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.’
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.
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
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.
Presidential Candidate Former Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)
Caleb meeting conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart
Caleb meeting Herman Cain
Caleb and Melissa Ward meeting their dinner companion, Michelle Malkin
Caleb meeting conservative speaker Ann McEilhinney
Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin
S.E. Cupp
Kansans with Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS01)
Kansas Federation of Teenage Republicans with Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS01)
NetRoots Nation ’11 protestor and security guard
We picked the ONE restaurant that Pres. Bill Clinton ate at!
Fitting that their logo looks like Obama’s!
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
I’m attending Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s Fourth Annual RightOnline conference in Minneapolis, MN.
RightOnline is a conference dedicated to teaching conservative activists on how to use online technologies and how to purpose them to help move America forward. Of course, for people like me, Melissa Ward, Jayvie Canomo, Tabitha Hale, and Teresa Oelke, it’s a great place to meet the people with work with everyday on Twitter and other online avenues.
In fact, I met Nansen Malin, a true #tcot Twitter superstar, in her Twitter breakout session. I kind of… hijacked the session, too. Oops… This tweet sent Nansen an @ reply and displayed on the giant screen in the front of the same room this happened in… The crowd started chuckling, and then I had to ‘fess up!
My bad.
The man who took down former U.S. Rep. Anthony Wiener is here as well. Melissa and I caught Andrew Breitbart as he was leaving an interview in the Media Room.
Playing Paparazzi with Andrew Breitbart
The weekend is just getting started… If you are here and want to meet up, DM me – I’ll be here through Sunday evening!
The Kansas AFP delegation met this afternoon for a lunch meeting in the Coolidge Room at the Marriott Wardman in the District. My perhaps less-than-completely-accurate estimate puts the number in attendance at above fifty Kansans who made the half nation trek to our country’s capital to stand for a movement that truly defends the principles of smaller government and less spending.
As surprise guests, the national director of Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips stopped by share some info on the national organization, and to thank us for our involvement.
David Koch, the Kansas native of Koch Industries fame, who is the Chairman of Americans for Prosperity Foundation and has recently been attacked for this involvement, spoke about his desire to take the flak for the sake of the nation for the salvation of the movement and the nation.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt speaking to Kansas AFP Delegation
Then, we had our third and fourth surprise guests (well, some of use knew ahead of time!), Congressman Todd (R-KS03) and Mrs. Vicki Tiahrt who drove in specifically for the AFP Summit and tomorrow’s Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial. They haven’t given up the fight.
Mrs. Vicki Tiahrt speaking to Kansas delegation
To paraphrase Mrs. Tiahrt, “You [AFP] are who will take our nation back.” Vicki spoke for a few minutes on the importance of taking our message of opportunity for all and fiscal conservatism to reach new voters, especially those who may have been turned off in the past by misperceptions of the conservative movement.
It was a very informative and up-lifting lunch, and it was great to see Todd and Vicki again. Better yet, I finally got a photo with them:
According to the Summit’s website, the general registration sold out – something that excites me. With the almost 2,500 attendees at this year’s fourth annual conference, this shows with certainty that Americans are waking up to the theft taking place beneath our noses.
Nick Gillespie, ReasonTV
I’ve been encouraged by the speakers I’ve had the privilege of hearing from already, including Nick Gillespie of ReasonTV and Matthew Elliott of the UK’s TaxPayer’s Alliance. Mr. Elliott offered an inspirational view of how the new Conservative government in the UK is winning over the population and making authentic efforts to right their financial ship.
Matthew Elliott, TaxPayer's Alliance
If this morning was an example of how the rest of the weekend will go, then I’m excited. Let’s get going… let’s Remember November.
[As many of you know, I serve as the Events Coordinator for the Pitt State College Republicans. This post is related to one of our events]
On the way home from our Arkansas Tea Party tour over the Independence Day holiday, Virginia Crossland-Macha began talking with me about her plans to host another large 400+ person event in SE Kansas on the Pittsburg State University Campus. We wanted to help people put to use some of the energy they’d built up over the summer to help defeat the government takeover of healthcare.
In the end, we settled on a theme for the event, based mostly on our location at the backside of the PSU Football Stadium, as “Tailgate Tea Party.” We figured it would be a great way to draw in college students and local citizens who otherwise wouldn’t attend a political event.
