Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geihtner told lawmakers today that he wants the government to start regulating the practices of non-bank, financial institutions. You know, the ones that made reckless and greedy decisions that led to millions losing everything and the economy tanking?

Yeah, those guys... or gals... or assholes... ( or any other synonyms for those greedy sons of bitches).

If those institutions, like AIG and Lehman Brothers failed at proving their un-regulated practices resulted in anything but debt, then their "free" time is over.

Many capatilists baulk at any government involvement in free market practices. Well folks, when the " free market" results in the American taxpayers holding a trillion dollar debt, then the days of them running free with other's money, is over.

Furthermore, if you feel that government regulation of financial institutions is a punishment, you're right. And guess what? The punishment fits the crime.

The fact that there are millions of Americans who lost everything due to the poor choices of a select few does not sit well with me . This same few who are currently receiving milllions of dollars in bonuses ( of our tax money) that they don't deserve, is nauseating. I'm a democrat, I'm a capatlist too. (Yes, they do exist!) However, current practices can no longer go unsupervised. The big wigs in these institutions have their hands so deep in their greedy pockets of self interest that they failed to recognize, or even care that ours are empty. Nor will they, if we don't do something about it.

Therefore, here's my message to AIG and the like: You are currently grounded. The government is going to be on your ass until you shape up. Timmy, knob-face, Geihtner is gonna be on you like lipstick on a pitbull until you get your acts together.

Dear readers, I leave you with the hope that after the appropriate government regulations of these industries, we can someday say that the best things in life, are no longer free. At least, in terms of the market economy anyway, because thanks to those jerks, I pretty much can't afford anything else!

Last week, during an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, President Obama made an off-handed joke about this bowling score being equivalent to those in the Special Olypmics.

As a special education teacher, and a former volunteer for the Special Olympics, I found the comment off-putting but lacking malice. It's not justifiable, but being human is.

What I do find outrageous however, is the fact that we had a president with special needs in office for eight years, and no one got in an uproar over that. Instead, they, increasingly day by day, direct their anger and hatred toward the Obama administration for the failed policies of the Bush administration.

When will America wake up and realize that we have only begun to see the devastation that the Bush administration has caused or nation. Isn't it so convenient that their shameless decisions are just beginning to unravel, now that they're gone.

They had their proverbial cake and now, they're definitely eating it too. Meanwhile, American taxpayes are eating more and more taxes due to bailouts and stimulus packages. Personally, I'm stuffed with all of this, yet I know that I don't have a choice but to make room for more.

It is imperative to understand that the job of both president Obama and his entire administration is an extremely daunting one. Executive and Legislative tasks are never " easy" but the present circumstances, which are direct result of the Bush adminstration, make them virtually impossible.

Give them a break, will ya?

Funny, the president with special needs is the one who ended up handicapping our entire nation!

Go figure.

Facing scrutiny over the AIG bonuses that have gone out to top executives, AIG's CEO told Congress that these bonuses were, " distasteful".

Distasteful huh? Distasteful is the understatement of this recession.

These bonuses are downright criminial. Furthermore, those who are receiving them should both return them to a conglomerate that is currently owned by the taxpayers and quit or be fired.

I am absolutely disgusted. Contracts or not, were the government to not bail them out this past fall, they would have never been able to pay out those bonuses to begin with. AIG was in such dire straits that it required billions of hard-earned tax payer's money, yet, it can afford to pay out bonuses that amount to over a hundred million dollars?

What about those poor Americans who lost their job due to companies, like AIG, who recklessly squandered innocent people's money, only to land us in a recession? I should also add that those who lost their job due to AIG, also worked for companies that did not have the government to bail them out.

We, as Americans, should be infuriated. Despite your party affiliation, something needs to be done.

What are we waiting for?

Today, it has been rumored that Obama my puruse an initiative to tax Americans on their healthcare benefits. This of course would be a move that he explicitly spoke out against during his campaign. Furthermore, this initiative, one that was championed by his former rival, John Mcain, was one the Obama criticized highly during his campaign.

I've lectured you about taxes before. Simply put, it sucks watching your hard-earned money go into the government's pocket with little of your say as to how it is spent. No matter which side of the party lines you may fall, everyone can collectively agree that they would like to see their taxes decrease.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon. You see, as frustrated as I am about my taxes increasing with every new stimulus bill and bailout plan, I'm even more frustrated by the ( Bush) administration that has put us in this position to begin with.

We are literally paying for the deregulation, greed and the self-interests of the both the former administration and the very people who today, are receiving million dollar bonuses.

We are rewarding bad behavior. Yet, what is the alternative? Without a stimulus or certain bailouts, we would be in a depression. However, I find it hard to believe that there could have been more rigid and explicit expectations for the banks and agencies who received bailout money.

If Jesus Christ himself were to be president right now, we'd have a hard time praising him as our current political and economic status is dire. Obama is not Jesus, nor is he divine. He's a human like the rest of us, he's not perfect, nor are all of his ideas. But god damnit, I can say that he's capable and does have the best interests of Americans at heart.

Be patient dear readers, it took eight years to get us into this slump, let's revive the hope that we had in electing Obama to the hope of his capability of getting us out of this mess.

Times are certainly tough. I may not have any money, but I'd stock up on a boatload of patience and hope over resentment and anger anyday.

You may not want to invest in the stock market, but investing in some positive thinking yields the highest dividends.

Always. Keep hope alive, afterall, it's free.

President Obama delivered a speech yesterday to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that was soley based on education. The speech marks his first on education since becoming president.

Obama challenges teacher unions, demanding merit pay for excellent teachers and not making excuses for " bad" ones. Sounds reasonable and fair right? Eh, not so much. One thing that most Americans don't realize about public education is that these laws put 100% of the burden of increasing test scores, solely, on teachers. Students, who only spend 8% of their year in school. Yet, the 92% of other elements that affect or prohibit a student's progress in not taken into account. Furthermore, if students aren't performing, the teacher and the school gets blamed. What's worse is that it goes beyond blame, schools that have been tagged for not meeting their state expectations ( and I use that word loosely and it changes every minute) lose funding.

The system is punitive and not proactive. Schools that need the most funding, lose it because of certain elements that they can't control. I am specifically speaking to a student's home situation. I currently teach middle school students in a special education program specifically for students with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Besides my students, do you know how many students never do an ounce of homework, don't study for tests, are disengaged in the curriculum and whose parents are in no way involved in their education? Far too many.

I am aware that I cannot control those outside elements, and, in turn, work to the best of my ability to foster educational growth in all of my students no matter what their circumstances are. The problem is, no matter how hard I'm working to bring the best out in my students, their test score is the only measurement of my worth as a teacher.

And, speaking of tests, they're ridiculous. Obama praised my own state of Massachusetts for our high-performing science scores. Too bad he doesn't realize that school systems are spending most of their money, time and energy to teach the students to suceed on the test, and the test alone. In addition, special education students are forced to take their grade level tests even if their documents instructional level is years, and years under their current grade level. Is it surprising then that these students don't perform well? No, but we lose funding because of it anyway.

I think all politicians are lacking the insight that a fruitful education can be acquired in your public school but without the home life to support it, it will never grow and develop. No one wants to admit that one of our biggest problems in education is the lack proper modeling in the home. This is an issue across all socioeconmic classes as well. I continue to find it ironic that in an age were schools are being deprived of their funding because they did not meet the expectations that the state holds them accountable for, more and more parents are taking away any sense of accountability in their own children. Who's holding them accountable?

Now, I do believe that tax payers have the right to demand high quality teachers. I also agree that there needs to be a way to measure their effectiveness. Yet, the current measures aren't really working out too well. Also, teachers are required to continuously increase their professional development, on their own time and dime. What other industry requires that of its workers for the duration of their employment? If you want better teacher training, make it free, offered during school hours, and mandatory.

Obama, I had high hopes for your ideas about education. Too bad they're pretty much just more of the same.

Needless to say, I'm very disappointed.

During the Bush years, my fellow liberals often commented on how " the village lost its idiot" when he was elected to office. These days, I've come to the conclusion that the village didn't lose any idiot at all. This is because the village is chock full of idiots. One idiot's departure, it seems, makes room for ten more in their place.

This is why I've decided to dedicate, in my mind, a certain plot of land where all the idiots of the GOP can whine, complain, scheme and sulk together, so they're out of eyesight, and hopefully earshot of the non-idiots.

I'd like to call it, Idiot Village. Picture a gated community. You know, the kind where there's a literal gate, and a lock to keep the idiots away from the rest of society.

Let me be clear, not everyone in the GOP is an idiot. I'd be an idiot to say that. There are many members of the GOP that are intelligent. They don't like the idiots either. Yet, if the idiots get them attention, they'll tolerate them. And, by tolerate, I mean promote them shamelessly for their own self-interests. Why, there are GOP members that are so intelligent that they reach evil-mastermind status, ( Cheney anyone?).

Let's take a look at some of the residents of Idiot Village. I'll start with Bush; complete and total idiot. Also, selfish, weak and indiferrent. Bush also falls under the category of " puppet" but Puppet Village is a whole other subject all together.

Average American neighborhoods are dwindling due to the rapid succession of home foreclosures. " Bank owned" and " foreclosure" signs dots the formerly manicured lawns of both blue and white collar suburbia. Yet, although many are forced to leave their homes, it seems that the residents of Idiot Village are busting at the seams. In an attempt to boulster the economy,I would love for some of the idiots to buy more land to increase the size of Idiot Village so that they could build a home there. Yet, Idiot Village should be considered a place of quarantine and isolation, not an ideal community.

Another ( literally) huge idiot; Rush Limbaugh. He's such an idiot that he's actually allowing the Dems to herald him as the new face of the GOP because it both gets him ratings, and gives him ( false) hope. You're an idiot, and a fat idiot. You were also a drug addict, but Drug Addict Village is currently being occupied by the members of Celebrity Rehab.

Sarah Palin, idiot. One of the biggest idiots I've ever been aware of. If she and Bush were to mate and produce an offspring, I fear the world would never know such an uber idiot. The thought gives me shivers. She's such an idiot that she doesn't even realize that every time she opens her mouth, she reinforces the fact that she's an idiot.

Can there be any more idiots? Of course! I couldn't forget Ann Coulter. Apparently advanced degrees from esteemed universities don't grant you a free pass out of Idiot Village. She's a total idiot. A hateful one at that. As a matter of fact, Rush, Sarah and Ann are all extremely hateful idiots. They can knock themselves out with a idiot menage a trois. I don't think that Bush is a hateful idiot. He actually could have achieved loveable idiot status but then someone stupidly gave him authority. Whoever that was, was an idiot.

Now, please understand, the Dems are not devoid of idiots. Blagojevich... IDIOT! He can't live in Idiot Village but he should certainly think about residing in Bad Hair Bad Decisions Village.

So, dear readers, idiots are everywhere, they reside on both party lines. We can't escape them, but please, let's not elect them?

If you do, why don't you mapquest the directions to Idiot Village, maybe Rush will be able to " squeeze you in".