Dispatches from the Flying M

Oh, Bobby

I love visiting Louisiana. And considering their political history--Huey Long and David Duke come immediately to mind--it seems like they would be a hard state to embarrass, politically speaking.

But it's unlikely that there are many Louisianans not embarrassed by the recent performance of their governor, Bobby Jindal.

Jindal has been making headlines lately for claiming that he will not accept that part of the Stimulus money dedicated to extending unemployment benefits.  The wisdom of this position can be debated, but the fact is that of all government spending, that is one of the most stimulative, because it's money that will be spent almost immediately, which helps businesses, which keeps other people employed, etc. etc.  Also, the president doesn't have line-item veto power over the bill, so how does Bobby Jindal claim it?  By refusing this slightly less than 1% of the money coming to Louisiana, is he effectively turning down all the stimulus money for his state?  How will Louisiana's citizens feel about that?

Jindal-watchers had a field day when Bobby gave the Republican response to President Obama's inspiring, widely praised address to Congress.  Bloggers and commentators immediately compared his sing-song performance to the 30 Rock character Kenneth the Page, and it's not hard to see why. 

But never mind delivery--was Bobby right on the policy?  That's what really counts.  Substance, not style, right?

Well...not so much.

Jindal told a tale about how he stood alongside a Louisiana sheriff, fighting government red tape to try to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.  The point of the story seemed to be that because the Bush administration was incompetent, ALL government was necessarily incompetent and can never be relied on to provide any needed services.  Which makes one wonder why bother being a governor, if you feel that way, but that's another story.  Maybe a true story.

Because Jindal's wasn't. 

On the occasion of his first national speech, broadcast all over the country, the world, even, directly on the heels of the historic first address to Congress of one of the most popular presidents in modern history, Bobby Jindal told a big fat stinker of a lie.  He was called on it almost immediately, and now a Jindal spokesperson has admitted it.

Like I said, embarrassing.

Sunset

Every now and then the sunsets here at the Flying M just make me stop and stare.  Last evening I stopped, stared, and tried to get the dogs interested because there was no one else around.  When they failed to show the proper enthusiasm I took them in and went back out with a camera.

Here are a few of the shots I took.

New Zombie Cop Review

It's at the aptly-named zombie blog Send More Cops.  Check it out.

Barack (and more) online

The comic book bio Presidential Material: Barack Obama is now available online as a downloadable PDF (as is the 3-issue miniseries, CVO: Artifact, that I wrote), from Eagle One Media.  Their website has no design sense at all, but ignore that if you want to read the Obama book but haven't been able to find it locally...  Click on the link above to go straight to the IDW Publishing section.

Another presidential perk

Maybe the POTUS gig is a good one after all--check out the secret White House record collection!

100

"I discovered mountain rivers late, for I was a prairie child, and knew only flatland and dryland until we toured the Yellowstone country in 1920, loaded with all the camp beds, auto tents, grub-boxes, and auxiliary water and gas cans that 1920 thought necessary. Our road between Great Falls, Montana, and Salt Lake City was the rutted track that is now Highway 89. Beside a marvelous torrent, one of the first I ever saw, we  camped several days.  That was Henry's Fork of the Snake."

I was remiss yesterday--blame a cold that muddled my thoughts, weakened my limbs, and made me about as much fun to be around as a Republican governor "reluctantly" accepting stimulus money from Washington--in not noting the centennial of the birth of one of America's best writers.

Wallace Earle Stegner was born on Feburary 18, 1909 in Lake Mills, Iowa.  After a childhood mostly spent in Saskatchewan, he became a noted writer of fiction and nonfiction, a great writing teacher, an early and passionate environmental activist.  I spent most of April 6, 1990 with him, which was a pleasure, an honor, and a formative experience.  He died in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 13, 1993, as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident.

But he left behind a lasting legacy of the written word.  If you love language, and especially if you love both wonderful writing and the American West (although he also wrote about other places, and for part of his life lived in Vermont, which he wrote about in his last novel, Crossing to Safety), and you haven't read Wallace Stegner, then hurry to your nearest library or bookstore and get started.  Read The Sound of Mountain Water, from which the excerpts here are taken.  Read All the Little Live Things or The Spectator Bird.  Read his Collected Stories.  Most of all, read Angle of Repose, his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece.

You won't be sorry you took the time.  I've spent many hours with Stegner, through immersion in his work.  I never took a class he taught but he schooled me just the same, and if I'm any kind of writer at all, he had a lot to do with that.  If I appreciate the West in which I live, that appreciation owes much to his example.

