"We know people who've said, routinely, you're gonna have to make decisions," Gingrich said. "Communal standards, historically, is a very dangerous concept."

To which Stephanopoulos responded: "But that's not in the bill.

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Have you?

Nor have I seen any organized group of Muslims or Communists in Congress and elsewhere dead set to prove that Obama is not an American.

Have you?

Nor have I seen any signs of large numbers Muslims and Communists supported by mainstream media, FOX et al, forming anything like the Teabag movement.

Have you?

The ACLU is taking it to court:

Tallahassee, FL - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the state's decision to force a pregnant woman to remain hospitalized against her will.

"Women do not give up their right to determine the course of their own medical care when they become pregnant," said Diana Kasdan, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "Faced with similar cases, courts throughout the country have made clear that pregnant women have a right to make decisions about their own health, including refusing medical care."

In March 2009, the Circuit Court of Leon County ordered Samantha Burton -- a mother of two suffering from pregnancy complications -- to be indefinitely confined to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and forced to undergo any and all medical treatments deemed necessary to save her fetus. After three days of state-compelled hospitalization, Ms. Burton suffered fetal demise and was released from the hospital. . . .

But I also care about democracy, and the deal between Big Pharma and the White House frankly worries me. It's bad enough when industry lobbyists extract concessions from members of Congress, which happens all the time. But when an industry gets secret concessions out of the White House in return for a promise to lend the industry's support to a key piece of legislation, we're in big trouble. That's called extortion: An industry is using its capacity to threaten or prevent legislation as a means of altering that legislation for its own benefit. And it's doing so at the highest reaches of our government, in the office of the President.

Well, it's coming to pass.  DKos, one of the virulent pro-Obama blogs during the campaign, has a diary currently at the top of its rec list all about Obama disappointment.

It's called:

Oh, my President. What are you doing?

The diary runs through a litany of Obama's actions in support of the status quo, ending with his deal with Big Pharma.

And the comments mostly agree.  

A lot of us here predicted this.  But, honestly, I wish we'd been wrong.

Obviously, none of this means that Obama's presidency is over.  Or that there aren't years to correct this.

Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company's owner, Erik Prince, "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for "security services" in Iraq, according to federal contract data obtained by The Nation. The State Department contract is scheduled to run through September 3. In May, the State Department announced it was not renewing Blackwater's Iraq contract, and the Iraqi government has refused to issue the company an operating license.

"They are still there, but we are transitioning them out," a State Department official told The Nation. According to the State Department, the $20 million represents an increase on an aviation contract that predates the Obama administration.

Despite its scandal-plagued track record, Blackwater (which has rebranded itself as Xe) continues to have a presence in Iraq, trains Afghan forces on US contracts and provides government-funded training for military and law enforcement inside the United States. The company is also actively bidding on other government contracts, including in Afghanistan, where the number of private contractors is swelling. According to federal contracting records reviewed by The Nation, since President Barack Obama took office in January the State Department has contracted with Blackwater for more than $174 million in "security services" alone in Iraq and Afghanistan and tens of millions more in "aviation services." Much of this money stems from existing contracts from the Bush era that have been continued by the Obama administration. While Obama certainly inherited a mess when it came to Blackwater's entrenchment in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has continued the widespread use of armed private contractors in both countries. Blackwater's role may be slowly shrinking, but its work is continuing through companies such as DynCorp and Triple Canopy.

This is all after Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, was implicated in murder, in sworn statements made by a former employee and an ex-US Marine who contracted with the company.

The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety

Nearly four years after the police shootout that took the lives of Ronald Madison and James Brissette on New Orleans' Danziger Bridge, the FBI raided the offices of the police investigators who had been looking into the deadly incident.

The bureau's move suggests that the federal government may be serious about seeing police officers prosecuted over the Sept. 4, 2005 shootout, when Madison and Brissette were allegedly killed by police while four others were wounded as they crossed a bridge in the midst of the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

It also suggests the FBI may be worried that New Orleans police are trying -- or may in the future try -- to destroy evidence of what happened that day.

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also

According to New Orleans TV station WDSU, the "investigation had been years in the making and the probe into the police department is broader than the events that happened on the Danziger Bridge that left two dead and four wounded."

so OTOH it's hearting to see that women can play cowboy and perhaps be photographed chopping wood

Efforts to return deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power hit a new roadblock Sunday when the country's de facto government canceled an upcoming visit by foreign envoys who're seeking to resolve the Central American nation's six-week-old political crisis.

Honduras' interim government said it couldn't accept a delegation led by Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, because of what it called his "lack of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism."

Sunday's announcement was an about-face by de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti, who on Friday said he welcomed the envoys' visit.

Well finally the US is getting super tough on the [non coup] coup government of Micheletti:

A State Department spokesperson Sunday said the Obama administration remains committed to the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

"We continue to believe a negotiated solution is the right way to go and the Arias Plan is a good one," the State Department said. "Both sides would be well advised to accept it."