BlueinVA's Comments (71)

“Thanks for this! I'm going to make sure my college kids practice this when they're home for the Christmas break!”

“Your insurance premiums will go up a heck of a lot more than your taxes! That I can guarantee. No American would sit still for a $1700 monthly pay roll tax to fund a public insurance option -- yet that's how much we pay EVERY month for our current insurance! Besides, any public option will be REQUIRED to be self-sustained by premiums paid by members. And I guarantee those premiums will cost my family significantly less than $1700/month.”

“So what do you do when you need surgery, dutchess2? Or break a bone and go to the ER? The monthly retainer you pay your primary care physician won't cover tests, scans, xrays, surgery, anesthesia, specialists -- not to mention your hospital bill. God forbid you get cancer!”

“This is why we need a self-sustaining, not-for-profit, government-run public option. Any questions? Where else do you think these 600,000 former Aetna customers are going to get private insurance once Aetna boots them.

Enough.”

“What? They haven't closed their facebook accounts? At least make them private. Geez. If that's true, it simply confirms that they're shameless publicity hounds.”

“Matt:
"It's my pleasure."
"We look forward to having you hear."
"Thank you very much for joining us this morning. I appreciate it."

Now I remember why I quit watching The Today Show.”

“Loved when he said their homes have been invaded. The White House is the Obama's home, fool. How do you think they feel?”

“I'll give them this much: They're good. Much have DVRed every episode of The Riches, because they are darn convincing grifters.

Unless they received an engraved invitation, addressed to them, in the mail, they weren't invited. It sounds as if they did not, which is why they did not stay for dinner. I have no doubt that they reached out to a quasi-contact (in the Pentagon, at least from the quote Matt Lauer read), and initiated some kind of email that led to a trail that they will now attempt to twist into some kind of electronic email confirmation. I wish Lauer had asked them whether they had received the engraved invite.

Also, glad she was able to make time for those hair extensions this weekend. Could not have been easy, as devastated as she was.”

“You can be sure Bono has already been in touch w/ MTV. The wall will be removed. If not, the Berliners will take care of it themselves. :)”

“wilsonveteran: The father left his employer's group plan when he left his job to start his own business. What most people (including you) do not understand is that it is only illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage when an individual is moving his/herself and dependents from one group plan to another, ie., you move from a job w/ benefits to another job with benefit (provided that happens wi/in 60 days of your last day of previous employment). Again, this only apples to GROUP coverage.

The Bates were trying to get private insurance because they no longer had access to a group plan. In the private, individual insurance market, anything goes. Everybody in the family who is applying for coverage goes through underwriting -- in which the insurance company looks over your entire medical history with a microscope. They can deny coverage outright for any reason at all. They can also offer coverage to some family members, but not others, Or, they can single out a family member for higher a higher annual individual deductible (on top of the annual family deductible), and exclude coverage for anything the insurance company, in its sole discretion, determines to be pre-existing. Anything.”

“I bought a new Mac this summer. I go back and forth between it and my partner's Dell laptop. What you say is absolutely correct. The Dell constantly bombards me with warnings, messages, questions, confirmations -- not to mentions buzzing, clicking and whirring. And start up takes FOREVER.

From my Mac? Total, utter silence. The only sound I hear (and I'm on it right now) is the clicking of the keyboard, and the occasional ding when I get new .mac email. It does whatever I ask it to do quietly, intuitively and efficiently. And it starts in under a minute, without making me witness every step of the process along the way.

I love it.”

“Someone asked for a source for the Dad's comment. If you click on the link to the Denver TV station in the HuffPo article, you'll see him directly quoted in the 13th paragraph. He also says it in the embedded video.”

“Yep. You've got that right. Aislin will get her coverage, and the rest of us are on our own.”

“The Dad's position irks me:

"We would definitely like to see insurance reform," Rob Bates said. "We are not proponents of universal health care by any means, but what we want to see is that insurance companies have legitimate reasons for denying coverage."

Sorry, Dad, but it seems like it's only an "illegitimate" reason because it was used to deny your child, if I extrapolate beyond your statement.

Dad's position is absurd. There is never a legitimate reason to deny anyone health insurance. The only reason it happens is because insurance companies are in the business to make money -- not to make people well, or keep them that way.

As long as the practice of underwriting continues, Americans will continue to be denied coverage for the most specious of reasons.

This is why we need a public health insurance option. Even now, I don't Mr. and Mrs. Bates support this position. They're only goal in seeking publicity for Aislin's denial is to pressure United Health Care to reverse their decision. The rest of us are on their own.”

“Those kids will never forget the day the President stopped by their lunch table and talked with them. On their darkest days, they will remember that visit and it will help them keep going.

Nice bit of indoctrination there, Mr. President! :)”

“Oops...for­got about her...let'­s call it a tie. Toonces was kind of funny. Note I said Toonces, and not Victoria Jackson.”

“Lorne Michaels promoted Cheir Oteri as the next Gilda Radner, only she wasn't. She was completely unwatchable. Probably the most untalented female cast member ever on SNL.”

“Love how he tries to reason with them. :) How'd that work for you, Lindsey.”

“Hope he goes, because then I'll be able to avoid him completely!”

“Yep, only it was $1700/month for us after my spouse was laid off in July 2008. The company finally went under completely last month, taking even COBRA with it.”

“Seriously. What's his point? Whether you lose your health insurance because you lose your job or because you can't afford it -- you've still don't have insurance! THAT is why we need a public option, Mr. Gingrey. He can't possibly be that dense, can he?”

“Not possible. The rest of us evolved. I'd rather share my DNA with a monkey than with these freaks.”

“I had to go to a function off the beltway just outside DC on Saturday morning. and I was concerned about possible Teabagger traffic delays. I put on WTOP (all-news radio) the second I got into my car that morning and listened to "Traffic and Weather on the 8s" all they way in -- headed eastbound on I-66, then on the 495 (the beltway), and on 95 just past the FedEx Field exit, where my trip ended. Not one report on WTOP about traffic delays, nor did I experience delays on any portion of my drive. Left the event at 7 PM, this time heading south on 95, across the Wilson Bridge, and continuing down I-95 toward Richmond. Again, NO traffic, and nothing on WTOP. Nothing. I knew then the Teabagger March was a bust.

The Teabaggers Picnic didn't bring huge crowds into DC. In fact, there were probably fewer tourists and locals in DC because they were scared off by the predicted crowds and the fact that it was a cloudy, drizzly day. My guess is that Metro easily handled the Teabagger protesters. Some stations may have had higher numbers than usual boarding trains before and after the event, but I'd probably compare it to having to wait at the Gallery Place Station for a train after an event at the Verizon Center. Then, you have thousands of people crowding platforms but Metro gets them all cleared out in under an hour.

Much ado about nothing.s”

“8 months. There's you answer. He's spent most of the 8 months cleaning up after Bushco. And did they ever leave a mess!”

“"cat"? WTF? Who does he think he is, Sammy? He was right about Palin, though.”