What a week. Actually, what a past few months.

There's been a bit of a backstory going on with the fight for the mental healthcare of our troops. I'm not just talking now about the mental care they receive as vets after they return home -- we're talking now about the actual healthcare decisions the DOD is making for our troops on the battlefield.

This week's first strike was the GAO Report [pdf] stating that only 22% (1 out of 5) troops who are at risk for developing combat PTSD -- as determined via a mental health screening form, the PDHA [pdf], administered by the DOD -- are referred for further mental health evaluations. The DOD then released its response following the less-than-flattering media's coverage of the report stating:

"The level of our effort and our outreach is unprecedented," he said. "We have broken new ground."

New ground, indeed. Stunning, unbelievable new ground. Get your steel toe shoes on, folks, and follow me for the full story on what the DOD dustup is all about...

Whether or not electoral fraud can be proved, the most important issue is whether the current electoral system can be trusted.

Clearly it can not. The GAO report is unequivocal. Electronic vote tampering is not only possible, it is down right easy. It can be pulled off with relatively little effort.

Whether or not we believe that the 2004 election was stolen is not the point here. My point is that because of the way e-voting is implemented, the electoral system is ripe for unprecedented abuse and we need to do some serious hell raising. Quickly.