Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Obama Touches on UFOs, Aliens & Roswell in GQ Interview
[...]
What’s the most entertaining conspiracy theory you ever read about yourself?
That military exercises we were doing in Texas were designed to begin martial law so that I could usurp the Constitution and stay in power longer. Anybody who thinks I could get away with telling Michelle I’m going to be president any longer than eight years does not know my wife.
Have you ever said, “Give me the JFK-assassination files, I want to read them. Give me all the secret stuff”?
I gotta tell you, it’s a little disappointing. People always ask me about Roswell and the aliens and UFOs, and it turns out the stuff going on that’s top secret isn’t nearly as exciting as you expect. In this day and age, it’s not as top secret as you’d think. [...]
Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Extraterrestrial Vote
By Rebecca Leber
www.newrepublic.com
7-16-15
NASA's nine-year-old New Horizons mission made history on Tuesday by giving Earth its first close glimpse at the on-again, off-again ninth planet, Pluto. In response, President Barack Obama tweeted:
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But was New Horizons really Pluto’s first visitor? John Podesta, who left his White House senior adviser position earlier this year to run Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, questioned the assumption:
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Podesta is a well-documented science fiction enthusiast who's regularly riffed on the X-Files tagline, “The truth is out there.”
In 2002, Podesta told reporters at the National Press Club that the U.S. government should “declassify records that are more than 25 years old.” He was, of course, discussing UFOs. “It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there,” he said. . . .
Friday, May 22, 2015
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Obama UFO Interview Analyzed | Video
.jpg) | By Alejandro Rojas openminds.tv 3-31-15 |
Ben Hansen, former host of the SyFy Channel’s Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, took a careful look at Obama’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, especially the portion in which Kimmel asked Obama about UFOs. Hansen says his analysis has given him some “huge” revelations, including that Obama was not joking when he told Kimmel that he can’t reveal what he knows about UFOs and extraterrestrials.
Hansen has a background in law enforcement. However, he points out in his video analysis – which he posted on YouTube (seen above) – that he is not a body language expert, just someone with a lot of experience conducting criminal investigations and interviews, and working with body language experts.
Last year, after Kimmel asked former president Bill Clinton about UFOs, Hansen decided to put his experience to use, and analyze what Clinton had said. His conclusion was that there was, “Evidence of significant apprehension, stress, and guarded behavior. Several times when he started down a road and stopped himself in awkward ways as if he was about to say something he shouldn’t.”
This led Hansen to believe that Clinton knew more than he was sharing or he learned just enough to indicate that he should stop looking.
Earlier this month, Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Kimmel decided to ask him about UFOs as well. In the interview, Kimmel indicates that he may have seen Hasnen’s Clinton analysis. Kimmel warned Obama that people were going to look at his facial expressions and every move as he answered these questions to analyze what he was saying.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Obama On UFOs: 'I Can't Reveal Anything' | VIDEO
 | By Lee Speigel The Huffington Post 3-15-15 |
You can't blame a guy from trying, over and over again.
On his show Thursday, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel asked President Barack Obama to come clean about UFOs. The president responded with a series of tongue-in-cheek remarks, which can be seen in the video above.
Last year, Kimmel broached the subject with former President Bill Clinton. He posed the topic of supposed UFOs and aliens at Nevada's top secret Area 51 military base in exactly the same way with both presidents. . . .
. . . Kimmel opening statement to Obama on March 12:During this short exchange, Obama fired back with more potentially provocative comments.
"If I was the president... I would immediately race to wherever they have the files about Area 51 and UFOs, and I'd go through everything to find out what happened. DID YOU DO THAT?"
Obama response: "That's why you will not be president, because that's the first thing that you would do."
"The aliens won't let it happen. You'd reveal all their secrets, and they exercise strict control over us," Obama said. "I can't reveal anything."
When Kimmel pressed Obama, telling him how Clinton claimed to have looked into government files on UFOs and found nothing, Obama replied, "Well, you know, that's what we're instructed to say." . . .
Continue Reading . . .
