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| 50 Cent Promises 'The Return Of Slim Shady' With Eminem's Album Cameo Posted: 22 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT 'Cover your kid's ears' when listening to Before I Self Destruct, Fif warns.
50 Cent is coming! But which 50 can we expect? "It's a catch-22," the rapper said over the weekend in Las Vegas, referring to the criticism he received for Curtis, an album that he calls "softer" than Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. "They'll say, 'Oh, it's too aggressive.' ... Soon as you do something that's a little more lighthearted, and you can play the whole record and feel like you don't have to cover your kid's ears, I get penalized for it. So get ready to cover your kid's ears. Now I'm really interested in seeing how the public responds." Fif is promising a decidedly harsher edge on Before I Self Destruct, and he's been working with Eminem, Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. Storch produced the album's first look, "Get Up," but the G-Unit Chairman of the Board says we'll hear another song before the album's December 9 due date — a definite thunder clap.
" 'Get Up,' is just the appetizer," he said on Saturday, in a separate interview at the BET Hip-Hop Awards. "I got so much more, so many different records to feel out and see what direction I wanna go in next. I've been writing this record for a year. I started Before I Self Destruct before I started Curtis. Conceptually, this one has been very well-groomed." Unlike Curtis, which had cameos from Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige and Robin Thicke, it doesn't seem like 50 is too interested in having collaborators stop by the studio this time around. Eminem is the only name he shared. (The Queens native described the record "Norman Bates Motel" as "the return of Slim Shady.") "So, far I've kinda kept to myself and wrote what I felt was exciting from my perspective," Fif said. "It's always fun working with Em for me. He's in a space where he has the luxury of just being able to sit down. The rest of us ... me, I do the actual footwork. Dre hasn't had an album out in seven years. Em — two years. Me — seven, eight months. They send me out to test the waters, and everyone else will jump in the tub. I stay a little more active. Em is by far the biggest rap artist, period. I'm the largest hip-hop touring artist. I travel more places than he travels to be in front of a live audience." 50 traveled to Detroit to stay with Em twice while recording. One time was over the span of a weekend, and Em encouraged his signee to carry out his idea of shooting a movie to accompany the album. "He's like, 'Go, just do it. If you wanna go, just do it, and we'll figure everything out after the fact,' " 50 recalled. "There were a few technical questions, considering this is my fourth and final actual studio album. My fifth album requirement [to Shady/Aftermath] is a greatest-hits requirement." The film "Before I Self Destruct" will be packaged with the album on December 9. Related Artists | ||
| Young Veterans Stick Together To Navigate College Life After Navigating The Horrors Of War Posted: 22 Oct 2008 05:04 AM PDT 'I didn't quite understand the lingo of school,' one former Marine says of his transition.
A big reason for enlisting in the military is the help veterans get in paying for college once their tours have ended. Yet those who do make the transition from military to college often find their new situation to be full of uncertainty — both bureaucratic and personal. "Writing papers still sucks, even after four years in the Marines," says former Sergeant Graham Platner, now a 24-year-old freshman at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "But at the same time, it is a new experience, and for me, I gave up a lot to come here, so I'm going to enjoy it." Despite braving firefights and avoiding IEDs overseas, veterans often find they need help navigating the daily tasks of college life, from signing up for classes to finding a place to live. "I didn't quite understand the lingo of school, because it's all credits and hours and all that sort of stuff," says Wade Spann, a former Marine who is now an international-affairs major at George Washington. "I had a girl sign up all my classes for me the first semester. She's like, 'Dude, you're taking these classes,' and I'm like, 'Thank you!' " (Learn about other veterans' issues and sign the petition for BRAVE, the Bill of Rights for American Veterans, here.)
According to the Veterans Benefits Administration, there are currently 297,000 veterans enrolled in some sort of higher education, and they often find the people sitting next to them in class come from very different backgrounds and perspectives than their own. "They're thinking, 'Oh my God, I have to write this huge paper.' They're freaking out about it," said Josh McCoy, a former Marine who was involuntarily called back into the military after his initial release. "I'm like, 'Well, OK, I'm going to have to stay up and write a paper.' It's not the end of the world. I've dealt with so much more than this before." "I don't feel as though I have much common ground [with the other freshmen]," Platner said. "And I don't feel as though my fellow students feel they have much common ground with me. I'm older. I've been through a lot more. I'm not here for the social thing or to have fun: I'm here for the education."
