my thoughts about life.
Oh, the irony!
Oh, the humanity!
Can you get any more dunderheaded than this?
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in an email that post offices are an important part of rural communities.
Roger McKinney, The Joplin Globe, 11/06/11
Need I say anything else? It’s time for Claire McCaskill to find a new job.
From CNN.com today:
Caleb Hays, who shot a video of the hit-and-run, said protesters had converged on the area.
“One lady jumped on the hood as the car screeched to a halt. As they stepped back, the driver tried to leave. At that point, the driver hit the woman who had jumped on his car. He sped off as she lay on the ground, unmoving.’
To read the rest of the article…
WDIV Detroit also carried the CNN story.
I was also interviewed by USLaw.com, a perhaps decidedly more pro-Occupy site:
The Pittsburg State student and banquet attendee who captured this video believes the woman who was struck by the car had jumped on the hood of the vehicle while it was stopped in front of the harassing protesters. While he was unable to determine the driver’s intent, he did suggest the protesters had created an atmosphere of fear and physical intimidation in the vicinity.
For the full article, please visit USLaw.com
We were also interviewed by Slate.com/MSNBC, and while we are not specifically sourced in this interview, it uses some of our conversation as basis: Slate.com
My friend Katy Benningfield of Katy’s Conservative Corner sums it all up here.
As the news media continues to attempt to skew what happened under the sky bridge at the Washington Convention Center on November 4, 2011, my firsthand video of the car/protestor accident continues to be used to show what happened.
I was one of the first to break the story of OccupyDC protestors mobbing a random car driving east down L Street. We had finally been able to leave the building after security broke through the blockade and ushered us outside. Almost immediately afterward, this event occurred.
In new developments, the Associated Press has apparently decided to appropriate my footage, without any attribution.
I first discovered this blatant plagiarism in this article (written by Madeleine Morgenstern) on The Blaze that uses information from the AP.
I’ve written Ms. Morgenstern about this gross oversight, since she is the only reporter listed on the article on The Blaze.
Madeleine,
My name is Caleb Hays, and I was an attendee this weekend at AFPF’s Defending the American Dream Summit. We were right next to the scene of the first accident involving the Lexus and a woman when the vehicle struck the protestor.In fact, I recorded what happened using my iPhone 4S (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmQdobhvi70 and http://calebhays.com/2011/11/04/occupy-dc-outside-dream11/).It appears the original Associated Press article may have inadvertently included footage from my recording without proper attribution. Since you did not include the name of the author of the original post, I’m including these screen capture shots to show the distinct similarities between my video and the clip of footage used in the AP video.Mine:Clip from the AP footage, apparently zoomed in, but taken from the exact same location where I was standing. There weren’t that many people under the skybridge that weren’t protestors, and no one was standing next to or near me.I would appreciate your help in resolving this issue.Cordially,Caleb Haysxxx.xxx.xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.com@calebhays
—Update 7:50 p.m. 11/6/11—
Ms. Morgenstern replied with an apology and some further contact information to reach the author of the wire story which was included in her article. I sent a similar email to the AP and will let you know their response.
I was interviewed today by CNN, Slate.com, MSNBC, and USLaw.com about my firsthand account of the hit-and-run accident involving rioting OccupyDC protestors on L Street outside the Washington Convention Center on the night of November 4, 2011.
Today, my video was picked up as a featured video on CNN’s iReport and placed on the homepage of their mobile app.
As most have heard by now, protestors from the OccupyDC movement attack the Washington Convention Center last night while Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s Defending the American Dream Summit was taking place.
No one in the news media seems to know exactly what happened, but I was on-scene, along with Jarrod Mendicki and Gavin Kreidler.
I was an attendee at the summit and was trapped inside for over an hour as protestors blockaded the doors and prevented our exit. I wrote about the attacks right after they occurred from my firsthand perspective here.
I’d now like to provide more details.
The three of us were inside the South Building of the Washington Convention Center, trying to exit. All of the doors were blocked by OccupyDC protestors:
When we finally were able to exit onto L Street, a woman, a protestor from OccupyDC, was hit by a random car driving eastbound as she and several other protestors mobbed the vehicle.
I was on the scene with my iPhone and recorded the events starting a three-to-five seconds after the accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmQdobhvi70.
Tonight in DC several hundred OccupyDC protestors turned violent and attacked the DC Convention Center buildings.
Protestors barricaded the doors an refused to allow #Dream11 attendees to peacefully exit, requiring the assurance of security officers.
DC Metro Police did nothing to stop the protestors from blocking doors (fire hazard), blocking streets (traffic safety hazard), or making threats against attendees. In fact, they did everything they could to protect the violent protestors.
These videos and photos serve as proof.
Being tailed by OccupyDC Protestor
OccupyDC protestors blocking all surrounding intersections
Here in the Joplin area, we have been through a pretty rough year. A large portion of our city was destroyed. 155 citizens died and many hundreds more were injured. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed.
So, tonight for Independence Day, we decided we needed to relax, and Joplin threw its largest ever Fourth of July Celebration in Landreth Park.
Rush Limbaugh even made an appearance as part of his “Two if by Tea” initiative.
Flying lanterns graced the city sky at dusk – rumor has it that each represented a life lost. Chilling.
Thousands of people came out to enjoy the music and fireworks. In fact, I’m tapping this out in my car – it will be quite awhile before traffic clears up enough to where I can pull out of this parking place!
This was a cathartic, healing evening for a city in distress. It was a good night.
Happy 235th Birthday, America. May your Stars and Stripes forever wave proudly and freely. 
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read my review of “The Undefeated”, I encourage you to do so. I was one of several hundred at RightOnline who had the opportunity to view an early screening of this very well-done film. If you have concerns about Gov. Palin, you need to see “The Undefeated”.
Blogosphere Response to my review:
Conservatives for Palin: “Daily Caller: The Undefeated Reintroduces Undecided and Ambivalent Americans to Governor Palin”
Free Republic: “This is why the Palin movie ‘The Undefeated’ may indeed be a game changer.”
Texans for Sarah Palin: “‘The Undefeated’: Changing Minds at RightOnline”
Victory Film Group: Caleb Hays: Reviews The Undefeated, He Saw At Right Online #RO11
Victory Film Group: Free Republic: Twitter At Right Online Goes Crazy For Palin Film The Undefeated #RO11
Victory Film Group created the Palin documentary, “The Undefeated.”
RightOnline 2011 finished up Saturday evening. I’ve attached some highlights of the awesome weekend conference for you to enjoy.
For my full coverage of #RO11, visit this link.
Videos to be added at a later date – slow internet connection is preventing the massive upload from going through. In the mean time, most may be viewed at yfrog.com
As usual, RightOnline saw me tweeting up a storm as I tried to keep everyone informed who wasn’t able to attend. One of my favorite things to do is to “live tweet”, or provide a close to real time stream of what’s happening.
Our favorite liberal online rag Huffington Post decided to carry one of my tweets (and one of fellow Kansan Beka Romm’s, too) as part of the back story for one of the weekend articles covering U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).
I suppose I should be flattered – but I certainly geeked out! If this doesn’t show you the power of Twitter, I’m not sure what will.
Link to the full article on Huffington Post.
Side note: I’d like to correct my tweet – I was typing quickly and incorrectly reported the unemployment rate of young Latinos. It should read 26%.
