Teabagger Gov. Goes After Maine’s Favorite Son --- Stephen King Responds Brilliantly

[kpete]

Sometimes “Uncle Stevie” (as he’s known to fans) doesn’t feel the need to respond to things that are said about him. If anyone does, he knows that life is too short to pay much attention to little darts thrown his way. But, in this case, he felt no such restraint. He let LaPage have it:
'
As anyone who is familiar with writer Stephen King knows, he and his home state of Maine are closely linked. A majority of the books and stories he’s written over his 40-odd (very odd) years as a popular author are set in that state. The Kings have a home in Bangor and a summer house in Lovell. The man is a Main-ah through and through.

So whatever possessed Gov. Paul LePage to insinuate that the Kings had moved to Florida to avoid paying state taxes in their home state? In his weekly radio address on Wednesday, LePage spoke about his latest attempt to get rid of the Maine’s state income tax. The address was full of the usual Tea Party rhetoric “trying to return money,” “small business,” “hard-working,” “fairness,” and the denial that his plan would only benefit the rich. Sure. But it was the last paragraph of the address that caused LePage ‘s problem:


“Meanwhile, remember who introduced the income tax here in Maine. Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.”



**********


Sometimes “Uncle Stevie” (as he’s known to fans) doesn’t feel the need to respond to things that are said about him. If anyone does, he knows that life is too short to pay much attention to little darts thrown his way. But, in this case, he felt no such restraint. He let LaPage have it:

“Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green. Tabby and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given. We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There’s just no way around it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain’t no free lunch.”

MORE:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/19/teabagger-gov-goes-after-maines-favorite-son-stephen-king-responds-brilliantly/

[Inkfreak]

1. That's my guy!

King is my favorite author and always will be. He's the only one who's books I make sure to buy immediately in hard cover. Otherwise I'm all about my kindle. Something about holding his book in my hands transports me to my childhood. Love that guy!

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. LePage would be a great character for a Stephen King novel.

He is a living, breathing horror story.

[Enthusiast]

12. That's a fact.

[valerief]

28. I hope King writes a horror story about him and rips him a new asshole. nt

[Spirochete]

37. Big Jim Rennie

Under the Dome.

[valerief]

42. He wasn't "a governor." nt

[Spirochete]

46. True

Wasn't as scary as LePage, either..

[valerief]

48. Also true.

[hifiguy]

41. Well, Cheney and Bush were templates

for Big Jim Rennie and Andy Sanders, respectively, in Under The Dome.

King's liberal politics are exceedingly well known to his fans.

[kairos12]

3. Teahaddists are a greater horror than anything Uncle Stevie ever wrote about. Glad he fired back.

[raccoon]

4. An admirable response from Stephen King! nt

[Thespian2]

5. LePage

is the worst thing to happen to Maine in its entire history. Stephen King is the most important citizen of Bangor, because he openly supports his city and his state. Perhaps LePage can move to Florida where he will find a like-minded POS, Rick Scott.

[mountain grammy]

6. All teabaggers need to know there's no free lunch

because they all want one. I want mine, but don't want anyone else to have anything is the teabagger motto.

[Adrahil]

7. Can't say I love his books, but I do love his attitude! n/t

[George II]

8. I just can't figure out why the people of Maine have elected that clown, now twice!

[magical thyme]

15. both elections were 3-ways with a dem-turned-independent splitting

the democratic vote. (actually the 1st was a 5- or 6-way, but the other independent runs only picked up a couple percent).

[Jim Lane]

17. Same reason you elected Harper three times -- divided opposition

LePage, like Harper, has never received a majority of the popular vote. Between them they've won a total of five elections, each with a plurality short of a majority, because the voters opposed to them divided their votes among different candidates.

[George II]

20. No, "I" elected Barack Obama twice.

[Jim Lane]

49. Sorry, your avatar fooled me.

And congratulations on having elected Obama!

[George II]

62. No big deal....

I live in CT, where we now have five Congressmen, all Democrats, two Democratic Senators, all state-wide offices are Democratic (Governor down to Secy of the State) AND big Democratic majorities in both houses.

We get a shit-load of snow, but it's still a great place to live!

[workinclasszero]

9. Yay Steven King!

Love his books. My favorites are The Shining, The Stand and It.

So nice to know that all rich people aren't greedy damn randian thieves!

The teabag puke Governor of Maine would make a great demon from the lowest pit of HELL is your next book Mr King!

[elias49]

10. Good for King...

but IMO, he was too restrained. A-holes need to be called out, strongly.

[Enthusiast]

11. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

I love Stephen King, his books and his political philosophy.

[Enthusiast]

13. King fans might appreciate the following.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11936695

[Paladin]

14. In your FACE, Gov.

Thank you Stephen King, for those well-crafted words.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Stephen King is a great American and a great writer whose works are underestimated due to

vast popularity and genre associations. I am a constant reader.

