On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Senator Lieberman, I think, is a national treasure, because no matter how you feel about his politics, he was willing to risk everything, politically, for a cause he believed in.

The passing of Friday’s 5:00 p.m. deadline brings to a close a career in elected office that began with Craig’s election to the Idaho state Senate in 1974 and all but clears the way for Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch (R) to take his seat next year in the strongly Republican state where President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) 68 percent to 30 percent in the last presidential contest.

"Anybody who looks at the two cases will see that there is an enormous difference between the two of them,” he said. “The people that are trying to draw comparisons to the two cases are people who’ve never agreed with me on important issues like immigration and other things.”

WHY are you running a John McCain Ad on your website?!
sleeping with the enemy?!
cripes!

If Spitzer were to resign, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would assume the responsibilities of governor, which most LGBT activists guessed would be the best-case scenario for gays and lesbians in the state. Paterson, who is legally blind and represented Harlem in the state senate, has typically been ahead of his time on gay issues over the years.

“David Paterson is a terrific, progressive guy -- extremely LGBT-friendly,” said Ethan Geto, a Democratic analyst and LGBT activist. “He is somebody who would absolutely follow through on the commitment of the senate Democratic conference to pass gay marriage.”

Paterson has been on record in support of marriage equality as early as 1994. When Paterson was asked if he would take part in pushing through the marriage bill following his inauguration in January 2007, he told the New York Blade, “I’m not going to be in that fight -- I’m going to be in front of that fight because my first day as [senate minority leader] was the day we passed the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act. One of the reasons we need same-sex marriage is because the statistics for heterosexual marriage are so bad; that might be a way to upgrade some of the success rates.”

As far back as 1987, Paterson refused to pass a state hate-crimes bill that didn’t provide protections for gays and lesbians. “He was willing to let everything go down rather than to exclude us,” Sherrill recalled.

If and when Paterson becomes governor, the New York State Constitution does not provide for a new lieutenant governor to be named. The post would remain vacant until the end of the term in 2010.

This would also prevent Paterson from being the tie-breaker in the Senate. Senate Democrats, who have long been expecting to take the majority in the Senate this year, would have to capture two seats to make this happen. Since Darrel Aubertine’s Feb. 26 special election win, with Paterson as the tie-breaker, Democrats had been counting on just needing one seat—and perhaps taking control before November by flipping a GOP senator to their conference [emphasis added].

John McCain is getting much more than President Bush's endorsement and fundraising help for his campaign. He’s getting Bush's staff.

It’s no secret that Steve Schmidt, Bush’s attack dog in the 2004 election, and Mark McKinnon, the president’s media strategist, are performing similar functions for McCain now.

But other big-name Bushies are lining up to boost McCain, too.

Ken Mehlman, who ran Bush’s 2004 campaign, is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to the Arizona Republican. Karl Rove, the president’s top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain.