What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
God I hate morning afters. But they are inevitable (if you're lucky) As far as I can tell in reading the various postmortems there are two overriding lessons.
The first is that it's the economy (stupid). At nearly 10% unemployment, a foreclosure scandal of epic proportions, Wall Street run amock and a gusher of plutocrat money flowing into the political system, it's almost impossible to believe that the Democrats didn't lose the Senate as well as the House. It was not an ideological election -- Blue Dogs and progressives alike lost their seats, in regions all over the country. It was a primal scream of a vote, against those who promised to make things better and failed to do it.
There are fundamental disagreements about how to fix this, but I expect that "consensus" is about to be found around the idea of austerity. Nonetheless, the Republicans will say the president is a socialist foreigner who is working in league with terrorists to destroy the country, so 2012 may be even more disappointing. If you're a praying person, pray that the invisible hand is hard at work making everything all better very quickly.
As to the other lesson, some of us predicted when the first black president came into office and was accused of proposing death panels for seniors, that the Republicans were firming up their best new demographic. Here's one from March of 2009.
The elderly are easy prey for all kinds of scare stories and scams from unscrupulous people. And nobody is more unscrupulous than a right winger desperate to obstruct a program or politician they know will be popular and empowering of liberals. Here's one example from a few years ago, and as far as I know they are still active today. The groups they fronted for certainly are.
I know it's seems surprising to many that the right is able to mobilize senior citizens against health care reform, but it doesn't surprise me at all. They've been laying the groundwork for this, from dozens of different directions, for decades. The "right to life" people's ongoing efforts to put euthanasia on the table is just well tilled little piece they are using for this particular moment.
The fundamental architecture of the conservative movement is built on a simple premise: liberals want to take all your money and then kill you or they want to kill you and then take all your money. It's not really any more complicated than that.
The right understood they'd lost the youth vote, the ethnic and racial minority vote and usually the female vote. The only demographic vote they had going for them was the elderly. And they've done a masterful job of making seniors feel like they're doing something for their grand kids by denying them health care and ensuring that there will be no safety net for them when they get old. You have to give them credit for that.
And you have to blame the Democrats for failing to see that was a huge part of the Republican strategy going into the mid-terms in which the voting demographic always skews older.
So, here we are. People keep asking me what this means for the progressive movement and I reply --- nothing. Progressives are in this for the long haul. And anyone with any experience knows that the country is polarized between the right and the left, with a bunch of people in between who don't know what to think. All we can do is keep trying out different ways to persuade them that their best bet is to go with the progressive philosophy and require our elected politicians to figure out how to turn that philosophy into governance. It's a long term battle that has periods of intense confrontation and calm conciliation, but it never really ends.
As you go about your business today, feeling like hell, keep in mind that it was just two years ago that many of the same pundits and gasbags were assuring us all that the conservative movement was dead. We are doing a lot of lurching about right now because the country is under stress and our political system is dividing strongly along partisan lines. Get used to it. I suspect we're going to be in for turbulent politics like this for some time. And if we play our cards right, and the Democrats don't completely implode, it's probable that at the end of the day we (or those who come behind us) will look back and see that human rights, economic justice and peace came out the winners more often than not.
I thought that Hillary Clinton had it right when she said at the Democratic Convention in 2008:
My mother was born before women could vote, my daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
So how do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her lives to bring slaves to freedom along the underground railroad.
On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice:
‘If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.’
And even in the darkest moments. That is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going.
Keep the faith. And anyway, what choice do we have?
Update: Oh, and when they try to blame the bloggers or the liberals, just throw this in their face:
Only 47% of the members of the Democratic “Blue Dog Coalition” won re-election. 95% of the members of the “Progressive Caucus” won re-election. We're divided, but not that way.
And just in case the media hasn't noticed, the Democrats still control one house of congress and the presidency.
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
bench craft company
What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
God I hate morning afters. But they are inevitable (if you're lucky) As far as I can tell in reading the various postmortems there are two overriding lessons.