[fasttense]

18. RepubliCONS all believe in free lunches.

That's why they are always cutting taxes for the rich yet never cut back on government services such as: Defense Department, Police weapons, civil and corporate court services, the FDIC (started by FDR), and tax loopholes, write offs and havens, subsidies to only very big farms and corporations. Because these all benefit the uber rich much more than they benefit the 99%.

[etherealtruth]

19. "... much is owed from those to whom much has been given ..."

Sadly, this is a belief that is not held by enough people on whom fortune has smiled

[Divernan]

21. He also called out his fellow one percenters as selfish pricks

Stephen King is a staunch Democrat & doesn’t give a fig who knows it. He also believes that, as a member of the 1%, he should pay his taxes without bitching about them. He recently told his fellow one-percent-ers to stop being “selfish pricks.” He is not a fan of the Tea Party, either, calling them out for their hypocrisy on caring for the needy as thousands of needy children crossed our southern border last summer. King is also a supporter of gun control. His e-essay, “Guns,” pissed off a lot of ammosexuals when it came out a couple of years ago.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/19/teabagger-gov-goes-after-maines-favorite-son-stephen-king-responds-brilliantly/

[Stardust]

26. "ammosexuals" LOL! Never heard that one before!

[OldRedneck]

22. Maybe Stephen King could . . .

. . . send Cujo over the visit the governor.

[Rozlee]

29. Wouldn't do any good. Republicans are already rabid.

Maybe the Crimson King or Pennywise or something.

[VWolf]

31. Or Kathy Bates

to inflict some misery ....

[Rozlee]

33. *

[jopacaco]

23. Stephen King is a great Mainer unlike LePage

Stephen King gives so much money to support the area. Most of it he does quietly, without any fanfare. He is a great example of what rich citizens should do to support the community. He has a local liberal talk radio station that is very good. I had always heard that Stephen moved to Florida in the winter because of health issues after his horrible accident. A fall on ice could be disastrous. LePage is a mean spirited fool who has no idea what he is talking about and doesn't bother to find out. He is an embarrassment.

[Act_of_Reparation]

27. I was under the impression that he just wintered in Florida.

In "On Writing" he wrote that he had owned a winter home in Florida for some time and usually spends half the year there.

[Divernan]

35. He is registered to vote in Maine and pays taxes there.

I know many, many retired people from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota,with far less wealth than King who have winter residences in Florida or South Carolina. They're called snowbirds. What's unusual about King, given the level of his wealth, is that he is not wintering in someplace with the One Percenters, like St. Barth's or Nevis.

[Act_of_Reparation]

55. I get the impression that he's a really down-to-earth guy.

His is a rags-to-riches story, and it is good to see he hasn't forgotten where he came from.

Though he'd probably throttle me with a length of instrument cable for ending a sentence with a preposition.

And of all the states in the union, Maine is my favorite by far.

[SoapBox]

24. Pukes and Baggers LIE...period.

They make shit up and vomit it out. They do NOT care if it's a lie.

[peacefreak]

25. The Guv seems to forget

His wife owns a home in Florida. He should be more careful who he calls out. Stephen & Tabitha King have done many things to improve life in Maine for its residents. On the other hand, LePage has done many things to undermine the safety & well being of my neighbors & friends.

[HockeyMom]

30. I'd trade in Florida FOR Maine!

Beautiful State. Wonderful People. My younger daughter went to USM and played hockey there.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

32. My good friends from Gorham

worked their hearts and souls out to unseat LePage, so it was really a treat to send this to them. Stephen King would make a great governor, wouldn't he? What a great attitude!

K&R

[Divernan]

34. King sides with Occupy movement; says rich should pay 50% tax rate

King is a staunch Democrat and a confirmed liberal.

King has simultaneously endorsed Obama and blasted the conservatives that hate him. Truly, the amount of contempt and bile sent Obama’s way during the 2012 election is staggering and King worried that someone may try to assassinate him.

