Despite earning the fury of President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg and the citizenry of New York, the White House plans to release a photo from the Air Force One flyover that took place last week.  The photo op took place after White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera authorized a misson to fly Air Force One (a Boeing 747) and two accompanying fighter jets over lower Manhattan in order to update the file photo of Air Force One.

As if flying a 747 at low altitude over Manhattan wasn’t a bad enough idea already, the Military Office took it that extra mile by not informing Mayor Bloomberg or the citizens of New York of their plan.

The result: panicked New Yorkers evacuated buildings, jammed emergency phone lines and otherwise freaked out over a sight that was regrettably reminiscent of 9-11.

It’s been reported that the photo op cost the taxpayers $328,835, although Air Force officials stated that “the hours would have been flown regardless, and the expenses would have been accrued on a different mission.”

Er… huh?

The excuse as to the expenditure seems to raise more questions than it answers, most notably whether Air Force one is like a horse that has to be ridden to keep it happy and in shape.

In any case, since the photo apparently cost the taxpayers over $300K perhaps it’s only fitting that the White House will release it for our enjoyment.  Although, given the amount of coverage of the incident, we’re not exactly lacking for photos or video.

The biggest question of all, of course, is why the White House Military Office didn’t look into a $100 program called Photoshop.  Not only can it prevent widespread panic in the streets of New York from a secretive and ill-advised low-altitude flyover, it also saves on gas.  And that’s just good for the environment.

Louis Caldera has taken full responsibility and apologized for the incident, and it is he who now wins a Fantasy T-Wearer Award with the “It Seemed Like a Good Idea…” sweatshirt, at right.

Wear it wisely, sir.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter shocked the nation this week when he announced that he’d be switching political parties after 29 years and 5 terms in office as a Republican.  Specter is the 12th most senior member of the Senate, and the 5th oldest Senator.  This is the second time Specter has switched parties; he was a Democrat until the mid-60′s.

Specter cited the reason for his departure as being “increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party,” then noted that “I have traveled the state and surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania and public opinion polls, observed other public opinion polls and have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak.”

Specter’s announcement has infuriated some (most notably the RNC), and his liberal voting record (he most recently in favor of the stimulus package) have left others with a “good riddance” philosophy.  Some more moderate Republicans, however, are concerned about losing an influential, moderate party member and what it might mean for the future of the Republican party.  As for Specter, it seems that his party switch is likely to earn him re-election.

One of the main points of concern over Specter’s defection is the numbers: Congress is now one vote shy of being a filibuster-proof Democratic majority.  (Well, sort of.)

And that, improbably, leaves the Congressional balance of power in the hands of Stuart Smalley Al Franken.  The embittered Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman Senate race recount is still officially undecided due to various legal challenges, though a recount and a trial have Franken as the winner by a whopping 312 votes.

What will happen in Minnesota and its practical effect on Congress has yet to be determined.  In the meantime, we bestow a Fantasy T-Wearer Award to Senator Arlen Specter this week, with the “Switch Hitter” T-shirt pictured above.

With Oprah on Twitter, it seemed that the novelty of 140-character limited messaging had truly hit the big-time.  Sure, Ashton Kutcher and other celebs have been playing around with it for awhile, but when Oprah became a member of the Twitterati last week it was a sign that even someone who owns multiple media outlets finds a value in character-limited public texting.

Today, Gavin Newsom proved that making an impression via micro-blogging isn’t just for Oprah.  Newsom used Twitter to announce his bid for the California Governor’s seat, apparently taking a cue from the Obama campaign’s successful use of social networking sites to attract younger voters.

Newsom raised national awareness (and eyebrows) when he issued an order that San Francisco begin processing gay marriages in 2004.  This exercise in civil disobedience came as a reaction to President Bush’s State of the Union, in which Bush stated that he would support a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

While the California Supreme Court put the kabash on legal same-sex weddings for 4 years due to them having been banned in 2000 by popular vote, Newsom was on-hand to perform the first legal California same-sex wedding in May of 2008 when the California Supreme Court then overturned the gay marriage ban as unconstitutional.  Gay marriage was legal in California until November 2008, when Proposition 8 passed by popular vote with a 5% margin.  The headlines haven’t stopped there, however: Iowa and Vermont are the latest to protect same-sex marriage, with their rulings quoting liberally from the California Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling.  While gay marriage is most certainly not the only issue of import to California residents, given Newsom’s history it’s sure to hit the spotlight again as the gubernatorial race progresses.

