ECONOMY
Hurting, Not Whining

Yesterday, in an interview with the Washington Times, former Sen. Phil Gramm, the so-called "econ brain" of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), remarked that the United States has "sort of become a nation of whiners." "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day." "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said. Yesterday afternoon, McCain said that Gramm "does not speak for me," despite the fact that Gramm's comments mirror what McCain said in April: "A lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological." Gramm's apparent desire to keep to a minimum discussion of the real and painful effects of the nation's stalling economy is not surprising, given that he shares the same harmful conservative ideology as McCain and Bush. Gramm played a key roll in gutting many of the institutions designed to keep the economy sound. Serving Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee between 1999 and 2001, he "routinely turned down Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt's requests for more money to police Wall Street." Later, he "pushed to end oversight" of energy futures trading for a key campaign contributor and his wife's onetime employer, Enron. Around the same time, "Gramm pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that decimated Depression-era firewalls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms." The financial maneuvers enabled by Gramm's legislative measures would become "the heart of the subprime meltdown." More recently, it was revealed that Gramm was "being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy." But while Gramm is able to insulate himself, and even profit from, the negative effects of his legislative and lobbying record, the vast majority of Americans are not so fortunate. Here are 10 real examples of how Americans are hurting in the current economy:

HOUSING FORECLOSURES INCREASING: As a result of the subprime lending crisis, "housing foreclosures nationwide were up 50% in June compared with the same month in 2007." In California alone, foreclosures have reached an average of 500 per day.

HOMELESSNESS INCREASING: The number of homeless people in America over the age of 50 is "steadily increasing."

HEALTHCARE COSTS RISING: According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, "health-care costs are growing much faster than the economy." Costs are rising so significantly, some Americans are delaying retirement.

GAS PRICES RISING: The national average gas price is $4.09, up 33 percent from this time last year. Gas prices are now expected to hit "$4.25 by the fall and then stay at more than $4 a gallon until the end of 2009."

JOB LOSSES INCREASING: In the first six months of this year, a total of 438,000 jobs have been lost, bringing unemployment to 5.5 percent. The CEO of Bank of America commented, if unemployment continues to rise, "all bets are off."

FOOD COSTS RISING: "U.S. food prices rose 4 percent in 2007" -- the fastest rise in 17 years -- and as a result, food stamps have considerably less buying power.

HEATING AND ELECTRICITY COSTS RISING: Heating oil costs across the North are expected to be "up 60 percent from last year," and utilities across the country are "raising power prices up to 29%."

REAL WAGES DECLINING: "Slower wage growth and faster inflation has led to falling real hourly and weekly earnings for most workers."

LEISURE SPENDING DECLINING: As a result of the rising cost of living, Americans are "tightening their belts and thinking twice about spending extra bucks on entertainment and leisure products."

VALUE OF DOLLAR DECLINING: The dollar "has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency."

Under the Radar

JUSTICE -- MUKASEY SAYS ADMINISTRATION TORTURE AUTHORS ACTED IN 'GOOD FAITH': Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey argued that White House officials who authorized torture "cannot and should not be prosecuted" or even investigated. In a letter sent yesterday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), Mukasey rejected opening a criminal investigation into officials who approved torture, calling such and investigation "unfair" and "seriously shortsighted." "I am aware of no basis for appointing a special counsel to investigate the policymakers who approved the CIA interrogation program or the national security lawyers who concluded that the program was lawful," he wrote to Conyers and nearly five dozen other Democrats," he said. Mukasey argued that government officials acted in "good faith and warned that criminalizing the process could cause policymakers to second-guess themselves and "harm our national security well into the future."

ADMINISTRATION -- ROVE EVADES CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: Yesterday, Karl Rove was set to appear under subpoena before the House Judiciary Committee to discuss the politicization of the Justice Department. Rove refused, opting instead to leave the country while his lawyer claimed he was "immune" from compelled congressional testimony. Rove was expected to face questions regarding the Bush administration's role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. Last year, Rove dodged a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee relating to similar issues but Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) declined to bring a criminal contempt charge. However, this time Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) has signaled that the House Judiciary Committee will in fact hold a contempt vote later this month. The Committee has already rejected Rove's claim of executive privilege as "not valid" by a 7-1 vote. "Mr. Rove is not above the law and Congress will assert its constitutional role to serve as a check on the power of the executive branch," Sanchez added.