The first is that it's the economy (stupid). At nearly 10% unemployment, a foreclosure scandal of epic proportions, Wall Street run amock and a gusher of plutocrat money flowing into the political system, it's almost impossible to believe that the Democrats didn't lose the Senate as well as the House. It was not an ideological election -- Blue Dogs and progressives alike lost their seats, in regions all over the country. It was a primal scream of a vote, against those who promised to make things better and failed to do it.
There are fundamental disagreements about how to fix this, but I expect that "consensus" is about to be found around the idea of austerity. Nonetheless, the Republicans will say the president is a socialist foreigner who is working in league with terrorists to destroy the country, so 2012 may be even more disappointing. If you're a praying person, pray that the invisible hand is hard at work making everything all better very quickly.
As to the other lesson, some of us predicted when the first black president came into office and was accused of proposing death panels for seniors, that the Republicans were firming up their best new demographic. Here's one from March of 2009.
The elderly are easy prey for all kinds of scare stories and scams from unscrupulous people. And nobody is more unscrupulous than a right winger desperate to obstruct a program or politician they know will be popular and empowering of liberals. Here's one example from a few years ago, and as far as I know they are still active today. The groups they fronted for certainly are.
I know it's seems surprising to many that the right is able to mobilize senior citizens against health care reform, but it doesn't surprise me at all. They've been laying the groundwork for this, from dozens of different directions, for decades. The "right to life" people's ongoing efforts to put euthanasia on the table is just well tilled little piece they are using for this particular moment.
The fundamental architecture of the conservative movement is built on a simple premise: liberals want to take all your money and then kill you or they want to kill you and then take all your money. It's not really any more complicated than that.
The right understood they'd lost the youth vote, the ethnic and racial minority vote and usually the female vote. The only demographic vote they had going for them was the elderly. And they've done a masterful job of making seniors feel like they're doing something for their grand kids by denying them health care and ensuring that there will be no safety net for them when they get old. You have to give them credit for that.
And you have to blame the Democrats for failing to see that was a huge part of the Republican strategy going into the mid-terms in which the voting demographic always skews older.
So, here we are. People keep asking me what this means for the progressive movement and I reply --- nothing. Progressives are in this for the long haul. And anyone with any experience knows that the country is polarized between the right and the left, with a bunch of people in between who don't know what to think. All we can do is keep trying out different ways to persuade them that their best bet is to go with the progressive philosophy and require our elected politicians to figure out how to turn that philosophy into governance. It's a long term battle that has periods of intense confrontation and calm conciliation, but it never really ends.
As you go about your business today, feeling like hell, keep in mind that it was just two years ago that many of the same pundits and gasbags were assuring us all that the conservative movement was dead. We are doing a lot of lurching about right now because the country is under stress and our political system is dividing strongly along partisan lines. Get used to it. I suspect we're going to be in for turbulent politics like this for some time. And if we play our cards right, and the Democrats don't completely implode, it's probable that at the end of the day we (or those who come behind us) will look back and see that human rights, economic justice and peace came out the winners more often than not.
I thought that Hillary Clinton had it right when she said at the Democratic Convention in 2008:
My mother was born before women could vote, my daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
So how do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her lives to bring slaves to freedom along the underground railroad.
On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice:
‘If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.’
And even in the darkest moments. That is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going.
Keep the faith. And anyway, what choice do we have?
Update: Oh, and when they try to blame the bloggers or the liberals, just throw this in their face:
Only 47% of the members of the Democratic “Blue Dog Coalition” won re-election. 95% of the members of the “Progressive Caucus” won re-election. We're divided, but not that way.
And just in case the media hasn't noticed, the Democrats still control one house of congress and the presidency.
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
bench craft company
bench craft company
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
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What's amazing -- and, for the Democrats, terrifying -- isn't just that 57 percent of Americans are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about making their next mortgage payment. It's that two years ago, when the macroeconomy was in worse shape, that number was a comparatively modest 37 percent. Most Americans, in other words, have gotten more insecure over that period, at least on this metric.
