Sounds like a good idea to me.

From Anna Marie Cox, comes the suggestion to get rid of the White House press corps.

Here are some stories that reporters working the White House beat have produced in the past few months: Pocket squares are back! The president is popular in Europe. Vegetable garden! Joe Biden occasionally says things he probably regrets. Puppy!

It’s not that the reporters covering the president are bad at their jobs. Most are experienced journalists at the top of their game — and they’re wasted at the White House, where scoops are doled out, not uncovered. The day of a typical White House correspondent consists, literally, of waiting to be told things. Legitimate security concerns and a tightly scripted political world keep the presidential press corps physically corralled and informationally hostage.

Fox News Alert.

Describing the monkey’s private parts about 5 times. Now that’s hysterical right Fox reporters.

Deep thought.

Watching the talking heads this morning it is clear that:

“Obama is a failure because in 2 1/2 weeks he hasn’t fixed all that Bush screwed up in 8 years.”

Dear God, make them go away.

More of our stupid media discourse.

ABC News breaks the story that the President of the United States gets to live free in the White House and gets many other perks including the use of Air Force One and a helicopter too.  Wow, I’ll bet many Americans didn’t know that and probably wish their president had to live in a small one bedroom apartment in DC where he can entertain foreign leaders and do the people’s business.

And, this is why Obama shouldn’t set limits on salaries of bankers who take government money. Give me a break!

They have nothing better to say?

Our media sure is stupid sometimes. Karen Tumilty of Time Magazine has her panties in a twist over Obama’s comment about Jessica’s Simpson replacing him on the cover of US Weekly.  From the transcript:

LAUER: But I wanna show you the cover. Look what they did. They — they took you off the cover.
OBAMA: Yeah.
LAUER: They took you out of it.
OBAMA: It — it’s — it’s a little hurtful.
LAUER: You got replaced by Jessica Simpson.
OBAMA: Yeah, who’s in a weight battle apparently. (LAUGHTER) Yeah. Oh, well.

He wasn’t personally criticizing her weight as Tumilty implies.

Another Great Goodbye.

And don’t miss today’s NY Times column by neo-con columnist and pundit, William Kristol.  Especially don’t miss the comment at the bottom which you might if you don’t read him to the end as I don’t most days.

This is William Kristol’s last column.

Our Stupid Media Discourse.

What? After 100 hours he’s too partisan already? Did he have it on Tuesday and lost it by Friday?  What did he do to lose it? From the Washington Post:

Hoping to recapture the bipartisan spirit, Obama will host nine congressional leaders at the White House today…

Oh the History They Will Attempt to Rewrite.

I guess I don’t understand how anyone can say Bush “inherited 9/11.” But, it’s Fox News and they just make things up anyway.

The “24″ Defense.

It seems that all they have left to defend the use of torture is fiction. I never watch Fox News but  thankfully others do it for me and report on the idiots using the TV show “24″ to justify the continued use of torture and keeping Gitmo open.

Beck and the Fox & Friends hosts also invoked 24 as a justification for the use of torture. Referring to the show’s recent season premiere, in which protagonist Jack Bauer, a former member of the fictional “Counter Terrorist Unit,” defends his use of torture during a hearing before Congress, Beck said: “[I]t’s going to take somebody who sits in front of Congress who is not afraid of them anymore and does what Jack Bauer did. And that is, ‘Yes, I did torture, and I’m proud of it.’ And it’s time for these things to come out of the closet.” Introducing an excerpt from 24, in which Bauer is seen answering questions from a congressional committee about torture, Kilmeade stated: “Let’s listen to what happened in the fictional series 24 and see if this helps build your argument.”

Morning Question.

Is there still anybody who is interested in Bush’s press conference? Think he’ll admit to any mistakes/crimes?

Joe the War Correspondent.

Does anyone take this guy seriously?  Does anyone really care what this man thinks about anything, let alone the Israel-Palestinian conflict? The funniest part of this story is his claim to be “an expert on media bias.” He’s a legend in his own mind.

Wurzelbacher said he’s been “embraced” by the people of Israel because “they know I have no agenda but the truth.” But his arrival in a busy cafe elicited no overtsigns of recognition. He appeared to cause more of a stir among the press there.

And now we have Joe the Video Star.

Your 15 minutes are over Joe.  Go back to plumbing.

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendations.

• Richard Kew on why he is no longer willing to pay for daily print journalism. Hint: it’s not worth paying for and the future is electronic.
• The passing of Richard John Neuhaus and the end an era of Catholic neoconservatism and the religious right.
• Disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard on his gay cure where he claims straight and gay are “stereotypical boxes” and he doesn’t fit in either.
• A few days late (my recommendation, not her post) but Cathleen Falsani has an excellent post about the meaning of the Epiphany or the “Feast of Aha.”
• Tom Friedman on the impact of teachers on bailing us out and moving the US to renewed prosperity.

And, of course, there are fewer than 10 days (9 to be exact) left in the W administration. I’m sure I missed a lot, during the last few weeks, about the transition but will catch up. Obama has a big job to do, lots of things need attention and I am thankful he is our new president and not the other guy–what was his name?

Good Riddance.

One less outlet for spewing his garbage.  Now if only people wouldn’t watch his Faux News show.

Thanksgiving Thanks!

There is a God.  And, I am thankful for this. Something finally shut her up.

Don’t Believe What You Read.

Or not everything. I don’t know if this makes me laugh or cry, but it sure tells a lot about the 24 hour a day seven day a week news media.

And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.

Now a pair of obscure filmmakers say they created Martin Eisenstadt to help them pitch a TV show based on the character. But under the circumstances, why should anyone believe a word they say?

[...]

“With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find,” said Mr. Mirvish, 40.

Mr. Gorlin, 39, argued that Eisenstadt was no more of a joke than half the bloggers or political commentators on the Internet or television.

Irony Alert.

“[T]he meanness of the discourse, in general, bothers me.”

-Bill O’Reilly, of Fox News, on CBS Sunday Morning

Hypocrisy Alert!

On Fox a $400 haircut is big news but a $150,000 clothing budget is just “looking good.”

What if He is a Muslem or Arab?

A few weeks ago Campbell Brown took on the McCain campaign’s failure to allow Sarah Palin to face reporters as sexist. Now, she again shows “balls” that many main stream media folk fail to show. The point she makes needs to be heard and fully understood.

Question for the Day.

What would the media say if Barack Obama had a teenage daughter who was pregnant?

I doubt if it would be covered like this article from ABC News.

Living In A Different World.

Either I have my head completely up my a** or conservative derangement syndrome is really taking hold in a bigger way than I thought. From Andrew Sullivan we read about the title of Hugh Hewitt’s proposed next book.

“How Sarah Palin Won the Election… And Saved America”

Which, thankfully it seems, has already been shot down by publishers.  Laughable. A more detailed story from the NY Observer is here.