Is this a photo of the legendary Bigfoot?  Captured on a motion-activiated game-trail camera hidden in the woods outside Remer Minnesota on the drizzly night of October 24, the photo features a mysterious, obstensibly hairy bipedal figure forraging through the darkness.  Is it the big guy himself?  Hunter Tim Kedrowski, who – along with sons Peter and Casey – set up the cameras to monitor the more traditional game that wanders their land, didn’t know what to make of the image, so they contacted area Bigfoot researchers.  Until there’s further proof, though, stay skeptical, friends, and keep a weather eye trained to the forest for further evidence.

Remember back in 2003 when the Bush machine muscled Medicare Part D through Congress?  Republicans needed to toss seniors a bone, particularly since that demo is so active at the polls, in order to get an increasingly unpopular president reelected.  But they also wanted to toss their Big Pharma patrons some coin, which the bill did in spades.  It was financed almost entirely through the deficit, and was, in every sense, terrible legislation.  Some Republicans in Congress had misgivings, but they fell in line and it passed.

Now look at the way the Democrats have tumbled into infighting over their massive health care overall.  They control both houses of Congress, and should pass the bill with ease and modest compromise.  Sure, there’s been Republican opposition, much of it based on outright lies, but we expected that all along.  Despite their underhanded tactics, the Republicans never had the votes to stop this bill. 

That is, if Democrats and their caucus had gotten behind it.

That was before Ben Nelson decided he wanted to reinvigorate the tired fight over abortion.  That was before Senators on the left threatened to hold out their support unless the bill passed a variety of litmus tests, before Howard Dean called for the bill to be tossed out, before the AFL-CIO and other labor groups pulled their support of it.  And yes, that was before ol’ Joe Lieberman, that gutless and vengeful hemorrhoid of the left, decided he wanted to flip-flop his way into a make-believe bout of conscience, extracting along the way a tit-for-tat reprisal against all the Democrats who’ve crossed him in recent years. 

But Lieberman’s sudden fear of a limited public option, his ire at the Medicare expansion he’d supported just months before, brought the health care negotiations to a shuddering standstill.  Now, with no votes to spare in the Senate, Liebermen has singlehandedly choked out large chunks of the bill.  It’s a tactic that will live in infamy, but one that can’t be stopped at the moment.

Even when they’re the majority, Democrats struggle to close the deal.

Will the health care bill roll out of the Senate and into committee in watered-down form?  Looks like it.  That said, should the Dems let the bill die now for lack of a better one?  I’m surprised you’d even ask. 

Obama and his Democrats have been outmaneuvered on a lot of aspects of this package.  They’ve lost the public option and a major part of the reform most Americans sought from it.  Still, there’s a bounty of regulatory reforms here that are not only desirable, they’re very necessary.  Over at the NY Times, Paul Krugman addresses the topic in advocating passage of the bill:

But let’s all take a deep breath, and consider just how much good this bill would do, if passed — and how much better it would be than anything that seemed possible just a few years ago. With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail.

At its core, the bill would do two things. First, it would prohibit discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of medical condition or history: Americans could no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or have their insurance canceled when they get sick. Second, the bill would provide substantial financial aid to those who don’t get insurance through their employers, as well as tax breaks for small employers that do provide insurance.

All of this would be paid for in large part with the first serious effort ever to rein in rising health care costs.

The result would be a huge increase in the availability and affordability of health insurance, with more than 30 million Americans gaining coverage, and premiums for lower-income and lower-middle-income Americans falling dramatically. That’s an immense change from where we were just a few years ago: remember, not long ago the Bush administration and its allies in Congress successfully blocked even a modest expansion of health care for children.

As Krugman also notes, the nature of social reform has often been a step-system: one sturdy reform package increases the likelihood of another in coming years, whereas the death of this bill postpones improvements to the system for another generation, as happened with Clinton. 

I’m surprised to see so many progressives – in Congress, in the media, and hell, even people I know – laying the blame for this bill’s fate at the White House doorstep.  Sure, Obama should have been more open in his dealings with the insurance companies; he should have tackled this whole issue more aggressively from the start.  But if health care reform dies now, the Democrats will suffer serious bloodshed in next year’s midterms. 

