Does sending letters to members of Congress affect legislation significantly? Definitely yes. Example 1: PIPA and SOPA. Both bills were about to pass; voter

Does sending letters to members of Congress affect legislation significantly? Definitely yes. Example 1: PIPA and SOPA. Both bills were about to pass; voters got up on their hind legs against the bills, and both bills went down in flames. Why? Because most elections are decided closer than 60-40. So, for a person in elected office to totally torque off 10% of his constituents is a good path to another job. Even 5% of constituents can be influential. Actually, even 1% can be influential because the member of Congress can easily understand that if torque off 1% here, another 1% there, and have that 1+% talking to others, the results can really add up. That's why members of Congress are good at smiling, kissing babies, shaking hands, speaking in generalities with platitudes and cliches, etc.: Find ways to please or sooth voters, ways that don't torque off even 1%. Members of Congress are good at counting votes and letters from constituents. They can also count campaign dollars, but dollars don't actually vote, and constituents can and, when motivated, do. Not everyone in Congress really 'gets it' on these points, but nearly all members of Congress who have won more than one election do. For a little more, just think: Take just the Verizon data. With that data, can pick a Verizon customer and know where they were at each phone call. So, really, can track their movements. Also know who they they called. So, if there are any 'secret romantic connections' going on (and is there any doubt about that?), then have a good shot at detecting some of them. Presto: Blackmail, shakedown, extortion, recruit as an informer or a mole, etc. So, now a large fraction of all the Verizon customers are torqued. So, in any congressional district or state with a lot of Verizon customers, the relevant member of Congress needs to be quite concerned. Combine data such as that from Verizon with IRS data and actions, and have more opportunities for blackmail, shakedown. Could throttle opposing political efforts, not that anyone in the Cincinnati office of the IRS would ever actually try such a thing. Gee, I omitted banking records! So, some big shot is paying the condo fees for his mistress; can see that in his financial records, especially if he bought a new BMW for his mistress for over $10,000 (is there any other kind?). Then combine that data with phone data and location data and show that he was often in the condo or calling the phone of the mistress. Now, have got the guy; have him on a short leash. So, back to the movie, 'Godfather II' where the Senator suddenly became a really big supporter of the Corleone family. It's called blackmail, and it's one of the oldest professions. That Verizon data is a wide open, engraved invitation to massive blackmail. Did Nixon ever consider using IRS data? Hmm .... Really, that Verizon data is a wide open, engraved invitation to a dirty dictatorship. But Verizon could use that data for such dirty stuff now? Yes, and about the second time they tried, the effort would become public and their brand name would be dirt and their business dead. Also Verizon doesn't connect closely with the IRS, FBI, INS, DHS, etc. but the NSA can. One of the best parts of the US is our Constitution. So, a big part of protecting the US is protecting the Constitution. So, 'protecting the US' while trashing the Constitution is destroying the US, not protecting it. Yes, maybe trashing the Constitution would make it easier to catch loser, wacko, nutjobs like the Boston bombers, but: (1) As we know, the NSA, CIA, DHS, INS, FBI, and the Boston police didn't catch the Boston loser, wacko, nutjobs even though Russia had told us that they were dangerous wackos. (2) NSA did trash the Constitution. So, the NSA is good at trashing the Constitution but not so good at helping catch loser, wacko, dangerous nutjobs, even when given good hints that they are dangerous nutjobs. The job of the NSA, CIA, DHS, FBI, INS, etc. is both (1) protect the Constitution and (2) catch the bad guys. Both. Trashing the Constitution destroys much of the US and, thus, necessarily cannot be part of protecting the US. Yes, yes, yes, we know: The NSA cooked up an excuse: First they just collect all that data, e.g., all the Verizon data, all the data through that AT&T building in San Francisco, all current Internet e-mail data, etc. So, their excuse is that just collecting that data does not hurt anyone because they have yet to look at that data or have yet to use that data to look at any individual. Or maybe for the e-mail data they look only at the header lines. Sure that's all they do! Trust them on that! Second they argue that they only look at that data for one individual at a time given a good national security reason to look at that individual. And then they only use data that crossed a US border. Yup, Virginia, you can be sure; you can trust your Federal Government! Third, they claim that, thus, their actions don't use data that was only 'domestic', don't involve just any US citizens, and, thus, don't violate the Constitution. That is, they have this huge box of chocolates, but they never open the box. Right, that's what they claim. And, right again, they would never let that data, that they are keeping essentially forever in Utah, be used for anything else. Right, and this car was driven only by a little old lady and only to church on Sundays, and trust me on this. To heck with the lame, contrived, tricky, delicate excuses: The NSA is not supposed to be collecting data that is only within the US and is not supposed to be collecting data on ordinary US citizens and certainly not on all or nearly all US citizens. Right, anyone could use such an excuse: "I confess; I stole the book; but that's okay because I haven't yet read it! And, yes, that prime rib roast, I stole that too, but that's okay, too, because I haven't yet eaten it!". So, the NSA trashed the Constitution. The US government works for us, the US citizens; we don't work for them; we are the ones to be trusted, not them; we are the ones presumed innocent until proven guilty, not them. Their job is to protect us and the Constitution, not to monitor and control us and trash the Constitution. Yes, if we get the NSA, CIA, DHS, FBI, INS, etc. back within the law and back to respecting the Constitution, then the next pressure cooker that goes "Boom" in a crowded place will raise the question of, can we afford the Constitution? The answer is simple: (1) We need the Constitution; trashing the Constitution trashes much of our country and, thus, necessarily does not protect it. (2) If we have too many bad guys, then we need better police work, not a weaker Constitution. (3) Police work is not perfect, and our security cannot be perfect. For one more, the main issues in US national security are not loser, wacko, nutjobs with backpacks with pressure cookers. Indeed, now wackos hijacking airplanes are no longer a main issue in US national security. Instead the main issues, for which we need the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. are: (1) Actions by nation states, e.g., China hacking the Internet in the US. China stealing US military secrets. Pakistan building more nuclear weapons. Iran going nuclear. (2) Actions by small groups, terrorists, e.g., Al Qaeda, toward a serious WMD deployed in the US, e.g., a nuclear fission explosion in the hold of a ship in a major US port. At (1) and (2), we are pretty good: NSA's SIGINT and the CIA's HUMINT, etc. can be quite good well within the Constitution. For nuclear fission devices, must first get the materials, and that's still not so easy. We've been working hard for decades locking down the materials. We need to protect the US and the Constitution, not try to protect the US and trash the Constitution. So, the Constitution is under attack, and we have to push back and protect and defend the Constitution. Could this be true? Actually, not only true but expected: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."