05
Sep
15

Chat Away


124 Responses to “Chat Away”


  1. 2 Judith Fardig
    September 5, 2025 at 12:19 pm

    Thanks, Chips!

  2. 5 Judith Fardig
    September 5, 2025 at 12:21 pm

    Still trying to talk sense into Ron Wyden who is up for re-election in peace-loving Oregon. Wish we could primary him if he opposes the Iran Deal.

    • 6 jackiegrumbacher
      September 5, 2025 at 12:29 pm

      Judith, it’s not too late to find a primary opponent. Is the state Dem party well organized in OR? If so, some well-placed calls to the Director’s office might light a fire under somebody.

      • 7 Judith Fardig
        September 5, 2025 at 12:37 pm

        Since I am with OFA, I have no clout with the Democratic Party of Oregon. Doubt if they would entertain a primary opponent since they don’t want to have to burn any $ on a Senate race.

  3. 8 otter44
    September 5, 2025 at 12:24 pm

    Thanks for your hard work Judith. I do not get Wyden. I have wrtitten letters and called Cantwell but nothing….

    • 9 Judith Fardig
      September 5, 2025 at 12:35 pm

      Wyden is very much aligned with AIPAC and Schumer. Oregon members of J Street and Jewish Voices For Peace have been working on him along with most progressive groups here. He keeps stonewalling and saying he will announce at the last minute, but he sounds dug in. His wife owns the Strand Bookstore in NYC, and they seem more NYC than OR now.

      Cantwell’s office says she is busy focused on the wild fires, but I know she can multi-task and pointed that out.

      • 10 jacquelineoboomer
        September 5, 2025 at 12:52 pm

        *I know she can multi-task and pointed that out*

        Love your take-no-prisoners attitude, Judith! Thanks.

      • 11 otter44
        September 5, 2025 at 1:10 pm

        Thanks Judith. I thought the office was more closed off and non communicative than on previous issues. So I am baffled. Her constituents are clearly anti war.. so this delay is frustrating.

  4. 12 JER
    September 5, 2025 at 12:26 pm


    President Obama is playing golf at Army-Navy Country Club.

    • 13 hopefruit2
      September 5, 2025 at 12:36 pm

      Is Brother Mark on it? :)

      • 14 vcprezofan2
        September 5, 2025 at 12:43 pm

        You and your new brother!!!!! Makes me laugh ever since you adopted him with Brother West’s blessing.

      • 15 Nena20409
        September 5, 2025 at 1:30 pm

        and this too to keep his Von Count meme in tact.

  5. 16 jackiegrumbacher
    September 5, 2025 at 12:26 pm

    Judith, well done for coming in first. Chips, the cartoon is brilliant, although I have to say that woman’s face is enough to frighten small children. Can’t imagine having to see and work with her every day. We are all set up for a birthday party for our little granddaughter, but the birthday girl has not yet arrived due to a VERY late start on the part of her parents (SIGH). She’s a big fan of Shaun the Sheep, so have a Shaun b-day cake waiting on the counter. That sheep is really homely and I think the poor baker was slightly repelled. Oh well, whatever works.

  6. 29 vcprezofan2
    September 5, 2025 at 12:30 pm

    It’s hard to know whom to trust at times - at least it seems that way.

    Administrator of Chicago-Area Home Visiting Physician Practice Sentenced to More Than Seven Years in Prison for Role in $4 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

    The lead administrator of a Chicago-area visiting physician practice was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in a $4 million health care fraud scheme.

    Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of the Northern District of Illinois, Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) in Chicago and Acting Special Agent in Charge John A. Brown of the FBI’s Chicago Division made the announcement.

    Rick Brown, 58, of Rockford, Illinois, was convicted in May 2015 following a jury trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud and three counts of false statements relating to a health care matter. In addition to imposing the prison term, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman of the Northern District of Illinois ordered Brown to pay $1.3 million in restitution.

    From 2007 to 2011, Brown was the President of Home Care America Inc., which managed the daily business operations of Medicall Physicians Group Ltd. (Medicall), a physician practice that visited patients in their homes and prescribed home health care. ………………………..
    ………………………………..

