MIXED NEWS

BAD: An ABC/WaPo poll found that 63% of Americans think the NSA's massive collection of phone call records is OK.

GOOD: The same poll found that 56% believed the media was right to expose the program.

I don't think most people realize how revealing the phone records themselves are and how easily they may be combined with other government or private sector databases. On the other hand, the constant drumbeat from wingnut gasbags, such as Slots Bennett, that the media is at fault doesn't seem to be catching on. Atrios notes that both Gingrich and Scarborough, to different degrees, have reservations about the phone records program. Scarborough:

Now, whatever you consider yourself, friends, you should be afraid. You should be very afraid. With over 200 million Americans targeted, this domestic spying program is so widespread, it is so random, it is so far removed from focusing on al Qaeda suspects that the president was talking about today, that it‘s hard to imagine any intelligence program in U.S. history being so susceptible to abuse.

You know, I served on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Service Committee in Congress for four years, and no program I studied while using security clearances ever came close to the scope of this massive spy program. It is dangerous, it breaks FCC laws, and it endangers all Americans‘ right to privacy.