First filed 3:02am
About half an hour ago I had the great pleasure of discussing government healthcare with Rush Limbaugh. It took half an hour of hitting “redial” and hearing two “this is not a free call” announcement per call to get through, but it was well worth it.
I took the decision yesterday that I had to call Rush regardless of how long it took to get through, after hearing him talking about the Obama administration’s proposed healthcare payment bundling for doctors…the similar bulk billing scheme has been such a massive success (sarcasm, if you hadn’t noticed) in Australia that I needed to draw the comparisons.
Many, many thanks to Rush’s staff for making me the first caller of the day.
I’ll grab the audio for you later, after it gets podcasted.
Update 5:42am: OK, here we go with audio. First though, one of the interesting things about being on a show with an estimated minimum audience of 14.75 million people (Talkers Magazine, based on Arbitron ratings data) is that people react. I’ve had some reaction on Facebook which has been great (I’ve never had a program director comment on one of my calls to talk radio before) and I’ve also been interested by some of the other reactions. “usazombie” on Twitter summed up my call thusly:
guy from au called rush Limbaugh and said things suck in au too
Well, sorta…close enough. The deranged people over at Media Matters who dedicate multiple people to scrutinising and commenting on every single second of the Limbaugh show in some bizarre effort to discredit him, declared me to be an “Aussie gentleman“…I was hoping for worse.
Rush took a call from an Aussie gentleman who said that Obama’s health care payment proposal sounds similar to the system they have in Australia, which is a mess. Wherever in the world socialism and liberalism has been tried, it hasn’t worked, said Rush, who asked if the caller can say with any knowledge whether Australian doctors are refusing to treat Medicaid patients. The caller said they’re not refusing treatment, they’re just opting out of the payment system. Rush said he has a friend in Australia right now who sent him this story about aborigines crashing a Wilderness Society party, which Rush said is just hilarious. The caller said it’s not just the aborigines who are upset with the Wilderness Society, a lot of people hate them because they’re shutting down the economy. Obama is doing the same thing here, said Rush. The caller wrapped things up by expressing his hope that the U.S. government follows Australia’s lead and doesn’t impose cap-and-trade. Rush said Harry Reid is trying to get it passed as part of the health care bill. It’s one of those things where they propose an amendment on Friday afternoon and have no debate. They’re going to try and get this done without anyone knowing about it because they know it’s in trouble.
One more break and Rush was back with a correction — it’s not cap-and-trade that they’re trying to sneak into the health care bill, it’s card check.
As deranged as Media Matters may be, they do provide a useful service just in case I need to check back over what day and time it was that Rush said something or referred to a story, long after the archives have disappeared from Rush’s site. At least they aren’t wasting their efforts entirely.
Anyhoo, without further ado, here’s my call to Rush. I’ve included the full segment as I think it leads in to the call quite nicely. If you want to skip ahead to the call, it starts at one minute and twenty seconds.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SamuelOnRushLimbaugh20090729.mp3] Download MP3 Audio courtesy of, and copyright to, The Rush Limbaugh Show and Premiere Radio Networks
I have a general policy that I do not reveal confidential sources, and do not engage in discussions and speculation as to the identity of said sources, however I feel that I need to make an exception on this one occasion, simply to clear the name of an innocent party.
I am losing count of the number of people who think that I have a confidential source within the Pyrmont Bunker (aka 2GB) with the initials MT. Let me state quite clearly that I do not have such a source…I know an MT, but they are not a source.
The program is offering a 35-hundred dollar allowance to those who trade in a car or truck that gets 18 miles-per-gallon or worse for a new vehicle that gets 22 miles-per-gallon or more. As further incentive, the allowance jumps to 45-hundred dollars if the new vehicle gets ten miles-per-gallon or more than the old one. The Cash For Clunkers program is being embraced by most auto dealers nationwide but they must be registered with the program to participate. Full program details are available online at www.cars.gov.
The fact that it has started over there doesn’t really interest me one way or the other…what does interest me though is that I was intending on writing something about this back when it was proposed here in Australia, all the way back in March.
The government is being urged to introduce a $3000 cash stimulus plan to encourage drivers to crush their old cars, protecting the environment and the struggling car industry.
[..]
The Motor Traders Association of Australia (MTAA) has commissioned Access Economics to estimate the costs of reducing the number of cars older than 10 years on the nation’s roads.
According to the MTAA, around half of the 15 million vehicles in Australia are more than 10 years old, with about 2 million worth less than $3000.