There are all sorts of ways to explain this, of course. Unemployment drives foreclosures, and it's a lagging indicator. The financial crisis was driven by the expectation of this housing insecurity, not just the foreclosures that had happened in late-2007. Financial crises always take a long time to work through, and if you're a Reinhart and Reinhart fan, you know that housing crises and credit bubbles take years, not months, to work through.
But that's all cold comfort to the 57 percent of Americans who walk around with a knot in their stomach. They're hurting now. And they're about to vote.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
With outside groups included, this election cycle's cost could hit $4 billion, reports Dan Eggen: "There are three general tides of money swamping this year's elections, according to CRP's data: House and Senate candidates, who have reported raising $1.7 billion; the political parties, with about $1.1 billion; and outside interest groups, which have raised at least $400 million. That adds up to $3.2 billion, but the numbers are incomplete amid the frenzy of ad buys and other activity in the week before the election...Donations from Wall Street, medical and insurance firms, energy conglomerates and other corporations have shifted decisively toward Republicans over the past year because of policy disputes with Democrats and anticipation of a possible GOP takeover in Congress."
Democrats are amping up their secret campaign spending: http://wapo.st/bAq5ju
Most Americans say they worry about making mortgage or rent payments, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jon Cohen: "In all, 53 percent said they are 'very concerned' or 'somewhat concerned' about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and among African Americans... there's now even more unease about making next month's rent or mortgage payment than there was two years ago. Back then, 37 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about their monthly housing costs. Since that time, the economy has modestly improved."
To triangulate or not to triangulate, that is the White House's question, report Laura Meckler and Peter Wallsten: "Strategists in both parties see two options for President Barack Obama. He could seek deals on issues including trade, taxes and spending, following the model of President Bill Clinton, who after losing Congress in 1994, compromised with the GOP to overhaul welfare...Mr. Obama could also follow the model of Harry Truman, who dug in and successfully portrayed an opposition Congress as obstructionist. That would lay the foundation for a 2012 reelection campaign where the president could draw contrasts with his opponents... White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, in investigating the various options, is consulting with people who worked for Mr. Clinton in the mid-1990s."
Special guest interlude: Belle & Sebastian and Jenny Lewis play "Lazy Line Painter Jane".
Still to come: Sen. Kent Conrad is sticking up for TARP and the stimulus; Matthew Yglesias thinks Obama's biggest economic mistakes came in neglecting the Fed; Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing; and There Will Be Blood as a Super Nintendo game.
Economy/FinReg
Kent Conrad is leading a defense of TARP and the stimulus, reports Lori Montgomery: "Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television. On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package. The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election."
The administration is concerned that the foreclosure mess will hike up home prices, reports Sewell Chan: "Revelations about paperwork shortcuts and so-called robo-signed affidavits, as well as the likelihood of protracted legal battles by homeowners and inquiries by state and federal officials, will hinder foreclosure proceedings and discourage prospective buyers, a Treasury Department official said. 'Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long run,' said the official, Phyllis R. Caldwell, chief of the homeownership preservation office at the Treasury."
Obama praised Larry Summers' tenure on The Daily Show: http://bit.ly/bhHqP0
Opponents of higher taxes for the rich are fewer, but care more, writes Larry Bartels: "The sizable minority of people who want the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers renewed seem to attach much more weight to this issue than the slim majority who want them to expire. In a statistical analysis taking separate account of prospective voters’ broader partisan attachments, those who support President Obama’s position on the tax cuts are only 6% more likely than those who are unsure about the issue to say they will vote for a Democratic House candidate. Even those who want to let all the tax cuts expire are only 9% more likely to vote Democratic. By comparison, those who want to keep the tax cuts for affluent taxpayers in place are 22% more likely to say they will vote for a Republican House candidate."
