ET Affairs Commission closer to making ballot

After several false starts and failed attempts, Jeff Peckman turned in over 7,000 signatures on Friday to move one step closer towards getting his Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission initiative on a ballot.

The Clerks and Recorder’s Office must find two-thirds of the signatures to be valid for the initiative — which would create a seven-person panel to collect data and research that could prepare Denverites for potential alien encounters  — to go to the voters. If Peckman is short of any valid signatures, his group will have another 25 days to make up the difference.

“It feels great, this has been going on almost a year and a half,” said Peckman after turning in the signatures. “It’s a big relief.”

Peckman arrived in style on Friday to turn in the signatures. He recently retrofitted his 1993 Chevy with a new prototype hydrogen fuel cell that supposedly boosts an automobile’s fuel economy by more than 30 percent while also reducing its emissions.

The hydrogen fuel cell in Peckman’s car is allegedly the first such prototype in the United States. The device slips between the car’s bumper and grill and features an electrolyte that draws the Hydrogen out of the water, sends it through a tube and into the air intake where it mixes with the gas.

“The tragedy in this is that if I had it a few months earlier, I could have made more of an issue about ‘Cash for Clunkers’ destroying 700,000 cars that could have otherwise been upgraded well above that 18 miles-per-gallon threshold,” he said. “Those cars could have had a larger lifespan and been donated to nonprofits.”

Friday’s signature turn-in is Peckman’s third attempt to get his ET commission initiative on the ballot. Peckman said he didn’t collect enough signatures to put the initiative on the November 2008 ballot because the massive flood of publicity he got at the time — which culminated with an appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” — sidetracked him. The ET guru then planned on placing the initiative on the May 2009 ballot but decided against it after being informed that it would be the only initiative on the ballot and would cost the city at least $500,000 to carry out the vote.

Not everyone has been on board with Peckman’s initiative. The Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society told Denver Daily News reporter Peter Marcus in April that Peckman is making a mockery of the topic.

“We tend to approach things with intelligence,” said Matthew Baxter, a paranormal investigator with the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. “They would like to get assistance from the government on something the government is covering up.” 

Beaming forward

Last week’s revelation that Japan’s new first lady claims to have traveled in a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus only furthers the need for initiatives that will further the discussion on extra terrestrials, according Peckman. Many Americans and almost all politicians are “hiding under their tables and don’t want to use the word UFO and talk about this issue at all,” he said.

“I find it refreshing to see that kind of openness and honesty to be coming from a woman of her standing,” Peckman said. “I don’t think we will see people going over there telling the prime minister that his wife is a flake, fringe lunatic or UFO nut.”

Peckman will unofficially start his public awareness campaign while serving as a conference moderator for Galactic Gathering: A Conference on Extraterrestrial Civilizations. The event is taking place at the Doubletree DTC later this month.