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Hillary-Guevara '08 shorts, anyone?

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Cafepress.com on many of its news pages is promoting a pro-communist store that, among hammers and red stars, also sells "Hillary Guevara" design based on the famed Che™ picture by the Cuban photographer Korda. One can buy Hillary Guevara shirts, pins, mugs, bags, baby and doggie items, and yes, boxer shorts commanding you to "vote Hillary '08." More on that later.

In our previous story we described how Cafepress.com censored our "Che is Dead" design with a hairy skull in a beret on a vague pretext of copyright infringement - while they turned a blind eye on other shopkeepers who blatantly used corporate logos and trademarks in designs that denigrated American corporations and capitalism in general.

I decided to stage an experiment to see if Cafepress would like the taste of their own medicine. I set up a section in my store named Cafepress is a left-wing nutjob and put together a couple of designs mocking Cafepress while using their own logo.

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The designs were banned on arrival, before I even could put them on any products. Thus we proved that Cafepress will not tolerate dissing its own logo. Fair enough. Hypocritical yet explicable. Step 2 of the experiment included the same designs minus the trademarked logo.


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The designs went through and I created a set of nice products with them including shirts, mugs, stickers, and thongs. Half an hour later, just as I was placing an ad for these products on my site's front page, the shop was purged without warning. Just like in the 1984 novel, my shirts became non-shirts, thongs became non-thongs, stickers became non-stickers, and the shop was clean and empty as if I hadn't just spent an hour building it.

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Later that day I received the same form email from Cafepress as before. It listed a standard set of violations that, as we have already seen, Cafepress never bothers to enforce unless one makes fun of communism - or of Cafepress itself. Maybe I should've named that store "The Truth Hurts."

Since then I received this communication from Cafepress:


Dear Shopkeeper,

Thank you for using CafePress.com. Unfortunately we have pended your Korda Che Guevara based image. Please understand that we feel Che is a political figure and that it is appropriate to use original, public domain or licensed images of Che on the CafePress.com Web Site, however, the Korda Che Guevara image is a photograph that is protected by copyright laws and use of the actual image, or any derivatives can be viewed as copyright infringement.

We have been in contact with the attorney for the Korda estate, and below please find his contact information. We are more than happy to allow you to use the image if you obtain permission.

Maitre Randy Yolaz
Cabinet D'Avocats - Law Offices
17, Bis Avenue Foch
75116 Paris France
Tel: +33 1.40.67.99.10
Fax: +33 1.45.00.69.66

Sorry for the inconvenience. Once again, we do view Che as a political figure and we allow pro or anti Che merchandise, however, your particular image is too similar to the original Korda photograph. Please note that merely altering the image is not sufficient, you need to create your own original work and it cannot resemble the unique features of the Korda photograph.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Michael M.
Content Usage Associate
[email protected]
(650) 655-3104



In a parallel development, at about the same time, a pro-communist shop named Parallel aXis (favored and invariably promoted by Cafepress) had launched a new line of products featuring Hillary Guevara gear based on exactly the same image. Gasp! No censorship here. Apparently the term "parallel axis" also describes what Cafepress uses as moral and legal guidance.

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In other words, while the Cafepress's trigger-happy legal hand was purging my online store of beret-wearing skulls because it was "too similar to the original Korda photograph," its dollar-happy marketing hand was promoting a "Vote Hillary '08" design based on the same Korda's photograph (flipping the image horizontally is not really an alteration).

Please compare these images:

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The only person who might complain about the similarities would be Nick Nolte - but I don't think he cared to copyright that particular photograph.

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I felt it was time to sit down and write another letter to Cafepress.com.

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Dear Content Usage Associate,

Please kindly explain what usage guidelines I violated to cause you censor my designs in the section of my online store named "Cafepress is a left-wing nutjob." I didn't do anything different from what many of your other users did to Burger King, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Fox News, President Bush, etc. I didn't even deface your logo, did I?

I really feel that your actions violate my right to free speech, and here's why.

