In the days following the 2008 Voodoo Music Experience, the message boards on the festival’s Web site have turned from a source of general information to a place for VIP commiseration. Numerous people who paid the extra money for special LOA passes, which sell for three to four times the general admission price, are charging that Rehage Entertainment Inc. failed to provide many of the promised perks. Gambit Weekly spoke to two of these people, and their stories are remarkably similar.

 

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In the interest of creating a one-stop link shop for those who say the media are “in the tank” in the presidential race, we offer the following story from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (of which Gambit is a member):

An informal email survey and website scan of AAN’s 123 American papers finds that 57 have made presidential endorsements this year, and all of them are endorsing Barack Obama.

It’s quite a difference from eight years ago, when a similar survey found alties’ endorsements split evenly between Democratic candidate Al Gore and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Nader, who is running for the third straight election this year as an independent, garnered no endorsements from AAN members. Nor did this year’s Green nominees, Cynthia McKinney.

Although many AAN members continue to maintain that it is not their place to make endorsements at all, and still more only endorse on local races, many papers jumped in and endorsed for president for the first time ever (or in some time) this year.

Chicago alt-weekly Newcity was one of those papers. “In our two-plus decades of publishing, we have never endorsed any candidate for any office. We do not have expectations we’ll do so again,” its endorsement reads. “But never before have we encountered a candidate so compelling on so many levels, or a time for change so imperative.”

Other papers, like New Orleans’ Gambit Weekly, are sticking to their guns and not endorsing. “Gambit does not endorse — and has never endorsed — in national races, which includes presidential contests,” editor Kevin Allman writes, “for the simple reason that we’re a locally-focused publication.”

You can read the roster here.

At college papers, it’s almost the same story, according to Editor and Publisher:

The Obama campaign leads by better than 23-1 in newspaper endorsements from dailies and weeklies, based on our tally so far. But the Democratic ticket has an even more impressive lead when it comes to college newspapers — 63 to 1, according to UWIRE’s Presidential Endorsement Scorecard (we have been providing a partial tabulation).

The one McCain endorser? The University of Mississippi’s Daily Mississippian.

We’ve done the work for you. Now have at it, cable-news talking-head screamfest friends. Parse away, talk-radio pocket pundits. Dissect. Argue. Just link back here when you do.

Another unintentionally awkward and terrifying moment of national television, courtesy of NBC’s Today Show. Thanks, Meredith Vieira, for disturbing toddlers, stay-at-home moms and barely awake editorial assistants at 8 a.m. Also worth noting: the unfortunate placement of buttons on Al Roker’s gingerbread man; a complete lack of Matt Lauer’s enthusiasm and a laugh track; Matthew Broderick.

 

I’m guessing Halloween trumps election years any ol’ day of the week. 

This was the line yesterday at about 6 p.m. outside the Uptown costume store. It extended all the way down the block. I turned around and went to the drugstore to buy some pipe cleaners, which I guess I’ll be wearing on my head, or something. 

Whether you can’t get enough frights this weekend or you want something to sober you up on Sunday, try watching I.O.U.S.A. It’s the story of our national debt. When the film was set for August release, the scary number was $9.5 trillion. But that was nothing. Now that Wall Street has melted down and $700 bailouts are bandied about as if that money was just sitting in the bank waiting for a rainy day, the debt has risen to $10.5 trillion as of Halloween. Actually that money is sitting in a bank … somewhere else in the world. The United States government borrows more than 20 cents of every dollar it spends. Simply put, that’s not sustainable. Interest on the debt accrues at a rate of almost $4 billion per day. This Sundance Film Festival selection examines the debt, how government fails to confront the problem and how disinterested the public is in the issue. The screening is at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center.