With the California budget crisis making national headlines this year, the Governor’s job is going to be a big one.  California has been in so much financial trouble that former Governor (and current Attorney General) Jerry Brown – known in the 70′s as Governor Moonbeam – is thinking about running.  Other names for the Democratic party include current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as veteran Senator Dianne Feinstein.  At 41, Newsom is 30 years younger than Feinstein and Brown, and 15 years younger than Villaraigosa; with his use of social networking sites and other Internet outlets, it seems that Mayor Newsom plans to use his youth as a competitive advantage rather than downplay it.

It’s worth noting that Feinstein (also in San Francisco) is leading the polls despite not having announced that she’s going to run.  Newsom has said that he’ll drop out of the race and support Feinstein if she decides to shelve the Senate floor for the Governor’s mansion.

Whether or not he wins the Governor’s job, Gavin Newsom does win a Fantasy T-Wearer Award today with the “I can do it in 140″ T-shirt, above.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has yet again been reminded that the microphone can be your worst frenemy.  His Austin Tea Party comments have been under fire, as Perry seemed to be threatening a Texas secession from the Union if the Obama administration continues to “thumb their nose at the American people.”

Rick Perry, of course, is the same governor who inspired a generation of T-shirt makers (and YouTube members) when he bid a reporter a less-than-fond farewell with an “Adios, MoFo” back in 2005.  That colorful adieu stemmed from both Perry’s annoyance with the reporter’s comments, as well as an apparent lack of awareness that his mic was still on and the tape was still rolling.  Which is to say that both Rick Perry and Jesse Jackson should perhaps consider using their internal monologues more when they’re anywhere near a microphone or a camera, just to be safe.

Perry’s Tax Day Tea Party statements have fired up his crowd of “patriots,” and they also fired up Texas Democrats.  Calling his words an “attack on our country,” state Rep. Jim Dunnam also noted that Perry’s remarks were “the ultimate anti-American statement.”

His remarks were delivered to a crowd chanting “Secede,” and despite his very public denouncements of the stimulus package (of which he’s accepting $16.5 billion) and his ringing endorsement of  a recent states’ rights resolution, Perry is now claiming that he was misunderstood and that he wasn’t trying to suggest that Texas might secede.  He then noted that he called America “a great Union.”

Texas Secession isn’t exactly a new topic, but it’s the first time that Rick Perry has er, might accidentally have led people to believe he, you know, maybe totally inadvertently suggested it.  It also may be first time that former gubernatorial challenger Kinky Friedman seems like the conventional candidate.

And so we award Rick Perry a Fantasy T-Wearer Award today, with the “Adios Mofo” Texas T-shirt above.

Colorado is known for its Rocky Mountains and its bucolic scenery, and now it can also be known for its puritanical DMV.

A Colorado resident was recently denied her application for an ILVTOFU license plate on the grounds that it’s “possibly offensive to the general public.”

Those of you who can’t figure out why a tofu-loving vegan might be denied the opportunity to express herself, read it like this: I LV TO F U

If you still don’t get it… well, the Colorado DMV can explain.

Kelley Coffman-Lee is a vegan, and her outspoken activism led her to think beyond her bumper and onto her actual license plate.  The Colorado DMV, however, wants her to stick with her bumpers.

We can only wonder if the DMV might object to some of our racier tofu designs…

And so we award a Fantasy T-Wearer award today to Kelley Coffman-Lee, with the ILVTOFU explanation T-shirt above.  While she may not be allowed to sport her support on her license plate, she can most certainly wear her chosen message across her chest.

Taking into account the outrage over the AIG bonus controversy and the unprecedented steps the government took to reverse them, along with the Obama salary caps for bailout company executives, it would seem that the Obama administration is indeed taking a hard line on the issue of insolvent organizations bonusing their employees on the taxpayer dime.

As U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said on the Senate floor last month when criticizing automatic bonuses: “These bonuses are paid every year, often without any public discussion or a recorded vote by those with the authority to approve or stop them.  The people giving themselves these bonuses have made sure that they get them regardless of their performance.”

What makes Feingold’s testimony interesting, though, is that he wasn’t talking about AIG or any of the TARP companies.  He was, in point of fact, talking about the bonuses and automatic pay raises for members of the United States Congress itself.  Feingold has been opposed to the automatic pay raises for almost 20 years, and last month he was able to get his beef onto a bill that passed in the Senate.

The House of Representatives, however, defeated this bill by avoiding a vote on it.  Nor has either Congressional arm instituted an accountability system that rewards performance rather than tenure.  Nancy Pelosi dodged the bullet issue by noting that Congress has “recognized the economic crisis” by voting to skip next year’s raise.

