I did! No, it's not a presidential election, but it's still important.

In my little city, we had city council, school board, and water district reps to choose. Thankfully, the local League of Pissed-off Voters (affectionately called "LoPoV") published a Portland Voting Guide.

And in our little state, there were some important issues to consider, including tax evaluation of waterfront property (thank you, Working Waterfront for making me aware of this!) and the seemingly ever-present "Question 1"—I hope we can stop the hype on this one, keeping discrimination illegal.

If you dataheads haven't read this already, there are now already 3 parts to Mark Russinovich's Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far story.

WaPo's exposure of the CIA's secret prisons is riveting reading... and appalling. And I ask myself, how low must we stoop?

So it seems the prez signed a "finding" on Sept. 17, 2001, authorizing the "covert action" which allowed the CIA to go into a sort of stealth mode, as it were, hiding their dealings and spendings from all but a few, even from many of those in the Capital who normally have to approve CIA programs, Congress included. (Keep in mind that the United States government is not a democracy, where you vote on the issues and decisions; it's a republic, where you vote for the people who will end up making the decisions—so that's why Congress gets to know about the intelligence agencies and you don't.) Of course "findings" must not break U.S. law... and presumably this one didn't, as it didn't even mention the prisons, which the CIA apparently set up on their own under the broad leeway given them. But it seems that what the CIA is doing in the black sites is clearly a breach of U.S. law and human rights agreements in international treaties.

So what is the government going to do about it? If history teaches us anything, at most they might find a scapegoat to give a hand slap or two.

What can you and I do about it? I don't know, I really don't know. And it makes me so sad.

is admitting it.

AP reporter Yuri Kageyama just learned about a remote control device that 'controls' humans, and was more than a little disturbed to try it on and find herself driven by someone else. Not having tried it, I'd still have to say I can't imagine I'd like the feeling either. Ick! And to think the inventors want to put technology into iPods... then Apple could make a Borg army!

I'm taking a lunch break, eating beets (yes, beets), and I'm gonna tell you about some movies I've seen lately. Now, you may know, as Tom Robbins wrote, "A story that begins with a beet must end with the devil." We'll see about that.

I'm gonna start strong, in case you get bored and don't read any further. By far, one of the best films Ainsley & I have seen in a while is Swades: We, the people, an Indian film. Although it stars the hit-maker Shah Rukh Khan and does feature some great music, it's not your typical Bollywood fluff churn. Director/writer Ashutosh Gowariker has tried to consider questions of culture and values from the perspectives of those who stay and those who leave—specifically, the "NRI" (non-resident Indian) protagonist of the story. As a respected NASA project manager, it's easy for Mohan (said protagonist) to see the advantages of America's be-all-you-can-be attitudes, until he returns to his homeland after 12 years and discovers it anew. Gradually he changes from a complainer to a grassroots activist, helping people to understand where they could change their mindset and their situation. Inspiring stuff; highly recommended.

If you're any kind of Windoze Power User, you've probably used Microsoft's Command Prompt Here PowerToy—and maybe even can't live without it.

Sometime ago I swore I'd seen someone's customized version that didn't have the annoying limitation of being unable to deal with UNC paths. So recently I googled and googled some more, until finally I found enough info to build my own.

Yeouch! The Normalization of Treason, the Republicans' gift to America (from John @ AMERICAblog.com) is a must-read.

...do you pick it up? In this case, who do you listen to?: OpenSourceMatters.org or MamboLove.com? Reframed: a bunch of nerds, or a bunch of suits?

To get the story, check out Mike McEwan's DevShed article "Joomla is the New Mambo" and things will start to make sense.

Oh, and my bet is with the brains... they make the goods, after all!

This comes as no surprise to me: Poll: Fewer than half think U.S. will win in Iraq.

Would anyone—other than the current administration and their cronies—say the war in Iraq has been a "resounding success"? ...Yeah, just like Korea and Vietnam!