Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Register to Attend the RBC Meeting
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
The hottest ticket this year (besides the convention) will be the one that gets you into the May 31st RBC Meeting in DC. You can register to attend the meeting starting at 10am today.
Click here at 10am to register. You will need to have a party builder account already setup. Registration is closed and tickets went VERY fast
Online registration will open at 10:00AM on Tuesday, May 27.
A meeting of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee will take place at 9:30AM on May 31, 2008 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. This meeting is open to the public, however due to space constraints, guests are being asked to pre-register their attendance.
Meeting Registration
Guest credentials are limited to one (1) per person. In order to reserve a seat, please fill out the registration form at the bottom of the page. A confirmation message will be sent to the e-mail address indicated on the registration form. You must bring this confirmation e-mail, along with a photo ID, in order to pick up your guest credential.
Credentials must be picked up at registration tables located outside the meeting room between 8:00-9:30AM on May 31st in order to guarantee a seat. If reserved credentials are not picked up by 9:30 AM, they will be released and given out to other members of the public. Those with reserved guest credentials will be allowed to leave the meeting room, and return to their reserved seat.
Same Day Registration
If you are unable to pre-register, limited same day registration will be available. Same-day guest credentials will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis and are limited to one (1) per person. Individuals with a same day credential will be permitted into the meeting room as space permits.
Additional Information
In order to maintain the decorum of the meeting, banners, posters, signs, handouts, and noisemakers of any kind are strictly prohibited. Also, please be advised that the agenda for the meeting does not include time for questions from the general public.
And the schedule for the meeting…
What: DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting
When: May 31, 2008 – 9:30 AM
* Morning Session: Oral Arguments * Afternoon Session: Consideration and DebateWhere: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel – Salon I
2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DCDNC Rules & Bylaws Committee to Meet Saturday, May 31st
WASHINGTON – The Democratic National Committee’s Rules & Bylaws Committee will meet on Saturday May 31, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Rules and Bylaws Committee will consider the two challenges that have been filed pursuant to Rule 20.B of the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules and Regulation 3 of the Regulations of the Rules and Bylaws Committee concerning the seating of delegations from Florida and Michigan.
Pursuant to Section 3.4(N) of the Committee’s Regulations, each challenger will be entitled to present an Oral Argument before the RBC prior to Committee consideration for a period of 15 minutes each. A representative from each state party and from each presidential campaign will also have an opportunity to address the committee regarding each of the challenges. Oral arguments from the parties will be heard during the committee’s morning session. Following a lunch break, committee members will consider and debate the challenges.
Update: A large number of people have complained that the website listed them as having successfully registered but never got an email to confirm it. According to the DNC you will need the email confirmation in order to get into the meeting
The meeting is supposed to be held in Salon I which according to the hotel website can hold as many as 800 people. The room can be combined with Salon II and Salon III for a total capacity of up to 3500. You can view the floorplan here.
If you did not get an email confirming your registration you can fill out a form on the DNC website.
Update 2: All indications are that the meeting will be televised – the DNC will be streaming, C-SPAN will be there, and reports are that CNN and MSNBC will be covering also. (They should only give the convention itself this much coverage),
This should all become clearer as we get closer to Saturday.
Posted by Oreo at 7:06 AM 
I’m wondering what sort of chaos we’re going to have outside the hotel (which is a little over a mile from me). Clinton’s been talking about Florida 2000, but it looks like she’s playing the Bush role and busing in “rioters” to intimidate the decision makers.
Forget the fear of chaos — I plan on putting in for being there.
All of those supers (and I’m going for the small “s” for slimy, sleazy, spineless,smarmy, self-righteous, and some word that starts with “s” and means chicken-s**t)are biding their time — and living on OUR DIMES — and if I can get a credential, I’m going.
If I can’t get one, perhaps I’ll hang out outside, draped in my Obama gear.
To make myself feel better, I’m going to start calling today — I’ve sent emails, but it’s time to light up the phone lines.
Don’t get me wrong — I think Hillary should drop out, NOW — but I’m shifting my anger — we elected these supers — they are supposed to be answerable to us.
Which brings to mind Darryl Gates. You may remember him – he was chief of police of LA from sometime in the 1970’s until 1992. He had joined the force in the 40’s, and loved Hollywood. It’s because of Darryl that we had the original Dragnet. (“Just the facts, ma’am”) In any event, by 1991, Gates NEEDED to leave office (scandal and all that).
Meanwhile, there was a chain of Chinese restaurants in LA (I can’t remember the name, but I remember seeing their billboards.) The billboards said “When you can’t leave the office…..” and then they would have their phone number, and point out that they delivered. The Chinese chain put up a billboard across the street from Police Headquarters and it read “When you can’t leave the office….or won’t….”
I’m to the point of, if she won’t leave, and they won’t make her — they need to know that their re-elections are in jeopardy too.
