The presidency of Barack Obama dominated political events in 2009.  Whether it was discussion of the bank bailouts last winter or the continuing failure of the government to solve the problem of depression-era unemployment, the blame or success will be laid on the doorstep of Obama’s White House.  Whether or not Congress passes meaningful health care reform, it will be on this president’s watch.  After announcing an American troop surge in Afghanistan, this administration now owns that war. And whether the fortunes of the far right and white nationalist movements rose or fell during the past year, Barack Hussein Obama will be regarded—rightly or wrongly—as the cause.

Leonard Zeskind will be following and writing about the trial as it proceeds.

Picking the jury that will vote on whether Scott Roeder murdered Dr. Tiller in the first degree or whether he simply committed voluntary manslaughter is continuing. Thevoir dire process appears to be fairly thorough. Prospective jurors spend an average of thirty minutes privately discussing their views with the court. They also answer eighty-eight questions on a written firm.

Despite the pouring rain, nearly three hundred Tea Party supporters from across the state gathered on the steps of the Washington State capitol for the “Sovereignty Winter Fest” on January 14. The event featured state legislators, candidates for state and federal seats, Tea Party leaders, and other far-right activists from around the region. It was designed to support a series of state’s rights 10th Amendment “sovereignty” resolutions in the Washington legislature. This turn away from anti-tax and anti-healthcare rhetoric towards state sovereignty language points to a possible radicalization of the movement.

To Understand the Trial of Scott Roeder Read
Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War
by James Risen and Judy L. Thomas
Basic Books 1998

Leonard Zeskind will be following and writing about the trial as it proceeds.

If you want to understand the back story as Scott Roeder goes to trial in Wichita, Kansas for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, go to James Risen and Judy L. Thomas' 1998 book,Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War. It is all there: the dynamic inside the "pro-life" movement that produces killers when the chances are not high that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade; the emergence of the Army of God as a supra-organizational name tag for clinic bombers; the first "Defensive Action" statement signed by people who supported doctor killers; Shelley Shannon's 1993 shooting of Dr. Tiller; and the mass civil disobedience of the "Summer of Mercy."

Unemployment rates tell us some things about how the economy is doing. But aggregate rates, even if they go down a virtual eighth of an inch like they did in November, hide high levels of disparity by race. And they have told us next to nothing about any link between unemployment and violence by organized self-conscious racists.

In Gainesville, Florida, a Christian pastor sent his ten-year old daughter to school with the slogan “Islam is of the Devil” printed in large red block type on the back of her t-shirt. The same slogan had been posted on a homemade sign outside a nearby church. In South Carolina, the words “death to Muslims” were marked near an entrance to an Islamic Center.

A Michigan university got quite a shock when they requested a speaker from an upstate anti-immigration group.

We've graphed the Bureau of Labor Statistics Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate for the categories, overall, white, black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, men over 20, and women over 20. Take a look.