TORTURE -- SECRET RED CROSS REPORT SAYS THE CIA TORTURED AL QAEDA DETAINEES: "Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation methods for high-level al Qaeda prisoners constituted torture," according to a new book by investigative reporter Jane Mayer set to be released next week. The report found that the Bush administration "may have committed 'grave breaches' of the Geneva Conventions" and that the officials who approved the methods could be "guilty of war crimes."  The report, which Mayer cited in less detail last year in the New Yorker, says that al Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah told the Red Cross "that he had been waterboarded at least 10 times in a single week and as many as three times in a day." Abu Zubaydah also was confined in a box "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position" and was "one of several prisoners to be 'slammed against the walls.'" The Red Cross concluded that the methods used on Zubaydah were "categorically" torture. In August 2007, after Mayer's initial New Yorker article on the report was published, President Bush replied, "[I] haven't seen it; we don't torture" when asked about the report. But according to Mayer's book, the CIA showed the report to both Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Think Fast

In "a troubling sign of global warming," European scientists say that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica appears to be breaking up. The European Space Agency said yesterday that satellite images show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is "hanging by its last thread," which could "put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk."

"The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now." The Environmental Protection Agency will announce today that it will instead "seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her fellow House Democratic leaders "took a hard line Thursday against opening up restricted areas to oil production." She "said the government must first press oil companies to explore the federal land they have already leased.

A defense analyst at the London-based International Institute For Strategic Studies said yesterday that "an Iranian photograph showing a cluster of missile launches was apparently altered to add a fourth missile lifting off from a desert range." "There's no doubt the photo was doctored," the analyst said.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which "own or guarantee roughly half of the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market," saw their stock plummet yesterday to their lowest level in 17 years. Lawmakers declared the companies "too big for the government to allow them to fail," while the White House is mulling a government takeover.

Yesterday, the White House renewed its promise to veto legislation that would block payment cuts to doctors treating Medicare patients. This threat comes despite bipartisan support for the bill, which overwhelmingly passed the Senate on Wednesday when Ted Kennedy (D-MA) returned to cast his vote.

And finally: Fox News needs a geography lesson. On Wednesday, Fox News reported on Iran's missile tests. The graphic that Fox used to identify the Strait of Hormuz, however, "put the strait in the wrong location, and misspelled 'strait.'" (The graphic spelled it "Straites of Hormuz"). As Huffington Post notes, "For good measure, the Fox reporter also mispronounced 'Hormuz.'" Watch the video here.

Good News

"The number of Mexican-born immigrants who became U.S. citizens swelled by nearly 50% last year amid a massive campaign by Spanish-language media and immigrant advocacy groups to help eligible residents apply for citizenship, according to a government report released Thursday."

State Watch

OHIO: "Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination."

NEW YORK: "In the last few years, the minimum wage in New York State has increased almost 40 percent, while the average pay for hourly workers has risen much more slowly."

MISSOURI: Judge expects to decide next week whether a state investigative team and three news organizations can pursue their court battle for copies of Gov. Matt Blunt's (R) missing e-mails.

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: White House tries to push unqualified "Cheney clone" into lucrative telecommunications job.

WONK ROOM: Yes, CNN, global warming is to blame for wildfires.

EMPTY WHEEL: The Bush administration did not actually claim executive privilege to prevent Karl Rove from testifying before Congress.

NEWSHOUNDS: Fox News guest explains why he repeatedly pushed the false claim that China is drilling off the coast of Cuba.

Daily Grill

"We don't torture."
-- President Bush, 8/9/07

VERSUS

"[A]ccording to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001...the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were 'categorically' torture."
-- New York Times, 7/11/08