Gibson Guitars raided, Lacey Act cited

[UncleMike]

Would someone calm rambone down?

Ram, buddy, relax this is just politics. Gibson gives money to Republicans and thus got shut down. Martin guitars gives money to Democrats and uses the same wood but Martin won't even get an angry letter from the feds.

CEO of Gibson Guitar a Republican donor; Democrat competitor uses same wood - Landmark Report

Just another day in the United States of Chicago.

They do this day in and day out in Chicago, Barry's hometown. This is nothing, just wait until we get closer to November 2012.

The purpose of the law is what, ram? To increase your hold on power, to build barriers to entry and to seek economic rents.

And the odds of Martin being raided are................



WAIT FOR IT!!
















ZERO!!!!!

The Democrats are, if nothing else, predictable in their hypocrisy.

 

[kedie]

Amazing that the CEO said the rules could be interpreted that everyone who owns this stuff could be "implicated" in this...

Indian Rosewood Supplier > Gibson Guitars > Retailers > End User

So, does that mean BB King could be implemented because Lucille has a rosewood fingerboard?

Gibson.com: Gibson Custom BB King Lucille

They can have my Gibsons when they pry them from my cold dead hands!

Molon Labe!!!!

 

[level.eleven]

Riffing off of Kirk, I found this post on a guitar forum.

Gibson is the only guitar company targeted by the Obama DOJ under the
Lacey Act.
Tennessee is a right-to-work state.
Fender, Taylor, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, Carvin, MusicMan, and ESP
are in California;
Spector is in New York;
Martin is in Pennsylvania;
Guild, Ovation, and Hamer are in Connecticut;
Alvarez is in Missouri;
B.C. Rich is in Kentucky;
Heritage is in Michigan;
Washburn is in Illinois.
All are forced-union states.


Peavey is another guitar and electronics company, located in the
right-to-work state of Mississippi.
Since 2009, Peavey has been the target of multiple lawsuits filed by
a competitor, MUSIC Group, which alleges that Peavy products fail to
meet federal safety and emissions standards.
​

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Criminal law is the visible manifestation of politics. This is how things are done in the United States of Chicago.

Now that darn near everything is illegal, the prosecutors get to select who gets prosecuted based on political motivations.

At the state level that is the lower end of the SES and minorities (often motivated by federal grant money). At the federal level who gets prosecuted are those that are against those in the other party.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

A day without breaking the law is like a day without sunshine.

I wonder if the boys from Judas Priest play Gibson guitars???

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psTUiQzNoxw[/ame]

 

[Roadie]

Apparently during the first raided in 2009, the owner asked the Feds why they were there, and the Feds responded: "we can't tell you, it's sealed"..

Someone explain the legality of this to me please? Is it legal to say "Yes, trust us, we have a warrant, but you can't see it"??

 

[level.eleven]

Apparently during the first raided in 2009, the owner asked the Feds why they were there, and the Feds responded: "we can't tell you, it's sealed"..

Someone explain the legality of this to me please? Is it legal to say "Yes, trust us, we have a warrant, but you can't see it"??

100% legal and in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America.

 

[Roadie]

Sp, what checks and balances are in place so that isnt abused? Sounds to me like any Cop could say the same thing even if they didnt have one, sealed or not, and get away with it.

 

[edporch]

This is about the same as having the police raid your home, then tell you that you MUST show a receipt for EVERYTHING in your house to prove you didn't steal it.

Then when you can't, they file secret charges against you that even YOU aren't allowed to know what they are.

This kind of thing might be funny if it were on an episode of Hogan's Heroes parodying the nazis.
But in real life, it's anything but funny.

Sadly this is a harbinger of the kind of "law and order" that the future generations are going to be stuck with.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Michelle Obama gave the First Lady of France a Gibson guitar with Indian Rosewood!

Michelle Obama’s Gibson guitar gift « Hot Air

 

[serpicostraight]

i lost all my gibsons in a boating accident. thats my story and im sticking to it.

 

[ghunter]

At what point do people start waking up and refuse to let the pencil pushers run their lives? This is pure madness.

 

[rambone]

Soon this will be used to confiscate/ban firearms.

Can't prove where that stock was made, citizen? *We'll take that.*

Not joking here.

 

[bingley]

Soon this will be used to confiscate/ban firearms.

Can't prove where that stock was made, citizen? *We'll take that.*

Not joking here.

Firearms? You mean those cheap things that cost only several thousand dollars at most? Think bigger! They'll be taking away your Stradivarius violins!

As much as I am outraged, I have to say you guys might be jumping to conclusions about this one. This may not be an instance of "the oncoming fascism," but of incompetence and disorganization. I've seen different government agencies coming to blows regarding enforcement of administrative rules. The Dept. of Labor and the Dept. of Homeland Security for a while were refusing to process each other's forms concerning a certain matter, because they had a disagreement and, instead of resolving the matter swiftly for the innocent citizens involved, decided to pout it out like little kids, possibly screwing the citizens.

The case of the Bösendorfer pianos suggests that this wasn't a case of the gestapo doing whatever they wish. It may simply be the result of stepping up the enforcement of the Lacey Act without a clear idea of what is OK and what is criminal. Officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species advised Vieillard on completing the forms (Set of Officials 1). US Customs officials (Set 2) subsequently paid more attention to the imports, and that was followed by a raid by federal agents (Set 3) for, as at least two news sources indicate, improperly filling out paperwork. That sort of stuff typically happens when different agencies can't agree on what the procedure is, and the little people end up paying dearly for it. In this case, it seems that Set 1 cannot agree with Set 2 or Set 3 on how to do paperwork.

Now, this doesn't make these incidents any less wrong. But we need to know what the problem is before trying to fix it. Yelling until we're blue in the face, or blaming the current president, or suggesting political corruption, don't necessarily help. There are many cases of people getting caught between different federal agencies, and this is due to bureaucracy, not to conspiracy or to fascism. We hear about Gibson because, as a company, it is much more powerful than individuals. You can find many cases of legitimate immigrants from Latin America who started in a legal status, but through bureaucratic foul up ended up classified as illegal, and suddenly their lives are destroyed.

Now, if the government is taking side against Gibson to support Martin, I wonder whether this is a part of the police prerogative to arrest photographers taking pictures of no aesthetic quality. Is Uncle Sam going to finally put Britney out of her misery at last?

Da Bing

 

[mrjarrell]

In a related update, the morons at DoJ said in a pleading that Gibson's problems would go away if they just outsourced their labour to Madagascar. Way to keep jobs here, huh?

DOJ Advises Gibson Guitar to Export Labor to Madagascar | RedState

 

[Kirk Freeman]

At some point stupid mistakes become deliberate action.

 

[Zombiekilloftheweek]

They should be worried about other things instead of harrassing Gibson.

 

[rambone]

At some point stupid mistakes become deliberate action.

Conspiracy theorist!

 

[Phil502]

Gibson should take a lawsuit as far as it can go, this is all pretty blatant.

 

[rambone]

Feds to raid concerts to seize guitars???






Feds threaten to raid summer concerts to seize guitars

The latest skirmish, however, takes the government's case against Gibson to a new level. The feds intend to take the battle directly to the musicians who use Gibson guitars, which are considered the best in the business, and to the fans who come to hear them play.

If the feds raid summer concerts, major disruptions will ensue which will impact the fans who paid hefty ticket fees to see their favorite musicians such as Sheryl Crow, Ted Nugent, and Paul McCartney, all of whom use Gibson guitars.