    Mary Talaga, 54, of Elmwood Park, Illinois, and Roger A. Lucero, 64, of Elmhurst, Illinois, also have been convicted of offenses based on their roles in the scheme. Talaga, Home Care America’s biller, was convicted along with Brown at trial and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18, 2015. Lucero, Medicall’s Medical Director, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced at a later date.

    The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois. This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Brooke Harper and Senior Trial Attorney Jon Juenger of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
    ………………………………………………….. //

    http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/administrator-chicago-area-home-visiting-physician-practice-sentenced-more-seven-years-prison

  7. 30 globalcitizenlinda
    September 5, 2025 at 12:31 pm

    wonder what all these “Christians” would do if someone from a non-Christian (or no religion at all) would use the same excuse, of “religious liberty”, to deny them services because (e.g, they women are not covered up in a conservative manner);

    one day, we had one of those “war on Christmas” crap with a group of local evangelicals who wanted to put up a nativity scene at the state house lawn;

    I discussed with my friends what would happen if we encouraged the local mosque to go and get space on the same state house lawn and put up their religious items next to the nativity scene.

    at the time the end of Ramadan (and hence the Muslim Holiday of Idi) coincided with the Christmas festivities;

    it was not hard to imagine how these same “Christians” would have reacted towards scenes of celebration from another religion;

    this world is changing, I want laws to protect me from other people imposing their religious beliefs on me - not matter what they are;

  8. 32 sherijr
    September 5, 2025 at 12:33 pm

    Last week I mentioned that there was a house fire that took the lives of a couple in their 60s in my neighborhood… today the Fire Dept is knocking on doors to make sure everyone has smoke alarms. So happy they’re doing this :) Yay Baltimore!

    • 33 Tnmtngirl
      September 5, 2025 at 12:40 pm

      That’s such a good thing for the to do. Thoughtful and caring public servants.

    • 34 0388jojothecat
      September 5, 2025 at 12:48 pm

      So sorry about your elderly neighbors. I am glad they are being proactive. Due to the drought the city is requiring all home owners to use low flow showerheads. They should require all homeowners have smoke alarms and install free for low income senior homeowners.

      • 35 sherijr
        September 5, 2025 at 4:12 pm

        I believe they were installing them for everyone today that didn’t have them, one on each floor they said. I have mine already (excessive amount ;) as I really do fear fires in these old houses. So the fact that pretty much everyone will have smoke alarms means we are allll going to be much safer here.

  9. 36 GGail
    September 5, 2025 at 12:37 pm

    Good East/West morning/afternoon Chipsticks & TOD family.

    Looking good on First, Judith â˜ș

  10. 43 0388jojothecat
    September 5, 2025 at 12:39 pm

    As ususal the over zealous GOP is trying to make discrimination constitutional. One day we could have a city or county that is not Christian and impose their religion on them but thanks to GOP this can happen

  11. 45 GGail
    September 5, 2025 at 1:00 pm

    Just finished watching the WWW. The people who edit all the material to make it must really know what we the public want to see each week. I love this one, especially the “cone or cup” 😘

  12. 46 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 1:07 pm

    • 47 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
      September 5, 2025 at 1:34 pm

  13. 48 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 1:16 pm

  14. 49 otter44
    September 5, 2025 at 1:21 pm

    Washington State Supreme Court ruled Friday (unusualsince normally decision are released on Thursdays) that charter schools are not “common schools” within the meaning of the Washington state constitution and therefore can NOT share in common school funding. Common schools must be under the control of the local voters of the school district and the initiative set up a charter school board which did not comply with the constitution and with case law defining the term common school. They also reffirmed previous rulings that the initiative process in Washington can not be used to amend the state consitution.

    • 50 maryl1
      September 5, 2025 at 4:25 pm

      Woohoo! Go Washington!! I was at a union conference this summer (Michigan Education Association) and their big point was that the state education budget (something like $13B) is the last big pot of public money that is out of their reach, and the only way they can get their sticky fingers in it is to destroy public school and privatize. Good for you for throwing a stumbling block in their way. Our Republican governor and legislature are all in favor. :(

  15. 51 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 1:31 pm

    • 52 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
      September 5, 2025 at 1:33 pm

      • 53 Bill R.
        September 5, 2025 at 1:54 pm

        Bob, can you explain this?

