I am not at all surprised. I travel internationally a lot and I dread crossing borders. The sad part I would almost rather cross any border than that of my own country.
I used to travel all over the world carrying road cases with computers and video gear. In 15 years of such travel I was never once singled our for scrutiny by border agents in any country EXCEPT the US. I got a 3 hour plus search and question session coming back to the US from Toronto where they seized a box of (non Cuban) cigars, and another hour plus search and question session coming back from Frankfurt. The only reason why Americans think our government isn't "as bad as other governments" is because they haven't been *&^%ed over by it yet.