Posted on 04/07/2008 5:25:03 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Actual Letter to the US Passport Office
Dear Sir,
I'm in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a TV cable from them back in 1997, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date. For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand?
My birth date you have on all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30 years. It is on my health insurance card, my driver's license, on the last eight passports I've had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done at election times.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Maryanne, my father's name is Robert and I'd be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and when I die??!!!!!!
I do apologize sir. I'm really pissed off this morning. Between you an' me, I've had enough of this bull****! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? You have a gang of Neanderthal workin' there!
Look at my picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach. And would someone please tell me, why would you care whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!
Well, I have to go now, 'cause I have to go to the other end of the city and get another copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $60 !!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day?? Nooooo, that'd be too easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find someone to confirm that it's really me on the picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile? Hey, you know why we can't smile? We're totally pissed off!
Signed - An irate American Citizen.
P. S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it's me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 when one of my forefathers took up arms against the British. I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had security clearances up the yingyang. I was aide de camp to the lieutenant governor of our state for ten years and I have been doing volunteer work for the State Police for about five years. However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN COMMUNIST CHINA!!!
*Round of applause!*
Government bureaucracy is one of the most spectacular failures in human history.
Alaska has a tax-waiver program for senior citizens and the disabled. After turning 65, I dutifully filled out the application and mailed it in. A few weeks later, a nice young lady called to tell me that I would have to wait a year. Apparently, the applicant has to have been 65 for a year before qualifying. I asked her why the application said "65" when it really meant "66," and she had no explanation.
In other words, instead of being sixty-five in order to waive my property taxes, I have to be sixty-six. If the darned taxes weren't so high, I'd tell them to stuff it and forget the whole thing, but I can use that $2k a year.
Might I suggest you use your passport. :)
Of course they are...Dodn’t passports get outsourced recently...
/sarcasm
Or didn’t.....
If he is just renewing a passport, then there is some other problem he’s not telling us. Renewals don’t require birth certificates, and they took our photos right at the post office near us. Maybe he was a convicted felon who had his passport revoked, and it didn’t just expire, or maybe his other passport was stolen and then used by an alien. This story doesn’t ring true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.