On Nov. 2, Denver voters will decide whether or not to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission. Yes, you read that correctly.

Jeff Peckman, Initiative 300's chief proponent, gathered enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

In his campaign, Peckman has underscored that such a commission would not cost taxpayers anything, with funding coming from grants, gifts and donations.

A seven-person expert panel that would make up the commission would be charged with:

-- Dealing with credible citizen reports of UFOs or contacts with extraterrestrial intelligent beings.

-- Responsibly listening to, or documenting reports of, encounters or abductions regardless of the highly unusual and credible evidence.

-- Referring such reports to private or public individuals or organizations that have dealt with such matters responsibly.

-- Helping citizens that know of no place to turn for help on potentially traumatic experiences.

From the Initiative 300 campaign mission statement:

It's a BIG universe but we need to share it with others who are not from Earth.

Our grand mission is dedicated to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of human beings in relation to interactions with extraterrestrial beings, and to creating peaceful, harmonious, and mutually beneficial relationships between all beings in the universe.

If this was on the ballot in California, do you think it would pass? What is the future of extraterrestrial interest in the United States? Should federal and state funding be put toward such efforts? Do you think Initiative 300 will pass?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Screenshot above from http://www.extracampaign.org

As the midterm election looms, the arguments over hot-button political issues are reaching a boil.

Just last week, Michael E. Mann -– a professor in the meteorology department at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center -– wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying that politicians have distracted and misled the public when it comes to scientific facts, particularly where climate change data are concerned.

In his piece entitled “Get the anti-science bent out of politics,” he blasts a “20-year assault on climate research”:

We have lived through the pseudo-science that questioned the link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer, and the false claims questioning the science of acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer. The same dynamics and many of the same players are still hard at work, questioning the reality of climate change.

He continues that "scientists are in broad agreement on the....

(This post will be updated throughout the day)

MarkeyMemo (Edward J. Markey, D-Mass.): House stands up to big oil, protects Gulf, passes #oilspill legislation 209-193 #BP http://bit.ly/cDpSta

RepMcClintock (R-Calif.): H.R. 3534 (Clear Act) - "Before We Add More Bureaucracies to the Equation, Shouldn't We Ask How the Existing Ones Did?" http://bit.ly/bpbLcA

cbrangel (D-N.Y.):  #Rangel Sees Quick Oil Spill Response Package as Measure to Shore Up National Security http://bit.ly/oilspillbill

GOPLeader (John Boehner): Dems Continue Job-Killing Agenda With New Tax on American Energy http://bit.ly/bhYkge

USRepMikeDoyle (D-Pa.):  voted to protect oil and gas industry whistle-blowers who report violations or practices that endanger the public http://bit.ly/aB9ZHU

Pete Olson (R-Texas): The House just passed a bill that will crush energy production and increase dependency on foreign oil. View my statement here.
http://olson.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=82&sectiontree=21%2C22%2C82&itemid=532

HouseTransInf (House Transport and Infrastructure committee):  House passes Clear Act; H.R. 3534 – initiates reforms to prevent future offshore drilling tragedies. More info. at http://go.usa.gov/Ohl.

edlabordems (House Education and Labor committee): Rep. Miller speaks passionately for offshore oil and gas worker whistleblower protections #oilspill http://bit.ly/c0qKkS [VIDEO]

Charlie Melancon (D-La.): With bipartisan support, the House just passed my amendment to redirect $1.2 billion in BP penalties to help pay for coastal restoration projects.

-- Craig Howie

Boom! Get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot or @craighowieLAT. Our Facebook Like page is over here. Also available on Kindle now with two-week free trial.

Photo: Used booms await inspection and repair at the Patriot Facility at the docks in Theodore, Alabama. Credit: Associated Press.

You know how Wile E. Coyote straps himself to the rocket and lights the fuse? And it burns. And burns. Silence. Nothing. He's poised, hopefully, awaiting launch. We wait, painfully, for the bad thing certain to happen.

That's what we've been doing for almost a week now, anticipating the explosive public reaction to word from NASA chief Charles Bolden that President Obama has tasked his once-fabled space agency with a brand-new earthbound mission that has absolutely nothing to do with space.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Bolden's stunning announcement about the taxpayer-funded space agency's new task did not come at home. It came overseas during a televised interview with Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern TV network.

