Does anyone else think Barack Obama is the coolest cat in politics? This article in the Washington Post today just reaffirms my conviction that this man will be the first African American president in this country.

In case you are looking to be inspired, or perhaps re-inspired, check out his DNC Convention speech, "The Audacity of Hope."

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America...

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

For more about his leadership thus far in the Senate, check out Barack's statement about the nomination of Alberto Gonzales on the Senate Floor. Love this line, "The job is not simply to facilitate the President's power, it is to speak truth to that power as well."

The newspapers have been brimming with stories about contributors to this site:

Lilah Pomerance's wedding was featured in the NYT this weekend. Congrats to Lilah and new hubby Dan. For those of you who do not know Lilah, check out the article anyway. If you like funny, romantic proposal stories, you will love this one.

And our old pal Sarah Holmes stars in the Portsmouth (NH) Herald today. Granted it is no New York Times, but we are all so proud of our little Holmes. Article here. Nice picture Holmes.

The article is all about campaign work, so it might interest you junkies out there. Abi Green describes campaign work well in the Herald piece: "It’s part insanity, part addiction."

Most of you know I worked for Howard Dean in his inspiring bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year. I'll spare you the sentimental details of how great it was to see him accept the nomination as DNC chairman a few weeks ago in DC.

Most folks over at Bush, Inc. have been celebrating his election, claiming that the liberal, vegan, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie blogging "Deaniacs" will make a mockery of the DNC. They might want to listen to one of their own.

Reed Davis is an associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University. He ran for the GOP nomination to the U.S. Senate last year and is a former chairman of the King County Republican Party. In his Seattle Times op-ed, Davis argues that, despite the foolish congratulations the party is giving itself over Dean's nomination, the new DNC Chair has the potential to be very dangerous to them.

NOW that Howard Dean has ascended to the chairmanship of the Democrat National Committee, Republicans are high-fiving one another with such mad glee that you'd think Democrats had just nominated Dennis Kucinich to run in 2008. The GOP needs to sit back down, recork the champagne and get back to work. Whether they know it or not, Republicans need to understand that Dean spells trouble for the Republican Party. Big trouble.

Republicans may think that the nomination of Dean is hysterically funny -- a scream, in fact, as George Will recently put it -- but they are deluding themselves if they think Dean is nothing more than a wild-eyed ideologue with a temper and a cult following.

Dean brings three talents to the chairmanship that can potentially sink not just a GOP presidential candidate in 2008 but the Republican-controlled House and maybe even the Senate well before then.

Those three talents? 1) Fund raising; 2) understanding and embracing grassroots, face-to-face politics, and 3) charisma.

As a Divinity School graduate involved in progressive political organizing, I get a little unnerved at the common myth that Republicans are the party of God and all things righteous. Last time I read the New Testament Jesus had a lot to say about taking care of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized. More importantly, he DID something about it.

Here is more recent evidence that while Bush, Inc. might shout its faith over the air waves, the company has never practiced anything close to compassion.

David Kuo's article (former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives) is a good example from a Republican insider about the hypocrisy that defines Bush, Inc: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html

As Kuo writes, you see priorities in the budget:

"Sadly, four years later these promises [of compassionate conservatism] remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact. In June 2001, the promised tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped at the last minute from the $1.6 trillion tax cut legislation to make room for the estate-tax repeal that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy. The Compassion Capital Fund has received a cumulative total of $100 million during the past four years [out of a promised 200]. And new programs including those for children of prisoners, at-risk youth, and prisoners reentering society have received a little more than $500 million over four years--or approximately $6.3 billion less than the promised $6.8 billion."

Washington Post article on the Kuo story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24561-2005Feb14.html?sub=AR

Bird's Eye View will be a politically-focused personal blog of daily rants that most sane, smart people will never read. It will not change the world in any way. It will not create news or provide you with any information you need to make it through your f*ed up reality.

Words will be misspelled. Comments will be unedited. It will be cynical and jaded, yet hopeful. Editorials will be baised (towards the poor and unrelenting against the rich, elite, unethical republican leadership in this country). Actually research will be virtually non-existent.

The goal is to entertain all of my unemployed progressive brothers and sisters still reeling from our pathetic loss to the gay-bashing, fear-enticing, war-mongering repubs. And, it will provide my employed brothers and sisters another outlet other than IM to surf while "working," particularly those in the "labor" movement.