In fact, the Bush administration has moved governance to a whole new paradigm. In the way of sociopaths everywhere, the rules that restrain the rest of humanity are not seen as applying to the Bush administration, whether involving election law, prisoner’s rights, acknowledging the restraints of Congress on the executive branch, international law regarding war and war prisoners, or simply the treasonous act of outing a CIA agent. Instead, under the Bush Doctrine, a plan is determined and then reality and the rules are manipulated to make it happen. The administration decided to win the election and then manipulated the voting circumstances of the opposition and the voting machines to create a victory. They decided to deregulate the corporate polluters and then twisted the science to cover up the dangers. They announced that the air in Manhattan was clean after 9/11, and so it seemed, except for those who breathed it and developed chronic lung illnesses.
In order not to inconvenience corporate profits, the Bush administration continues to perpetrate the myth that global warming doesn’t exist, while climate changes eat away at our shorelines and our future. In order to justify an unnecessary war that enriched the defense and energy industries and attempted to expand America’s global power and control of world oil reserves, the administration manufactured the dire threat of weapons of mass destruction with bogus intelligence and forged memos, purposefully terrifying the American public. They even determined how they wanted to deal with their war prisoners and then made up a convoluted rationale that approved of torture and left “enemy combatants” outside the jurisdiction of both the American legal system and the Geneva Conventions. The list is endless.
The Bush Doctrine of reformatting reality to support a self-serving, power-hungry agenda is also seen in the treatment of administration critics. When someone cracks the administration’s façade and unveils the corruption underneath, a pernicious web of lies is immediately woven around the truth teller, attempting to transform him or her from a trusted public servant into a pariah of civilization, thereby demolishing his or her credibility. This was the plan for former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who published an article in the New York Times in the summer of 2003 revealing that the administration had purposefully deceived the American public about Iraq procuring nuclear material. The administration’s goal was to belittle and emasculate Wilson by saying that his wife, covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, had sent him on his fact-finding trip. It didn’t matter that the smear campaign was based on lies. It didn’t matter that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent and outing her compromised national security. What mattered was silencing Wilson and any other whistleblower who might speak of the administration’s treachery. As the Bush Doctrine of Deceit makes clear, the concept of fixing the facts and the intelligence around the policy, made famous in the Downing Street Memos, does not just describe how we got into Iraq. It describes how the Bush administration operates everywhere.
The author of this Mephistophelean approach to policy and politics is Karl Rove, although the malignancy has now spread to the entire Republican Party and the media sycophants who serve it. With the now-very-visible investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, some of the underbelly of this pestilential blight on our government is being exposed. It remains to be seen if indictments will follow or how much this scandal/crime will ultimately harm the Bush administration. As seen through the lens of astrology, however, it does seem that the next several months will be difficult ones for Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and George Bush.
Although we have no birth time for Karl Rove, limiting the precision of any predictions, his chart does suggest difficulties from roughly early 2005 through July 2006 and again from roughly September 2006 through mid-2009. During the first period, tertiary progressed Saturn has moved from its natal position (2 Libra) to square natal Mercury at 17 Capricorn in late 2004 and early 2005, conjunct tertiary progressed Sun at 18 Libra in July and early to mid-August 2005, and ultimately conjunct natal Neptune at 19 Libra, roughly from December 2005 through July 2006. This extended series of progressions involving Saturn suggests a time of increasing burden and difficulty for Rove, with his deceptions and dishonesty likely to be revealed, especially by the Saturn conjunction to Neptune (December 2005 through July 2006). Transiting Saturn will also be opposite his Mars during this period, most intensively in September 2005, January 2006, and June 2006, suggesting some further restrictions and frustrations. Moreover, the Pluto square to his Node in June and July 2005, which brought increasing scrutiny from the media, will be repeated from September through October 20, 2005, suggesting that the Rove-centered scandal may be particularly hot during these two months.
Although it seems that the dark cloud hanging over Rove may briefly dissipate somewhat in later July and August 2006, in September 2006 the transit of Saturn over Rove’s Pluto through May 2007, may indicate a significant curtailing of his power. In addition, the ongoing and intensifying progression of converse Saturn conjunct converse South Node (27Virgo47), which will peak in November 2008, will be strongly triggered by transiting Pluto (27 Sagittarius) square this conjunction during much of 2007. This implies problems derived from Rove’s penchant for negativity and criticism. It is possible that his signature character assassination techniques will backfire and cause him some trouble in 2007 or at least be under some severe restrictions.
The years 2007, 2008, and the first half of 2009 will also bring with them Rove’s progressed Sun quincunx his progressed Saturn (early to mid-2007 - 2008) and quincunx his natal Saturn (early to mid 2008 – 2009). These aspects will trigger the inherent difficulties in Rove’s natal Sun/Saturn square. This suggests that Rove will feel significant restrictions and burdens placed upon him and will not be as free to act on his darker impulses, nor as successful in doing so, up to and during the next presidential election cycle. He will score some successes, with Jupiter in Capricorn in 2008 and stationary on his Venus from August through early October 2008, but his powers are likely to be somewhat curtailed or ineffective due to the ongoing Saturn element.
