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The Washington Post leads with news that Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, will be nominated as secretary of health and human services. The New York Times leads with a story about how Barack Obama’s election has rekindled hope that the United States will soon take a major leadership role in global efforts to combat climate change. The Los Angeles Times leads with a report on financial improprieties in the California governor’s office; its top national story is a news feature on a veteran undercover CIA operative currently being tried for war crimes committed during the Balkan wars.

Noting that her nomination comes days before a crucial White House summit on health reform, the Post blandly outlines Sebelius’ résumé and her gubernatorial experience with health care issues. The NYT analyzes the political implications of the pick, noting the governor’s bipartisan credentials and devoting much space to her pro-choice background, which, for some reason, the paper seems to think may end up derailing her confirmation. The article cites the specter of looming Catholic opposition to Sebelius’ nomination but neglects to mention that the Senate’s Catholic bloc is by no means ideologically consistent on abortion issues.

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Hopes are high that after eight years of indifference and obstructionism on global-warming matters, the United States will change its course and help forge a global climate treaty that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, the flawed 1997 pact rendered ineffective by America’s refusal to sign. “The lesson of Kyoto is that if the U.S. isn’t taking it seriously there is no reason for anyone else to,” said one activist. The Post goes deep inside with a story on how the U.S. House has effectively abandoned its plans to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to zero (in part by purchasing “carbon offsets”): The House purchased carbon offsets during its last session but has no plans to do so this year.

Former CIA operative Jovica Stanisic, intelligence chief to Slobodan Milosevic during the 1990s, was thought by some to have formulated Milosevic’s ethnic-cleansing policies; on trial for his role in the Balkan genocide, Stanisic has called the CIA as his main character witness. The CIA has responded with a document maintaining “that this allegedly evil person did a whole lot of good.” If that doesn’t work, rumor has it that Stanisic plans to blame the whole thing on a mysterious one-armed man.

The Post off-leads with a story maintaining that Obama’s first budget request, “a 10-year spending plan thick with political friction points Karen Millen Dresses sale,” represents the largest ideological shift in budgetary matters since Ronald Reagan took office 28 years ago. Republicans charge that the proposal does not cut the budget enough to pay for spending increases; congressional battles will probably ensue over proposals to expand health care and tax businesses that produce greenhouse gases. The NYT covers Obama’s budget, too, though it makes less of the historic shift in budget priorities and more of the immediate Republican rush to characterize the plan as “out-of-control spending that would drive the nation deeper into debt.”

The NYT off-leads a look at the way liberal Washington lobbyists are once again enjoying positions of influence. The article points out that many Clinton-era officials who formed progressive organizations like MoveOn.org, Media Matters for America, and the Center for American Progress during their eight years in exile, are now poised to turn their groups into major policy players on issues like health care. “This is no longer going to be Barack Obama standing by himself getting pilloried by the special interests with no one pushing back,” said CAP’s John Podesta.           

Everyone reports that Paul Harvey, the radio broadcaster whose reassuring Midwestern inflection and odd speaking cadence became nationally known during a career that spanned nearly 60 years, has died. Harvey was a reliably conservative commentator; a benign historical quizmaster (“And that little boy who nobody liked grew up to be … Roy Cohn”); an indefatigable salesman of millions of Wahl home shave kits and Bose wave radios; and, in the end, a very rich man—he died with two years left on his 10-year, $100 million contract from ABC Radio. He was 90 years old.

The LAT profiles celebrity architect Frank Gehry, who celebrates his 80th birthday today. Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, in a surprisingly tough-minded piece, notes that Gehry’s asymmetrical, insinuative buildings have been derided as “vehicles for self-aggrandizement forced on unwilling communities,” and explores how the architect plans to cope with the recession. (Answer: Lots of corrugated tin.)

The NYT business section reports on investment guru Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders of his company Marc Jacobs Dresses sale, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett accepted blame for the company’s decline this year but reserved harsh criticism for the impenetrable mathematical formulas so fashionable in business before the economic downturn. Investors are too easily seduced, Buffett said, by “a nerdy-sounding priesthood, using esoteric terms such as beta, gamma, sigma and the like. Our advice: Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”

You got that? In Thomas Friedman’s NYT column today about the Obama State Department’s policies, he explains that special adviser Dennis Ross is actually “Super Sub-Secretary of State for Amassing Global Leverage on the Incomprehensibly Byzantine Iranian Government So That It Will Terminate Its Nuclear Weapons Program.” No word yet on whether the sage of Bethesda thinks Ross’s title should be acronymized on his business cards.