See Also:
President Obama Queried re Aliens, UFOs & Area 51 on Jimmy Kimmel Show | VIDEO
VIDCAST: President Obama Reveals Roswell UFO Hints According to Researcher Grant Cameron
Roswell, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Kimmel
Former President Bill Clinton Discusses Secret UFO Files, Aliens, Roswell & Area 51 on Jimmy Kimmel | VIDEO
REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Saturday, March 14, 2015
President Obama Queried re Aliens, UFOs & Area 51 on Jimmy Kimmel Show | VIDEO
Editor's Note: President Barack Obama stopped by the Jimmy Kimmel Live show last night (3-12-15) and like Kimmel did with former President CLinton, he wasted no time asking the President about, Area 51, Aliens and UFOs.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Size of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Remains Classified | SECRECY NEWS
By Steven Aftergood
fas.org
1-8-15
The U.S. government will not categorically declassify the number of weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal once and for all, but it will consider declassification of the size of the prior year’s arsenal on a case by case basis, the Department of Energy said last week.
In May 2010, the Obama Administration declassified the fact that there were 5,113 warheads in the U.S. arsenal as of September 2009. It was the first time in the nuclear age that the current size of the U.S. arsenal (or any nation’s arsenal) was officially disclosed.
Last year, the numbers were updated through September 2013, when there were a reported 4,804 warheads.
Why not make such disclosures routinely and as a matter of course? Last May, the Federation of American Scientists presented a proposal to that effect to the joint DOE/DOD Formerly Restricted Data (FRD) Declassification Working Group (DWG). Officials rejected the idea.
“The FRD DWG has determined that it cannot agree to your request at this time,” wrote Andrew P. Weston-Dawkes, the Director of the DOE Office of Classification in a December 30, 2014 letter.
Instead, “any public request for stockpile and dismantlement numbers beyond September 30, 2013, should be made as a separate declassification request for the prior fiscal year,” he wrote. “Public requests for this information will not be considered for future out-years.”
Accordingly, we submitted a request this week for declassification of the stockpile and dismantlement figures as of the end of fiscal year 2014 (i.e., September 30, 2014). . . .
Continue Reading . . .
See Also:
Nuclear Bombs Nearly Wiped Out North Carolina (1961) | Declassified Report
Hitler's Secret, Underground Nuclear Weapons Plant Discovered? | VIDEO
Declassified Government Documentary On Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing: Operation Dominic (Pt 1) | VIDEO
REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Obama, UFOs, and the First 100 Days
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt pioneered the concept of “the first 100 days” in 1933 at the height of the depression it is generally believed that at the beginning of every new White House administration there is a 100 day window where the President is believed to have support from his recent electoral victory to put through his agenda in congress. Usually the President moves on difficult divisive issues or issues that are unpopular. Once the 100 days passes people tire, the victory is forgotten, and support tends to slip.
So what are the chances that Obama will use the first 100 days of his second term to move on the UFO issue?
This author was very skeptical that any such thing would happen in the first 100 days of Obama’s first term. The prediction turned out to be accurate.
The second term, however, looks different. Obama’s recent actions seem to be giving off different signals that something might be in the works. Perhaps he will spend some of his political capital to take on the Rodney Dangerfield of all political and socials movements.
Prior to his first term Obama rarely talked about anything not grounded in a socialist leaning of “taking care of the little guy.” When it came to less grounded issues such as the space program Bill and Hillary Clinton were giving speeches during the 2008 campaign that clearly predicted that an Obama election would be bad news for NASA and anyone else with off world interests. These predictions turned out to be fairly accurate as NASA would discover.
When asked the question about “life in outer space” during an October 2007 Democratic debate Obama clearly pointed out that although there may be being coming to Earth he was much more concerned with people who were already here on Earth that needed his help.
When asked during the 2008 election whether or not he would tell the public if he found out once elected that there were aliens visiting Earth, Obama skirted the question by turning the question into a punch line for a joke. ‘It would depend,” Obama told the reporter, “on whether the aliens were Democrats or Republicans.”
As the first term went along, and especially during the 4th year of the term Obama started to say things and things started to happen around Obama that indicated the UFO issue may have been discussed and that Obama was leaning towards UFO openness. Obama had started to talk UFOs when he didn’t have to, and was starting to sound like Bill Clinton who was fascinated with UFOs and who made more than a couple references to aliens, UFOs, and Martians in his public speeches. These incidents and statements tended to indicate one of two things . . ..