If a school doesn't have an established system for dealing with veterans, the former enlisted men and women can also find it tricky to deal with the administration. Some schools require all freshmen to live on campus in dorms, a concept that doesn't appeal to veterans in their mid-20s who have already spent years in tight quarters. To help navigate these tricky waters, veterans' organizations have begun popping up on campuses all over the country. Platner, Spann and McCoy are all members of the newly formed George Washington University Veterans, a group established earlier this semester to help foster communication between the former troops and their civilian classmates, as well as the university administration. At their first public event earlier this month, the group held an "Ask a Vet" panel at the school's international-relations building. When a student asked about the transition from military to civilian life, the five panelists were eager to share their different perspectives. "There were times when I kind of felt isolated," said Kevin Blanchard, who lost a leg as a combat engineer in the Marines Corps. "I felt like everything was kind of black, like I was in a hole, and I was constantly trying to dig out of it. But from three years ago to now, all of life looks different. The color of these lights, the smile on you guys' faces, it all looks a little bit different." Spann, an international-affairs major, told the audience that two of his friends from his platoon killed themselves this past August. "For them to go down that path, there was things we could have done to stop it," he said. "When you get out, you don't have that safety net you had in the Marine Corps, where I could turn to my buddy in the platoon and say, 'Hey, buddy, remember that ... ,' and sort of talk it through." A note on the program for the event stated that the veterans reserved the right "not to answer a question that is offensive or inappropriate for this venue," reminding everyone that in an environment where free speech is encouraged, not everyone is going to be supportive. Yet the panelists seemed pleased with the questions they received at their first forum. "These are our voters, and these are our future leaders of our country," said Brian Hawthorne, a former combat medic in the Army. "Even if this is their only exposure to the military, hopefully it's a positive one that they can think back before they vote or before they decide in Congress one day to send troops down range." Platner said that in the few weeks he's been at George Washington, he's had no negative reactions to his participation in a controversial war. "Most people are either indifferent or they thank me," he said. What question is most often asked by his fellow students? "There is the question," he said, referring to his classmates' curiosity about taking someone's life. His response? "I just say I'm not even going to go down that road." The veterans will readily discuss their friends who did not make it back from war. They say it increases the drive they have to succeed as students. "I can't screw this up," Platner said. "I think there's an awesome responsibility resting on my shoulders while I'm here, because not a lot of guys have the opportunity to come do this. I lucked out." "I want to be successful so I can change things," Spann said. "I want to be successful so they say, 'Hey, look at this guy.' I don't want the war to define me, as that's all I did in my life." Don't miss "A Night for Vets: An MTV Concert for the BRAVE," presented by MTV's Choose or Lose campaign and CNN to support veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The show will feature performances by 50 Cent, Ludacris, Kanye West, Hinder, Saving Abel and more and airs Friday at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
Get informed! Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election, including everything from the latest news on the candidates to on-the-ground multimedia reports from our 51 citizen journalists, MTV and MySpace's Presidential Dialogues, and much more. Related Videos | ||
| Lil Wayne Calls His <i>Carter III</i> Do-Over 'The Birth Of A New Beginning' Posted: 21 Oct 2008 12:21 AM PDT Weezy hopes to include discarded Ludacris duet and 'A Milli' remixes alongside brand-new material on upcoming album.
It's not quite time for Tha Carter IV yet, but Lil Wayne is ready to release new music. Weezy told MTV News at the BET Hip-Hop Awards that he's putting out Tha Carter III again, but it won't be the traditional revamp album with just one or two new songs. Wayne is going all out, making the project an entirely different LP.
