Dana loses it over Obama comment, then proves his point for him.

Obama, during an Easter prayer breakfast, veered off subject, and said something that got all the right in a tizzy.  And as usual, Dana doesn't disappoint. This is chopped up audio from Wednesday, April 8th, hour two.  Enjoy!

ABC57 reporter did not ask pizza parlor about catering a wedding

Audio starts at about 21 minutes

I had a good weekend.  I had a lot to do, and while I did it, I burned through all my podcasts.  Since I still had too many chores around the house, I needed something more to listen too.  Enter Dana.  Yeah, I've fallen off the wagon.  I used to love Dana, but I took a break over Football season (Fantasy Focus takes precedence) and never got back into listening to her. 

Good thing I took the time.  The whole narrative was that the reporter went down there and baited Memories Pizza with the question on whether they would cater a wedding.  Problem is, in an interview with Dana the owners blow the whole thing up.  It would have been great to see the look on Dana's face.  Not that it stops Dana from continuing the lie the rest of Thursday and Friday's show.

Bumper Music: Lisa Bevill -- No Condemnation

Not because it's good bumper music, but because it fits Dana's narrative this week.  No condemnation for those who are in Christ.  Now, if those who are are in Christ could stop condemning others, then maybe we can take them seriously.

Reporters, pizza places, and lots and lots of hypocrites.

Dana, On Pizza Truthers

A local reporter was sent to small towns around her smallish city of South Bend, Indiana (part if a larger region of Michiana that still isn't big enough to have a VHF station) to gauge reaction of local businesses to a new law.  Well, let me preface that, with I believe.  I believe the local reporter was just looking for opinions, not sent out to incriminate someone.

What happened when she got to Walkerton, Indiana was happenstance.  It was probably quite clear walking into Memories Pizza that she may get some interesting quotes, as the law was about religious freedom, and the proprietors were unabashedly Christian.  She asked the questions, and the owners gave the answers.  In her story she correctly reported what was said.  That Memories Pizza wouldn't discriminate if someone came in for a slice, or some ice cream, but they would not cater a gay wedding.

The backlash against this local reporter is just as shocking.  The story instead goes that she was sent out and went out looking for just this certain quote.  She goaded these poor people in a small town pizza joint to say what they said (although almost in the same breath they say these people were standing up for their rights!)  She was liberal scum, a journalistic hack.

The people at the pizza parlor received death threats, bad Yelp reviews, and someone bought a web address and made website making it look like Memories Pizza was the gayest place in the world.  What of the reporter?  You do not hear of her fate in conservative media, do you?  She, too has received death threats.  At this time, I have not seen a GoFundMe page for her pain.  I have not seen any liberal talk shows saying people who have threatened that local reporter with violence are the same as ISIS. And I also have not seen any sort of apology from right wing talk shows for inciting such violence.  Dana knows first hand how such things happen, she should be the first to defend this local reporter.

The way I understand it, a Dana Show contributor started a GoFundMe page in the middle of a controversy for people they had never met in the middle of an interview with them. One of the important tenants of journalism is know the answer to your question before you ask it.  Oh, wait.. maybe that's law.  Still, there are a lot of what ifs to worry about.

What if the owners of Memories Pizza declined the money?

What if nobody gave?

What if people gave too much?

Oh, wait.  They did give too much.  The goal started at $25 thousand, but when that goal came and went quickly, they upped it to $200 thousand.  What was a fund to help out a pizza joint that may have to close for a week or two until this storm blows over, help fix up the place, and maybe buy that web address, wound up being a pile of money you'd get if you were a lottery winner.  What was once helpful, now may become a burden.  Why not stop when the first goal was reached?  The second?

If I were the owners of Memories pizza, I'd be thinking twice about taking that money.  If I am going to take such a stand for God, I'd have to side with the Bible on the fact that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10).  Not to mention all the people whose lives were ruined by excessive money. It was good of Dana to get a financial planner.  They give good advice:

Past winners of mega-lottery drawings and financial planners have some more sound advice: Stick to a budget, invest wisely, learn to say no and be prepared to lose friends while riding an emotional roller-coaster of joy, anxiety, guilt and distrust.