Worse, Obama’s entire domestic agenda and his efficacy as a reformer and party leader will be thrown into immediate doubt, just as a massive immigration reform package begins its journey through Congress. 

Sure, that’s what Republicans want, but since when did it become what liberals wanted too?

For a lot of onlookers, the perfect has become enemy of the good.  They want the baby chucked out with the bathwater.

All of which brings me back to the recent history of Republican health care “reform” and the lessons of Medicare Part D.  Rove made some calls; insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists made their rounds; DeLay and other GOP congressional leaders twisted arms in their odious and inimitable way, and bang, they got their bill.

Such is the difference between the right and the left, between Republicans and Democrats.  The Democratic Party, probably because it represents a bigger tent, a true plurality, collapses into constant infighting, endless quarreling.  We don’t have the loyalty, persistence, and overall discipline of the right.  And though it looked like the victories of 2006 and 2008 might create a strong, vigorous Democratic majority, the party has resorted again to petty squabbling.

The bill’s a good one, but not a perfect one.  So will Democrats will commit another round of political seppuku?

I’d like to say a few brief words about this whole Tiger Woods sex scandal.  First off, let me clarify that I know virtually none of the details, but hey, that’s never stopped a blogger before, right?

Honestly, I haven’t purposefully sought out any of the steamy particulars.  I haven’t read newspaper articles; I’ve ignored radio reports; I’ve tried to dodge the unfolding drama altogether.  I don’t care much for pro sports in general or golf specifically. 

All that said, there’s of course plenty of news that’s floating around in the air: you can’t help but absorb a fair amount. 

So I know Tiger’s cheated on his wife with at least one woman, possibly more, and I know that wifey found out and attacked his fancy SUV with – in an artful twist – one of his own golf clubs.  Based on that alone, she sounds like a fierce and fabulous piece of work.

Let me get to my beef, though, and the reason for this post.  As I said, I’m not generally interested in celeb’s private lives.  What I can’t stand is columnists, reporters, journalists and assorted other media hand-wringers, the self-appointed finger-wagging morality police of radio/TV/print lecturing me on how Tiger’s antics are none of my business (example here), how the public shouldn’t be interested, and how the guy deserves his privacy. 

That’s malarkey.  Celebrity is a two-way street, baby.

Stardom is a fickle mistress. 

And Tiger knows a thing or two about fickle mistresses.

Let’s quit pretending that he’s in it solely for a love of the game.  That’s part of it, yeah, but if Woods’ sole aspiration in life was to knock around golf balls, he’d spend his days shooting them down the dragon’s throat at Golfland.  Believing that nonsense is like taking movie stars at their word when they drone on about a love of the material, the craft.  That’s a heavy dose of bunk.  Actors who revere their art pass a happy life doing quality summer stock in Williamstown.  In the same way, our guy Tiger’s in it for fame, wealth, and yes, all the hot porn star ass his cheating heart desires. 

The notion that somehow the public shouldn’t find interest in this story is A) unrealistic, and B) totally unfounded.  People like to hear about messy celebrity drama for the same reason they gossip around the office, or read trashy novels.  We glut ourselves on melodrama.  We’re social creatures with an interest in the dirty machinations of each others’ existence, an innate affection for the good storytelling of real life, and this ditty about Tiger’s wife reworking his car with a nine-iron, that’s ripping good drama.

If there’s anything that gets old, it’s listening to actors, athletes or pop stars whine about the trials and tribulations of celebrity.  I’m sure they’ve got a legit point most of the time, but from here in the cheap seats, the complaints of the rich and privileged just reek of bad form.    

If someone chooses a life in the public eye, scrutiny is the price of admission.  Brad and Angelina get chased around by paparazzi, but it’s that same curiosity about them that sells movie tickets.  That’s their bread and butter.  Fortunately, they realize public interest can’t be turned on and turned off with the flip of a switch, only temporarily deflected.  The intense fascination of their fans is an unhappy but unavoidable side-effect.  They can’t expect the yin without the yang. 

