It represents the public, because Scorpio is on the 11th house cusp. Consistent with the Sagittarius Moon, suggests that the pubic was asleep at the wheel. (Mundane concepts can have several significators in a chart. For ex., the Moon is a generic symbol for the public; and then the 11th house ruler would also be the second significator for the public.)

As for when the vote happened, on a Friday it’s harder to get people to pay attention than on a Monday.

Also of note, Pluto is exactly opposite the Moon in the Sept. 11 chart. What I have not mentioned anywhere yet is that at the moment, the Sept. 11 chart is being set off by both Pluto and also by Mercury retrograde about to cross the ascendant Monday. In fact, there will be an exact Sun-Mercury conjunction about half a degree from the ascendant of the Sept. 11 chart. As many have noted, recent events are connected with events the summer of 2001. Notably, both occurred in New York’s financial district.

The bill now must be reconciled with the $850 billion version passed by the Senate yesterday. If I am correct, this happens in a special joint committee of the House and the Senate that has the job of hashing out the details, and taking it back to their respective side of the capitol.)

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with my father a couple of weeks ago, who said he was terrified of Barack Obama because his healthcare plan would bankrupt the country. (Fact check: dad is a professor at the State University of New York and is covered under the state’s Empire Plan insurance.) Now, nearly a trillion dollars (remember, this is borrowed money, our kids and their will be paying the interest on it for a while) is being allocated allegedly to buy the bad decisions made by bankers who profited wildly from them. Of course we have plenty of money for this…but not to make sure that everyone can go to the doctor or to raise the minimum wage.

I ran into Maurice Hinchey yesterday, our congressman here in the Hudson Valley. He frequently stops into Dominick’s, the cafe where I usually write horoscopes, so I see him fairly regularly. I thanked him for voting no on Monday. He said that the bailout didn’t have enough protections for taxpayers, and didn’t do enough for them. He voted no for a second time today.

“The Bush administration is taking the silverware and china out of the White House on the way out,” he said.

Here is an excerpt on the spending bill passing from the New York Times, below. And PS, here is a video of John McCain talking to the editors of the Des Moines Register, well worth watching, just sent in by Steve Bergstein (who writes our Psychsound blog).

And here is this truly incredible, tragic article related to the mortgage crisis.

Catch you Monday. Our assiduous blogging team will be filling in this weekend, watching the headlines. If you would like to drop one of them a line, send it to editorial – at – planetwaves.net

At the White House, President Bush hailed the vote.

But it was a hollow victory for the administration. After long favoring a hands-off approach and relentlessly pursuing deregulation, the administration found itself interceding repeatedly in the private market this year to avert one calamity after another. And finally after it proposed perhaps the biggest intervention in history, Mr. Bush found himself abandoned by fellow Republicans in the House.

After the House rejected the plan, the Senate stepped in, and attached a $150.5 billion package of popular provisions, including tax breaks for the production and use of renewable energy, and protection for millions of American families from paying the alternative minimum tax, which was initially aimed at the wealthy.

The Senate and the House had been fighting all year over the energy tax provisions, called “extenders” because they perpetuate current law. The energy package provided a ready bundle of goodies that the Senate had been dangling to win over fiscal conservatives who had opposed the Senate version because it did not fully offset the tax breaks with spending cuts or other tax increases.

The approval of the bailout plan came 13 days after the administration put forward a three-page proposal that would have given the Treasury secretary unfettered authority to run the $700 billion effort, in what Ms. Pelosi called “czar-like powers.”

Tense negotiations over eight days – including an extraordinary and contentious meeting at the White House between Mr. Bush, top lawmakers and the two presidential candidates, Senator John McCain and Mr. Obama – produced a compromise that all sides said they could support if unenthusiastically.

The final agreement called for the $700 billion to be disbursed in parts: $250 billion at first, to get the program started, followed by $100 billion at the discretion of Mr. Bush and the remaining $350 billion upon request of the Treasury with Congress empowered to block the last installment by acting within 15 days.

It is impossible to predict the final cost of the bailout but officials insist it will be far less than $700 billion. Because the Treasury will purchase and then resell assets, potentially at a higher price, there is a chance the program will break even or perhaps turn a profit.

The deal provides for tight oversight by two boards, including an independent Congressional panel. And requires the government to use its status as an large-scale owner of distressed, mortgage-backed securities to take more aggressive steps to prevent foreclosures.