The Gibson Guitar company must not be unionized. If they were, the Obama administration wouldn’t be coming down on them for importing wood from Madagascar. There’s no business safe from these people.
The Wall Street Journal reported the story earlier.
Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company’s manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. “The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier,” he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.
It isn’t the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian’s ES-150. 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 a case with the delightful name “United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms.”
The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony that makes for such lovely fretboards. …
Obama Fail blog followed up a little later.
“So the government’s contention is that because American workers are working on that and finishing it, that it is not a finished product and, therefore, initially Madagascar law – and now I guess they’re contending Indian law – says you can’t remove unfinished product from the market. So in other words, if a person in Madagascar had completed the work on that blank, it would be legal. But the fact that American workers are finishing the work in the United States, makes it illegal, as far as their concerned.”
“The government’s position is, that is the law of the land in Madagascar and they are saying that is the law of the land in India. That is not the case. The fact is, we have affidavits from numerous government officials – and this court case, specifically now, is forMadagascar wood. We have affidavits from virtually every govt official saying that it is legal, that their definition of what is legal is a fingerboard blank and its been exported within every certification that is necessary. So they have the arrogance to interpret Madagascar law differently than the people of Madagascar.” …
Well, heaven forbid Americans have work to do! Of course they’d be much better off on unemployment. You know, because unemployment and food stamps are so stimulative.
Update: That Mr. G Guy linked and has more. Also, see the comments for a clarification.
Update 2: Mike Cornelison linked – thanks!
Use a shovel with a wooden handle? Rolling pin? Salad bowl? Hammer? Kabob skewers? Book shelving? Furniture? Or even worse…burning it as fuel for heat! Anything using wood will be the future shame and guilt that the leftist eco-maniacs try to project on to us. Screw them. And I’d really like to tell you how I feel about them.
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Thanks so much for the link!
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would be interesting to know if the management of this company supports any politicians. By the way can guitars be made in in Mexico or India? Note – the feds can’t raid any G.E. plants. They are all in China, Mexico, and India.
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ALL OTHER GUITAR MFG. USE THE SAME WOOD, IT’S JUST THAT THIS MFG. IS A GOP SUPPORTIVE CO. AND THE OTHERS ARE DEM’S. GEE, DO YA THINKS THIS MIGHT BE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED???????? WELL DO YA STUPID
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India sold the wood to Gibson….and thats not what they are upset about!!! They think they wood should be finished by Indian workers…not American. Had they bought the wood finished and financed the demdonkies, Mr Jobkiller would have been more than pleased. PPL..PPL..PPL, PLZZZZZ get your head out ur a…… and get informed.
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At this point and in general the third word countries and Chinese do not produce high quality musical instruments.
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Yes they donated to the GOP in the last election. The CEO of Gibson said it wasn’t a lot of money though.
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Maybe Obama was offended by Gibson way overpricing everything they sell, couldn’t afford to buy himself a top end LP, not enough left over after he gave all those hundreds of billions to the banks. so he sent in the troops to confiscate a few dozen he had picked out online. Or maybe he’s just pissed off after spending a few thousand for one LP only to find out he ain’t got no rhythm.
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Actually, the bust for the lumber from Madagascar was in 2009 for the Ebony wood used for fret or finger boards. Gibson is still waiting for the government to give them back that wood. The latest kerfuffle is over lumber imported from India or at least that’s the gist I got from Gibson’s press release. http://wp.me/pTkxi-T0
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[...] The Lonely Conservative also has the scoop on this travesty of justice. Share this:StumbleUponDiggFacebookTwitterRedditLike [...]
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Using federal agents are political thugs is an impeachable offense. The Gibson CEO is a major GOP donor; the Martin Guitar CEO is a major democrat donor. Both use the same woods – in fact, Martin uses more “endangered” woods than Gibson, and brags about it in their advertising. Yet only Gibson alone was targeted by the federal government. Did you ever think such political thuggery on the party of the federal government this would ever happen in our country? No surprise Obama is a fan of Hugo Chavez.
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Scary times, great post. Had to post R. Fine’s insight into what motivates the forces controlling these Eco-stormtroopers at my own blog:
http://www.mikecornelison.com/eco-stormtroopers-descend-on-gibson-guitars
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The reason Obama is going after Gibson is to help GE who has backed Obama’s campaign. GE partnered with Taylor guitars and builds a pallet guitar (socialist guitar) using cheap woods.
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[...] was occupying the White House we’d never hear the end of it.The latest is a follow up on the Gibson Guitar case. Apparently, had they shipped their labor overseas the federal government would have left them [...]
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[...] the Department of Justice has NO business raiding and shutting down an American based and operated business on the basis of what a law on the law books in the nation of [...]
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