Courts have upheld that privately owned shopping malls are "Public Commons" where people have free speech rights no matter what the policies of the owners of the shopping malls. Web-sites such as CafePress, it could be argued, by allowing in the public, are Public Commons and as such don't have the right to limit anyone's free speech which includes, but not limited to, setting up a section named "Cafepress is a left-wing nutjob."

While the very concept of "Public Commons" is a purely leftist idea used by the Left to survive by parasitizing on capitalism through injecting communist propagandistic larvae into the host bodies of wealth-creating capitalists (which I guess has unfortunately happened to Cafepress at some point), I consider it a fair game to invoke this concept while fighting the Leftist infection itself.

I created my anti-Cafepress designs after you purged my online store, removing products with a picture of a hairy skull in a trademark Che™ beret. You recently responded that my image was "too similar to the original Korda photograph." But can you REALLY use that excuse after you allowed images of Hillary as Che™ be posted on Cafepress by Parallel aXis, a pro-communist store that you favor and promote in your CafePress Wire? I don't think so. With the copyright issue out of the way, what remains is blatant political censorship. This is especially ironic considering that a few years ago you were selling merchandise for a communist North Korean site promoting Juche idea of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung.

What is being done here is restraint of trade (there's no trademark for Che Guevara's skull, nor for any other items in my online store) and a violation of my First Amendment rights to free speech. You must understand that this is a serious matter.

I'm considering calling my local ACLU office in New York. They have a record of successful lawsuits protecting First Amendment rights against corporate oppression. That's right, we're back to commiespeak again. You are a big bad corporation that owns means of production (capitalist exploiter), and I am a little guy who has nothing to lose except his chains (exploited proletarian), comprende camerado? That might be a very funny follow up to be posted all over the Internet, don't you think? As it is, dozens of bloggers have already picked up this story and are salivating for more developments.

Remember Cindy Sheehan who camped out in Crawford, TX demanding that Bush meet with her and explain a few things? Don't you love the tactics of the Left? In fact, Cindy let it slip once that she didn't really want Bush to meet with her as that might put an end to her successful show. Similarly, if Cafepress apologizes and removes the restriction on anti-Che™ satire that might put an end to this particular show, and I might not want that to happen before the fun is over.

And thank you for forwarding to me the address of Che™ layer in France. I don't think I need it because I don't have to ask their permission to satirize murdering communists. I am not using Che™ to sell more of my product as Smirnoff Vodka once did. I don't have to prove anything to Maitre Randy Yolaz et al. The burden of proof is on them, so please don't place the cart before the horse.

You might want to contact Maitre Randy Yolaz with your Hillary Guevara gear, though. And while you're at it you might also inquire if this image below that I am about to upload to Cafepress might be "too similar to the original Korda photograph." Would you please do that? That would be the only permission I would like to have from a French lawyer.

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Please be kind to send me a personal response. The longer you delay, the more people will be reading the blogs and the websites that are following this development - and the more potential customers Cafepress will lose.

I know you must really dislike me for doing this. But isn't this what Leftist activists (in Che™ T-Shirts) are doing on a regular basis to American corporations, trying to disrupt and destroy good, well-running businesses that are the foundation of our wellbeing? You allow it to happen in your shops without invoking the copyright infringement issues, but you had to censor my caricature of a communist demagogue rabble-rouser?

Eat your own medicine.

Comrade Red Square

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I probably wouldn't be doing this if I didn't know that Cafepress is banning every anti-Che design on the grounds that it somewhat resembles Che's famous photograph (please see a similar story described on Che-Mart.com. But that is exactly the image that is emblazoned on the shirts of legions of brainwashed wannabe "revolutionaries."

How can one visually satirize this phenomenon without alluding to the image that's in the center of it? The image had become a cultural phenomenon before copyright was claimed for it in the year 2000. Someone should've told them that it was too late to cork the bottle after the genie had already escaped. And if no one told them before, we will.

