The U.S. Department of Justice, which has been critical of raids here in Arizona, has been recklessly conducting some of their own recently. In Tennessee, legendary guitar manufacturer Gibson USA was raided by heavily armed agents from the federal agency as they executed four search warrants on Gibson’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis.
The DOJ claims Gibson is violating the Lacey Act with guitars produced from rosewood and mahogany imported from India — crafted by American workers in U.S. facilities. The intent of the law combats trafficking in “illegal” wildlife, fish, and plants, but Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz says that the company has been using the wood for years. Juszkiewicz, a Harvard Business School graduate, argues that the U.S. Lacey Act is only applicable when a foreign law has been violated.
“We have letters from a very high-level government agency in India that say this product was an allowable export,” he says. “And in fact, we have been buying the same product for well over 17 years, regularly.” He and business partner, President Dave Berryman have owned the company since 1985. Gibson USA manufactures approximately 2,500 instruments a week. Read about the fascinating process and tour the plant here.
This is the second such raid in two years where Gibson employees were evacuated and computers and pallets of wood were confiscated. Gibson reports no charges have been filed from the previous 2009 raid, and that the government still holds the company’s property.
Interestingly, competitor C.F. Martin & Company uses the same wood product, but has not suffered similar raids. These descriptions are directly from Martin’s own catalogue.
Putting aside the misguided motivation to enforce another sovereign nation’s laws, why would a homegrown American company, supplying hundreds of American jobs be the target of the Department of Justice?
In addition to questions about application of the Lacey Act, there are concerns about possible political intimidation. Chris Martin IV, CEO of the Martin Guitar Co., is a long-time Democrat supporter, donating tens of thousands of dollars to numerous far-left candidates and organizations, among them Barack Obama, John Kerry, the Democratic National Committee, Progressives United PAC and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
In contrast, Juszkiewicz has a history of supporting Republican candidates and issues.
In an interview with the venerable Memphis Daily News Juszkiewicz stated: “The federal bureaucracy is just out of hand. And it seems to be there’s almost a class warfare of companies versus people, rich versus poor, Republicans versus Democrats. We feel totally abused. We feel the arrogance of federal power is impacting me personally, our company personally, and the employees here in Tennessee — and it’s just plain wrong.” He valued the equipment and raw materials seized from Gibson USA at almost $1 million.
Seeing Red AZ 
Smells like the Dodge Dealer sczndal. Donate to Dems keep uyour dealership, Donate to GOP be terminated. They did however tell the CEO of Gibson that if he were to fire his employees here and outsource the work to Madagascar that would be perfectly acceptable. Criminal assault on the Free Market. Defund EPA fire everybody on the payroll and let them go and apply for work in Madagascar.
Gibson is the ONLY guitar company targeted by the Obama DOJ under the Lacey Act.
And it just so happens that Tennessee is a RIGHT-TO-WORK state. Connect those dots.
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; Heritage is in Michigan; Washburn is in Illinois.
ALL OF THESE ARE FORCED-UNION STATES. Does the assault on Gibson make a little more sense now?
So, as always, the question is, what does a free people do under this constant barrage of federal Gestapo-style attacks?
One possible solution is to IDENTIFY the INDIVIDUALS within the federal government who have planned, authorized and carried out these tyrannical acts against American citizens.
Then, their names, photos, home addresses, home phone numbers and personal email addresses should be published on the internet.
This will enable Americans of good will to contact them and try to explain why their actions are contrary to the founding ideals of our country.
“DOJ Raids Guitar Company for ‘Illegal’ Wood”
…I guess that means that the lunatic-left d-cRAT socialists haven’t yet found a way for ILLEGAL WOOD to cast fraudulent ballots to help them get elected.
Don’t forget the Fed’s raid on the California Co-op for their sale of raw milk. “Put down the honey and nuts, maam.” It is absolute insanity.
Let’s face facts. The DOJ has repeatedly targeted Sheriff Joe Arpaio for not falling in line with the radically left Obama administration’s policies. But wasn’t it great when they recently had to admit defeat and withdraw the bogus lawsuit they filed against the sheriff?
Tommy and garvan are both correct in pointing out the Dodge dealerships that went under were owned by Republicans and that Tennessee, like Arizona, is a right-to-work state. The democrats are ruthless and deceitful brokers of election fraud and adept at draining public resources. Remember that Obama got his start as a “community organizer” for ACORN.
The holidays are right around the bend. Help Gibson USA. Buy someone (or several someones, if you can swing it) a guitar. How about that child or grandchild who enjoys music? How about one for yourself? Can’t play? it’s never too late to learn. Give yourself a Gibson USA for a gift. Take lessons. Learn something new. You deserve it. it will bring you joy while keeping your mind nimble. you can’t beat that with a stick!
Let’s help this great company with an equally great name!!
Watch how those guitars are manufactured here:
Do not forget the character of the Barak Hussein Obama regime as portrayed in these other acts of intimidation:
the attempted destruction of Boeing for trying to build a huge plant in a right-to-work state.
the raid by the bho Dept of Education SWAT team, armed to the teeth, on a small house in California where the thugs pulled a man and his 3 small children out of the house at gunpoint, proned them on the front lawn, and then held them in the back of police cruisers while they searched the house and grounds for the man’s wife who had failed to repay her student loans.
the daily assaults by TSA screeners on innocent American travelers, and the arrests of those who protest or can’t comply.
the new bho tank-buses, armored, armed and tinted to total darkness, to protect bho from the unwashed masses of homegrown terrorists and to intimidate them to keep their distance. This is complementary to the new fleet of presidential armored helicopters that bho has commissioned.
the DOJ and military persecutions and prosecutions of police and military for trying to do their jobs to protect innocent Americans.
…and the list goes on.
For what is this regime preparing—the American “arab spring”?
God bless America.
The offenses of the British in the late 1700’s pale into insignificance when compared to the outrages of the federal government today. And yet, those puny offenses caused the colonists to take up arms and drive the Brits out.
However, armed resistance is simply out of the question today, because the federal leviathan is everywhere and is heavily armed. We have to find another way to rein them in.
We’ve tried electing different people to Congress, and yet, no matter which party is in power, the power of the federal govt continues to grow.
The abuses of the central government have reached an apogee under this undocumented Kenyan who is wrecking our economy.
Citizens of good will chatter about it on this and other blogs. And yet, the federal outrages go on unabated.
Anyone have any suggestions about how to take back our country? Doesn’t seem like anything is working. What is the next step? IS there a next step, or are we doomed to just complaining to each other about the out-of-control federal leviathan?
[…] is not a union shop or the fact the Gibson’s major competitor is a Democrat. According to Seeing Red AZ , “Chris Martin IV, CEO of the Martin Guitar Co., is a long-time Democrat supporter, donating […]