Traitors: Dairylanders who signed Grover's pledge

These are the legislators from Wisconsin who have pledged their allegiance to Grover Norquist over their constituents:

WI-Sen Ron Johnson (R)
WI-01 Paul Ryan (R)
WI-05 Jim Sensenbrenner (R)
WI-06 Tom Petri (R)
WI-07 Sean Duffy (R)
WI-08 Reid Ribble (R)

These people are NOT in our corner, they don't have our back except to bury a knife in, and they need to be eliminated from government as soon as possible. They are anti-American.

Get the national list (pdf) here. Then, if they're running this year in your district, get off yer a$$ and vote them out.

They didn't build this; they destroyed it.

Class act: A friend Ann Coulter doesn't deserve to make

Illustration: Paul Szep via Huff Post

When John Franklin Stephens read Ann Coulter's tweet calling the President a retard,  he decided not to let her get away with it:

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

John goes on to wonder what Coulter meant by the slur:

... I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

I read John's letter with tears in my eyes, not just for John, but for my daughter and everyone else in the country at risk of losing hugely if Romney and Ryan get their way.

Having watched my daughter (who will remain unnamed here) grow up in and cope with this mean-spirited, selfish society we have built ourselves, I can still not fathom what it must be like to be John Franklin Stephens. Even more baffling is Mr. Stephens' ability to, as he puts it "[love] life so much":

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

John signs his letter "A friend you haven’t made yet."

Ann Coulter should be so goddam lucky. Read John's entire post.

Please support Special Olympics, and consider a donation.

Update: Can we please be rid of this sociopathic asshole? Just stop reporting the worthless shit she says. Please.

The hunger

"Strictly speaking, all amassing or hoarding of wealth above and beyond one's legitimate requirements is theft. There would be no occasion for theft, and therefore no thieves, if there were wise regulations of wealth and absolute social justice."

Mahatma Ghandi

A fact: There is a limited amount of material wealth available in the world. However much it is, and it is obviously vast, it is finite. When individuals are allowed, even encouraged, to gather unlimited fortunes, the vast majority of folks are going to be left sucking the shit end of the stick.

The human who takes way more than they need to live comfortably, frankly, is one of the faces of true evil in the world today. For every Mitt Romney (or Donald Trump, or [your favorite entitled jackass here]) there are legions of families who could be adequately fed, housed, doctored and employed for only a fraction of his wealth.

When you have more money than you and your children can possibly spend in a lifetime, how do you justify taking more?

How do you square your constant pressure to contribute less and less to the world you plunder more each year?

How much is enough?

 The United States has been down this road before, leading to sharp divides in the people: the 1770s, the 1860s, and the 1960s, to name a few. What makes this time different, imo worse, is that the divide is not about ideology or politics. It's about money, greed, pure and simple. The 400 richest Americans own as much wealth as the poorest half of us, and they are happy to use that money to buy elected officials who legislate to maintain their bloat-rate.

We have allowed the psycho-pathetic fringe of our country to commandeer our media, in large part; we have allowed them to take over statehouses and legislatures nation-wide. They have launched a full-scale attack on public education, because, you know, if nobody makes a buck on it it must be bad. They have sworn to roll back every piece of humane legislation since the 1920s because job creation they want the money. They have collectively told so many lies in pursuit of their goals as to poison the country.

Dice


The question is no longer who will let them; it's who will stop them.

Ayn Rand, paraphrased, #19

Hauntedtable via Rezinnaise