Jenna Bush, 26, was quietly married this weekend at the Bush family’s Crawford Ranch. The bride wore a white Oscar de la Renta gown and no veil. The press was not invited, but the White House released pictures late Sunday afternoon. Her grandparents, George H. W. Bush and Barbara, spoke at the ceremony.

Jenna wed Henry Hager, 30, less than one year after he proposed at dawn atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park on Maine’s coast. The couple were married around 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening.

From the AP:

Jenna’s twin sister, Barbara, was maid of honor and 14 other women were in her “house party.” Barbara Bush wore a long, moonstone blue dress with a low-cut back. The women in the “house party” were clad in seven different styles of knee-length dresses in seven different colors that match the palette of Texas wildflowers — blues, greens, lavenders and pinky reds.

The ceremony began about a half hour or so before sunset. The couple stood at a cross, made of beige colored Texas limestone, that was erected near the ranch’s man-made lake. The cross and altar, made of the same stone used to construct the Bush’s ranch house, will be a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated.

Henry Hager met Jenna during her father’s 2004 re-election campaign. He graduated from Wake Forest University and worked as an aide to Bush’s former top political adviser Karl Rove. He is set to receive a master’s degree in business administration later this month from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

After the wedding, the couple is rumored to be honeymooning in Europe, although the White House would not comment. After that, they plan to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath town house on the south side of Baltimore. She plans to return to teaching and he will work for Constellation Energy, a power supplier based in Maryland.

You have to be impressed in how well Jenna has matured from her early days in the White House. She could have picked a huge, overpriced, gaudy wedding at the White House, but chose to keep it simple and away from the cameras.

By the way, why does their wedding cake look like the top is going to come tumbling off?

Congratulations to the happy couple!

As Jimmy Kimmel and his panel of political experts the Worst Political Team on Television give their opinion on Clinton still winning the nomination, others have deemed that it’s over.

CBS News is only one of many media outlets that is calling the Democratic nomination. On yesterday’s evening news and their opinion section from the New Republic, expectation of Clinton winning the nomination is close to zilch when looking at her delegate or popular vote count.

Dan Payne of the Boston Globe agrees stating, “Hope is all she has left.”

Sam Donaldson also calls the race.

Bill Clinton, on the other hand, states that Hillary CAN win… sounds like someone needs a math lesson

This video is from CBS news and includes commentary from former Dean Howard campaign manager, Joe Trippi:

Although Clinton catches Indiana in yesterday’s primary, the delegate math still doesn’t add up for her to possibly win overall, and it hasn’t for a long time now. It makes me wonder who’s telling her that she still has a chance.

How come we all know that the race is over except Clinton? Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fight and the remaining states should have their chance to vote as well; however, I said I love a good fight…this is no fight. Ouch…

MSNBC has coverage about yesterday’s primaries and Obama as the perceived nominee here.

If you get upset over this video, than I guess you can’t figure out the delegate math either. Just take the video with a grain of salt and acknowledge the fact that this has been the most exciting primary race in decades.

You want to know why Oregon has a record turn out in voting? You would think it’s because they have a mail-in ballot option; however, I think I’ve found another reason…

from Stateline.org:

Oregonians who called a voter-information hotline recommended by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury reached a different sort of hotline — the kind that offers “an exciting new way to go live, one-on-one, with hot, horny girls” for just $2.99 a minute (99 cents for voice mails). The glitch came when Bradbury’s office accidentally switched the correct 866 toll-free area code to an 800 area code, The Oregonian reports. Bradbury released an apology statement and emphasized, “Don’t call that wrong number.”

Visit the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division.

From the AP:

After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

Appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC’s “Today” show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. Her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978.

Winfrey asks Walters if she was in love.

“I was certainly, I don’t know, I was certainly infatuated.”

“Infatuated.”

“I was certainly involved,” Walters says. “He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington.”

Wow. Somehow this doesn’t surprise me. But who cares? Obviously she does because she’s trying to promote her new book and I’m sure she’s hoping that this little bit of juicy scandal will help book sales.

No thanks Barbara.

Wired has a story today about an anti-genetic discrimination bill that is expected to be signed by President Bush.

The bill (H.R. 493), blocking companies from using a person’s genetic information to set insurance premiums or determine eligibility, was passed today by the House. The bill would also state that employers could not use genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

The vote was 414-1. Who was the lonely on standing in the corner? Yup, that would be Texas’ own Ron Paul.

Voting against a bill like this? And he want to be President…

Paul is also pimping promoting his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto on his campaign blog and at book signings.

From his April 30th blog post:

Today is an exciting day for our campaign and our movement: my new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, is officially released.

Although a short book, it is the product of many years of thought and action. It is a defense of the principles to which you and I have devoted our lives.

My friends are calling it “Ron Paul’s legacy.”

These principles - individual liberty, sound money, the Constitution, and the foreign policy of the Founding Fathers - have had no home in American politics for a very long time. With The Revolution: A Manifesto, I’m letting the establishment know we’re not going away.

Finally, Americans can hear and judge these great American principles for themselves, instead of through an unfriendly media filter. And they can learn once and for all that they need not be satisfied with the phony choices the system offers them every four years. Another way really is possible.

Two days ago I did a book signing in New York at the Borders on Wall Street. All 530 copies had been sold before I even arrived.

They had underestimated you again.

Imagine the attention our cause and our principles could attract with a fantastic opening day today, with people marching into bookstores across the country for their copies. If it should become a publishing phenomenon, The Revolution: A Manifesto can fuel our revolution for a long time to come. You can make that happen.

