It just gets harder and harder

The differences in income and wealth in this country are directly caused by educational attainment, or lack thereof. People with advanced degrees earn the most, and college graduates are close behind them. People with only a high school diploma earn far less, and for high school dropouts, getting a job that pays above minimum wage is almost impossible.
Hispanics drop out of high school in much, much higher percentages than whites do. And only a very small percentage of minorities go on to complete college, let alone graduate or professional school.

Many studies have been done proving that educational attainment is by far THE biggest factor in income and wealth disparities. Thus this "study" done by the Urban Institute was quite disingenuous, to say the least.....

Life is short, world is moving fast

The fairest way to handle this problem is to grant illegal aliens legal status as residents under a reasonable process but not to grant citizenship as a reward for invading the country. Children brought here deserve legal residence status but not citizenship unless they have served five years of more in the military and earned some sort of academic or vocational degree that meets a need we have as a society.
Illegal residents who want citizenship ought to leave the country and apply for legal entry but not under the burdensome rules that now apply. They ought to stay out of the country until they can legally enter and apply for citizenship.
Many people can contribute to our society without becoming voting citizens. We might want to make residency something open to all people from Mexico and some Central American countries as well as some Caribbean nations....

Get line-item veto

I'm more than glad that Mr. Obama was re-elected. I was relieved, at the level of my very survival.

Romney would've destroyed Social Security, which is all I have. I'm profoundly disabled, unable to work. Romney's election would have been my death warrant.

But I didn't vote for Obama just for that reason. He has proven to be the best president we've ever had. This, despite some disappointments. He had the courage, and the statesmanship, to not wither under the unceasing obstructionism of the Republicans. A lesser man would have crumpled before them. Although trying for a long time to negotiate, to bring unity, to our government was an exercise in futility, he HAD to do his best, or would;ve lost our trust.......

Now he knows how pointless it is. As do WE. And now, he will put his foot down on these destructive people. No second-term president has EVER had to put up with the evil he had to face every single day, and try to work with, to get re-elected.

His mettle has been tested. He's now ready to take on his obstructionists, without having to give in much to gain their support for measures he wants passed. He has ripped the veil of respectability from the right, showing the world its pimply backside. He did this by letting THEM show it, through their own statements and actions.

Ban all lobbying. Get line-item veto. Block voting cheats.

This term, he has gained latitude he didn't have before. History will record him as the best president, ever.

Obama, I'm so glad you're here!!!!!

We already knew this

America needs to leave behind a program for humanitarian aid-clean drinking water, sanitary water, food aid, agricultural training,medicine, hospitals, schools. And more of a focus on diplomacy and what would benefit the Afghan people -values and interests- in accord with American values and interests. This could be cheaper and more effective than the militray option.
The Taliban which is all Pashtun even though not all Pashtuns are Taliban will have enrmous influence. A plurality of Afghans are Pashtun along with 15% of Pakistanis.
Walking the ethnic tribal tightrope between the Pahstuns and the Tajiks, Uzbeks, etc will be tough. A slow simmering civil war would be better than all out war. Expulsion of the foreign jihadists and controlling the ethnic warlords and drug dealers will be tough.
The number of Afghans killed, wounded and displaced in this war will continue to haunt us. Avoiding another haven for terrorists is in America's interest.
Determining what went wrong and right and why will take time. But it is necessary. The cost in blood, treasure and time in this war is still unknown.

Can you see the irony in that???

We've been hoodwinked by all our Congress and all our Presidents since FDR. Our Social Security and Medicare taxes were never intended for that purpose, used instead to give us all a false sense of our nation's financial position.
So many people falsely believe we've got a "stash" of money to pay for those benefits in "trust funds" which in reality are bogus chits our Congress never intended to repay. This is most evident in the recent game of the Clinton budget "surplus" which instead got squandered with our crook-in-chief George W. Bush as "free" for his two rounds of tax cuts...
Yes, Rick Perry, this was and still is a scheme.
We've never had a "budget surplus" since our payroll taxes were intended to be saved, not spent on current expenses. Most importantly, our elected officials never intended to repay the funds they "borrowed".
We need a true accounting of our nation's financial position. We all need to know how many other schemes have added to our "unfunded liabilities".
Barack Obama's scheme to use funds from the ending of the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires is bogus since we've borrowed every cent of those costs and will never have those funds as "free cash".
Why aren't these crooks - if they're still alive - in federal penitentiaries with Bernard Madoff and his ilk?
167 brave men and women: Americans standing up for they perceive to be American principles.
The Republican message of lower taxes and (much) lower Government spending was severely derailed by Mitt Romney in his desire to please anyone who stood in front of him at a campaign stop.
But the message clearly lives on in the hearts of the “New Years Day 167” and they voted against the tax deal that John Boehner both presented and endorsed.
151 of the 167 are Republicans. We may not have agreed with all policies – those concerning womens’ access to contraception really sucked – but we admired their unflinching adherence to core Republican principles.
As does a pack of wolves, these House members turned on their weaker brethren such John Boehner and Paul Ryan. Those still wondering why Romney and Ryan lost the election, while Republicans were returned to Governorships and State legislatures by the boatload, need look no further.