I'm sorry, but your not only wrong, but you appear to be rationalizing. When they use computers to examine networks of phone number interactions looking for patterns that might indicate terrorist activity, they are protecting everyone on this "aircraft" called the USA.
No one is listening to your phone calls unless you are talking to known terrorists--i.e., soldiers fighting against the US.
Keeping tabs on interactions between telephone numbers in no way indicates any suspicion of you or of me. But it is based on a very reasonable suspicion that terrorist forces might be working in this country to kill thousands of people. Just as I give up some expectation of privacy at an airport or when I'm driving on the highway, it's reasonable for me to allow this gathering of phone call data.
Blind libertarianism is a path to national destruction.
Blind faith in anything is the path to destruction.
My distinction is this, if we view it so broadly as to include everyone on "this aircraft called the USA," what, then, could possibly be an unreasonable search or invasion of privacy?
Government isn't getting smaller. No matter who's president, our tradtional rights as US citizens are our only protections and they make this country the envy of the world. Sure, this president has good intentions. Will the next, when our traditional rights are long gone? This used to be a concern of Conservatives.
Bingo! But in this case the hwy is a private one but what you are saying in the car as you drive is not being gathered. The phone companies have as much right to provide this data as FreeRepublic has to post just about anything they want about any of our activity here.
This is a classic "needle-in-the-haystack" matching system and maybe they will get lucky and learn something but the odds are they won't.
It's interesting that many people don't seem to think our guys are the good guys. It's like the graphic I posted above, the same people that jump up and down and say they support our military presume that the Lt. General pictured above is out to invade their "privacy" (whatever that is) and he's the bad guy. And what about all the many men and women that have been killed before and after 9/11 serving their county in secret? The ones that worked for the NSA and the CIA and other organizations and have died on a street in Iraq or right here in America or some other places around the world. What about them?
I've been a big Bush supporter for years but lately I have taken off my BushBot hat and thrown it away because of his inaction on the Mexican border. I have been negative about him but he is one of the good guys. He's my president and he's on my side. He's risked his life for me just being president and because of what he did after 9/11 for the rest of his life some moslem will be out to kill him or his family. Like I said, I have stopped actively supporting him because of one big issue and have even ridiculed him but at the end of the day he's he guy with the white hat on. I believe that, I have to believe that and it's not right of the media to make him out as some evil person.