Ugh, this thing is a mess. I do fear some level of chaos at (or outside) the RBC meeting. It’s sad, really, since it’s now apparent that Clinton does not care about party unity at all. Comparing the FL/MI situation to Zimbabwe? Or the Gore 2000 recount? Both analogies are historically false, and are incredibly divisive. (I was really hoping that Gore would have endorsed Obama this week and joined him at one of the Florida events–just to set the record straight.)
The real test, I guess, will be how the Clinton campaign reacts to the RBC ruling. Will they be willing to accept a compromise ruling as the final word?
Dan —
No, they will not accept ANYTHING other than Hillary as President.
DocJess, I’ll be there too. Some of us are trying to figure out the best response to the expected Clintonite invasion.
As if we didn’t have enough problems…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601103&sid=
apUvejwrj_bw&refer=us
KC —
If I get credentials, I’ll see you there for sure — if you’re planning some protest — email me at docjess at msn dot com and I’m in if I can’t get into the meeting…..
I will be there standing outside with LARRY SINCLAIR signs and make Obama admit that he is bisexual and did drugs with Larry in 1999 and maybe still does!! You can bet your life on it!! I am one of millions that will never vote for OBAMA!!
google Larry Sinclair and find the truth about Obama!!
You can stand outside with your “I Love Larry” signs — but he won’t be there. He filed suit to have his fictional tale told, and the suit was dismissed. He took two polygraphs, and failed both of them. He is a publicity-seeking liar.
This is as bad as the “Hillary is a lesbian” fake rumours that went around in the ’90’s.
All nonsense.
Some sources:
http://www.bloggernews.net/114055
http://larrysinclair.com/
http://wordpress.com/tag/
larry-sinclair/
But more importantly — this is a site for numbers and facts, not innuendos and lies.
If you, “Hillaryisourgirl”, wish to admit that as a homophobic racist you’ll never vote for Obama, that’s fine — but just remember that libel and slander are not covered by the first amendment.
Go away and peddle your crap elsewhere.
I tried to register at 10:00 AM sharp. The site was operating as slow as a lazy turtle. I tried four times to get to the actula registration form and the site continually locked up. I had someone trying to call also, and the lines were busy.
By 10:07 AM registration was full to capacity and I was never able to register.
Best bet is to go anyway and be outside. I hear that HRC is sending busloads of people, but as I said, I “hear” that and do not have confirmation from anyone official.
I have a printed out “you have successfully signed up for the following event” for the RBC meeting — HOWEVER — there is supposed to be a confirmatory email.
Will let y’all know if that comes through or not…..
I got the confirmation e-mail.
For those of us who are too far away, does anyone know if the RBC meeting is going to be televised? Will it be on E! or CSPAN?
Folks:
Hillary has been winning every month one or more States, and is leading in Popular Votes by at least 57K (as per line 5 and 6 of realclearpolitics.com on popular votes).
PR will give her a further boost in Popular Vote to as much as 200K.
I agree BHO is leading in TDs, but lagging in Popular Vote.
We have a very serious problems on our hands.
The RBC verdict will force one of the Candidates to appeal and it could drag on to the Convention floor, because the Party is very evenly split between the FAR LEFT Liberal Ideology of BHO Vs Centrist Moderate Ideology of HRC.
Unless the Candidates come together for a calm and quiet discussion, the Convention will be a WAR Zone. No one will be the Winner and ALL will be Losers!
I want BHO to sit down and talk with HRC as to how to prevent a Massive Suicide of the Party!
Otherwise, Cindy and John McCain WILL move into the the White House!
🙁 ;-(
I’m a longtime lurker here at DCW. I too received the signup confirmation for the meeting Saturday. Looking forward to it.
And thank you very much for DCW. Every time I have a question about the process or the count, you guys have been on top of it. Hope you guys have an Act II in you after the convention. You’re a welcome addition to the reality-based community.
Yamaka,
According to demconwatch, which gets its information from TheGreenPaper (the most authoritative site on votes and delegates) Sen. Obama leads Sen. Clinton in popular votes by 470,420. Keep in mind, some sites do not want to count the caucuses, but that wouldn’t be right, would it. The real and verified vote is: Sen. Obama 16,715,324 vs. Sen. Clinton 16,244,904 (http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/03/ultimate-delegate-summary.html)
Yamaka, first of all, the number in line 6 is 54K, not 57K. Second, those numbers are calculated with the assumption that zero voters in Michigan want Obama. Who believes that that is an accurate measure of popular will? Fortunately the superdelegates aren’t stupid enough to fall for that.
The DNC has sent out new confirmation e-mail, so it looks like those who didn’t get one the first time are getting it now.
Note: We are re-sending you this confirmation email regarding the May 31 RBC meeting. Please bring this confirmation email with you, along with a photo ID. If you received a confirmation already, you may disregard this message, but you still need to bring either your first confirmation or this confirmation with you along with your photo ID.