Milton Friedman would support quantitative easing, writes David Wessel: http://bit.ly/97KggH
The Obama administration is suffering because it paid the economy too little attention, writes Matthew Yglesias: "A party whose leaders realized that economic results were the most important driver of public opinion wouldn't have renominated a conservative Republican to head the Federal Reserve. Even more astoundingly, having given Ben Bernanke a second term in office, the Obama administration didn't get around to nominating anyone to fill the other vacant posts on the Federal Reserve Board until April 2010...Similarly, the extent of stimulus possible in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was famously limited by the need to gain Republican support. Given that, shouldn't someone have put reconciliation instructions into the budget resolution that would have allowed for additional stimulus to be undertaken by majority vote?"
Obama's economic agenda works for women, writes Neera Tanden: http://bit.ly/clCoxH
British austerity measures are incoherent, writes Brad DeLong: "Cameron’s government used to claim that its policies would produce a boom by bringing a visit from the Confidence Fairy that would greatly reduce long-term interest rates and cause a huge surge of private investment spending. Now it appears to have abandoned that claim in favor of the message that failure to cut will produce disaster...But if you ask the government’s supporters why there is no alternative to mammoth cuts in government spending and increases in taxes, they sound confused and incoherent. Or perhaps they are merely parroting talking points backed by little thought."
Athletics interlude: The world's most awesome sports montage clip.
Energy
The White House is defending the choice to push health care reform before climate change legislation, reports Darren Samuelsohn: "'We really felt like it was a walk and talk, walk and chew gum' situation, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes said the White House believes the country can still tackle climate change without Congress passing legislation that caps greenhouse gas emissions, noting the push for executive agencies to curb emissions, coupled with efforts at the state and local government levels...'We’ve been absolutely thinking about this at every level,' Barnes said, citing the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department programs, as well as federal grants to help local governments build more sidewalks, light rail lines and street trolleys."
The inventor of SuperSoakers is revolutionizing solar power: http://bit.ly/a7QWh6
Action on climate change could require a cultural shift analogous to the turn against smoking, reports John Broder: "Professor Hoffman likened the widespread skepticism about the reality of climate change to the gradual acceptance of the link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. It was only when the public accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco use did policy tools like the banning of indoor smoking become socially and politically possible, he said...He said that the development of a feasible, low-cost alternative energy source to fossil fuels could also change the economic and public opinion equation relatively quickly."
Nanotech could stop electronics not in use from hogging electricity: http://bit.ly/cGgdbU
There are more politically viable alternatives to a carbon tax, writes Jeffrey Sachs: "A feed-in tariff subsidizes the low-carbon energy source rather than taxing the high-carbon energy source. In our example, the government would pay a subsidy of $0.10/kilowatt-hour to the solar-power plant to make up the difference between the consumer price of $0.06 and the production cost of $0.16. The consumer price remains unchanged, but the government must somehow pay for the subsidy. Here is another way. Suppose that we levy a small tax on existing coal power plants in order to pay for the solar subsidy, and then gradually raise consumers’ electricity bills as more and more solar plants are phased in."
16 bit interlude: There Will Be Blood, the SNES game.
Domestic Policy
The FTC is backing off its privacy probe of Google, report Cecilia Kang: "The federal government has ended an inquiry into a privacy breach involving Google's Street View service, satisfied with the company's pledge to stop gathering e-mail, passwords and other information from residential WiFi networks as it rolls through neighborhoods. Wednesday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission is a sharp contrast with the reaction of regulators in Europe. The United Kingdom has launched a new investigation into Google's collection of unencrypted WiFi data, exposing the company to potential fines. Germany told Google to mark its Street View cars that take pictures of neighborhoods and homes. The Czech Republic banned Google from expanding its mapping software program."
Cuts in federal building costs could save billions: http://wapo.st/cAFFFl
College tuition is rising in tandem with Pell Grants, reports Stephanie Banchero: "The average price of tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions is $7,605 this school year, a 7.9% increase over last year. At private nonprofit colleges and universities, the average price is $27,293, a 4.5% rise. Two-year state colleges saw a 6% rise to $2,713. But the federal government gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-10 school year, almost $10 billion more than the previous year. Pell grant numbers for the current school year are not yet available, but are expected to rise."
