Brad Barrish

The youth of America (18-35) ask the questions and the candidates (and/or their people) answer. I’m not quite clear on whether The New Voters Project Presidential Youth Debate was actually an in-person debate or if it was done over email or something. Either way, I have to admit being somewhat disappointed by John Kerry’s responses. At least he could have used a little more rhetoric to beef up his responses in a lot of cases. I’m soliciting responses here, so what do you think after reading the answers?

Someone emailed me the other day asking me if I just put my monthly mixes together for my site. The answer is no. I have been doing these monthly mixes for a while now and listen to every one of them until they start grossing me out. They are usually the only CDs I have in my car. I don’t listen to full albums (in one sitting) as much as I used to. I dunno if it’s an attention span thing or what. The mixes serve as a musical journal. I go back to old ones all the time, which is pretty fun. I used to design cover art for each one. I even had a few people do the artwork for them. Michael Miller has done my year-end double-disc for the last couple of years. My good friend Shayna did one as well. I’m listening to the new one as I type this. It was completed in the wee hours of this morning. Put it together and enjoy. Happy Rocktober \m/

I’m not a big fan of t-shirts that say anything on them, but I did purchase a Stewart/Colbert 2004 t-shirt. The day I decided to wear the shirt, I was probably out in public for all of about 4 hours and was asked about my choice of candidates at least a dozen times. Most people asked where I got the shirt, but there were a few who said it was irresponsible. I suggested they get a sense of humor. One person didn’t take so kindly to the suggestion and angrily exclaimed that there was “no room for humor in this election.” I happen to think otherwise.

Clearly, Bush is no idiot. [via TMN]

Paul Graham wrote an interesting and informative essay on the dot.com bubble, which I happened to float upon throughout the late 90s. [via Boing Boing]

It concerns me a great deal that the “debates” will not showcase the candidates, but instead will serve as a platform for well-rehearsed rhetoric (from both sides). I want to see a real debate between Bush and Kerry. Can you imagine the utter horror that would be on display if Bush had to answer questions off the cuff and actually debate Kerry? These are the things of which dreams are made. I’m hoping that Kerry will play a little dirty and take off the gloves, if only to show America that Bush is a misguided, unintelligent, lying pussy.

Certainly, you must be tired of reading headlines with ‘vote’ in them? I’m gonna take all of my other posts down. Perhaps then some of you will stop putting off your voter registration.

Voter registration is down 5% to a 10-year low in Los Angeles county?? I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why registration isn’t up. Do you Angelenos just take it for granted that Kerry’s gonna win the state? Yes, that must be it. Do you people not understand that Bush must not be elected to a second term? Fine, don’t listen to me. Need some rock stars to tell you? Here you go. For whatever it’s worth, I think Mike D said it very well:

I have no sense of Bush as a man. It's impossible to distinguish his personal interests from the interests of those closest to him. What is his own agenda, vs. the agenda of guys like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz? I don't think I've ever heard him speak on an issue where it seemed to be coming directly from himself.

Bruce Springsteen is as eloquent as always.

I read the transcript on Wonkette last week, but random($foo), to whom I don’t usually look for anything political, posted a link to the video.

UPDATE: A few hours after I originally posted, I came across this article. Seems that Comedy Central was none too happy about their Daily Show audience being portrayed as a bunch of “stoned slackers” by Bill O’Reilly. No surprise here:

Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

And then there’s this gem:

Comedy Central had no statistics on how many people watch "The Daily Show" stoned.

[Note to Mac users: The video is an AVI file, which will not play on QuickTime. If you don’t already have it, make sure to pick up the fantastic VLC media player]

Jason Kottke (with the help of others) has come up with a handy Voters Information Guide. Read it and spread the word. And by all means, if you are not registered to vote, follow the instructions, get informed and cast your vote November 2nd.

And boy is it funny [via Boing Boing]