It's just fun to see what the White House looks like all snowy:

Via the White House blog.

I'll have a recap later of today's modernizing government summit, but this caught my eye. When nothing's happen in the White House press room, at least, the monitor basically becomes a giant RSS reader for the White House blog.

Receptionist of the United States, that is. That's what, according to the New York Times, what President Obama calls Darienne Page, the first point of contact in the West Wing. Page is both a former Obama campaign volunteer and Army sergeant. The White House has been making a point of giving voice to a wide cast of characters on POTUS's official blog. Page blogged about her trip alongside Obama to Fort Hood.

UPDATE: On the off chance you don't read "Fast Lane," the blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, here's a pointer to a post in which he gives a high five to the White House for getting his back against Edmunds on Cash for Clunkers. Pile on!

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The White House blog has been going after Edmunds. Who's that?, you're asking yourself. Noted conservative thinker John Edmunds?* No, no, it's Edmunds.com, the automotive website where you can look up the value of a used car or get some advice on what you should drive next. The site, whose CEO Jeremy Anwyl has been a critic of the Cash-for-Clunkers program since this summer, just released an analysis that found that many of the cars traded in during the program would have been traded in even if the program had not existed. The White House was not pleased, and in a post on WhiteHouse.gov by new media director Macon Phillips, it made that clear:

On the same day that we found out that motor vehicle output added 1.7% to economic growth in the third quarter -- the largest contribution to quarterly growth in over a decade -- Edmunds.com has released a faulty analysis suggesting that the Cash for Clunkers program had no meaningful impact on our economy or on overall auto sales. This is the latest of several critical “analyses” of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV. Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn’t withstand even basic scrutiny.

Silicon Alley's Joe Weisenthal is of the opinion that the White House blog's pointed critique of Edmunds.com over Cash for Clunkers, a program that has run its course, makes the Obama White House look thin-skinned. (A variation on the word "stupid" pops up in Weisenthal's post.) The White House new media operation is in some ways a strange hybrid. Organized in the White House hierarchy as part of the White House communications team, it seems to be using its innovative blog here as more or less the online component of the traditional White House press operation -- albeit with a more bloggy, calling-folks out-by-name feel to it. Smart? Inappropriate? Inevitable, given the flattened way media works today where information flows from sources traditional and otherwise? You be the judge, and let us know in the comments.

*Note: Not an actual person. (Photo credit: ThreadedThoughts)

The official White House Blog, which has become a multi-author affair with contributors from throughout the Executive Office of the President to new media contacts throughout the various agencies, is playing host to what may be the most pointedly-political post we've yet seen.

The White House has been pushing hard to make anti-"czar" charges led up Glenn Beck and others seem downright silly and ahistorical. In a post called, "Reality Check: The Truth About, 'Czars,'" White House communications director Anita Dunn calls out by first name and last Republicans who, alongside Beck's cable TV campaign, have been leading the charge from on Capitol Hill. Coming in for particular scrutiny are Rep. Darrell Issa, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Senator Robert Bennett, and Senator Lamar Alexander. Dunn points out that branding administration officials "czar" is something the media indulges in, and that many of the officials with specialized portfolios recently named as czarist have actually been Senate-confirmed.

An encouraging sign from the increasingly wired White House that they're hearing the critique that not everyone in the circa-2009 U.S. is ready or able to engage online -- submitting YouTube questions to the President online, or interact with a website for voting up or down open government ideas, to highlight two examples. Sonal Shah, the director of the White House's Office of Social and Civic Participation, and deputy CTO Robynn Strumm are asking for advice on the White House blog for how to increase citizens' participation in government:

What skills and subject areas are the most important for civic literacy today? How do we promote the kind of civic education necessary to enable people to make greater use of government data, like the information available on Data.gov, or participate in online commenting processes, like this one or regulations.gov?

But, interestingly, the focus here is somewhat different than you might expect to hear from government. Rather than focusing on creating analog opportunities for engagement, they're highlighting the idea of getting folks up to speed with modern, digital tools of engagement.

"These reports have traditionally been available in hard copy upon request, but in the interests of transparency and openness we are posting them online," writes the White House ethics chief Norm Eisen about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's financial disclosure reports, posted Friday afternoon White House blog. (You make the call on whether releasing the documents in the news cycle's dead zone was a coincidence or an attempt to temper some of that openness.)

Not surprising but still striking in black and white is that Obama's financial situation is skewed tremendously by the millions he has made or stands to make on his writing -- including a $500,000 advance on a contract signed a week before he took office for a young people's version of Dreams From My Father.