A petition to investigate little green men is getting more signatures than meteorologists petitioning against National Weather Service budget cuts on the White House’s petition website.
Stephen Bassett, the executive director of The Paradigm Research Group, submitted a petition calling on the government to formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence among the human race.
Solar Flare-Up Over UFOs
“Not telling the public the truth dramatically affects the truth in the government,” said Bassett.
“The withholding of truth about an ET presence was justified during the cold war as a matter of national security and that is understandable. However, the cold war is over, and that is no longer acceptable that something as profound as this could be withheld from the public.”
Bassett said he doesn’t want money, he just wants the government to come clean. More than 5,700 people apparently believe the truth is out there, too.
X-Files jokes aside, it’s serious business.
The National Weather Service employees union launched its petition to prevent budget cuts on February 16. It’s seeing stars over a White House plan to reduce its budget by tens of millions of dollars.
The union warns slicing 4 percent of its budget could have deadly consequences. The outcry comes as parts of the U.S. try to recover from last weekend’s deadly tornadoes.
The plight has a significant following on Facebook — where the union’s “Protect the National Weather Service” has more than 101,000 likes. But its White House petition is stuck in a quasi-stationary front — with just over 3,200 signatures.
It has pushed for signatures on the page numerous times. Yet, the petition to investigate UFOs still has more endorsements than the one to protect the National Weather Service. The UFO petition actually went up about a week after the one from the weather service.
Bureaucratic Black Hole?
We want to know if these petitions are falling into a bureaucratic black hole.
“The number of signatures coming onto that site is very dependent on how many people know about it,” said Bassett. “The White House has not really publicized the ‘We The People’ website.”
The Obama administration launched “We The People” on Whitehouse.gov last September. The government calls it a new platform giving Americans a way to create and sign petitions on a range of issues affecting the U.S.
White House spokesperson Matt Lehrich reports 96 petitions have gotten an official White House response so far — 13 of those coming since October. That’s when the minimum number was raised from 5,000 to 25,000 signatures.
This is Bassett’s second crack at a petition on the site. The first time, Phil Larson from the White House Office of Science and Technology gave this statement: “The U.S. government has no evidence of any life outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race.”
We think the answer may lie in the stars.
Stephanie is Squawk Box producer. Follow her on twitter @StephLandsman
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