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Ok, let's review:
Why are the records being kept? The phone companies have to have them for billing purposes. There's no other way to run a phone company that I know of unless you're charging a flat fee, which isn't available to my knowlege.
Does the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 require a warrant or other type of court order? Yes. In all cases.
Is the NSA circumventing the CALEA? Yes since they are not obtaining court orders or warrants to access the information gathered by the government on a day-to-day basis.
When the government focuses on financial dealings, they have to get court orders for the banks. When the government focuses on shipments of potential illegal drug shipments, they have to get court orders to open shipping containers.
The thing here is that the phone companies (with the exception of Qwest) have rolled over and given up their records without a warrant or court order. Theoretically, that is their right to do so, but since it's the record of all of the general public's calls, there are privacy issues involved. I don't know if the phone company is under any obligation to tell you if the government serves a warrant for your phone records - they certainly aren't under any obligation to tell you that your phone is tapped.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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