I like the fact that Kucinich has seen a UFO. It's one more bit of evidence that he's a man who has the courage to explore the edges of what it is to be human. But his strong rise in polls and his tough positions on health care and other issues make him a targe for the same kind of media hit job attack that Howard Dean suffered.
I have to wonder, when Tim Russert asked Dennis Kucinich about his UFO sighting, he was aiming at pulling a Dean Scream media hit on him. After the Iowa Caucus, when Dean let out a whoop, and a videographer with a mike on Dean over amplified the sound, the three second clip was shown thousands of times to mock Dean-- at a time when he was in a position to win the election-- something none of the major networks or mainstream media wanted. Dean had threatened to re-regulate the de-regulated media, forcing them to dis-own radio and TV stations where they had a monopoly, or just too much control of the media in a given metro area.
Now, something frightening has happened with Kucinich-- frightening to the mainstream media. He's not only made it past their cut-off requirements-- the ones that cut Mike Gravel out of the debate circuit-- he's actuall pulling strong in polling-- fourth place in New Hampshire, first place in the 100,000+ vote DFA poll. He's pulled to the top of the second tier in a a number of polls and in California's latest straw poll, he came in second, after Edwards, ahead of Obama and Hillary.
Mocking, and laughing at candidates is a common strategy used by all the mainstream, lamestream media. That's how they knock down the candidates who have the character and independence to stand out. Expect to see them do it more and more as Kucinich and Ron Paul both stand out-- totally against the war, totally for the constitution.
There are huge differences between Kucinich and Paul, but they will both be facing more mocking than the other candidates.
I want to talk a bit more about Kucinich's UFO experience and his relationship with Shirley McClain. I like that he's had a UFO experience. I like it a lot more that he tells the truth about having had one. I like that he has a relationship with Shirley McClain. She's an unusual person who has expressed interests in the edges of what it is to be human. I believe it is good to have a candidate who is not afraid to look at the edges of ideas about the human experience. When you go to edges, you find that in some places there is more room to go, and in other places, you are at a limit. If you take the conservative approach, and stay within the well known, safe territory, you never discover WHERE there are new spaces, new directions.
It takes courage to explore edges of ideas of all kinds. It takes more courage to stand up and say you DO explore those edges, when there are plenty of smarmy critics who don't have the guts themselves to go out on those edges.
Part of the courage about going out and exploring edges is the courage to face the critics-- the people who live the ordinary, everyday lives, the people who will never take the risks of exploration.
At one time, explorers sought out new lands, new trade routes, new territories. Now, some explore new technologies, others explore new sciences, and still others explore new ways of living, of experiencing, even of seeing. Actually, artists have been doing a lot of those things for centuries, maybe even millennia.
Being an explorer-- a risk taker who looks beyond the ordinary and everyday to expand our view of the world-- can extract a high price. Many explorers, now lost to history, died on their quests. Some sought to find edges where nothing existed and perhaps they were mocked and never survived the mocking. Then we have brave souls like the Seward in Seward's folly, who took a bold step that proved wise, not foolish.
In today's world of three second soundbites and cheap media jokes, it is common for 100 IQ news anchors to mouth the mean-spirited jokes of slightly smarter, out of view writers, attacking people of courage and character for doing something that is just plain different.
Tim Russert is not in that category. He's in the other category-- the don't let anyone who thinks differently or threatens the status quo get an inch ahead. Howard Dean told me the other day that Ken Russert "Does what he does the best." Well, one thing he does is stand for the mainstream way of thinking. And he mocks when he sees behavior that doesn't fit that mainstream's "compass." It doesn't have to be that way. It's time for the thought and culture leaders of our time to set new standards. Exploring new technology is honored and respected. Exploring new ways of seeing things is okay, if you're an artist. It's time that people with the courage to explore new ways of being human, of seeing our behavior, new ways of finding solutions also be treated with respect, even honored and awarded for being the visionaries they truly are.
Meanwhile, Dean was attacked, I think, because he announced he was going to take the power away from the mainstream media. Watch a day's worth of TV and you'll see that one of the biggest sources of advertising money comes from the healthcare industry. (ALmost on cue, as I wrote this, an ad for health insurance appears, synchronicitously on MSNBC.) Drug advertising has increased more than tenfold in recent years, as Right wing deregulation has unleashed the beast. That makes the media ever more dependent upon them.
It is no wonder then, that, when Dennis Kucinich calls for true "non-profit" Universal health care-- of the single payer variety-- he is mocked, marginalized and brutally attacked with media sarcasm and smarmy humor. It's the way to derail a rising candidate.
When you see supposedly unbiased reporters making jokes about Kucinich's UFO experience, be assured, they're not just cutting a cheap joke. They're supporting the undermining of a courageous candidate who's taken a stand. Don't stand for it. Send the anchor or reporter an email, then change the channel and let the advertisers know how you feel.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
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-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
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I volunteered for the Kucinich campaign in my state back in 2004, and am supporting Kucinich this time around too. I paid very close to the media coverage of the election then and still am now.