Citizens United helps unions more than corporations, writes Daniel Henninger: http://bit.ly/aVfNS8
The National Archives are failing to keep government records properly, reports Lisa Rein: "Four out of five federal agencies are also at risk of illegally destroying public records, and the Archives has a huge backlog of documents that need to be preserved, the Government Accountability Office found. Two reports by Congress' watchdog arm found that many agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records as they assess whether to preserve or destroy them. And the Archives, as it preserves records electronically, has also left itself open to hackers. Among the findings of the year-long audits are that the Archives did not protect its computer networks with a strong firewall to keep out unauthorized users."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.
God I hate morning afters. But they are inevitable (if you're lucky) As far as I can tell in reading the various postmortems there are two overriding lessons.
The first is that it's the economy (stupid). At nearly 10% unemployment, a foreclosure scandal of epic proportions, Wall Street run amock and a gusher of plutocrat money flowing into the political system, it's almost impossible to believe that the Democrats didn't lose the Senate as well as the House. It was not an ideological election -- Blue Dogs and progressives alike lost their seats, in regions all over the country. It was a primal scream of a vote, against those who promised to make things better and failed to do it.
There are fundamental disagreements about how to fix this, but I expect that "consensus" is about to be found around the idea of austerity. Nonetheless, the Republicans will say the president is a socialist foreigner who is working in league with terrorists to destroy the country, so 2012 may be even more disappointing. If you're a praying person, pray that the invisible hand is hard at work making everything all better very quickly.
As to the other lesson, some of us predicted when the first black president came into office and was accused of proposing death panels for seniors, that the Republicans were firming up their best new demographic. Here's one from March of 2009.
The elderly are easy prey for all kinds of scare stories and scams from unscrupulous people. And nobody is more unscrupulous than a right winger desperate to obstruct a program or politician they know will be popular and empowering of liberals. Here's one example from a few years ago, and as far as I know they are still active today. The groups they fronted for certainly are.
I know it's seems surprising to many that the right is able to mobilize senior citizens against health care reform, but it doesn't surprise me at all. They've been laying the groundwork for this, from dozens of different directions, for decades. The "right to life" people's ongoing efforts to put euthanasia on the table is just well tilled little piece they are using for this particular moment.
The fundamental architecture of the conservative movement is built on a simple premise: liberals want to take all your money and then kill you or they want to kill you and then take all your money. It's not really any more complicated than that.
The right understood they'd lost the youth vote, the ethnic and racial minority vote and usually the female vote. The only demographic vote they had going for them was the elderly. And they've done a masterful job of making seniors feel like they're doing something for their grand kids by denying them health care and ensuring that there will be no safety net for them when they get old. You have to give them credit for that.
And you have to blame the Democrats for failing to see that was a huge part of the Republican strategy going into the mid-terms in which the voting demographic always skews older.
So, here we are. People keep asking me what this means for the progressive movement and I reply --- nothing. Progressives are in this for the long haul. And anyone with any experience knows that the country is polarized between the right and the left, with a bunch of people in between who don't know what to think. All we can do is keep trying out different ways to persuade them that their best bet is to go with the progressive philosophy and require our elected politicians to figure out how to turn that philosophy into governance. It's a long term battle that has periods of intense confrontation and calm conciliation, but it never really ends.
As you go about your business today, feeling like hell, keep in mind that it was just two years ago that many of the same pundits and gasbags were assuring us all that the conservative movement was dead. We are doing a lot of lurching about right now because the country is under stress and our political system is dividing strongly along partisan lines. Get used to it. I suspect we're going to be in for turbulent politics like this for some time. And if we play our cards right, and the Democrats don't completely implode, it's probable that at the end of the day we (or those who come behind us) will look back and see that human rights, economic justice and peace came out the winners more often than not.
I thought that Hillary Clinton had it right when she said at the Democratic Convention in 2008:
My mother was born before women could vote, my daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
So how do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her lives to bring slaves to freedom along the underground railroad.
