It's not every day -- in fact, I feel pretty confident saying it's never happened before -- that we have two Albania-related stories in the mix at TPM.

Quite a few readers have noted the coincidence that AEY, Inc. -- which occupies the exceedingly narrow niche of arms dealers run by Floridians in their 20s who buy outdated Chinese ammo and resell it to the U.S. government -- was buying its ammo in Albania while at the same time Tom Ridge, former DHS secretary and current McCain campaign co-chairman, was lobbying for the Albanian government (although he failed to register as a foreign lobbyist until DOJ came calling).

At this point we have no evidence to suggest that it is anything other than an odd coincidence. But we go into such things with an open mind. So if any readers spot, or know of, a firm connection between the two, please let us know.