Rush takes aim at UFO politics
FLORIDA TODAY (Melbourne, FL)
August 8, 2001
Note: the Disclosure Project is complete and total scam artistry.
Author: Billy Cox
Judging from the brevity of the exchange, which was recorded by CNN on July 28, 2000, you can almost hear George W. Bush's eyeballs clicking against the socket ceilings.
Addressing the media horde as the Republican Convention in Philadelphia winds down, this one guy, Charles Huffer, manages to squeeze a response from the Texas governor. What the guv doesn't know is, Huffer's a state regional director for the Mutual UFO Network in Arkansas.
Huffer: "Half the public believes that (unidentified flying objects) are real. Would you finally tell us what the hell is going on (if elected president)?"
W.: "Sure I will."
Huffer (gesturing to running mate Dick Cheney): "This man knows. He was secretary of defense."
W.: "And a good one."
A few minutes later, off camera, Huffer catches one more Bush blurb on his audiocassette: "It'll be the first thing he (Cheney) will do. He'll get right on it."
Yeah, sure, whatever. The only reason for presenting this otherwise inconsequential snippet from the margins is that recently, $120 million gasbag Rush Limbaugh decided that no attack on the Bush clan -- not even those related to UFOs -- should get a free pass. Limbaugh drew a bead on Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel for the Disclosure Project, a group of former government, military and corporate types who gathered in Washington, D.C., on May 9 to lobby Congress for open hearings on the UFO phenomenon.
Sheehan and Disclosure Project director Steven Greer argued that the recovery and exploitation of crashed UFOs has led to the development of technologies that can harness free energy, enough to end petroleum's hammerlock on the world economy.
But they also contended the innovations were buried deep inside black budget operations to keep from destabilizing financial institutions.
Media coverage of the witness testimony was scant and yawning. Three months after the press conference, letter-writing campaigns haven't generated many blips on political radar screens. Senate heavies like Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) brush off constituents with form-letter replies referring all queries to the long-dead Project Blue Book archives. Lesser-known rubber stamps like Sen. James Imhofe (R-Okla.), who support pouring billions of dollars into National Missile Defense, write that "it would be irresponsible to spend taxpayer money on hearings and legislation related to such phenomena."
So, obviously, if you're just another brick in the wall, the smart thing to do is let this Disclosure Project thing die a slow, natural death. But then, along comes Limbaugh -- you know, the guy with talent on loan from God? With half his brain tied behind his back? On the cutting edge of societal revolution? Limbaugh makes an issue of Sheehan's charge that President-elect Carter's attempts to honor a campaign pledge to declassify UFOs were stymied by then-CIA director George Bush in 1976.
"So let me get this straight," Limbaugh says. "The Bushes are at the heart of the vast right-wing conspiracy to keep the oil companies rich by hiding extraterrestrial solar panels or super-warm sweaters or whatever it is they showed Jimmy Carter."
Limbaugh's bottom line: UFOs are just another "liberals from Planet X" Bush-bashing platform. "You may be surprised to hear me say that Mr. Sheehan is half right," Limbaugh says. "There is alien life -- but we are not hiding it. We see Dick Gephart plain as day!"
That's a real seam-splitter, dude.
Too bad the godfather of Republican conservatism, Barry Goldwater -- Mr. Extremism In Defense of Liberty Is No Vice -- isn't around to untie the other half of Limbaugh's brain. Goldwater aired his frustrations to no less than Larry King regarding his inability to access top-secret UFO data when he was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"This thing has gotten so highly classified . . . that it is just impossible to get anything on it," Goldwater wrote to one constituent. To another, he added: "I have no idea of who controls the flow of 'need to know,' because frankly, I was told in such an emphatic way that it was none of my business that I've never tried to make it my business since."
Glib campaign sound bites to the contrary, the status quo is safely entrenched. Limbaugh attacking UFO declassification as a "liberal agenda" is like a hippo break-dancing in Spandex. He draws major-league attention to what his fellow ideologues would just as soon leave under a rock, and the guy winds up looking like a dork.