Happy 100, Wally.  You are still missed, and still loved.

For some interesting consideration of Stegner's legacy, check this blog by Tim Egan and its comments from the NY Times.  Thanks to Kathryn for pointing it out.

And here's more, courtesy of author Stephen Trimble, whose book Words from the Land is just one of his great contributions.

"Angry as one may be at what heedless men have done and still do to a noble habitat, one cannot be pessimistic about the West.  This is the native home of hope.  When it fully learns that cooperation, not rugged individualism, is the quality that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have achieved itself and outlived its origins.  Then it has a chance to create a society to match its scenery."
--Wallace Stegner, The Sound of Mountain Water

Nominated

Presidential Material: Barack Obama has picked up three nominations for the Glyph Awards ("honoring the best in black comics and creators," according to the website).  Since I'm not black, I have to assume that the fact that President Obama is got the book its consideration.

Here's the full list of nominations.  Some good company there.  I'm honored to be included.

Our nominations are for: Story of the Year, Best Writer (that would be me) and Fan Award for Best Comic.

It's a very cool thing, and helps to turn around a day that has so far been somewhat frustrating.  Thanks, Glyph people!

Back from L.A.

I spent a few days in Santa Monica this week, having flown to L.A. for a meeting. Spending time in Santa Monica without a car (but close to the ocean, and with a beautiful view from my 11th floor hotel room) is a good reminder of why so many people love southern CA.  The natural beauty really is stunning, and the weather, while cool, was mostly sunny and bearable.  To get to the airport Tuesday morning I had to drive through a snowstorm, which closed one of the roads I usually take, requiring backtracking and lots of extra time.  And not having a car, walking everyplace, meant not having to deal with L.A. traffic, which was a definite plus.

On the other hand, I tried to go see The Wrestler, only to discover that a gas leak had closed the entire city block the movie theater was on.  I ended up hoofing it back to the 3rd St. Promenade and catching Taken instead, which is suspenseful and well made, as long as you don't think too hard.

I came home to a house in which the furnace has broken down, and our usual handyman is MIA.  So it gets a bit chilly inside, requiring fires in the wood stoves.  There are worse things, though.  Today is Valentine's Day, and Arizona Statehood Day, and we made a trip into town to run some errands, saw some friends, and generally are having a peaceful and pleasant day.

No ocean views.  But our mountains are out there, and that's good enough for me.

Metal Crypt

If you missed the radio interview I did about Zombie Cop (and ranging over many other topics), it's up on YouTube now, with visuals added. 

Pretend Economics

I'm no economist, as I've mentioned here before.  But I am a writer, which means I have to make up names for things all the time.  Now I've made one up for the kind of economic policy pursued by Republicans these past couple of decades (but never more fitting than it is right now).  It's Pretend Economics, and it describes the idea that tax cuts are the one-size-fits-all solution to every economic situation.

It isn't true, it's been tested, it doesn't work.  But they won't give up.  Now they're trying to water down the stimulus package with tax cuts.  If anything, the bill doesn't spend aggressively enough (see Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman's take here), and they want to take out spending and replace it with tax cuts?

Why?  Not because they really think it's what the country needs.  Because they know that powerful forward momentum in the economy will reflect well on President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress, and that's the last thing they want.  A quick reversal will cement Democratic power for a generation.  But a disastrous failure will make Obama a one-turn president and return Republicans to power.  That's what they're counting on.

That, and they like the real effect of constant tax cuts (especially those directed at the wealthy), which is to take from the middle class and give to the rich, increasing their wealth and expanding the gap between them and the poor.

So they pretend, even though they know better.  Because for them, national failure is a double-barreled win.

Feel free to spread the word--let's make Pretend Economics into a nationwide description of this morally bankrupt philosophy.

UPDATE:  For some other takes on Pretend Economics vs. real-life economics, see Steven Pearlstein and Robert Reich.  Reich goes into detail about why tax cuts don't work like spending does, and Pearlstein says the tax cut crowd needs to hire personal economic trainers to teach them what they should know if their business is...I don't know, say, running the country.  He says:

"Actually, what's striking is that supposedly intelligent people are horrified at the thought that, during a deep recession, government might try to help the economy by buying up-to-date equipment for the people who protect us from epidemics and infectious diseases, by hiring people to repair environmental damage on federal lands and by contracting with private companies to make federal buildings more energy-efficient.

What really irks so many Republicans, of course, is that all the stimulus money isn't being used to cut individual and business taxes, their cure-all for economic ailments, even though all the credible evidence is that tax cuts are only about half as stimulative as direct government spending."