On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice:
‘If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.’
And even in the darkest moments. That is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going.
Keep the faith. And anyway, what choice do we have?
Update: Oh, and when they try to blame the bloggers or the liberals, just throw this in their face:
Only 47% of the members of the Democratic “Blue Dog Coalition” won re-election. 95% of the members of the “Progressive Caucus” won re-election. We're divided, but not that way.
And just in case the media hasn't noticed, the Democrats still control one house of congress and the presidency.
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Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
bench craft company
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
bench craft company
Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
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Fox <b>News</b> Dominates Election Ratings – Deadline.com
UPDATED WITH FINAL NUMBERS: Fox News towered over the competition -- cable and broadcast -- with its midterm election coverage last night. According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged 7 million viewers in primetime, up 128% from the ...
New Rock Type Found On Moon - Science <b>News</b>
Odd spots on the lunar farside could be ancient material from deep inside.
Fox <b>News</b> On Christine O'Donnell - Mediate.com
The midterms are over, and while the GOP regained control of the House, the coronation of the Tea Party movement is still up for debate. Sure, a number of Tea Party candidates won their races, but perhaps the most visible -- Delaware ...
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Many people make tons of money on the internet. Many other people want to make money on the internet but don't know how.
The first step is you should get a PayPal account. The reason for this is most of the programs I will talk about, pay out through PayPal. The other way they will pay out, is by a check sent directly to you through the mail.
After you get your PayPal account you should consider joining a free web hosting site such as BraveNet. You can also build a website that has banner ads. Then, you can advertise your referral links to make some extra money. Your site should be about something you are interested in such as a hobby so you can easily add content. Having extra content will get your visitors to return and be more likely to click on an ad or direct link. If you have little,or no experience, in making websites or using HTML then I suggest you create a blog at a site such as blogger.com
After you get your BraveNet account, and/ or PayPal account,then your ready to get started. The first program I recommend is Mylot. The reason for this is you can make an of average $1.00 a day by posting topics, discussions and comments. Plus, this is a great way to advertise your websites. You can start topics such as "I just made a new website at..." Also,
you can put comments on others ideas about making money online. If you want to make about $1.50 a day
then you need to make 50 posts, 10 new discussions and 10 new pictures uploaded. Also make sure each post is at least four lines.
After joining Mylot and if you did decide to make a website or blog, then I suggest you join Adbrite. You just copy and paste the HTML in your document.After about two days, there will be a banner ad or text ad in the space you chose. You will earn money for your CTR, which is your add views divided by your ad clicks times ten. To make the most money, make sure after your page has loaded you can see the entire ad space. The better you can see it the more you will get paid and the more clicks you will get which will improve your CTR.
Next, I suggest you join Absence. This is a lot like Adbrite.Although, all the ads are text based and you will get paid by your PPM or Pay Per thousand (clicks.) This means that the more times people click on your ads the more you will get paid. Make sure to never click on your own ads because they will instantly ban you and take all the money you have earned.
After that, you should join SFI which you can make money by referring others and by advertising their products. The best way to do this is by advertising there gateways. A gateway is a website that they design but has your code in it so they can track of who made the referrals. You should put a link on all your sites such as "to join SFI to make money click here." Or if your advertising there product gateways, "click to find more Info on purchasing..."
To get more exposure to your site or to your SFI gateways then you should join a traffic exchange like Traffic Swarm.
Up until now all I have talked about is if you already have a website or blog, but if you don't, there are many other sites where one is not needed for success.
The best one is CashCrate. All you have to do is fill out surveys or complete offers and sign up for random stuff. There is a minimum $10 payout and no kidding I met it in less than an one and a half hours! I suggest you get a second email address to sign up for all of these offers and surveys, because they might give you spam(junk email)but it is worth it.
There are a lot of other sites you should join such as ClixSense, AdBux and LinkGrand which are PTC (pay to click) ClickSense being the best but the others are worth a look. Slash My Search and Zot Spot pay you to make searches just like you were using Google.