Maybe the Bible knows what it is talking about here. This is money that is going to change the lives of this family forever.  Quite possibly, in a way this family did not want, and did not ask for.  Did Dana think about that before starting this GoFundMe campaign?  It would be hard for me to turn down money like that, but I would probably pass.  GoFundYourself, Dana.

I have seen conservative Christians doing something else the Bible tells them to guard against.  They point to the fact that giving so much shows how good Christians are compared to the heathen Liberals.  Except the bible says this is not right in the eyes of God.  You are getting your reward right here, instead of in heaven.  Dana will not point out this to anyone, however.  Nothing hypocritical here... move along.


There is no story in a poor local reporter just doing her job.  Dana will pass.  There is no possibility for fundraising, because there is no outrage for threatening a reporter no matter how cute she may be.  She is not standing up for her Christian rights, so she doesn't matter to anyone on the right.  Really, there is nothing to see here. It would be funny if it were not so sad. 

Indiana's religious freedom law

While it is April Fools Day, Dana's show today was not some sick joke.

First and foremost, meet Jess Dooley.  This is the woman that Dana called the American ISIS.  This is a woman who I think most people, for and against the law, could agree did wrong when she said she wanted to get a mob together to burn down Memories Pizza in Walkerton.  There's only one problem with Dana's reporting on this, however.  For the entire first hour, she called Jess a man.  I get it, she has a man's name.  But seriously Dana, how could you get something so obvious when you actually look into the facts so wrong?

And the whole thing about being surprised that the ABC affiliate in South Bend is on channel 57... the history behind that is pretty simple.  Anyone in broadcasting should know it.  When ABC lost Monday Night Football to ESPN, CBS also lost the NFC to Fox (they would later steal the AFC from NBC, and NBC would get a newly created Sunday Night game... but I digress).  Many stations who were on the lower part of the dial fled ABC for Fox, who had games on Sunday afternoon.  Chanel 28 moved to Fox two years before ABC 57 came along.  They also have NBC 16, and CBS 22. Nobody there is that low on the dial, because they are in a UHF island between Chicago (2, 5, 7, 9, 11) Grand Rapids (3, 8, 13) Lansing (6, 10) and Indy (4, 6, 8, 13).  Not that it matters now, since the digital age makes the numbers meaningless.

The point of all this is Indiana's Religious Freedom bill.  A bill that will allow discrimination in Indiana. It is true that there is no specific language in the bill that says Christians can discriminate against homosexuals.  No bill on its surface does spell out it's faults. It doesn't have to spell it out to be true, however.  It has two things other similar bills in other states don't.  It gives these religious rights to organizations, and there is no provision in Indiana law that protects homosexuals from discrimination.  To say this bill is exactly like the federal bill, or bills in most of the 19 other states who have a bill like this, is to say a Yugo and a Mercedes are exactly alike.  They both have four wheels, don't they?

ABC 57 ran a report last night, where a pizza place in Walkerton, Indiana stated they would not cater a gay wedding.  Now, I get religious freedom and all, but to me, that is blatantly discrimination. What they are basically saying is, because I don't like the idea of gay marriage, I shouldn't have to do business with gay people.  Because the bible I read when I was growing up (and as far as I know, it hasn't changed) doesn't say turn away the sinner.  On the contrary, there are several times Jesus himself says to be all inclusive.  He who is without sin throw the first stone? He that did these things to the least of these did them to me? Love God and love thy neighbor?  Forget the darn bill, when did Jesus give these people the power to turn away someone who clearly could use a little religion in their lives?

I don't think this is what is getting most people up in arms.  It is what the father said, about being gay being a choice.  Jess Dooley even included that in her tweet about burning the place down.  Medical science believes being gay is not a choice.  Gay people believe the same.  If it were a choice, in this day and age, it would be a pretty terrible choice, don't you think?  Not just because of the discrimination they deal with everyday from groups that don't agree with their lifestyle. They can't have children, and while there are ways to make it semi=possible today, only one of the couple can contribute DNA to the child.  Up until recently, they couldn't marry, and many of the rights straight couples had were out of their reach.  I could go on and on.