Continue Reading . . .
See Also:
VIDCAST: President Obama Reveals Roswell UFO Hints According to Researcher Grant Cameron
President Obama Wants the News [Re Life] From Mars ASAP
Dr. Edgar Mitchell To President Obama:
End Truth Embargo On UFOs and The Extraterrestrial Presence!
SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
So what are the chances that Obama will use the first 100 days of his second term to move on the UFO issue?
This author was very skeptical that any such thing would happen in the first 100 days of Obama’s first term. The prediction turned out to be accurate.
The second term, however, looks different. Obama’s recent actions seem to be giving off different signals that something might be in the works. Perhaps he will spend some of his political capital to take on the Rodney Dangerfield of all political and socials movements.
Prior to his first term Obama rarely talked about anything not grounded in a socialist leaning of “taking care of the little guy.” When it came to less grounded issues such as the space program Bill and Hillary Clinton were giving speeches during the 2008 campaign that clearly predicted that an Obama election would be bad news for NASA and anyone else with off world interests. These predictions turned out to be fairly accurate as NASA would discover.
When asked the question about “life in outer space” during an October 2007 Democratic debate Obama clearly pointed out that although there may be being coming to Earth he was much more concerned with people who were already here on Earth that needed his help.
When asked during the 2008 election whether or not he would tell the public if he found out once elected that there were aliens visiting Earth, Obama skirted the question by turning the question into a punch line for a joke. ‘It would depend,” Obama told the reporter, “on whether the aliens were Democrats or Republicans.”
As the first term went along, and especially during the 4th year of the term Obama started to say things and things started to happen around Obama that indicated the UFO issue may have been discussed and that Obama was leaning towards UFO openness. Obama had started to talk UFOs when he didn’t have to, and was starting to sound like Bill Clinton who was fascinated with UFOs and who made more than a couple references to aliens, UFOs, and Martians in his public speeches. These incidents and statements tended to indicate one of two things . . ..
Continue Reading . . .
See Also:
VIDCAST: President Obama Reveals Roswell UFO Hints According to Researcher Grant Cameron
President Obama Wants the News [Re Life] From Mars ASAP
Dr. Edgar Mitchell To President Obama:
End Truth Embargo On UFOs and The Extraterrestrial Presence!
SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Friday, July 13, 2012
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
VIDEO | Inside Details on Mission To Kill Osama Bin Laden
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See Also:
How Osama Bin Laden was Killed
BREAKING NEWS | VIDEO: Crowds Celebrate in NYC Where Twin Towers Fell After Bin Laden's Death was Announced
BREAKING NEWS | VIDEO: President Obama Confirms Osama Bin Laden's Death | Read Full Text of Obama's Speech
SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
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Monday, August 18, 2008
Barack Obama: Advancing the Frontiers of Space Exploration
By spaceref.com
8-16-08
A ROBUST AND BALANCED PROGRAM OF SPACE EXPLORATION AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Over the past 50 years our civilian space program has embodied the adventurous spirit that lifted this nation to greatness and inspired people around the world. At the same time, America's leadership in space has provided the United States with a scientific and economic edge. Barack Obama believes the United States should maintain its international leadership in space while at the same time inspiring a new generation of Americans to dream beyond the horizon. Barack Obama believes that what President Kennedy said about space more than 45 years ago remains valid today: "The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space. . . . We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained . . . and used for the progress of all people."
THE CHALLENGE
Historically, the U.S. space program has inspired people the world over with its feats on behalf of all humankind. This leadership can continue; indeed, the Bush administration set an ambitious agenda for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but has since failed to provide adequate funding or leadership to move forward with that agenda. As a result, key programs have suffered. Poor planning and inadequate funding are leading to at least a five-year gap after the retirement of the Space Shuttle. During those years, the United States will have to depend on foreign rockets and spacecraft to send Americans to orbit. NASA has had to slash its research budget, including its aeronautical research, its programs to study climate change, microgravity research that can yield new technologies, and even the robotic exploration of the outer solar system and the universe beyond. Many other countries are moving forward in space; the United States cannot afford to fall behind.
