Administration

First daughter Jenna Bush married Henry Hager yesterday at the Bush family's Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas, and while paparazzi were reportedly unwelcome, the White House has released photos. See the slideshow on Yahoo!News here.

Don't expect former President Bill Clinton to blog anytime soon, according to Carol Felsenthal's new book, "Clinton In Exile."

Slate reports:

Page 198: Clinton hasn't gotten accustomed to the Internet age. He "does not use a computer or send e-mail, and he certainly has never blogged." According to Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea, both he and the former president "have their e-mails printed out for them."

Inspired by the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants visiting the White House Wednesday, President Bush indulged in a little trash talk with Democrats.

"We're going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democrat National Convention," Bush said, reports Us Magazine.

The president was indeed referring to the starlet and girlfriend of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, whose team lost to the Giants in the play-offs.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is circulating a letter sent by the speaker of the Colombian House of Representatives to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). In it, Colombian Speaker Oscar Palacio criticizes Pelosi for her opposition to the U.S-Colombia free trade agreement President Bush sent to Congress April 7.

In the letter, Colombian Speaker Oscar Palacio says the U.S. House's decision to shelve the agreement "affords colonial treatment to us that is unbefitting one of the United States' staunchest allies." The House voted April 10 to circumvent the fast-track law applying to trade deals and shelve the agreement, despite President Bush's attempt to force a vote.

Palacio also says arguments based on violence against Colombian union members are "erroneous." U.S. labor unions have used violence against union members as a cornerstone of their opposition to the deal. The LA Times outlined violence against Colombian unionists in March.

"Under the framework of the Democratic Security Policy, Colombia has made great efforts to prevent crimes of that nature from occurring," Palacio says.

See the text of the letter, as provided by USTR, below. Read more...

President Bush is expected to call for the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to cease by 2025. Bush is scheduled to speak about climate change in the Rose Garden at 2:45 p.m. today.

The White House released excerpts from Bush's prepared speech early this afternoon.

House Democrats are gearing up for next week's testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker, and it looks like troop readiness will be the main anti-war argument coming from the party.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a "fact sheet" to reporters today citing facts about troop readiness, with quotes from four military officials who say the U.S. military is stretched thin.

Entirely absent from the memo were references to Iraqi politics. Democrats used a lack of political progress in Iraq as their main argument the last time Petraeus and Crocker appeared before Congress to defend the "surge" in September.

Petraeus and Crocker are expected to call for U.S. troop levels to remain unchanged in Iraq in 2008, as indicated by plans they recently presented to President Bush. See Pelosi's fact sheet after the jump. Read more...

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced today that he will step down from HUD April 18. Senate Democrats had called for his resignation last week amid allegations of corruption.

The Hill's Jessica Holzer reported that Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Appropriations Housing Subcommittee Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called for Jackson's resignation, saying he failed to clear suspicions of impropriety when appearing before their panels.

Jackson had come under fire recently for alleged corruption, as The Washington Post reported in February that Jackson demanded the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property at a discount to a friend of his, and then vowed to strip the authority of some federal funding after it refused. Read more...

President Bush set out an agenda for Congress this morning: reform FISA, modernize the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and approve his Colombia free trade agreement.

Congress returns today from two weeks of recess, and Bush spoke this morning as he departed from the White House for NATO's summit in Bucharest, which will begin Wednesday. Read more...

President Bush called Chinese President Hu Jintao today to talk about the recent demonstrations and violence in Tibet.

"The President raised his concerns about the situation in Tibet and encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives and to allow access for journalists and diplomats," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said today.

Bush told Hu that the recent election in Taiwan would provide both China and Taiwan an opportunity to settle differences and start anew. He also told Hu he appreciated "the important role China has played within the Six-Party framework," Perino said. The six-party framework refers to discussions between the U.S., China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and Russia about North Korea's nuclear capabilities.

See the Associated Press's timeline of the unrest here. See the full statement by Perino after the jump. Read more...