Entertainers open themselves, their ideas and opinions to public scrutiny, then too often rage when they can’t put the genie back in the bottle.  If Lady Gaga is going to lecture us on gender roles in our culture, we’re naturally going to wonder about her sexual orientation, or who she’s dating.  If Lindsay Lohan gets to jam her half-baked political thoughts down my throat in every interview, then I get to see photos of her ramming her Porsche into parked cars or stumbling around Fashion Week like a coked-out tranny mess. 

Obviously, I exaggerate.  But in all truth, maintaining a level of success like Tiger’s takes constant hard work.  If the gossip-mongering gets too heavy, he can always permanently quit golf, maybe go buy an island-nation in the Caribbean somewhere and slip into a quiet early retirement. 

But he’s not going to do that, so let’s not weep over his loss of privacy.  Tiger’s in it to play golf, sure, but he’s also selling Nike gear and Gatorade.  To do that, he peddles a squeaky-clean image of heroism.  He expects to be exalted.  And if he wants to play the cad far from the spotlight of public attention, he should get his face off my box of Wheaties.

He was born on a Connecticut dairy farm.  Not quite a manger, but close enough, right?  So it’s official.  This bovine’s divine.  And his story’s so touching I just gotta reproduce it entirely.  So feast your peepers on a barn yarn of miracle and awe, starring a Holstein of heavenly birth, his holy cow brow kissed with a celestial birthmark. 

Kowtow before him, all ye believers, and behold the Gospel According to Lindsay Barnett of the LA Times:

Jesus Saves (Cows)

A calf born last week in Connecticut is getting a lot of attention for his unusual forehead marking: a cross that’s been immortalized in “holy cow!” and “sacred calf” headlines from news organizations all over the world. (You’ll notice, if you please, that we’ve spared you that cutesy headline-writing here.)

The calf, a Jersey-Holstein cross whom neighborhood children have named Moses, probably has a much better life in store for him than that which awaits most male calves on dairy farms.  Because they don’t produce milk, male calves’ fates typically lie in a slaughterhouse.

Moses’ owners envision a different sort of life for the little guy: They hope that his prominent cross marking will bring attention to the plight of struggling dairy farmers.  “I think he may be here to open people’s eyes and get a message across,” farm owner Brad Davis told Fox 11 News of Green Bay, Wis. “Maybe something for farmers? For the dairy farmers possibly that there is hope and the answers are still coming.”

Davis said he initially didn’t recognize the calf’s marking as resembling a cross. After all, his fur was a bit mussed after his birth. A few hours later, when he was dry, the cross stood out clearly and Davis began to suspect he had something special on his hands. 

Later that night, Davis witnessed something that made him even more convinced of Moses’ uniqueness.  “The moon was out that night and there was a little bit of the moonlight coming in through the windows and his cross was the only thing that showed,” he said. (Spooky!)

If you, like me, have waited with nervous, bated breath for James Cameron’s Avatar, if you’ve grown increasingly unnerved at the waxen Attack of the Clones look of the effects in early teasers and trailers, here’s a little reason to breath easy: early review say it’s stellar, and in a pleasing twist, thoroughly worth the hype. 

Good news, because there’s plenty riding on this film, particularly for the state of the Industry.  As Wendy Ide of London’s Times Online writes:

Film fans as well as business insiders have cause to root for Avatar’s success: the failure of such a high profile original concept would mean that the industry will become even more risk-averse and reliant on the proven lure of sequels and remakes.

Avatar, after all, is reputed to be the most expensive and technologically innovative/demanding film of all time.  It carries the burden of vindicating the lavish motion-capture and 3D technology developed to support Cameron’s vision.  In a larger sense, though, the film’s arrival serves as a referendum on the film industry as a whole, on the public’s desire to turn out to theaters and participate in the big-screen, communal cinema experience, to engage new and exciting properties.

And fortunately, the film’s said to be great.  You can check out the very first glowing review from perpetual curmudgeon Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter.  Honeycutt apparently caught the London premiere earlier today and zapped his review into cyberspace.  Several other sites linked to it right away, generating enough traffic to crash the HR’s site.

Now here comes the capsule version from Variety’s Todd McCarthy:

The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in “Avatar,” and it’s very much a place worth visiting. The most expensive and technically ambitious film ever made, James Cameron’s long-gestating epic pitting Earthly despoilers against a forest-dwelling alien race delivers unique spectacle, breathtaking sights, narrative excitement and an overarching anti-imperialist, back-to-nature theme that will play very well around the world, and yet is rather ironic coming from such a technology-driven picture. Twelve years after “Titanic,” which still stands as the all-time B.O. champ, Cameron delivers again with a film of universal appeal that just about everyone who ever goes to the movies will need to see.

