Posted on 05/22/2012 7:48:41 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
Lawmakers are scrambling to save the summer concert season from federal agents poised to seize the instruments of rock and country stars because the wood used to make them may have been illegally harvested–and without their knowledge.
“I don’t want the musicians from Nashville who are flying to Canada to perform this summer to worry about the government seizing their guitars,” said Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander.
(Excerpt) Read more at axvault.com ...
Maybe some of these brain-dead liberal musicians will start to re-think their support of big government Democrats.
This is not just insane. It's criminally insane.
This is really great news, most rock and rollers are liberals, I would love to hear their support for big government and the fascist democrats after their Gibson’s are taken.
Allow me to note that it is utter abhorrent to me that we would base a US law on whether or not a US citizen in the US violated the law of another country. How this can be Constitutional is beyond me.
see also:
Keeping US Safe From Plastic-packed Lobster Tails
Complexity of laws leading to “over-criminalization” of America?
By Robert Longley,
Diane Huang, a small business owner from New Jersey, is scheduled to enter federal prison on July 21, where she will begin serving a two-year sentence for purchasing undersized lobster tails shipped in clear plastic bags. Under the Lacey Act, a U.S. law, it is illegal to take wildlife in violation
of foreign law. The lobsters Ms. Huang purchased violated obscure laws of Honduras because they were shipped in clear plastic bags, rather than opaque cardboard boxes, and a small percentage of the lobsters did not measure to
5.5 inches in length....
In 1999, Huang was charged with a felony count of conspiracy to smuggle (Huang was in the supply chain, having purchased the “unlawful” lobster tails). However, the Honduran laws, which served as the basis for the U.S. government’s case against Ms. Huang, are no longer valid – a fact the
government of Honduras pointed out when it filed an amicus brief with both the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Huang’s conviction along with those of three others, were upheld in March 2003.
Commenting on the plight of Huang, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Legal Foundation Executive Director Karen Harned said, “Sharing stories like that of Diane Huang can go far in shedding light on the dark corner of government prosecution. But perhaps just as significant
is that Diane’s story serves as an example of how easily the life of a small-business owner can be turned upside down by the more than 4,000 separate federal criminal offenses on the books that could send any small-business owner to the same place Diane Huang is going – prison.”....
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/alobsterstail.htm
In the case of Gibson Guitars, they were accused of violating a foreign law regarding lumbering. The country involved denies that Gibson violated that law. How can a US citizen adjudicate such a question in US court? They cannot!
This is entirely political. The wood is an excuse.
Things like this aren’t done for the sake of saving endangered species. The purposes are 1) To remind the sheep who is boss and 2) To give a certain failing Presidential candidate a chance to look like the good guy by “suspending” enforcement of this law after a couple of high-profile incidents.
Maybe where you come from, or maybe you're just thinking of the big Hollywood-connected "stars". Most that I know have more sense than that.
Wouldn’t you just love some fed to walk onstage and take Springsteens guitar? He’d probably still kiss Bamas butt that idiot..
I would like to believe that a win for Romney in November would turn this around. I’m not foolish enough to believe that though. What is required is a complete dismemberment of the federal bureaucracies, a sorting out of the useful agencies and their re-launching contingent on good behavior. How would such a thing be facilitated? I leave that to your imaginations and, as an assist, you can simply forget that a Romney administration would fix that.
Apparently you think it's just dandy for a bunch of liberal artists to have their legitimately purchased and owned private property seized by the federal government for political purposes.
Is that a conservative position?
Or are y'all just lazy and forgot your "/sarc" tags?????
I'm not defending the liberals' political leanings. I'm defending ownership of private property. That's a conservative value, guys.
What do these libtards think? Let’s take a guitar that may, or may not have been made by an endangered tree; will they then plant that guitar and regrow the tree?
How about we follow the US Constitution, and first the Libtards PROVE that the guitar is manufactured from an endangered tree - at least then we’ll have the pretext of judicial practice before they seize private property.
|
I KNOW!
Please let them seize Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi’s FIRST!
It is amazing how our Government has been reduced to useless thuggery in Three short Years.
God this administration is disgusting and Pernicious.
Must be removed ,, Please God. PLEASE, PLEASE.
It is amazing how our Government has been reduced to useless thuggery in Three short Years.
God this administration is disgusting and Pernicious.
Must be removed ,, Please God. PLEASE, PLEASE.
It is amazing how our Government has been reduced to useless thuggery in Three short Years.
God this administration is disgusting and Pernicious.
Must be removed ,, Please God. PLEASE, PLEASE.
Read post 5 - under Clinton and then Bush. No matter how back you go, you can find examples.
Selective prosecution to create examples seems to be The American Way.
You are forgetting that they are liberals. They will blame ( and likely sue) evil Gibson for cutting down a rain forest, starving poor Pygmies in New Guinna.
I'd hazard that most are business people who play rock-n-roll. Folk singers may be a different story...
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