Even notice that when a “mean republican”, or an “angry Tea Party fanatic” says something negative about our President, or Democrats in Congress, or liberals in general, they are inciting violence?  Yet, when those words come out of the mouth of one of the beloved left-wing nut jobs in Hollywood the dems chuckle and say “he doesn’t really mean it”, or “don’t you understand sarcasm”?

So let’s disect the words of Hollywood actor John Cusack, star of “Grosse Point Blank”, “Say Anything”, “16 Candles”, and “Con Air”.  Taking to Twitter yesterday, John told his 200,000 easily influenced followers “I am for a santanic death cult center at Fox News HQ and outside the offices of Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and all the GOP welfare freaks”.

Wow.  I guess the Evian in John’s dressing room was at room temperature or something yesterday.  What a nice sentiment!  A satanic death cult can kill everyone who dares disagree with an actor who’s last succesful film premiered during the Clinton administration.  Having had the displeasure of tussling with Mr. Cusack on my show previously (listen for a replay Thursday morning), I understand the delusional facination he has with his importance, but where are the democrats who should be denouncing his comments because they are “inciting violence“?

Since I am not a Twitter follower of the man, I am guessing his comments are some kind of response to the Ground Zero mosque controversy.  You know what I call someone who thinks anyone who disagrees with him should be killed?  A terrorist.  (Actually, having seen a couple of his Iraq war themed films, “War Inc” and “Grace Is Gone”, I bet the movie studios consider him to be a ticket sales terrorist.)

If Homeland Security is going to issue warnings about the dangerous nature of returning war vets, when will they do the same and warn us about the danger of giving uneducated, out of touch, arrogant Hollywood types a forum to express any kind of opinion?  If someone does harm to anyone at Fox News, Newt Gingrich or any “GOP welfare freaks” will John Cusack be held accountable?

Maybe John should stop inciting violence and try to make a film someone actually wants to see.

President Obama’s appearance on the view today spurs an interesting question: do Americans want a President who is somewhat removed from the populace and affords the respect that has long gone with the title of Leader of The Free World, or do they want an “everyman” kind of character who they can as easily imagine chatting with at the local dump as they can envision him leading a world climate summit?

Presidents have, for the most part, limited their public appearances to those they are certain are not  ”beneath the office”.  They will do anything when running…county fairs, ice cream shops, pancake breakfasts, Girls Gone Wild shoots….but once they are the office holder, they have been respectful about who they associate with.  That’s why Barack Obama’s choice to visit the daytime cackle-fest that is “The View” is a curious one.

Known more for makeovers, Susan Lucci interviews, and stupid comments from washed up comedians like Whoopi Goldberg, the show is, apparently, the go-to destination for housewives stranded at home and looking for a waxing tip.  They aren’t known for a hard hitting, confrontational style of journalism and hence the question about whether any President belongs there.  It is, by many, considered to be taking up airwaves space.  Kind of like leaving the car running so it’s warm when prime time arrives.  Do you think that’s the place the Leader of the Free World belongs?

Of course, the latest Rasmusson poll says more people believe the President should NOT have been elected than believe he should have, for the first time in his 20 months in office.  That means….saddle up the horses and get the “soccer moms” on board for the midterm elections.  Every 1st term President is already running for his second the day after the election, and Barack Obama is no different.  But he ought to reach the people on a serious media outlet that is gonna to ask tough and fair questions and will maintain the dignity of the office.  Not to mention that most of these guys want to give the impression that there are more important things to do than sit for an hour while Barbara Walters asks breathlessly if you have ever watched her marvelous program.

“Coming up next, the President of the United States, but first….what to do when annoying female facial hair is bothering your fellow employees.”  Hey, Mr. President….come on down…you’re the next contestant on the Price Is Right.

Barack Obama is a multi-millionaire.  We know from the financial statement released from the White House yesterday that the President is worth somewhere between 2.3 and 7.7 million dollars.   Not a bad somewhere to be, especially if just a few years ago you were a community organizer in Chicago.  He certainly won’t be racking up unpaid parking tickets in Somerville anytime soon!

