Beltway Blogger Strikes Again!

Signs appeared yesterday around the Beltway in Springfield, Annandale, Arlington, Falls Church and Vienna, Virginia. They are posted safely (on the inside of the fencing,) by a private citizen in full accordance with the first amendment right to free speech.


I made the McCain stencil using a small overhead ("art") projector, and a printout from Google images. I projected the image onto the back of a campaign sign, traced it and then cut it out with a boxcutter.

For those of you who think that putting on a bumper sticker, wearing a T-shirt, or planting a campaign sign in your yard is going to make any difference, then I've got news for you: it's only there to make you feel good. If you drive all day, maybe a hundred people will read your bumper sticker. If you put up a campaign sign, it will blend in with all the other ones. But if you paint your own message and put it up within view of the highway, up to a hundred thousand people a day will read it. Put up a few around your city and you will have beaten your local newspaper in readership. -Beltway Blogger




Special thanks to the other freewaybloggers who sent me some suggestions for good, short anti-McCain slogans that can be read from inside a speeding SUV.


http://freewayblogger.com

Tales of the Beltway Blogger

"I love freewayblogging in Washington DC: instead of just writing to a congressperson or senator, I get to write to all of them. Ambassadors, heads-of-state, cabinet secretaries, generals, defense contractors... they've all got to use the Beltway. Sometimes I like to leave personal notes:

One of these days I'm gonna get an overhead projector, but for now I just use freehand and stencils. For those of you just starting out, I suggest using stencils: you can get them at art supply stores or just make them yourself with cardboard and a razor.

Like the Freewayblogger says, the trick is to make a lot of signs, stick them in your car and then just go driving around. With bungee cords, duct-tape, hammer and nails you can stick signs up pretty much anywhere.

When I see a good spot I take the next exit and figure out how to get there from the back: I never pull over on the roadway. Sometimes it takes a little exploring... wandering around through bushes and trees, negotiating terrain... the sense of being on a mission. How often do we get to do that in our day-to-day lives? Not nearly enough.

By the time I get home I know that tens of thousands of people have seen what I had to say, instead of just fences and trees. Like Freewayblogger says: Everyone should do this.

Beltwayblogger's Impeachspace Page


FB - 551

USA - 474

Washington DC/Beltway

  “A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that they be wicked but only that they be spineless.” - James Baldwin

Signs placed around the DC beltway in Arlington, Falls Church and Fairfax Virginia. 

The above illustrates the advantage of using cardboard over cloth for freeway bannering: you can read it.) ("He Knew" refers to evidence that Donald Trump absolutely lied about not knowing something in a scandal that that would've destroyed any other President since the birth of the Republic. I forget what it was.

 "We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right." - Nelson Mandela

"The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise." - Tacitus

“I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Chanukah.” - George W. Bush

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil." -  Hannah Arendt

Signs Posted - 7,542
Arrests - 0

Return of the Beltwayblogger

Hey Scarlet, sorry it's been awhile - I've been going carless for awhile, but man it feels good to be freewayblogging again! "On the Table:" Alexandria, VA - this one was SO easy to put up! Just park at the furniture store, put up the sign, walk through a gate and take the photo.


I-66 in Falls Church, VA and the Beltway in Annandale, VA :both have American flags. Apparently when you attach a U.S. flag, whether onto your lapel or onto a bridge, it can have alternate meanings. To someone like Lou Dobbs, it means "respect for those killed in the terrorist attacks, and in recognition of this country's war on radical Islamist terror." To me, it means respect for the Constitution and recognition that our democracy will perish if we don't take action.

I-66 in Arlington, VA. Too bad I couldn't elaborate that under the production sharing agreements, 80% of the Iraqi oil profits go to Exxon, BP, Shell et al.

This on-ramp in Alexandria won't be open till tomorrow morning's rush hour so I could work out in the open: good thing too, because while placing the guardrail blog on the other side (through a tunnel), I left my nails behind so I had to be creative.

In Solidarity, Beltwayblogger

Changing The Political Landscape Around DC

“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” - Lily Tomlin

Some of the signs placed during the month of May on the Beltway and Interstates 66, 95, 295 and 395 around Washington DC. Signs are handmade using cardboard, paint and a projector and affixed using bungee cords and duct tape to be secure but easily removable without a trace. As such, all signs are in compliance with local ordinances and fully protected under the First Amendment.

Larger signs would stay up for a day or two, with some lasting up to four days. Smaller "Impeach" signs would stay up anywhere from two to nine days with the average being between four and five.

Traffic averages between 55,000 and 135,000 cars per day with a mean of about 80,000, including night-time. While it's impossible to determine how many people actually see or read these signs, given that they were made and posted by one person for a total of less than $100, flags included, the answer is "More than enough."

In one month driving the freeways almost every day, I only saw one sign that wasn't mine. These signs are the legal and patriotic equivalent of the flags that went up on overpasses after September 11th and should be the rule and not the exception everywhere, but particularly around Washington DC.

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen." - John F. Kennedy

"Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech." - Benjamin Franklin

"So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today." - Donald Trump

When you put a sign on a freeway people will read it until someone takes it down.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”  - Alice Walker

"Don't hate the media. Be the media." - Jello Biafra

"We are not born for ourselves alone." - Cicero

"Lying is done with words and also with silence." - Adrienne Rich

"There is a crack in everything... that's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen

Signs Posted (since 2003) - 7,904
Arrests - 0