        • 54 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
          September 5, 2025 at 2:27 pm

          Certainly Bill. Apparently Senator Reid has already ‘whipped’ a minimum of 41 No votes.

          And, he knows that Sen Manchin is a No on an actual vote and will similarly vote to sustain a veto.

          But, Sen Manchin is against blocking debate with a Filibuster.

          So, Senator Reid tells Senator McConnell we won’t filibuster. Have the debate, but totally consistent with McConnell’s requirement while Dems held the majority, Senator Reid is saying that after debate the vote must meet a 60 vote threshold.

          If McConnell balks, then Manchin knows the ‘debate’ is a farce and all McConnell wants to do is get away with being a hypocrite & force the President to veto the bill.

          If McConnell goes with it, he knows the bill will fail. If it fails, no matter what the House does, it dies in Congress and never reaches the President’s desk.

          In any scenario, what we all now know (if what is ascribed to Senator Reid is accurate) is that the GOP has lost yet another battle with PBO.

  16. 65 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 1:33 pm

    various other updates in the sidebar ….

  17. 67 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 1:34 pm

    Rafael Nadal lost in :( :( :( 5 sets to some Bloke.
    Tim Tebow is released from the Philadelphia Eagles. It was funny how some so called Sports Analysts were so sure that poor Tebow had made the cut. I do feel for him.

    • 68 Nena20409
      September 5, 2025 at 2:21 pm

      • 69 Don
        September 5, 2025 at 2:35 pm

        The guy couldn’t throw the football, and if you are a quarterback in the NFL one of the perquisites is that you have to be able to throw the football.

      • 70 Don
        September 5, 2025 at 2:47 pm

        In college in the SEC Tebow could get away with having a noodle for an arm, but in the big boy league they don’t take too kindly to rag arm quarterbacks.

  18. 71 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 1:37 pm

    I saw this on C-SPAN. I didn’t watch it all. Some of the uninformed callers were Crazy…..but Trita did a good job. The AEI guy was Typical…..

    • 72 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
      September 5, 2025 at 1:39 pm

      I think you’ll enjoy this tweet from Trita, Nena :)

  19. 74 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 1:38 pm

  20. 75 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 1:53 pm

  21. 76 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 1:54 pm

  22. 77 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 2:02 pm

    It always intriguingly annoying at the Fatuousness of some of fellow Citizens……filled with ignorance and racism.
    Seriously?
    Pres Obama has done it yet AGAIN……. now he is a what? Christian Muslim?

  23. 84 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 2:08 pm

    Fox and WSJ and the New York Post have all tried to Take TRUMP down……Failed!
    They could not kill their King of Birthrism…….in 2011, at the WHCD, it was Fox who had Trump at their table…..if memory serves me right.
    And now, Murdoch thinks that Dr. Ben Carson is his man to do it?
    Nope. Sorry Pops. The GOPers will Never replace Pres Obama with Dr. BenC. They are looking for a ‘White Hope’ and for now, TRUMP is their man.

    • 85 Don
      September 5, 2025 at 2:37 pm

      LOL!!! Right, because the GOP is looking for someone like Dr. Ben Carson to represent their party.

    • 87 GGail
      September 5, 2025 at 4:01 pm

      Carson and Trump have been stumped by Foreign Policy questions. They both reminded me of SPalin :D :D

    • 89 99ts
      September 5, 2025 at 5:56 pm

      Hahaha - does Murdock not know that Ben Carson has the wrong color skin for the GOP - Trump is winning because white guy hating on anyone else. Murdoch also tweeting to entrench our RWNJ PM - another fail. The guy isn’t coping with the massive downturn in the newspaper business - he can no longer control the masses with his propaganda.

  24. 90 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 2:11 pm

    Both Austria and Germany
    Finland, Sweden, etc are finally trying to ease the Crisis in EU.