A COMPREHENSIVE VISION
As president, Barack Obama will establish a robust and balanced civilian space program. His NASA not only will inspire the world with both human and robotic space exploration, but also will again lead in confronting the challenges we face here on Earth, including global climate change, energy independence, and aeronautics research. In achieving this vision, Obama will reach out to include international partners and to engage the private sector to amplify NASA's reach. Obama believes that a revitalized NASA can help America maintain its innovation edge and contribute to American economic growth
There is currently no organizational authority in the Federal government with a sufficiently broad mandate to oversee a comprehensive and integrated strategy and policy dealing with all aspects of the government's space- related programs, including those being managed by NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Commerce Department, the Transportation Department, and other federal agencies. This wasn't always the case. Between 1958 and 1973, the National Aeronautics and Space Council oversaw the entire space arena for four presidents; the Council was briefly revived from 1989 to 1992. Barack Obama will re-establish this Council reporting to the president. It will oversee and coordinate civilian, military, commercial and national security space activities. It will solicit public participation, engage the international community, and work toward a 21st century vision of space that constantly pushes the envelope on new technologies as it pursues a balanced national portfolio that expands our reach into the heavens and improves life here on Earth.
SPACE SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION
Closing the Gap
Since 1981, the Space Shuttle has been NASA's workhorse. Its retirement will leave NASA without human spaceflight capability until the first elements of the Constellation program are operational, some five years later. This gap between the retirement of the Space Shuttle and the entry into service of its replacement is a serious concern. Barack Obama is committed to making the necessary investments to ensure we close this gap as much as is technically feasible and to minimize reliance on foreign space capabilities. He also will work with the space industry to ensure retention of workforce and technical capabilities during the transition from the shuttle to its successor.
- Retaining Options for Additional Shuttle Flights: Barack Obama supports Congressional efforts to add at least one additional Space Shuttle flight to fly a valuable mission and to keep the workforce engaged. He will work to ensure there is adequate funding to support that additional flight so that it does not interfere with developing the Shuttle's successor.
- Speeding the Next-Generation Vehicle: Obama will expedite the development of the Shuttle's successor systems for carrying Americans to space so we can minimize the gap. This will be difficult; underfunding by the Bush administration has left NASA with limited flexibility to accelerate the development of the new systems.
- Using the Private Sector:Obama will stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and demonstrate spaceflight capabilities. NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is a good model of government/industry collaboration..
- Working with International Allies: Obama will enlist international partners to provide International Space Station (ISS) cargo re-supply and eventually alternate means for sending crews to the ISS.
Completing and Enhancing the International Space Station
The International Space Station is an outstanding example of what can be accomplished through international cooperation. Though we have spent billions to build the station, the microgravity research it was intended to facilitate has fallen victim to funding cuts. Barack Obama would ensure that NASA and other federal agencies are fully utilizing the ISS to conduct research that can help address global challenges such as public health and energy independence and can develop technologies that can provide economic benefits to Earth. Obama also will enable research on the ISS to support long-term human exploration and planetary research needs.
- Partnering to Enhance the Potential of the ISS: Barack Obama will enlist other Federal agencies, industry and academia to develop innovative scientific and technological research projects on the ISS.
- Enabling Human Exploration: Obama will use the ISS for fundamental biological and physical research to understand the effects of long-term space travel on human health and to test emerging technologies to enable such travel.
- Enhancing International Cooperation: The ISS has been a model for international cooperation to achieve peaceful objectives in space, helping develop positive relations with Russia during the 1990s. America must take the next step and use the ISS as a strategic tool in diplomatic relations with non traditional partners.
- Retaining Options for Extended Operations: Barack Obama will consider options to extend ISS operations beyond 2016. After investing so much in developing the ISS, it would be a shame not to utilize it to the fullest possible extent.
Embracing Human Space Exploration
Human spaceflight is important to America's political, economic, technological, and scientific leadership. Barack Obama will support renewed human exploration beyond low earth orbit. He endorses the goal of sending human missions to the Moon by 2020, as a precursor in an orderly progression to missions to more distant destinations, including Mars.
