Concerns for the safety of Barack Obama, and questions about the next steps by hardcore racists continue to bubble up as the president’s inauguration nears. One set of white supremacists allegedly plotting against his life has already been discovered. And several newspaper articles have concluded that an upsurge in activity by racists and antisemites is already under way. If history is any guide, we can be certain that some sort of white nationalist rising will come in the not-too-distant future.

Taking umbrage at the attention that the Doonesbury comic strip has drawn to a "Birther Bill" sitting in a House committee, Texas congressman Louie Gohmert (Republican) recently told Washington Post blogger Mary Ann Akers that the bill, H.R. 1503, has nothing to do with needling President Obama. If it ever was voted up and signed, Gohmert says, the bill would not take effect until the next presidential election in 2012. It would mandate that the campaign committees of the various contenders for president submit birth certificates and "other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility..."