I certainly don’t begrudge the President his fortune.  In fact, I admire the fact that he has made so much, so fast.  He worked hard to rise from nothing, toiled hours in college and law school, entered the proffessional world, and has risen to the top of his craft through tireless effort.  Just like most of the “fat cat” CEO’s, hedge fund traders and bankers that we have listened to him gripe about for the past year!

That’s the thing.  When Barack Obama says he thinks there’s a point at which you’ve made enough money, he is referring to the collective “you”.  He doesn’t mean himself.  We know from his tax return, released last month, that he made 5.5 million dollars in 2009.  Is that enough?  Will he now begin immeadiately to redistribute the wealth?  Do we need to put government regulations in place to stop the reckless publication of biographies which prey on the ignorant and tease them with their inspirational promise?

How can he stand up there and rail against those who have worked their ass off their whole life and are finally reaping the rewards, when he himself has moved into a tax bracket most of us will never see in our lifetimes?  Why is it ok for him to back the Brink’s truck up, with a Presidential seal on it, and sell another book but it’s absolutely horrendous that a Wall St. trader was given a million dollar bonus last year?  Because he supposedly came from nothing?  How many of the CEO’s, or traders or bankers, that he rails about could tell the same story?

Liberals have always been great at do what I say, not what I do.  And there’s a long history of communist regimes that lived a audacious, regal lifestyle while the people killed each other for day old bread scraps, but this is bold.  Hypocracy at it’s best.  Meet Barack Obama… soon to be the last millionaire left in America.

At what point in this country did we begin to rely on the government to solve every little problem for us?  We have always been considered to be a country of “grinders”, hard workers who use ingenuity and sweat to rise above.  So how did we get to the point last weekend where Deval Patrick had to declare a state of emergency because it might be necessary to boil tap water before drinking it?

Yes, I know how important water is.  In fact, in some third world nations people actually walk miles and miles just to get it from a community well.  Are we so use to the government thinking for us that we can’t be told that there is a problem with the water for a few days and then figure out a way to get by?  When it becomes necessary for a television news anchor to remind the public they must allow boiling water to cool before drinking, we’ve reached a crisis stage.

Maybe this began with the mortgage crisis a year ago.  Our parents paid the mortgage they had signed for-and if they didn’t, someone took their house.  Now, the government is here to tell you that you don’t have to worry about foreclosure, “that mean predatory lender” talked you into buying your $750,000 home, we’ll take care of it.  So the government solved that problem.  Pavlov…meet dog.  Or maybe it’s Health Care.  Can’t find a job that allows you access to health insurance?  Don’t worry.  Government has your back.

In the good ol days, I bet the well ran dry every once in a while.  Hell, I bet the well water needed to be boiled every so often.  And you know what?  Americans did it without griping, and without the government declaring a state of emergency.

A state of emergency should be reserved for dangerous circumstance.  Tornado, Hurricane, Earthquake, Alien Invasion.  Not a potential culinary disaster.

If you’re a fan of “big government” then you love it.  This is what you think the government should do.  Hold your hand, tell you what to do, and give you the bottle of Pelligrino to do it with.  I’m a fan of “less government”.  If Deval tells me I can’t drink the water until I boil it, I grab the pot and turn the stove on.  I don’t need a state of emergency to guide me through.

Oh, and by the way, if aliens attack….run.

Nearly every breathless news report over the weekend about the massive immigrant-driven protests over Arizona’s new identification law talked about the shame of police officers in America stopping random people and demanding that they produce identification to prove they belong here.

