My reading of Caesars campaign in Gaul is that its not a war of conquest per se, or at least not by design. He employs diplomacy to win allies, often granting amnesty to former enemies as was his consistent policy in the Roman civil wars he fights later. He defends his Gaelic allies against German tribal incursions. He definitely want to acquire power and wealth through conquest, but is willing to win friends and allies and spends considerable effort to do so. He is never fighting all 15 million at a time, although a large allied force does take the field eventually. He is of course brutal to those who renege on those alliances. Superior leadership, mobility, and tactics play a large role when he employs military force, but Caesar is not a conqueror in the sense of simply rolling over the whole of Gaul.

It does get better, but only truly good season is 4, which has some really good episodes. Third season is adequate, and second season is hit and miss. First Season is awful. Two truly great episodes are a two part in the final season set in the mirror mirror universe that ties into the Tholian Web episode of the original series.

Nothing about the current state of affairs was inevitable. In fact, I would argue that the goal of the fascists on both sides is to create that illusion of futility. But it is a terrible untruth. Remember,a peace settlement has come close to happening more than once. Hamas and the Settler movement both despise the peace process and the agreements that have been put on the table because they essentially end their reason for existence. A settled peace is an outcome that committed Zionists like Rabin were ready to accept. It can happen, even now. Nothing ruins a fascists day more than cancelling the bloodbath.

Provider Biz will go all in that no prisoners will be released for transferred during Obama's presidency. The amount of douchebaggery around this issue is immense and that generally means the President will defer it. I think he has resigned himself to handing this horrible turd over to the next sucker.

They either have to suppress the vote or expand their appeal to voters they've spent an enormous amount of time and money vilifying. Women, Latinos, gay men and women, a whole host of people. None of these groups are getting smaller, less able to influence politics, or most importantly moving to the Republican Party. I really question whether the GOP as a national party could make a real effort to compete for Latino votes even if they wanted to. Too many elements, particularly talk radio, aren't really under their control or that of their money guys to do that seriously. But they aren't going to stop this voter suppression crap, screaming about illegal immigrants, or trying to do whatever the hell it is they are trying to do with abortion and birth control until they lose several elections nationwide and locally in a row.. Pledging fealty to radically weird economic ideologies like the Treasury View of the 1930's or goldbugging isn't helping either.

This is pure sophistry. Even if you accept the premise that Eastwood is acting as a focal point for a certain kind of voter, it would still represent a criminal failure to use prime convention time to strengthen the candidates message, win undecided voters, or establish Romney to voters who don't know him The voters who would respond to the Eastwood speech are already voting for Romney. Casting the Eastwood speech as some sort of subliminal electoral kung fu is ludicrous. Just accept it was screw up, own it, and move on. Anything else is just utter nonsense.

Hey, Rick Perry has money to burn. Why not burn it on the other candidates and maybe improve his image from drooling dolt to mildly challenged? I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that Newt is metaphorming into his Decepticon mode. Newt is essentially Starscream, constantly whinging about he WILL rule Cybertron someday, just you wait Mittatron! Any opportunity to whack Mittatron will be taken no matter how it might hurt his party. Newtscream DESERVES to be the one who will face off against Obamus Prime.

The worst part for Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich is that they lost to creepy Jesus freak Santorum and tinfoil hat wearing Ron Paul. Nice job guys!.

Herman Cain is essentially a more cynical and evil version of Professor Howard Hill from the Music Man. He ran for President to juice his books sales. So did Newt Gingrich for that matter. Is it entirely his fault GOP Primary voters are dumb as a bag of rocks, or they are so allergic to Mitt Romney they would consider voting for one of these spectacular douchebags? The 999 plan is the Think System. Its sole purpose is to extract money from the hands of suckers. Even other Republicans are having trouble choking it down, and those people can swallow some amazing things. I'm beginning to think Barack Obama really is a pawn of Satan on earth. Only someone who has sold his soul to the prince of darkness could possibly be so fortunate as to have this GOP field to choose from. Barry vs. Willard for ruler of the earth. Seriously? If you had told me this would happen a decade ago I would have clubbed you unconscious and searched your pockets for the mind blowing weed you were obviously smoking. I would have been wrong of course, no one could be that high.

The thing that jumps out at me is that the Sec/Def is wasting his time carping about meals at meetings and how many aides he can bring. This is not something he should be worrying about. His staff and her staff you should work all of this out. The fact that Rummy even cares that much about this petty crap is a sign that he is too focused on trival infighting with other bureaucrats. And thee tone of these emails is rude and patronizing. This is utterly counterproductive. Considering that the context is that the Bush Administration is trying to fight a counter insurgency in Iraq and fight Al Queda, this seems like a Sec/Def who has nothing else to do but undermine people he finds annoying. Hey Don, maybe you should have been working with these people rather than trying to needle them. I doubt Condi ever replied to these snotty missives. What a classless frakface...

I think this dovetails nicely with the 14th amendment post I just put up. Add gays to the list of people that we need to deal with by repealing the 14th. Not that the right wing crankmachine needed an excuse...