So what’s in the cards for next week as Cameron’s opus goes global?  We’ll imminently see for ourselves.  But as Wendy Ide points out, if you want to support vivid, original storytelling at your local multiplex, consider dropping a little scratch to see for yourself.

There’s an oft-repeated bit of fanboy trivia that I’d always half-assumed might be apocryphal.  It’s regarding George Lucas, his original Star Wars trilogy, and a supposed offer made to David Lynch back in the early 80’s. 

Coming off his first film, Eraserhead, then the critically acclaimed The Elephant Man, Lynch was reputedly eager to tackle a large-scale studio picture, and preferably a space opera of the Star Wars ilk.  According to the tale, in the wake of his Empire Strikes Back success, Lucas was searching for another director-for-hire to helm the third film in the series, then titled Revenge of the Jedi.  Apparently he met with Lynch about taking the reins of the film, but as we know, it twas not to be.  But what would a David Lynch-directed Star Wars film have looked like?  Ah, to dream…

Well, now it appears the story was in fact true, as Lynch explains in a recent interview.  Herein he describes being summoned to the vaunted and labyrinthine lair of seclusion that was (even then) Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. 

And what’s Lynch’s primary memory of the day-long encounter?  Just that he had a headache… all day long.  Then returned home and begged his agent not to try and make him take the job.

And yet, after passing on Return of the Jedi, Lynch then went on to direct Dune, a film universally panned, and one from which he repeatedly tried to remove his name.  For those of you that have only a foggy recollection of Dune, go back and revisit it.  Just as bad as you remember, right?  I’m a diehard Lynch fan, but boy howdy, that film’s a mess in every imaginable way, an indignity made all the worse by the fact that he was working from perhaps the most revered piece of SF source material.

But check out Lynch’s recollection of the Lucas interview below.  In it, he sounds off on a familiar Lynch refrain, expressing his admiration for Lucas, noting how each of them makes the sort of films they love.  It’s just that Lucas’ films also tend to be the sort of thing that millions of others love too.   

Shout-out to Herc over at Ain’t It Cool News for the tip on this.

When it comes to efficient public transit and a booming green business climate, Denver is far ahead of its time.  Now it looks like the Mile-High City might soon be light-years ahead of its time in other ways.

According to the LA Times, Colorado entrepreneur Jeff Peckman has collected enough signatures to place a city-wide ballot initiative before voters that would create a first-of-its-kind Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission. 

If approved, the seven-member city panel would coordinate the reception of potential extra-planetary visitors, working to encourage “harmonious, peaceful, mutually respectful and beneficial coexistence” between humanity and our interstellar visitors.  It’d even go so far as to outline policy for long-term “diplomatic contact” with the new civilization. 

In order to qualify for the ballot, the initiative required 3,974 signatures.  Peckman delivered 10,274.  Denverites, it seems, have more than a little enthusiasm for the notion.

But not everyone’s so thrilled.  Says contrarian City Councilman Charlie Brown (and with a name like that, who wouldn’t be cranky?), “What would a commission demand of us as a city?  Do they want to go to a conference on Mars?  We’ll pay for a one-way trip.”

In the interest of earnest civic discourse, Councilman Charlie Brown, we’ll take your questions at face value.  At the behest of A Farther Room’s science advisers, we should remind you of three disappointing but germane facts: A) human travel to Mars has not thus far been accomplished; B) there are not yet, near as we know, any conferences being held on the red planet, and C) any such journey would likely blow out the discretionary budget of the average Colorado civil servant.

But despite the grumblings of Brown and other city leaders, Peckman’s scheme might be just the sort of gimmick to attract visitors.  It certainly worked for New Mexico, after all, which proved that when it comes to tourism, states have plenty to gain by thinking interstellar.

Here in the Golden State, we awoke to more grim job reports this morning: unemployment continues to stretch toward 13% here.  

