I can prove that not everything I said is false. This is a similar link you sent, Chris, but perhaps more accurate.
Next time you get the error, go to
http://xpaw.ru/mcstatus/. It's a Minecraft Status evaluator, and it will tell you if Minecraft is down or not.
As I said earlier, it's down due to some sort of technical issues. I presume it's not being as buggy as it used to.
Another result to this could be if you had changed your skin, and you are trying to log into a Server without relog, it tends to do this as a result of the site you were using to put the skin on was using your Player Data, so it requires a restart of MC.
If none of this is factual correct, I apologize, but I do know greatly from this occurrence, as I do recall it happening a couple months ago.
Nudnic, if you aren't already, play on 1.8. It may be a huge thing on this Situation.