"I don't know if we're gonna release Tha Carter IV now," he said on his tour bus. "I think we're gonna release Tha Carter III — a new Carter III with none of the same songs, though. None of them. Not one! We don't wanna call the [next album] we got coming out Tha Carter IV. That was the dilemma we were in. We want Carter IV to be what everybody wants it to be. This is something brand-new, so we don't want it to be some experimental thing, 'cause some people are not gonna like this. I don't want them to not like Tha Carter IV. But I do have an album coming soon, very soon, and it's gonna be called ... Tha Carter III: The Rebirth. The birth of a new beginning." Mixed in with the new material Weezy has been recording will be some of the songs that were supposed to pop on the original CIII, including a duet with Ludacris and possibly all those versions of "A Milli," featuring acts such as Lil Mama, Tyga and Corey Gunz. "I had a song with [Luda] called 'Eat You Alive' that was supposed to be on [the first] Tha Carter III. That will be on the new Carter III," Wayne said. Right before his chat with MTV News, Wayne had Pharrell Williams on the bus discussing future work. Skateboard P said their talk was "very interesting." Meanwhile, Wayne said he's been locked in with some up-and-coming producers, as well as an acclaimed production duo from Miami. "Shout to Pharrell," Wayne exclaimed. "I been working with Cool & Dre. They're geniuses — no more, no less. They're amazing. When I get in with a producer, I go in every day with them. It's been Cool & Dre up to this point. I just got some new music from Play N Skillz, new music from Street Runner, new music from DJ Nasty. I'mma check that out, see what I like about that." Related Videos Related Artists | ||
| Young Buck Says <i>The Rehab</i> Will Sell A Million In A Week -- Whenever It Gets Released Posted: 21 Oct 2008 05:08 AM PDT Former G-Unit member hopes to 'come to terms and figure out a release date' with 50 Cent.
ATLANTA — Who will be the next MC to sell a million units in the first week? If not Kanye West or 50 Cent, then certainly Eminem. Well, Young Buck said he doesn't care if other artists have bigger names — he's going to sell a million. While Buck's aspirations are lofty, what makes his goal even more suspect is that his next LP is in limbo. Because of Buck's rift with the G-Unit, everything is up in the air — except the title, that is. The Tennessee native told MTV News exclusively what he plans to call the project. "The name of my record is The Rehab," he said with a smile Sunday in Atlanta. "Straight up, that's where I been at." Buck said that he and Tupac's protégés, the Outlawz, will put out two separate projects around the same time. "You can expect for their album at the top of the year," he said. "Hopefully it comes January, no later than February. "Regardless of whatever you may hear, whatever dealing with Buck, what you see is what you get," he continued. "Honestly, to be real, 50 [Cent] made the statement to the world that 'Buck is no longer a part of G-Unit, but he's still an artist on the label,' so whenever I guess he gets over his situation and figures out his album, I guess we'll come to terms and figure out a release date on my album. Until then, I ain't stoppin'. That's why I'm going so hard with the mixtapes. I'm everywhere. Hopefully, we'll get a release on my album in January or February." In the Southern MC's perfect world, he'll be able to be released from G-Unit Records. He said he already has suitors willing to buy him out of his contract if 50 is willing to sit down and negotiate. "I'm trying to get totally away from the whole G-Unit situation, period," he said. "If I can directly deal with Interscope, so be it. I only got two albums left anyway. So at this point, all I'm trying to do is fulfill what I got left with homeboy and move on. It's already understood that the relationship with me and G-Unit will never be the same, so you don't ever have to look forward to seeing me back with G-Unit. That's not my thing. I'm staying down with the streets, and the streets are staying down with me." Related Artists | ||
| Eminem Ready To 'Get Back Out There' With <i>Relapse</i> Posted: 20 Oct 2008 10:58 PM PDT In BBC Radio interview, Em says he's been working with Dr. Dre for five months on the new album.