Kucinich is never mentioned in the media, and when he is he's derided as a hopeless vanity candidate representing a freaky fringe. In fact, polls have shown his policy ideas line up very close to what most Americans value ie universal healthcare, an end to the war etc.
Tim Russert's question had no relevance to anything the candidates were debating. It was a question meant to call into question Kucinich's sanity-a cheap shot. I thought Kucinich responded well. He didn't lie about having claimed to have seen a UFO, but he also poked fun at himself so as not to sound flakey. And let's assume for a moment that Russert's unspoken insinuation is true, that Kucinich is a bit "eccentric." Listen, I'd much rather have a semi-eccentric candidate with a solid anti-war voting record than a war-mongering nepotistic leader like Clinton.
by
Justin Finney (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 3:17:19 PM
Yes, it's Tim who questioned Kucinich on his close encounter and his feeling "moved". I thought the question interesting even though I don't believe in UFOs of extra-terrestrial origin - but this is coming from a person who doesn't believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy either.
If Dean had his scream, Allen had his "macaca" moment, then Kucinich is entitled to his encounter. However, I will point out that it did not turn out so well (in the short-term political careers) for the first two.
by
Tom Murphy (3 articles, 4 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 1719 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 3:41:28 PM
Kucinich is doing well regardless of fundraising and the media dissing him, because he seems like the only Democrat that is standing up for the Constitution, and the American people.
But I wouldn’t call the news media the lamestream media, because that implies ignorance and ineptitude. In fact, they do what they do on purpose, so it is not lame, it is purposeful distortion.
The media have a corporate agenda, so calling them the corporate, or Republican friendly media is more accurate than lamestream.
John
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John R Moffett (80 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 610 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 4:57:24 PM
Good point. but...I like my term-- lamestream media. When I started using Lamestream media, there about ten hits on it in google. Now there are close to 33,000.
Still, when you're right, you're RIGHT, John. Lamestream suggest failure to do a good job, while actually the failure is really intentional and guided by corporate, right wing policy and strategy.
But your words are so neutral. I want something accurate, as you've described, but also disparaging.
Let's see. We start with:
Mainstream and Media.
We have corporate, rightwing, propaganda, sold out, as possible words....
I think I like corpstream media-- smells like death... of democracy, of the constitution, of truth. And there are zero hits on google for it. It might be fun to see if we can get it some traction.
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Rob Kall (808 articles, 3921 quicklinks, 332 diaries, 1702 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 8:41:20 PM
Russert's question to Kucinich regarding UFO's was about as cheap a shot as one can imagine. I might have expected it from Fox, but supposedly MSNBC has more class than Fox. That "class" took a dive Tuesday night, not only in that particular question, but in their handling of the debate as a whole.
Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate willing to step up and voice opinions that are very Un-Politically-Correct:
He talks about non-profit health care and the response is, "thank you" and let's move on.
He talks about impeachment (twice) and the response is, "thank you" and let's move on.
"Oh, by the way, Dennis, tell us about that UFO experience you had at Shirley MacLaine's front porch"
I stopped watching Russert some months ago, and I'm on the verge of stopping with MSNBC. Damn, that just leaves me with LinkTV and Democracy Now. I'll be so uninformed.
by
Angelo (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 176 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 5:09:41 PM
Kucinich and Richardson's Responses to the UFO Question
I wasn't too surprised that Kucinich was asked the question given the mass media's interest in Shirley MacLean's comments regarding his UFO sighting. Kucinich's clear affirmation to the question basically affirmed her account which suggested that it was a deeply moving and 'directive' experience for him. His later comments about moving to Roswell and then comparing poll numbers of UFO believers with Bush's popularity was an awkward attempt to defuse an issue he wants to evade for obvious political reasons. However, privately, MacLain's account suggests he thinks very seriously about the UFO issue, given its 'heart and mind' effect on him. Back in September after a UFO Congress in the Washington DC metro area, Kucinich staffer Natalie Laber, was asked by Washington Post reporter, Dana Milbank, about Kucinich's knowledge of UFOs. She told him to "keep your silly comments to yourself." So MacLaine has effectively outed him on the UFO issue so it will be interesting to see where he goes on that issue given the obvious political challenges it raises for him.
However, what Rob Kall didn't mention was the subsequent interview by Chris Matthews on MSNBC where he asked Bill Richardson the same question about UFOs. Richardson said he hadn't seen one, but that the government was not disclosing everything it knew about the alleged flying saucer crash in Roswell back in July 1947. So Richardson has brought out into the Presidential election the issue of the government not disclosing all it knows about UFOs. Successive polls such as a 2002 Roper Poll show approximately 70% of the American public don't believe the government is telling the truth about UFOs. Perhaps, most significantly, a posthumous affidavit by Walter Haut, the Public Information Officer at Roswell responsible for releasing the initial Flying Saucer crash report that got world wide attention, declared that a crash did occur that involved extraterrestrial life forms and an egg shaped vehicle. His affidavit is available online here.