Who are "they?" Here the part where the background comes in. You can read our informative compilation here, or just go with the skinny below:

The famous picture was shot by Alberto Diaz, a fashion photographer better known as Korda, at a funeral for victims of the explosion of a French freighter transporting weapons to Cuba one year after Fidel Castro's revolution triumphed with the help of Guevara. Korda's group photograph was not printed by his newspaper the next day.

Seven years later, when Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli showed up looking for a cover picture for an edition of Che's "Bolivian Diary," Korda gave him two prints for free. Guevara was captured six months later in the Bolivian jungle, where his bid to start an armed peasant revolution ended in fiasco. On news on his death, Feltrinelli cropped the photo and published large posters that quickly sold 1 million copies. Thus the guerrilla fighter was transformed into a radical chic poster boy. Korda said he never received a penny from Feltrinelli.

But a year before his death in 2001, Korda won an out-of-court settlement of about $50,000 in a suit against Smirnoff for using Che's picture in vodka ad campaign - with the help of Western leftist lawyers, of course. Around that time Korda stated that he didn't want any money for using Che's photo to promote communism, but he objected to its use to denigrate Che's image and ideas.

There you have it - an absurd, immoral situation: not only Che™ cult is being protected by the very system he was rabidly trying to destroy, but it seems that only a pro-communist use of the image is now tolerated but an anti-communist use is verboten.

Since the Hillary Guevara use of Korda's photo obviously falls under the pro-communist category, Cafepress needn't worry.

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Today Korda's daughter who lives in France owns the copyright for Che™ photo and dictates who can allude to Che™ via his image, collecting money for its commercial use. Che™ daughter who lives in Cuba is also sniffing around for some cash in lawsuits. Something tells me the two daughters would not be able to pull it off unless they had a backing of Cuba's propaganda machine. They expect us to pretend that this is nothing but a copyright issue, but it is really the issue of free speech and leftist censorship. Lawyers say it will be an uphill struggle to deter non-photographic use of such a widely reproduced image - like ours, for example. Good. Again, one can copyright a photo - but not the idea.

What needs to be done in this regard, I think, is a big publicized lawsuit in which reason has a chance to prevail. We must beat the Left at their game of information control, and create a legal precedent for the rest of us. Once we get the ball rolling it may eventually turn into a huge snowball as it picks up more issues and parties along the way. Ideally I would like to see communism itself put on trial, to kick the "moral" foundation from under its feet once and for all. I was hoping that would happen after the fall of the Soviet Union - a big trial over the Communist Party like they had one in Nuremberg over the Nazi criminals in 1945. It never happened.

Today we can still hear from the media, the academics, and Hollywood that communism isn't that bad - instead, it's the immoral power of American capitalism that threatens the world's freedom. George Clooney comes up with another anti-McCarthy movie that glorifies communist supporters. Che Guevara images are plastered all over American campuses. Communist symbols are presented as cool items in such promotions as can be found on Cafepress, for example.

I'm sure that a fascist symbol will not last very long there. But what's the difference between the two? Both communism and fascism are socialist doctrines relying on big totalitarian government to stifle opposition and control the economy. Both generate a breed of militant fanatics willing to murder millions if necessary for the sake of some mythical brotherhood of the future. While both ideologies are oppressive and inhuman in their nature - rosy claims notwithstanding - the fascists didn't even come close to communists in the numbers of people they had robbed, butchered, and starved to death. Yet Cafepress seems to think it's cool to promote a "Communism Kids T-Shirt."

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Well, how about "Fascism Kids T-Shirt"? I think I know what my next experiment with Cafepress will look like.

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HA!!! Yes, sic the ACLU on them!! How ironic is that???

Good one, Comrade Red Square!! Salute!

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ahem...the link to the Che is Dead shirts is back up in cafepress...wtf?

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ahem...the link to the Che is Dead shirts is back up in cafepress...wtf?

Woah, it is?

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Just bought 2...one for me and another for an XXL conservative bud who'll appreciate this whole fiasco...we are the "unofficial" co-chairs of the Collin County Republican Party in The People's State of Texas.

They were scared shitless by Red Square and the ACLU, obviously :)

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Thanks, Private!

I tried reuploading the image again tonight - and they didn't remove it this time. I guess my strategy worked!

Guevara's Skull™
Well done, Red Square! "Che is dead" lives again.

ronanjub
dear Komrades,
You will be happy to know that the Korda estate's barrister has his office on one of the world most expensive/Kapitalistic area (avenue Foche,Paris) in this world !!!!
Red Square, some People have to pay rent every month.....

Comrade Blabu
Anyone know where I can buy a "Cafe Communists" t-shirt?

Better still - image of glorius peoples' murderer with pistol to young reactionary's head

Isn't that Foche le French ... and didn't y.s. arafat - chej protege live there too?

PittsburghProletarian
Question?

Did the "TM" trademark appear on the first issue of "Che is Dead" before it was purged? It's there now comrades....it could be a wily capitalistic trick!

Sock Puppet for the Left
If goods were distributed by the government, this sort of nonsense would never happen.

MatD
Evil Komrades! Your tickery of turning the evil Kapitalist Pig marketing voodoo on me has weakened my resolve to not rely on the government to clothe and feed my person but to spend my own money. I anticipate the 2XL will shrink a little.

Force Tube Avenue
Dear RS,

With due respect and affection, perhaps it's time to just get back to what you do best, look at the world around us through your unique Socialist perspective. Fortunately, we do not live under a government run by CafePress.

I just got my "Che is Dead" shirt today! The first one off the production line! I only wish mine had come with a serial numbered (1!) certificate of authenticity, autographed by Che's skeleton. It seems of quality exceeding "Bolshevik Pride" brand standards. I also received my "Laika the Space Dog" coffee mug! Very good quality, and I only had to wait a week or so while CafePress attempted to prove to Red Square that it would be immoral to profit from an image in the Che style! I think Nick Nolte's estate is next in line to attack Red Square on moral/legal grounds. Nolte's hair style is O.K. to use in promoting "Modern Drunkard" magazine, and his estate allows that fine magazine to use the hair style for free. But Red Square does not have such permission, so he needs to cease and desist.

And, yeah, I understand what Comrade "Force Tube Avenue" is saying, the mocking of today's headlines is fun. But, on the other hand, we do live in a world run by CafePress, Hollywood, CNN, Burlington Coat Factory, CBS, Ben & Jerry's, PBS, MTV, etc. , etc., etc. And these are the pond scum we need to target because they are the ones that create our culture on a daily basis. It is they who show the masses just what is "cool" and what is not. It is they who define our culture and villianize hard work, industriousness, capitalism and conservatism. They are in the business of brainwashing so it is they who must be exposed for the ignorant intolerant red trash that they are.

Or else it is they who will raise new generations of kids who are ignorant, addicted to crap culture and who hate freedom, tolerance and hard work. Really, think about it, it is the only way they can get people to vote for Hillary, by saying she is caring and matriarchal. By only using emotion tugging buzz words instead of facts. A knowledgeable conservative can beat a liberal in a debate any time, anywhere.

But as long as our media and entertainment industry continue to promote this lie as valid and morally superior, more and more generations of Americans will grow up hating their country until it will become like Western Europe or worse. And, let's face it, Europe's social program obligations and lazy attitude has set up a system that brings in less and less and pays out all the more, and as such it is destined to fail as sure as the Soviet Union did. All they need is a little more chaos thrown into the mix, the Eiffel Tower bombed for instance (which seems to be a target as much as the WTC towers were) , and a few more cheap labor immigrations from the Middle East and that place will collapse into something altogether different and decidely worse.