Two days ago, President Obama addressed the nation to justify a further troop buildup in Afghanistan, nearly 30,000 more soldiers at an estimated cost of $500,000 per troop per year.  

But lo, the profits of the bailed-out banks continue to rise.  Everyday we hear reports of CEOs collecting their bonuses, unmoored from any concern for the fiscal state of the average American household.  

Companies around the country continue to shed jobs, laying off at a record pace, which in turn allows them to balance their books, thus boosting stock prices.  So the market’s recovering, but it’s shaping up to be a jobless recovery, as feared.

And now, in the midst of all this, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appears today before the Senate Banking Committee to address the exploding deficit.  In lengthy question-and-answer, he and committee members establish that in order to reduce the long-term deficit, we have to either slash spending or hike income, likely through higher taxes.  

At last, when pressed, Bernanke finally rolls out with some real candor.

What’s his solution to solving the deficit?  

Why, slash Medicare and Social Security, of course.

The government’s heedlessly printing cash, dumping it into the coffers of unregulated banks, lining the pockets of corporate CEOs, and he wants to take away your Grandma’s Social Security check, hike the out-of-pocket cost of her medications.  He wants to chisel away at New Deal entitlements that have grown the middle class throughout the 20th century.

Astonishing…

You stay classy, Mr. Chairman.

Over the long Thanksgiving holiday, in addition to pardoning turkeys and installing his first White House Christmas tree, President Obama finally made some decisions about Afghanistan.  As long predicted now, and after supposed close consultation with numerous advisers (most of them military warriors), he’s opted to surge an anticipated 30,000 troops into our occupation effort in Afghanistan.

As I’ve pointed out often on this blog, our campaign there has long-since ceased to be a war.  We invaded in the wake of 9/11 with the goal of unseating the Taliban and routing Al-Qaeda.  We accomplished both tasks.  At present, new incarnations of each are taking root in Pakistan, out of American reach, where their host government makes only the smallest pretense of stopping them.

And so the US military – unparalleled when given a clear objective – is left to order what most historians consider a perennially disordered land.  We’re stuck providing fodder for extremist propaganda in the Mid-East, and refereeing the never-ending regional rivalries between Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel, the Kurds and Shia, et cetera, et cetera…

Mr. President, you were elected to end these wars.  You were given a Nobel Prize for Peace.  The vast majority of Americans no longer supports this effort.  Most experts consider the situation intractable.  When did you become more Johnson than Kennedy?

According to the White House, Obama will address the public tomorrow night from the Oval Office in an effort to “sell his plan to the American people,” which leaves a nagging question: why are American presidents always having to sell their plans to the people, rather than just exercising our will?

Still laboring over what to get Dad or Gramps this holiday season?  Well, if they’re history nuts – with a heavy splash of nut – why not gift them the just-published 1950’s CIA field guide to undercover magic and sleight-of-hand, The Official Manual of Trickery and Deception.

You might wonder, why would the CIA require a sleight-of-hand manual?  Or what master magician crafted such an objet d’curio?  Oh, so many potent questions!

According to CIA and military historians, The Official Manual of Trickery and Deception was developed by MK-ULTRA, the CIA’s uber-secret mind-control and chemical interrogation unit.  Needing a manual for easy use by Bond-style operatives during those headiest of Cold War years, the MK-ULTRA brass turned to the era’s most popular stage magician, John Mulholland. 

In 1953, when he began work on the project, Mulholland was already a known cultural quantity and a highly successful entertainer.  He’d performed in over forty countries around the world, authored nearly a dozen books on magic, and personally entertained at FDR’s White House numerous times.  He was also a devout patriot, perfect for such an operation.

And just what did he produce, you reasonably inquire?  A fairly quaint guide to such tricks as surreptitiously dosing an enemy’s food or drink with knockout drugs, or stealing a document off a table, folding and pocketing it (one-handed, no less!) without attracting notice.  The manual also details how to send and receive covert hand signals unnoticed in public, or how to – in a feat of Get Smart-style dash - tie your shoelaces in patterns so as to communicate messages.

Believed long destroyed alongside other MK-ULTRA documentation back in the 1970’s, the manual has at last been rediscovered and found fit for public consumption.  So bop over to Amazon and add a little rabbit-out-of-the-hat to your cloak and dagger.