On Saturday, October 8th in Nashville, artists and activists are holding a concert and rally to support Gibson Guitar. We’re calling it simply “We Stand With Gibson!” Why stand with Gibson? The short answer is, if I believe in Individual Liberty, I can do nothing else. On to the long answer …
On August 24th, agents of the US Fish and Wildlife Service ran down the halls of Gibson Guitar. With weapons drawn, they ordered employees away from work areas, herded them outside and later sent them home. They then confiscated production materials, records, and guitars belonging to Gibson.
This was not an arrest warrant served on a meth lab. It was a search warrant served on a guitar manufacturer. A phone call from an accountant with a pocket protector and ball point pen would have sufficed. The feds sent in agents with body armor and automatic weapons.
Arrests? Zero! Charges filed? Zero! Number of pieces into which the rights of Gibson and its employees were smashed? Countless!
The Declaration of Independence declares the purpose of government is to secure the people’s rights. It used to do so with laws to punish those violating the rights of others. Sadly, today government is often the one violating our rights via regulations which criminalize behavior tomorrow which is perfectly legal today. That’s what happened on August 24th and so I stand with Gibson!
Gibson was raided under the Lacey Act; a regulation from 1900 governing poached wildlife. It is so vague and broad that “…ten years ago, four Americans were charged with importing lobster tails in plastic bags rather than cardboard boxes…they were sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment each…” It was amended in 2009 to include illegally obtained plants. The government is responsible to prove someone violated the Act. Even though they have materially damaged Gibson’s ability to produce guitars and its reputation, they have yet to even charge Gibson in the matter let alone prove its guilt and so I stand with Gibson.
Lacey permits even more outrage by government. Private citizens who own, travel with, sell or transport a Gibson guitar could be found in violation of the Lacey Act. Selling a dozen guitars might get you a dozen separate charges with fines and jail time for each! Compliance Specialists is a Lacey Act expert with a guide to help navigate its intricacies. It notes,
…the potential for legal liability falls on everyone in the chain. On an absolute level, Lacey allows for the confiscation of goods from anyone-even to the point of allowing the government to enter a home to pull up a living room floor, rip out the kitchen cabinets or seize Johnny’s new bunk bed. Now, in the real world, that’s just not going to happen, but that’s the potential extent of liability. Anyone in the chain, from the importer to the retailer to the homeowner, and even the trucking companies technically share the risk for the legality of their wood in the product.
Since many things which are “just never going to happen” eventually do, is it bad to be a tad unimpressed with promises they won’t? I stand with Gibson on this one!
The Left is bent on misrepresenting and politicizing the raid. The NY and the LA Times say it’s about Conservatives ignoring vital issues. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) openly admits it’s a political fight the Left is keen to win. “”I watched what the tea party did with ‘death panels … [they] turned [it] into something completely bogus … We’re still nervous people.”"
One environmentalist whined, “…news stories are missing their chance to report on the real issue—illegal logging…” Bluntly, this is a lie. The Lacey Act does prohibit use of illegally obtained wood. However, this isn’t about illegal logging. No one claims Gibson’s wood was illegally logged. India permits the export of this wood in a “finished” state. The shipment was labeled as “finished” wood. India considered it finished and has written so in support of Gibson. The US DoJ “interpreted” India’s law differently, and rejected the “finished” designation since the final work of turning wood blanks into guitar fingerboards was done in the US. They even went so far as to suggest Gibson avoid future problems by moving the work on fingerboards overseas! The DoJ suggests Gibson might have lied on shipping documents to cover up a Lacey violation. As best I can tell, this is how the whole thing started. This is patently absurd and so I stand with Gibson.
This is the real issue – the one the Left won’t admit. It isn’t illegal logging, the environment or even the Lacey Act. Those are accidents of circumstance. The issue is a federal government that has lost its way and its soul. It seldom secures our rights and too often proves to be the one violating them!
Is it any wonder I stand with Gibson?
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- Stand with Gibson Guitars rally in Nashville (michellemalkin.com)
#1 by KM on 10/05/2011 - 02:30
—The issue is a federal government that has lost its way and its soul. It seldom secures our rights and too often proves to be the one violating them!—
There are many good people in this country. However, because those same people have allowed an increasingly immoral culture to dominate, we find ourselves being dominated by people in positions of power who lack basic common sense (wisdom is long gone) and integrity.
With the help of God and some hard work, not to mention serious soul-searching for all of us, I believe there is still time to turn this around.
I also stand with Gibson.
#2 by JH on 10/05/2011 - 20:07
Let's be real. The issue is political. If Gibson ran union shops and the CEO was an Obama supporter, there would have been no raid. Plain and simple.
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#3 by Hanson on 10/08/2011 - 02:10
Good Stuff! Thank You! – H
#4 by Judith Westerfield on 10/09/2011 - 17:50
I stand with Gibson and I sympathize with them for their difficult time. I have witnessed firsthand and read about the harassment from our government to small business. EVERYTHING from taxes to the harassment like Gibson has received to force them to close or move their operations to other countries. What has been happening all across our great country is so obvious that it makes you sick to your stomach. The evil dictator and staff are so obvious in the laws they have passed and tried to pass and every action. They want Americans homeless, jobless, and starving. They are achieving this in a hurry. Open your eyes people and take note. This is not the same country and it will never be the same again; that is if it survives at all. Read about the Epidemic in 1918 when our government started a worldwide epidemic with injections to our soldiers and killed over 70 million people. Do you think this cannot happen to you? Think again! Read back over history about genocide and see how many millions were murdered for population reduction.
Organized “population reduction” through control of the food supply has become the secret agenda of several global agencies including the United Nations.
Catherine Bertini, who spent 10 years as the Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Program openly stated, “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call it bribery. We do not apologize. “With the gap between rich and poor widening faster and bigger in our own country and with food supplies shrinking… what happens to the poor and middle class? If you are not one of the “elites,” the answer will scare you.
There are evil people in charge that tried to make it so that it is illegal to grow or purchase homegrown food. They also tried to make all of our seeds non-reproducing. Look how much of our food in recent years has been tainted and made people sick and killed some. Research chemtrails, and check out what the aluminum that is in all of our deodorants does to you. And our toothpaste that is so full of chemicals some make your mouth peel inside.
I hope and pray that Gibson will be successful in withstanding the uncalled for assault they have undeservedly received and I hope that we can all soon be safe from the tyranny that is behind such an unfair assault.
God Bless The U.S.A.
Judith Westerfield
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Without America There is No Free World…
#5 by stevens on 03/30/2012 - 18:34
America is not a free country and can no longer pretend to be. The Gibson raid is solid proof. Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama all work for the Bank Cabal while Putin is going against the Rothschild and South America has started their own Banko del Sur and paid off the World Bank and the IMF. Chavez has cancer but is still fighting the corporate villains.
Ecuador has told the US to get troops out of our sovereign country or let us occupy Miami.
Freedom is in every man’s heart. The US has been killing duly elected leaders all over the world for generations if they went against the wishes of the oil/Bank Cabal. Look-up the history of El Salvador. Everything you learned inn History class is a lie. Watch THE MONEY MASTERS for the solution.
#6 by stevens on 03/30/2012 - 18:09
Clearly. the one wold government wants to destroy every job in America. Occupy Washington.
Seek out organic seeds and plant Now! Get a garbage can of dirt if you have no yard. Save the seeds.