The New York Timesleads with a look at how some health-insurance companies are asking clients to pay more for expensive medications. Instead of charging a fixed fee for prescription drugs, more insurers are starting to charge a percentage of their value to offset the cost of these high-priced medicines. USA Todayleads with word that more states are taking DNA samples from suspects arrested on felony charges. DNA sampling used to be restricted to convicted felons, but now 12 states permit some kind of sampling from suspects, and 21 more are considering it. The paper points out that most laws call for the samples to be destroyed if charges against the suspect are dropped. Still, civil liberties advocates criticize these laws, which are seemingly becoming more popular every day, because they characterize the system as nothing more than “a clumsy forensic dragnet,” says USAT.

The Los Angeles Timesleads with a look at the way environmental groups consistently fight against the construction of any new coal-fired power plant. In order to send a message about global warming, lawyers use all kinds of legal tactics at their disposal to stop the construction of these plants. The Wall Street Journal leads its worldwide newsbox with the weekend meetings of finance ministers, where the rising price of food was the No. 1 issue. The Washington Postleads with a look at how the Supreme Court will consider this week whether a person who rapes a child should be eligible for the death penalty.

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The system of charging a percentage of the cost of medicine started out with Medicare and now it’s creeping into other plans that people either purchase individually or receive through an employer. Although the companies are required to inform customers before they change the pricing system for drugs, many say the change caught them by surprise. Now some have to fork over thousands of dollars a month for essential medicines that they used to receive for a nominal fee. Some experts say this new system is changing the traditional idea that insurance is supposed to spread the cost so that sick people aren’t stuck with huge bills. “Those beneficiaries who bear the burden of illness are also bearing the burden of cost,” a health expert said.

Environmentalists are fighting against new coal plants in an effort to try to get Washington to act on the issue of global warming and set federal limits for carbon dioxide emissions. Utility companies complain that the environmental groups pursue a one-size-fits-all strategy and take advantage of weaknesses in the judicial system to push their case. The litigation costs the companies a significant bit of money and usually ends up at least delaying the project. So these companies are now fighting back with a PR campaign, and the LAT points out that the clash over coal “rivals the environmental and legal fights over nuclear power decades ago.”

The president of the World Bank warned that more than 30 countries are at risk of descending into chaos due to rising food prices. This weekend, many of the world’s financial leaders took particular aim at the U.S. policies toward corn-based ethanol and biofuels in general, saying it was inhumane to divert food toward energy when there is such a great shortage of food around the world. The NYT emphasizes that the finance ministers seemed to agree that the rising food prices pose a greater threat to the world economy than the continuing credit crisis. Still, the WSJ notes that despite all these expressions of concern Buy Chloe Dresses, the meeting “produced few concrete results,” as there seems to be little agreement over what should be done to stop this inflation.

More than 30 years ago, the Supreme Court determined that rape involving adults could not result in the death penalty because the punishment is too excessive for someone who doesn’t take a life. But now Louisiana prosecutors will argue that child rapists are so heinous that they deserve the ultimate punishment. Other states are joining Louisiana in arguing that they should be allowed to reflect the moral principles of their citizens who see child rapists as deserving of death. But experts warn that expanding the death penalty could result in fewer cases being reported and might even encourage the rapist to kill the victim.

The LAT fronts, and everyone mentions, news that the Iraqi government fired 1,300 soldiers and policemen who refused to fight during the recent offensive against Shiite militias. The NYT gets word that the fired included 500 soldiers and 421 policemen in Basra. The LAT notes that the large number of desertions is seen as another example of how the recent crackdown was poorly planned and involved deploying security forces who didn’t have the appropriate training and weren’t ready for the frontlines.