Do we want this crap here? Hillary will push as hard as possible to convince Americans that they deserve such a government as well - and it is Cafe Press and MTV and all those other bullshit companies which will be Hillary's standard bearers, the ones who will "prove" legitimacy of socialism and communism by making it appear cool in their movies and merchandise. We need to fight these animals as hard as possible. Our Founding Fathers are definitely turning in their graves to see America embracing this shit philosophy; this crap mindrot of entitlement and eternal leisure. It has to be stopped and it has to be stopped now. That freak she-male cannot be allowed entrance to the White House.

I can't wait to see Red Square's next "experiment with CafePress".

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UPDATE:

Last night I went on Cafepress and created the "Che is dead" shop again, to see what happens. It has been up for more than 12 hours without purging and sold 3 "Che is Dead" shirts! Looks like my satirical attack worked!

Which means we are capable of defeating the leftist obstructionism if we just show a little effort.

What I did was small change compared to what Debra Burlingame has done by <a>fighting and winning against the left-wing indoctrination center at Ground Zero.</a> Kudos to her and all those who helped her cause.

I encourage all our comrades to do the same everywhere. Speak openly, be persistent, be unafraid. We shall - how you say it - overcome?

Zinoviev
Humor for the Masses......maybe another T-shirt.

Jerry and Che are both really Dead.
Steal your face right off your head....

He's Gone.
Deal with it.

Kamenev
I'm a dead communist icon.
Right?
Maybe I can trademark myself?
Oh, that's right, I was purged.

Kirov
Well, I'm a dead communist too!
But I wasn't purged, I was assassinated.
How cool is that?
I have a ballet named after me....OK, it's a little light in the loafers, I admit.
But still cool.
Red Square, would you be my agent?

Zinoviev
I think it's a damn shame my buddy Kamenev can't have a trademark and a t-shirt and that lucky bastard Kirov at least got a bullet in the back of the head.
Proof of Stalin's heartfelt compassion and mercy.
He should be grateful.

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Irony in the pursuit of freedom and justice is no vice. Their intellects are so negligible that they can't muster any weapons of argument against their own collectivist ideas, such as the "Public Commons." The Left's weapons in the hands of their intellectual betters become dangerous weapons indeed. Irony is a delicious dish. Comrade Red Square, I'm proud to know you.

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Wait, does this mean that we have to stop making fun of Cafe Press?

Kommissar Betty wrote:Wait, does this mean that we have to stop making fun of Cafe Press?
Hell no - now we push CafePress to produce nazi shirts or else force them to explain why one totalitarian regime is more palatable then another. . .

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I am very confused about what I see as anti-Communist propaganda here. Has there been an infiltration of so-called "free market" types? I, for one, feel that Cafepress is fully justified in rejecting this slander.

To set the record straight about Communism (again!),may I quote myself...

The Soviets were outstanding at generating employment, education, and yes, physical capital...

Communist growth rates were certainly impressive...The rapid growth in output could be fully explained by rapid growth in inputs: expansion of employment, increases in education levels, and, above all, massive investment in physical capital.

They were prudent and forward-thinking...

Rapid Soviet economic growth was based entirely on one attribute: the willingness to save, to sacrifice current consumption for the sake of future production.

The Soviet Union was an economic wonder...

...it is hard for most people to realize that there was a time when the Soviet economy, far from being a byword for the failure of socialism, was one of the wonders of the world--that when Khrushchev pounded his shoe on the U.N. podium and declared, "We will bury you," it was an economic rather than a military boast.

In light of the many brave Soviet achievments, I salute Cafepress. In a just world, there would be no room for so-called "free market" lies.

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Paul Krugman wrote:To set the record straight about Communism (again!),
The Soviets were outstanding at generating employment, education, and yes, physical capital...
They were prudent and forward-thinking...
The Soviet Union was an economic wonder...

Talk about irony. The Soviet Union was an economic powerhouse but just about everyone lived in collectivist pigsty squaller. An American economist writes glowingly of the economic strength of a nation that basically had no economy. Mr. Krugman, your brains are the dynamite of revolution. You sir, are a dangerous man.

