The reported death of Muammar Gaddafi is certain to be the biggest topic of today’s White House briefing, which you can watch via the magic of the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY, and live streaming video technology brought to you by the White House, and paid for by you, the American taxpayer. If you are a tax cheat, then please do not watch. That would not be fair to those of us who do. (Especially Warren Buffett’s secretary, who I gather needs a new Accountant. She is paying WAY too much.)

The Labor Day weekend is in many ways the kick-off to the political season, especially with a presidential campaign very nearly operating in full stream. As such, standard political rhetoric is now conflated to have much grander meaning than it would just a year ago. Watch White House Press Secretary Jay Carney deal with the chattering class via live stream video below:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is about to take questions from the media. Hot topics that he is certain to address are the President’s visit to Dover AFB yesterday to greet the fallen soldiers killed in Afghanistan this weekend, market volatility and recent appointments to the congressional super-committee to address the deficit spending crisis that has gripped the nation in the last few weeks.

The White House is not conceding that Vice President Joe Biden likened the Tea Party to “terrorists” in a private discussion, as VP Biden himself has denied. But in today’s press briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney was made to speak on the matter, and he made clear that the language was “not appropriate” for the discussion, heated though it may be: “The Vice President doesn’t think so; the President doesn’t think so.”

At Monday’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney fielded a lot of questions about how, exactly, the new debt ceiling deal constitutes a “compromise.” As CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell pointed out, Democrats “got nothing.”

Carney pointed to the measure’s “Super Congress” committee as an opportunity to take a second crack at a balanced approach, and to the trigger provisions as an incentive for Congress to reach such a deal. I asked Carney if it was realistic to think that Tea Party congressmen would vote for revenue increases, even in the face of defense cuts.

Well this should be interesting to watch. Last night, President Obama announced an agreement between party leaders of both congressional chambers to pass a bill that will avoid an immediate federal default as well as appointing a bipartisan “super committee” to make recommendations for dealing with the deficit in November. So far, the opinion media types on the left seem to be very unhappy with what they see as not just an unbalanced approach, but a lack of even compromise by both sides. Watch White House Press Secretary Jay Carney lead the first press briefing since the deal was announced.W

Newly-minted Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry started off his first post-CNN briefing with a bang today, asking Press Secretary Jay Carney “What was the point of giving a prime-time address to the nation, without an Obama plan?”

The question touched off a rather heated set of exchanges in which Carney pushed back against the “Republican talking point” that there’s no Obama plan, and several reporters pressed the issue.

President Obama is holding a press conference this morning which is almost entirely focused on the current negotiations with House Republicans over raising the debt ceiling and the larger issue of deficit spending. The Hill’s Sam Youngman asked the president about comments made by Senator Mitch McConnell that he views these negotiations through the prism of the politics of 2012. Obama ostensibly took the high road by pointing out he has to have thick skin, before also admitting that he doesn’t watch a lot of what is said about him on cable. Heresy!

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked earlier today whether President Obama was happy about Donald Trump’s decision not to run for President. The exchange with reporters resulted in Carney admitting Obama had a “surprisingly subdued reaction,” yet some reporters had a couple of amusing follow-up questions.

Press Trust of India reported earlier this week that President Obama‘s plan trip to Inida would cost US taxpayers $200 Miliion per day during his visit to Mumbai. Though the story did not name a source, according to CBS News “the $200 million claim was credited to ‘a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit.’” Though the White House claims the cost to have “no basis in reality” it was a hot topic in today’s White House press briefing.

During this morning’s White House Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs was asked to comment on the controversial remarks recently made by press corps legend Helen Thomas who said, among other things, that the “Jews should go back to Germany.” Mediaite’s own Tommy Christopher asked if President Obama had “any reaction to the controversy over Helen’s remarks?” Gibbs was clearly ready for the question and made clear that her comments did not reflect the opinion of the White House. Video after the jump.

Yesterday the White House press corps cameras captured a rodent of some sort, scampering across steps just beneath the lectern where President Obama was speaking. The visual quickly made its way through the viral news cycle of the Internet, and was viewed by some as a perfect symbol: a rat scampering away during a speech on financial reform. During a lighter moment (of an otherwise contentious press briefing) White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about what kind of rodent it was, claiming “its a rat.”

News broke recently that a new biography of Rush Limbaugh is coming out and includes a funny story of President Obama turning down an offer to play golf with Limbaugh, saying that the conservative radio host could “go play with himself.” Limbaugh has since responded, comedically claiming “now wait a second, they’re confusing me with Bill Clinton.” Well Mediaite’s own member of the White House Press Corps tried to get to the bottom of this, as you can see in the following exchange:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs open today’s press briefing by entering the room festooned in the Canadian national hockey jersey. The reason? He lost a bet Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the recent Olympic gold medal match that saw the Canadian team defeat the U.S. team in overtime.

Today marks the auspicious launch of Tucker Carlson‘s The Daily Caller, and in light of Carlson’s insistence that they’re not out “to grind any axes,” I was a little bit surprised by a front page story that said of the Underwear Bomber “he was ‘singing like a canary’ until the Obama administration read him his rights.” I wanted to double-check the facts on that, but when I asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about The Daily Caller, he said “What’s that?”

At today’s White House press briefing, I wanted to give Press Secretary Robert Gibbs a chance to respond to criticism that the administration is attacking Fox News with plastic army men. Or something.

Gibbs resisted the bait at first, instead opting to rehearse his next career day lecture, but zeroed in a little on followup:

In June, I wrote a story that raised big questions about the value of the government’s $80 billion deal with Big Pharma, and wondered if the deal came with the trade-off of killing legislation that would enable the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices. Such a trade-off would be indefensible. That [...]