The LAT fronts last night’s forum on faith, where the Democratic presidential contenders continued fighting over a recent comment made by Sen. Barack Obama in which he said that small-town voters are “bitter” and so they “cling to guns or religion.” The NYT does a little analysis of the candidates’ body language and says they exchanged “frosty glances” when “their paths briefly crossed on stage.” The issue quickly came up again last night as Sen. Hillary Clinton called Obama’s comments “elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing.” Clinton said Obama would once again make people think that Democrats feel superior and don’t understand the plight of regular Americans. Obama tried to clarify the statements and called his wording “clumsy.” In a separate campaign event, Obama said he expected these kind of tactics from Sen. John McCain but not Clinton. “She knows better. Shame on her Cheap BCBG Dresses,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Post fronts a look at how two prominent anti-abortion Democrats have endorsed Obama, a candidate who has been a big supporter of abortion rights. Sen. Robert Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and former Rep. Timothy Roemer of Indiana are campaigning for Obama and saying that he could help create some common ground in this incredibly divisive issue. The endorsements could help Obama in Pennsylvania and Indiana, although some anti-abortion groups are making sure to send out information to supporters that spells out Obama’s abortion views. “For people who are not really digging into the background, support from someone like Roemer could have quite an impact,” the head of Indiana Right to Life said.

The Post notes that during this week’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI, the White House will hold a dinner in his honor. Only problem is that the pope won’t actually be there. “I’m sorry, the pope doesn’t attend a dinner in his honor?” a reporter asked. “How does that work?” The White House spokesman helpfully explained, “He doesn’t come into the building.”

Michael Schumacher is the highest-paid figure in sports Discount Herve Leger gown, and next year he’ll be the highest-paid figure not in sports. Emerging reports speculate on how much the 7-time (maybe 8-time) world champion will be earning in retirement, and if the staggering figures are right, he’ll still be making more than any of the drivers remaining in F1, including his successor Kimi Raikkonen, current defending champ Fernando Alonso and his own brother Ralf.

Schumacher’s manager Wili Weber is already lining up the sponsorship deals, declaring his goal to turn the driver into an “advertising emperor” after the end of the season in October. Personal sponsors Shell, Omega and Deutsche Vermogensberatung (DVAG – the logo on his hat), have reportedly already renewed their contracts, and with more time on his hands, the living legend is likely to find more sponsors who’d be keen to latch on to the Schumacher image…for big bucks.

Schumacher’s net worth is estimated at around $800 million; enough to personally finance the 29% stake in Ferrari parent company Fiat is repurchasing.

And those guys on the welfare line thought it pays not to work Buy DKNY Clothes!

[Source: F1i.com]

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty

If you’re running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, you’re not allowed to admit it. But just because you can’t admit it doesn’t mean you have to stop campaigning. So when Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota was asked this morning to describe what his party should offer in 2012, he didn’t simply say “me.” Instead he described a bright future that had a Tim Pawlenty-shaped hole in it.

“What do people think when they think about Republicans? What’s the stereotype?” he asked. “We’re all CEOs or sons or daughters of CEOs. We play polo on the weekends. We never got our fingernails dirty. We drink Chablis and eat brie. Uh, that’s not my story, and it’s not the story for the Tea Party, and it’s not the story for most Republicans.”

He mentioned the CEO stereotype a few more times, just to make sure that any reporter at the breakfast meeting would get the message. The only way he could have been less subtle is if he had spelled out M-I-T-T R-O-M-N-E-Y with his sausage links. (Romney is the very wealthy founder and former CEO of Bain Capital, a private-equity firm.) Such a display would have offered a segue into Pawlenty’s life story, which started in a meatpacking town. He is the youngest of five children, whose mother died when he was 16. Pawlenty, the only one in his family to attend college, was raised by his truck-driver father.

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Presidential candidates generally try to sell themselves as the opposite of the current occupant. So Pawlenty said the next GOP nominee needed to offer an antidote to Obama’s cool detachment. “When you walk into a VFW and talk to somebody wearing a Carhartt jacket, drinking a Miller High Life beer, you can explain to them your seven-point plan for health care reform,” he said. “But what they mostly want to know is: do your values generally line up with theirs, does your life story generally line up with theirs, do you have some life experiences that would indicate that you understand their circumstances, their challenge, and their worries and they connect to you on a heart and a gut level?”

Pawlenty made his gut pitch at his first Christian Science Monitor breakfast. Even in an age when prospective candidates are jockeying on Facebook and Twitter, the breakfast remains a required stop for presidential candidates (particularly for less well-known ones like Pawlenty). The 44-year tradition allows political candidates to test out ideas in front of national political reporters and get wide exposure for their views. It was at a Monitor breakfastin January 1968 that Robert Kennedy first hinted that he might run for president. In 1991 Cheap Chanel Dresses, Bill Clinton hinted at the rumors in his personal life—with his wife also at the breakfast (the idea was to inoculate himself against future disclosures).

