Pamela Powers

Long-time blogger and political activist, Pamela Powers holds a masters’ degree in public health from the University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from the Ohio State University. She has worked for many years in communications and public relations. Powers stepped down from her position as the managing editor of the American Journal of Medicine to serve Legislative District 9 in the Arizona House. Powers won her seat in November 2016 and won her re-election bid in 2018. She continues to work part-time social media editor for the journal. In addition to Blog for Arizona, she writes her own blog, The The Tucson Progressive and has contributed political stories to the Huffington Post. Powers Hannley is co-director of Arizonans for a New Economy, Arizona’s public banking initiative. Political website: PowersForThePeople.net Facebook Page: Pamela Powers Hannley for House Tucson Progressive on Facebook: Tucson Progressive Twitter handle: @p2hannley Instagram: p2hannley

‘The Nation’ Scolds Network TV for Denying Air Time to President Obama

by
John Nichols of The Nation
John Nichols of The Nation

NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX have decided to air their usual prime time pablum tonight, instead of airing President Barack Obama’s short speech about his executive order on immigration.

It is despicable that same corporate media who pocketed billions of dollars during the election season and fanned the flames of racial hatred by airing false negative advertising now turns their Medusa head away at a time when something positive and newsworthy comes along. What show is so important that it can’t be delayed 10 minutes? NBC will be airing The Biggest Loser, a reality show about losing weight. (Here’s a hint. Since this is the 16th season of The Biggest Loser, there will be more fat people losing weight in the future.)

This corporate arrogance shows that network executives have disdain not only for the President– but also for American citizens and our democracy. (The speech will air at 6 p.m. Arizona time on PBS, Univision, Telemundo, cable channels, and live streaming from the White House, here.)

In When Networks Snub a Presidential Address, Democracy Is ‘The Biggest Loser’, John Nichols of The Nation gives corporate TV a drubbing over their decision to snub the President and the American people.

From The Nation…

… How has the American circumstance so decayed in a nation that once so well understood the wisdom of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s observation that “democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men’s [and women’s] enlightened will”?

There’s plenty of blame to go around. But let’s start with broadcast media that are so indefensibly irresponsible that television networks cannot take time away from their relentless profiteering to present a short address by the president of the United States—an address announcing an executive order on an issue that is universally recognized as consequential and controversial.

Read more

Reforma no racisma.

Walk Down Memory Lane to July 2013 When Boehner & #GOP Failed to ‘Govern’

by

Tonight, I had planned to write a highly poignant new blog post about why movement on immigration reform now (and not when the Republicans finally… maybe… get around to it) is a good idea.

When I went back to some old articles to grab links, I found this blog post and decided a history lesson was in order– since Republicans want Obama to delay an immigration executive order to “give them time to govern”. This post was originally published on July 10, 2013, on Tucson-Progressive.com, shortly after the US Senate passed their “comprehensive immigration reform” bill with bipartisan support, including both Arizona Senators, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, and other Republican Senators. Where are they now when the House wants to stall further? [Related articles at the end. Go big, Mr. President. It’s the right thing to do.]

Boehner & the White Man’s Party Prepare to Kill Immigration Reform

partyofno

Knuckle-dragging Republicans in the US House of Representatives have said that they will NOT– that is NOT with capital letters– pass an immigration “reform” billthat includes a path to citizenship for 12 million immigrants living in the US.

After all, the Republican Party’s corporate masters are making big bucks exploiting and imprisoning undocumented workers; I guess their motto is: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” For big business, immigration ain’t broke (except that they would like easier access to  cheap, skilled labor from India).

The US Senate’s much-celebrated bill did have a path to citizen (plus lots of other stuff the Democrats agreed to in order to get a handful of Republicans to vote for it.)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t like the US Senate’s version of Immigration Reform for multiple reasons:

Read more

Prop 122

Prop 122 Passed: I Declare the Controlled Substances Act as Unconstitutional

by

 

Prop 122
Prop 122 allows Arizonans or their elected representatives to determine the Constitutionality of federal laws.

Prop 122— the misguided nullification of federal law ballot initiative– has passed and will now become law. Liberals bemoaned this initiative before the elections, but we lost. 🙁

Rather than cry in our beer, we liberals should put on our thinking caps and come up with laws that we believe are unconstitutional. (Remember how the Satanists turned the Hobby Lobby decision to their advantage?)

After all, any Arizonan can play the Constitutionality game because Prop 122 says “… the people or their representatives [can] exercise their authority pursuant to this section…” What about laws promoting voter suppression, restrictions on abortion clinics, unnecessary medical procedures (like vaginal ultrasound), or racial profiling. Aren’t those unconstitutional? Oops. Those are state laws.

Turning to federal laws, I declare the Controlled Substances Act to be unconstitutional. Here’s why…

Read more

deportation

Grijalva & Ellison of Progressive Caucus Urge Obama Immigration Decision

by
deportation
National Day Laborer Organizing Network poster

While Republicans are threatening President Obama if he dares to take legal action on immigration through an executive order, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is encouraging him to go bold.  In fact, they’re giving him ideas for action.

“Expansive and robust action that addresses the economic, family, community and national problems we now face is urgently needed… Fixing our broken immigration system will benefit our economy and allow us to use our national security resources more wisely,” write the Progressive Caucus co-chairs Congressmen Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison in their memo. Obama has multiple choices:

  • He could kowtow to the Republicans and do nothing (further infuriating Latinos and progressives).
  • He could extend the two-year-old Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has allowed more than 500,000 Dreamers to stay here temporarily without fear of deportation while Congress diddles. (You’ll remember that the US Senate passed an immigration reform bill in June 2013, but House Republicans have made no movement toward reform.)
  • He could extend DACA to the parents and spouses of Dreamers, adding another 4 million to deferred action.
  • He could change the 2012 qualifications for DACA, adding another 3 million by changing age limits. (Read more details here and below.)

Read more

Obama Goes Bold on Net Neutrality, Calls for Public Utility (video)

by
Net neutrality protesters confront FCC chair Tom Wheeler at his house.
Net neutrality protesters confront FCC chair Tom Wheeler at his house.

President Thomas Jefferson valued a free press so much that he believed newspapers should be delivered free to all citizens, so they could be informed voters. How far we have fallen from our originals ideal of a “free press”. Corporate newspapers have dwindled in size and stature, thanks to the advertising-driven business model. Some newspapers are little more than collections of press releases, wire service stories, and display ads– with little or no original local content. They have devolved into corporate rags– far from the ideal of a “free” press.

As corporate news has degenerated, the Internet, with its egalitarian, free-range news and information, has thrived. (Yes, of course, the Internet has contributed to the demise of print media, but corporate decisions fueled the downfall.) For example, you can read stories on this blog that no corporate media outlet would ever print.

With an Internet connection, you get it all– the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the brilliant, the stupid, the lies, and the truth. It is your job to sort through it and read what you want.

Telecom companies really want to stop all of that free information and free thought. They want to be able to charge big users– like Google, Amazon, Facebook– more money for a “fast lane”. They would push more corporate (paid) content our way and push other content– like blogs and non-corporate websites– to a “slow lane” or block them completely. (Good background here.) In other words, if the telecom companies win the net neutrality battle, good luck finding voices that don’t promote the corporate news and ideas.

On Monday, President Barack Obama announced his support for making the Internet a public utility. This is huge.

Read more