MetaFilter posts tagged with whitehouse

Coming soon to a theatre near you... OBAMA.

modernnomad — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:43:16 -0800

Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of a lifetime...

"An outstanding example of a firetrap"

IvoShandor — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:41:49 -0800

As the NYT reported in 1948: The ceiling of the East Room, elaborately done in the frescoes of fruits and reclining women and weighing seventy pounds to the square foot, was found to be sagging six inches on Oct. 26, and now is being held in place by scaffolding and supports.... But it took the $50,000 survey authorized by Congress to disclose the fact that the marble grand staircase is in imminent danger. Supporting bricks, bought second hand in 1880, are disintegrating. So in 1950 a renovation began: this is what the White House looks like completely gutted. Photos from the National Archives

White House announces new US open access policy

brundlefly — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:00:28 -0800

"In a long-awaited leap forward for open access, the US government said today that publications from taxpayer-funded research should be made free to read after a year’s delay – expanding a policy which until now has only applied to biomedical science." "Increasing Public Access to the Results of Scientific Research" - Dr. John Holdren in response to the whitehouse.gov petition, "Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research." "Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA" - Peter Suber, Director of the Harvard Open Access Project

"Now, watch this drive."

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:38:38 -0800

Obama, DC Press Corps Locked In Mutual Loathing Pact. Mike Allen, of Politico, in his article Obama, The Puppet Master, said that Obama " has shut down interviews with many of the White House reporters who know the most and ask the toughest questions." John Cook (Gawker) replies: I will now tweet every question Politico's Mike Allen asked President George W. Bush during a May 2008 interview" (Screenshot) More ~~Tiger Beat On The Potomac~~ Politico: "This Isn't About A Golf Game". In Brief: Politico's Article on Obama's Media "Manipulation" Lacks a Mirror. Is Obama Being Too Mean To The White House Press Corps?

This weekend those tensions went public when the press corps learned of the president’s golf outing with Tiger Woods through a tweet by a Golf Digest writer who had access to the clubhouse at the Florida course where the president was playing. The White House press office seems to have circumvented the “pool” system whereby members of the White House press corps travel with the president to events and is kept informed of his whereabouts. The head of the White House Correspondents Association, Ed Henry, told Politico Monday night: "This is a fight for more access, period.... I've heard all kinds of critics saying the White House press corps is whining about a golf game and violating the president's privacy. Nothing could be further from the truth." "We're not interested in violating the president's privacy. He's entitled to vacations like everyone else. All we're asking for is a brief exception, quick access, a quick photo-op on the 18th green," Henry continued. "It's not about golf — it's about transparency and access in a broader sense."

Play Of The Day - Golf And Transparency. Stephen Colbert asks hard-hitting questions about transparency (and golf). Press Tries to Get Into Obama's Vacation Golf Club, But Is Denied. Obama Golfs With Tiger Woods, Shuts Out Press Corps. Obama on Woods: He's On Another Planet. Woods on Obama: "He hit the ball well and he's got a good touch".

This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For

capricorn — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:21:02 -0800

US citizens petitioned the White House to "secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016" (previously). The White House (or, more specifically, Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget) responded.

White House recipes, from ale to woodcock (roasted)

filthy light thief — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:55:16 -0800

We know the Obamas planted a vegetable garden in 2009, bringing back the tradition of a White House Vegetable Garden (7:44 YT video), and Barack has home-brewed beer. The White House then released the recipes for their honey ale and honey porter, but what of the other White House recipes? Here are some modern Thanksgiving recipes, but what about the rest of the year? Our White House provides a glimpse into past White House kitchens, menus, and recipes, but that's still too thin. More than 50 White House recipes? Still not enough! OK, how about the complete White House Cookbook from 1887 (on Archive.org, also on Project Gutenberg and Google books). Vintage Recipes has kindly provided a tidied up table of contents and recipes for quicker browsing, but be warned, the techniques are dated, and some of the household tips are a bit questionable. More on presidential gastronomy, previously.

Ale to the Chief

T.D. Strange — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:24:19 -0800

After much online fervor, speculation, and FOIA requests, the White House has released the recipe for its home-brewed honey ale and honey porter.

“When someone hands me a beer I don’t ask how it was made, I just drink it.”

clavicle — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:55:09 -0800

Revealed: The president [or someone affiliated with him] brews his own beer, and brings it with him on the road. This 2011 story has a bit more detail: the Obamas bought the equipment used by White House chefs for occasional small batches of homebrew, and this is the first administration in which beer has been brewed at the White House

Baked salmon, oyster rolls, codfish cakes, Baptist cakes, cream of corn soup, green turtle soup, scootin-long-the-shore, Plymouth succotash, Indian pudding, beggar’s pudding, flummery, syllabubs...

gaspode — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 16:55:13 -0800

All the Presidents' menus

“Once it’s your pop stand, you look at things a little differently”

lalochezia — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:04:36 -0800

The NYT reports on how a Secret 'Kill List' tests Obama's principles and will Previous articles in the series

LBJ, Saint

grobstein — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:30:20 -0800

JFK, Monster? Some vignettes of semi-consensual sexual humiliation from Camelot.