Pawlenty had several messages to send. He arrived fresh from his most recent trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. He pointed out that he’d been to Iraq five times and Afghanistan three times. For a candidate without extensive foreign policy experience, it is important to show that you can talk about national security issues.

He spoke with knowledge but no particular insight on the two wars. He opposes Obama’s July 2011 deadline for starting to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, saying it is having a corrosive effect on our efforts to get Afghan leaders and the Pakistanis to cooperate. He says none of the military officials he talked to expressed this opinion, though.

Pawlenty is in the position Barack Obama was in when he was a candidate. Perhaps it’s the trap all candidates are in. They take trips predicated on gathering facts and seeing things up close, but the trips only serve to confirm their existing positions. Pawlenty’s is the conventional Republican view, which means he and his party are on track to use Afghanistan as an issue in 2012 against Obama—just as he used it as an issue against George Bush (and John McCain) in 2008.

Pawlenty is wise to make distinctions on tone, because, as he pointed out, “in the end Discount Herve Leger gown, there’s going to be five, 10, 12 candidates standing on the stage who, at least for now, all look kind of the same. And they’re going to say about the same thing. There’ll be general agreement as to the content of the message.”

He’s right.   His views are largely indistinguishable from those of his likely opponents. He opposes tax increases to shrink the deficit (“I don’t think the argument can be credibly made that the United States of America is undertaxed”) and supports Arizona’s immigration law (“It has been wildly, irresponsibly mischaracterized by people quoted in the press including the president of the United States”). *  One area of potential separation from potential rivals is on the TARP, which Romney  and Palin  supported but which Pawlenty opposed (“I think some creative destruction of some of the misbehavior as it relates to Wall Street firms and investment banks would have been a healthy signal to send.”)

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Toyota is looking to meld the smartphones with the television in a new ad campaign. The automaker is giving fans a chance to win two Camrys in new promotion that uses the Shazam mobile app in conjunction with a TV spot. When the commercial airs Replica Hale Bob Dresses, viewers simply fire up Shazam and enter the giveaway. (They can also enter the sweepstakes online.) Toyota says the program is the first and largest of its kind to use Shazam.

The “Connections” TV spot is designed to encourage further exploration of the so-called “Camry Effect Discount DKNY Clothing,” a social media campaign focused on how the Camry impacts people’s lives for the better. Fans can enter the sweepstakes once daily for a chance to take home a Camry for themselves and one for a friend. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Sen. Barack Obama Cheap DKNY Clothes

Jim Johnson, the man Barack Obama has picked to lead his vice-presidential vetting team, has gotten preferential treatment for personal loans from Countrywide Financial, a company Sen. Obama and others have blamed for helping to create the subprime mortgage mess. How big a deal is this for the Democratic nominee? The Republican National Committee, as you might expect, is diving for the fainting couches. Here is an assessment, based on three different standards:

The Obama Standard 
Barack Obama called out Countrywide by name on the campaign trail during the primaries. He particularly criticized the company’s CEO for his excessive compensation and more generally “infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis,” which he linked not only to the 2 million who lost their houses but to school districts that couldn’t purchase supplies and pay teachers. This is the same CEO who gave Johnson his sweetheart deal. Obama’s aides also criticized Clinton’s then-campaign strategist, Mark Penn, for giving PR advice to the company.

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Now the man Obama has entrusted with what he has called the most important decision of his campaign is wrapped up in Countrywide and tied to the CEO. There are lots of unanswered questions about the Johnson deal, though no evidence as yet that he did anything wrong. But the Obama standard isn’t wrongdoing. It’s mere connection to the company. By that standard, this is bad news.

Since Obama has just held a national seminar for 16 months on changing politics and shedding the old insider way of doing things, you might expect that he’d take these disclosures seriously, if for no other reason than to show that even when it might hurt him, he’s committed to letting the light shine on his associates. Nope—his campaign has called the issue irrelevant. Double bad.

The McCain Standard
Jim Johnson is a powerful insider who has friends in high places. The Countrywide deal is evidence that they can get things done quickly and extra-smoothly for him. John McCain has lots of similarly connected friends like Johnson. Many of them raise money for him. Some of them work these kinds of connections professionally Cheap DKNY Dresses, are called lobbyists, and McCain hangs out with them. A former lobbyist is vetting  his vice-presidential picks. He also has former lobbyists on his staff, some of whom worked for free while being paid their regular salary by their lobbying firms. This amounts to a subsidy (it’s also legal, and Obama volunteers do it, too).

