NSA Data Mining Operation Leaked By USA Today

Earlier today USA Today reported that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. With these records the government is able to analyze calling patterns with the intention of detecting terrorist activity and thwarting another terrorist attack.
The program which was started shortly after 9/11 gathers the numbers of phone calls made and stores this information in a giant database and looks for patterns that they might be able to use. They are not wiretapping or eavesdropping in any way, all they are doing is gathering the numbers. The Democrats and the drive by media are going to try and turn this against the President and his new nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden for the head of the CIA, since he was the leader of the NSA at the time of this Program. I believe this is the beginning of a concerted effort to try to torpedo that nomination, and yet another way for the Democrats and the Bush bashers to try to undermine our war on terror and find a way to impeach Bush.
The Media is still blasting the administration over the NSA's domestic terror program that the media still wrongly labels as "domestic Spying". The USA Today has purposefully tried to combine the two programs to hurt Bush, and I believe this will be only the beginning.
As far as the data mining program, what harm is it causing anyone? Names are not given or addresses, no information other than the number is used. I would hope that my government is doing what it needs to do keep this country safe, and I would've hoped that they have been doing this and more. I support this program fully, the only people that have to worry is the people making calls to terrorists. The only thing that was done here is that the USA Today decided that out national security was less important than bashing the President.