  25. 91 Nena20409
    September 5, 2025 at 2:15 pm

  26. 92 prettyfoot58
    September 5, 2025 at 2:43 pm

    yessssss..

  27. 97 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 2:44 pm

    Talk about irony ….

  28. 99 prettyfoot58
    September 5, 2025 at 2:53 pm

  29. 100 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 2:54 pm

    • 101 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
      September 5, 2025 at 2:55 pm

    • 102 SUEDUVALLSMITH
      September 5, 2025 at 3:48 pm

      GOD WILL PUNIISH ANYONE WHO MISTREATS IMMIGRANTS…IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE EVERYWHERE! HIS HIGHEST COMMAND IS TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF…IF YOU HATE YOUR BROTHER YOU ARE NOT HIS!

  30. 103 Bobfr (@Our4thEstate)
    September 5, 2025 at 2:58 pm

  31. 104 prettyfoot58
    September 5, 2025 at 3:03 pm

    The shift to energy that is generated from natural resources — including wind power, solar power and geothermal heat — follows a “decade-plus” city goal, said city Utilities and Environmental Initiatives Director David Hornbacher.

    “It was a very forward-thinking goal and truly remarkable achievement,” Hornbacher said. “This means we are powered by the forces of nature, predominately water and wind with a touch of solar and landfill gas.”

    The first two U.S. cities to reach the goal were Burlington, Vermont, followed by Greensburg, Kansas.

    this makes me happy…we are moving forward….more things to make me nervous about the President leaving office

  32. 113 prettyfoot58
    September 5, 2025 at 4:10 pm

    Sweet Treat break!!

  33. 116 Allison
    September 5, 2025 at 4:36 pm

    HI Bob,

    What does this mean??

  34. 124 prettyfoot58
    September 5, 2025 at 5:24 pm


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


@POTUS

@BarackObama

@WhiteHouse

@FLOTUS

@blog44

@PeteSouza

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

@TheObamaDiary

@NerdyWonka

@Lib_Librarian

@Our4thEstate

@DaRiverZkind

@zizii2

RSS White House.gov

  • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

RSS WH Tumblr

  • Big news this Labor Day: President Obama is expanding access to...
  • “Climate change is not just affecting spectacular views...
  • Happy National Wildlife Day! Check out some of the wildlife that...
  • President Obama’s photographer had some competition in...
  • America has to lead the world in transitioning to a clean energy...

RSS The People’s View

  • Happy? Labor Day Liberal Librarian
  • Pres. Obama speaks on climate change at GLACIER Conference Liberal Librarian
  • Freedom From Consequence: The Abandonment of Truth in 21st Century Politics Trevor LaFauci
  • Entertained to death Liberal Librarian
  • Open thread - All over but the shouting? Liberal Librarian

RSS Smartypants

  • Tough talk =/= Tough
  • Ivins Insight
  • Providing Breathing Room for the Dying Beast
  • Civil Disobedience
  • I feel a rant coming on...

RSS A Writing Corner (LL)

  • #Pixels: A sign of the Apocalypse?
  • Annals in “WTH Were You Thinking??” – Potty Training
  • For the young lady and her love of Seamus Heaney
  • On compassion
  • A Mass for the Dead

RSS Greg Sargent

  • Obama moves on paid sick leave
  • The outsider delusion and the fallacy of ‘getting things done’
  • Sunday Open Thread
  • Open Thread
  • Happy Hour Roundup

RSS Steve Benen

  • Labor Day, 2015
  • Trump picks fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • This Week in God, 9.5.15
  • Hillary Clinton addresses e-mail questions directly
  • Hillary Clinton: Refugee crisis is a world crisis

Categories

Archives

Blog Stats

  • 32,312,492 hits
September 2015
M T W T F S S
« Aug    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

WH Flickr

P010615PS-0373

P010615PS-0599

P010715PS-0718

P010715LJ-0309

P010815PS-0008

P010815PS-0171

P010815CK-0068

P010915PS-0040

P010915PS-0103

P010915PS-0458

More Photos

%d bloggers like this: