• ● I've noticed that I'm attracted to many conservative Republican women, except Ann Coulter. She killed that streak like Soulja Boy killed Hip Hop.
• ● How is it that Tim Kurkjian knows everything? That man is an expert, the complete opposite of Mark Schlereth. Since when does being an offensive lineman make you an expert at everything about football?
• ● I'm a huge Lil Wayne fan, I even love his mixtapes.  There's no one-liner or anything I just felt like writing that.
• ● I also love the song "She Loves Everybody" by Chester French. It's amazing how that band is two people strong yet they can make a song as great as "She Loves Everybody".
• ● There's nothing like a talent show to remind you how under-funded your school is. It's funny how a talent show can make me think about politics, but just watching as the microphone failed to work over and over again reminded me of the stimulus package and how I hope my school gets enough money for a decent field trip, at least. That just shows what a nerd I am.
• ● There is a scene in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" with Kevin Hart and Romany Malco that is so funny that anytime I'm depressed I think about that scene and instantly start laughing.
• ● I was wondering why I still call Mr. Savit "Mister." (Editor's Note: Ivan is a former student of The Generation Project's co-founder, Eli Savit.  Read "Mr." Savit's intoduction of Ivan here).  Since I hate to leave any question unanswered, I came up with my own solution. I only know two Elis, Mr. Savit and Manning. Eli Manning got me  a Super Bowl memory to last me a life-time. Your move, Mr. Savit. Just kidding.
• ● Finally, if you ever want to express your thoughts you can write poetry, write a blog, or yell your thoughts out loud to your sibling, teacher, classmates, and television screen. Fortunately for me, I can do all three.

The final battle over the stimulus bill has commenced this week and we've taken to our corners. For many the golden stimulus ticket is jobs--green ones, blue ones, a veritable rainbow, really. I cannot disagree that job creation should be a focus of this bill. Part of the education infusion, in fact, is supposed to go to retaining teachers whose jobs are on the chopping block, a win for those of us in the education corner. 

We are all ready to jump into the ring but we must proceed with caution. Instead of just patching crumbling state education budgets we can (and should) use the stimulus money to invest in real, proven solutions that have a chance of narrowing the achievement gap between poor and wealthy children (a gap that has been widening for 20 years). It’s obvious that educating out nation's children, all of them, is more of an investment than a quick employment solution. There are already over 13 million children living in poverty in America and as more children slip into poverty in these trying economic times, we must realize that wasting minds is an act that will keep more families in poverty and further harm our economic stability in the future. We are already losing the international education race. Imagine what will happen if we allow even more students to fall further behind.

Congress and President Obama have decided that salvation is in stimulus spending. If you’re listening, Dept. of Ed, heed this advice: Thou shalt not squander it.

Picture credits: http://media.week.com/images/school%20money.jpg

I have so many things I want to write about dealing with politics and sports, I'm writing two blogs this week. If you're not good at math that's one for politics and one for sports. If math really isn't one of your strengths then we have something in common. This is my politics blog, read my sports blog here.

This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Obama stimulus bill, with NO Republican votes. That's right, not a single Republican voted for the stimulus bill. What I've heard is that the Republicans had another bill with nothing but tax cuts. Someone should remind John Boehner and Mitch McConnell that we've tried that already. Not only will the Obama stimulus create new jobs, it will create jobs that are helpful to the environment and that will help the country's infrastructure. We could be multi-tasking! Not only that, but the Obama stimulus will put money into schools, and this country's schools need  stimulating. How do I know? I go to one of the most under-funded schools in the Bronx. I'm not even going to get political science next year, and I was really looking forward to that! The statement Republicans made this week is that their real leader is a fat, balding, conservative who hosts a radio show and wants to see our new president fail.

What I meant with that awesome segue is that Republicans listen to Rush Limbaugh. This became incredibly clear after Rep. Phil Gingrey from Georgia said that conservative commentators are able to "stand back and throw bricks" instead of offering "real leadership". Well, after a "high volume of phone calls" Gingrey retracted his statement on Limbaugh's show. He also apologized for what he called his foot-in-mouth disease. After listening to that apology I think Gingrey might have taken his foot out of his mouth to pucker up to a specific part of Limbaugh. As much as I dislike Limbaugh, he sticks to his guns. When he was asked by Sean Hannity if he wanted Obama to fail he said yes. That's the answer I expected from him, because Limbaugh is a conservative with no public office position. He's only really important to the people who listen to him, and doesn't have to worry about what voters think of him. That's why he said he wants President Obama to fail.  But I had hoped that Republicans who are elected would have felt more comfortable standing up to him. More...