Posted on 11/13/2011 1:15:54 PM PST by IbJensen
On Aug. 24, federal agents descended on three factories and the Nashville corporate headquarters of the Gibson Guitar Corp. Accompanied by armored SWAT teams with automatic weapons, agents from the Fish and Wildlife Service swarmed the factories, threatening bewildered luthiers, or guitar craftsman, and other frightened employees. A smaller horde invaded the office of CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, pawing through it all day while an armed man stood in the door to block his way.
"I was pretty upset," Mr. Juszkiewicz says now, sitting outside that same office. "But you can only do so much when there's a gun in your face and it's the federal government." When the chaos subsided, the feds (with a warrant issued under a conservation law called the Lacey Act) had stripped Gibson of almost all of its imported Indian rosewood and some other materials crucial to guitar making.
The incident attracted national attention and outrage. Like Boeing—whose plans to locate new production in South Carolina are opposed by the National Labor Relations Board—here was an iconic American brand under seemingly senseless federal fire.
Gibson vigorously asserts that it has broken no laws. Last month Rep. Jim Cooper (D., Tenn.) and two co-sponsors introduced legislation to modify the Lacey Act with the so-called Relief Act—which could indemnify many guitar makers and performers who now fear being arrested because their instruments were made with imported wood or exotic materials. But the new bill won't apply to anyone who's already wriggling on the government's hook for alleged Lacey violations. So Gibson, a big fish for Justice Department prosecutors and environmental activists looking to make their bones, is on its own.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Who wouldn't, among us, despise the evil, power-hungry central socialist government when knowledge of this attack on a guitar maker was known?
Revolution? When?
Just another day in Obamaland.
Why does the government need a swat team to do this? Are they afraid of the citizens? I think it is more likely that they feel they need to exert their power because they are afraid of what may happen when the citizens start to take control back from them.
This really is an eye-bleeding outrage.
There will be no revolution. Americans only get spun-up over things like a college football coach getting fired.
But you don’t understand. Gibson guitars are so much a part of a predominantly white guy culture, country music. This was obviously a blow for racial harmony doncha know? Who knows, maybe Charlie Pride played one and he didn’t play music like he was sposed to, doncha know?
Balalaikas are Obama’s instrument of choice.
Gibson ping.
What I would do is talk to the various Western Province officials in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Victoria. After getting the best deal, pack up and move, and then go public about WHY you've moved OUT of the Unites States — the Obama administration and its thuggish agencies’ activities.
Federal bureaucrats have now cost more Americans their careers and their jobs and adversely impacted the economy of the local community. American corporation are not the playthings of this President or his bunch of bureaucrat goons. American companies, like Gibson, have decided to vote “no confidence” in this country and its leaders and the people responsible for electing them. Bye-bye.
AGREE.
....and take me and mine with him! This nation will recover decades from now (perhaps) from this evil regime that has worked overtime to destroy America!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2806910/posts
Remember when ‘this’ government used armed swat team gestapo to seize Elian Gonzales in order to ship his little body back to Fidel?
That was the Clinton administration with Janet (Big Dyke) Reno heading up the assault.
Not much has changed, has it? It has gotten worse!
I think people are starting to get feed up with the government bullying. Unfortunately it may not end well. The thugs in power need to realize that they work for us to protect us from bullies.
Remember, the children of the Davidians had to be immolated to save them from possible abuse. And Vicky Weaver had to be assassinated because...the barrel was 1/4 of an inch too short?
They don’t remember what happened to Benito Mussolini.
It involved a half-built Esso station.
.........and his mistress as well.
The current occupier of the White Hut may not have a mistress, but there may be a boyfriend or two under the bed.
Gibson guitars were made in Kalamazoo, MI for almost 100 years. Moved to Tennessee and Montana in the ‘80’s. Probably had to get out of the blue, union-drenched state to a right-to -work state that was more business friendly. Then of course what the states can’t screw you on, the Feds step in and finish the business.
BB King plays a Gibson ES-335 ("Lucille"). As far as I know, BB was not interested in racial harmony....just the blues.
The FLIR expert that was dissecting the tapes of the assault on a burning Davidian compound and earlier footage, was also “murdered” by heart attack. The govt covers up what it wishes, at any cost. Anyone that thinks differently has rose colored glasses on. Or lately, allowing a Seal team to be killed. Most likely to send a message.
Yes, I know, but Gibson before electtics was the guitar of country music. I was actually thinking about something I heard Charlie Pride tell about one time. He had given a concert in East Texas and afterwards he told of an old typical Texas dirt farmer who came up to him and told him that he really liked his music and then said: “But, Charlie, how come you don’t sing like you’re sposed to?”
The bastards are afraid of being hit by a fully automated Les Paul.
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