'Truckers for the Constitution' Plan to Slow D.C. Beltway, Arrest Congressmen

US News ^ | October 7, 2013 | Steven Nelson

[LucianOfSamasota]

Tractor-trailer drivers will intentionally clog the inner loop of the Washington, D.C., beltway beginning on the morning of Oct. 11, according to a coordinator of the upcoming "Truckers Ride for the Constitution" rally.

Organizers of the three-day ride want to call attention to a litany of trucker frustrations and express their disapproval of national political leaders.

Earl Conlon, a Georgia trucker who is handling logistics for the protest, told U.S. News tractor-trailer drivers will circle the beltway "three lanes deep" as he rides with other participants to Congress to seek the arrest of congressmen for allegedly disregarding the Constitution.

The truckers circling I-495 will keep the left lane open for emergency vehicles, Conlon said, but "everybody that doesn't have a supporter sticker on their window, good luck: Nobody in, nobody out." The trucks will be going the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit.

D.C. commuters who wish to be allowed past the convoy must have "T2SDA" – an acronym for the event's original name, "Truckers to Shut Down America" – written on their vehicle, he said.

[OldMissileer]

Lived in Northern Virginia and worked in DC for eight years back in the late 80’s.

You do not win sympathy for your cause by slowing down traffic.

I stopped commuting a few years ago when my contracting went downhill but my wife commutes in a van pool from here in Stafford up to Ft Mead, MD. 94 miles one way. I hope the BW Parkway doesn't have too many problems that day or else I may not see her until the next day.

[Cyber Liberty]

I would just use some white tape to spell it out in big letters.

[blondee123]

It’s a show of force, to show we’re not going to sit back & take this anymore.

[blondee123]

It’s a show of force, to show we’re not going to sit back & take this anymore.

[Guenevere]

Thank-you for posting this....it’s an encouragement!

[Dexter Morgan]

That’s funny. I heard the crowds were exploding.

[Arm_Bears]

Bless her heart.

If there’s an early forecast of snow, you might not see her until the next week.

[Cyber Liberty]

I understand, this was pretty much my fault for being lazy. You are permitted to excerpt from the middle of the article, or snippets from throughout the article, if it helps preserve the flavor. You are not limited to posting just the first part, although there are likely word-count limitations.

Some websites are a royal pain to click on, because they dump tons of pop-ups, pop-unders, ads in general and even malware. It is good to get one’s browser loaded up on add-ons to filter the junk, but then the speed of the browser can get bogged down.

[Anoreth]

Ugh dammit.
I’ll take the ferry and the coastal roads south.

[TWhiteBear]

As I understand it, the Truck Obama protests will start on Oct. 11.
While the protests may not get much sympathy from government bureaucrats, Liberals, and illegal aliens, I think that they will get a whole lot of support, even if Mr. Obama gets some military thugs to gun them all down.
TWB

[Uncle Chip]

They should that they are there to deliver a message to the White Hut and Congress even if they get a whole lot of parking tickets.

[Tax-chick]

That’ll be nicer. I’ll reimburse you the ferry charge and tolls.

[Finny]

Kudos to you, CL, for owning up quickly and graciously to an honest mistake. And perhaps an easy mistake to make considering the duplicity of journalism these days. It's a good habit to ALWAYS double-check the conclusions drawn from quick readings of news stories, and that's what you were doing. One of the things I like about FR is that in case you had been correct, we'd have had you to alert us.

Just my two cents. Thank you, Cyber Liberty.

[elcid1970]

“If it’s crazy but it works, it ain’t crazy.”

G-d bless our patriot truckers!

[Finny]

The promoters of this event don’t strike me as real truckers and obviously don’t have much appreciation of the costs (and lost revenues) suffered by an independent trucker to pull his equipment out of service (during harvest, the heaviest freight season) and drive to Washington, DC.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm ... Lucky, that's a good point. Head's up. Something to think about, at least.

[Cyber Liberty]

I made a lot of mistakes in 15 years, so I have lots of experience. You’re welcome....

[manic4organic]

Might want to stock up on groceries a few days before.

[Cyber Liberty]

Hard to say. I assume these are indies, I don’t think employees of large firms can do it. As for being loaded up, I don’t know about that either. Could be a lot of hot air. It doesn’t take a lot of trucks to clog the Beltway, though....

[justa-hairyape]

I495 is a square type loop around DC. The longest bottom part is about 14 miles east to west. And 10-12 miles north to south. Gonna take a whole lot of trucks to do 3 lanes wide on that. Interesting. Kinda of like the reverse of the below image. Note the one wagon on fire. A wreck in those circumstances could take days to clear.

[combat_boots]

With the forest service shut down, too, there’s a lot of trucking capacity available.