People always gave me the advice to start of with a cheapo acoustic to learn the basics of playing a guitar, to see if I like playing guitar and to get the hang of it.. If you do this, and you find out that you like it, you can go and buy yourself a decent electric guitar for a -decent- amount of money, because quite frankly, you won't get a good guitar for $100-150.. It would be stupid to spend all this money on a guitar and then realise you don't really like to play one or just fail at it (small chances, since everyone can play a guitar)..
I began with a cheap classic Spanish guitar (about $70) and played that for about a year and a few months.. Then I went to buy a Jackson electric for $450-ish (still quite "cheap") and a basic AMP..
Now, about the brands, it's all part of personal flavour.. I for one like how Fender guitars play, but Lee (Axman) says that "Fender can suck his ****".. Also, it depends on the kind of music you want to play.. If you want to play pure raw metal, you shouldn't get a Gibson, but grab a Jackson or Washburn instead..
The best advice I can give any beggining guitar player (listen to me, I seem to be acting like a pro here -_-), is to go down to the shop, tell the people there what kind of music you want to play and what your budget is, they'll throw some guitars at you within that price and class range, and you just have to test them out (I think every guitar shop allows you to test guitars/amps/effects/..).. Then figure out what feels and plays the best for you.. Buying a guitar is like marrying a woman, you have to test it out before you say "yes"..
Anyway, start off playing with an acoustic first, it'll help!