{"id":77,"date":"2009-09-07T15:48:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-07T21:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/?p=77"},"modified":"2009-09-08T14:55:02","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T20:55:02","slug":"government-agencies-that-actually-deserve-a-hand-no-kidding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/?p=77","title":{"rendered":"Government agencies that actually deserve a hand (no kidding)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dude, I&#8217;m tellin ya&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t mean these government places need help or assistance&#8212;&#8212;-I&#8217;m talking about a pat on the back. A congratulations for doing a good job and a thanks. No&#8230;&#8230;I&#8217;m not currently sleep deprived or two sheets to the wind over\u00a0here. I have been relying on one government agency to personally\u00a0stay afloat for the past 8 months. Without them, I would sleeping in the bed of my truck. And the other agency has provided me with flawless service for a good 8-9 years now. And when I say flawless&#8230;&#8230;I mean mistake-free. Never a problem with them one time.<\/p>\n<p>And as I do realize that I am one of the first people to point out what I think is a scam, or a double standard, or a poor job by one person or another&#8230;&#8230;.I thought I should acknowledge these two government offices and give them their kudos. So&#8230;&#8230;(have you guessed what agencies they are yet? )&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s to the Illinois Dept. of Employment Security (IDES)&#8212;&#8211;AKA the &#8220;unemployment office&#8221;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;and to the Illinois Tollbooth Association (if that is actually what it is called) ! Thanks guys !<\/p>\n<p>No BS. No practical joke here. No joshing, kidding, playing around, no jesting, no wisecracking or wise-assing, no nothing. I just have no complaints to register about these two government <strong><em>(read: typically crooked and mismanaged) <\/em><\/strong>systems. And this is from a guy who can find a complaint to offer after Publishers Clearing House comes to my door with a huge check. I&#8217;d be like, <em>&#8220;Jesus Christ&#8230;.do you jackasses realize it&#8217;s 9:45 in the morning?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But unfortunately, I had to call for another unemployment period this morning to secure some assistance. I&#8217;ve applied to over 80 jobs in the last 60 days, but there&#8217;s no fish on the line yet. So if I&#8217;m to meet my next rent and eat a meal or two, I have to certify for another period. The automated phone system went as smooth as it always does. And in 48 hours, I&#8217;m about 99% confident that the benefits will land&#8212;via the direct deposit&#8212;&#8211;in my bank account. I have not had a problem yet in the 8 months that I have been off work. And registering on-line was as painless as it comes when registering for anything related to the government. I had a much harder time completing a job\u00a0application for the US NAVY posted on careerbuilder.com for procurement positions (my area). They wanted my mother&#8217;s maiden name and my dad&#8217;s favorite lunchmeat. My Aunt Sally&#8217;s bra size. It was ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>But I registered on-line with IDES back in early January and it went thru with no hold-ups or absurd questions. No requests for outlandish documentation. I qualified (as I expected I should&#8230;there was no funny business about my company going under) and soon received the promised notifications in the mail. Now I have called in a good 16-17 times for benefits and have not had a single hiccup. I have to applaud the IDES office for doing a reliable, solid job. Without you, I would be in desperate straits. My only hope is that despite the good job you do, I have my fingers crossed that I will not need your services very much longer. But thanks, IDES. Back pat to you.<\/p>\n<p>And then there&#8217;s the Illinois Tollbooth Association (or Commission). Whatever. As The Rock used to say on wrestling, <em>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t MATTER what your name is ! &#8220;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You have been doing a terrific job handling my account for almost a decade now. Don&#8217;t get me wrong now&#8230;&#8230;.I despise paying tolls. I thought this was a temp system that was supposed to be phased out over 15 years ago? Or was it 20 years? I&#8217;m also aware of past corruption and skimming episodes. Despite the good job you are doing with my account (I-PASS), I kind of wish your office would be shut down and eliminated. Nothing personal&#8230;..strictly business.<\/p>\n<p>But you are doing a pretty solid job on the whole I-PASS program. I have never had my credit card billed inappropriately in my time with you. Only when my account dips down to the minimal level do you replenish it. I know&#8230;.because I&#8217;ve monitored you occasionally. I do have my eye on you, buddy. But you seem to be doing an honest tracking of my account and I am always billed the same amount. Never any crazy charges I had to fight. So a back pat to you, too.<\/p>\n<p>Hell, I even rememeber when there was a switch in the transponder boxes that you issue.\u00a0You informed by mail\u00a0that I had put down a larger safety deposit on my &#8220;older&#8221; unit. So you were crediting my account the difference between the current deposit amount and the higher figure that\u00a0I had put up. Now that&#8217;s an honest government agency!!<\/p>\n<p>So kudos to you both IDES and the Tollbooth Authority. I appreciate the work you have done for me and wanted to express my gratitude. These are two areas of my life that I don&#8217;t have to put much concern into. Well, the lack of a job thing really concerns me. But at least I don&#8217;t have to worry too much about the services I request from you. I seem to be able to count on you.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure if I have ever thought or ever typed those words before about something to do with the government! Perhaps I am just a little bit sleep deprived. I&#8217;m going to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dude, I&#8217;m tellin ya&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;. I don&#8217;t mean these government places need help or assistance&#8212;&#8212;-I&#8217;m talking about a pat on the back. A congratulations for doing a good job and a thanks. No&#8230;&#8230;I&#8217;m not currently sleep deprived or two sheets to the wind over\u00a0here. I have been relying on one government agency to personally\u00a0stay afloat for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dudeimtellinya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}