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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Wonder if anyone has a copy of that pleading. Y'know, since they "wrote it down" and all.

Not sure how a raid on Gibson Guitars would "save Democrats", though. Last time I looked, most musicians tend to be a bit liberal in their leanings and ideology. Does Gibson cater to a particularly Republican crowd?

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Gibson Guitar Corp. Responds to Federal Raid
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/

I really think this is an attack on a non-union company much like the lawsuit against Boeing and their new plant in SC. I offer a simple list of
American Guitar manufactures as evidence of this.
As you know, Gibson is the only guitar company targeted by the Obama DOJ under the Lacey Act.
Gibson is in Tennessee 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 of these are forced-union states.

Only one other major company producing guitars and electronics that is non-union.That company is Peavey they are 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 Peavey products fail to meet federal safety and emissions standards. This is end user not production standards. They claim that Peavey sends out too much electro magnetic radiation. Music Group contains several brand and all are built using union or foreign labor such as Chinese labor. Music Group brands are MIDAS, KLARK TEKNIK, BEHRINGER, BUGERA, and EUROTEC.

I hope that this will clear the air on why there is a target on the back of Gibson Guitars an
American company building with American labor and building the best guitars for a very long
time.

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Feds Raid Gibson Guitar to Save Endangered Foreign Trees

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on August 24, federal agents raided Gibson Guitar Corporation facilities in Nashville and Memphis, making off with an estimated $1 million worth of Gibson property.

Gibson’s alleged crime? Using imported wood from endangered trees. At least that’s what the company assumes the feds have in mind. Gibson hasn’t actually been notified of any charges against the company. In fact, according to a Gibson press release, they still haven’t been told on what charges “more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons” raided their factory and stole their property in November 2009. They’re being forced to sue in federal court to get their property back, and even there the government is stalling, having requested an indefinite stay of the case.

In an August 25 press conference Gibson chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz calmly but forcefully condemned the government’s actions and maintained his company’s innocence. The raid itself, he said, was “extremely troubling. What is more troubling is that the Justice Department’s position is any guitar that we ship out of this facility is potentially obstruction of justice and could be followed with criminal charges.”

Juszkiewicz noted the irony of conducting such an assault on Gibson at a time of high unemployment, saying the company had “hired over 580 American workers” over the past two years. “We are one company manufacturing in the United States that’s hiring people,” he added, “and yet the government is spending millions of dollars on this issue.” Should the government triumph over Gibson, it would end up forcing the company’s wood to be finished in foreign countries instead of in the United States, thereby depriving some Americans of employment in favor of foreigners.

Notice that no one is talking about Fender, who uses the same materials as Gibson. I heard Gibson's CEO last night on the radio; the government won't even let them see if their property (it is still theirs by the way) was being properly stored. Most likely the wood is now useless because it was not kept in a controlled environment. The fact that the courts will not tell the government to either prove their case or return their property (plus legal fees) smacks of a political shakedown of a company that didn't grease the right politicians. When it comes right down to it, all campaign contributions are is protection money.

Outsource all guitar manufacturing to China. Then it won't matter what kind of wood is used in the guitars. They will also be built with slave labor, and what with "most favored" trade status, these guitars will be very cheap. Walmart will be willing to stock them and sales will go through the roof. The musical quality of their guitars will go down the proverbial sh--tter, but at least the Feds will be happy.

Maybe this will help some naive, self-absorbed musicians realize that liberals are actually not cool, and that they should start spending a little more time and money on preserving freedom and sanity in America.

Do you want to know more?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/8780-feds-r
aid-gibson-guitar-to-save-endangered-foreign-trees

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