In the interview (full video below), Bolden reveals that even before the Democratic ...

President Obama on Friday slammed oil executives for blaming each other for the disasterous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, the president said, "I will not tolerate more finger pointing or irresponsibility."

Follow this link for a report on the president's comments. Here is the text of president's remarks, as prepared by the White House:

Good afternoon, everybody. I just finished meeting with some of my Cabinet and administration officials about the ongoing efforts to stop the BP oil spill. And I wanted to give the American people an update on these efforts, but I also want to underscore the seriousness and urgency of this crisis.

The potential devastation to the Gulf Coast, its economy, and its people require us to continue our relentless efforts to stop the leak and contain the damage. There’s already been a loss of life, damage to our coastline, to fish and wildlife, and to the livelihoods of everyone from fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners. I saw firsthand the anger and frustration felt by our neighbors in the Gulf. And let me tell you, it is an anger and frustration that I share as President. And I’m not going to rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods.

Now, the most important order of business is to stop the leak. I know there have been varying reports over the last few days about how large the leak is, but since no one can get down there in person, we know there is a level of uncertainty. But as Admiral Thad Allen said today, our mobilization and response efforts have always been geared toward the possibility of a catastrophic event. And what really matters is this: There’s oil leaking and we need to stop it –- and we need to stop it as soon as possible.

With that source being 5,000 feet under the ocean’s surface, this has been extremely difficult. But scientists and engineers are currently using the best, most advanced technology that exists to try to stop the flow of oil as quickly as possible. Our second task has been...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has a birthday this weekend. Twenty years ago it was launched from the Kennedy Space Center to peer back in time with the most amazing photographs. That's a mere snap of the fingers in galactic time.

For a little perspective, the gap in the clouds on the left is about one trillion miles wide.

Some of the images on these photos don't exist anymore. It took the light from them a million....

Of course it happened on ABC's "The View," that on-air celebrity talk show that manages to combine the political with the fashionable and remain civil. Most of the time.

Thursday was no exception as Vice President Joe Biden sat on the couch. He took questions from Barbara Walters on foreign policy (he predicted the U.N. will slap sanctions on Iran within the next month), deflected complaints from Whoopi Goldberg about taxes (who knew?), even survived a compliment from Elisabeth Hasselbeck that though they were on opposite sides of the political fence, she thought he was "a cool guy."

So here's the story. During the historic White House signing ceremony that ushered the healthcare reform bill into law, Biden introduced President Obama and whispered in his ear that the achievement was "a ------- big deal." Afterward, the two got into a presidential limousine and, Biden reported, Obama was "laughing like the devil" because he knew what Biden didn't -- that the comment had been captured by a microphone.

"I was just thankful my mother couldn't hear it. It was a little embarrassing," Biden said. "I realized there was a microphone, I just had no idea it was that sensitive."

One more thing. Asked about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Biden said, "If you meet her, she is a charming person."

Actually, the most interesting tidbits were personal. Biden said his wife Jill -- he described her as eight years younger when they met but now 22 years younger -- only accepted his marriage proposal when he asked for the fifth time.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Vice President Biden whispers in President Obama's ear during the White House signing ceremony for healthcare reform in March. Credit: Getty Images

Click here to receive Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot or twitter.com/johannaneuman. And our Facebook FAN page is right here.

When President Obama was in Missouri recently, Robin Carnahan left for D.C.

Carnahan is the Democratic candidate for Senate, running in a decidedly purple state (swings between Republican red and Democratic blue). Missouri's secretary of State opted to stick to her official schedule in the nation’s capital rather than appear with the president in her home state.

What's wrong with this picture? Or rather, why didn't she want one?

Turns out candidates all over the country have informed the White House that this would not be the best time for a presidential visit. The unpopularity of Obama's healthcare reform, the anger of "tea party" activists over runaway spending in Washington, the stubborn unemployment numbers that have left millions of Americans still out of work -- all are forcing Team Obama to be strategic about where to send the top of the ticket (not us of course).

Endangered Democrats such as Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln will not be on the tarmac waiting for....

The Ticket has to give props to New York Magazine for taking a series of fairly uninteresting archived photos, pointing out how mundane they are and making the entire package absolutely hilarious.

Exhibit A: "A history of Obama feigning interest in mundane things."

