Notes: Afternoon Edition

A few interesting stories floating around this afternoon, admittedly some from a few days back, but still noteworthy none the less:

Apparently there's a run of states pushing to move their primary dates ever earlier in the year, despite possible penalties. Personally I think Alabama would be an interesting primary just to get an early read on how candidates will play in the deep South.

As the strain on the Army continues due to Iraq we continue to see corners cut to keep recruiting numbers as high as possible. I can't help but think of this as another parallel with the British and Roman Empires. While the society never truly sacrifices for its wars, be they popular or unpopular, the military is forced to increasingly turn to less than stellar choices to fill the ranks, i.e. the Romans paying the Germanic tribes to guard the frontier and the British opening their jails for convicts to don the Redcoat and take the King's schilling. After all, the British Army was considered an All Volunteer Force too.