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The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) today named Microsoft the Official Software and HD Web Content Provider of the Democratic National Convention, which will be held this August in Denver.

Microsoft will outfit the DNCC's convention website with HD video coverage of the convention. It will also support the convention's electronic voting system for delegates, providing "up-to-the-minute" vote totals to the Office of the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee, according to the DNCC, and Microsoft software will organize the credentialing process for the convention.

The convention's delegate tracking system will also fall under Microsoft's purview. The DNCC says Microsoft softeare will help "gather and manage a multitude of information about Convention participants."

Microsoft served as Official Software Provider for the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

The truckers activist group Truckers and Citizens United is set to hold a rally at the Capitol today to protest high gas prices, with truckers traveling to Washington, D.C. in a convoy from Pennsylvania.

Organizers arranged a meeting in Harrisburg, Pa. at 6 a.m. today, with truckers heading into D.C. in a convoy that reportedly caused rush-hour traffic delays in Pennsylvania. The group called for "everyone who is affected by high fuel costs"--including home heating oil--to gather for the convoy.
The truckers are scheduled to park at RFK stadium and walk to the Capitol, protesting on the Capitol's West lawn. Truckers and Citizens United's scheduling information says the rally's permit lasts from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

According to the group's mission statement, Truckers and Citizens United pushes for "immediate stoppage to the subsidies being given to big oil" and release of oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserves. The group has circulated a petition calling on the U.S. government to act on fuel prices, gathering 1,198 signatures.

Bloomberg just released the guest list to its coveted White House Correspondents Dinner after party and one name that jumped out was that of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain (R-Ariz). Other McCain family members listed include his daughter Meghan and his mother Roberta, The Hill's Emily Goodin reports.

And the Bloomberg Party wouldn't be complete without the celebrity factor. On this year's list: actors Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Firth, Pamela Anderson, Catherine Bell, Bradley Cooper, Rosario Dawson, Rupert Everett, Rob Lowe and fashion designer Donatella Versace.

The party takes place Saturday night at the Embassy of Costa Rica. McCain and several other after-partygoers will ride the Straight Talk Express from the dinner to the Bloomberg bash. But an invite is mandatory and yes, there is a list (and security guards) at the door.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) tomorrow will launch a tour through California, Nevada, and Colorado in opposition of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay and lesbian servicemembers. The tour will start in San Diego, then will proceed to Las Vegas, Denver, and Palm Springs.

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House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman (D-Calif.) today announced he will look at how foreign assistance can be reformed in the next administration, with a hearing tomorrow that the committee's spokeswoman says will be the first of several.

"No matter who wins in Pennsylvania today, or in the national election in November, the next administration will need to work with Congress on addressing problems in how this country distributes aid and conducts development programs in other countries," Foreign Affairs Committee spokeswoman Lynne Weil wrote in an email to reporters today.

Weil told The Hill that Berman wants to conduct a "top to bottom review" of U.S. foreign assistance "with an aim toward working with the next administration to address any large-scale problems."

The State Dept. began restructuring U.S. foreign assistance roughly two years ago when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice created the position of "Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance" at the department in April 2006.

Since a March 2007 full committee hearing where the committee heard testimony from Randall Tobias, the since-retired first director of U.S. foreign assistance, four Foreign Affairs subcommittees have examined foreign assistance in their respective geographic areas of interest.

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.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is asking all three presidential candidates for their positions on a handful of federal court nominations that have stalled in the Senate.

Specter sent letters to his fellow senators, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, asking whether they would support sending three nominations out of the Judiciary Committee and onto the full Senate. The three nominees are Peter Keisler, for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Republicans have charged Democrats with dragging their feet over the nominations and have threatened to hold up a patent bill and other legislation in the Senate. Democrats counter by pointing out that 86 percent of President Bush 's judicial nominees have been confirmed.

Make sure to read the letters to McCain, Clinton and Obama, each of whom receive hand-written notes from Specter.

Capitol Police investigated an unattended moped Thursday afternoon parked on the sidewalk in front of the Rayburn House office building along Indepedence Avenue, reports The Hill's Jordy Yager.

The bomb squad responded to the cream colored Kymco moped and cleared its back storage unit for hazardous items. Officers ticketed the vehicle and said it would be towed if its owner did not claim it soon.

The incident comes a few months after a man was arrested on charges that he had an explosive device and a loaded shotgun on Capitol Hill. After the police on Jan. 18 arrested Michael Gorbey, alleging that he was carrying the shotgun and walking toward the Supreme Court, investigators also found a truck with materials that could be used to build an explosive device that they believed to belong to Gorbey.

The Senate is set to vote on one circuit and four district judicial nominees today, its first potential confirmations since Dec. 18.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized the Judiciary Committee today for its "glacial pace" in bringing nominees to the Senate floor. McConnell said today's nominees "may be it for a while" due to the committee's pace and took particular issue with Fourth Circuit vacancies.

"It's not as if the committee has been otherwise occupied," McConnell said on the Senate floor today. "These nominees meet the chairman's own criteria for prompt consideration. Nevertheless, they have been inexplicably languishing in the committee for hundreds of days while the Fourth Circuit is one-third vacant."

The Senate last considered a judicial nominee on Dec. 18, when it confirmed Daniel Tinder as a 7th Circuit judge.