Yesterday the DOJ raided Gibson Guitar for having ebony wood.
How is this going to play out with custom stockmakers.

Details:

http://www.wkrn.com/story/1532...ar-corp-in-nashville

It appears they may have had some "iilegal" ebony.

Lacey act -
not just for poachers anymore

I heard that Gibson states the wood was from a properly managed forest. Why in God's name does DOJ, friggin DOJ have time to worry about this. Wouldn't a simple audit have done the job? Or is walking in and asking people to shut down machines constitute an audit these days....

Federal and state law enforcement is becoming more and more thuggish every day.

FDA performs audits on it's controlled corporations all the time. An audit would have been much more easy to perform with less impact on manufacturing and with a much greater respect for law enforcement. The thing is Customs was involved the least well paid law enforcement agency in the us (I'm guessing but i bet it's in the top ten)
So what kind of people do you think Customs attracts with such a low entry level pay scale??
And do you think the management of those people are any better.

In California the Border Patrol is not even recognized as Peace Officers and therefore can not enforce any state laws. Fire marshall's have more power then they do.

As far as I am concerned, a lot of this stems from the fact that "government" of the masses is now the biggest industry in this country...producing more control of everyone, and employing more people than any other employer. And every last one of those employees will gladly screw their fellow citizens to keep their places at the money, goodies, and privileges trough.

Much of that, of course, is funded by the various free-trade agreements, which allow corporations to buy from throughout the world at the lowest possible prices (and quality), instead of having to develop and or buy from manufacturing facilities in our own country.

Then they are allowed to spirit the money out of this country to tax havens everywhere, rather than pay their share of building, re-building, and employing America.

The little guy is screwed into paying those building and rebuilding costs.

You want to revitalize America? Levy heavy customs duties on EVERY manufactured item brought into this country from the outside, and eliminate the tax loop-holes (subsidies) for ALL large corporations. Then bring our troops home from all undeclared wars, and end all foreign aid to countries which don't have governments which are thoroughly, always, and obviously friendly to Americans. (That likely means "End All Foreign Aid.")

And imprison elected public servants or fire unelected ones who accept cash or gifts of ANY size from ALL corporations and lobbyists. The elected ones get $180,000+ a year now in salaries and more than that in expense accounts.

We need them to vote and act in OUR interest, not in the interest of foreign or domestic multinational corporations or foreign governments.

For those interested, more on the "wood police", including a statement from Gibson in this thread:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/f...er=241086#Post241086

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
I heard that Gibson states the wood was from a properly managed forest. Why in God's name does DOJ, friggin DOJ have time to worry about this. Wouldn't a simple audit have done the job? Or is walking in and asking people to shut down machines constitute an audit these days....

My God, don't you know that Government Bullshit expands to meet its self-defined boundaries, and never gets smaller?

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
I heard that Gibson states the wood was from a properly managed forest. Why in God's name does DOJ, friggin DOJ have time to worry about this. Wouldn't a simple audit have done the job? Or is walking in and asking people to shut down machines constitute an audit these days....

My God, don't you know that Government Bullshit expands to met its self-defined boundaries, and never gets smaller?

Time to start changng that, isn't it?

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
I heard that Gibson states the wood was from a properly managed forest. Why in God's name does DOJ, friggin DOJ have time to worry about this. Wouldn't a simple audit have done the job? Or is walking in and asking people to shut down machines constitute an audit these days....

My God, don't you know that Government Bullshit expands to met its self-defined boundaries, and never gets smaller?

Time to start changng that, isn't it?

By and large, most people in the country don't give a shit and never will. Sad and pathetic, but true.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Eric "Nitwit" Holder defines the term stupid.

Vote, vote, vote, and vote again.

That's how we rid ourselves of the government leech.

America is the finest example of self-rule, the world have ever known. Its our job to run the country, not the bureaucrats.

Just remember how Joe Stalin took over the USSR by way of controlling the bureaucracy. And they call Obama's extra staff, czars?

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Hitler did it the same way

And of course, the CEO of Gibson is a Republican donor. The head of C.F. Martin guitar company advertises 10 models with the same wood and donates heavily to Democrats. Surpise, surprise: no raid on Martin.

1. The chain of custody from India to the US was followed.

2. The Indian government ccertified the wood as legal to export.

3.. The DOJ suddenly decided to interpret the law differently from India and said the wood didn't have enough "Indian labor content" to be legally exported.

Gibson has sued the US in Federal court. We'll see what happens.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:


Gibson has sued the US in Federal court. We'll see what happens.

Hope they friggin win