NPR reported this morning, without comment, this same news, that US warplanes destroyed the home of a purported Somali militia leader deep in the heart of Somalia, presumably killing the target male and probably a fair number of other people as well (casualties, of course will be hard to verify from the Google Earth images of charred rubble).

Where is the Congressional authorization for the invasion of Somalia? Did I miss something?

It is helpfully noted that this unfortunate leader’s militia was listed by the “US government” as a “terrorist organization” some few days ago. The US government is comprised of more than State and the Pentagon, of course, but let that go. Truthdig adds that he was “believed to be the head of Al Qaida in Somalia”. “Believed to be...” That excuses everything I guess. Or at least it’s good enough Robert Scheer and for the editorial board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We are now in the business of assassinating people with tactical aircraft. Israeli-style. Collateral damage? The hell with it. They were all Muslims anyway. Nits make lice, as the bluecoats used to say of the Sioux.

The beginning of the end for the American adventure in Viet Nam came when Nixon’s people had the audacity to carpet bomb Cambodia, a neutral neighbor country with friendly ties to the US. There were riots on American campuses. Students were gunned down by the National Guard.

What the hell is going on, people? Can we please stop dicking around with the petty little talking points fed to us by corporate media?

The situation is grave and it’s getting worse.

There was an appreciation in the sixties and the early seventies that the media were and would always be handmaidens to empire. There was an appreciation that the only effective way to change the nature of the national debate was by forte main...You gotta shut the whole thing down.

You want to know what finally ended our bloody engagement in Viet Nam? It was the bloody engagement at Kent State. It was the indelible image of an American kid in chinos face down in a pool of his own blood, a schoolmate kneeling beside him screaming for help.

The blogosphere is a sim world, people. Life is in the streets.