Midday Open Thread

• In case you missed it, Jenna Bush was married to Henry Chase Hager yesterday on the Crawford ranch.  A lovely Texas ceremony by all accounts, and the NYT notes:

  On Saturday afternoon, the Hager family hosted wedding guests at a barbecue in Salado. The wedding, which began at 7:30 p.m., took place on the Bush ranch, before a white limestone altar erected next to a man-made lake. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated at the ceremony. Mr. Caldwell, a longtime religious adviser to Mr. Bush, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama.

• The battle between the IRS and churches may be heating up as churches with a political bent seek to challenge the tax exemption laws.

  A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics.

  Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.

  The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

• The US Military has court-martialled an Iraqi-Canadian working as a translator for the US in Iraq.

  In 2006, Congress gave the military authority to prosecute crimes allegedly committed by civilians working for the armed forces.

  Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, referred the case, the military said in a statement.

  "This is the first time a civilian will be tried by court-martial" under the 2006 amendment, it said.

• Cokie Roberts was on This Week with George Stephanopolous - as usual - but this week she was saying how unfair the media has been to Hillary, calling for her to drop-out and that it surely must be for sexist reasons.  Then she muttered something to the effect of "and I don't even read the blogs, I can't even begin to imagine what they're saying." Link to the video. Oh--- how awful it must be to have to suffer through the voice of actual voters, Cokie.  I've got news for you sweetheart -- it can't be any harder than listening to you and George Will bloviate on and on, all the while feeding each other's smug sense of entitlement on an otherwise pleasant Sunday morning.
• It seems William Kristol will always have fierce competition for the title "Dumbest Conservative Pundit" (DUCPU), even at his own profoundly shallow magazine. Here is one of his stable of ignoramuses, Michael Goldfarb, parroting the Republican Party line:

  “As to whether Bush is a recruiting tool for terrorists--who cares? Al Qaeda was recruiting before Bush was in office and they will continue to do so after he's gone. The important thing is that we keep killing those recruits. Eventually, one side will give up. And if Obama wins in November, we know which side that will be.”

  - smintheus

• Happy Mother's Day to all the Kossack mothers and grandmothers.  Enjoy the day.