I think a lot of us saw this. Particularly when he said 'NO LOBBYISTS WILL SERVE WITH ME' and promptly started putting lobbyists into positions. His reasoning was that all the people qualified for those positions were all lobbyists. Then he came to the table with Republicans and blatantly said to their faces 'YOU LOST, DEAL WITH IT' and expected them to simply fall in line behind him. Instead of keeping that stance, he decided to bend to their will and ended up using their health care reform as a peace offering. So much for that. Even today Republicans whine about their own health care bill being made law. Senator Chafee is probably rolling in his grave.

I think he had an idea that he could shape policy by himself, but when it requires everyone else to do it as well, and when everyone else is, frankly, nuts, you don't get much done.

More often than not, everyone has their good sides and bad sides. You won't find a single person in history that was lauded as a savior of a certain time or period without some bad sides.

This is not to mean it is wrong to discount them, but it also wrong to discount all their good effects as well. Gandhi, in particular, had far more good than bad.

Also, 'koolaid'? Really? Welcome to 2008.

There aren't any "NSA" guys. There are contractors contracted out by other contractors run by contractors.

Companies shouldn't have to worry about providing insurance to workers, regardless. They should be able to focus on the cost of running their business with static expenses. Countries like Denmark has some of the highest individual entrepreneurship rates in the world. Why? Because the government takes care of providing health care to everyone, as well as all schooling through college. Obviously these are all funded through higher tax rates, but it leaves a lot of unknown headaches from businesses and manages to provide everyone an opportunity to succeed.

It's all for naught anyways. Our population and technology has out paced job growth. We need to realize there simply wont be any more jobs for the majority of the population as time marches forward. Unions wont matter, free markets wont matter. The only thing that will matter is how governments will deal with rationing out services to their population. Eventually everything will just be entirely automated, so we will have to deal with a lot of free time to continue our educations and explore the world. Stuff like arguing over unions, capitalism, socialism is pointless. We're on the cusp of it all being entirely irrelevant.

The fact is, companies should not have to worry about paying for health insurance. It needs to be ripped from their expenses and put on a national scale. If you look at countries like Denmark where the government lets every citizen free health care and free schooling all the way through college, you will find they have some of the highest entrepreneurship in the world. Why? Because starting a business there only requires the motivation to just do it. They don't have to worry about all the other expenses. It's a large load off their shoulders. This is what America should be striving for.

Senator John Chafee wrote it in 1993. He was a Republican.

This happened to my girlfriend. They cut all the full time employees to working 25 hours and under. They went on a mass hiring spree to compensate. It's something Walmart has been doing for years and years. The problem is, it's not 2014 yet, so the affordable exchanges are not available to everyone yet. At that point all those people will be able to get health care for basically nothing, as their pay scale will determine how much in assisted aid they get. If they get paid $15k a year pumping gas, their health care will basically be entirely covered. Companies are using this as a method to push expenses from their pocket to the tax payers pocket.

Not that I don't have any problem with this. It's speeding up the process to get everything straight up nationalized. By the end of 2014, I am guessing most of the workforce will be covered by the government. At which point they will just say there is no point in having companies pay for it, and just move everyone to it. Then we can get all the providers under control with cost requirements.

The problem is, you wouldn't be admitted to shop around. You would probably be denied. I have had several friends who left their jobs to strike out on their own, and they cannot get insurance at all. Everyone has denied them. One had a parent who died from cancer. Another had a head XRay for sinus blockage in his past. They were afraid he might want to get surgery to fix it in the future under their plan. If you have any bad medical history in your family, you will be denied. Even insanely high deducible fly by night policies wont take you.

People just want full insurance without having to fill out forms, switching providers, doctors or anything else. The only people crying about money are the Tea Party weirdos who cry about dropping a penny in their couches. The fact is, the Administration should have just simply took over the entire health care industry. When you have an industry that can only make money off healthy people, then you simply cannot expect to make money unless you let the sick and dying go. Which is the opposite of what is SUPPOSED to happen. Much like the military, it needs to be socialized. All of it. The industry was in shambles before this act, and it will more than likely be in shambles after. Everyone should be allowed to receive health care for free. It's 2013, we have the means, we have the wealth, and we have the regulatory power to make it all work.

Compared to Apple?

No, it is not.

I have had Tivo since the day it came out, was one of the first to have mcard and the cable tuner when that came as well. I never had an issue with it. The Charter guy showed up, plugged the card in, called a number, read off a string of numbers and letters, worked just fine. That was almost 10 years ago. When the cable tuner came out, same thing, guy shows up, plugs it in, doesn't even need to call anyone. Leaves literally 2 minutes later. Everything has worked fine since.

Not sure why you're having any issues. While they might have different area techs, we all connect to the same provider at the other end. Just my 2 cents and experiences.

They have sold more copies than most major games, have an operating budget larger than most major studios, and employ more than five people.

Mojang was indie back when it was just Notch almost 5 years ago, but not today, not tomorrow. They are a major studio these days.

In this sort of position, if you are using contractors because "they are easier to fire", then you're using the wrong people. Period. Contractors have no loyalty other than to make sure their parent company is getting enough out of them to pay their bills. These are also the people you do NOT want in this type of position. Contractors fill temporary (contracted) roles. They are never meant to be used for permanent positions. I'm not trying to bash contractors here too much, as I was one for many years. But they fill certain roles, and being anywhere near classified government data, is not one of them!

Am I the only one with their jaw on the ground that the NSA and CIA are hiring contractors as full time employees in top secret positions with access to everything, instead of doing actual short term janitorial type of work that contractors are supposed to be used for? If they need a printer installs, sure, use the contractor. Need to have a recorded wire tap scanned and sent over to secret building #2, use a contractor? REALLY??