Kamenev
$.$. Halliburton wrote:
Paul Krugman wrote:To set the record straight about Communism (again!),
The Soviets were outstanding at generating employment, education, and yes, physical capital...
They were prudent and forward-thinking...
The Soviet Union was an economic wonder...

Talk about irony. The Soviet Union was an economic powerhouse but just about everyone lived in collectivist pigsty squaller. An American economist writes glowingly of the economic strength of a nation that basically had no economy.
Mr. Krugman, your brains are the dynamite of revolution. You sir, are a dangerous man.[/
quote]

I'm sorry, but if brains were dynamite, Krugman wouldn't have enough to blow his own nose.

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Kamenev wrote:I'm sorry, but if brains were dynamite, Krugman wouldn't have enough to blow his own nose.
Sarcastic humor only goes so far, doesn't it.

Rapid Soviet economic growth was based entirely on one attribute: the willingness to save, to sacrifice current consumption for the sake of future production.

Do i detect a little Cobb-Douglas?
What about Japans slow growth rate
in the 90's and thier high savings rate

Comrade Curly
Comrade simple s.!

Return to your collective at once and do not leave it until you develop a keen sense of political satire!!!!!

Meet "Black Maria" in front of your house at 0345 tomorrow morning - with 50 kilograms of food and personall belongings (enough to last a minimum of the 3 months journey to the Peoples Progressive Agri-Surf Collective)!!!

Comrade Curly - People's Commisariat of Progressive Proper Political Satire

Counter-devolutionary
I'm the proud purchaser of one of the controversy-laden T-shirts (though I hate forking any cash over to these clowns).

You guys are soo cool. The Nick Nolte defense is hilarious!

-- Cliff, at [url]http://promethean_antagonist.blogspot.com[/url]


LIVING IN AMERICA!! Ha! Ellsie you nailed it! This ties it all together doesn't it? The Brown/Nolte photos are prime examples of what happens when people are given the "freedoms" of the decadent capitalist fascist lifestyle! The are not proud Revolutionaries doing the People's executionary duty as our Comrade Che. Look at the cold determination in Comrade Che's eyes. Now look at the broken spirit of Brown and Nolte! Why, Brown could barely even beat a female comrade (and not even to death) let alone gloriously fill mass graves as our Brother Che had done. Onward Red Comrades!!

Wow...I have missed quite a bit since my move to Marxton...This is quite a discussion!

Vladimir Ivanov

Comrade Village Idiot
If not for Madame Hillary -the People's Leader - I might have become a drooling, white Judeo-Christian capitalist running dog, exploiting all of mankind and driving a gas guzzling SUV - and pooing in a full flush toilet. Instead - thanks to her concept of the village commune - I have been raised in the utopian community where every woman is my Mommy or sisters, all men my Daddy or brothers (it's a little confusing at mating time - but a little puff, puff, fffttt, and viola - no problem maaan), I ride a donkey cart to the fields everyday and -even though it really stinks-like dude - really baaaad - I use the flush-less toity (tm/invented by A.Gorr) and don't waste any of the ever dwindling supply of water (much of it now concentrated in New Orleans and contained so that it can be bottled and sold by arch evil capitalist - H.$$ Burtton).
So you see, Madame Hillary is close to my heart and as a small token of gratitude I wish to purchase the fine Hillary-Guanovera '08 undergarments - so that she may also be close to - another part of my anatomy.
Power to the Peeeeeople!!!
Village Idiot

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Just received my 2 T shirts, and yes the quality is quite fine...much better than typical proletariate quality...I will wear it like a badge of honor!!

Gigolo
No doubt about it.... I Feel Good... Like I knew that I would... I feeeeeel Good Like I knew that I would. Sooo Good Soooo Good I got Yooouuuuu... thanks Red Bull!


Elsworth Toohey wrote:Image
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Hahaha! oh man! this is great!
I really want one of those shirts!
And my girlfriend would love that underwear.
that is such a great picture of her. Rotten capitalist swine!
Onward yeh children of revolution.
Yoni from horsesring.com


 
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