It's Friday night here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. It's windy. And it's rainy.
There's been rumbles of thunder; it's muggy. It's starting to feel like summer. If there's some particular feel to this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, it seems to me it's a summery feel. It's upbeat. It's smooth. It's . . . summery. At least to me. Dunno what else to say about it, apart from it's a danged fine listen. As always.
THE BIG SHOW is good music. And fun. And sonically edifying. I'm not exactly sure what "sonically edifying" means, but I like writing it. Just like a like me a good summer's eve. Just like I like me the Big Show. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
1) Sometimes, understatement is not a virtue. By Channel 9's news writing standards, King Kong was larger than most apes. 2) At what point did the ability to obviously state the obvious become optional in journalism? 3) Holy crap.
Yesterday, Nebraska had the death penalty. Today, it doesn't.
Be that is it may, the execution executive branch of state government isn't taking the unicameral's override of Gov. Pete Rickett's veto of legislation abolishing the death penalty lying down. On the question of making murderers dead -- despite Nebraska not executing anyone since 1997 and its problems obtaining the proper drugs for lethal injection -- Attorney General Doug Peterson's attitude can only be described as "never say die."
Because he wants to kill. Kill! KILL!KILLLLLLL!
Doug Peterson
One day after state lawmakers repealed the death penalty, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is questioning a portion of a repeal law dealing with the fate of the 10 men currently on death row.
But State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the sponsor of the repeal law, said Thursday that the attorney general doesn’t have a case.
"There’s no legal issue here," Chambers said.
Peterson, in a press release, said its office, "at the appropriate time," will seek a court decision to resolve the state’s ability to execute those currently on death row.
He pointed to language in Legislative Bill 268 that states: "It is the intent of the Legislature that in any criminal proceeding in which the death penalty has been imposed but not carried out prior to the effective date of this act, such penalty shall be changed to life imprisonment."
"We believe this stated intent is unconstitutional," Peterson said.
Only the State Pardons Board, under the state constitution, can change a criminal sentence, he said, the Legislature cannot do that.
Chambers, in an interview, said he knows that and reflected that in drafting the bill. He said he also made it clear during floor debate on LB 268 that while the Legislature’s "intent" was that death-row inmates get life sentences, the body has no power to do that.
"Courts have always said that intent language has no legal effect," the senator said. "We recognized that the bill would not change the (death) sentences."
However, Chambers added, LB 268 removes the state’s method for carrying out a death sentence.
Because of the new law, the 10 men on death row would continue to have death sentences, he said, but the state would have no way to execute them unless the Legislature enacted a new method of execution.
"And the Legislature is not going to authorize any method of execution," Chambers said.
NOW, BEING that Nebraskans deserve full disclosure from its elected officials, Peterson should immediately reveal whether he ever sat on the Group W bench and, if so, for how long.
Tonight, that would be here in the 3 Chords & the Truthstudio here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. For I am the king of all I survey in used-record stores and the Goodwill. And to tell you the truth, a lot of these vintage LPs, assuming they haven't been abused by teenagers -- and this is one I'm pretty sure wouldn't have been -- sound spectacular. Better than many, many brand-new ones hipsters are paying upwards of 20 bucks for these days. The moral you can take away from that is this: Sometimes, it is better to be old and cheap than young and hip. Sayeth your Mighty Favog.
Sometimes, you have a brilliant plan, and you execute it to perfection.
Sometimes, not so much.
This week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, your premier musical destination on the Internet, falls into that second category. The funny thing, though, is that in the humble opinion of your Mighty Favog, it didn't turn out half bad. Sometimes, I guess, just winging it and saying "whatever" can work out just as well as the best-laid plans with the best-case execution. That works for me. I mean . . . whatever. Right?
WHEN IT comes to putting together yet another stellar edition of the Big Show, the only thing that matters when it comes right down to it is this one simple thing: It can't suck. Methods of achieving that goal are secondary. So just listen in yet again and let your ears be your guide. I mean . . . plan or no plan, I haven't steered you wrong yet. Right? Right???
