Latest NSA scandal leaves Americans unfazed

Encouraging news coming out of the Boston Globe:

Mark Jellison, a Verizon customer in Quincy, isn’t fazed that his phone company may have turned over his calling records and those of millions of others to the National Security Agency as part of an effort to thwart terrorism.

”After 9/11 our world has changed,” Jellison said yesterday, standing outside a grocery store in Dorchester. ”Prior to 9/11, I would have been more concerned, but I’m less concerned today.”

Added William MacKenzie, a Verizon customer from Taunton: ”I have nothing to hide, so I don’t have a problem with it. If it’s for the security of the country, it’s OK with me.”

Those interviewed yesterday overwhelmingly said the possibility of phone companies handing over records to the government didn’t alarm them and wouldn’t make them walk away from any of the companies.

And from today’s WaPo:

A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.

A slightly larger majority–66 percent–said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.

Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats “even if it intrudes on privacy.” Three in 10–31 percent–said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

For the Democrats and your cohorts in the media, the message couldn’t be clearer: your demagoguing of this issue is not working. I guess you still haven’t learned from the last time you tried to do this, have you?

The talking point for today’s left, I predict will be “look how many Americans are willing to sacrifice their rights for security!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” preceded or followed by the famous Ben Franklin quote about sacrificing liberty for temporary safety that so frequently gets misquoted by the usual suspects.

In related news, along with the NYT, which I noted in my prior post predictably came down on this ‘latest development’, the Chicago Tribune follows suit with a condemnation of its own. Surprise surprise.

PM Update I: The USA Today is still pushing the “illegal” angle.

PM Update II: A reader points out something I overlooked when I posted the WaPo piece. Note the first line of the article (emphasis added):

A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program […]

Heh. I guess the implication there is:

[evil cackle heard in the background] “they do now, but not once we’ve run the story into the ground over the next several weeks” >:)

More discussion on this issue from the following blogs: Rick Moran, Michelle Malkin, In The Bullpen, Joe Gandelman, Blue Crab Boulevard, AJ Strata, Blogs For Bush, Right Voices

Related Toldjah So posts:

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