[ilbegone]

I base my statements on:

I called a vendor I had never contacted before on the other side of the country with caller ID blocked who didn't answer his phone, I didn't leave a message when prompted, he called me back several hours later. I don't remember the details, but I recall something about commercially available products that punch through blocked caller ID

Out of curiosity, I asked one of Feinstein's aides in Washington how they would know if someone called them multiple times in one day with the same issue, the gentleman said that the phone number came up and was attached to the call and the statement. So if there were 525 calls about an issue but 500 came from the same phone, there were only 26 people who had called about the issue. I used caller ID that day, I'm not sure if I was among the 25 or if I was the collective 500.

It follows that if you call them several times from the same phone with the same message it doesn't really fool them by spouting out different zip codes.

If you call them enough over time, they will recognize your voice. It's happened to me, I've had some call me by my name without identifying myself.

For a while I had called my congressman multiple times a day across all his offices with caller ID blocked informing his staff of my belief that he was a racist bastard and said all sorts of things which went across his political grain. After a couple of weeks of that, my calls were automatically rolled over to an answering machine every time I called. However, whenever I used another phone I immediately got through to an aide every time.

Generally, if they listen to me, I'm polite with the aide because I figure they just work there. I have been angry and have yelled, but I try not abuse the help unless they argue and talk over me. There are some who have made it forcefully clear it was time for them to go on to another caller, but I've never been hung up on.

There have been some I like, but the truly good ones who will truly listen when they disagree with your point of view are rare.

Anymore, I just call them once a day per issue, and if I have multiple issues I'll deal with one issue per call and try to spread them out between the legislator's offices, the aides don't get so cranky that way and are more likely, I believe, to pass my messages on. If the boss doesn't get what I nicely say to the aide, there's always the next election.

And if I'm dealing with a good one who doesn't get huffy because I'm saying something their boss doesn't like, I do my best to be gentle and reasonable with them, they are being courteous with me. I think they deal with all kinds of loud assholes on every side of the issues.

It's not quite the same, but close: if you don't like spit in your food don't piss off the cook. If you want your message passed on...

I'll call Feinstein and my Congressman, but I don't waste my time with Boxer. There is no reasoning with her or her office, politeness or not, and the only thing that's going to turn her out of office in our state is either by her dying from old age later or being struck by a meteorite sooner.

I'm praying for the meteorite.