Cheney approves NSA snooping

He says that it is only collecting phone numbers.  If it were only that, they could just obtain a phone book.

So, either the government is wasting a lot of money to do something that would cost nothing, or Cheney is full of crap, and this involves a lot more than just obtaining phone numbers.

Secondly, if the phone book doesn't contain listed numbers, and the NSA is getting unlisted numbers too, then that shows why it is wrong.  People who have unlisted numbers expect privacy.  The government isn't honoring these wishes.  Besides, the government has no probable cause to receive phone numbers at random.  That's the very opposite of probable cause.  According to the 4th amendment to the constitution, they have to have probable cause.