I was afraid I was going to have to blame this on Bush but...
He vetoed the Farm Bill that this expansion was attached to. Twice! (Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.)
Bush's veto was overridden by congress.
Yep. Guitar players can truly blame the democrats for this mess. For the record, I am the proud owner of two fantastic, American-made Gibson electric guitars.
If I was at my lathe, and a black-clothed character came into the shop and looked threatening ... well hell ... I'm in the gun industry and I'm bein' attacked ...
Yeppers ... time to open carry in the work place.
Anything to destroy American business.
This IS the POS we have in the White House.
Just part of his laser focus on destroying American jobs.
Really nice, forced outsourcing ! Jobs that can be done by Americans are sent overseas and the liberals are against it but their action forces it ! What is said and done are two different things. Forget words, what are the results of their legislation ? That should be examined !
Probably some favor for one of Obama’s foreign buddies.
Personally, I think there’s a lot more to this than meets the eye. I suspect some very immoral attitudes from the DOJ.
For a bit of humor on this, see the following:
New Scandal at DoJ as Illegal Guitars End Up In Hands of Mexican Drug Lords: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/08/new-scandal-at-doj-as-illegal-guitars-end-up-in-hands-of-mexican-drug-lords.html
I wonder which of their competitors is paying Obama.
Here’s more on the situation:
Gibson Guitar CEO on Obama DOJ Raids: ‘We’re Being Persecuted’
http://www.breitbart.tv/gibson-guitar-ceo-on-obama-doj-raids-were-being-persecuted
What the effingeff????????????
The DOJ is taking police action to enforce INDIAN law? With no actual complaint or petition from India?
WHAT THE F???????????????????
Maybe next the DOJ will say I can't drink a beer not made to Irish or German laws?
Did they have a search warrant? Were they filing any arrest?
CALL THE POLICE AND HAVE THEM ARRESTED
Holder’s DOJ is busy going after a guitar maker for using “illegal wood,” but they can’t seem to figure out how thousands of semi-auto rifles were walked into Mexico.
We’re through the looking glass, Alice.
Rosewood, swamp ash, and Michigan rock maple, this is what a great guitar is made of. WTF?!?! Who cares where the raw materials come from? As long as someone is selling good raw materials, we’re buying. If they can’t get over that fact, they need to get out of the way.
Incremental yet serving the progressive agenda.
When we get back the three branches of government we need to be on those in positions to FIX what’s wrong with a vengeance. We win it is time to get so aggressive it will scare folks like me that ask for such repair an reform of such BS laws an policies.
Gonna go play a tune on my old Kalamazoo built Gibson now....:o)
Stay safe an vote with your dollars between elections.
Reason enough to boycott Gibson there.
Evidently Gibson is not on the campaign donation list, or the union list. Remember this administration thinks it gets to pick and choose who gets to stay in business in this country.
I love Gibson guitars. Own a bunch of ‘em. I wonder if this is somehow payback for the Gibson lawsuits of Japanese manufacturers from the ‘70s and the Paul Reed Smith suit of a few years ago. While making some of the very best guitars, Gibson can be kind of snotty at times.
Let’s see. Gibson’s main facility is located in the South (Nashville), the Gibson guitar is an American icon, and I’ll bet Gibson is non-union.
Juszkiewicz and Berryman bought the failing Michagan company in 1986 for $5 million. It had sales that year of $5 million. Over the years the company has expanded its product lines by purchasing other companies. For example: Gibson owns Baldwin. Current sales are near $500 million and half of those sales are exports. Obama and his Marxist buddies must be pissed over this Capitalist success.
There is something else that is very fishy too. Last year Gibson was rated by Glassdoor.com as the #1 worst employer in the nation. ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/worst-companies-to-work-f_n_397565.html?&slideshow#comments ) This is BS. No CEO in his right mind would want to piss off the experienced artisan instrument makers the company needs. Auto Zone was #4. I’m a Auto Zone customer and I’m certain the very helpful employees here are not unhappy. In addition, Juszkiewicz has raved about the help and cooperation he got from employees after the Nashville plant was flooded last year.
In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in the case “United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms.” Juszkiewicz says the wood is worth a half million dollars. There has been NO civil or criminal case filed by the Justice Dept.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service picked a fight with the wrong guy. He won’t roll over and play dead... He enrolled at the General Motors Institute in Flint, MI, a five year co-op engineering college. Sponsored by GM’s Delco division, he gained experience in a variety of different jobs at Delco’s 6,000-employee electronic components plant in Rochester. Putting his musical skills to work, he worked his way through school playing guitar - a Gibson, of course - in various rock bands playing for parties and weddings.
After graduating with honors, he worked at Delco Products for two years as product manager while studying for an MBA in night school at the University of Rochester. He completed his MBA at Harvard University on a General Motors Fellowship.
Juszkiewicz then joined the New York firm of Neiderhoffer, Cross and Zeckhauser, Inc., a pioneer in the area of middle-market deals, where he rose to the position of executive vice president of mergers and acquisitions. He left the firm in 1981 and, with two former Harvard classmates (David Berryman and Gary Zebrowski), acquired Phi Technologies of Oklahoma City. Within one month he turned the struggling technology firm into a highly profitable company.
The DOJ staged the raid using the excuse that Gibson was using wood from Madagascar which was on the endangered list.
Gibson's side is that wood was obtained legally.
By Indian law, the wood had to be finished in India.
The wood wasn't finished in India.
The DOJ raided the workplace with officers armed with automatic weapons.
The DOJ in effect, is upholding by use of armed force, Indian labor laws.
My humble opinion is that this was not a criminal matter, but an issue that should normally have been argued as a violation of trade laws, handled in a civil court situation.