Another name that has been coming up more in recent weeks is that of Vice President Dick Cheney whose chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, has been mentioned as a possible source for the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Cheney’s chart suggests significant strain from late May through December 2005. Transiting Pluto is square to Cheney’s Moon from late May through October 2005, indicating emotional tensions and upsets that are kept tightly under control. In addition, Saturn will square his Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in September and then, from mid-October through mid-December 2005, will oppose his natal Sun, setting off the natal square between them. This suggests a three-month period, from September through mid-December, of increasingly heavy burden and difficulty in his work situation, as well as the possibility of exacerbated health issues that force him to limit his activities. Although the most difficult period is likely to be from September through mid-December 2005, the sense of something onerous weighing Cheney down will not let up until very early July 2006, similar to the time period suggested in Rove’s chart. Another stressful period for Cheney will begin in late October 2006 continuing through early January 2007, when the next Saturn station will oppose Cheney’s Mercury. Again, health problems, as well as other complications, are a distinct possibility at that time.
Interestingly, George Bush’s chart, much like Rove and Cheney’s, suggests severe stress from September 2005 through early July 2006, with difficulties reappearing around September 2006. In Bush’s case, significant strain continues at least through June 2007. Beginning in September 2005, transiting Saturn will cross Bush’s Ascendant, Mercury, and Pluto, suggesting tremendous pressure and difficulties that he can no longer avoid. This phase will end in early July 2006, suggesting that will be the end of some kind of struggle that the administration has undergone for over nine months. In the Inaugural chart the natal Neptune square the Ascendant is highlighted during this same period, with progressed Ascendant square to natal Neptune from May 2005 through January 2006, and solar arc progressed Ascendant square natal Neptune from August 2005 through August 2006. The Neptune/Ascendant element coming during this strong Saturn influence for Bush, Cheney, and Rove indicates that deceptions, scandals, and the negative consequences they engender may be a central theme during this time. It is, therefore, not unlikely that Treasongate, as Air America’s Randi Rhodes likes to call the Plame investigation, will go into high gear from September 2005 through early July 2006, with negative ramifications for the administration continuing thereafter.
The central theme of George Bush’s current White House term may be best described by the Chiron/Midheaven/Sun conjunction opposite Saturn in the Inaugural chart. This combination of planets suggests a “wound” (Chiron) that the administration experiences that weakens it and to some degree derails or compromises its goals, intentions, and reputation. At this moment, it appears that the ongoing disaster of the Iraq War, as well as the Rove/Plame scandal which focuses a lens on the deceptions that got us into that war, seem to comprise the wound that will increasingly plague this administration. Certainly, the incoherent ineptitude of the civilian leadership of the latest Gulf War and the lies and deceptions that created it are huge contributors to the hemorrhage of clout and credibility that have been streaming out of the Oval Office in an increasing torrent of late. The Inaugural progressed Midheaven conjunct natal Chiron, from December 2005 through December 2006, and the solar arc progressed Saturn conjunct Inaugural IC from February 2006 through February 2007, suggest that this “wound” will fully manifest during 2006. The recent, briefer aspects of transiting Saturn opposing natal Inaugural Chiron, transiting Chiron conjunct natal Inaugural Sun, and transiting Saturn opposite Inaugural Sun, successively from mid-June through July 2005, have given us a taste of what is to come.
Of the many challenges that face us in the 21st Century, all require decisive leadership, leadership with vision, integrity, and a willingness to face the difficult decisions that must be made with courage, rather than with an eye to political popularity and power. But no leadership exists in a vacuum. It is well worth considering, as we contemplate the extraordinary deceptions and incompetence of the Bush administration, how we got to this dark moment in our nation’s history. Increasingly, form has triumphed over substance in our media-drenched reality. We seem to choose our leaders based on their TV charisma and the competent delivery of their jokes rather than on their conceptualization of the nation’s ills and their willingness to meet those challenges. How often did we hear back in 2000 that people agreed with Al Gore on almost everything but found George Bush more appealing?
Even more important, and far more dangerous, is the loss of our own courage and willingness to stand up and face the nation’s problems. We will never have leadership that tells us the truth and inspires us to act with the fortitude and sacrifice that will be required, if we are not willing to hear what creating that future will demand of us. If we persist in allowing ourselves to be convinced by snake-oil-salesmen politicians that we can have it all and give nothing - that we can drive our gas-guzzling SUV’s while we keep marauding for oil, that we can expand government services while paying less and less taxes, and that no matter what nefarious deeds are committed, it is all about democracy and freedom - then we will be responsible for the bleak future that unfolds. The leadership of a nation mirrors the soul of the electorate. When the electorate refuses to be infantilized and seduced by a web of lies and empty promises and becomes willing to face the challenges that a bright future demands, then bold, honest, and visionary leadership will appear that can move the nation forward.
