There's a lot of talk here that Obama did nothing wrong by voting "present" more than 100 times in Illinois -- that this is simply how things are done in the Land of Lincoln.

But there is a real issue here -- about Obama's willingness to take on the fights against the right wing that we need a president to take on.

Let's recall Obama's very troubling vote last fall in the U.S. Senate on the resolution to condemn Moveon.org.

Follow me after the flip

David Broder has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that one of Hillary's biggest problems in winning next year is Bill Clinton.
(Follow me over the flip)

The Senate may vote as early as tomorrow on the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Senate Democrats should show that it made a difference that they took over the majority by defeating this terrible judge.  Sadly, it is not at all clear that they will.

(Join me after the jump)

Syria has just sentenced Anwar al-Bunni, a leading human rights lawyer, to five years in prison.  His crime: "spreading false information" that Syria practices torture.

(Follow me after the jump)

Today on "Meet the Press," Tim Russert's roundtable guests for a long discussion of the Iraq War, Bush, the Republican primary, and the Democratic primary were:
  David Gregory of NBC (fresh from his backup role for Karl Rove a/k/a "Rove MC")
  Chuck Todd of NBC
  Judy Woodruff of PBS
  Kate O'Beirne of the National Review

This is not a balanced panel.
 (More after the jump)
 

You think the right wing is upset about the Democrats' decision to boycott the Fox-sponsored presidential debate in Nevada?

The arch-conservative Las Vegas Review Journal has an editorial up now (linked to on Drudge!) squealing and squawking about it.  The editorial describes someone--oh, that would be us here on DailyKos--as

But the socialist, Web-addicted wing of the Democratic Party was apoplectic. The prospect of having to watch Fox News to see their own candidates would have been torture in itself.

More after the jump . . .

There's a controversy unfolding in England right now about an Islamic school that admits that it uses textbooks that describe Jews as "apes" and Christians as "pigs."  The principal, Dr Sumaya Alyusuf, is refusing to stop using the books.

The school is funded by the Saudi government.

Here's a link: link

This will not be the most subtle of diaries, because the gist of this situation is quite simple: this sort of "education" is unacceptable.

If the Saudis claim to be our allies, they need to stop funding schools that teach bigotry and that dehumanize non-Muslims.

The Muslim community should also speak out against "education" of this kind.

It makes it difficult to promote tolerance and peace if the next generation is having this kind of hate spewed at them.

I'd like to see Congress look into whether the Saudi government is in fact funding education of this kind--the Bush Administration is too close to the Saudis to be trusted on this.

It's great that Rahm Emmanuel is talking about filing civil lawsuits against the GOP for its robocall dirty tricks.

But the Democrats should be LOUDLY talking about pursuing criminal charges.
[more after the flip]

I am not one of those who say that the DailyKos community is anti-Israel.  There are a diversity of views in the community on the Middle East, as on many other topics.

That said, there is a disturbing phenonemnon of anti-Israel posters troll rating defenders of Israel.

If you want an example, just look at the diary from about an hour ago, "Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb."  The diary is based on some fairly sketchy evidence, but no one has troll rated the diarist, or those who defend it.

For putting forth an opposing view, defending Israel--and suggesting that Mideast diaries focus on ways that we can move the region toward peace--I've now been troll rated twice.  Three times if you count the troll rating given my comment objecting to being troll rated.

Other posters in the thread suggest that it's become increasingly common to be troll rated for making reasonable comments, particularly about Israel.

I'm no fan of meta-diaries, but I raise this because I think this sort of ratings abuse stifles free debate on the site and is bad for the community.