Tales of the Freewayblogger: May 2008

Also Greeting Bush in Phoenix

Hey Scarlet,
We had a great welcoming committee today. As you may have heard, the Bush-McCain fundraiser was cancelled when they found out the protesters were going to out number the campaign contributors.

Overpass signs came down quickly so I had to carpet bomb the streets on his route. Most of them stayed up to greet the motorcade, along with about 50-60 of us protesters.

We had a great time and hope he comes back soon :}
Hope all is well! -Maria

Code Pink Hits Orange County

"Y'know... this war is so fuckin' illegal." -Pat Tillman, in Iraq

Code Pink

http://icasualties.org/

CodePinkAlert

How to

Let's Impeach the President for Lying...

“Well behaved women seldom make history.” ~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Fairbanks Alaska

"There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right." - Woodrow Wilson

"It is not when people take up arms that they violate the basic religious impulse -- it is when they take up arms enthusiastically, and without the heavy heart that must accompany this dreadful act." -Unknown

"Bring 'em on" - George W. Bush

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But, I arise in the morning, torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline -- it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least, you need a beer." - Frank Zappa

By The Time Bush Gets To Phoenix

By the time Bush gets to Phoenix for fundraising,
He'll find the notes that we left hangin' on the roads...

Brilliant.

These signs were made by one guy in Phoenix using cardboard, paint, and an overhead projector. I can't emphasize this enough: combined with cardboard and paint, an overhead projector is like having a printing press for billboards, and so long as it's done safely, on public property, and your message is purely political, the first amendment is your license to put them up.

San Francisco Today

"In modern war you will die like a dog for no good reason."
- Ernest Hemingway

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing."
- Albert Schweitzer

"Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought." - Graham Greene

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius

"Genius is eternal patience." -Michaelangelo

"You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." - Joe Lewis

Non-Overpasses

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." -John F. Kennedy

"The purpose of freedom is to create it for others." - Bernard Malamud

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is today." -African Proverb

"The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other." - Orison Swett Marden

"There is no waste of time like making excuses." -Benjamin Disraeli

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say you cannot do." -Walter Bagehot

Long Island

Hi Scarlet!, I'm trying to get away from reading emails all day and signing e-petitions. How long can I tolerate what is happening in the world and not do anything about it?! If I took the time I spent on the computer and painted I would be much more productive. These were put up on the Long Island Expressway (also known as the world’s largest parking lot!), and the Northern Parkway, another heavily trafficked road on Long Island.

Taking these messages and putting them up for many people to see is the activity I am most proud of, more than my work, fundraising and other community efforts. I feel like I am doing what is really right. And by doing this, I'm giving my kids first-hand experience that they can effect change in their world, not just in a video game, and how satisfying it can be.

I encourage everyone to experience the joy that comes with speaking truth to power!

Take good care,
Star

Overpasses

"There are a great many people who have a vested interest in maintaining the stupidity of the American public." - Gore Vidal

"Folks, take it from me, we couldn't live without a little swing music now and then... mostly then." - Louis Armstrong

"It may be possible to fight intolerance, stupidity, and fanaticism seperately, but when they come together there is no hope." - Albert Einstein

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten." - Cree Prophecy

"All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me.” - Fred Rogers

Kauai, Hawaii

Aloha Scarlet,

I was over in Hawaii last week, visiting my son and his family on the north shore of Kauai, where they've lived for 8 years or so. He'd been telling me recently about this new Hawaii "Superferry" that was built and subsidized with Hawaiian tax-payer money and force-fed to Hawaiians without the required environmental studies or any real public input.

Brave Kauai locals protested in mass last summer and kept the Superferry from entering the harbor on its maiden voyage. But sadly, it's looking more and more like it will be plowing back to Kauai again soon so the local cops are now preparing to deal with protesters in a more serious fashion, according to the local newspaper.

I decided to snoop around some and wasn't too surprised to learn Hawaiian Superferry (HSF) is run by a bunch of neocon ex-military types, all part of the bush destruction team. It seems the US Navy wants to test the Superferry's ability to carry military loads but they don't want to use Navy dollars for the testing and they don't really care what they have to destroy to do it.

Kauai's roads can't possibly accommodate all the cars the ferry will bring onto the island, cars conceivably loaded with contraband and drugs, easily driven onto the ferry on Oahu and off the ferry on Kauai. The boat pollutes, both with fuel and noise, and there's no way it could slow down to keep from taking out the many whales and sea turtles that will travel in its path. What's even crazier is the price of a ferry ticket - more than airfare - and the trip takes hours longer! Passengers were barfing everywhere on the boat's maiden voyage to Maui.

The whole thing really reeks so - vacation or not - IT WAS TIME FOR SOME FREEWAY BLOGGING! Off to the hardware store we went for supplies and my rookie son was quickly schooled in the art by watching your latest YouTube video. We painted signs Thursday evening and posted them early Friday morning for thousands of locals to read during rush hour traffic. Some were still hanging several days later as I headed back to San Diego. Needless to say, I left all the paint and supplies there with my son, along with some encouragement to repeat the effort again and again, until the bush warmongers get the message once and for all that the Superferry just isn't welcome on Kauai!

Mahalo and peace always~
Kate

Tonight's Sunset/Recent Postings

This was tonight's sunset in SF. We're having what they're calling a heat wave here, which would pass for a cold snap in other places. The signs below are from SF, LA and the road in between.

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action." - Thomas Henry Huxley

"It's not rebels that make trouble, but trouble that makes rebels." - Ruth Messinger

"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming." -Soren Kierkegaard

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -- Leonardo DaVinci

"New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled, the humiliating question arises, `Why then are you not taking part in them?''' -H. G. Wells

"If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." -George S. Patton

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time." --Steven Wright

"The rose has thorns only for those who would gather it." -Chinese Proverb

First Family Sacrifices

News Item: George W. Bush gives up golfing as a show of solidarity with U.S. Soldiers in Iraq.

What guilty pleasures are the other members of the First Family going without?

Mother's Day, St. Paul MN

from the esteemed Coleen Rowley and friends...

Arsenal of Democracy: Turnouts

Roadside turnouts on divided highways are a textbook example of applied freewayblogging strategy. Simply pull over on turnout, drive to the far end and place your sign so that it faces the oncoming lanes. Remember, if you can see their windshields from the posting spot, they can see your sign. The amount of time you can see their windshield is the amount of time they can see your sign as well.

To maximize duration, make sure your sign is hidden from forthcoming traffic by bushes, poles, berms or traffic signs, as shown above. Remember that the strength of the medium resides in the fact that most high-traffic roadways are very strictly defined courseways, and that the lines of sight for people driving on them are constant and predictable. The above sign, on the southbound side of Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz, took about a minute to post, start to finish. It's entirely invisible to southbound traffic and practically unreachable to northbound.