Flip through these pictures and keep a close eye on President Obama's face. In each one, he seems to pay cursory attention to the trivial display presented to him.

Oh, an electricity generator, you say? Hmm.

Just look through here? Intriguing.

So, this is how glass is made? Fascinating.

It's all a part of campaigning and looking genuinely interested for the benefit of the cameras catching his every twitch.

Sure, after the fifth wind turbine manufacturing plant, things must start to get a little dull for any president. If there really is an Area 51 filled with green monsters from space, Obama has probably seen it.

Still, we can't help but crack up over Obama's ability to at least try to pretend he's into these things.

-- Mark Milian

Feigned genuine interest in clicking here to receive Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item all day every day. Or follow us @latimestot. You can also go to our new Facebook fan page here

Photo: Obama examines a Shopbot, automatic wood cutting machine, during a tour of the Wind Turbine Manufacturing and Fabrication Lab at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio on Jan. 22. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images

The man's got a following, that's for sure.

Tuesday it was announced that Texas Republican Ron Paul, who wowed the Libertarian crowd during the 2008 election with his call for limited government, is set to deliver an address at the University of South Carolina on Nov. 9 about the “future of individual liberty and the importance of the U.S. Constitution.”

As if that were not enough, the following week he's scheduled to speak in Iowa, that pivotal early caucus state, with stops in Ames and Des Moines.

By this morning speculation was rife that South Carolina, which holds one of the early primaries in the presidential calendar, could be the launching pad for a new Ron Paul bid. As CNN's Political Ticker put it, "Will Ron Paul give it another go in 2012?"

If so, the 74-year-old congressman and doctor isn't saying. Lately he's been busy waging war against the federal government's response to the H1N1 virus, decrying the vaccination program as an attempt by the federal government to corral more power. He even tweaked President Obama for not having his daughters inoculated.

“It’s interesting to note that the president’s children have not gotten their shots and the explanation for this is it hasn’t been available to them – now that’s a little bit hard to buy when you think that probably anything the president wants can be available for their children,” said Paul, adding, “So in a way he’s made his decision not to give his children these inoculations – so if he has freedom of choice on this, I would like to make sure that all the American people have the same amount of freedom of choice.”

Yesterday, Malia and Sasha got their shots.

-- Johanna Neuman

Click here to get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us  @latimestot  Also on Facebook here.

Photo Credit: Associated Press

First anthrax, now this.

Swine flu has spread to Congress. Specifically, to Oregon Republican Greg Walden, a sixth-term congressman who tweeted Monday, "Just diagnosed with likely H1N1. Ugh. Off  to seclusion for awhile."

Walden is seen above during a congressional hearing in February into a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to a peanut factory. Walden wanted to know if the company's president, who repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, wanted to sample any of the tainted products removed from the nation's grocery shelves.

Ironically, Walden is co-chair of the congressional Rural Health Care Coalition, a bipartisan group of 182 members who lobby for healthcare in rural districts. Maybe the vaccine didn't get to rural areas yet?

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

Click here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. Or follow us  @latimestot. We are also on Facebook if you can move the cursor just a little bit over here.

Al Gore is now comparing the battle against global warming to the fight against Adolf Hitler in World War II.

In a speech to students at Oxford on Tuesday, the former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate  conceded that there is still work to do to convince political leaders that the threat of climate change is as urgent as that from the Nazis. The Senate is beginning debate on a cap-and-trade bill to curb emissions, predicted to be an even tougher fight than in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to twist arms and trade votes to win a narrow victory. Gore seemed to acknowledge the difficulty of converting grassroots passion into political will.

"The level of awareness and concern among populations has not crossed the threshold where political leaders feel that they must change," he said at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment. "The only way politicians will act is if awareness raises to a level to make them feel that it's a necessity."

Mindful of his British audience, Gore said the fight to cut carbon dioxide emissions will require a leader with the fortitude of Winston Churchill, who steered Britain through four years of hardship, bombings and economic deprivations to victory against the Nazis.

"Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilization in World War II," he said.
"We have everything we need except political will, but political will is a renewable resource."

Not everyone was impressed.  At Fox News, as you can see from the clip above, they're still worried about global cooling.

-- Johanna Neuman

The Ticket goes inside politics several times a day. Click here for Twitter alerts of each new item. Or follow us @latimestot