Amazingly, none of the stories I saw on CNN or MSNBC, or read on-line for that matter, mentioned the shooting Friday of Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy Louie Puroll.  Puroll had the misfortune of being on patrol Friday, in broad daylight, near the Mexican border, when he came across a big shipment of pot being smuggled by what authorities now say was as many as five illegal immigrants.  What did these guests in our country do?  They shot him point blank in the stomach.  After Puroll called for help, police helicopters responded and they, too, reported taking fire.  Sounds like it should be something more likely to happen in Kandahar than Tuscon, don’t you think?

When done the right way, the American Dream is something marvelous to behold.  How many of us have an incredible tale of immigration and eventual triumph somewhere back in our American Family story?  No one on either side of the immigration debate wants to stop the “great unwashed” from coming to this country and living that dream.  However, the dream used to be working hard, learning the language, becoming a citizen and building a family and a life here, in America.  For way too many illegal immigrants who come to this country now that dream is about smuggling drugs, avoiding authorities, never bothering to learn to speak English and sending money home without paying taxes on it, and leaving after a few years to go back home and spend it.  For some, like those five in the desert Friday, it’s about shooting our police officers if they get in the way of the drug deal you are making.

Mexico is in the middle of their own war.  Their country has been taken over by drug cartels and everyday the situation becomes more dire.  Those who protest against this new law in Arizona would just simply have us open our borders endlessly and extend open arms to the same scumbags who are killing Americans who have had the misfortune of travelling to their country.  It is a crime to come to this country illegally…and it ought to be okay for an officer of the law to verify if you are a criminal!  I don’t have a problem with Arizona authorities going house to house, if that’s what it takes to keep Americans like Deputy Puroll safe.  It’s all well and good to scream about how an identification law is un-american, but I think the alternative is much worse.  Just ask the Deputy.

We must begin the process of asking everyone if they belong here-and what they are doing to prove they are worthy members of society.  If they can’t prove it, they get sent home.  We’re not executing anyone.  We’re just putting our boot in your butt and telling you have to go.  Because you broke the law.

I have read plenty about the town of South Hadley, and the parents and students there who are anxiously awaiting “justice” for those who they believed bullied Phoebe Prince to death about 11 weeks ago.  Northwestern D.A. Elizabeth Scheibel has promised the results of her investigation sometime today and I am sure she has done an exhaustive one.

It is impossible, especially if you are a parent like I am, to not feel extreme pain and sorrow when you hear and read the details of this tragedy.  Phoebe was by all accounts a fine young girl from Ireland who was trying to adjust to life in America-and life in high school.  We can all relate to how difficult that time of your life can be.  Every little piece of drama feels like the end of the world.  “Bullying” has happened in high school since Ben Franklin came up with the concept of public schools, and when you add in the mental and physical changes the adolescent human experiences, it can be a traumatic time.  We are told that 11 weeks ago the bullying became too much, and Phoebe hanged herself.

As sad as this story is, I do not agree with the residents of South Hadley who are screaming for vengeance.  Like angry medieval villagers, holding pitchforks and torches, they scream about how justice must be done and the girls who bullied Phoebe should be charged criminally.  For what?  Being mean?  I’m sorry…but we don’t do that in this country.  Remember the old cheesy 80’s bumper sticker that read “mean people suck”?  It’s true.  But it’s also how we develop “thick skin”.  If we go into the school system and charge every kid who says something mean about another student, there won’t be enough kids left to field a baseball team.

If Elizabeth Scheibel announces criminal charges against these “bullies” today, it will be a complete over-reaction to the politically correct parental crowd who wants to walk through life holding their child’s hand, bumping them up to the starting line-up in soccer, intimidating educators into giving them grades they didn’t earn, and forcing an employer to hire them despite the fact that they have zero qualifications.  Bullying is awful…bullying on facebook and social networks is worse…but it is not criminal.

These bullies should be identified by the school and kicked out for good.  Let their parents (who obviously instilled zero values in them and certainly didn’t spend much time monitoring their facebook posts) find someplace for them to bully each other all day where they can’t interfere with kids who want to learn.  Let everyone know their name and know that they are mean girls who can’t be trusted to participate in society in a valuable way.  But don’t charge them with a crime.  We don’t arrest you for being mean in America.

