Talking on CNN's Sunday Morning show, Gibbsy wants to end the practice of "anonymous sourcing". In other words, he wants the White House press corps to report only on approved topics.

During that meeting with the press corps, Gibbs offered correspondents a no-background policy, in which the White House would only give on-the-record interviews if reporters promised not to cite unnamed sources, he explained to host Howard Kurtz in an interview on "Reliable Sources."

"I think we could all put what we want to say to the American people and to the news media all on the record," he said. "I've offered to end it. But it's got to be a two-way street."

The news arrives as tensions between the White House and its devoted correspondents are growing, in part because of the minimal access they had to last week's Nuclear Security Summit.

I'm sure it's a pleasant fantasy for Gibbs, but thankfully not the way reporting works in the real world.

Gibbs had another couple of fantasy moments on the morning talk shows:

Responding to repeated questions from host Howard Kurtz about why Obama has held no press conferences since July 2009, Gibbs seemed to dismiss their relevance, calling it “an arbitrary Washington measure” of the president’s accessibility. “This president has taken questions through countless interviews through – answering questions directly from the media,” Gibbs said.

While more broadly expressing frustration with press coverage, Gibbs singled out Fox, saying that while the administration understands the need to “play the game” by giving the network access, it has a definitive “slant” in its coverage, including its news programs, and that it caters to a viewership that’s already made up its mind.

“I don't think many people have to watch Fox to understand the—the political slant that they have,” Gibbs said. “They're feeding an audience that they know want to see and hear a certain side of that argument.”

He cited the presidentÂ’s sit-down with Fox NewsÂ’s Bret Baier just before the health care vote as an example of the conservative-leaning outlet attempting to push an agenda.

First, President Bush was routinely abused by commentators for not holding enough press conferences during his first term, making this another "What if Bush had done it?" moment.

Second, when the President of the United States voluntarily appears on the most-watched cable news channel, you better believe that he's the one attempting to push a political agenda. By contrast, Fox News' non-political agenda can be summed up in just one word: "ratings."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:50 AM | Comments (99)
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Hi everyone. If you were awake for some reason and noticed the downtime, that was us moving to our new server, which is even shinier than our previous new server.

I emailed Ace to let him know it was happening today, not realising he was taking a few days off. Sorry about that!

Server specs by request:

Dual Xeon 5670 (total 12 x 2.93GHz cores)
24GB ECC Registered RAM
Adaptec 5805 RAID controller with battery backup
3 x 2TB disks, RAID-5
3 x 32GB Intel Enterprise SSDs, RAID-5
2 x Gbit ethernet - 1 for the the private network, 1 for the internet link (yep, we have a full gigabit link to the internet)
Dual (redundant) power supplies
Running CentOS 5.4, latest OpenVZ and CPanel

The server is upgradeable to 12 disks total and 144GB of RAM.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:50 AM | Comments (195)
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On behalf of Suzanne and myself, I apologize to the Iranians.

TEHRAN: A senior Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in Iran, a country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported on Saturday.

"Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Tehran Friday prayer.

If I've asked Suzanne once, I've asked her a hundred times. Stop tainting my chastity, you inappropriately dressed hussy!

I have to give these Islamic-geoscientists credit though. At least they didn't accuse me and Suzanne of putting Guam at risk of capsizing.

On advice of our attorneys, however, I am not to comment on the current situation in Iceland.

Posted by: Jack M. at 07:34 PM | Comments (62)
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Welcome all M&M-types to just another Caturday ONT.

Introducing the Psycho Dog Man
Apparently a pair of dogs was terrorizing residents of a town in Australia and a local tv station interviewed some of the victims. One of them was Ray Graham who described and reenacted the dogs' attack a little too well. Since then he's become an internet sensation and is now known as Psycho Dog Man. I like how his wife seems relatively nonplussed at his snarling - I'm guessing she's heard this impersonation before.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:45 PM | Comments (866)
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We have a strategy Secretary Gates. It's called "let them". (NYT link)

But in his memo, Mr. Gates wrote of a variety of concerns, including the absence of an effective strategy should Iran choose the course that many government and outside analysts consider likely: Iran could assemble all the major parts it needs for a nuclear weapon — fuel, designs and detonators — but stop just short of assembling a fully operational weapon.

