Quote of the week

"For Gramsci, hegemony is the additional power that accrues to a dominant group by virtue of its capacity to lead society in a direction that not only serves the dominant group’s interests, but is also perceived by subordinate groups as serving a more general interest." --Giovanni Arrighi

If that is so, then U.S. hegemony has been effectively ended by Cheney/Bush. I can't think of a single "subordinate group" today that thinks the US serves a more general interest than its own. Just consider how we've lost power in South America: now they all thumb their noses at us (while the rest of the world hold their noses when they see us coming).

Sometimes I wonder what Jeb Bush thinks of his bro W these days. He must want to strangle his elder sibling. Always the black sheep of the family, W has now gone and screwed up the chances of any other Bush to run for president. And Bush Sr. must be wondering why he didn't beat the shit out of W when he still could. I wonder if Barbara still speaks to her oldest son. He's alienated all their friends, like Snowcroft; he might end up alienating his whole family. The Bush dynasty has come to a sudden and sticky end, because they trotted out the stupidest son for their encore, and made the big mistake of appointing Cheney to look after him -- little realizing that Cheney would jump at the chance to act out his NPAC agenda to invade Iraq.