Whatever else 9/11 is, it is an extraordinarily personal trauma. It comes to consciousness within its own hall of mirrors, images and thoughts appearing un-summoned and then disappearing before they are neatly understood.

Among the items that should be grilled in this country over Memorial Day is a large helping of irony.

The big rush to extend PATRIOT is about making sure this geolocation tracking doesn’t shut down over the Memorial Day weekend.

There is still bipartisanship in Washington when something like depriving civil liberties in the name of Terror has to get done. We may have killed Osama bin Laden, but we have yet to slay the Boogeyman.

The government wants to put Drake in jail for 35 years because he tried to make sure incompetence that led to 9/11 doesn’t continue.

Well, now it seems that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been attacked by one coyote and three “anarchists.” Quite the inspiring credentials for a presidential run, I’d say.

I do wonder whether there’s a correlation between those telecommunication companies that try to buy political favors and those that offer federal law enforcement favors in return.

A year and a half ago, I warned that if you bought certain beauty supplies — hydrogen peroxide and acetone — you might be a terrorism suspect. Shortly thereafter, John Kyl basically confirmed that the government had been tracking certain people buying hydrogen peroxide. Yesterday, FBI Director Robert Mueller did so in even more explicit terms.

Maris Taylor has an important update on the OLC exigent letter opinion. Last year, DOJ’s now-retired Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report revealing how the FBI had used exigent letters to get call data information from telecoms with no oversight. Ryan Singel noted a reference to an OLC opinion that basically melted away the problems created by use of these exigent letters (see pages 264-266 of the report).

It was naive of anyone to think that any executive branch would willingly give up their own power. Congress, thanks to Republican doddering, made the effort to put the slightest of brakes on that power temporarily. But they were promptly told that they endangered America, so that will be that.