- Continuing Research and Development Investments to Support Future Missions: Barack Obama will support a robust research and technology development program that addresses the long-term needs for future human and robotic missions. He supports a funding goal that maintains at least 10 percent of the total exploration systems budget for research and development.
- Drawing in International Partners: Obama will encourage a cooperative framework for the conduct of a long-term and sustainable international exploration initiative. This will enable the United States to leverage its resources and to use space exploration as a tool of global diplomacy. As this framework is developed, Obama will continue NASA's architecture studies and advanced planning to ensure the American space workforce remains engaged and that America can lead the world to long-term exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, in a collaborative and cost-effective way.
- Partner to Improve Basic Capabilities: Obama will evaluate whether the private sector can safely and effectively fulfill some of NASA's need for lower earth orbit cargo transport.
Conducting Robotic Missions
Exploring our solar system and the universe beyond has helped us address profound questions. Barack Obama supports a robust program of robotic exploration that supports the major cross-cutting themes and the recommended new missions established by the decadal survey of the National Research Council.
- Leveraging Robotic Capabilities to Explore the Solar System: Obama supports increased investment in research, data analysis, and technology development across the full suite of exploration missions including the Mars Sample Return mission and future missions to the Moon, asteroids, Lagrange points, the outer Solar System, and other destinations.
- Supporting Space-Based Observatories: Platforms like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X- Ray Observatory, the Gamma Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope have yielded some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the last century. Obama is committed to a bold new set of such platforms and programs to expand our knowledge of the cosmos.
EARTH-ORIENTED RESEARCH
Studying the Earth and Monitoring Climate Change
Understanding how Earth supports life and how human activities affect its ability to do so is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Because of decades of investment in research satellites, scientists now better understand and can better predict natural phenomena such as hurricanes and weather patterns. However, many of our current monitoring and research satellites are expected to end their operational life between now and 2026. Given the urgency of climate-related monitoring, and considering the time required to design, develop, and deploy Earth observation satellite systems, the Obama administration will lean forward to deploy a global climate change research and monitoring system that will work for decades to come. The recommendations in the recent National Research Council decadal survey on Earth observations from space will guide his priorities in this regard.
- Stopping Political Interference: Barack Obama will strengthen baseline climate observations and climate data records to ensure that there are long-term and accurate climate records. He will not use climate change research data for political objectives.
- Supporting Global Food and Water Needs: The Global Precipitation Measurement mission is an international effort to improve climate, weather, and hydrological predictions through more accurate and more frequent precipitation measurements. Obama will work to launch this mission without further delay.
- Enhancing Earth Mapping: Obama will continue support for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which allows study of the earth's land surfaces and provides valuable data for agricultural, educational, scientific, and government use.
Maintaining Leadership in Aeronautics Research
A strong national program of aeronautics research and technology contributes to the vitality of the United States aeronautics industry, the efficiency of the U.S. air transportation system, and the economic well-being and quality of life of our citizens. Barack Obama believes that Department of Transportation, NASA, and other agencies have important roles in assuring the best possible air transportation system and developing related technologies that enable products and services to compete effectively in the global marketplace.
- Supporting Fundamental Research: Barack Obama will pursue more long-term fundamental research to reduce the risk associated with advancing the state of the art.
- Advancing Future Transportation Needs: The Obama administration will support aeronautics research to address aviation safety, air traffic control, and noise reduction.
- Promoting Fuel Efficiency: Rising oil prices not only impact motorists at the pump, they are also squeezing airlines and even the U.S. Air Force, which spent $5.8 billion on fuel in 2006, up from $2.8 billion in 2004. Advanced aeronautical research at NASA could dramatically improve the fuel efficiency of military and civilian aircraft, reducing costs for passengers and taxpayers alike. Barack Obama will support such research.
