FW: Ufology’s Kucinich Widely Covered

From: Andrew Johnson

Date: 2007-11-01 08:17:32

  www.latimes.com/news…   tpmelectioncentral.c…   www.huffingtonpost.c…   They might be  trying to convert the ridicule factor to (yet another) fear a factor… I could be wrong…  Googlevideo: Kucinich confirms UFO sighting
www.tiny.cc/YqWgT

Wide New coverage of Dennis Kucinich confirming UFO National News- LA TIMES template_bas template_bas UFOs invade Democratic presidential debate template_bas template_bas Kucinich claims he saw one, and Richardson says the government should ‘come clean’ about the Roswell, N.M., incident. And then there’s Shirley MacLaine. By Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 3:41 PM PDT, October 31, 2007 Presidential candidates have flip-flopped on taxes, abortion, gun control and the war. But rarely has one flip-flopped on flying saucers.Until now.In September, a spokeswoman for Dennis Kucinich dismissed a report emanating from a Washington conference about UFOs that the Ohio congressman had a close encounter with one.”If you have a serious question, just ask me,” Kucinich staffer Natalie Laber instructed a Washington Post reporter who inquired about Kucinich’s knowledge of UFOs. “If not, then just keep your silly comments to yourself.”But in Tuesday night’s Democratic debatea>, Kucinich had no wiggle room when moderator Tim Russert posed this question:”The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you’ve sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state, that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a triangular craft silent and hovering, that you felt a connection to your heart and heard direction in your mind. Now, did you see a UFO?”Replied Kucinich: “I did.”Kucinich, who other candidates seemed to regard as a creature from outer space when he called for President Bush’s impeachment during the debate, did not elaborate much. He joked about moving his campaign headquarters to Roswell, N.M., site of the country’s most famous alleged UFO crash. This, in fact, is why a second presidential candidate, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, was drawn into the fray.When Chris Matthews, in a post-debate interview, asked Richardson what he thought of Kucinich’s response to the UFO question, Richardson smiled, giggled a little and explained that as governor of a state that depends on the UFO-enthralled tourist dollar, he was not in a position to criticize. (Though, he hastened to add, he has never personally seen a UFO.) He also said it was time for the government to “come clean” on the Roswell matter.Matthews began to sputter in disbelief, but as it happens, Richardson was not boldly going where no one had gone before. Richardson has said many times that the mystery surrounding the 1947 crash in Roswell has never been adequately explained. “Clearly,” he wrote in a forward to a 2004 book about the crash, “it would help everyone if the U.S. government disclosed everything it knows.”Kucinich is not the first presidential aspirant to report seeing a UFO.According to numerous media accounts, when Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia in 1973, he filed a report with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City claiming that he’d seen an unidentified glowing object four years earlier in Leary, Ga. He said later that he did not believe the object to be an alien craft, and some “ufologists,” as specialists call themselves, think he saw a halo around the planet Venus.Ronald Reagan believed he had seen UFOs at least twice — once on the coast while driving to Hollywood with his wife, Nancy, and once, as governor of California, on a plane flying near Bakersfield. In “Landslide,” their 1988 book about Ronald Reagan’s second term, journalists Doyle McManus, The Times’ Washington bureau chief, and Jane Mayer, now of the New Yorker, wrote that Reagan’s staff worked hard to keep the UFO sighting stories under wraps.And that’s easy to understand, since, as Alejandro Rojas, who handles media relations for the Mutual UFO Network, pointed out, “It’s typically an issue used on politicians to make them look bad.”But, added Rojas, whose group investigates UFO sightings as well as reports of alien abductions, he was happy to see the issue raised in a presidential forum. “It’s great because the debate highlighted it.”And, he said, as odd as it may seem, many presidents have dealt with the mysteries of UFOs. The website www.presidentialufo…. elaborates on UFOs and how presidents have dealt with them back to Franklin Roosevelt.MacLaine, whose book “Sage-ing While Age-ing” is out Nov. 6, did not return phone calls.www.foxnews.com/stor… Rep. Dennis Kucinich Acknowledges UFO Sighting Wednesday, October 31, 2007   The truth is out there, and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich had no trouble offering his version of it when asked Tuesday night about his UFO sighting. “It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It’s, like, it’s unidentified,” Kucinich said during one of the few highlights at the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. “I saw something.” Kucinich, whose UFO run-in came to light last week in a passage from