This is actually Gates saying "ok, you've decided not to keep it from happening, and you've asked us to come up with contingencies for dealing with a nuclear-armed Iran,"

"we don't have any."

Great.

Allah via Twitter.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:51 PM | Comments (177)
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President Pants on Fire said today in his weekly radio address:

Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed 'too big to fail'."

He also decried Republican "misinformation" about the bill.

Like the thousand-page healthcare reform bill, the President apparently hasn't bothered to read the financial overhaul bill. Here's a summary of the bailout provisions (PDF):

First, the bill contains a $50 billion fund for resolution of systemically risky institutions. The bill allows a 2/3 vote of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to deem any firm (financial or non-financial) as coming under its rubric and then authorizes the FDIC and Treasury Secretary to treat each of the firm's shareholders and creditors as they choose, without regard to bankruptcy law. Second, the bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to systemically risky institutions. No Congressional authorization or appropriation is required. Third, the bill gives the Fed the authority to fund any "program" to assist these institutions accepting as collateral anything it deems appropriate.

So when the President says there will be no more bailouts, he must mean that Congress won't have to pass and the president won't have to sign the icky, unpopular bills. Because they'll have delegated permanent bailout authority to a couple Executive Branch agencies.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:23 AM | Comments (537)
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It be Friday. You know what to do.

So how about a little Godzilla to start the weekend

Along with Blue Oyster Cult's ode to the monster himself as the soundtrack. There's nothing like watching a guy in a rubber suit beating up other guys in monster suits. The funny thing about most Godzilla movies is that the parts with the fire-breathing atomic dinosaur himself are basically silent movies with explosions and monster sounds thrown in.

Oh and a little Godzilla trivia...in Japan he's known as Gojira which comes from the words 'gorira' (gorilla) and 'kujira' (whale). It's believed that the english version of his name came from a translation error.

Another true fact: the first concert I ever went to was a BOC concert. I was in middle school and no, I don't know what my parents were thinking. It was one of their few failures to say 'No' to one of my crazy-over-the-top-but-what-the-hell requests.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:59 PM | Comments (954)
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I got nothing but an amusing video from F1.

Also, the NHL post season is underway and the first two nights have been fantastic...7 games, all decided by 1 goal (two in sudden death overtime), two eight seeds defeating number ones and steeling home ice advantage. And now it gets good because you're going to start seeing desperate teams and tempers flaring.

For all your hockey needs, check out Moron Hockey. You might recognize the two bloggers and our very own @slublog designed the logo.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:12 PM | Comments (554)
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Just leaked.

Update: Timing has changed -- now the endorsement is set for tomorrow.

Thanks to Star Chamber Maid.

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (666)
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Senator Lindsey Graham (R-Dingusville) proposed a bump in the federal gasoline tax of 15 cents as part of global warming legislation.

Right there, before anything else happens, there are at least three errors: The clown just proposed a tax increase. The clown wants to raise gasoline prices to combat a planet-wide natural phenomenon that scientists don't understand and that the U.S. only marginally affects, even under the most outlandish projections of global warming alarmists that Graham apparently believes in. And the clown doesn't realize that a 15 cent bump isn't going to change gasoline consumption behaviors enough to make any difference, again even under the global warming assumptions he believes in.

But then there's the MEGA WHOPPER of an unforced error: the White House is now trumpeting that the President opposes Graham's tax increase because it will force higher prices on consumers still struggling through the Great Recession.

The dolt just let the President pretend to oppose tax increases on gasoline. The same President that once said he supported raising the price of gas to combat global warming. Now the President gets to prance and preen while Graham looks like a tax-happy fat-cat disconnected from the plight of Americans.

Meanwhile, the GOP is saying, "Dude, you're on your own."

The Senate GOP leadership today took pains to say this tax idea is Graham's and Graham's alone. It's not the first time Graham has been out on a policy limb. Graham insists his approach is better than one-size-fits-all federal regulations.

Oh, and Graham is in retreat too:

Graham's office, via spokesman Kevin Bishop, described the senator's efforts this way:

"Senator Graham does not support a gas tax. And the bill he is working on does not include a gas tax. He is working with the energy industry to protect consumers from a cap-and-trade system which would do great damage to our economy and national security by driving our refiners overseas."

Putz.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:37 AM | Comments (244)
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