It seemed like the “in” joke for speakers at the Republican National Convention this evening was “Community Organizer”. Sarah Palin used it to poke fun of Barack Obama’s experience during her acceptance speech this evening. Rudy Giuliani (who miraculously kept his mention of 9/11 down to one instance!) used the “Community Organizer” dig with gusto to attack Obama’s experience and bolster Palin’s so-called “Executive” experience (another catch prhase for the evening).

It should come as no surprise that the Republicans are opposed to community organization. If they are going to keep their base, they have to disable the grass roots apparatus that can get past the media they own and get the word out to the working poor that they are voting against their own economic interest each time they vote Republican. (For an excellent analysis of this, please read Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant. An excellent book.)

It should also come as no surprise that in the run up to the Republican Convention, the police were rounding up and arresting activists and protesters and suspected protesters. Employing classic intimidation methods to discourage potential protests, they rounded people up, charged them with nothing, and released them without returning personal items such as journals, computers, and even a child’s shoes.

Take that community organizers! Nyah!

NLG Attorney explains the series of raids

Organizers gather in the street after being ejected during police searches

Journalist Amy Goodman caught up by overzealous police and arrested while covering protests

And, finally, police confiscate the bus/home and personal belongings of a group of sustainable living hippies… including the dangerous child’s shoes! (But let them keep their dogs and chickens, apparently underestimating and overlooking the potential risk of biological warfare via avian flu.)

On his July 20 broadcast of Larry King Live, the CNN personality featured Robert Hastings, author of “UFOs and Nukes“, along with three retired Air Force personnel claiming that Unidentified Flying Objects had a keen interest in our burgeoning nuclear capacity. Among their claims are that UFOs caused missile malfunctions at Malmstrom Air Force base in 1967, and were even caught on film by Bob Jacobs during the filming of missile tests at Vandenberg Air Force base, but the films were confiscated by the CIA. You can watch a full YouTube version of the video by clicking on our “Video of the Week” link, or see the shorter version on the official CNN site by clicking here.

This isn’t the first time Larry King has used his show as a forum for discussing the UFO phenomenon. In November of 2007, for example, his program focused on the topic with a show entitled “UFOs: Are They for Real?”

(Part 1 of this episode linked here via YouTube)

However, while a part of me wants to applaud King for the courage to discuss UFOs in a public forum, my problem with King’s program, and most other treatments of the UFO phenomenon available on US television and across the width and breadth of the internet, is an extremely narrow focus on the Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis (ETH). Proponents of the ETH generally support the idea that UFOs are physical vehicles piloted, or remotely controlled, by intelligent beings assumed to be from another planet. Read more »

The British government has released their “first batch” of UFO files at ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk, as part of a four year program to make the files available to the public.

Also available at the national archives UFO site are videocasts and podcasts from Nick Pope and Dr. David Clarke, respectively, as well as older, already released UFO files, in PDF format (available for download at “a small fee”, according to the site, although all but those available under the UFO Files from the 1970s link are listed at £0.00, and the various PDFs available under UFO Files from the 1970s are either free or £3.50 per document).

by SMiles Lewis

Some time back I saw this allegedly official patch for stealth bomber pilots and crew. The 509th Bomber Wing were the first atomic bomb flyers and were based out of Roswell, New Mexico. I never thought it was likely to be real.

Then last year friend and fellow researcher Greg Bishop wrote about his encounter with the patch while working on a new British documentary called Mirage Men. Apparently, UFO researcher Curtis Peebles had acquired one of the patches. And another UFO researcher, Dennis Balthaser actually called the Air Force and interrogated someone over the phone trying to ascertain the validity and meaning behind the patch.

Now, it appears that an artist and activist named Trevor Paglen is having a bit of fun doing what he likes to do most, “deliberately blurring the lines between social science, contemporary art, and a host of even more obscure disciplines in order to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to interpret the world around us.” You see, Trevor just posted an article with slideshow and accompanying audio to the Newsweek website detailing this and many other exotic patches: Badges of Secrecy.

So while I doubt the validity of his analysis of these likely hoaxed patches and badges, I still have to stop and ponder their reality, and consider it alongside Trevor’s work in exposing “secret military bases, the California prison system, and the CIA’s practice of ‘extraordinary rendition.’ ”

By the way, you can get replicas of this and other patches through this LINK.