I hope you enjoy this book, which was a real labor of love for me. Please spread the word.

And may the future be ours.

For liberty,

Ron Paul

]]> http://politicsoffthegrid.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/ron-paul-only-member-of-congress-to-vote-against-bill/feed/ tlheard http://politicsoffthegrid.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/dc-madam-found-dead/ http://politicsoffthegrid.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/dc-madam-found-dead/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 21:19:36 +0000 tlheard http://politicsoffthegrid.wordpress.com/?p=655

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, a.k.a. the D.C. Madam, has committed suicide. She was found hanged in a storage shed today. Suicide notes have been found but police have not released details about those notes.

She was found guilty April 15 of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud and faced a maximum 55-year prison term at her sentencing, which was scheduled for July 24. She had vowed that she would never go to prison for running the high-end Washington prostitution ring.

Palfrey has denied that her escort service was involved in prostitution.

Breaking news HERE from CNN.com

The Pew Research released their findings of Catholic voters and candidate choice during the Pennsylvania Presidential Primary.

It shouldn’t be by anyone’s surprise that the exit polls showed Clinton winning the Catholic vote while Obama did well with the African American vote.

According to the Pew Research:

( in the exit polls), Clinton did very well with white Catholics, winning 72% of their vote. She also did well with white Protestants and Jews, winning 59% and 61% of their votes, respectively.

As in the past, Obama did very well with African Americans, most of whom are Protestants, winning 90% of their vote. He also won 62% of the religiously unaffiliated vote. Obama generally did well with non-whites and with religious minorities as well.

Were there any big surprises in the results?

The big surprise was how little change there was in the support for the candidates among religious groups despite the fierce campaigning in the state, which included extensive outreach to the Catholic community. Obama, for example, received strong support from Sen. Bob Casey, a popular Catholic politician. Some analysts expected the “Casey Democrats” to shift toward Obama and help him break into the white Catholic vote, but this didn’t really happen.

This result is reminiscent of the inability of Ted Kennedy to deliver white Catholics to Obama in the Massachusetts primary. All told, Clinton’s outreach to Catholics appears to have been more effective than Obama’s — but the same could also be said about her outreach to other faith groups.

Do we know why white Catholic voters have been choosing Clinton over Obama?

Not exactly. But the exit polls and other data reveal that the economy was the most important issue to Pennsylvania Democrats. We know that Catholic organizations, such as Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics for the Common Good, have been emphasizing the theme of “the common good” in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Clinton’s speeches on the economy, which include long lists of specific policy proposals, may well have boosted her standing among the state’s Catholics who share these concerns. She also likely benefited from memories of the more prosperous economy during her husband’s administration.

So does Obama have a serious problem attracting Catholic voters nationally?

From the point of view of the primaries, it appears that he does. The Obama campaign has made a strong effort to deal with this problem but has had only limited success so far.

Could this problem persist in the general election if Obama is the Democratic nominee? It might, and, if so, it would pose a challenge for Obama in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. We should keep in mind, however, that many of the Democratic Catholics who did not vote for Obama in the primaries might well support him in the fall against John McCain. But on the other hand, not all white Catholics are Democrats — many are independents or Republicans. If nothing else, this means that white Catholics are a key group to watch.

To be fair, one might also ask if Clinton has an “African American problem” or an “unaffiliated problem.” After all, she has not done well with these groups in the primaries, and she will need strong support from these voters in the fall if she is her party’s nominee. One substantial difference, however, is that black Protestants and unaffiliated voters tend to be more strongly Democratic in their partisanship than white Catholics, so it might be easier for Clinton to rally them.

Read the full report about Obama’s Catholic Vote Problem here.

From the AP:

Roger Waters brought Coachella to a close with an epic two-set performance that included playing all of “Dark Side of the Moon” and unleashing a giant inflated pig into the night sky.

The 64-year-old Waters, the third headliner of the three-day music festival following Prince and Jack Johnson, performed an elaborate, almost retrospective concert Sunday featuring music from throughout Pink Floyd’s catalog.

Old photographs of the band often flashed across the screen behind Waters and his current band, which played songs from “The Wall,” “Wish You Were Here” and “Animals,” among other Floyd albums. They also played “Dark Side” in its entirety, culminating with the album’s iconic triangle prism rising above the stage.

But Waters’ biggest prop was an inflatable pig the size of a school bus that emerged while he played a version of “Pigs” from 1977’s capitalism critique, “Animals.”

The pig, which was led above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words “Don’t be led to the slaughter” and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read “Fear builds walls.”

The underside of the pig simply read “Obama” with a checked ballot box alongside.

As Waters drew the song to a close, flame bursts exploded on the sides of the stage and the swine floated into the night sky. Waters said sadly and comically, “That’s my pig.”

The performance also included speaker towers placed around the outside of the crowd. Smoke machines funneled across the stage and over the audience, thickening the atmosphere.

Oh dear God…If you have not seen these guys before, be prepared.

These guys have been posting YouTube videos for quite some time. They’re rude, crude, and claim to be residents of a heavy red state. Their website is like a train wreck - you can’t help but look around.

Whether you’re a Dem or Republican, you can’t help but laugh.

From their website:

Red State Update with Jackie Broyles and Dunlap, coming to you from a bunker underneath Jackie’s Market in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Y’all feel free to look at our latest videos, buy stuff with our face on it, hell, stay all night with us if you like– we’ll make y’all a pallet on the floor.

WARNING: explicit language