That the House is refusing to revisit their own automatic bonus program under an administration that has called for performance-based pay for both private-sector employees and teachers is particularly ironic given that the House is currently revisiting TARP-funded bonus legislation in response to the AIG fiasco, with statements like this one from Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY): “We will not sit idly by as money is being taken from the American people instead of being used to restore the confidence in this nation, as it was intended.”

Hmm.  Is that so?

The legislation in question requires that all bonuses and incremental payments to employees of TARP-funded companies be doled out based on performance standards, which again shines a bright shiny light on the rather large (and bipartisan) elephant in the living room.  Or, in this case, on the House floor.

And so we award Nancy Pelosi and all members of the House of Representatives a Fantasy T-Wearer award this week, with the “kettle calling” T-shirt at right.

Michelle Obama caused the stiff upper lips of British artistocracy to form an “O” of surprise when she hugged the Queen of England.  Sort of.

To be more precise, Michelle made physical contact with one arm.  This apparently passes for a hug when one is discussing the Queen, who isn’t to be touched by order of royal protocol.

Photos of the scandalous encounter:

As you’ll note, the photos circulating would indicate that the body contact in question would be hard-pressed to be described as a “hug.”  What Michelle did is the kind of casual one-armed embrace that folks do when they’re having an intimate, one-on-one conversation – particularly when there’s a massive height difference between the two of them.  You know, the kind of physical contact that Coach Johnson has with little Billy when Coach is giving Billy those warm words of encouragement just before the kid goes up to bat in a close game at the bottom of the 9th.

As you can see by the pics, Queen Elizabeth returned participated in the “hug” (and we shall now duly note that she initiated it).  The same cannot be said for the wink she was given by George W. Bush, which is truly a shame.  Because a wink from the Queen of England would most certainly be something to remember, and let’s face it: England is our Mother country, and are either of these displays of affection anything that you wouldn’t do with your own well-loved, aging family Matriarch?

With headlines flying all over the place about Michelle’s “hug” and the “gaffe” and such, we decided to look up the definition of “hug” in the Queen’s English.  Here it is:

hug

• verb (hugged, hugging) 1 squeeze or hold tightly in one’s arms. 2 keep close to: a few craft hugged the shore.

Now, truly: was Michelle’s gesture actually a “hug?”  By definition, a hug requires two arms and a squeeze.  Perhaps by definition 2 we can stretch it, but it’s a pretty long stretch.  In any case, it’s been reported that the Queen was unfazed by this “extraordinary” occurrence and went with the flow of things.

Whatever you call it, the Royal rule is “Look with your eyes, not your hands,” so either way Michelle broke protocol.  But both Michelle and Barack Obama are known for their hugging prowess, and Queen Elizabeth is hardly the most intimidating person that she’s touched before…

Enter the shocking photo of Michelle Obama hugging Oprah.  I mean, really: who has the temerity to hug Oprah?   Nobody hugs Oprah.  Oprah is in fact so entirely anti-hug that the “Oprah hug” has made Urban Dictionary as a hugging alternative.  Barbara Walters didn’t even get hug from Oprah, and Barbara Walters can get just about anyone to cry on her show.  And Michelle’s hug for Oprah is a true hug by definition, involving both arms and an apparent squeeze.  There’s even a second photo of a scandalous hugging encounter in the new issue of O magazine, proving that Michelle Obama is not afraid to brave a repeat hugging performance.

And so, with this controversial non-hug making worldwide headlines, we award two Fantasy T-wearer awards today.  May the Queen enjoy her “Let’s hug it out” T-shirt at the top, and may Michelle Obama sport her “Break the Rules” T-shirt at all future official engagements – especially the ones that prohibit physical contact.

Because anyone who hugs Oprah isn’t afraid to break some rules, folks.  Seriously.

North Korea garnered some recent attention with satellite photography that reveals a soon-to-be-launched rocket.  The North Korean government says that the rocket will serve the purpose of transporting a commercial satellite sometime between April 4th-8th, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that “this technology is intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile.”  The suspicion is that this launch is in fact a test that will help Pyongang move toward a capability to launch a nuclear warhead.

While the U.S. government isn’t buying the satellite story, at present there are no plans to block the missile launch.  Japan, however, isn’t taking any chances and has deployed three destroyers to intercept any missiles that fly into Japanese airspace.  The United States also sent some destroyers into the Sea of Japan, but unless the missile appears to be headed toward Hawaii, Gates has noted that the United States is “not prepared to do anything about it.”  On the plus side, North Korea’s missiles just don’t fly that far.  (Yet.)