None of this should stop McCain from pointing out Obama’s hypocrisy about Johnson. It makes sense for McCain to balance out the hit he’s been taking for his special-interest ties by pointing out Obama’s difficulty here. But because of his own operations, he can make only so much of this. If McCain gets too self-righteous, he’ll open himself up to the same charges of hypocrisy Obama now faces.

The Objective Standard
There are lobbyists, and then there are friends. Both can influence the president. The latter can actually influence him more then any paid lobbyist. Far more, because influence peddling is a lot subtler than people think. Obama has called Johnson a “friend,” and if he helps the young senator navigate this crucial decision (including the sticky Hillary Clinton issue), they’re going to be good friends, or at the very least, Johnson will become a fixer.

Presidents, like the rest of us, rely on friends to give them trusted advice about their areas of expertise. Friends can also get their calls returned by presidents or the men and women who work for them. The advice-givers never show up on a lobbying disclosure form, but they can deeply influence a president’s thinking because they come to issues with an outside-the-bubble perspective and the credibility, often, of having been right before.

This is part of the Washington system, which as a whole Barack Obama is running against and promising to change. It’s also part of the Chicago system he comes from. But it’s not a factor of political life that Barack Obama talks about very much. He rails against lobbyists at length, but where does he draw the boundaries for himself on these other kinds of relationships? And where should the boundaries be? How does Obama, who says his mistakes with his friend Tony Rezko represent a lapse in judgment, show us he’s grown?

I’m not suggesting we have to vet every friend. But it would be great if Obama could show us the instructions for how his new kind of politics works on this front. He has a chance now. And he could see this as a political opportunity, too, to outdo McCain, who has sometimes responded to questions about his ties to lobbyists by saying that we should trust that he’s never done anything that would harm the public interest. The Johnson business is hardly the national crisis the Republican National Committee claims it is. But it’s worse than the brushoff Obama is giving it.

We’ve been clamoring for a date with the production version of the Toyota FT-86 for longer than we care to remember, but we officially have a new infatuation. Meet the boxer coupe’s younger sister – the TES T-Sport Concept. If our Google Translator is to be believed, the car supposedly originated from an inner-company survey that asked what type of cars Toyota engineers would most like to see built. Apparently the overwhelming answer was a fun-to-drive Buy Missoni Dresses, affordable sports car.

Color us stunned.

From there, the Toyota Engineering Society set about crafting their vision of a low buck machine that could still slather a smile on your face. Power comes courtesy of a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine with around 110 horsepower, and this thing hits the scales at less than 2,000 pounds. That sounds like a winning combination to us. The T-Sport Concept wears some plenty funky styling, but we certainly wouldn’t hold that against a would-be Mazda MX-5 competitor. As with most things awesome that hail from auto shows, there’s little likelihood that the T-Sport will ever see production. Head over to AutoGuide to get a closer look at the two-seater.

[Sources: Caradisaic Buy Christian Audigier Clothing, AutoGuide | Image: AutoGuide]

Mazda Furai Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery

According to Auto Express, Mazda Europe’s British design boss Peter Birtwhistle has confirmed that the Japanese automaker will take on a new styling direction. Perhaps the news shouldn’t come as a shocker, considering that former Mazda design head Franz von Holhausen, the man responsible for the previous styling direction of concepts like the Nagare and Furai, left Mazda for Tesla Motors back in 2008.

Further, Laurens van den Acker, who styled the latest Mazda5, left the Japanese automaker for Renault. As such, Birtwhistle told AE, “Nagare is done. After the 5, it’s highly unlikely that there will be another Nagare car. Mazda has moved on.” Apparently Buy Herve Leger gown, Mazda found it rather difficult to apply the swoopy and flowing conceptual styling direction to production cars Replica Emilio Pucci Dresses, specifically boxier shapes like that of the Mazda5.

We tend to agree with Mazda that the Nagare look is awesome on concepts but tough to translate to production. So, what’s next? Apparently, Mazda will attempt to turn itself into a “Japanese Alfa Romeo,” with an initial concept based on its new “Thrusting Motion” styling direction. We should see the fruits of this early effort at the upcoming Paris Motor Show.

Related GalleryMazda Furai Concept
[Source: Auto Express]

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The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. … Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services. U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.

Speaking as an American who lives in Europe, I feel it is incumbent upon me to describe what people like me do when we hear warnings like the one issued on Sunday by the U.S. State Department and cited above: We do nothing.

