Finished reading Cruel and Unusual by Mark Crispin Miller

(c) 2004
Hucky-ducky, here's the deal; these are some sick motherfuckers that were at the helm of this country. Sick, twisted, abused and abusive critters who believed that their shit didn't stink and they could do no wrong. That's probably why you are still seeing the evil bastards on the Sunday talking heads shows. I say 'you' because I never watched watched those bullshit shows, and I don't watch these DC bubbleheads anymore, either. It was hard to go back over the destructive policy decisions again, but I learned a few things, so I'm glad I did. As painful as it was to read, it was worth it. I recommend it.

Pages 276-277
"The only legal way to halt the nation's slide into theocracy, it seems, would be to open serious investigations by the Congress and the press, begin a robust national debate, and finally vote the zealots out of power. And yet that electoral possibility as also been subverted-- to what precise extent we don't yet know-- by the Christian Reconstructionists and their allies in the GOP, for the computerized machines now widely used for voting purposes in the United States are actually the handiwork of Reconstructionist ideologues. It was Howard Ahmanson and his brother Robert who bankrolled American Information Systems (AIS) which was founded by another pair of brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich. Under the corporate rubric of AIS, Bob Urosevich is president of Diebold, while Todd Urosevich is vice president of aftermarket sales at IS&E. Diebold and ESS are the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting machines, now mandated to be used in every state, thanks to the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Neither company's machines leave any sort of paper trail; neither company has allowed the public to review its programming code; and machines produced by both firms are notoriously easy to manipulate--from outside the system, so that anyone who has the skills and inclination can just revised whatever "final tally" he may find unacceptable. That a democracy would use such shoddy goods as its electoral infrastructure is disquieting enough. That both those companies were funded by a far-right partisan and active Christian Reconstructionist --whose am is an all-Christian franchise in America --is surely grounds for rational concern and timely action. Heir to an enormous fortune from the savings and loan business, Ahmanson is probably not into touch-screen voting for the money. "My purpose," he told the Orange County Register in 1985, 'is total integration of Biblical law into our lives."

Two Voting Companies & Two Brothers Will Count 80% of U.S. Election -
Using BOTH Scanners & Touchscreens
by Lynn Landes 4/27/04


Diebold Finally Dumps E-Voting Division... But Sells It To Equally Problematic ES&S
by Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Thu, Sep 3rd 2009

Max Blumenthal
Senior Writer for The Daily Beast
Posted: November 4, 2008 02:14 AM
Who Is The Mystery Man Behind Prop 8?

Howard Ahmanson becomes a Democrat. Seriously
March 23rd, 2009, 8:49 am · 7 Comments · posted by Steven Greenhut

And one more thing, Van Jones was right, they are assholes.