Also, the event will not be displayed in your PartyBuilder dashboard, but you are still confirmed.
I hadn’t received a confirmation, so I called the DNC, AND THEY ACTUALLY CALLED BACK. There is a special area that they give you to request credentials if you got the on-screen confirmation this morning.
See y’all there on Saturday morning!
craig:
By realclearpolitics.com Hillary has earned 17,650,671 so far about 54.4K more than BHO.
Since in MI, BHO voluntarily removed his name from the ballot – which tells me he did want any vote from MI, all the “Uncommitted” votes are kept as such; because there were 4 people who did remove their names before the Jan 29th election. At this point, it is impossible to calculate how many of the Uncommitted should go to BHO.
🙂
Yamaka, the whole point of the popular vote argument is that it’s supposedly a better measure of the true will of the people than the pledged delegate count is. If you add in numbers that say that no one at all in the whole state of Michigan wants Obama, then clearly the claim that it’s a more accurate measure of the popular will goes out the window and the argument collapses.
And Obama’s removing his name from the ballot of the fake election wasn’t some nefarious trick he thought up. It’s the same thing John Kerry and most other candidates did in 2004 when we in DC tried to have a January primary to call attention to our lack of voting representation in Congress. Unlike MI and FL, DC faced the fact that the DNC wasn’t going to count our violation of the agreed-upon calendar, so we still had our “beauty contest” primary in January but we scheduled a firehouse primary in March with plenty of time for working it out and getting it counted. MI and FL refused to do anything similar until it was too late for a revote.
KC —
You could also make the point to Yamaka that HAD the popular vote been the metric, all of the caucus states would have held primaries.
But it doesn’t matter. I, and many others, have taken on Yamaka and his/her ilk — they seemingly do not understand math, nor the political system, nor the fact that their candidate is DONE.
While this is NOT directed at ANYONE — but arguing HillaryMath is like wrestling with a pig.
Yamaka,
As others have stated, there are problems with the way you and others count. The count for both FL and MI are problematic–even before taking into consideration that ALL the major dem candidates except Clinton took their name off the ballot (per request, as I understand it). Other problems include how to count caucus results, the primacy of primaries vs. caucuses, the FACT that the primary is determined by delegate NOT popular vote, and of course the fact that ALL candidates agreed to applying the DNC rules BEFORE MI and FL were stripped of their seats. The other interesting element is that the DNC left the door open for participation–with an open invitation to each state to put together a new proposal that met the rules. Their failure to propose a solution that would be acceptable to all 3 parties (DNC, Obama, and Clinton) is the reason this is still in contention.
So, excluding MI (which is the ONLY reasonable action) the realclearpolitic site still shows Obama with a lead of 163,655. When you add in the projected votes from caucus states Obama’s lead extends to 273,877. But, at this stage of the primary, FL votes have not been accepted by the RBC, so we have to include the number with Obama leading by 458,427. These are the only numbers that can reasonably be accepted, and in each case Obama leads.
Chagofuentes, Chris Matthews just announced on Hardball that he will be covering the RBC meeting live on MSNBC.
kennick, I saw that on Hardball too. Thanks. Apparently, the meeting will be televised on MSNBC, CNN, and CSPAN. I don’t know about E! and I don’t know who will be working the red carpet. From everything I hear and read, it is going to be a circus rivaling Florida 2000 outside the courthouse.
The Obama Campaign is asking that people NOT protest at the RBC meeting.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly
/2008/5/27/143533/931/88/523677
Good for Barack. The High Road can be a long and lonely road, but it will always get you where you are going.
New Information on the RBC Meeting:
I spoke with one of the DNC staffers today to see about bringing in a laptop to be able to blog out, and she said that they were discouraging people from doing so. There has been no rule set forth that they will take and hold them, which would probably be logistically unworkable, but WiFi may be unavailable.
In addition, I was concerned about the dress code. (Yes, I’m OLD). In checking with a former member of the RNC, it was business-business (as opposed to business-casual). The DNC told me today that while they would appreciate business-business or business-casual, no one will be prevented from entering if they are under-dressed, however, they are REALLY discouraging signs, banners, etc, which could detract from the committee-goings-on themselves.
The line was “the protest is OUTSIDE”.
I asked how many “citizen” slots had been given out and was told that it was 300, although other “slots” had gone to people not involved in cramming the internet web site at 10 on Tuesday morning.
I received a phone call from someone in my neighborhood who heard from our local committee person that I was driving down to DC — the caller wanted to come with me. She is not going to the meeting, she’s going to protest, and she told me she is bringing fruit to throw. Even though I said no, for obvious reasons, I have the feeling that even if I’d been more accepting, she wouldn’t actually have gotten in my Obama-Mobile (dressed out as it is.)
That’s what I know….and yes, I’ll be bringing my camera!