"You have no right to hold us," Asher insisted.

"Yes, we have every right," responded one of the agents. "You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation."

[...]As I continued to press for legal counsel, a female officer who had been busy typing on her laptop in the front of the restaurant, walked over and put her finger in my face. "We are at war, we are at war and this is for your safety," she exclaimed. As she walked away from the table, she continued to repeat it to herself? "We are at war, we are at war. How can they not understand this."

Guerrilla Masquerade Party is a monthly event consisting of large groups of people dressed in costumes of all sorts, arriving unannounced at various locations (most often bars). The concept comes from the tradition of Guerrilla Queer Bar -- where gays, lesbians, fags, dykes, trannies, bisexuals, and their friends show up en masse at 'straight' bars, effectively turning them queer for the nite. The agenda of GMP is simply to dress up and have fun. Nothing political, nothing complicated. We just want to add a little variety to Seattle's nitelife, and a little chaos while we're at it.