Better Coordination with Other Federal Agencies Involved in Space
The Department of Defense (DOD) invests heavily in space assets to provide troops with weather, communications, navigation, early warning, space surveillance and other information critical to conducting military operations. In fiscal year 2008 alone, DOD expects to spend over $22 billion dollars to develop and procure satellites, launch vehicles, and other space systems. This is more than NASA's annual budget. The National Reconnaissance Office operates satellites that provide information essential to national security and global stability. In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates an array of weather satellites that provide billions of dollars of benefit to the U.S. taxpayer. Barack Obama believes that NASA can work more closely with other federal agencies to take advantage of their expertise and technologies. This includes sharing research and technical information as well as better coordination of acquisition programs. Ensuring an integrated and fully coordinated national space program will be the major responsibility of the re- established National Aeronautics and Space Council. Obama will also work to better integrate NASA in a better coordinated national science policy. Obama will appoint an Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Policy who will report directly to the president, and be deeply involved in establishing research priorities that reflect the nation's needs based on the best available advice from experts around the country.
PROMOTING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND KEEPING SPACE SECURE
Collaborating with the International Community
Space exploration must be a global effort. Barack Obama will use space as a strategic tool of U.S. diplomacy to strengthen relations with allies, reduce future conflicts, and engage members of the developing world.
- Collaborating on Exploration: The United States needs to fully involve international partners in future exploration plans to help reduce costs and to continue close ties with our ISS partners. NASA has been working with 13 other space agencies to develop a globally coordinated approach to space exploration; Barack Obama will not only continue but intensify this effort. Human exploration beyond low-earth orbit should be a long-term goal and investment for all space faring countries, with America in the lead.
- Collaborating on Climate Change Research: Barack Obama will expand and deepen American collaboration with international partners on climate research, both to increase understanding of climate challenges and to demonstrate American leadership in this arena.
Emphasizing an International, Cooperative Approach to Space Security
Keeping our space assets free of threats of disruption will be an Obama priority. This is not only a military concern, but also an issue relevant to commercial and scientific operators. Developing an international approach to minimizing space debris, enhancing capabilities for space situational awareness, and managing increasingly complex space operations are important steps towards sustaining our space operations.
- Negotiating Agreements on "Rules of the Road": Barack Obama will work with other nations to develop "rules of the road" for space to ensure all nations have a common understanding of acceptable behavior.
- Opposing Weaponization of Space: Space assets are increasingly important to our national security and our economy, but they are also extremely vulnerable. China's successful test of an anti-satellite missile in January 2007 signaled the beginning of a potential new arms race in space. Barack Obama opposes the stationing of weapons in space and the development of anti-satellite weapons. He believes the United States must show leadership by engaging other nations in discussions of how best to stop the slow slide towards a new battlefield.
- Protecting America's Space Assets: Recognizing their vulnerability, Obama will work to protect our assets in space by pursuing new technologies and capabilities that allow us to avoid attacks and recover from them quickly. The Operationally Responsive Space program, which uses smaller, more nimble space assets to make US systems more robust and less vulnerable is a way to invest in this capability.
DEVELOPING NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Expanding Public/Private Partnerships to Advance Leading Edge Technologies
The commercial space sector plays an essential role in the lives of normal Americans, contributing more than $100 billion to the global economy. Commercial satellites support direct-to-home television and digital audio services to over 30 million U.S. subscribers, high-speed Internet, traffic and weather monitoring, rapid transfer of financial data, and the imagery essential to natural resource and city planning. Technologies developed to meet the challenges of space exploration have found more than 30,000 commercial uses in products ranging from tennis shoes to medical equipment, bar codes, pacemakers and sunglasses, to technology that makes air travel safer and more efficient. Barack Obama knows that advanced space and aeronautics research can help catalyze economic growth. He will encourage public/private space technology partnerships to spur innovation.
- Enhancing the Role of NASA as a Premier Institution of Innovation: Engineers and scientists at NASA have developed state-of-the-art innovations across the technological spectrum in areas ranging from solar cells and imaging to communications and aeronautics. Barack Obama will renew NASA's commitment to innovation-driving basic research that the private sector can use to develop new products for American consumers.
- Increasing Commercialization Benefits: Obama will promote cost sharing initiatives between government and industry to increase the state of the art in various technical areas, such as micro- electromechanical systems, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. Obama will establish multi-agency programs that focus on rapid maturation of advanced concepts and transfer to industry for commercialization.