We bid a fond farewell to Mad Men in a manner that we hope might earn Roger Sterling's enthusiastic approval. Sal Romano certainly would have loved it.
This afternoon's LP listening (and digitizing) -- a 1972 British repressing of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1970 debut album.
Though manufactured in the United Kingdom, this album was released for the West German market. If you couldn't figure that out from the album number, it would be hard to miss the German price tag . . . in Deutschmarks.
I'M ALWAYS finding stuff like this here in Omaha, a.k.a., Ground Zero, a.k.a., home of the U.S. Strategic Command. If you have an Army or Air Force base in your town, I'd imagine the used-record pickings are equally good.
What would you say the chances are this will show up on some future edition of 3 Chords & the Truth?Me, I'd put the odds at 100 percent.
This week's 3 Chords & the Truth is the kind of show that will make you glad that you're alive.
With that said, just dance where you might be -- and push back against the world's darkness harder than it pushes on you. Because we should be glad that we're alive.
ME, I'm just glad you're listening to the Big Show. So let's dance, shall we? Life's too short to waste on anger, despair, paranoia and finger-pointing . . . and that's just what we see on Facebook. Eschew that. Listen to this. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Repeat after me, Omaha World-Herald online person in charge of Facebook updates:
"This is s***. This is Shinola. "This is s***. This is Shinola. "This is s***. This is Shinola."
On the other hand, that unknown editor probably is too young to know any more about Shinola than he or she knows about Garth Brooks.
ON THE third hand, one commenter is "pretty sure" the up-and-coming thing was a joke. To me, that doesn't matter. A newspaper's credibility can be trashed one lame ironic remark at a time just as well as it can by one glaring display of cluelessness at a time.
And credibility is about the only weapon "legacy media" like newspapers have left in their arsenals, particularly when they're counting on people to purchase access to their "product," which is reliable information. After all, if it's bulls*** you want, you can have your social-media fill of that for free.
A million monkeys trying to come up with Shakespeare . . . or an average episode of 3 Chords & the Truth . . . will come up with something akin to this.
So don't monkey around -- leave the quality music programming to your Mighty Favog, not a bunch of apes . . . or your local radio station, for that matter. We'll all be happier. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.Aloha.
Oh, the things you find at your local thrift store.
Or, in this case, at the Goodwill in North Platte, Neb. That's why it never hurts to hit the Goodwill when you're traveling -- in this case, on an overnight trip last week to west-central Nebraska. There I found not only this autographed Loretta Lynn LP, but three more of hers as well, two of them autographed like the one above. The cost for the whole stash was about what you'd pay for a large espresso drink at your local coffee emporium. And if anybody tries to take 'em from me, we're gonna be goin' to Fist City.
When a major cable network lets fools like Marc Lamont Hill on its air to say things like "We must be strategic in how we riot," you know with absolute certainty that the last grown-up in television news has died or retired.
President Obama wasn't kidding the other night at the White House Correspondents Dinner when he "joked" that "usually the only people impersonating journalists on CNN are journalists on CNN." As I watched rioters rule the streets of Baltimore last night on CNN, with police standing by observing as thugs looted liquor stores and set buildings alight not 50 yards away, I thought "This is a civilization refusing to defend itself." It seems to me there is a hierarchy of imperatives, and just above "Police should neither kill nor brutalize ordinary citizens or suspects in custody" is "Society must not be allowed to descend into violent mayhem."
Last night, Baltimore descended into violent mayhem. Last night, its elected leaders fiddled while Baltimore burned. And on a national "news" network, some damn-fool commentator lamented that the oppressed needed to be more "strategic" in their rioting.
