Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

We Need A New American Dream

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Posted by Bob Lord

It seems that progressives have fully conceded the conservative definition of the American Dream — a chance at winning the wealth lottery with the right combination of sweat, luck, and natural born talent. 

In a Salon post widely viewed on Reddit, American Dream Deferred Indefinitely, Stewart Lansley does a good job of explaining the incrasing inequality in the U.S., how it's at its worst since the Great Depression, and how the middle class has been hollowed out. But he fundamentally botches the case he's trying to make regarding the American Dream, when he defines it as "the ability of citizens to go from rags to riches, and one of the country’s most enduring values." 

Never, Mr. President?

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Posted by Bob Lord

Joe Nocera's column in today's Times, Is Force-Feeding Torture?, exposes the cynical hypoccirsy of Presdent Obama's statements regarding Guantanamo and torture. 

First, Nocera leaves no room for argument in making the case that the force-feeding of prisoners at Guantanamo is torture, and illegal under international law. 

But not long ago, Al Jazeera got ahold of a 30-page document that detailed the standard operating procedures used by the military to force-feed a detainee. The document makes for gruesome reading: the detaineeshackled to a special chair (which looks like the electric chair); the head restraints if he resists; the tube pushed painfully down his nose; the half-hour or so of ingestion of nutritional supplements; the transfer of the detainee to a “dry cell,” where, if he vomits, he is strapped back into the chair until the food is digested.

Detainees are also apparently given an anti-nausea drug called Reglan, which has a horrible potential side effect if given for more than three months: a disease called tardive dyskinesia, which causes twitching and other uncontrollable movements. “This drug is very scary,” said Cori Crider, the legal director of Reprieve, a London-based group that represents more than a dozen detainees. “My fear is that it is being administered without their consent,” she added. Although the military refuses to discuss the use of Reglan — or any aspect of force-feeding — that’s a pretty safe bet.

Random Thoughts On the Arpaio Recall

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Posted by Bob Lord

Sorry, but this may be a bit stream of consciousness. Everything relates to the now unsuccessful Arpaio recall effort, but the thoughts otherwise may be unconnected.

First, was it a wasted effort? Absolutely not. Thousands of new voters were identified and registered. The data contained on those petitions is incredibly valuable. Some of those signature gatherers had their first taste of activism and liked it. And, if we look closely at who didn't support the recall effort, well, we know something about them we need to know. On that last item, there's a list of elected officials and candidates on the Respect Arizona website. Note the Dems who are not on it. 

Second, we saw who in the media gets it and who doesn't. Steve Lemons showed himself to be the class act he is. Laurie Roberts, well, Laurie deserves her own paragraph:

Is It The Freshmen, or Party Leadership?

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Posted by Bob Lord

My colleagues, Pam Powers Hanley and Craig McDermott, both have posted on the recent House Financial Services Committee bill written by Citigroup and supported by most of the committee's Democrats, including Kyrsten Sinema.

This is troubling. It's hard to believe that Kyrsten's principles line up with the banksters. And she's way too smart to be duped by the banksters. 

So what's going on?