So while the UFO question does pose considerable difficulties for any Presidential candidate desiring mainstream support, there is nevertheless much evidence that the government knows much more than it's telling the public.
by
Michael Salla (16 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 25 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 5:20:59 PM
Stating that one has seen a UFO or that a great war is going to come, Jesus will return to Earth as a violent psychopath that contradicts ALL of his teachings and that millions of naked retrograde morons are going to be beamed up to sit at the hand of God where they will delight in the rest of humanity tearing each other limb from limb.
Assassinations have come a long way since JFK, now instead of bullets an elitist media hack springing a trap question is the weapon of choice.
Just my two cents
EE
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Ed Encho (7 articles, 18 quicklinks, 56 diaries, 391 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 6:17:04 PM
I was looking for satellites back in the 1950's and I saw one make a right turn. I reported it to the Air Force and they were very interested. It is possible that Kucinich won more votes than he lost with his admission. (The crook media alway gets the first and last cut in every election however.)
by
John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1196 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 7:22:49 PM
If you listen to the MSNBC sound clip, just before they cut Kucinich off he says that he saw an unidentified flying object. It seemed clear that he was about to add something such as that what he saw was something in the sky that has never been satisfactorly explained to him.
This is not surprising or particularly unusual. There are optical effects that seem surprising and there are military experiments that cause peculiar phenomena that are not explained to the public. Last year I saw some lights in the sky that were obviously at great distances from each-other but which seemed to move in unison. I suppose I could call what I saw a UFO even though I suspect that the event had some fairly mundane explaination.
What I heard Kucinich say came nowhere close to putting him in the lunatic fringe, but making a big deal about it seems to put MSNBC producers at least in the hysterical fringe. I suspect that what makes them hysterical is the thought of someone like Kucinich advancing in the polls. He has so little money for buying advertisements. Think what it would do for the networks's bottom line.
by
PrMaine (10 articles, 8 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 329 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 7:22:50 PM
Great comments, all of them. Especially the one from Ed about zapping half-wit naked morons to the right hand of God or something. Fell out of my chair laughing.
But, how come we all know, understand, and express all these things so clearly, yet can do nothing to change anything? particularly the utter corruption of the, ironically, constitutionally protected media?
by
Steve Slocum (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 21 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 7:37:02 PM
'out there' as well as many here, exist quite comfortably right within the consensus trance. Sitting right there on their couches... or comatose on their recliners.... not going anywhere in any particular way....
an aside, except for very intermittently, I have not watched TV now for about two years. It has been a revelatory experience.
by
richard (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 789 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 8:12:57 PM
Just say, "I want my anti-gravitic propulsion system!" Since the MIC has been developing anti-gravity since the 1950's (Roswell or before) and Big Oil has squelched (ahhh, you know...eliminated) all the other amazing clean, green and "free energy" inventions (see Nikola Tesla and subsequent work) that have been developed. Free or cheap cuts into profits doncha know? Kucinich's voting stance historically has been virtually anti-immoral...how uplifting!
by
boomerang (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 273 comments)
on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 10:47:23 PM
I think we have all seen a UFO. MSNBC had shots of it on their news a couple of years ago. The whole country saw them thanks to the MSM. It was in Arizona and I don't believe anyone identified the objects yet. Chris Mathews treatment of this was identical to what he did to Dean.
by
DCDobbs (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 15 comments)
on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 12:27:02 AM
Everyone has seen a UFO. Any flying object you see that you cannot identify is a UFO. Anyone trying to make something out of it is an idiot. He did not say he had seen a space ship or an alien from another planet. Just seeing Hillary, Al, or Obama is spooky enough!
by
Hayesml47 (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 471 comments)
on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 7:46:59 AM
In general, people only mock the people they are afraid of. The big question is if Kucinich can turn this around into something positive. As the Hollywood types know, any attention is good attention.
If we have NASA sending objects into space, then there must be an assumption that there is something "out there." Carter also thought he saw a UFO, and I have met people who swear by them from first-hand experience.
Life has a certain amount of mystery and uncertainty. I am not sure Dennis can pull this off, but I am rooting for him. His campaign, to date, is safe bread and butter issues, which actually reinforces the status quo. If people get the sense that there are extreme choices, and he is the extreme, then they will choose a moderate between the two extremes. But if he can capture people's imagination, and show that uncertainty and mystery are not to be feared, then he can lead the country to new places.
He is the best of a terrible field of candidates.
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Steve Consilvio (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 81 comments)
on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 8:08:40 AM
Dean was a front runner, one who actually had a shot at the nomination. Dennis is an honest man with some great ideas who hasnt a snowballs chance in hell of winning the thing. I loathed Dean as a phoney moderate(read his record as Lt. Governor and then Governor) and love Kucinich's politics.
More than a few years ago, while wending my way home from a Forty Niner game ( pre game beers and post game as well gives a clue to my condition),I saw somne slow moving lights through the screen of trees along my route. Knowing immediately that this was a UFO I sped the car to reach the end of the tree line and jumped out to wave frantically at the aliens as they moved quite ponderously out of the trees.
As I stood there, drunk as a skunk and quite positive that I was witnessing a close encounter, the lights came closer and closer until the Goodyear blimp inched slowly into sight!
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 8:34:57 AM