Eminem has seen the top of the mountain, and at this point, he's happy to let someone else take his perch. Despite a mega-platinum run earlier in the decade that saw him rising to the pinnacle of rap superstardom, the MC told BBC Radio host Zane Lowe over the weekend that he's had it with fame. "I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to oversaturate," he said, adding that he made his upcoming record, Relapse, mainly as a means of reminding people that he can still bring it. "That's probably what I take pride in most. ... But, at the end of the day, it's kind of catch-22. I love the attention, but I don't like too much of it. ... There's no desire to be that big again. Whatever happens, I'll take it, but that's definitely not what I'll be recording the songs for." Em has been on hiatus since 2005 and hasn't released a new album since 2004's Encore. After such a wait, scaling back on the hype for this album will be hard, especially since, according to his BBC Radio interview, his main collaborator on Relapse is none other than original mentor Dr. Dre. "For the last five months I've been working pretty much straight with Dre," he said. "There's going to be a lot of material, more so than I've had on an album with him producing before." Though Dre has worked on all of Eminem's albums since his 1997 debut, the production legend took on a bigger load on Relapse because Em said he didn't want to have to worry about producing this time around. "Obviously, [Dre's] beats are insane, but aside from that, I can rap," Em said. "I can write and not worry about what the beat has to sound like and how loud a snare drum is. All those things are taken care of for me. I feel like a spoilt rapper. I get to pick and choose everything." Em, who was recently named the Best Rapper Alive by Vibe readers, said he couldn't wait to "get back out there" and felt "pretty good about what I've done." So far, fans have heard his freestyle, "I'm Having a Relapse," but no release date has been set yet for the album. After a rough couple of years, during which he reportedly had a health scare and saw his childhood friend, rapper Proof, gunned down in a nightclub, Eminem told Lowe he's not particularly eager to tour any time soon. "I'm not saying I will or I won't, but I'm not ready to tour, at least at this moment right now," said Eminem, who canceled a string of European dates in 2005 due to what was initially described as exhaustion but was later revealed to be time out to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription sleeping medication. He told Lowe that the Encore tour was around the time he stopped having fun performing onstage. "All in all, I'm a pretty private person when it comes to certain things that I want to keep private," he said. "It's just me and my family's business. There were days when I just couldn't wait to get home and have privacy when nobody's watching me." Also in the interview, Em said he's voting for Senator Barack Obama in the upcoming election because the Illinois Democrat "would be a breath of fresh air to get what's left of the Bush administration out of the door." And he couldn't resist kicking up a bit of controversy for old time's sake. Though he said "the majority" of rap that has been released since he went on hiatus is "crap," he took time to give props to T.I.'s new album, Paper Trail, saying he's been "pumping that for the last two weeks every day in my car aside from my own stuff as I record it." He also said Outkast's Andre 3000 is "incredible," but rap in general has gone down the toilet. Related Artists | ||
| Posted: 22 Oct 2008 05:00 AM PDT For the Lips, it isn't the destination but the journey.
On The Record: The Most Trying, Insane And Important 86 Minutes Of Your Life There is a moment — and this moment is really dependent on your tolerance for shots of bleeding infants and labia — in the Flaming Lips' "Christmas on Mars" film when you sort of want to rip your eyes out. Or at least have some sort of psychotic episode. This is probably exactly what the Lips (or, more specifically, mastermind Wayne Coyne, who directed the film and spends a majority of its 86 minutes wandering around with antennae sticking out of his head as "The Martian") intended. After all, they've sort of made a career out of pushing audiences to the brink. For 25 years now, they've prodded, poked and run relatively unchecked through the music industry, making — like, physically, with their hands — their own brand of unique madness. It hasn't always been pretty, but it's certainly been interesting. And if you consider all of that, well, "Mars" is their masterwork. Of course, that's not to say that the film is particularly