If you live in Nashville, AKA Music City, as I do, any thing that affects the music industry is big news. The Feds have made a big splash recently in the music business. But, is politics behind this?
On August 24th, Federal Agents raided the Gibson Guitar facilities in both Nashville and Memphis. Gibson makes guitars and I am told very good ones. Since my musical efforts generally violate someone’s Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishments, I simply take the word of musician friends that Gibson is a very good guitar.
This was the second raid in two years on Gibson. The issue is a violation of an obscure law called the Lacey Act. The Lacey act which dates from the 1900’s requires a person to declare every flora or fauna being brought into the country and you must fill out the paperwork correctly. This is one of the few applications of law that has what is called “strict liability.” In most instances, if you are accused of violating the law, there is a “Mens Rea” element. In plain, non-lawyer, English, that means you had to have a mental intent. If you think of premeditation in murder you are in the ballpark. With crimes that require a “Mens Rea” element, there are all kinds of defenses. In a strict liability crime such as this one, either the paper work is right or not. If it is wrong, you are on the hook, even if it was an innocent mistake.
The most recent raid seems to have been triggered by an alleged violation of an obscure Indian law about the exporting of non-finished wood. Gibson imported some of its wood from India and uses American workers to finish the wood. Yet the Obama regime’s interpretation of the export of unfinished wood as a violation of the laws of India seems to be the basis for this raid.
Interestingly enough, Martin Guitars (C.F. Martin & Company) uses some of the same wood that Gibson uses. How many times has Martin been raided? Zero.
That may be interesting but there are other facts that build a more interesting and sinister circumstantial case for politics being involved.
The CEO of Gibson is Henry Jusziewicz. Among other things, he gave $2,000 to Congressman Marsha Blackburn, (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) He as also donated to a Consumer Electronics Pac that favors Republicans over Democrats.
Chris Martin, of Martin Guitars, on the other hand is a long time Democrat. Over the last four years, he has given over $35,000 to Democratic Candidates and the DNC.
Given the blatant politicization of everything by the Obama regime and their habit of using government to support their friends and harass their opponents, it is perfectly plausible that someone in DOJ is helping a friend of BO.
When conservatives take over in 2013, there need to be a lot of investigations of the Obama regime and the people in it. The GOP has a bad habit of just letting bygones be bygones.
Not this time.
Permalink Reply by Lois W Lillico on You certainly have that right Bill Campbell.
This is just a personal opinion, nothing to really back it up, but it seems to me, there is a lot of JEALOUSY
FROM THE HAVE NOTS WHO WANT TO DESTROY EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT OUR COUNTRY.
This redistribution of wealth is nothing more than jealousy. The hatred the muslims have for the Jews is
nothing more than JEALOUSLY--God chose Jacob instead of Esau, God chose Issac instead of Ishmael and
it has been an endless jealousy. Obama has an endless jealousy of all that is good about America and wants to destroy it. I truly believe he hates himself as half white and hates all white people.
Permalink Reply by bill campbell on Permalink Reply by Karen Fraker on 
Permalink Reply by Rob on We need to call Rep Issa and tell him we want special prosecutors for the investigations.
I will be calling him today to find out what is going on with the Fast and Furious and also ask about all this other stuff going on, I am sure he has a trunk load of things to look into.
Here is his number::: 202-2253906 and fax::: 202-225-3303
His website:::: http://issa.house.gov/
Lets light em up
Permalink Reply by Tanya Angel on Pretty simple, really.
Before you can make a judgement, you have to see when the wood was imported.
You used to be able to import Koa from Hawaii until the storm in the early '90s, immediately after it became illegal due to the lack of Koa trees surviving. Wood already exported from Hawaii was still legal to use.
Since you're ignorant on the subject of guitars, Gibson and Martin are two of the top guitars produced.
The wood can be seasoned for years, depending on species.
You can look at when the wood was imported.
Or you can play with conspiracy theories.
Depends of whether you prefer facts or BS.
Permalink Reply by Tanya Angel on Always a Guild girl, myself.
I like the vibrancy of my 40 year old D-35.
Still, this subject is a no-brainer.
Restrictions on wood are constantly changing depending on how threatened a species is.
Judson's reaching again.
Permalink Reply by Mark Hawthorne on "The GOP has a bad habit of just letting bygones be bygones."
It seems to me the GOP can see a constitutional violation and just do nothing about it.
Permalink Reply by Robert L. Voelsing Sr. on I saw the same story on Cavuto on Fox news on 9/1 just after 4pm & the CEO ,,,Mr.Jusziewicz said that there were NO violations of the laws of the countries the woods are imported from,,,,only a clerical error on paper of what TYPE of wood was in the shipment,,,,which could have been done on purpose,,,or not. His competitors have NO problem with imports at all. I believe it is another case of that pig at Justice making up his OWN rules to as BHO's peep's have said " Punish our enemies & reward our friends" The same thing happened in Missouri to Chrysler dealers who were Repubs & Dems,,Remember?
The Dem dealers were allowed to stay open,,,,BUT,,,,,,,,,BUT,, the Republican dealers were "Forced " to close under the Fed take over of Chrysler. November of 2012 can't get here soon enough STICK TOGETHER & VOTE REPUBLICAN
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
