Schlock

It comes in red, white and blue

Cause we could take our BBguns Blow your buns to the sun Just our Boy Scouts could wipe you out. Some day soon, Khomeini You'll burn one flag too many Uncle Sam has got his pride You 're about to feel his clout.

That is the fervent chorus of A Message to Khomeini, an instant hit on WDLW, a Boston-area radio station. The song is part of the slick and quick hustle by schlock dealers nationwide to make a buck out of the crisis in Iran.

In Houston, Walter Rachelson sold 12,000 bumper stickers in a week for $1 each. They flaunted slogans such as IRAN--TAKE YOUR OIL AND SHOVE IT, and WARNING: I DON'T BRAKE FOR IRANIANS.

T shirts are big, very big. The co-owners of a Chicago saloon sold two dozen at $5.50 one afternoon last week. Some of the messages would have disgraced a privy wall, but one of the most popular is squeaky clean: a picture of Captain America emblazoned with the message: I'M COMING, IRAN!

In New York City, N.G. Slater Corp. manufactures buttons that bear anti-Iranian vulgarisms. There are numerous varieties of Khomeini dart boards and targets for sharpshooters. One dart board features a caricature of the Ayatullah holding a lighted match to his posterior. In Bedford Park, Ill., Michael McCormack was inspired to make Khomeini dart boards by a diaper serviceman who lined his truck with pictures of the Ayatullah and threw soiled diapers on them. Says McCormack: "We have sold 200,000 to everyone from little old ladies to a kid who wants to peddle them in grammar school."

The more tasteful symbols of protest are free. A New York City radio station, WMCA, is giving away white arm bands bearing the words UNITY is STRENGTH, a paraphrase of remarks President Carter made at a news conference last month. The station handed out 300,000 in six days, including several that were requested by the White House press office.

The schlockmeisters seeking to capitalize on American outrage at the Iranian crisis make no apologies for their avarice "It started out as a capitalist move, I'll admit that," says Bumper Sticker King Rachelson, "but now it's a way for me to wave the flag." Hy Slater owner of Slater Corp. plans to continue peddling Iran through Christmas His reason: "Khomeini said he'd hold the hostages over the holidays."

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