Finally! Something else to be mad about besides gas.

Evidence that the NSA bought copious truck loads of phone records detailing the phone calls made by Americans in a sophisticated attempt to analyze calling patterns and datamine terrorist links has sparked a national debate not seen in our time since a giant hot air balloon filled with ballyhoo and bluster exploded over ports scheduled for sale to Dubai.

Why people say they're mad: gross invasion of privacy by the federal government.
Why people should be mad: the program was illegally implemented.

Who are people mad at: Bush.
Who should people be mad at: Telcos.

Who provided the incriminating information to USA TODAY: a little bird going tweet tweet... Here's a roundup of this morning's relevant links:

• Telcos Could Be Liable For Tens of Billions of Dollars For Illegally Turning Over Phone Records. What's a privacy law good for if you can't break it a few million times?
  
• Bush: "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates." CIA Nominee: "One senior executive confided that the data management needs we outlined to him were larger than any he had previously seen." [DailyKos]
  
• Sound? Meet fury.
  
• Perhaps its just another finger on the black velvet glove.
  
• Big, sexy, timeline of the domestic spying issue. Watch the waft and weave of delicately spun threads come undone.