King hates conservatives like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and the Tea Party. Beck, according to King is “Satan’s younger brother,” while O’Reilly is “Satan’s older, mentally challenged brother.”7

Concerned about corporate greed, money in politics, and budgetary issues in the United States, King sided with ultra-liberal members of the Occupy movement in asking for higher taxes on the rich, saying:

As a rich person, I pay 28% taxes. What I want to ask you is, why don’t I pay 50%? Why is everybody in my bracket not paying 50%? The Republicans will say, from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Rick Scott, that we can’t do that because, if we tax guys like me, there won’t be any jobs. It’s bull! It’s total bull!

http://hollowverse.com/stephen-king/

[spanone]

36. the party of LIARS

[tclambert]

38. Anybody who pisses off a horror writer can expect a lookalike character to die a horrible death,

one with a suspiciously similar name: "LePiglia felt something bite him in the butt. Not a big bite. Just a nip. Then he felt another. In a minute, the tiny demons were nibbling him all over. He swatted at them to no avail. Soon he was covered in blood, and in places, he could see his own bones showing where multiple bites had dug down deep. He tried to run, but a few strategically placed bites to his Achilles' tendons left him lame. He collapsed to the ground. He tried to crawl away, but they were at him now in a swarm, a feeding frenzy of tiny, invisible, voracious creatures. He feebly waved a hand in the air. It was the hand of a skeleton, all the meat torn away. He wondered how they could eat so much of him and yet leave him alive. They must have meant to do it, carefully avoiding anything vital, 'Eat my eyes!' he begged them, or would have if his tongue wasn't half gone.

"As quickly as the attack had started, it ended. The saliva of the piranha demons must have contained instant clotting factors because LePiglia didn't bleed to death, even when reduced to a twitching pile of bones. A fibula and one foot had fallen off. LePiglia stared at them. They looked so clean. When he heard the sirens approaching, he thought, 'No, no, no. Don't try to save me. Let me die. Please, let me die.' But the EMS techs followed their training and got him to the hospital where he lingered another six days."

[Lars39]

56. Gah, that's good in a horribly creepy way!

[dolphinsandtuna]

39. Tabby? Is that his cat?

[SwankyXomb]

43. His wife.

Tabitha King is also an author.

[Chan790]

57. ...as are most of their children. n/t

[dolphinsandtuna]

59. I guess you missed my wink

[samsingh]

40. gove lepage is scarier than any horror story

[Liberalynn]

44. More people need to say exactly this

that the 1 percent are the ones who want everything fee and handed to the on a silver platter too.

[MANative]

45. I adore Stephen King as a person...

less enamored of his writing because, although I think he's incredibly skilled and talented, I've never been a fan of the horror genre. I don't watch horror movies either. They give me the heebee jeebies. Not a fan of being scared as "entertainment." I did like his "Under the Dome" which was a little creepy, but not full-blown horror. I keep sampling his work to find things that don't freak me out! LOL

[Skittles]

51. my favorite Stephen King work is the novella The Body

the move Stand by Me was based on that.....not a horror story but incredibly well done

“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them--words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were In your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, The Body

[MANative]

54. Thank you for sharing that. I will definitely look for this book.

I loved "Stand by Me" and didn't realize King's connection to it.

[mantis49]

63. The Body is in a collection: "Different Seasons"

It also contains Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, from which the movie "Shawshank Redemption" was made. Well worth your time to read all four novellas!

[MANative]

64. Thank you for the recommendation!

I'll be looking for it this weekend!

[AzDar]

47. K&R

[Skittles]

50. thanking Mr. King and Tabby

EVERYONE needs to speak out about these thieving repuke clowns

[Cha]

52. I saw that yesterday.. posted it to a person from Maine on a thread of mine.. said I thought he

would like it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026384519#post63

Mahalo for making it an OP, kpete~

[MADem]

53. "Full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green!"

Mr. King has the coolest gate on his Bangor home--it has gargoyles and spiderwebs and bats on it, IIRC....some very nice ironwork.

[Yallow]

58. Bam

EOM

[The Wizard]

60. Taxes are the price

we pay for a civil society and the greater good. To some that's socialism while to others it's normal.

[bedazzled]

61. always loved stephen king. he remembers where he came from

my favorite book is the stand - unedited, of course.

favorite short story is the mist. they made a pretty acceptable movie out of it, until they changed they ending and ruined it completely...

[Zorra]

65. No republican should ever consider matching wits with Stephen King

I don't know of anyone who has ever explored the realms of human consciousness and imagination as thoroughly as Stephen King has.

Conversely, republicans have built a massive wall of deluesion and fear between themselves, and consciousness and imagination.

Republican's thoughts are based in and on delusions and myth that they believe are true. If this was not so, they would not be republicans.

If you present them with stone cold facts, the delusions that are the foundations of their thought processes and belief systems will not allow them to accept these facts. They are lost in the illusions of the maze that is their consciousness, and only a very small percentage find their way out of the maze. Consequently, they have to continually lie to themselves and others in order to quell the fear of the dark delusions in which they exist.

They literally live in their own dark fairy tale, and the only moral of the story is that their entire existence is a matrix maze of hopeless futility based in lies, deception.

Conservatives are destructive and dangerous, and the history of conservative humans is the history of human evil, and the monstrous violent atrocities committed against other human beings since the dawn of human consciousness.

Like Stephen King said, they are full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green, and this stuff becomes a deadly infection when it invades human consciousness.