- Jumpstarting Consumer Technology: Obama will expand the use of prizes for revolutionary technical achievements that can benefit society, and funds for joint industry/government rapid-to-the- consumer technology advances.
- Supporting Commercial Access to Space: Obama will stimulate the commercial use of space and private sector utilization of the International Space Station. He will establish new processes and procurement goals to promote the use of government facilities. We must unleash the genius of private enterprise to secure the United States' leadership in space.
- Revising Regulations for Aerospace Export Control: Some sections of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have unduly hampered the competitiveness of domestic aerospace industry. Outdated restrictions have cost billions of dollars to American satellite and space hardware manufacturers as customers have decided to purchase equipment from European suppliers. While protecting our national security interests, Barack Obama will direct a review of the ITAR to reevaluate restrictions imposed on American companies, with a special focus on space hardware that is currently restricted from commercial export. He will also direct revisions to the licensing process to ensure that American suppliers are competitive in the international aerospace markets, without jeopardizing American national security.
- Expanding the American Skill Base in Science and Engineering: Barack Obama fully supports efforts to advance new frontiers in technical areas, such as advanced structures, power generation, communication and navigation systems, and biomedical systems. These efforts address the requirements for exploration, but also have high potential for technological benefits in the private sector as well as in training the next generation of scientists and engineers.
EDUCATING THE PUBLIC
Engaging the Public and Inspiring the Next Generation
Fifty years after Sputnik, science, math, and engineering education in America is facing a crisis. As the National Academy of Sciences' Rising Above the Gathering Storm report concluded, a "danger exists that Americans may not know enough about science, technology or mathematics to contribute significantly to, or fully benefit from, the knowledge-based economy that is already taking shape around us." Barack Obama believes that NASA can inspire students to learn about mathematics, science and the applications of engineering and technology.
- Establishing Educational Access to Government Programs and R&D: Obama's NASA will develop K-12 education activities to translate the successes of our civil space programs, particularly our nation's scientific discoveries, our technology developments, and space exploration activities, into instructional programs for our children.
- Inspiring Learning through Participatory Exploration: Technology is allowing students in an American classroom to remotely control a camera on the International Space Station and may someday enable them to control a rover on the Moon. This type of participatory exploration can inspire students to study mathematics, science and engineering.
- Establishing Teacher/Researcher Fund for High Schools: Barack Obama will support nontraditional approaches, such as student design competitions and internet-based collaborations to engage students and develop the next generation of scientists and engineers.
- Increasing Opportunities for College Students: Obama will support university programs that partner NASA, DOT, DOD and NOAA with academia to provide hands-on training experiences at the college level.
- Supporting Open Government Initiatives: Obama will engage our public servants in two-way dialogs with the public to discuss the national agenda for space, to show how their tax dollars are being used, and to solicit feedback how to better address the needs of the nation.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
" . . . After 60 Years of Modern UFOs, Human Beings Still Have No Idea What They Are . . ."
Poli Sci Fi
By Scott McLemee
Inside Higher Ed
8-13-08
All the horse-race drama of the primary season is now but a memory. And there is plenty of time to kill before the spectacle of the party conventions. (In the fullest Guy Debord-esque sense of “spectacle,” no doubt about it.) So lately we have had a chance to contemplate the less heavily vetted aspects of political discourse – the rattle of whatever tin can may be tied to the tail of each presidential campaign. Is Barack Obama really the Antichrist? Is John McCain really Grandpa Simpson? Discuss.By Scott McLemee
Inside Higher Ed
8-13-08
Lest anyone think this is the silly season, we turn with relief to the August issue of the journal Political Theory, where a major article finally addresses an issue too long ignored by candidates and scholars alike. “If academics’ first responsibility is to tell the truth,” write two political scientists, “then the truth is that after 60 years of modern UFOs, human beings still have no idea what they are, and are not even trying to find out. That should surprise and disturb us, and case doubt on the structure of rule that requires and sustains it.”
How true! Hold a press conference on immigration here in Washington, DC and the reporters will come. Hold one about the other aliens, and you’re lucky if a couple of smartasses turn up to ask questions about “The X Files.”
