Sightings
Jo Freeman: There’s Plenty To Do at the RNC – If You Have the Right Credentials
by Jo Freeman
Every national nominating convention has plenty of auxiliary events, some authorized, some not. Getting space can be a challenge; getting the word out even more so. But they do it nonetheless. Press were given a RNC 2024 Master Event Calendar, which was updated a few days later. Events began on Sunday and ended on Thursday. The actual convention sessions were just one item on the list. The calendar said if an event was Open or Closed to press, and also whom to contact to register. I’m going to describe some of the events, including a couple I went to, and a couple I was turned away from.
Since my focus is on women, I obviously wanted to go to those events – if I could.
The National Federation of Republican Women is the largest grassroots Republican women's organization in the country with hundreds of clubs. Founded in 1938, its members made the phone calls and knocked on the doors that elected Republican candidates for decades. It’s Tuesday luncheon featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders. The Master Calendar said it was SOLD OUT and they wouldn’t let me in. I was able to get into their lounge at the Fiserv Forum Wednesday evening, where I was repeatedly asked if I was a member, and if not, would I join. “I’m press,” I said. “I can’t join anything partisan.” I then said: “What brings you here?” On hearing that, finding anyone willing to chat with me was like pulling teeth.
Moms for Liberty met in a concert hall that afternoon. I had pre-registered, and I got in. From high in a balcony seat I listened to several people talk about the evils of transgenderism. It’s webpage says WE BELIEVE Power Belongs to the People. Sound Familiar? With a focus is on parental rights, it wants to “STOP WOKE indoctrination.”
Tuesday I went to “The New Mavericks” reception co-hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association and the Georgia Republican Party. They honored Sen. Tim Scott, four Congressmen and two Georgia delegates – all male. There was only one mayor on stage, from Aurora, IL. The chair of the Georgia Republican Party was the one white man on the stage. At that event, women served; they didn’t speak. The RNC reported that 55 delegates to the 2024 convention are Black, up from 18 in 2016.
I missed the Independent Women’s Forum toast to “Women Who Make Our Country Great” because I went to Convention Fest: The Official Delegate Experience, which was held in the streets outside the Fiserve Forum and Baird Hall as well as some space inside Baird. To get to that one you not only needed a credential of some sort, but a USSS pass (which I have).
Concerned Women for America parked its pink bus across from the Baird Center the week before the RNC. No one was home. When Convention Fest opened on Tuesday afternoon, they set up a pink tent, from which its leaders preached to whomever passed by. It calls itself “the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization” but its focus is evangelical Christian. The slogan on the side of its pink bus captures this emphasis: “She Prays, She Votes.” A prayer precedes each sermon.
Congressional Bills Introduced: Sex Differences in Drug Research, Women Vets Medical Care, Sex Offense Victims
House and Senate Bills Introduced; V: H.R. 2101—Rep. Jim Cooper (D-CA)/Energy and Commerce (4/29/15)—A bill to provide for expedited review of drugs and biological products to provide safer or more effective treatment for males or females, to enhance the consideration of sex differences in basic and clinical research. A bill to clarify the ability to request consumer reports in certain cases to establish and enforce child support payments and awards. more »
Safari To the Serengeti For A Birthday Trip, Both Hair-Raising and Life Transforming
Sonja Zalubowski writes: The scenes stirred something in my bones, my blood, my very genes. This sense of witnessing how the world must have been once at the very beginning. The Serengeti is not far from the Olduvai Gorge where Mary Leakey in 1978 discovered the footprints of our earliest known ancestors, the hominids known as Australopithecenes from more than three million years ago. No cattle drivers or farmers here. The animals were doing quite well at maintaining nature's balance all on their own. I felt humbled, reverent and in awe. But, I also recognized how raw and dangerous and right there in front of us all this was. more »
States Struggle to Pay for Police Body Cameras: Only a Handful of States Have Figured Out How To Pay For Them
In New Jersey, legislation enacted requires officers or the vehicles they routinely use in traffic stops to have cameras. Texas is going to be probably the first state with a full comprehensive body camera bill. The New Orleans PD plans to purchase 350 body cameras, but is budgeting $1.2 million over five years, mostly for data storage. Many states are debating the issues that surround police cameras without tackling the funding question said Richard Williams, a criminal justice policy specialist. more »
The Supreme Court Hearing on Obergefell v. Hodges, Also Known As The Same-Sex Marriage Case
Editor's Note:Editor's Note: Hearings of arguments in 14-556, Obergefell v. Hodges, and consolidated cases on Tuesday, April 28th have been completed. Stay up to date with the audio recordings and transcripts and read opinions from links to the ScotusBlog and The New York Times. Audiotapes of the hearings and transcripts are on the Court's website. more »