Gates noted that North Korea’s launch would indicate that Kim Jong-il’s regime is unmoved by the six-party talks meant to deter his nuclear ambitions.  He also noted that the timing – just two months into Obama’s office – essentially turns that missile into a symbolic thumb-at-the-nose (or other gesticulating finger) toward the Non-Proliferation Treaty member overtures (most notably the U.S., Japan and Russia) to curb North Korea’s nuclear development.  North Korea pulled out of that treaty in 2003.

Said Gates, “If this is Kim Jong-il’s welcoming present to a new president, launching a missile like this and threatening to have a nuclear test, I think it says a lot about the imperviousness of this regime in North Korea to any kind of diplomatic overtures.”

While Obama has focused on diplomacy as a means to curb international nuclear proliferation, Gates noted that talks aren’t getting us anywhere with nations like Iran and North Korea – neither of whom are lining up to sing the Star Spangled Banner.  Gates feels that punitive action in the form of economic sanctions is more likely to be effective than trying to talk it out.  South Korea, however, disagrees with strong-arming the Pyongyang government, and China has in the past intervened on North Korea’s behalf to prevent these kinds of sanctions.

North Korea did a similar missile test in 2006.  Because the North Korean media is strictly controlled by the government, it’s very difficult for journalists to get candid interviews of North Korean citizens to determine what the cultural barometer is around this kind of missile test.  However, given the propaganda art and the few documentaries that have been done, the general consensus of the North Korean citizenry seems to be that they have every right to defend themselves along the lines of other nuclear-empowered nations, and that the United States (and others) should butt out and let them run their country as they see fit.

From our end, the T-shirts tend to take a much more tongue-in-cheek approach to Kim Jong-il’s desire to put North Korea on the map as a nuclear powerhouse.  And so we award a Fantasy T-Wearer award to Robert Gates this week, with the Atomic Superman T-shirt above.

Oh, AIG.  Go sit in the corner.  Again.  Preferably without a masseuse and a glass of taxpayer-afforded lemon-infused mineral water.

AIG first upset American taxpayers and Barack Obama when the failing company decided to treat its employees to a posh spa weekend the day after it received $85 billion of taxpayer-funded federal bailout money.  At the time the campaigning Obama brought up this misuse of taxpayer money in the debates, noting that these executives should be fired and that the cost of the trip should be reimbursed to the Treasury.

Despite assurances by now-President Obama that the $787 billion stimulus package would be free of pork barrel spending and special-interest earmarks, and despite his assurances that executives in bailed-out companies wouldn’t be rewarded for failure, the stimulus package was signed into law with an executive compensation amendment tacked on by (the newly-outraged) Chris Dodd.  Dodd had clashed with the President on the issue of executive compensation after Obama announced his executive salary cap; but news of Dodd’s amendment and AIG’s embodiment of it has caused a massive public outcry, and Dodd is now looking at ways to tax the bonuses.

Dodd’s stimulus package amendment allows for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.  This means AIG was able to spend $165M in bonuses for top executives – including 11 top execs who took their $1 million+ “retention bonuses” and walked out the door with them.

How this amendment escaped the notice of the President, the Treasury Secretary and members of Congress who are outraged by this news is a good question.  The simple answer is most likely that giving people less than 24 hours to read a complicated 1100 page spending bill is just not enough time for anyone to read and understand it, even the guy sitting in the Oval Office.  Perhaps a Cliff’s Notes version would have been of value…

Obama and other members of Congress are predictably outraged, and the President has instructed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to “pursue every single legal avenue” to undo the bonuses.  Geithner is now saying that the $165 million will be deducted from the $30 billion that the company is due to receive as part of their bailout package.  But this solution doesn’t work for people who want those that recieved the bonuses to have some sort of personal accountability in the matter, hence certain members of Congress looking for ways to tax the bonuses up to 98%.

And so we award Christopher Dodd a Fantasy T-Wearer award this week, with the “Ctrl Z (undo)” T-shirt at left.

If only it were that easy…

Those of us who are dog owners know well the random amusement our canine pals can provide.  Whether your dog watches TV (Animal Planet is always a fave), skateboards or just makes unlikely pals, you never quite know when your dog is going to do something out of the blue to make you laugh.

Dogs being an insanely popular T-shirt topic (20 million dog t-shirts and gifts and counting), it’s no surprise that our community occasionally sends us some fun dog content.

This video was too great not to share with y’all.  And Bizkit himself wins a Fantasy T-Wearer award today, with the “I’m actually asleep” Dog T-shirt at right.  (We regrettably don’t make dog helmets.  Yet.)  Wear it well, Bizkit.  And may you dream more of laying in the sun and ogling furry blondes than chasing them.