Telling tall tales...Ta athas
orm
Queer 'Settlers' Land
on Berkeley Starbucks Analogy to Israeli Colonists
by QUIT
August 20, 2002
About 25 queer settlers descended on a downtown Berkeley
Starbucks on Saturday, August 17, claiming Berkeley as
"a city without people for people without a
city." The group, organized by Queers Undermining
Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!), posted a banner proclaiming
the reclaimed cafe
"Queerkeley - A Prophecy Fulfilled."
They also erected homes (transformed "Palestinian
civilian homes reclaimed from another street theatre
action), lawn furniture, and signs reading, "It
Works In Palestine, Why Not Here?" and "It's
Ours Because We Say So." They erected plastic palm
trees to "make the concrete bloom," and gave
patrons a tract explaining their religious claim to the
land as follows:
"Land of fruits and nuts .
"And the Lord saw that the queer people were harried
in this land. And the Lord spake onto the prophet Harvey,
"You will lead your people across the wide waters
unto a new land." Harvey was fearful, and he cried
to the Lord, "How will we cross the wide waters? For
they are cold, and they are filled with all manner of
hazardous substances and raw sewage and other
pollutants." And the Lord responded, "fear not,
Harvey, for a great bridge will be built, and the people
will cross into this land. And this land will be called
Berkeley. I say, Lo, I have promised the land of Berkeley
to the lesbians and to the gays, and to the bisexuals,
and to the transgenders and to the intersexed, and to all
of the gender variant peoples. And this land shall be
blessed with fruits and nuts, unto 50 genderations."
- Book of Reclamations and Realty, 4.0
The group selected Starbucks for the location of their
first settlement in Berkeley because Starbucks founder
and CEO, Howard Shultz, is a major supporter of the
Israeli state and the corporation has become the prime
target of an international boycott of corporations with
ties to Israel (www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.html).
"Since Mr. Shultz clearly believes it is okay for
one group of people to grab land belonging to another and
say they have a right to it, we figure he won't mind if
we take some of his," a QUIT leaflet explains.
Workers in the cafe were surprisingly unruffled as the
Queer Defense Forces entered the cafe and announced over
a loudspeaker that the land had been confiscated by the
Queer National Fund and curfew for straights would begin
in five minutes. Several "patrons" were
forcibly ejected from the cafe by means of SuperSoakers
(which were especially popular with a three-year-old
settler).
Many coffee drinkers quickly cleared out, but one group
of chess players steadfastly ignored the group, who vow
to set up more settlements in the coming months.
For more information or a full copy of "QueerNation
Berkeley - God's Prophecy
Fulfilled," contact QUIT! quitpalestine@yahoo.com;
http://www.quitpalestine.org
A
determined bid to fend off the threat of peace
By Norman Solomon
TO fend off the threat of peace, determination is
necessary. Elected officials and high-level appointees
must work effectively with reporters and pundits. This is
no time for the US government to risk taking
"yes" for an answer from Iraq. Guarding against
the danger of peace, the Bush administration has moved
the goal posts, quickly pounding them into the ground.
In early August, a State Department undersecretary swung
a heavy mallet. "Let there be no mistake," said
John Bolton. "While we also insist on the
reintroduction of the weapons inspectors, our policy at
the same time insists on regime change in Baghdad - and
that policy will not be altered, whether inspectors go in
or not."
A sinister cloud briefly fell over the sunny skies for
war. The US Congress got a public invitation. A letter
from a top Iraqi official "said congressional
visitors and weapons experts of their choice could visit
any site in Iraq alleged to be used for development of
chemical, biological or nuclear weapons,"
Summing up the diplomatic overture, the front page of the
New York Times informed readers that the letter "was
apparently trying to pit legislators against the Bush
administration" (a pithy phrase helping to quash a
dastardly peace initiative). Later on, the article noted
that "the letter said members of Congress could
bring all the arms experts they wanted and should plan to
stay three weeks."
There may have been a moment of panic in Washington. On
the face of it, the Aug. 5 invitation was unequivocally
stating that members of the Senate and House - plus some
of the best and most experienced weapons inspectors in
the world - could go to Iraq and engage in a thorough
inspection process.Exactly what the White House has been
demanding of Iraq for many years.
The news had ominous potential. It could derail the war
train, silence the war drums, gaining so much momentum
this summer. But US media coverage matched the bipartisan
refusal by leaders in Congress to do anything but scorn
the offer.
Even before describing the invitation from Iraq's
government, the first words of the USA Today news story
on Aug. 6 called it "the latest Iraqi bid to
complicate US invasion plans." That's some
reporting! When America's most powerful politicians are
hell-bent on starting a war, complete with human misery
and death of unfathomable proportions, then the last
thing they want is complications before the bloodshed
gets under way.
Why should anyone in Washington try to defuse this crisis
when Americans have such a clear opportunity to light
such an enormous fuse in the Middle East?
Oh sure, there are always some people eager for peace.
Not content to call for it, they actually believe:
Blessed be the peacemakers. They don't defer to the
machinery of war that grinds human beings as if they were
mere sausage.
One of the people who's trying to impede the war drive is
Scott Ritter, a former chief weapons inspector for the UN
in Iraq. "To date," Ritter says, "the Bush
administration has been unable - or
unwilling - to back up its rhetoric concerning the Iraqi
threat with any substantive facts."
Such reporting, if widely pursued on this side of the
Atlantic, could seriously undermine the war planners. But
don't worry. The threat of peace is up against good ol'
professional news judgment here in the United States.
(Creators Syndicate)
NORMAN SOLOMON©2002 All Rights Reserved
President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar.
A guy walks in and asks the bar tender, "Isn't that
Bush and Powell
sitting over there?"
The bar tender says, "Yep, that's them."
So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real
honor. What are you
guys doing in here?"
Bush says, "We're planning WW III ".
And the guy says, "Really? What's going to
happen?"
Bush says, "Well, we're going to kill 140 million
Iraqis this time and
one blonde with big boobs.
The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with big tits? Why kill
a blonde with big
boobs?
Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and
says, " See, I
told you no one would worry about the 140 million
Iraqis!"
....................ooo0ooo.....................
Ponder this
If you had bought $l000.00 worth of Nortel stock one year
ago, it would now be worth $49.00
With Enron you would have $16.50 of the original$1000.00
With Worldcom you would have less than $5.00 left
If you'd bought $1000.00 worth of Budweiser (the beer,
not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then
turned in the cans for the 10cent deposit, you would have
$214,00
Based on the above, the best investment advice is to
drink heavily and recycle.
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