good (it isn't), but when you're talking about the Lips, "good" is a relative term. And this only became apparent to me after I sat through the entirety of "Mars," a seemingly endless dirge of listless camera work, poor acting and droning background music that is periodically interrupted by the occasional scene of an atrocity (an exploding baby head, a fetus cut with a knife and fork) or psychedelic genitalia (on the heads of astronauts or a marching band, nonetheless). Oh, yeah, and it's also about Christmas. Sort of. There are cameos by Fred Armisen, Adam Goldberg and the guy who used to be on "Blues Clues," and they're all pretty terrible (also, despite what you've read, neither Elijah Wood nor Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock are in the film). There's no dialogue for the first seven minutes of the film, and when everyone eventually does start talking, you sort of wish they would shut up. Shot on grainy 16mm, the film is hard to watch, and its editing (or lack thereof) could generously be described as languid. Though, to be fair, all of that is largely immaterial. See, the one thing I liked about "Mars" actually had nothing to do with the film itself — rather, about halfway through, I had the sudden realization that it completely sums up every single feeling I have about the Flaming Lips themselves. Both good and bad. And here they are: The Lips are amazing, unless you really look and listen closely, in which case you realize that they're sort of not. At least not anymore. They have been coasting for nearly a decade now, getting by on smoke and mirrors — their gimmicky live show, 5.1 channel surround-sound versions of their albums, landing homemade UFOs at the Oklahoma City Zoo — while ignoring the fact that Coyne can no longer sing (at least not live), and their musical output has become increasingly uninteresting. Ever since 1999's excellent The Soft Bulletin — which ushered in the current "sonically expansive" era of the band — they've sort of been spinning their wheels, releasing two albums in the '00s, exactly one-quarter of which was any good (the first four songs on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots). Then again, perhaps none of that matters. Because, like I said, when you're talking about the Flaming Lips, everything is relative. Like "Christmas on Mars" itself, the band is less about the end destination as it is the voyage getting there. The trip is the thing — and making "Mars" was certainly a trip, as it was famously in (and out of) production since 2001, shot almost exclusively on sets Coyne himself built and stars a guy (Lips multi-instrumentalist Steve Drozd) who kicked heroin during filming. It's a testament to the spirit of the band and to the twin DIY and "Never Say Die" ethics of Coyne — the same kind of ethics I just criticized a paragraph ago. To him, finishing "Mars," building a spaceship for their stage show or recording an album about mystics and magic are all the same thing — they're all inevitabilities, not eventualities. And in that regard, "Mars" resembles perhaps nothing quite as well as it does Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, another long-in-the-works (and equally insane) project currently (supposedly) being docked by Mr. W. Axl Rose himself. Both are testaments to the ego and determination of their respective masterminds. Both have become industrywide punch lines and the subject of countless rumors. And neither was ever expected to see the light of day. I'm not the first to make this comparison, but here's where I differ from others: The beauty of "Mars" is that — like Democracy — it doesn't matter if it's any good or not. What's important is that it's finished. Both Coyne and Rose heard all the detractors, but they shouldered the load, gritted their teeth and pulled their respective projects across the finish line. The trip is the thing. And, ultimately, though I may write some bad things about them, that's also why I'll always listen to whatever the Flaming Lips are doing. Because the voyage is so enthralling — not to mention inspiring. I'll watch whatever half-baked space oddity they cook up next (and probably do so while actually half-baked), because they've earned that kind of respect. It hasn't always been pretty, but it's certainly been interesting. And even when it's pretty bad, hey, at least they're trying — really, really hard. Questions? Comments? BTTS@MTVStaff.com. Related Artists | ||
| Faulty Voting Machines, 'Barack Osama' Typos And More Potential Election Day Time Bombs Posted: 21 Oct 2008 02:40 AM PDT From misprinted ballots to claims of voter fraud, a number of snafus could result in chaos on November 4.
