Cue up the spooky theremin music.
What if we actually had a disc-shaped vehicle that could take off and land vertically,
hover, and fly without burning a drop of jet fuel, just like the alien spacecraft in The Day The Earth Stood Still? (I’m talking about the 1951 version, not the recent Keanu Reeves remake.)
In addition to the Iraq war, global warming and other important world issues, voters and the news media
have been pressing 2008 presidential candidates for their positions on extraterrestrial matters as well. Here’s a video clip of former New York mayor and GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani at a town meeting in New Hampshire, being quizzed about how he would respond to an attack on the U.S. by space aliens. (“Of all the things that can happen in this world, we'll be prepared for that, yes we will. We'll be prepared for anything that happens," was Hizzoner’s response.) According to this Fort Worth Star-Telegram story, New Mexico Gov. and Democratic contender Bill Richardson revealed to a questioner at a Texas event that as a member of Congress, he had asked for access to U.S. Department of Defense files on the infamous Roswell UFO incident, but was rebuffed because the information was classified. (“That ticked me off,” he added.) And in the most recent Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia, Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich confirmed a published claim that he had once seen a gigantic triangular craft hovering silently for 10 minutes over the home of actress-turned-New Age maven Shirley MacLaine. “I did," Kucinich admitted. "It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It's like, it's unidentified; I saw something." As this article from Rawstory.com recounts, Kucinich subsequently contended — not quite correctly — that more Americans have seen UFOs than approve of President Bush’s job performance. (According to a 2005 Harris Interactive poll, 34 percent of Americans believe in UFOs, roughly the same number who support Bush.)
The Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, is probably a bit too cautious to speak out about the possibility of alien spacecraft visiting Earth. Nevertheless, Huffington Post blogger Sam Stein reports that Stephen Bassett, chief lobbyist for the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee, is leaning toward supporting the former first lady, in part because Clinton adviser (and her husband’s former chief of staff) John Podesta has advocated declassification and release of Defense Department files on a purported UFO sighting in Kecksburg, Pa., in 1965. (“It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon," Podesta told CNN in 2002.)
Some might consider the UFO issue a bit too, well, wacky for a potential president to even bother thinking about. But others, such as Richardson, argue that it’s time for full disclosure of whatever the government knows about UFO incidents, if only in the interest of transparency and restoring trust that has been eroded by the Bush administration’s penchant for secrecy. Give us your opinion here.
Recent Comments