Catchy slogan, yes?  We have similar slogans on T-shirts (minus the trucks), but one thing we haven’t thought of is the free-with-purchase offer that Mark Muller of Max Motors in Missouri is offering America (and with that alliteration you’d think it’d be a Muffin or a Magnet, but you’d be very wrong): an AK-47.

Max Motors gave away handguns with purchase last year, but with a poor economy and a goal to dramatically increase their truck sales, they decided to up the ante this year.

Mr. Muller gave a CNN interview about the promotion, in which he makes it amusingly clear that his Second Amendment Rights aren’t about to be trampled on by the press’s part of the First.  Were this a debate, we’d have to give the points to Mr. Muller – who first trips up the anchor on publicly announcing her actual age, then leaves her somewhat at a loss to address the finer points of his position.

The video of the interview is well worth a watch:

And so we award a Fantasy T-Wearer Award to Mark Muller of Max Motors today.  May he enjoy the “Defend My Rights” AK-47 T-shirt, at right.

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Yesterday we talked about the AIG bonus controversy that’s causing a furor with the American people.  Despite the fervent wishes of several men in expensive suits (notably Obama, Timothy Geithner, Edward Liddy and most especially Christopher Dodd), the American people are not willing to drop this topic quite yet.

Obama publicly took the blame for the fiasco with a “the buck stops with me” statement, while also pointing out that his administration was responsible neither for the lack of oversight that caused AIG to fail, nor for these bonuses being granted.

On Capitol Hill, AIG CEO Edward Liddy sat uncomfortably in a witness chair and lamely asked that any employees who received a bonus in excess of $100K please return it.  Pretty please, with sugar on top?  I’ll give you a gold star…

Dodd’s camp continued to deny that it was his amendment, right up until Christopher Dodd went on Wolf Blitzer to try to talk himself out of being held responsible for what CNN was already calling “The Dodd Amendment.”  This made for very entertaining televsion viewing, as Chris Dodd gave an interview trying to distance himself from the amendment while CNN scrolled news of “The Dodd Amendment” below him.

Dodd then copped to maybe possibly adding some language that could have maybe caused these loopholes… but only because Geithner made him do it.  To be fair, some reports are now saying that the actual loophole that permits the AIG bonuses was in fact tacked onto the Dodd Amendment at the request of the Treasury Department.  The game of Whodunit isn’t over, and it isn’t pretty.

Chris Dodd tried to defend the amendment with this statement:

“We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill.  But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.”

The baffling weakness of that statement coupled with the elaborate tap dance he’s done to try to deny ownership of “The Dodd Amendment” has earned Chris Dodd a second Fantasy T-Wearer Award today, with the They Made Me Do It T-shirt above.

UPDATE: The House passed a bill to recoup bonuses at 90% paid to any employee, making in excess of $250,000, who was bonused by any company getting $5 billion or more from the government bailout program (the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP).  The matter now falls to the Senate.

As for the matter of Whodunit, Timothy Geithner is now stepping up to the plate to assume responsibility for the loophole addendum.

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Is peace in the Middle East a step closer?  The Taliban sat down to talk peace with the Afghan government and has severed ties with Al-Qaeda, according to a CNN source.

The Saudi-brokered talks were not attended by reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, but his representatives made a point of stressing that he is no longer affiliated with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

What this means for the Afghan people and Al-Qaeda has yet to be determined; however, it would seem that all parties at the table agree that dialogue is the only way to being conflict resolution.

While this talk was considered an “ice breaker,” more Saudi-brokered talks are expected.

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Che Guevara t-shirts are a common sight among coffeshop hipsters, young idealists and thrift store shoppers who found one for $.99 next to the “Mountain High 2003 Fun Run!” gray Beefy T.

Whether you’re wearing your Che shirt as a cool anti-establishment statement, because you just think it’s soft or because military green brings out your eyes, Glenn Beck tells us that your Che t-shirt is a terrorist uniform.

According to Beck, Robin Meade of CNN interviewed three former captives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). These captives were saved by members of the Columbian army who went undercover to pose as FARC supporters, and according to Beck the spy uniform chosen to fool FARC was – you guessed it – a Che Guevara t-shirt.

Beck’s editorial stance on the matter of the Che t-shirt is summed up in this sentence: “How Che became such a revered superhero of the hard-core left is laughable.” He then explains his position.

Here’s the thing, though: Beck assumes that people wearing a Che t-shirt are doing so as an intentional political statement.

What Beck may be missing is that the Che t-shirt has become less of an ideology statement and more of a design element that may or may not carry any historical significance for the person sporting it. Which is to say that the wearers – particularly the wearers of the heavily licensed classic Che image at right – may not be of the intentionally left-wing mindset that he envisions.

Funnily enough, the topic of the Che t-shirt is one that I myself have investigated out of sheer curiosity in the past. I have a theory that a small percentage of people wearing this t-shirt (a) know that the guy on their shirt is a real person with historical significance, (b) know who Che actually was, let alone (c) could write a one-page essay on the life of Che Guevara.

That being the case, I have in fact asked random strangers wearing Che t-shirts if they know who’s on their shirt. While my sample is small (I’ve asked 4 people total), the answers were as follows:

1) Is this a real guy? I thought this was a logo!

2) Wait, what’s that guy’s name? He’s like Mexican or something, right?

3) Che Guevara… um… he was like, a revolutionary, I think…

4) Isn’t that a “Rage Against the Machine” t-shirt?

Beck also laments the apparent lack of anti-Che t-shirts, and there we can help him. There are a number of unflattering Che t-shirts in the CafePress Marketplace, all made by folks like Beck who have something to say on the matter. And if he can’t find one he likes, he can make it. Hey, that’s the American way…

Whether the Che t-shirt is an intentional symbol of self-aware anarchists is still up for debate. What’s not up for debate is the belief by some that sporting a Che t-shirt means that you’re aligning yourself with terrorists.

So be forewarned, urban hipster. Travel smart and put your Che t-shirt in your checked luggage with your 8-oz bottle of Listerine.

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