Come Election Day, it could be déjà vu all over again. After a 2000 presidential election in which faulty ballots and disputed voting resulted in the intervention of the Supreme Court, and a 2004 contest with allegations of voting-machine errors in the crucial swing state of Ohio, there are already several brewing controversies that could cause the election to last beyond November 4. From the weekend arrest of a California man who officials allege hired workers to trick tens of thousands of voters into registering as Republicans, to claims that scores of Florida college students and minorities have been kicked off voter rolls because of a controversial "no match, no vote" measure that requires driver's-license or Social Security numbers to match those in government databases, the potential for fraud is ripe. Here are some of the other possible Election Day time bombs: The ACORN Accusation What's the issue?: The campaign of Republican Senator John McCain has been trying to tie rival Senator Barack Obama's camp to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which has been accused of some questionable voter-registration drives in several swing states (Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina among them). ACORN — which has long been a target of conservatives — claims to have registered 1.3 million people to vote and denies accusations of voter fraud, which include claims that the group tried to register dead or nonexistent voters. Potential headaches: Some Republican activists have claimed that ACORN is openly adding convicted felons and illegal aliens to the voting rolls — and counting among its 80,000 newly registered voters in Nevada one "Tony Romo," which also happens to be the name of the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback. ACORN has hit back, saying that the Romo registration was probably a prank and that it's not voter fraud unless you show up on Election Day and try to pass yourself off as Jessica Simpson's honey. ACORN also asserts that the number of questionable new registrants was, at most, 10,000, and the organization says none of those will likely lead to any legitimate votes. There have also been break-ins at ACORN offices resulting in the theft of voting records and death threats to employees. The FBI and several states are investigating voter-registration cards with the names of the deceased or fictional characters. ACORN says those registrations will be thrown out and the phony votes won't be cast. Legitimate Voters Get Left Out What's the issue?: The head of the Social Security Administration has sent letters to Indiana officials expressing concern that the state is using Social Security numbers to determine voter eligibility at a level that "appears to be much greater than one would expect," according to the Indianapolis Star. State officials, though, have downplayed the complaints and said they're a symptom of the intense scrutiny on this year's election and that nothing irregular is going on. Among the discrepancies are claims that there are more registered voters in Marion County than voting-age residents, which officials explain by saying that the state failed to purge 90,000 inactive names in 2006. Potential headache: Voter lists cannot be purged within 90 days of an election, so it's possible those names could become a legal quagmire, should the election hinge on the votes in Indiana. Extra Stamps Could Mean Extra Headaches What's the issue?: Florida, which has developed a well-deserved reputation as the go-to swing state with the potential to make or break campaigns — often due to unforeseen voting issues — is at it again. The Orlando Sentinel recently warned absentee voters that the ballots for the November 4 election are so long and heavy that mailing them back to elections supervisors could require extra postage totaling up to $1.17. One voter worried that because she didn't read the instructions on her ballot closely enough for the primary election — and didn't realize it cost 59 cents to mail instead of the regular 42 cents — her ballot might not have counted. Potential headache: While the U.S. Postal Service typically returns mail with insufficient postage — and some elections offices have arranged to cover the additional postage — with record numbers of registered voters in some areas requesting the ballots, some of those with insufficient postage might not arrive in time. If the election is as close as it has been — President Bush won the 2000 election thanks to 537 votes in Florida — some of that missing postage could be a pivotal issue. To Check or Not to Check What's the issue?: Like Florida, Ohio has become one of the key battleground states in recent elections. And, also like Florida, the state has a recent history of voting irregularities and squabbles about which voters are qualified to cast ballots. The 2004 election was plagued by charges that then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, tried to disenfranchise voters by ordering that those whose registration could not be confirmed be given only a provisional ballot, and if it was later determined they had tried to vote in the wrong precinct, their vote wouldn't count. The move was seen as potentially disenfranchising to lower-income minority voters who were more likely to vote Democratic. Now, Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner — whose Web site was hacked on Tuesday (October 21) and who has received death threats — has been accused of attempting to disenfranchise Republican voters. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Brunner has attempted to ban 1 million applications for absentee ballots sent to voters by the McCain campaign by ordering state registrars to reject the applications if the voters did not check a box on it that read, "I am a qualified elector," claiming that the unchecked box left the board of elections without any proof that the applicant was a qualified voter. Potential headache: The Ohio Supreme Court recently rejected Brunner's efforts, but on Friday, a federal appeals court sided with her over a lawsuit from Republicans that sought to create a new computer program to verify the eligibility of newly registered voters against existing state databases. Another potential dispute on the horizon could arise over this year's decision to allow same-day voter registration and voting in Ohio. The state GOP has argued in several lawsuits that Ohio law requires voters to have been registered for 30 days before casting an absentee ballot, but