VAN NUYS — So interesting to see so many smart people on the Sunday talk shows in such serious agreement about Fourth Amendment abuse. They were addressing the NSA scandal – which took a turn for the exceptional today with the release of the name (and video) of the young computer tech who leaked the information – in terms of information about global terrorist activity

that the government says it wants to detect in the flood of data it gets from… seemingly everyone. But then to hear the unanimity of outrage by the TV talking heads at the idea that… wait for it… wait for it… warrantless searches are being perpetrated on previously unaware U.S. citizens!

Well, yes it is, or rather was, or rather could be again, in the guise of 2257, where the unannounced searches by government agents with guns (undrawn) are up close and personal, and any refusal to comply with the request for entrance is a crime in and of itself, though there is no presumption of having already committed a crime. What that means is that without the merest piece of information that anything untoward has happened, and with therefore any idea to think that anything of any imminence is about to occur, a federal agent will register the act of refusing him or her entrance to your business or home—to check records that by a vast percentage, if not a one hundred percent percentage, refer to legal sex acts—is a crime.

So yes, it was very interesting to hear so much Fourth Amendment-speak this morning and also to see usual ideological opponents in unanimity. I definitely took note, as similarly I spent most of the flight back from Philadelphia writing down impressions of the trial and the whole experience. I think it is prudent to not yet add them to Daily Babylon, but I’m glad I expended the effort to write them down in longhand so I can at least refer to them later. I have other work to do too, but as far as this fascinating trial goes, because it is still ongoing, the less said publicly the better.