I shot myself at 15 p.s.i. just to make sure.

hot_monster — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:28:58 -0800

President Obama fires a marshmallow gun built by an 8th grader.[SLYT] The President meets Joey from Phoenix, AZ at the White House Science Fair. The two launch a marshmallow across the State Dining Room of the White House with Joey's science project - an air cannon.

Stanley Cup-winning Boston Bruins goaltender and Free Citizen Tim Thomas skips White House dinner

Hoopo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:12:58 -0800

One of only two American players on the 2010/2011 Boston Bruins team, goaltender Tim Thomas skipped a White House event to honor the team's Stanley Cup championship victory for political reasons. Reactions have been numerous and mixed.

Obama White House opposes SOPA, PIPA.

joe lisboa — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:00:32 -0800

The Obama White House formally speaks out against SOPA, PIPA. The Obama White House has come out against the Stop Online Piracy Act. The move has -- unsurprisingly -- drawn responses from the MPAA, RIAA, and other interested parties.

There's No Such Thing As Aliens

The Whelk — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:29:19 -0800

You asked, The White House answered: "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race"

"If it hadn't been for you guys, I might not be here..."

longdaysjourney — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:46:31 -0800

"If it hadn't been for you guys, I might not be here..." On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked by a mob surrounding William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, becoming the first African-American child to integrate a white elementary school in the South. Her walk that morning was commemorated by Norman Rockwell, in his painting The Problem We All Live With, which was published on the cover of Look magazine on January 14, 1964. Fifty years later, Ruby Bridges got a chance to visit the building where the painting now hangs and met with the guy who has the office next door.

"With television you just sit, watch, listen. The thinking is done for you."

Rhaomi — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:44:07 -0800

Gawker's John Cook yesterday published an exclusive report on a trove of documents from the Nixon Presidential Library tracing the development of Fox News to a 1970 internal memo annotated by then-consultant Roger Ailes. Part of a 318-page cache of similar documents, the memo -- "A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News" -- called for the creation of a strongly pro-Nixon news outlet operated from the White House which would disseminate partisan news packages free of charge to local affiliates across the country. By coordinating release of these targeted reports with allied politicians and duping opponents into hostile interviews, Ailes hoped to bypass the "prejudices of network news" -- a desire which led him to advocate for some unexpected political policies at the time, from campaign finance reform to anti-poverty efforts. The report comes as Fox is waging an aggressive two-front PR war with perceived ideological enemies -- calling on viewers to file IRS complaints against Media Matters' tax-exempt status for their dogged fact-checking of the network, while on-air hosts launched a campaign to label Jon Stewart "racist" after he called out their record of falsehoods following a critical interview with Chris Wallace (previously).

the Situation Room

AceRock — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:01:38 -0800

Photography editors and designers comment on the famous Situation Room photograph. As powerful as it is, it is also good for lulz.

Wonder where your taxes went? Well, here you go.

saulgoodman — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:20:09 -0800

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt. "In his State of the Union Address, President Obama promised that this year, for the first time ever, American taxpayers would be able to go online and see exactly how their federal tax dollars are spent. Just enter a few pieces of information about your taxes, and the taxpayer receipt will give you a breakdown of how your tax dollars are spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, or health care." For more tax related fun: Tax Cut Calculator

“I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up … I finally wanted to speak the truth.”

zarq — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:47:40 -0800

Last year, the unofficial Dean of the White House Press Corps, Helen Thomas, spoke about the State of Israel on camera. (Previously) Her replies: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," and that the Jews "can go home" to "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else," sparked media outrage, prompted her to issue an apology and retire. After months of being out of the the public spotlight, she has now given her first long-form interview, which will appear in the April issue of Playboy Magazine. In it, she explains what she meant, tells us how she would like to be remembered and expands upon her positions regarding Israel, Jewish political influence, Presidents Bush and Obama, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The President's Economic Team

OmieWise — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:51:16 -0800

A detailed exposition of the roles of the White House economic team. This isn't a discussion of Obama's team per se, but rather an explanation of the mechanics and relationships of the various economic advisers to the President.

