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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Wrote the book on it

I am beginning to like Nomiki Konst.  Near the end of the video, she eats Dana's Lunch. She points out that mental health funding is an issue.  While she bungles the statistic she mentions in saying, "The federal gun registry has prevented 2.1 million criminals from accessing guns, you know that's something you were fighting against", (she meant universal background check, there is no federal registry) she deals a pretty strong punch. Dana's response? "False". And Obamacare (and no, Dana, we didn't "spend" a trillion dollars on it). And a 2004 study (that she doesn't site) also proves Dana right.

But you know Dana's biggest argument? "I wrote the book on it". No, Dana, you wrote "A" book on it. And it is a pretty flawed book at that. Because it isn't a book of statistics, although there are some, and they are pretty lousy, but it is a highly partisan book that blames Democrats at every turn for gun problems. To say it is "THE" book on it is like saying Milli Vanilli sang "THE" album.

Dana also makes another point, that the strictest gun law states have the highest "murder" rates.  Notice the mixing of statistics here. But play along with her game, and you'll find it to be false. States with the strictest gun laws, like California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, Illinois and Pennsylvania, only one is in the top ten (Maryland is second) while the rest are way down the list (Pennsylvania is 13th, California is 17th, Illinois is a seemingly statistically impossible 28th). States with the most lenient gun laws (Utah, Alaska, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, Idaho, Kentucky, Wisconsin) have Louisiana at #1, but most also fall outside the top 20. Okay, so what about the southern states Nomiki talked about? Besides Louisiana, we have Missouri at #3, South Carolina at #4, Nevada and New Mexico are 5 and 6, and are technically south, but are not considered South. Michigan is #7, then Tennessee, Mississippi and Arizona round out the top 10.  These are murder rates from The FBI crime rates for 2010, just so you know.

So Nomiki is correct, half of the top 10 highest murder rates are in Southern states. And Dana was wrong, states with the strictest gun laws do not have the highest murder rates. And you better believe it, because I wrote "THE" blog post on it.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

First Dana Show Live Blog

Alright, time for my first live blog of an hour of Dana’s radio show.  The rules are simple.  I will listen to an hour of the Dana Show.  While listening I will type up my thoughts.  These thoughts will do unedited (and you will have to trust me on this one).  Since I am listening from the podcast, I will pause for four minutes when there is a commercial break.  When done, I will do a little fact checking of what I wrote.  Hopefully if this doesn’t take a whole lot of time, I can make this into a regular feature. 

So, here we go:

Trump saying Megyn Kelly was off base while saying blood was coming out of her wherever is totally “Ironic”
And I mean ironic in the Alanis Morissette way, of course.  
Hillary is under criminal investigation?  At least she hasn’t been charged like Rick Perry.
FBI has stated it is not a probe into Clinton, but into the email server itself, and the security of the server. 
Cold spring in February, 2009?
February always has cold springs.
Roger Ale?  Is that a bitter brew?
From the Gengis Khan school of mispronunciation. 
Just because Trump is open and honest doesn’t mean what he said absolutely wasn't about menstruation.

Labor workforce is at a 38 year low for a lot of reasons, one of the biggest is because of retirees.
And projections have it continuing to go lower. 
Saying Salon is the graffiti of the internet is also totally “Ironic”
Again, the Alanis version here.
webOS was too late, and not as refined as iOS and Android.  Deal with it Dana.
I've been down this road before
***No pause for break, nothing more to comment on.

“They act like police did it as a celebration”.  No, they wrote a headline that was factually correct.  
And yeah, the guy did deserve to get shot from what he did, but there's that irony thing popping up again.

*** No pause for break, nothing more to comment on. (yes another quick break)

Roger Stone interview starts with something about a conversation between him and Trump, audio from some interview with Trump with no reference to who it was, or where it came from.
Journalism 101, cite your sources. I didn't hear it.
Trump has been good with messaging.  Say what the people want to hear.

Dana: Trump talked about illegal entry and securing the border.  She totally whitewashed the whole Mexico is sending it’s rapists line, didn’t she?  No Dem would get that kind of treatment from her.

