progresswear/iraq

Michael Moore, come get your shirts.

I met Michael Moore in the lobby of Comedy Central this past Valentine's day where I was attending a taping of the Daily Show. Michael Moore is a very, very tall man. He's not as wide as he might appear to be on television. Either that or he's lost a lot of weight. He had to duck to make it under the bargain basement metal detector. I looked at him with the shock of recognition one has upon spotting any celebrity and consulted no fewer than four people around me to be sure that it was he.

I nervously approached him and showed him a Progresswear brochure which he carefully read, laughing more than once. At that moment I realized that if I could make Michael Moore laugh I must be doing something right. He said he loved the slogans and thought they were beautifully designed and happily signed the cover. I said "I'd like to send you some shirts." He said "why don't you just give me some?" I paused, trying to discern what he thought I'd said. "Did you think I said that I'd like to sell you some shirts?" Apparently he did. I laughed and clarified that I'd send a truckload for his entire crew if he'd just let me know where to deliver them. He told me his crew was in New York working on his latest project and they'd had an especially rough day. He was treating them to a night on the town which commenced with VIP seats at the show.

It was a solid Daily Show that night. Jon seemed truly flattered that Michael and his crew had shown up and introduced him before the show. I sat facing him trying to discern what size t-shirts to order for him.

Michael Moore's face shows up on a few other t-shirt companies' sites, photographed with the gleeful entrepreneur at his side, knowing that this single picture will garner them sales. So I'm hoping he might be a good sport given that his exact words were "I like these. I REALLY like these." Sending him the shirts isn't an option. I need that photo. Please, Michael. Help out a fellow Midwesterner.

A friend gave me a contact at Michael's production studio, whom I called. A young man answered who wasn't too interested in yet another t-shirt vendor trying to put some XLT shirts on the sizable torso of our nation's greatest political documentarian cum billboard. He politely but firmly said "just send me an e-mail with the info, ok?" He gave me an address that got kicked back.

I've been working up the courage to call again. Mike, let me know where to send those shirts. If you could humor us by sitting for our photographer Tony Ward, we'd be all the more indebted.

LIERAQ Sale Extended
I've spent the better part of two weeks laboriously e-mailing around 800 of our friends, family, clients, collectors, buyers and the 125 or so people who've actually asked for any spam from us to tell them that we're having a sale, $5.00 off all LIERAQ gear until December 10th. It's our first sale, in honor of our first anniversary. And in anticipation of our pull out of Iraq, be that two months or twenty years.

We've got an electorate who feels that now it's our turn to declare a mandate, though, as with Bush's two elections, the use of the M word is most inappropriate. Yet many feel we've earned capital and can borrow Georgie's line and announce to the world that we're going to spend that there capital. Voters, bloggers and grassroots groups are already launching campaigns of accountability, promising to hold the collective feet of the newly elected to the fire. If they won't give us a nice, juicy, bloody impeachment, they can at least ensure that serious hearings into how and why we went into Iraq will take place. And soon, one can only hope.

Polling since the mid-terms shows overwhelming support for impeachment should it be concluded that Bush lied about Iraq. He did, and with any luck this will be our Watergate. Jack Abramoff's in jail. Tom DeWho is all but invisible on the political landscape. In what seemed like mere weeks the Repulic party (to paraphrase Mr. Bush) self destructed and deflated before our eyes as a groundswell of thinking Americans rose to vote, the war in Iraq their number one issue. Gay marriage, stem cell research, abortion, not even immigration came close. For once, the values voter was taking a truly moral stance.

It gives one hope that perhaps there is a bit of justice in the world and that this time, it just might prevail. Yet who is going to tell that to the mourners of the 100,000 to 600,000 Iraqis no longer walking the planet due to our folly? We've buried 2,890 of our own. Watching the hearings and coming to terms at last with the truth about why their sons and daughters aren't coming home will be painful for these people. And for those who stood silent witnessing the lies, or cheered on the march to war, their silent shame will be palpable.

LIERAQ. $5.00 OFF THROUGH DECEMBER 15TH.

Photoshoot.

We had a photoshoot over the weekend with noted photographer Tony Ward. Design for Progress is creating a new site for Tony's fashion and editorial work and Tony's pleased to be building an entire Progresswear wing to the portfolio. The other side of Tony's work of course, is erotica and he's one of the more respected practitioners of the genre alive. He's got a great eye and I'm happy to call him a friend.

Tony insisted we get some shots that reached deeper into the latter oeuvre. One of the results can be seen at LIERAQ.com. While I'm not sure how sexy we might get with Progresswear's marketing, lest we be compared with American Apparel, I think sex and war and politics are ever entwined. Especially this war. Hence the image fits the bill well.

LIERAQ.com is the newest member of the Progresswear and Design for Progress family. When first creating the shirt I had no idea that we were apparently coining a phrase. I'm sure I'd heard it elsewhere, perhaps seen it in an editorial cartoon. Yet a google search for the word yields roughly 37 results, all but one of which are ours. While we first looked at it as merely a theme for Progresswear, we now view it as a phrase that needs its own site and will be launching LIERAQ.com soon.

We are discussing alliances with Iraq veterans groups to help with their image and fundraising efforts in the process, and have purchased LIERAQ.org, .net, .biz, .tv and a half dozen others. Some we will be giving to editorial and activist organizations, one is being offered to a certain documentary filmmaker who says he loves our stuff.

The shirts are selling better than any of our other themes ever has. I think we've got a slogan here. Now all we need is a movement. Trust me, the 15 year olds on MySpace with 100 anti war/anti bush jpegs and videos - the kids who know they're three years from draft age, are ready to be this movement. If they're your children, Godspeed.

The Iraq War 101. Must See TV.



If you could convince your favorite Bush believer to watch just one program in the hopes of convincing them to finally question who their boy really is, this would be it.

It's shocking in the annals of history that a nearly invisible congressman from a state so small they only have one, could basically hijack the free world, before our very eyes. It helps that those eyes were too trained on Britney Spears, Survivor and Angelina Jolie to give a shit.

The Dark Side, Frontline titled the show and it is most aptly named.

Sometimes a single contemplative photo can contain more news than hours of reporting. These photographers bring a personal sense to this war that few Americans see or ever will see.