a judge sided with Brunner in allowing the same-day voting. Each new day, it seems, brings another lawsuit in the ongoing battle. Similar voter verification problems are also bubbling up in Georgia. Barack Osama? What's the issue?: Not that this Freudian slip hasn't already happened several times to TV pundits and even presidential candidates, but a printing error in upstate New York resulted in 300 absentee ballots being sent to voters in Rensselear County that had Barack Obama's last name spelled "Osama." Officials — one of whom received a misprinted ballot and said he didn't notice the misspelling — insisted that the mistake was an innocent typographical error that somehow slipped past three different proofreaders. Potential headache: New ballots were issued to the voters immediately, so in theory, there will be no mishaps with the misprints. Checks and Balances What's the issue?: In Colorado, more than 6,400 voters are ineligible to vote because they failed to check a box on their registration forms when they registered without a state ID or driver's license. Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman is insisting that an unchecked box means an incomplete form and that voters have to fill out the form again. Potential headache: Coffman originally said the resubmitted forms had to be in before October 6 but has now allowed for them to come in anytime before Election Day, saying the first date was announced in error. Some voter-registration groups are claiming that officials in Coffman's office specifically told them the box didn't need to be checked, claiming that the confusion could erase votes. Voters who don't re-register can cast provisional ballots, but since those ballots often involve additional verification, they are frequently discounted. Not OK Computer What's the issue?: Following allegations that systematic flaws in the new electronic voting machines in the 2004 presidential election may have impacted results, a recent study by Common Cause found that there are still widespread issues with the machines in a number of states. Potential headache: Of the 24 states using voting machines, eight reportedly have no requirement to stock emergency paper ballots in case of machine failures, and 10 states don't have proper procedures to make sure every vote is counted. Social Injustice What's the issue?: According to a recent New York Times report, tens of thousands of voters in at least six swing states appear to have been removed from voting rolls — or blocked from registering — as a result of mistakes in handling the registrations and voter files in an attempt to comply with the 2002 "Help America Vote Act," intended to overhaul how elections are run. Potential headache: While the Times said there was no appearance of the voter purges being coordinated by either party, because Democrats have been more aggressive in registering new voters this year, any extra screening of new applications could disproportionately affect their party's supporters. And, in at least six important swing states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — the purges could result in problems on Election Day if people who've been removed from the rolls show up to vote and get challenged by party officials or election workers and cause long lines, confusion or tempers to spike.
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| Britney Spears Driving Case Declared A Mistrial, Dismissed Posted: 21 Oct 2008 02:28 AM PDT 'I want to escape this case,' Spears' attorney says.
They'd been deliberating since Friday, and even though it seemed like a fairly cut-and-dried case, the jury in Britney Spears' misdemeanor driving-without-a-license trial still couldn't agree on a verdict, forcing Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Steele to declare a mistrial Tuesday afternoon (October 21). According to The Associated Press, the prosecution and the defense in Spears' driving case were asked to make a new round of closing arguments Tuesday morning, in hopes that it would spur the jury toward a decision. Steele, who instructed the jury to resume deliberations Monday until they reached a unanimous decision, allowed both sides to restate their cases for 11 minutes. But apparently, the second round of closing arguments failed to convince the two holdouts on the jury of eight women and four men. AP reports that, after four votes, the jury still couldn't agree on whether the singer was guilty of driving without a valid driver's license, a misdemeanor. Steele thanked the jurors for their time, and then ended the proceedings. A few hours later, the prosecution announced that the case against Spears had been dismissed altogether. Spears, who rejected a plea deal earlier this month that would have placed her on a year's probation and required her to pay a $150 fine, was not present for any of the trial. The charge against Spears stemmed from a minor accident she was involved in last summer, during which the pop star struck a parked car and drove off. Paparazzi captured the incident on video. At the time, Spears had only her Louisiana driver's license. Her attorney claims she didn't meet the state's residency requirements and, thus, was within the law. Initially, Spears was also slapped with a hit-and-run charge that was later dismissed after she paid to have the other vehicle repaired. The case hinges on the question of residency. The prosecution argued that Spears got married, had two children and filed for divorce in Los Angeles, and was therefore a California resident. But her attorney claims her California residency was temporary and that her true address lies in her home state. Before the mistrial, Spears' lawyer, J. Michael Flannagan, told OK! magazine that this case is quite different from most he's argued. "I want to escape this case," he reportedly said, following his second closing argument. "I've tried about 500 cases, and I've never seen something like this. I've seen hung juries before but never have I had to give additional closing arguments for a case like this. They should have declared this a mistrial a day ago. I looked at the jury, and they did not look happy. I did not see a lot of happy faces." [This story was originally published on 10.21.08 at 3:15 p.m. ET.] Related Artists | ||
| My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way Pens Batman Comic While Band Is 'Taking A Long Break' Posted: 20 Oct 2008 11:18 PM PDT Bassist says MCR are always writing new songs but haven't been in the studio for new album.
