Not really. An act of defiance but plenty of cash for it. You know one of the very few good ideas put forth in Obamacare, even though it will fall on its face is nobody should go bankrupt over an illness. I know some here will argue that but it’s my belief and i’m not going to respond to debate on this. My point is Gibson can afford the money. I would have to accept a public defender and most likely lesser representation because defending myself in court would bankrupt me.
To me , the prohibitive cost of defending yourself is just as big an issue as the cost of healthcare. An innocent man could face incarceration because of lack of funds.
During Basic Training at Little Vietnam, at Ft. Polk, I did make two piano wire (I can't remember for certain what wire they were, but I can ask him) garrots, one for me and one for my partner, but during orientation, as we prepared for Escape and Evasion and POW/torture, etc, the Green Beret that was leading the introduction was so convincing of what would happen if one of his Green Berets were hurt with weapons, that I told my buddy that we should drop them under the bleachers and not risk being caught with them, and like many young men, I can't explain what I intended them for, but I had felt going in that we needed to be prepared as best as we could be with what little we had available.
It is a creepy weapon, or tool.
Another Day In The Life of the Obama White House, or aka, When Presidents Attack!
I think I would have made a presentation grad “Out House” with it. Put it on wheels and drop it off in front of the White House as a ‘gift’.....inside would be fresh rolls of Obama Toilet Paper.
The wording of the article leads me to believe that the government paid the 300k fine, not Gibson. Can someone clear that up?
Scoutmaster has gone to the trouble to read the leal pleadings, followed the case, etc., and has a firm grasp on the facts of the incident.
It really is too bad that the media sucks as bad as it does, but there is a very thin connection between public press accounts, and "the facts of the matter." I assume any press account (on any story, not referring to the Gibson rosewood incident) is misleading at best. When a story stirs enough of my personal interest, I always look for underlying evidence, something other than news stories. It is hard work, but absolutely necessary if one wants to know what really happened.
Two quick points:
In 2011, the Department of Justice conducted raids on the Tennessee facilities of the famed Gibson Guitar company and confiscated large quantities of tonewood that had been imported from India and Madagascar.
No. Gibson was raided twice.
The Madagascar ebony was confiscated in 2010, from Gibson in Nashville.
The East Indian Rosewood and East Indian Ebony was primarily confiscated from the Dallas airport, which was the place of import into the U.S. The import papers showed Luthier's Mercantile as the importer, Theodor Nagel Gmbh as the ultimate consignee, and included a request to ship to Red Arrow Delivery Service's warehouse in Nashville. Gibson's name did not appear on the import papers and Gibson had not paid for the wood.
The issue at hand was not that the wood was endangered or illegally harvested, but that it was not of the proper thickness that would have meant that some labor had been performed on it by workers in India and Madagascar.No. That was one of the issues in the import of East Indian Rosewood and East Indian Ebony. It has nothing to do with the Madagascar Ebony.
Malagasy law prohibits any export of raw Madagascar Ebony except in accordance with its (corrupt) government-run system, in which certain lumber barons are permitted from time to time to cut trees, which are tracked by the Malagasy government from felling through cutting and sale.
The Madagascar Ebony Gibson bought was from Roger Thunam, a convicted lumber trafficker, through Theodor Nagel Gmbh, after Gibson employee Gene Nix visited Thunam's workplace and reported to Gibson by email that all of Thunam's wood was under seizure and there was no legal source to obtain it.
Journalists writing about the Gibson confiscations either get their sources from other journalists, Gibson PR releases, or whole cloth. They need to go to www.pacer.com and download the 70+ affidavits, legal pleading (with attached exhibits), and judges' orders for U.S. v Ebony Wood in Various Forms, Civil No. 3:10cv00747 (U.S. Dist. Ct. Mid. Dist. Tenn.), and U.S. v. 25 Bundles of Indian Ebony Wood, Civil No. 3:11-cv-00913 (U.S. Dist. Ct. Mid. Dist. Tenn).
Imported woods bad! illegal immigration good!
American Thinker deleted my reply in which I pointed out a few errors (such as the fact that the tonewood in question was NOT returned to Gibson, and that the issue with the Madagascar ebony was buying from an illegal source, not the thickness of the wood), and suggested the author and those interested read the legal documents for the two cases at www.pacer.gov.
In your face, commie stooges, in ... your ... face!!!
Taking what Gibson did, and showing some REAL class, would have been for both Martin and Fender to split Gibson’s out-of-pocket expenses (Legal and their fine) equally to show some true support for what Gibson did.
I hadn't been following this story as closely as I'd like. What I find shameful is that there was little action on the part of Tennessee Congressional Representatives in either defense of Gibson or to fix the Lacey Act. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) co-sponsored the Amendment to the Lacey Act in 2008 that included wood in its wording. Government agencies then interpreted this as a violation due to a clerical error on the part of the company that imported the wood for Gibson. The larger issues here, for me, are the outrageous government response to what has been coined a 'civil matter' and the fact that neither can I find any action on the part of Congress to fix the Lacey Act nor any action on the part of Tennessee Congressmen on the part of Gibson. Gibson may very well have been on both sides of the fence, politically (smart business), but the result seems to have left then out in the cold.
I wait with bated breath the outing of this Special Edition guitar on a nationally-televised musical event. (color me 'blue')