Viva la Feminista

Thanks to everyone who has linked here about the NOW conference, even those of you who I don't agree with. I think it is a healthy thing to have a debate over issues. I do want to make one thing very clear - I do not think that Terry O'Neill is a Palin supporter. I have no idea. There have been comments flying in the blogosphere and Twitter that the Palin people were a rumor. I took pics of at least one of them . One of the women I took a pic of has a blog that has ripped Kim Gandy for having NOW support Barack Obama. Now some might say, "Hey we're Clinton supporters!" But if you truly supported Hillary Clinton and what she stands for, I can't see how or why you would trash Barack Obama or vote for McCain. Furthermore, I don't see how trashing Kim Gandy and Ellie Smeal is productive. They came together VERY early in the primary race to endorse Clinton. Again, far earlier than I would have preferred. I wanted to see the endorsement taken to the conference o...

This isn't a live blogged post. The election is over and Terry O'Neill is the next President of NOW. Terry was a VP when I was on the board. I respected her leadership style and her as a feminist. I am excited to see what she brings to our organization in this time of change. I say that not as a diss to her or her slate. I say that because we can all see around us that things are changing. We need to continue to move forward in order to get anything done. The Sarah Palin supporters swung this election. The election was certainly close enough - less than 10 votes separated the two slates. Then again, if Latifa's supporters had been able to bring just a handful of additional supporters, we'd have an entirely different picture to discuss. The Palin people out organized us, plain and simple. There are things I won't say here. I know far too many people are reading this and that this is my professional blog not just a personal blog. But I will say that I feel like Chicke...

Scheduled to speak: Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale , Dr. Julianne Malveaux and Kim Gandy **edited on Sunday, June 21, 2009** sorry to anyone who came to view a live blogging of this session. I made an executive decision to skip this plenary for many reasons. One of which had to do with getting dinner early so I could vote early and then the kid and I could hit the pool. The other was that my arms and hands were tired. Of course I do wish I had attended, not just for the speakers, whom I heard were excellent. But because apparently, from what I gather, Kim Gandy was asked about a handout that was circulating that showed NOWs finances plummeting. She said that it was a product of Sarah Palin followers. I was told it was from the O'Neill campaign. Someone told me they heard that Kim said that anyone backing the O'Neill campaign were Sarah Palin backers. Again, I did not attend this event. I doubt that Kim said everyone who backed the O'Neill campaign were Sarah Palin supporters....

Scheduled to speak: Jennifer Brunner and Hon. Gwen Moore Natl NOW Conf: Political Institute

Officer Tickets: NOW is the Time slate Feminist Leadership NOW slate Latifa Lyles for President Terry O'Neill for President Sonia Ossorio for Executive Vice President Bonnie Grabenhofer for Executive Vice President Janice Rocco for Action Vice President Erin Matson for Action Vice President Liz Gilchrist for Membership Vice President Allendra Letsome for Membership Vice President Voting will take place on Saturday, June 20, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the National Conference in Indianapolis, Ind. <a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=c154ce050b" >Natl NOW Conf: Candidate Speeches</a>

Scheduled to speak: Barbara Ehrenreich , Lulu Flores and Danna Smith , Woman of Action Award Natl NOW Conf: Friday Plenary II

I have four live blogging sessions set up thru CoveritLive for the conference. They will publish here a few minutes before each plenary starts. I'll still be on the road during the first plenary. * Plenary II at 5:15 PM EST. Scheduled to speak: Barbara Ehrenreich, Lulu Flores and Danna Smith, Woman of Action Award * Plenary III at 9:00 AM EST. Candidate Speeches * Plenary IV at 1:45 PM EST. Political Institute. Scheduled to speak: Jennifer Brunner & Hon. Gwen Moore * Plenary V at 4:45 PM EST. Scheduled to speak: Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale, Dr. Julianne Malveaux and Kim Gandy I may live blog some of the workshops and the candidate gatherings, but it's doubtful. Those may get more action on the twitter feed. Also, since the kid is coming with who knows what will happen. Wanna see how I enjoyed past conferences? I've reposted my thoughts from my old dead blog for the 2007 , 2006 and 2005 conferences.

Reposted from my old blog: FRIDAY::: 9:30 AM - WOOHOO! I made it! I'm all registered & now working the reg area. "My name is Roni, how may I help you?" 12 PM - Gov Granholm: She is kickass & beautiful. I'm now uberjealous of MI-ites. I'll trade ya Guvs! If only she was born in the states. *sigh* SATURDAY::: 11:45 AM - Chenese Lewis She's a plus-size model who feels each photo shot is a statement. Once @ a 'Insider' segment her & other plus-size women actors were weighed(!) on camera. The scales were RIGGED to add 30 lbs. She wasn't too fazed but the other actors were devistated. She works a non-NOW affiliated 'Love Your Body' project. OMG, I love this woman. 11:00 - Sherry Stringfield Did you know that Sherri AND both her kids (6 & 3) are lifetime members of NOW? She was introduced to NOW when the actor playing her mom on a soap opera took her to a NYC NOW meeting. Sherry also spoke about being a femini...

Reposed from my old blog: OK, maybe not a full wrap up as the weekend flew by in a blinding flash. Instead, highlights: * Meeting Jessica from Feministing with the always "WTF" question: "Can I take a picture of you with my Pooh Bear?" She asked if I would send her the photo and I said, "It'll be on Flickr." Yes, I'm a smart ass. * As I walked away, Amanda from Pandagon said to Jessica, "See her bag!?" Jessica said, "Oh, the woman who made that is one of the Hot 100." And I got to retort, "Yup, she's my best friend." Yes, I gloat as well. * Meeting Ani and again, asking the "WTF" question. I guess because I'm not as big of a fan of Ani as I am of Dar, I neglected to ask her for a beer. 20 minutes later, I learned that she would had said no for a whole different reason that 'who the fuck are you?' Waking up at 3:30 am to take cab to Midway = $50, Flight to Albany = $200, hearing Ani DiFranco an...

Maybe I won't have a ton of time to go on and on about the conference, but here are some highlights: * The main reason to be in Nashville was to vote on senior leadership. The Kim Gandy's (i) slate vs. Rosemary Dempsey's slate. Both are great speakers and honestly if either of them won, I wouldn't worry too much about either kicking ass. Kim Gandy & her slate did win thou. * Rosemary and her slate did congratulate Kim & her slate on Sunday morning during a resolution hearing. * I met a ton of fab women including another Veronica from Chicago. I totally freaked her out when I found her since I guess I was kinda stalking her for 24 hours. But now we're buddies. She also said that she's always felt a psychic connection with Frida and then we debated if Frida was just a representation for me. We're both totally into the whole "we're here, meeting for a reason" train of thought. * I got to see Ellie Smeal, Patricia Ireland, Carol Moseley Bra...