Marc Lamont Hill
FORGET "two wrongs don't make a right." Forget that by looting and burning the stores of merchants, burning a church's senior-housing project that was under construction, assaulting bystanders and journalists for the crime of being white and endangering the lives of innocent residents of their own neighborhoods the rioters threw away any claim to the moral high ground. Forget every single thing that should be self-evident in any society not intent on suicide. Forget all that. Instead, let's focus on the strategic value of being "strategic" in your rioting. The moneyed and powerful may no longer possess the will to preserve public order or defend a teetering civilization, but I will guaran-damn-tee you that the moneyed and powerful -- in other words, the ruling class -- does have the will to defend its money and its power. So what then happens when "strategic" rioters head downtown, or to affluent neighborhoods, to strategically riot, burn, kill and loot? What happens when city hall and Camden Yards, home of baseball's Baltimore Orioles, go up in flames?
ME, I'm thinking that when Stuff White People Like start to be consumed by the all-encompassing rage and "strategic" rioting of the underclass, those who might be indifferent to the ongoing immolation of the ghetto suddenly will embrace the tactical efficiency of helicopter gunships and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. If and when that comes to pass, I wonder what academic rabble-rouser Marc Lamont Hill -- more commonly known in the 'hood as "p***y-ass toilet fodder" -- then might think of being "strategic in how we riot." Ultimately, when a minority suffers injustice and abuse by those in power, moral authority is the only authority it possesses and moral suasion is the only weapon it can count on. When people who are vastly outnumbered and, in Fortress America, vastly outgunned as well start to believe that two wrongs do make a right, at some point they will find the "oppressors" think that three just might.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a frog! A frog??? Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog . . . It's just 3 Chords & the Truth -- back from a break and found on this blog! In other words . . . never fear! The Big Show is here!
I've been away from the keys . . . and 3 Chords & the Truth . . . and the blog . . . and lots of stuff for the past three weeks. Time to get back to it -- them.
So, I'll do just that by posting this, some pictures from an overnight trip to North Platte, Neb., my old stomping grounds that's simply known as Railtown, U.S.A. North Platte is the Union Pacific Railroad. The U.P. is the largest employer in the city of 25,000 in west-central Nebraska, and North Platte is home to the largest rail yard in the world -- Bailey Yards. Bailey Yards is where the railroad repairs trains, classifies rail cars and puts them together into east- and westbound trains. The yard is massive -- more than eight miles long and 3 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. The locomotive repair shop works on some 300 engines a day and handles thousands upon thousands of rail cars daily as well.
SO, WHEN I was in town the other day, a visit to the yard's visitor center in the Golden Spike Tower was a must. You get a helluva view from eight stories up.
See, I told you the place was massive. Below is just a small part of Bailey Yards. A small part. Small.
ON THE other hand, you can get in some quality trainspotting, too, in downtown North Platte, down by where the city's old train depot once stood.
FINALLY, being that this is the Great Plains, ye shall know a town by its grain elevator. 3 Chords & the Truth is coming up next at its usual bat time on this same bat channel. Be there, aloha. That is all.
Today is April 1. Time for some spring cleaning at 3 Chords & the Truth.
The first thing to be cleaned from the program . . . hard rock. For us at the flagship program of the Revolution 21 universe, it's going to be nothing but good music. We're going with pop, jazz and easy listening -- music that calms the savage breast . . . and makes your world a safer, nicer place. That's why you're going to notice a change in 3 Chords & the Truth. We like to call the approach "The Velvet Sound," and it's going to sound as smooth as a fine swath of blue velvet.
I URGE you to check out the new sound of the finest music podcast on the Internet. I think you'll agree with us when we say to hard rock 'n' roll mayhem "We're not missing you at all." The program is all about good music, and good music is what you'll get from us at 3 Chords & the Truth. And that's all your Mighty Favog has to say about that, because the proof is in the hearing.
Try it. We guarantee you'll like it. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.Aloha. And that's your program news -- and your program -- for Wednesday, April 1, 2015.
This week's edition of the Big Show is about precious gifts.
One of my earliest was the gift of music. The gift of a love of music, and records . . . and ultimately a love of sharing that great bequest with others. That gift -- music -- I got from my mother at a young age. I remember as a little kid, maybe 4 years old, playing my parents' 78s and 45s and even LPs on the big Silvertone console and thinking it was one of the coolest things ever. And I've been doing it ever since.