This idea was floated three weeks after my thirteen-year-old, less-than-$1500-worth car died and forced me to walk home from the other side of Canberra on a Sunday morning before the buses had woken up. Three weeks…I’d already sold the darn thing, and whilst this plan hasn’t gained any traction in Australia, the mere thought that I could have gotten $3000 for hoarding scrap metal, but missed out, was very very disturbing.
The best thing about it was that there was no proposed restriction on the use of the money, so I could have used the $3000 on another cheap car, and had money left over to use on some other useful things and widgets.
For what it’s worth, I’m not in favour of the Cash for Clunkers program…but that wouldn’t have stopped me from using it, if it had existed when my car died.
You forget what you said when you were interviewed, and only remember the one statement which you wish you hadn’t made. Thankfully that statement isn’t in the trailer of All Talk, and one can hope that it isn’t in the finished product.
All Talk is a documentary by 2CC presenter Mike Welsh and Mike’s former producer (now producing for Ray Hadley at 2GB, if the information on the 2GB site is up-to-date) Michael Thompson, about the people who call talk radio. According to the 2CC website, the documentary is due to be released next month, which is great. Mind you, if it gets delayed, I won’t be surprised, given the number of times I’ve heard the word “soon” used in relation to this documentary.
To give you some idea of how long this documentary has been in the pipeline for…remember that dream I had about people coming to my house and filming green mesh almost two years ago…well that was around the time of filming for this documentary.
In all fairness though, I am aware that there have been a number of setbacks in the production of this documentary, and in many ways I’m impressed that they stuck with it and got this far. I am looking forward to seeing the final result…partially because I’m looking forward to the documentary, and partially because I, for the most part, haven’t got the faintest clue what I said…I just have memories of lots of lights and cameras invading my house around the time of me filling out a form giving permission for it to happen!
A week after I returned my tax return, the tax office have seen fit to pay my tax refund. Ain’t E-Tax wonderful.
Now that I have the funds to spare, the tax office can have my Business Activity Statement from the last quarter…although they will have to wait until the post office opens.
And just think, if there was a post office bank, all that would be happening is funds travelling from one government entity to another via a desk in one of those entities, at the behest of slips of government paper.
Well, if ever there was a sentence which could kill one’s chances of being employed by the government, that was it.
This year in my area, the phone books were due to be replaced by April, however none have arrived as yet, and we’re already in to July. I can only assume that word of my disgust has finally reached the phone book deliverers, and they decided to get even.
The good news for me is that they failed to get even. There is an apartment block a couple blocks away which did receive their phone books earlier this year, in large piles dumped underneath their mailboxes. I noticed this a few months ago on one of my 3am walks, and have been keeping an eye on the piles since then. It has amused me that very few of the phone books have been picked up by the residents of the apartment block…I suppose that people in this apartment block are quite happy to rely on electronic telephone directories.
Anyway, I decided last night to relieve them of one of these sets of phone books as, after three months, I think it’s safe to say that the people of the apartment block aren’t going to need them.
So, if word of their failed revenge takes as long to reach the phone book deliverers, as did word of my disgust at their standard of dress, then I look forward to seeing what revenge they come up with in the year 2012.
I’ve had a few requests to produce more photos of Nattie of late, so today, when I finally decided to replace my two-year-old Facebook profile picture (which was taken in John Stanley’s office at 2UE), I decided to include Nattie in the picture.
I think I have some unpublished photos of Nattie around here somewhere. If I find them, I’ll share them with you in the near future.
US Talk Radio host Mark Levin has been nicknamed “The Great One”. I suppose I should, therefore, be honoured that a spammer by the name of “Mr. Robert” has seen fit to dub me “The Good One”, which might make me a contender to fill-in for Mark one day.
As much as I’m pleased to receive an email purportedly from Switzerland, with the greeting “Dear Good one!!!”, I just don’t think that I’ll ever see the promised 232 million US dollars. Actually, I probably have as much chance of seeing the money, as “Mr. Robert” has of getting my personal details.
This afternoon I visited Googong Dam, where the-powers-that-be are building a spillway. Photos to follow tomorrow (it gives me a good reason to get the photo gallery back online), but in the meantime I thought you might find this interesting.
For the drive to Googong Dam, plus the walking around the dam, as well as the drive back via Weston Creek (where a free coffee was waiting to be claimed) and my post office box in Dickson (empty…can you believe that neither Senator Kate Lundy, nor a nameless minion, has bothered replied to my letter?), I took the iPod with me and set it to shuffle. I was pleased with the results, and thought I would share with you, the playlist that it created.