My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way knows a thing or two about comics — and not just because his brother, Gerard, is an acclaimed artist and an avowed comic book fanatic with an Eisner Award-winning series, "The Umbrella Academy," under his belt. "Nah, it's not just my brother — all my buddies are really into comics, including [famed artist] Jim Lee, who I talk to all the time," Way said. "I have, like, this council of comic book geeks — kids I knew growing up, everyone — and we're always having these conversations about books and stuff, these conversations where we go, 'Man, if people could hear what we're saying right now, what would they think?' " So, it seems only natural that Way would dabble in the industry himself, and though it took him a while — "I had lots of meetings," he said — he's finally penned an eight-page story that will appear in DC Comics' special "Halloween '08" book, which hits stores Wednesday. Way's story, featuring art by Mateus Santoluoco, is based on the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but stars none other than Batman and Scarecrow (it is a DC comic, after all) in a bit of role reversal. "The story follows the Scarecrow as Ichabod Crane and Batman as the Headless Horseman. I took the character of Jonathan Crane and put him in Tarrytown, New York, in the 1700s," Way explained. "They gave me the option to write a story about any character in the DC Universe, and I was like, 'Well, I'm gonna do Batman. I've got to do Batman.' Then I had the idea for my story, and it seemed pretty straightforward, and I was sure someone else had done it already. So I had to go to all my friends — my council — and to Jim Lee, and be like, 'Has anyone done a Batman story like this before?' And we were all amazed that no one has. "Then I just got down to writing it," he continued, "and it turned out that there wasn't that much pressure, because the whole book is artists and writers doing Halloween-based storylines. I ended up with something like 20 pages of dialogue, so the big problem was that I just had too much, and we had to cut some of it." Way says that he still hasn't even seen the finished book, but that he plans on picking it up tomorrow. And he's planning on doing even more comic book work in the near future: He mentioned collaborating with his brother and says he's bounced a few ideas off of Lee, too. That's probably a good thing, because it seems like he's going to have a whole lot of free time on the horizon. After all, things are pretty slow right now in his other job, playing bass for My Chem. "The thing with us is that we're always in the process of writing. You know, everyone is sitting around, working on riffs, and everyone's got their own stuff going on," Way said. "Personally, I've just been diddling around with songs, and if I come up with something good, I'll call Gerard or [guitarist] Frank [Iero]. But what it really boils down to is this band really needed some time off, and that's what we're doing right now. We're getting great time off." Way said that he and his MCR bandmates have "hung out a bunch," but that the only time they've played together was when they entered a studio to record a version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" for director Zack Snyder's much-anticipated film version of "Watchmen." Other than that, the band appears to be miles away from beginning work on the follow-up to Welcome to the Black Parade, and though Way knows that news may disappoint fans, he promises that the wait will be worth it. Eventually. "We're taking a long break, so we can come back fully recharged. The great thing about this band is that you never know what's going to happen next," he said. "We may write a bunch of stuff, and then a month later switch gears and do it all again. So if, say, we wrote some songs that sound like Rick Springfield, a week later they've all turned into Children of Bodom songs. I know it's going to be great; I just don't know what it's going to sound like. We're going to be just as surprised as everyone else, believe me." Related Artists |
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