IT'S A GIFT that has enriched my life and ultimately led me to the radio -- and being on the radio. And it has reached its fruition, so far, in this little endeavor we call 3 Chords & the Truth. The gift of music came from my mother some 50 years ago now. It's probably the greatest thing she ever gave me, apart from life itself. Mama passed away in a hospital here in Omaha early the morning of March 21, three days before my 54th birthday. This episode of theBig Show is for her. God bless you, Mama. And thank you for the music.
"I believe this
has crossed the line where we are endangering lives of those who wear a
uniform to protect us. How can we expect a criminal – a potential
criminal – who might want to commit a gun crime or any kind of crime
against law enforcement, to read a transcript and try to understand
context or hyperbole? Words matter. And Sen. Chambers said these words."
-- Nebraska Sen. Beau McCoy
Chambers' controversial remarks run from 51:06 to 58:36
Nearly a week after he said it, Nebraskans have decided to be outraged, horrified and morally offended by Sen. Ernie Chambers, who pointed out in a legislative committee meeting that ISIS wasn't a threat to ordinary folk in his district, but the police were.
In more than one case recently, this has been demonstrably true. But something being demonstrably true in a nation that's seen a spate of unarmed civilians -- many of them black -- being killed by heavily armed police is no deterrent to Nebraskans when it's yet again time to hate on the outspoken man who for decades was the state's only African-American legislator, and now is one of only two.
And did I mention that it took people almost a week to get outraged over widely reported "outrageous" comments? What people are saying is that Chambers said he'd shoot a cop because the cops are the equivalent of the worst sort of Islamic terrorists. What Chambers actually said is quite different.
State senators confronted Sen. Ernie Chambers Thursday during an extraordinary two-hour discussion about his remarks last week comparing police interaction with black citizens to ISIS treatment of its victims in the Mideast.
One freshman legislator, Sen. David Schnoor of Scribner, demanded the Omaha senator resign from the Legislature.
But Chambers dismissed insistent calls that he apologize or retract statements he made during a committee hearing last week.
His critics focused their criticism on a brief remark by Chambers that if he carried a gun -- which he doesn't -- and found himself confronted by a police officer, he'd want to shoot first and ask questions later, "like they say the cop ought to do."
Gov. Pete Ricketts weighed in on the discussion from outside the legislative chamber by issuing a news release urging Chambers to "issue a full apology for his remarks (and) condemn all violence against law enforcement."
During an interview after the Legislature adjourned for the week, Chambers said "there's not a person in my (legislative) district who thinks I would want to shoot a cop."
"The kids in my community are too smart to put that interpretation on those words," he said.
During the debate, Chambers said he's "used to be being piled on" after growing up as a black youth in a white culture and later during a public career of confronting senators in a Legislature in which he usually was the sole black senator. Two of the 49 current senators are black.
"I don't expect you to understand what I'm talking about," he said.
A number of senators who took exception to Chambers' comments last week defended his right to express his views even if they disagreed with him.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to pile onto Sen. Chambers," Sen. Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins said after the flood of criticism had begun.
"I do not condone what Sen. Chambers said, (but) let those among us who are without sin cast the first stone."
Chambers, he said, has "done a great service to this body for 40 years."
Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha said he now regrets that he didn't "nudge Senator Chambers and express my disappointment" when he made the remarks during last week's Judiciary Committee hearing, but he said he also needs to be prepared to call a colleague to account the next time he hears a reference to "a retard."
Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm said he has heard a senator refer to people who receive public assistance as "leeches," and he reminded colleagues that Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, who initiated Thursday's debate, dismissively knocked a bobblehead doll rendition of President Barack Obama off a fence post in one of his 2014 gubernatorial campaign TV ads.
THIS AD. I wonder whether McCoy regrets his symbolic act of violence against the president of the United States.