I don’t know if they read much political theory over at the National Press Club. Probably not. But if Alexander Wendt (professor of international security at Ohio State University) and Raymond Duvall (chairman of the poli sci department at the University of Minnesota) can’t get a serious hearing for their paper “Sovereignty and the UFO,” then the cause is truly hopeless, and the incessant rectal probing by our reptilian overlords will never end.
The paper came to my attention via blog postings by a couple of political scientists. One took it as an example of the kind of thing you can get away with once you have tenure. The other grappled with the argument itself and found it wanting on its own terms. (The authors of the paper have replied here.)
That argument boils down to a claim that UFO research has never achieved legitimacy because the very possibility of visitation by extraterrestrials poses too many problems for the implicit metaphysics of the nation-state.
Contemporary ideas about national sovereignty are quite thoroughly anthropocentric. That was not always the case. In the age of kings who ruled by divine right, the ultimate sovereign authority was embedded in God Himself. And if you lived in a community where shamans communicate regularly with bears or fish or the spirit of the mountain, then you would tend to think of nature itself as having, in effect, the franchise.
The modern sense of the nation-state rests on the assumption that politics is a strictly human process. Sovereignty – the ultimate authority to make decisions within a territory – is embodied in human agents.
Furthermore, a nation-state tends to develop mechanisms for keeping track of its own population – a series of institutions and bodies of knowledge devoted to monitoring the people who live within its borders, create its wealth, and obey its laws. (Or don’t, as the case may be.) The result is a grid of power and expertise sometimes designated by the rather unwieldy expression “governmentality,” coined by Michel Foucault.
Sovereignty and governmentality are related though not identical concepts. But they converge on one point that Wendt and Duvall consider a kind of blindspot: In the modern nation-state, sovereignty and governmentality are, by default, completely anthropocentric.
Even after countless thousands of UFO reports from all over the world – often by members of the military – the nearly 200 nation-states “have been notably uninterested” in the phenomenon. “One may speak of a ‘UFO taboo,’” write Wendt and Duvall, “a prohibition in the authoritative public sphere on taking UFOs seriously, or ‘thou shalt not try very hard to find out what UFOs are.’”
Their argument is, in important respects, the exact opposite of – well, “The X Files.” It is not a conspiracy theory. “We are not saying the authorities are hiding The Truth about UFOs,” write W&D. Nor are they even suggesting that The Truth would necessarily involve extraterrestrial visitation. “We are saying that [the authorities] cannot ask the question.”
This claim places their inquiry within a field of study described in this column a couple of months ago: the discipline of agnotology. (Just as epistemology considers the genesis and structure of knowledge, agnotology examines the sources and inner logic of ignorance.) Wendt and Duvall’s endnotes neglect the agnotological literature – but they have added to it, even so.
“Our puzzle,” they explain, “is not the familiar question of ufology, ‘What are UFOs?’ but, ‘Why are they dismissed by the authorities?’ Why is human ignorance not only unacknowledged, but so emphatically denied? In short, why a taboo?”
The pattern of avoidance is, the answer, “akin to denial in psychoanalysis: the sovereign represses the UFO out of fear about what it would reveal about itself. There is therefore nothing for the sovereign to do but turn its gaze away from – to ignore, and hence be ignorant of – the UFO, making no decision at all.”
One knows better than to argue with a psychoanalyst, of course. Disagreement only proves that the insight was valid; otherwise, it would not generate so much anxiety. Likewise, the call for UFO research triggers the “extraordinarily resilient” forces of modern sovereignty and its metaphysics: “Those who attempt it will have difficulty funding and publishing their work,” write Wendt and Duvall, “and their reputations will suffer.”
Wendt and Duvall mention a few cases where governments have, in fact, conducted studies of UFO sightings. But clearly they were efforts to dismiss the question. The decades-long Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project does not undermine the point that anthropocentric sovereignty cannot bear contemplating any challenge. Indeed, the authors write, “SETI advocates have been at the forefront of UFO skepticism.”
Theories are always most beautiful when they cannot be falsified. “Sovereignty and the UFO” is a thing of beauty. Anyone who is already a little tired of McCain and Obama should check out Wendt and Duvall. And keep watching the skies....