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.
Tags: #OccupyDC, AFP, americans for prosperity, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Caleb Hays, CNN, DC Metro Police, Defending the American Dream Summit, hit and run, iReport, MSNBC, Slate.com, USLaw.com
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.
Tags: #Dream11, #OccupyDC, #OWS, AFP, americans for prosperity, Defending the American Dream Summit
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.
Hit and Run
Being tailed by OccupyDC Protestor
OccupyDC protestors blocking all surrounding intersections
“This is Prosperity”
Tags: #Dream11, #OWS, AFP, Defending the American Dream
Posted by caleb on Jun 21, 2011 in
Restoring the Conservative Movement 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.”
Tags: #TheUndefeated, 2012, Palin, Sarah Palin, 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.
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Presidential Candidate Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN06)
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Presidential Candidate Herman Cain
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Presidential Candidate Former Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)
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Caleb meeting conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart
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Caleb meeting Herman Cain
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Caleb and Melissa Ward meeting their dinner companion, Michelle Malkin
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Caleb meeting conservative speaker Ann McEilhinney
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Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin
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S.E. Cupp
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Kansans with Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS01)
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Kansas Federation of Teenage Republicans with Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS01)
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NetRoots Nation ’11 protestor and security guard
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We picked the ONE restaurant that Pres. Bill Clinton ate at!
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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
Tags: #RO11, americans for prosperity, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Andrew Breitbart, Bill Clinton, Herman Cain, Melissa Ward, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, NetRoots Nation, obama, RightOnline, RightOnline 2011, S.E. Cupp, Tim Pawlenty
Posted by caleb on Jun 19, 2011 in
Restoring the Conservative Movement 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%.
Tags: #RO11, @bekaromm, AFP, Amercians for Prosperity Foundation, Beka Romm, Huffington Post, live stream, live tweeting, RightOnline
Posted by caleb on Jun 19, 2011 in
Restoring the Conservative Movement Friday night at AFP Foundation’s RightOnline Conference, we were fortunate enough to be some of the first in the nation to screen the almost final version of “The Undefeated: The Sarah Palin Documentary.”
The film’s director and producer came on stage after the main dinner to introduce the film, and Andrew Breitbart (of Anthony Wiener fame) provided us with the back story.
Before the film began, truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much. When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin in August of 2008, I was ecstatic, and I became an instant fan. Without her, there would be no Tea Party, no conservative resurgence, and definitely no conservative sweep of the U.S. House in 2010. However, over the past several months, I’ve become disillusioned by her seeming lack of direction and wasted political capital. At one point, she was truly the leader of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, but, for the first time, my thinking began to reflect what I felt was a new political reality, that her brand was simply too “damaged” to hold weight any longer. I thought “The Undefeated” would just be a Palin apologetics film, crying out for attention while simultaneously suffering from low budget syndrome.
Then, they pressed play.
Over the next two hours and fifteen minutes or so, the six hundred or so in the room at RightOnline got a glimpse into Palin’s life through the eyes of some of her most trusted advisors. It wasn’t a film that maliciously dug into her life; it just showed us the world from the point of view of those who knew her before she was thrust onto the national stage, and this perspective really helped explain her recent actions. Moreover, it reintroduced the room of conservative activists to the Palin we once knew and strongly admired and showed us once again why we felt she was a true leader.
No matter where you stand in the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary, Sarah Palin is a force who will continue to affect the field, whether or not she enters the fray. “The Undefeated” showed us, once again, that she truly is qualified and ready to lead as President of the United States.
Yes, the film was long – there is no denying it – but I have yet to talk to a RightOnline 2011 attendee that left the screening without re-thinking his or her views on Palin.
No matter if you want to vote for her or not (I’m currently undecided, but leaning toward Rep. Michele Bachmann), you need to watch “The Undefeated” and learn the real Palin story.
Tags: #RO11, 2012, AFP, Andrew Breitbart, film, John McCain, Michele Bachmann, Palin film, RightOnline, Sarah Palin, screening, Tea Party, The Undefeated
Members of the NetRoots Nation Conference tried to crash RightOnline 2011. Hotel and AFP security had to push them back.
Tags: #RO11, NetRoots 2011, protectors
The real fireworks happened at the Opening Session at 1:00 p.m.
Videos of the action:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) on the Importance of Twitter
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) – “We are in this fight with you.”
Ann McEilhinney – “What’s a CINO?”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn – Dangers of Net Neutrality
And the big shocker was the surprise welcome by the super liberal Mayor of Minneapolis:
Of course, this was the biggest development of the day:
Yes, really.
More to come…
Tags: #RO11, @MelissaTweets, AFP, americans for prosperity, Ann McEilhinney, Foursquare, John Kline, Marsha Blackburn, Melissa Clouthier, Minneapolis, RightOnline, Ron Johnson
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!
Tags: #RO11, @Nansen, @OneFineJay, @PinkElephantPun, AFP, americans for prosperity, Andrew Breitbart, Anthony Weiner, Caleb Hays, Melissa Ward, Minneapolis