Shirley MacLaine’s new book, went on to joke that he planned to move his campaign office to Roswell, N.M. Roswell is the place where legend holds a spacecraft crash-landed in 1947 and was recovered and moved for investigation to nearby Area 51, a secretive U.S. government airbase in Nevada. Kucinich went on to defend himself, saying many Americans have shared his experience. “You have to keep in mind that more — that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush’s presidency,” Kucinich said. Debate moderator Tim Russert then cited a poll saying that 14 percent of Americans claim to have seen a UFO, to which Kucinich asked: “What as that percentage?” “Fourteen,” Russert answered. “Thank you,” Kucinich responded with satisfaction. President Bush’s approval rating stood at 35 percent in the most recent FOX News-Opinion Dynamics poll, but only 12 percent of Democrats gave him a thumbs up. Earlier Tuesday, Kucinich questioned the president’s mental state in lieu of comments made about a nuclear Iran sparking World War III. “I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health,” Kucinich said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There’s something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact.” According to MacLaine, Kucinich saw the UFO in the 1980s while visiting the actress at her home in Washington state. “He saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent and observing him,” MacLaine wrote. “It hovered for about 10 minutes or so and sped away with a speed he couldn’t comprehend. He felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.” Moving on in the debate questioning, Russert asked Sen. Barack Obama about his belief in the existence of life beyond Earth. “I don’t presume to know. What I know is there is life here on Earth, and — and that we’re not attending to life here on Earth,” Obama said.www.heraldtribune.co…   October 31. 2007 1:26PM Breaking the taboo — finally By BILLY COXbilly.cox@heraldtrib… Like a mischievous frat boy with a cherry bomb and a cigarette lighter, Tim Russert thought he’d have a little fun last night with the Dennis Kucinich UFO thing at the Democratic presidential debate. But the “Meet the Press” host had no idea what he was tampering with.Pressed for an answer about whether Shirley MacLaine’s claims in an upcoming book were true, Kucinich finally confessed the sin of having seen a UFO. With a twinkle in his eye, continuing in the jocular spirit in which he was asked, Kucinich added, “I’m also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico, and another one in Exeter, New Hampshire, OK?” The latter was a reference to Rudy Giuliani’s campaign stop there a few weeks ago (De Void 10/16/07).Russert’s tweak degenerated into a sputtering exchange over whether more Americans had seen UFOs than supported President Bush. “Wait, we’re just getting started here,” Kucinich protested before Russert tossed a non sequitur to Barack Obama about whether he believes there’s life beyond Earth.Just getting started, indeed.Moments later, in the post-debate aftermath, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Bill Richardson about UFOs. “It’s an odd thing to ask,” Matthews said, affecting an apologetic tone, “I wouldn’t have asked it except Dennis Kucinich … said he saw a UFO.”Richardson hadn’t volunteered any comments to the media about UFOs since advocating government disclosure in a Sci Fi Channel-sponsored Roswell book five years ago. Suddenly pinned down on national television, the New Mexico governor chuckled and squirmed and equivocated about how — har-har — there’s “no credible evidence” and “I promote UFOs as a tourism issue” but “the federal government has not come clean” about UFOs.”Stop the music! Stop the music, Governor!” railed the ostensibly naive Matthews. “Did you say the United States government is covering up a history of the UFO sighting in your state?”In the disjointed rush of sentence fragments that frequently characterizes “Hardball” repartee, Richardson actually managed to string together a few cogent rejoinders like, “They don’t produce documents, Chris. They should just get it all out.”Matthews’ golly-gee conclusion: “I think I’m seeing a battle between the anti-evolution party and the pro-UFO party developing here.”Somewhere in the background of all this unprecedented UFO talk, you had to wonder if Hillary Clinton’s heart was fluttering just a little harder Tuesday night. Russert asked why her husband had written the National Archives requesting that their correspondences during his White House years remain sealed until 2012. Obama took the cue and chided Clinton for a lack of transparency.Among those anxiously awaiting the release of selected Clinton Library documents is Canadian UFO researcher Grant Cameron. Cameron’s FOIA requests are idling near the front of the line, and his issues are detailed at www.presidentialufo…. .Russert didn’t realize it, but in goosing Kucinich, he just opened an avenue for a long-overdue discussion. Whether or not the media exploits the opening remains to be seen. But ice is broken, the candidates are on notice, and this ball’s in play.So, again: Thank you, Shirley MacLaine. Whatever it takes.