Posted on 10/01/2011 3:04:05 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
During a campaign stop in Memphis this week, Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry adeptly played to the rhetoric of unrest reverberating around Tennessee and beyond as a result of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s raid on Gibson Guitars.
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, himself a critic of the Gibson raid and one of Tennessee’s highest profile Perry supporters, introduced the Texas governor during a lunchtime fundraiser at the Memphis Botanical Gardens.
Before striding to the mic, Perry took a quick detour over to the guitar player in the corner of the room.
“Let me come over here and make sure … yes, that’s what I thought that was. God bless you, that is a Gibson guitar!” Perry announced to the audience, which included local business leaders and GOP state lawmakers Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brian Kelsey.
“And you tell the government, ‘Keep your hands off of my Gibson!’,” Perry exhorted the musician.
That chop at the federal government over the Gibson raids in Nashville and Memphis was the latest in a chorus of opposition that’s grown in intensity ever since federal agents investigating whether the company illegally imported wood temporarily shut down the facilities. The government seized wood, electronic files and guitars.
A “We Stand With Gibson” rally, sponsored by several dozen Tea Party and Republican groups, is scheduled in Nashville at the Scoreboard Restaurant on Oct. 8 from 2-4 p.m. Speakers slated to appear include Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and talk radio hosts Steve Gill, Phil Valentine and Mark Skoda.
Musicians are also increasingly speaking out about the issue.
In a video posted to Gibson’s “This Will Not Stand” website, Sully Erna – a member of the heavy metal band Godsmack – said “I believe in their innocence, and I stand by them 100 percent as they fight to protect their rights.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk2Wk289u48
Country legend Charlie Daniels riffed and railed on the Gibson raids for the Facebook faithful.
“When I went to Iraq the first time, I saw a great need for recreational musical instruments as a lot of the troops played, to one degree or another, but just didn’t have instruments to help while away the lonely off duty hours,” Daniels wrote. “When I got back stateside I started something we called Operation Heartstrings in an effort to provide instruments and strings to our men and women serving so far away from home. The first call I made was to Henry Juszkiewicz, the owner of the Gibson Guitar Company who, without hesitation, donated one hundred Gibson guitars and a gross or so of strings to the project.”
Wondered Daniels, “Is this what America has come to, that the resources of the United States government can be used to settle political scores by a petulant president and a totally out of control Justice Department?”
Supporters of the federal government’s actions in the Gibson saga say the agency is just following orders from Congress — including Tennessee Republicans who in 2008 voted to expand the scope of government’s authority to prosecute and seize property under the Lacey Act.
Despite assurances from the feds that they won’t be targeted, musicians who own Gibson guitars remain concerned that the instruments of their trade could be subject to asset forfeiture.
Gibson ping with some redneck English on it.
Good move on his part, keep focused on Obama’s messes.
This is how it’s done, Perry.
Keep it up.
It sounds like the "supporters" have been hittin' da happy smoke again. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife commando/recon/sniper unit raiding an American guitar factory? Are you kiddin' me? That's an idea for a SNL skit!!! If "Congress" doesn't like what Gibson is doing, wouldn't a letter from some shyster lawyer have done the trick?
Perry’s not my first choice, but at least he can sometimes swing at a slow-hanging curveball.
As a Perry-leaning Gibson owner, good for Governor Perry.
I'd like to know who these supporters are.
God bless Charlie Daniels and Henry J, two guys not afraid to talk the talk and walk the walk.
OMG, Thank you Henry! And he was repaid for his good deed by being the target of a raid by an out of control federal government.
All Republican candidates should be bringing up Gibson in debates and elsewhere. This is a perfect case of loony over regulation by Federal bureaucrats in Washington DC. The Obama regime should be bashed mercilessly on their treatment of Gibson Guitars in an election year no less. This is a solid winner for Republican presidential candidates
Thanks Cincinatus’ Wife.
I can’t imagine any of the leading candidates for the GOP nomination are not taking Gibson’s side.
For that matter, I can’t recall that any politician — of either party — has come out against Gibson.
I am not sure who sides with the feds on this crap. Liberals are silent
Mel Gibson as his running mate?
Musicians have to ask this question, while the media plays dead? :)
I don’t remember ever seeing Charlie playing anything but a Gibson. Gibson donates guitars to schools as well. If Taylor, Martin or Fender are doing such things, I haven’t heard about it.
Just in case no one is aware of the update: The Feds are wanting MORE wood from Gibson!!!
After the 2012 elections, I want to see Holder in jail.
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2011/09/28/feds-to-gibson-give-us-more-wood.html?ana=e_pft
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