We lived up to the “tailgate” moniker, as well, with live music performed by Josh Hucke and the Goin’ Nowhere Band and free hot dogs and bottled water.
We had some direct resistance from the Campus Police Department, resulting in a logistical stand-off that forced our headlining speaker, Bob Basso, to use a trailer graciously provided by Josh Hucke as his dressing room. With some attendees traveling over an hour and speakers flying for several, it was terribly embarrassing to the students, faculty, and alumni of the university who were in attendance. Some participants even vowed to reconsider their donations to the school because of their treatment of our peaceful, educational event. How’s that for serious?
Frankly, our speaker list was terribly impressive, if I may brag on Virginia’s connections for a minute. We had big names in to speak from D.C., California, and, of course, more local places, such as Iola, KS, Topeka, KS, Joplin, MO, and Rogers, AR.
In all, I consider the event to have been a great success. We hosted nearly 400 people from all over the four state area at a liberal university in a strongly Democratic area of the through-and-through red state of Kansas. I continue to believe tea parties are one of the most effective ways to engage the everyday, average right-of- center American where they are right now. Our organization has surely felt this influence, and we are very appreciative of the support we’ve gained.
This Independence Day was spent differently for me than years past. Normally, I join the millions of celebrating Americans spending the day eating delicious grilled food and shooting off the biggest and loudest fireworks possible. This year, however, I got an offer from Virginia Crossland-Macha I couldn’t refuse: an all expenses paid trip to Arkansas over the holiday weekend to help out with a whopping six Tea Parties and other events, trying to round up as many signatures for the Patients Firstpetition against the government takeover of healthcare.
After arriving in Rogers, AR around 2:00 p.m. local time on Friday the third, we hurriedly dropped off our luggage at the very nice a-Loft hotel, scarfed down a burger from Steak ‘n Shake, and hopped on a Panther Navajo five-seater plane, basically a tiny puddle jumper, and headed for Batesville, AR. We dropped off two of our volunteers there, and then Teresa Crossland-Oelke and I headed for Heber Springs, AR, a tiny town of around 7,000 residents. Batesville’s event attracted 200 concerned citizens, a respectable number for their very first event, while Heber Springs impressed us even more. This tiny village in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, had a Tea Party that involved over 500 people. All in all, that night we collected over 400 signatures from those two events.
The next morning, I ate breakfast with three very interesting people, Rebecca Wales from Smart Girl Politics, Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar, and Dr. Larry Hunter, of the Social Security Institute. Ms. Wales and Mr. Ziglar spoke at the Fayetteville, AR Tea Party, while Virginia, Dr. Hunter, and I set up our Patients First booth at the Ozark Tea Party in Mountain Home, AR. After Dr. Hunter spoke on healthcare, he and I hopped back into a Crossland Construction truck, and I drove him back to Bentonville, AR so he could catch his flight back to D.C. and hopefully spend the evening of the Fourth with his family.
The Mountain Home Tea Party was incredible. Over 1,500 people showed up, and they just kept coming. Over the course of the entire weekend, we collected nearly two THOUSAND signatures, something that would normally take two months. Three-fourths of those signatures came from Mountain Home. I’m sure you can see why:
The entire football stadium was packed. There was basically no room left, whatsoever. Everywhere I turned, people were clamoring to sign the petition. It was incredibly encouraging, and heartening. Maybe we really do have a chance to stop this beast.
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, please do. All it takes is being a registered voter.
After returning home to Southeast Kansas, I went with my family to the Chetopa, KS Independence Day extravaganza. I really don’t know what else to call it- they have an intensely huge gathering in their city park for several hours in the afternoon and culminate the evening in one of the area’s best fireworks shows. Seriously, guys, kudos.
So maybe I didn’t get to shoot off crazy rockets and scream madly as I ran away from a (very short) lighted fuse, but today, I did something better: I was democracy in action: I worked for the betterment of what is still this greatest nation on earth, the United States of America.
I know some people have had a difficult time celebrating Independence Day this year; they feel our nation is teetering on the brink of collapse and that we’ve lost our way. I have to be honest; I’ve struggled with those feelings, too, but I just keep reminding myself that I’m celebrating the eternal American values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