The Kid Who Sold Crack to the President

Challahtronix — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:26:22 -0800

"This is crack cocaine," Bush solemnly announced, holding up a plastic bag filled with a white chunky substance in his Sept. 5 speech on drug policy. It was "seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House . . . . It could easily have been heroin or PCP." In 1989 the White House came up with the idea of having George H.W. Bush hold up a bag of crack on national television in order to illustrate how bad the US drug problem had gotten. They decided to have a drug buy set up in Lafayette Park, directly across the street from the White House, to obtain the props for his speech. They contacted a DEA agent who set up a drug buy with a Spingarn High School senior with no prior arrest record, but things didn't go as planned: In the courtroom here where the trial opened this week, decorum went out the window. There were guffaws from the judge on down to the jurors, as a Federal drug agent, Sam Gaye, described the logistical difficulties of the Drug Enforcement Administration in setting up the purchase at Lafayette Park across from the White House. First, the drug dealer did not show, (Federal drug agent) Mr. Gaye testified Thursday. Then a microphone planted on a D.E.A. agent malfunctioned. Then the agency's cameraman trying to videotape the deal was assaulted by a homeless person, never getting close enough to capture the episode. Those in the courtroom viewed the tape, which showed little but the park's greenery and some tourists. --- The judge in the case said it was like a "Keystone Kops thing". --- Under cross-examination by Stow, Gaye described the Sept. 1 meeting, an account that elicited muffled laughter from the jury. The laughter turned into guffaws when Stow played the the DEA videotape. It begins with a shot of Lafayette Square on a summer day. Gaye can be seen waiting on Pennsylvania Avenue; the White House and the usual hordes of summer tourists are seen in the background. Suddenly, just before the car with Jackson and the informer appears, an angry looking woman rears up from below the camera's field of vision, and unintelligible shouts can be heard. For the nest few moments, the tape shows only high-speed, jerky shots of grass and pavement and rapid pans of horizon. By the time it focuses again on Gaye and Jackson, the two men are in the far distance. "Was the agent ever able to get close enough to film the transaction?" Carroll asked Gaye. "No sir," Gaye said. "He was too far away." --- when first contacted by an undercover DEA agent posing as a drug buyer, the teenage suspect seemed baffled by the agent's request. "Where the {expletive} is the White House?" he replied in a conversation that was secretly tape-recorded by the DEA....When finally told it was the residence of the president, he replied, "Oh, you mean where Reagan lives." "We had to manipulate him to get him down there," said William McMullan, assistant special agent in charge of DEA's Washington field office. "It wasn't easy." --- The White House and drug enforcement officials claimed that nothing out of the ordinary occurred, but court testimony showed otherwise. "We don't consider that a problem area," said Maj. Robert Hines, commander of criminal investigations for the U.S. Park Police, which patrols the park. "There's too much activity going on there for drug dealers . . . . There's always a uniformed police presence there." Hines said there have been about a half dozen arrests for marijuana possession in the park this year, but no record of any crack dealing in the park "except for that DEA buy." The Justice Department official who got the White House call -- Richard Weatherbee, a special assistant to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh responsible for drug policy -- phoned James Millford, executive assistant to DEA Administrator Jack Lawn. On Aug. 25, Millford called McMullan in the Washington field office. "Do you have anything going on around the White House?" McMullan recalled Millford saying. "I don't know about the White House," McMullan said he replied, but said there was an undercover buy his agents were hoping to negotiate "four or five blocks away." "Any possibility of you moving it down to the White House?" Millford asked, according to McMullan. "Evidently, the president wants to show it could be bought anywhere." --- The 18-year-old who sold the DEA agent the crack was tried for that transaction, as well as three earlier sales; the first one ended in mistrial, on retrial he was convicted of three counts with two being dropped, including the Lafayette Park sale. The judge in the case sentenced him to 10 years due to mandatory minimums for selling crack near a school but suggested that he seek clemency from his buyer, which was never granted. While it gave a bolster to Bush's approval ratings, it was also seen by many as government overreach in the war on drugs and has been cited as an example of why we should rethink our approach to the war on drugs, the racial disparity in the war on drugs (as well as other disparities), and the media frenzy (PDF) surrounding crack.

It's All Yours George

timsteil — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:21:04 -0800

Q: How many times was George H.W. Bush President? Once you say? Not so fast. On this day 25 years ago, as Ronald Reagan was about to go under anesthesia for surgery for colon cancer, he temporarily gave the V.P. the keys to the country for 7 hours and 50 minutes. It is the first and only time to date, that the Twenty Fifth Amendment has been invoked.

Elena's Inbox

scalefree — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:50:53 -0800

The Sunshine Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to government transparency & accountability, has obtained Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's emails from her time in the Clinton White House & made them available in a handy web application. Browse, read, search & mark those you find interesting for others to read.

Canada is sex?

stinkycheese — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:34:45 -0800

One Nation Under Sex. Pornographer and free speech activist Larry Flynt is no stranger to politics, hypocritical politicians, or to writing books on same. But his latest project "One Nation Under Sex", co-written by Columbia lecturer David Eisenbach, and subtitled How the Private Lives of Presidents and First Ladies Shaped America, is nothing less than "a sweeping account of how the sex lives of American presidents have had a tangible effect on American policy and history." Gawker has posted the book's proposal online. [All links SFW.]