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
SB1070

Will the Real John Huppenthal Please Stand Up?

by
SB1070
Protest sign from a Resist SB1070 demonstration in Tucson.

Since Blog for Arizona broke the story, new insights into Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal’s secret life as an Internet troll continue to be revealed as bloggers and journalists study years of online comments.

Between Tucson Progressive blog and Blog for Arizona (BfAZ), there are nearly 400 comments from Thucydides or Flacon9, but there could be more unknown Huppenthal posts out there.

An anonymous tipster now claims that someone with the online name “Thucydides” has made comments on at least one white nation (WN) website. Are BfAZ Thucycides and WN Thucydides the same person? No one knows. BfAZ figured out that Thucydides was Huppenthal by analyzing comments, e-mail address, and IP addresses. Three key findings cemented the identification: Thucydides posted from a Department of Education computer, Thucydides commented from a computer in Japan when Huppenthal was there, and one Thucydides comment was signed by Huppenthal. In the case of the alleged WN comments, the NSA probably knows if they exist and has access to the email addresses or the IP addresses for comparison– but we don’t… yet.

Would it be a big surprise to find out the Huppenthal is sympathetic to white nationalist beliefs? Not really. From his anonymous comments, we already have proof he is a racist– something he has been accused of for many years. Let’s look at his history and his policies.

Read more

Abortion, Drugs, Charter Schools, & Private Prisons: Is It All about Race, Money, & Power?

by

American flagRight-wing strategies baffle me, when I attempt to analyze them in the aggregate. “Regressives” simultaneously hold so many seemingly conflicting beliefs that I often wonder: Where are they going with this? What is the desired outcome of these behaviors and policies?

How can they be “pro-life” but also

  • Support war, the death penalty, and guns everywhere
  • Fight to deny healthcare Americans
  • Allow millions of children to live in poverty
  • Ignore widespread hunger, food insecurity, and homelessness
  • Defund public education and promote self-segregation through privatized, for-profit schools
  • And fight against programs that help children and families — after the birth?

How can they be “anti-government” freedom fighters but also…

Read more

Huppenthal’s ‘Falcon9’ Comments Date Back to Election Day 2010

by
HuppToon
Hat tip to the cartoonist XKCD for the comic and to Dave Safier for the derivative work.

I must say that I was skeptical that an elected official could be as dumb as Thucydides, when Bob Lord first posed the question: “Do you think that blog troll Thucydides could be John Huppenthal?” to the rest of us here at BfAZ. Yes, Thucky defended Hupp regularly, but that was not enough evidence to prove anything except that Thucky was an ill-informed, right-wing blowhard, and we all know there are plenty of those people trolling the comment sections on the Internets. But after Lord started matching up the sole email address used by the multiple Huppenthal aliases– including Falcon9– and matching up computer IP addresses (including a computer in the Department of Education), the rest of us became believers.

I remember Falcon9 well from my days writing the Tucson Progressive blog on the TucsonCitizen.com website. Falcon9, Fraser, and Leftfield (I wonder who those guys are?) were constant commenters on anything to do with Mexican American Studies (MAS) and Tucson Unified School District.

After Lord broke the Huppenthal/Thucydides/Falcon9 story here on Blog for Arizona, other bloggers started combing their comment sections. The Democratic Diva, Expresso Pundit, and the Three Sonorans have all posted stories about Hupp’s comments on their blogs.

The threads of racism and classism run deep through Huppenthal’s writing: people on welfare are “lazy pigs”, MAS teaches hate, Mexican restaurants should print menus in English, Spanish media should be silenced, Che Guevara’s memory should be defecated upon, and so forth. The last time I checked on this site alone there were almost 300 comments from Thucydides in less than two years.

The main stream media has reported that Hupp’s comments date back to 2011, but I beg to differ. The first comment that Falcon9 made on my blog was on election day 2010– the day he was elected.

Read more

‘Gale Force Progressives’ Weisser, Woods & Williamson Challenge Arizona’s Tea Party Congressmen

by
Progressive Mikel Weisser-- from the Left Coast of Arizona-- is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.
Progressive Mikel Weisser– from the Left Coast of Arizona– is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.

Arizona’s Congressional delegation includes nine members of the House of Representatives: five Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1), Ron Barber (CD2), Raul Grijalva (CD3), Ed Pastor (CD7, retiring this year), and Kyrsten Sinema (CC9) and four Republicans Paul Gosar (CD4), Matt Salmon (CD5), David Schweikert (CD6), and Trent Franks (CD8).

At Blog for Arizona, we complain often and loudly about Blue Dog Democrats and their votes, but our country’s real enemy in the fight for freedom, democracy, and self determination is the Tea Party. They pontificate poetically about family values, but they vote for laws that deny food security, basic healthcare, quality education, and a living wage to millions of Americans. They talk about freedom, but they support for-profit mass incarceration and widespread surveillance of Americans– not to mention forcing us to live in fear due to lax gun laws. They wave the flag and promote patriotism, but they send soldiers to fight in useless wars and cut their benefits and ridicule them when they come home. And, above all, they spout folksy, vacuous platitudes, while they dutifully serve their corporate benefactors and ignore “the little guy”.

Arizona’s Republican Representatives in the House are full-fledged Tea Partiers. (In fact, Franks is one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to GovTrackUS.) In the 2014 elections, the “Gale Force Progressives”, Mikel Weisser, James Woods, and W. John Williamson, are challenging Arizona Teapublicans Gosar, Salmon, and Schweikert, respectively, for their Congressional seats.

“I knew it was an uphill battle when I started,” laughs Weisser. “It is about bringing a fight to GOP ideas I know are wrong for America. About stopping Republican terrorism and backwards thinking and working for a 21st century America.” (Public forum and candidate details after the jump.)

Read more

4 Lanes? 6 Lanes? 100 Ft? How Wide Should Broadway Blvd Be?

by
Steve Kozachik and Richard Elias
City Councilman Steve Kozachik (L) and County Supervisor Richard Elias (R) at Broadway widening public forum in April 2012.

Back in 2006, Pima County voters approved the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and a 20-year plan to improve or create roads, bridges, bike paths, bus pullouts, and more. Hundreds of projects have been completed in the past eight years, but one project– widening Broadway Blvd between Euclid and Country Club– has been stalled for two years. The RTA plan calls for spending $71 million to buy property, destroy 100 buildings (some historic), and widen Broadway to eight  lanes (150 feet). The crux of the problem is that the RTA project was based upon 1987 growth projects for Tucson, and Tucson didn’t grow that way. In April 2012, Councilman Steve Kozachik called on the RTA and Pima County to rethink the scope and hosted a well-attended community forum. The Broadway Coalition– a hard-working group of citizens– has been meeting, planning, and gathering input since Koz’s forum. The widening has become a political hot potato. Some in the government say that the eight-lane original plan must be followed– even though the 1987 growth projections don’t jive with reality. Others says that Broadway should be four lanes or six lanes or 100 feet wide, and that eight lanes are not necessary. Preservationists are fighting for historically important architecture that is slated for demolition– most notably Broadway Village, designed by Josais Joesler, Tucson’s most influential architect. Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry has threatened to pull the funds if Tucson doesn’t “fully implement” the RTA plan (in stark contrast to the 2012 quote in this story.) Fast forward another public forum on Thursday June 12, 2014. You should go if you have an opinion! Meeting details, photos, and opinions after the jump.

Read more