"about the "public option," which is anathema to the GOP? Asked if a government health plan should be created to compete with private insurers, Washington Post-ABC respondents said yes, 55% to 42%. CBS found even stronger support for providing a Medicare-like program for all Americans, 60% to 34%."

"The broadest question -- whether the U.S. healthcare system needs dramatic improvement -- got the most definitive answer. CBS found 82% of respondents believing that the system needs to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt."

FINALLY ....

"As for the public option, it's missing from the Senate bill introduced by Max Baucus (D-Mont.) -- but the polls suggest that in his kowtowing to GOP opposition, he's misreading popular sentiment." INDEED.

And that isn't the insurance industry! With each passing day our democracy is looking more and more like a fascist nation, bought and paid for by an increasingly wealthy few for their sole benefit while sticking it to the rest of us. (What more evidence do we need than today's report on income gap in the US (see: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-09-29-income-gap-census_N.htm)

Baucus and Conrad have clearly caved into some kind of vested business interests and not that of their constituency. The irony here being that their states could sorely use a public option so you have to ask what's the matter with these morons? Shame on them.

When oh when is enough going to be enough and we Americans rise up and take our country back from the corporations who've perverted our democracy for their own craven gains? Our Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves.

I can't honestly tell whether your article was tongue-in-cheek or honest to goodness ranting.

I suppose it doesn't matter except that a successful journalist should be able to properly transmit the difference, no?

I'm no frothing at the mount Apple fanboy but I will defend the iPhone. I'm on my second one and both are still in faithful service after two years. Honestly you must be VERY, VERY hard on your phones because my daughter is a beast to phones; she mangled two cell phones in 6 months before I gave her my original iPhone, it still works beautifully after two years and more than a few drops. I've got several friends with iPhones and I can honestly say only one has had a problem with his and that was after a dunk in the pool, oops! No one said iPhones were indestructible and remember too that there are a great many semiconductor chips and antennas packed into that case that were not designed to be clanked off the concrete on a daily basis. I suspect nothing would survive with the possible exception of the ruggedized Motorola handsets designed for construction sites. I've experienced the odd dropped call and late vmail but my BB's did the same thing and I attribute that to the AT&T network. (AT&T is also the reason we still can't MMS)

With that said, I feel your pain. Some of the folks at Apple can be smartasses and largely of no help or source of truth about what's really going on. Further, as a former AT&T employee, I can confirm the poorly engineered and cobbled together network. As a resident of LA/Southern Cal. I will ABSOLUTELY agree with the crappy, inconsistent network here in LA. (Several trips to SanFran revealed what a comprehensive network behaves like and LA ain't it.)

Finally, remember that Apple & AT&T are joined at the hip on this one. They've both bet their futures on the device and will absolutely fight tooth and nail to ensure nothing threatens that future. Both have work to do, especially AT&T but like anything groundbreaking, it takes time to "perfect" a device and at the end of the day, you simply cannot please everyone. Perhaps you're one of those people and there are more and more options everyday.

All the shouting and posturing is admittedly good sport and a feature of the democratic process but what worries me more and more is the near complete lack of informed debate on these very crucial issues. When did the folks of this country become so attention-span challenged and sound-bite addicted?

We could debate the causes for hours and hours but it's the results that are undeniable ... we no longer have calm, studious and informed debates about the issues any more. It's what we sorely need. The saying goes that calmer heads prevail and there's no reason we can't ensure this happens.

I, for one, am all for single-payer health insurance but I am well aware of it's risks and pitfalls. Moreover, I am well aware that others don't share my views and have some very good points and reasons for their views ... as do I. I would dearly love to hear the reasoned, informed positions for and against healthcare reform as it is a VERY complex debate. We do ourselves a huge disservice as concerned citizens shouting slogans and scare tactics from both sides of the debate and talking past each other. It only causes the passionate to further dig-in and give no credence to anything other than their own, largely ill-informed opinion.

Our Founding Fathers disagreed passionately about a great many things BUT they did have informed debate and it's near certain they arrived at some wise conclusions. I'd wager they'd be appalled at what passes for public discourse these days.

Just my two cents.