Today, the Supreme Court will consider whether some of this country’s most despicable human beings, Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, have a constitutional right to be rude.  Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, Phelps and his chromosome challenged followers have been protesting at the funerals of brave soldiers killed during duty.  Carrying signs that proclaim “God is glad you are dead” and other wonderfully sentimental and respectful slogans, Fred is delighted that he has recieved so much press for his church and their hateful messages as a result of these protests.

The first thing that comes to mind when you see these people is “who in their right mind would actually reproduce with them”?  But right after that, I find myself wondering how, as an allegedly religious person, you can be so uncaring and disrespectful, that you don’t have a second thought about wrecking a soldier’s funeral.  Imagine the pain of burying your son, then imagine a group of possibly inbred religious fanatics who hate gays piling on and tell you that he deserved it.

The question for the court is whose rights are more important.  Does the right to Free Speech trump the right to a private, undisrupted chance to say goodbye for these families?  Those who stand on the side of Free Speech are the same ones who will tell you that muslims should have the right to decline full body screening at our airports.  “It’s their religious right”, they will say.  So, don’t these families who are burying their dead have the religious right to a sacred, honorable funeral that is uninterrupted by a bunch of far right crazies waving signs demeaning their child?  Or is the right to be rude what we all have to stand for because of the Constitution?

Since I have taken constant shots at our President and his compulsive book writing addiction, I guess I have to ask the same question about the new darling of the Republican party, Senator Scott Brown.  Today we learned that Brown has secured the services of  Bob Barnett, literary agent to the stars when it comes to politics, the man who secured multi-million dollar book deals for Sarah Paylin and Hillary Clinton, among others.  Does “Scotty too hotty” have the life experience to warrant a memoir?  Does the man that fed up voters overwhelmingly sent to Washington with a message for this President, and this Congress, really have the time to be spending hours with a ghost writer, recounting his years playing hoops for Wakefield High, posing for Cosmopolitan magazine’s centerfold, and regaling us with tales of Ayla’s run-ins with Simon Cowell?  I think its a mistake.

Don’t get me wrong.  Jack Kennedy learned that having a best selling book when you are running for President gives the reading public the chance to get to know you as a candidate.  “Profiles in Courage” introduced a lot of voters to JFK, and his wartime experience.  Not a bad move.  You can say the same about John McCain, and his ”Faith of My Fathers”, which was an incredible story.  I think you can make the case that McCain at least, being somewhere around 112 when he ran, had a bit more “life experience” to share than Scott Brown does.  That doesn’t mean that Brown, who must be wearing earplugs to avoid the constant whispers of advisors telling him what he must do right now  to be President in 2012, shouldn’t consider a memoir as a way to introduce himself to the “thirsty for Brown juice” American public.  It just means that the voters who sent him to Washington might not find that to be the best use of his time.

The truly fickle voters of Massachusetts used Scott Brown to send a message to Washington.  Will they be upset if that message is delivered in a memoir for which Brown is paid 7 or 8 million dollars?  Will the man in the truck from Wrentham ruin that carefully crafted image if he signs the deal and writes his version of  ”The Audacity of Hope”?  What do you think?  After all, you voted for him.

I still hesitate when I start to write about it.  Am I allowed to call it The Superbowl or do I have to refer to it as the “Big Game in Miami”?   Either way, you have to be happy for Drew Breese, The Saints, the people of New Orleans, etc etc.  I am, however, still trying to figure our just what one particular “Big Game” commercial really means.

Audi’s “Green Police” commercial, which you can watch here, caught me off guard right away.

I’m a Cheap Trick fan (“Surrender” is on my top 20 songs of all time list), so as soon as I heard the music, I was paying close attention.  And I was laughing at the concept right until the end.  It’s scary how believable it is.  Sometime, in the not so distant future, you may have the “Green Police” knocking down your door and taking you in because you still aren’t using biodegradeable 4.2 watt recycled light bulbs outside your lavish, wasteful mansion.

