[Rick Lee]

It's gotten pretty tough in the last year or so. I'm on my third passport and I never once went to the post office for one. Though when I go there now to mail stuff, there's always a long line of parents with their kids there for passports. Pretty sure you can just go the State Dept. website, print and fill everything out, mail it in and pay for the double-extra express service. If you need it faster than that, you may need to call your congressman or senator. I have a friend got it done in under two weeks that way, but it was for business and he even got the Russian ambassador to personally issue his visa on the spot.