This is exactly what OBL and his filthy pigs wanted to happen. I've heard it mooted that Cheney etc. are probably Iranian agents given how much they've helped them with their policies.

   American history. We have King and Bobby both  killed. Chicago and the Democratic convention that year was a zoo of abuse. Nixon is elected to expand a lawless government. Wiretapping under Johnson are expanded even more under Nixon just like renditions under Clinton have exploded under Bush II. The following spring, we have Kent State and the killing of protesters by the National Guard.
   Social programs created under Kennedy/Johnson begin to unravel before our eyes. The abortion issue begins to surface and reaches its zenith in 1973 with Roe v Wade.  The poor who sometimes needed support from our nation with Food Stamps are derided and and stamped by the Republican Party as loafers and freeloaders. No social funds for the poor because the rich deserve this money.
   The drug use of the late 60's becomes a target for Republican fundraisers as folks who smoked weed are branded and labeled as hippies. Except if you were in the service and in Vietnam. Here it was perfectly normal to relax and relieve pressure and the government turned the other cheek because soldiers were serving our MIC.
   Look at the test scores in schools over a long view. SAT scores peaked at this time because the social experiment of integrating our schools resulted in reduction in "real funds" for our public schools as more of the "real elite" moved their kids into private schools. Inner cities were decaying and seeds for the rise of bank and investment houses to control our economy were established. Today we are reaping the benefits. Yea, right!
   1968 scared the establishment. It forced them into action. Nixon, Cheney, Rumsfield, and Kissinger moved this nation so far to the right that social activism was destroyed. Time is short for our Democracy. It has never been perfect but it always lurched slowly forward. After WWII, the middle class grew and continued to gain and realize the American dream. In 1968, the income disparity between the rich and the rest of us began to grow. It hasn't stopped yet. Many of this time have grown more conservative and moved to the right. Not me. I went into college as a product of a very conservative Southern family. I am proud to say that since 1968, I have become more progressive and aware of how my fellow college friends have raped America. It's rape pure and simple. And it all started as a reaction to 1968.
   Sorry for the length of this rant but I've held it in too long.  

...but the Brezhnev-era Soviet Bloc is actually a model, with the invasions (remember, this was the year after the Prague Spring!), cronyism and chauvinism for a dying system.

China appears to be a perfect amalgam of cronyism, repression, but capitalism for the very rich.  Just add a bit of Saudi Arabian repression, and you have a Republican's dream.

Bush alone could not create the authoritarian attitude in our country today.  This is a problem with our culture, our society as a whole.  Americans either participate in this fascist pig bullshit, or they tolerate it.  

For an indicator, look at all the cop movies churned out by Hollywood for the past 40 years.  The "good guys" cruise the streets for "dirtbags," break every law and constitutional right that exists, and in the end usually blow the "bad guy's" head clean off in a glorious finale.  The whole time, the cops have to fight against a system that protects the "bad guys" just to keep good Americans safe.  These are America's modern nursery rhymes, the modern tales that children use to learn how the world works.  No wonder we're turning into an authoritarian society.

3-4 layers of the heavy duty industrial foil - they won't be able to track it.  Trust me.

I'm sorry, but they don;t have the ability to track you. For instance, you fly into France, you can travel to 17 EU countries without presening your passport. It is like Domestic travel for them.

There is NO ability for the RFID tag to track your passport movements.

I seriously need to write a diary on this.

[Doesn't TSA put a lot of confiscated stuff on eBay? At least the stuff they don't divvy up?]

Flew from BUR to ABQ via PHX. In PHX I had a 2 hour wait so I went to find some place to have a cigarette (I know, I know). Finding no lockers for my single small bag I took it and went outside, was smoking near a guy dressed like a pilot (also smoking) when an airport cop came to me and said if I didn't "go down there" (about 100 yards away) I would be ARRESTED. WTF? So I went "down there."

Went back in, back through security only to have the all-but-empty 12oz(?) tube of toothpaste, which wasn't questioned in Burbank, removed and was told I could surrender it or go check my bag. I friggin' lost it. I went off on the guy telling him there was NOT 3oz of anything in there and to give me the goddamn thing back you son-of-a-bitch. Two more guys, with guns, come over and I calmed down quickly, told him to use it in good health, asshole. After saying that I thought I was in for a long search and would miss my connection. For whatever reason they let me through.

On my way back I shipped home everything I would have otherwise carried via UPS, carried nothing except a copy of the Constitution and my car keys. And that didn't raise any flags? Weird. In both directions I carried a lighter with me and it was never found (lighters were banned then, but matches weren't - go figure).

This was last December. And I never left the country, only the People's Republic of California. I guess I'm lucky I wasn't arrested or detained for days and days.

I have no desire to fly any longer as long as this crap is going on, I am way too prone to challenging violations of my civil liberties.

What's next? Check-points on the highways at the county line?

WHO would go to Canada to purchase expensive camera equipment?  With the state of US currency VS the Canadian dollar?

If US Customs were concerned about such things coming in through Canada, they would have marked it on Aerojad's exit from the US into Canada.  This happened to me several times leaving for other countries, in years past, when I owned a good Japanese made camera.  It was marked on my departure, noted that I had possessed it when I left the US, thus not subject to importation duty upon re-entering the US.

it was the sheer inconsistency of the whole thing.

The first time they were about to give me problems because they wanted to see documentation that I had purchased the equipment in the US and overseas where I was coming from.

The next time, when I pulled together all the documentation and brought it with me to show Customs on the way out...they couldn't have cared less.  And they also didn't give a crap when I came back in the next time.....and each time I went and came back, all of the stuff was in a large waterproof high-impact rolling case...so it was pretty prominent when I was coming out of the luggage area.

hasn't been used in years, though it probably still works well, but the body and every lens is registered.  I've been a bit negligent about registering my later digitals. My binoculars, bought long ago in Japan, are also registered. I don't travel with them anymore taking a less valuable U.S. made brand.

Anyone with consumer items commonly sold overseas and worth more than pocket change should register them for safety. To some extent the fact that we are the dumping ground for so much stuff has seemed to limit the customs interest in such things. When people come here to shop for cheap items made in China there are probably few of us lugging back loads of "bargains" of this sort.

is easier, less troublesome, and you don't have to put up with over-officious jerks - you simply walk into the USA.  There is nobody there who will open and inspect your luggage, confiscate your laptop, or question you about the text messages on your cell.

You simply walk into the USA.

But don't take MY word for it.  Ask any of the 12 million to 15 million people now living in the USA who have already done it.

"We don't need no steenking passports!"

Even up to 2004 the US Customs guys were very pleasant and made it feel good to return to the US. Now it feels like we are returning to some sort of garrison state. I want my country back!

what is the policy when only one parent is on the birth certificate? Just asking, as my daughter is planning a trip to BC and that's her daughter's situation. The "father" was not involved with her when she gave birth and dodged a paternity test later, so... Would like to spare her this kind of ridiculousness.