Okay, so it's a hit in Southeast Asia. What if I'm travelling in the first world? @mkmead:

If the same holds for passports we are in serious trouble.

This is just really, really embarrassing. To identify its citizens, the government of the most powerful country in the world issues ... a travel brochure?

Guess not only the top political and legal jobs are being handed out on the basis of ideology and party loyalty. Is there a Pat Robertson design school out there too?

At a time when Americans are being told keep a low profile abroad, the new design makes no sense at all. I'm crossing my fingers they at least get rid of the huge hideous flag before my current passport expires.

I am canadian. And I disapprove his message.

Its ugly, I feel bad for you all. Its like a big orgy book of self congratulatory narco-patriotism. Kinda sad. No one loves us anymore so we will love ourselves.

Also, jwissick said the photo is several pages in? What idiot decided to move the photo from inside the cover page? Damn morons.

What IS it with Republicans and crass absence of taste & decorum? The scary thing is that I'll bet months were spent arguing the merits of Eagles Soar versus The Emancipator Triumphant.

Shocked there's no Lil' Baby Jesus page. Amazed they skipped plastering President Iran/Contra's wrinkley mug too. Remarkable self-restraint. For them.

The irony is that if you find this "Let The Eagle Soar" aesthetic attractive, you're probably one of the 79% of Americans who don't have passports anyway.

*gross*

"This document contains sensitive electronics. For best performance, do not bend, perforate or expose to extreme temperatures."
*DIIINGGG*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swirlee/sets/7215760008824488...

Pardon the huge red watermarks, but I'm sure you can understand my making every effort to set the feds' minds at ease about potential counterfeiting.

The pages not shown on the web site include a desertscape at sunset; a lake and mountain range; a colonial seascape with ship (looks like the Mayflower to me), lighthouse, and seagull; a plains scene with buffalo, a huge eagle's head, an eagle's silhouette, and another mountain range (this is by far the gaudiest page); a river scene with a steamboat and gently rolling hills; a farmer with oxen and plow with big wheat in the foreground; cattle ranchers; a steam locomotive; a bear eating a large fish from a mountain stream with a large totem pole in the foreground; the Statue of Liberty and a close-up of her stone tablet; and an island with palm tree in the foreground. The latter is only a half-page at the very end opposite the moon-and-spacecraft page.

Uh, okay, so looking through I realize that it is pretty awful. But who cares? Like I said, the color scheme is subdued, and the outside of the passport is still minimilast silver-on-blue. I wouldn't have expected anything different from the federal government.

Why do I have this strange desire to draw horns and a little moustache on the eagle?

Only if it looked like this.

The design may be ugly, but the point is to make it as hard as humanly possible to counterfeit. I bet you that there is so detail in that eagle that you and I won't notice is there, but a trained person will find in a second. The busier it is, the more "easter eggs" you can fit, without all the eggs becoming obvious.

For example, the front back cover (the page behind the front cover) of my Swedish passport has an image by Carl Larson. The image is tilted about 2 degrees or so. The image seems useless, except a careless person may not notice the tilt. Of course, it's too obvious for an experienced counterfeiter, so maybe they have to add another picture, which is tilted X degrees, where X is some derivative of 2, and the ink on the second image is .02% bluer, that sort of thing.

Of course, there are ways to make it both secure and classy, but if there is one thing this administration lacks its any sort of classiness, so I'm glad my US passport was from the last batch of non-RFD/Uncle Sam's Acid Trip passports.

And tastes being transitory, I think those complaining about the looks would find their own choices being complained about sooner than they think.

But it's just a government document. It's not supposed to be an artistic or fashion statement. Who cares what it looks like?

tozmervo: if you don't like the money, I'll be happy to take it off your hands. :)

I just got mine two months ago and its exactly like this.

Do you know how many compliments I got while in line about my passport when I was traveling through southeast asia last month?

People love it and are jealous of our countries new passport designs from my experience.