both TonyRo76 and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 03/02/2009 10:38:46 PM PST by buccaneer81
Homeland Insanity
The Blue Jackets travel party landed safely at 4:06 a.m. Monday. Odd timing, as that's roughly the time when the computer system used by U.S. Customs agents at Port Columbus crashed.
What followed in the next hour and 20 minutes was a maddening sequence of government red tape, bureaucratic blather and remarkable incompetency.
The Blue Jackets travel party numbers roughly 50, when you consider the players, coaching staff, training staff, equipment guys, traveling secretaries and media. As the group made it off the plane and wound its way toward an empty Customs area, the long trip home came to a screeching halt.
But it was far from over.
Rick Nash and Manny Malhotra were the first to approach the Customs agents, the first to get caught in the snare. They stood there. And stood there. And stood there. Both Nash and Malhotra spent more time standing at the booth than they spent on the ice in a 3-1 loss to Vancouver some five hours earlier.
This went on for more than 30 minutes.
Eventually, a Customs agent emerged from an umarked, gray door and spoke to the crowd. "Scheduled computer maintenance," he said. He vomited lots of other 10-cent words and phrases -- "protocol" and "proper avenues of procedure" and "procedures set in place in compliance with ..." -- before losing the attention of the tired, weary crowd.
At one point, TV producer Ed Milliken began singing "Oh, Canada!" (A stunning baritone, by the way.)
When the agent returned behind the umarked, gray door to consult his (no doubt) 6,000 page manual, the travel group started to get comfortable on the floor and the three steps.
There weren't even chairs.
Nash sprawled out right next to the booth, using his luggage as a pillow. Fedor Tyutin slumped against the wall, resting his head against a fire extinguisher on the on the wall. TV star Jim Day went flat on his back.
And then there was Ken Hitchcock: "If we would have known this, we would have stayed in Vancouver," Hitchcock said.
Here's the frustration: the Blue Jackets send an advance list to the Customs agents with the name and passport number of everybody on the plane, a means to expediate the process. This way the USA knows if somebody dangerous is trying to get in.
Nobody questions the USA's right and obligation to question people coming into the country. But this wasn't a security issue; it was incompetency. Why perform a scheduled maintenance on your system at the exact time a plane is bound to arrive?
When the Blue Jackets arrived in Canada the previous Sunday, it was a flawless process. Take the card, check the name, "Welcome to Canada."
But here it was, 4:50 a.m. now, and here we sat in an empty -- and yet overwhelmed -- Port Columbus.
I swear, I thought Hitchcock was going to have everybody clear out of the waiting area to do a "forecheck" walk-through with the players. We waited so long, interim goaltending coach Perry Elderbroom even stopped promoting his "Gold In Nets" program.
"A $5 million hockey player is sleeping on the floor up there," one observer panned.
One more caveat: hockey players are the most down-to-Earth athletes among the major sports. Most of them have ridden Greyhounds for 12 or 18 hours at a time. They've slepts in lots of different vehicles and airport floors while playing in the minors and junior leagues, all with the dream of playing in the NHL.
This wasn't outrageous because the almighty hockey players were inconvenienced. It was outrageous -- and embarrassing -- that Port Columbus was so ill-equipped to handle what should have been a basic process.
Imagine how this makes the city look to outsiders.
By 4:53 a.m., the man emerged for the unmarked, gray door to say that Columbus had been cleared by Chicago -- "and correct protocol," of course -- to begin clearing the traveling party via "verbal declaration."
The line started to move. Nash made it through, to a smattering of applause. The players all went first, then the Blue Jackets staffers and coaches. Most of the media allowed the flight crew to go through first.
At 5:23, the last of the party made it through.
"Have a good night," the agent said.
-- Aaron Portzline aportzline@dispatch.com
I feel so much safer. /s
Ohio ping!
Columbus might actually make the playoffs, this year: as of tonight their in 6th place overall in their conference.
I’m a season ticket holder.
You have a good coach-and Nash must be a treat to watch, as long as he’s healthy.
Hitch is a great coach, Nash is real hot and cold this year. The real story is Steve Mason in goal. He's the only reason the Jackets are in the hunt.
I’m originally from Vancouver and even though Im now based in Los Angeles and root for the Kings, I still follow the Canucks.
Luongo cannot simply carry this team. Now on the subject of immigration and after spending Christmas and New Year in Vancouver...it’s simply stricter on people going into the US than entering Canada. When I drove from Vancouver to washington for food and groceries, it was swipe (passport), ask and grill.
Going into Canada, all you have to do is fill up the immigration card..then question “what is the purpose of your visit”. It’s frustrating for Canadian green-card holders who are legitimately in the US when they/we followed the rules but those freakin mexicans jump the border and they get an illegal-alien lover in napolitano who heads DHS.
I know what you mean. I traveled to New Brunswick in January. Practically got waved in by Canada Customs. Coming home was a ten minute grilling by the US Border Patrol.
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