Clinton did not call Trump, Trump called Clinton. I think if Clinton got a call from H.W. for political advice, he would have taken that call, too, and given good advice.
I was wrong, Clinton did call Trump, but it was after Trump had reached out to Clinton for advice:
 “Mr. Trump reached out to President Clinton a few times. President Clinton returned his call in late May,” a Clinton employee said. “While we don’t make it a practice to discuss the president’s private conversations, we can tell you that the presidential race was not discussed.”
 Perot didn't “split the ticket”.  Exit polls show the people who voted for Perot would have split evenly or not voted at all.
The 1992 exit poll asked Perot voters who was their “second choice.” They split evenly between Clinton and Bush, 38 percent for each. (State exit polls indicate that Perot may have tipped the tight races in Georgia, New Hampshire and Ohio to Clinton, not enough to change the Electoral College outcome.)
That said, I think Trump is a little more polarizing, and he could cost Republicans votes.

While Trump can’t be bought (haha yeah right) that doesn’t mean he will do right for the country.

Jeb Bush has 100 million dollars?  Wow, I didn’t know he got that much.
While Dana did say it was his PAC (which is an oxymoron, since you can't even have contact with any PAC) it's misleading.  Jeb has raised 11.5 million, though.
Trump not only has a comfortable margin, it actually increased after the debate.
This may not be true, too tired now to care to find the numbers.
Cruz sounds like Mr. Haney!  And I think Dana missed the reference.

Democrats: If we can’t beat the right, we have to get them to beat themselves up.  Actually, even 
Bernie Sanders is polling better than most of the Republican field right now.  I don’t think they are too worried.
Almost Every Major Poll Shows Bernie Sanders Challenging or Defeating Clinton and Republicans. Here's Why
*** No pause for break, nothing more to comment on.

Fair interviews/endorsements. Well, when you throw softballs to those you like, and hardballs to those you don’t, it’s hard not to see it any other way Dana.

Hour two?  Why not, Hour two.

Would you eat a dirt root food?  Hey, I ate a large helping of beets with onions over the weekend.  The taste don’t bother me… I had dominion over it.  And does SuperBeets have that much of a benefit?
There are no studies showing SuperBeets works.
I have not read further into it, but I wonder if the peaceful protesters remained peaceful while bad actors didn't want to be peaceful?

Did numerous reports state Michael Brown got his finger in the trigger?
In my limited search, I could not find one.  There were eyewitnesses, but no reports with him touching the trigger guard.
Jay Nixon was MIA again?  He is governor, right, and not mayor?
He did release a statement today.
Lots of stuff on Danaradio.com on what was spent after Jay Nixon called for an inquiry.
There is stuff out there, but I don't have time to fact check it.
Jay Nixon is the most failed governor in the United States?  In the history of Missouri? I find that hard to believe.

The kid who stole the gun didn't do so to shoot at cops, he was in a shootout with other people when the cops arrived, and were not a part of the “protests”.
The story is everywhere on the map
Was he even armed at all? But the protesters were not looking to shoot cops. A dispute amongst the protesters broke out first.
The pastor that got his laptops and iPads stolen when he let people in sounds too good for Dana to be true.
The pastor did tweet it out.
Dana is focusing on Mike Brown a lot, but not the others who have been shot (except for when she can talk bad about New York).

Dana: Stupid!  Nice language from a Christian.

Iran, a leading Israeli magazine says Obama is a Jew baiter. Use of anti-Jewish incitement in Iran deal.

As much fun as I am having, I am going to stop here.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Inaccurate bookends

Friday, August 7 - Hour 3

While starting the hour talking about the first Republican debate, Dana made the statement that Conservatives don't hate people they disagree with, Liberals do.  It's very easy to prove this wrong. All you have to do is look at the hate mail liberal talk show hosts receive. Google is your friend on this one. There's a lot of hate mail they have to endure, just like Dana. As someone said on Dana's Facebook page, it happens on both sides, and you can't paint both sides broadly with the lunatics on the fringe.

Then at the end of the hour, producer Cain states that in 2008, Obama wasn't in any debates. Which is correct, if by "not any", you mean 25 of the 26 debates that year (he skipped a debate in Iowa hosted by PBS). Even more interesting, this little slip happened during Today In Stupidity.

Dana did a live blog of the Republican debates, and it has inspired me.  I think sometime next week I will sit down at my computer and listen to an hour of the Dana Show, and react. I will probably pause while I do research. But I will be interested to see how many lies I can get in one random hour.  It certainly wasn't hard to catch her in two while listening in the car.