Isn’t it interesting that the day after we learn about  XKeyscore – the NSA tool that collects “nearly everything a user does on the internet,” we get the story about a Long Island home being visited by the police because the wife was searching online for pressure cookers and her husband was searching for backpacks.

Members of what she described as a “joint terrorism task force” descended on Catalano’s home on Wednesday. A spokesman for the FBI told to Guardian on Thursday that its investigators were not involved in the visit, but that “she was visited by Nassau County police department … They were working in conjunction with Suffolk County police department.”

That begs the question: How would the Nassau County and Suffolk County police know anything about what they were searching for online?

What ever happened to the Fourth Amendment? Remember that one?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Today on the show, I spoke with the always brilliant broadcaster Peter B. Collins about how far we’ve fallen from the protections ostensibly guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.  In particular, I cited an interview Peter did with NSA whistleblower Russell Tice on June 19.

You should click over and listen to the whole thing.  I played one clip that sent chills down my spine.  Tice, with certainty, directly contradicted what administration officials – including President Obama– have been telling us…

I just got the confirmation this past Saturday that yes, it is everything. NSA is copying every domestic communication in this country, word for word. Content in every phone conversation, like the one we’re having now, every email, everything. They are collecting everything in bulk and they are putting it in databases. And ultimately that facility out there in Utah is already online – they haven’t even said that – but they’re putting stuff  there now, even though they’re supposedly not gonna open that thing up until later on this fall…

[it’s] already starting to function to store every communication in this country – word for word content.

What was that again, Mr. President?

To paraphrase a former president who lied habitually, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”  Seriously. Who do you believe?

After that fascinating conversation with Peter B. Collins, I called on Julianna Forlano to lighten things up a bit.  But the Absurdity Today host brought me this chilling article: “Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords.“

What the fuck is going on here?

We wrapped things up with my friend John Fugelsang who is wrapping things up over at Current TV.  Since the beginning of the year, John has been hosting Viewpoint on Current.  But like all good things, this too is ending.  Al Jazeera America will premiere on August 20, so that means Viewpoint has just two weeks left.  Get it while you can!

On Monday, we’ll kick off the week with Congressman Alan Grayson.  He deserves all the credit in the world for the amazing job he’s doing in DC…  Check out this piece from Dave Weigel at Slate: ” The Congressman Formerly Known as Crazy: Why Alan Grayson is now the most effective Member of the House.”