But as the spot ended, still laughing, I was trying to figure out what I was actually laughing at.  And I’m not so sure it’s that funny.  We’ve reached a point in this country where a major auto manufacturer is using the fear of a government enviromental police force to sell cars!  That’s how scared we’ve been into “going green”.  The fact that Audi knows a considerable amount of their potential customers will watch that ad, and be scared into buying the latest “enviro friendly” vehicle is kind of scary.  I’m sure you’ve experienced the same not so subtle pressure that I have.  You walk into the break room at work, grab a styrofoam cup to make some coffee and turn around to face the horrified scares and ridicule of your “greener” co-workers.  Or your kids come home from school and repeat the mantra that was drilled into your head about how the valuable resources you’re throwing away every day with your wasteful light bulbs!  Now, Audi has figured out how scared we are by the prospect of the “green police” and they’ve decided to use it to sell automobiles.

When Martha Coakley (or “Marsha” as her good friend Patrick Kennedy likes to call her) awoke after defeating Michael Capuano in the Democratic Primary last fall, it is clear that she most likely looked in the mirror, congratulated herself, and determined that she had just been anointed the next Senator from Massachusetts.  After all, she was a democrat running in a state that’s so blue it was the only one to vote for Senator George McGovern in the ‘72 election.  After that, she seemingly went in to hiding, making several key mistakes that have created a race which could lead to what George Stephanopoulos calls “the upset of the century”.  In examining her five big mistakes, one must ask if they came to be because of her arrogance or ignorance?

1) The Finances.  In early November, Choke-ly was forced to apologize for her “honest mistake” when it came to the required financial reporting all candidates must make.  Seems Martha had failed to mention a $200,000 savings account belonging to her husband when listing her personal assets as “zero”.  She arrogantly believed that no one would bother checking to see if she was hiding something.

2) The Terrorists.  When Martha said of Afghan terrorists, in a televised debate, “they’re gone.  They’re not there anymore”, it demonstrated her incredible ignorance of a simple fact Americans have been, unfortunately, living with every day: the Taliban is harboring terrorists in Afghanistan and they are killing our soldiers.

3) Fenway Park.  (This is a two-parter.)  It is ignorance when you insult Red Sox fans anywhere in New England.  Martha did it twice.  When asked about her apparent campaign strategy of avoiding the grinding meet n’ greet strategy of most campaigns, she replied “as opposed to standing outside Fenway Park, in the cold, shaking hands?”.  (Which was a knock on her opponent, who had done just that.)  As if that weren’t enough, Friday night she went on the radio and called Curt Schilling a “Yankee Fan”.  It is arrogance when you have determined that the “D” beside your name guarantees you a win, and you therefore don’t actually have to stand outside, in the cold, and meet any of the dirty voters who might actually pull the lever for you.

4) The Lobbyists.  With just days to go before the big election, and criticism mounting about the lack of time she had spent with the voters, what did Marsha do?  Hopped on a plane and headed to Washington DC for a fundraiser with the very Health Care company lobbyists she claimed to fight against!  It is arrogance to believe that voters, who are sick and tired of the “insider influence” in Washington, won’t see through this shameless schilling (no pun intended) for cash from the very enemy you claim to fight against.

5) The Phones.  With the primary victory behind her, and believing that all that remained was the swearing-in ceremony, Coakley made the ignorant decision to stop identifying supporters on the phone, leaving herself, and her campaign, with no election day phone data base to call and convince to get out and vote.

Honorable mention:

1) It’s spelled “Massachusetts”.  When running attack ads, it is best to spell the name of the state you are running them in correctly.

2) Thug life.  If your paid thugs are going to push people over who are asking tough questions, you should make sure it is just another insignificant voter, and not a member of the national press.  And always make sure it’s not on video.

Arrogance or Ignorance?  You decide.  And let me know what you think…while we wait for the votes to be counted.