Hagenaar & Albrecht – What Would We Do (Original Mix)
The Cuckoo’s Nest – Medibank Private (We’re gonna flog it off)
The DJs of Euro Trance – Suck My Tube Steak (Hell N’ Back Mix)
Flash Brothers – Stay (Edit)
Cat (Red Dwarf) – Tongue Tied (Funk mix)
Franz Ferdinand – Come On Home
Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
Sneaky Sound System – (Because of you people say I’m) Crazy
Janis Ian – Fly Too High
Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him
Kenny Loggins – The Heat Is On
Wham – Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf
Cletus T. Judd – Trailer Park Woman
The Vogues – Five O’Clock World
Tina Turner – Simply The Best
Nancy Sinatra – These Boots Are Made For Walking
U2 – Angel Of Harlem
Robbie Williams – A Man For All Seasons
Harvey Norman Ad Bed (Version 15FullVox)
The Doobie Brothers – Takin’ It To The Street
Cat (Red Dwarf) – Tongue Tied
The DJs of Euro Trance – M.I.A.
Howard Goodall – Red Dwarf (End Theme)
Alavi – Smells Like Rerox
Boyz Noize – Oh! (A-Trak Remix)
The Irish Rovers – Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
The Cuckoo’s Nest – He Cut The Hair of Armstrong (and swept it up with a broom)
The Potbelleez – Are You With Me (Hook ‘n’ Sling Mix)
? – Ghostbusters Theme (Techno Remix)
Jose Amnesia – Wouldn’t Change A Thing (feat. Jennifer Rene) [Retrobyte Clubmix Edit]
Bissen – Exhale (Edit)
Mike Foyle – Firefly (Original Mix)
Stevie Wonder – Master Blaster
Bond – Victory (Mike Batt Mix)
Slim Dusty – G’day G’day
Starshine – Feels Alright
Fats Waller – I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
David Guetta – When Love Takes Over (feat. Kelly Rowland)
Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child
Various Artists (In The Mix) – The Trance Yearmix 2007 part one (which I skipped after a few minutes when it started playing a track which I had heard earlier on in the journey)
Dave Edmunds – Girls Talk
The DJs of Euro Trance (Trance Anthems) – Take It or Leave It
Most enjoyable, although I have to wonder if that list will surprise a few people.
I’m going offline for 24 hours now (update: OK, now that the Mark Ferguson story is out of the way, I’ll disappear for 24 hours). I am available for urgent contact only, on my mobile. In my absence, enjoy some video.
One of the many tried and true methods of making oneself feel better is to write annoying letters to politicians who happen to annoy one.
Senator Kate Lundy
Unit A
Law Society Building
11 London Circuit
Canberra ACT 2601
Dear Senator Kate Lundy (or the nameless minion reading this letter),
Your Senatorialism,
Please find enclosed the “Community News” newsletter, which you recently had mailed to me.
I am returning this to you as I have no need for it. I hear enough from you and your loopy lefty fruitcake colleagues in the media, without needing to be subjected to it in my post office box as well.
Please feel free to do with this newsletter as you see fit. Contrary to appearances, I would be most pleased if you decide to reuse this newsletter by sending it to one of your other constituents, as this would, in theory at least, mean that some of the taxpayer funds which go in to your various allowances would not need to be spent on printing an extra copy of the newsletter.
Wishing you the most interesting of times,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
I find that closing with ancient curses is most pleasing. The letter will be in the post momentarily.
I’m not looking forward to tonight. At about 8pm, it will be precisely one year since I rolled my car on Parkes Way.
I still have a text message on my phone from that night. One of the first things I did after getting out of the car was (presumably in a slightly incoherent state of shock) call a friend to ask if they knew the number for a tow truck, which they promptly sent via text message. I have also just been re-reading some of the emails from around that date, including one in which I spelt out some events from that night, and the next day, which I had more-or-less forgotten about…it seems that such memories never disappear, they just get buried…reading those emails just brought back some visual memories which I wish were gone, and made me feel sick.
I think I might just go to bed early tonight. If I can be asleep by 8pm so that I completely miss the one year anniversary of the events of that night, I think I’ll be happy.
For those of you who are wondering (I was surprised to receive a couple emails about it), I arrived at home shortly before 7pm.
I am now heading to bed, having been up since 4am (a bit over 20 hours) after about four hours of sleep, which came after a rather long day and a couple nights of interrupted sleep thanks to peculiar dreams.
Whilst I have about five things I would like to get done before 6am, I’m just too tired to attend to any of them, so I wish you all a good night, and a good sleep if you happen to be one of the people who chooses to sleep during the night.
I was most excited yesterday when I got to produce a Harvey Norman ad. This will probably sound completely loopy, but I’ve always wanted to produce a Harvey Norman ad.
As I was excited by it, here it is.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/HarveyNorman17June09.mp3] Download MP3