For the Jess Dooleys of the world, for the people who have gone out and given bad Yelp reviews, or bought the domain of Memories Pizza because they didn't and turned it into a gay pizzeria... please stop.  You aren't helping, either.  Fighting intolerance with intolerance is not going to work. You just give more fuel for people like Dana to stoke the fire with.  Because Dana knows how to stoke that fire.  She doesn't really need your help, she can and has manufactured what she needs out of thin air.  Could we please, on both sides, try to keep it civil for once?  Indiana thanks you.

A little geography lesson

IF ONLY THERE WAS A SAFER WAY ...

Safer is a relative term.  Because pipelines explode, too.  They also spill more in a year than oil transported by rail.  But let's not lose focus here.  Dana's not worried about safety, or she'd point out safety issues with pipelines, too.  No my friends, this is about Keystone XL.

Dana is trying to get us to forget two very important truths here.  One is that Keystone already has a pipeline, and it travels into Steele City, Nebraska, with a spur that goes into Illinois south of Galena, IL, where the latest train explosion occurred.

The other is that Keystone XL goes nowhere near Galena. So if something is travelling by rail in Galena, IL, it's not because we didn't approve XL, it's because oil companies are transporting oil by rail instead of pipeline by choice.

Only the northern section of XL has not been approved.  It actually comes from  Hardisty, Alberta and goes to Steele City, just like the original Keystone pipeline.  Some, like Dana, would say it creates jobs, lots of them, and forget any environmental issues, we need it and we need it now.  But it is not the jobs boon Dana says it is, it instead may be a boondoggle.

Cornell University did an independent study, and they state Keystone XL may be a job negative proposition.  Sure, there will be construction jobs.  Sure, there will be some permanent jobs. But the economic impact, especially higher gas prices that will come as they divert oil now going to the mid-west down to the Gulf for refining and export, will hurt jobs, possibly eliminating the jobs growth anyone that been touting.

But this one Factbook post is just the tip of the iceberg.  Dana's said a whole lot more on the subject. Unfortunately, the motive behind this push has to come into question.  Because Dana is not dumb enough to get it this wrong.

That time Dana said Democrats hated Jews

It must be March Madness.  Not even a minute seventeen (2:07 with opening teaser) into Dana's third hour on Tuesday, Dana pulled out the race card.  Yes, Dana pulled the race card.

While pulling out a speech from 2010, where Mexican President Calderon came and asked for better gun control and slammed Arizona's immigration law, Dana actually stated that Democrats loved the speech because Calderon was not a Jew.  But don't believe me, please, listen to the clip above.

She repeats it two more times as well.  It's not because they actually like the idea of gun control, or hate the Arizona immigration law... NO!  It's because they hate Jews.

On top of that, Dana insists MSNBC is the whitest cable television station.  They do have 4 African American hosts, and the first Latino host.  Where are the hosts of color on Fox, or the Blaze?

The question Chris Matthews asks, is who would allow a foreign leader come in and rest from the president control of US foreign policy.  Dana twists that to the Calderon speech, where he talks not of foreign policy, but our domestic policies that were hurting his country.  How is it she gets to slam Chris Matthews, a guy with a ton more political experience than she has?

Did Calderon insist we change our second amendment?  He did ask for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, but it was in place for ten years from 1994 to 2004, and in that time it held up to all constitutional challenges.  Calderon did not ask to change the second amendment.  On top of that, he actually said he respected it.

Dana gets away with too many lies.  What sickens me the most, however, is the maddeningly bad taste in which she used race card especially by someone who has decried the use of the race card over and again.  But because Dana likes polls, here's one for her.  Republican presidents dating back to papa Bush have never won more than 31% of the Jewish vote.  What this means if Dana is correct is that Dems hate Jews, but Jews love Dems.  How awkward is that relationship?  Must be just as awkward as having a majority of the KKK vote Republican, I guess.