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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.
Gridiron Cards at the Met: Grange, Thorpe, Washington, Unitas and Rockne
Opening January 23, 2014, Gridiron Greats: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick will feature some 150 football cards printed between 1894 and 1959. The Collection Amassed by Burdickwho began collecting American ephemera when he was ten years old, is the finest collection of American trade cards in the United States, ranging from ads for women's clothing and shoes, pianos, candy, to postcards and playing cards, greeting and souvenir cards, to paper dolls. more »
Over-The-Counter Pills Left Out of FDA Acetaminophen Limits
Jeff Gerth and T. Christian Miller: As documented in a ProPublica series last year, the FDA has delayed for decades enacting tougher rules on acetaminophen. While generally considered safe when taken as recommended, relatively small overdoses have been shown to cause liver damage and even death. Ninfa Redmond, a toxicologist who helped carry out the 1977 panel’s exhaustive, three-year study, said she was surprised that such big doses continued to be sold 40 years later. more »
Which States Will Generate Jobs in 2014? "A Breakout Year"
Pamela Prah writes: After four years of a fragile and uneven recovery, the US job machine is likely to kick into high gear in 2014. Even recession-battered states such as Arizona and Florida are expected to generate jobs at a healthier clip. Overall, the economy is projected to generate 2.6 million jobs in 2014 year, up from 2.2 million last year, largely on the strength of the country’s booming health care, energy and high-tech sectors. more »
A New Woman In the House, Women's Health and Proposed HR 7's Effect on It
Dr. Susan Wood, director, Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University, testified about the impact of [H.R. 7] on the private insurance market. "It is the nature of health insurance that insurers may no longer provide plans that include coverage which would come with burdensome regulatory requirements such as proposed in H.R. 7. Since approximately 60 percent of women of reproductive age, or 37 million women, get their health coverage through private insurance, this legislation could have a profound effect."
On January 9, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing on the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” (H.R. 7).
Speaking in support… more »