French army soldiers on patrol at the Eiffel Tower

We do nothing, first and foremost, because there is nothing we can do. Unless the State Department gets specific—e.g., “don’t go to the Eiffel Tower tomorrow”—information at that level of generality is completely meaningless. Unless we are talking about weapons of mass destruction, the chances of being hit by a car while crossing the street are still greater than the chances of being on the one plane or one subway car that comes under attack. Besides, nobody living or working in a large European city (or even a small one) can indefinitely avoid coming within close proximity of “official and private” structures affiliated with U.S. interests—a Hilton hotel, an Apple computer store—not to mention subways, trains Replica Chanel Dresses, airplanes, boats, and all other forms of public transportation.

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Second, we do nothing because if the language is that vague, nobody is really sure why the warning has been issued in the first place. Obviously, if the U.S. government knew who the terrorists were and what they were going to attack, it would arrest them and stop them. If it can’t do any better than “tourist infrastructure” and public transportation, it doesn’t really know anything at all.

In which case, why are they telling us about it? Since the warning made breakfast television on Sunday morning, speculation has been rife. So far, I have heard at least one full-blown conspiracy theory: Some believe the U.S. government has issued this statement in order to frighten Europeans into greater intelligence cooperation, and in particular to persuade the European Union to agree to a new system of airline passenger-data exchange.

Other rumors say that the CIA believes al-Qaida, or some al-Qaida knockoff group, is planning simultaneous attacks on hotels in major European cities, something like the 2008 attacks on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai. This information Cheap White Herve leger, according to the rumor, is supposed to have come from an interrogation carried out last summer.

Yet even if U.S. intelligence authorities possess information as solid as that—and, I repeat, I have absolutely no evidence that they do—there is still no point in the State Department telling us to remain alert when standing next to any American object. Because even if we do it today, we won’t tomorrow. This sort of thing has happened before: In 2004, the employees of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C., arrived at work to find themselves the subject of sudden media interest: Maps and detailed plans of their offices had been found on a laptop in Afghanistan, and a warning had been issued as a result. But of course it wasn’t realistic to maintain a vigilant watch of indefinite length on a building used by hundreds of people every day, many of them suspiciously foreign-looking. And, of course, the advice was quickly forgotten and everyone went back to work.

In truth, the only people who can profit from such a warning are the officials who have issued it in the first place. If something does happen, they are covered. They warned us, they told us in advance, they won’t be criticized or forced to resign. And if nothing happens, we’ll all forget about it anyway.

Except that we don’t forget about it. Over time, these enigmatic warnings do al-Qaida’s work for them, scaring people without cause. Without so much as lifting a finger, Osama Bin Laden disrupts our sense of security and well-being. At the same time, they put the U.S. government in the position of the boy who cried wolf. The more often general warnings are issued, the less likely we are to heed them. We are perhaps unsettled or unnerved, but we don’t know what to do. So we do nothing—and wish that we’d been told nothing, as well.

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We remember the last time we reached for a Cohiba and said to ourselves, “Man Cheap Herve leger strapless, this illegal Cuban cigar would taste so much better if we had a Chrysler branded humidor. Hey Jeeves, we’re running a little low on Pernod here. Getting chopping.” Well sir, from our lips to the Chrysler marketing department’s ears (except the Pernod part). That’s right, for the low, low (we think) price of $199.95 we can have our very own laser-etched Chrysler humidor. And so can you Replica Christian Audigier Clothing!

There’s more than just cigar boxes for sale. Travel goodies, pens, clothing – you name it – is all branded Chrysler and up for sale on a new website. But not just Chrysler. Dodge, Jeep and Ram are in on the action as well. And we must say, the Dodge store is really cool. From the Super Bee T-shirts to the 1:64 scale trucks to the ‘68 Charger R/T ladies shirt we do want.

The Jeep store is a bit too Eddie Bauer meets Kennebunkport for our tastes. We were hoping that Jeep would go more with its new “I Live. I Ride. I Am. Jeep.” tagline, which seems to feature nothing but pretty ladies exiting hair salons, but no such luck. Still, we wouldn’t mind a Jeep T-shirt. And then there’s the Ram Trucks store which sells tough guy-stuff like work gloves, Leathermen, tool bags and shock-proof watches. Howie Long would fit right in, if he weren’t working the other side of the fence. Press release after the jump.

[Source: Chrysler]