I wonder whether he wonders whether he planted a seed in the fertile soil of a future assassin's warped mind. Because, after all, actions matter. And Sen. McCoy whacked that Obama bobblehead. I'm seeing people from politicians to regular slobs on Facebook demand that people like Ernie Chambers "walk a mile in cops' shoes." Bullshit. You don't get to say that unless you equally insist that cops -- and Republican politicians, for that matter -- walk a mile in the shoes of Chambers' north Omaha constituents. So far, I haven't heard anybody meekly suggest that cops might, if they have time someday, and if it really isn't too much trouble, walk a block in the shoes of ordinary black folk in the 'hood. Like people say, "Fair is fair." Unless that depends on what the definition of "is" is. FOR THE RECORD, here is what Chambers actually said a week ago. Unedited for political effect or for outrage generation in the Internet age:
My ISIS is the police. And you know what the county attorney said, Don Kleine: If the officer makes a mistake, if he's wrong but he had reason to think that he was right, then he's clear. I cannot get away with that and shoot you and say, well, I thought he was going to do something. They say, uh-uh, buddy, that doesn't work.
Well, now we presume that these officers are trained. To show how little their training means and how they hide behind it, some guy out east was fired because he was dealing with a guy who had a mental problem and wound up...he was on duty, shot the guy 14 times, and he was fired. Now he's trying to get his job back. And you know what the lawyer is arguing? And he's justified in view of the not finding any fault in what these cops are doing. He said, yes, he shot the man 14 times, but it was within his training.
So now, if the police are trained to shoot somebody in the back, then the cop who shoots in the back says, it was pursuant to my training, and he's home free. That's what's happening. I would tell young people: If you tell somebody to go across the world to fight for ISIS, they can put you in jail if you just talk about it. If you want to fight injustice, don't...you don't have to go around the world to find the ISIS mentality. Your ISIS is in America and you're likely to die over there, one way or the other. So if you're going to die, die making your home safe. My home is not threatened by ISIS. Mine is threatened by the police. The police are licensed to kill us, children, old people.
They showed a guy on a highway. The highway trooper, he had this elderly black woman down on the ground, just beating the stew out of her, and nothing was done to him. That's what I see. Now suppose somebody told me somebody from ISIS did that. Then everybody is up in arms: See what cowards they are? They beat women in broad daylight. But when a cop does it, it's all right. I don't feel that way.
And if I were going to do something -- but I'm not a man of violence -- I wouldn't go to Syria, I wouldn't go to Iraq, I wouldn't go to Afghanistan, I wouldn't go to Yemen, I wouldn't go to Tunisia, I wouldn't go to Lebanon, I wouldn't go to Jordan. I would do it right here.
Nobody from ISIS ever terrorized us as a people, as the police do daily. And they get away with it and they've been given the license now. And people don't like me to say this. Then you rein in your cops. And you know what they say, the racism of the cops is merely reflective of the racism in this society and they accept the existence of racism to excuse the cop.
But then when I say there is racism in the society, they say, you're playing the race card, your talking about it makes it happen. But when they want to justify the cop, they say, he's merely reflective of the community where there is white racism. And that's what I look . . . you don't have to deal with that. You're privileged. You're free of that. You don't have to think about it every day. If I was going to carry a weapon, it wouldn't be against you, it wouldn't be against these people who come here that I might have a dispute with. Mine would be for the police. And if I carried a gun, I'd want to shoot him first and then ask questions later, like they say the cop ought to do. But could I get away with it? You know I couldn't get away with it. They'd better hope I never lose my mind and find out that I'm on my way out of here.
(Laughter)
NOW, WOULD I have made this point in the manner the senator made it? No. No, I wouldn't have.I always get into trouble when exercising my right to hyperbole. On the other hand, I suck at attracting attention, too. But I will say this. If somebody shoots Ernie Chambers because of this latest God 'n' country "two-minute hate," I hope that when people riot, they burn city hall and the police headquarters in Omaha, and then the state capitol in Lincoln rather than lay waste to their own neighborhoods.
This week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is for me to know about and you to find out about.
You can find out all about it by trekking here. Or, you can just click on any of the podcast players splattered all around here and call it good. When it comes to theBig Show, you have all sorts of options. OK, I'll tell you this: The show starts with E.L.O. and closes with The Three Suns. And there are other songs in between. Now go. Listen. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.Aloha.
