Gibson Guitar vs. The Obama Regime

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Since 2009 Gibson Guitars, one of the leading manufacturers of guitars has been persecuted by the Obama Administration over "tainted wood".  It seems that some of the wood that Gibson uses is manufactured in a way that violates India's laws.  Yes I did write INDIA.  The country.  Not Indiana, the state.

Last week, heavily armed federal agents raided two guitar manufacturing facilities in Tennessee owned by Gibson — one in Nashville, another in Memphis. The feds were not acting on a tip that an al Qaeda cell was holed up in the buildings; or that Mexican drug cartel gangs were lurking inside. It was actually something far more serious; far more serious, that is, to a bunch of federal bureaucrats with nothing better to do.

The raids were carried out because the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claim that parts of the iconic guitars manufactured in the plants contained the wrong kind of imported wood. And, although the feds have not made clear to Gibson just what it has done wrong, the government appears also to be claiming the guitar parts might have been exported to the U.S. contrary not to American laws, but to certain domestic laws of the countries exporting the parts to the United States!

One of the laws at play here is the hundred-year old Lacey Act, passed during the “Progressive Era,” and intended to promote conservation and as a crackdown on illegal trafficking in wildlife. The law also makes it a crime for a company to violate the laws or regulations of other countries. In this particular case, Gibson’s attorneys surmise it may be the law of India they are charged with misinterpreting or violating.

The Justice Department apparently believes the wood in question, used to construct fret boards for Gibson’s popular instruments, was imported from India without having first been “finished” by Indian workers; actions that could be considered a violation of that country’s byzantine legal code.

According to a press release from Gibson, the agents “seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars.” Juszkiewicz estimated the loss of raw materials alone to be $1 million; obviously not including financial losses due to the inability to produce guitars from those materials.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Gibson has been subjected to the overreaching, punitive arm of the federal government. In 2009, the Nashville facility was raided in similar fashion, based on accusations that rosewood imported from Madagascar and used in guitars, came from illegal logging. And, despite the fact that to this day, the government has not filed formal charges against Gibson, it has refused to return the company’s property.

Gibson has engaged in extensive and costly efforts to recover its property from that raid two years ago; including the filing of a civil lawsuit. In the civil proceedings, the company presented proof, including statements from the Madagascar government, that the wood was obtained legally. Still, the federal government refuses to budge; and now, with these second and third raids, appears intent on trying to put Gibson out of business completely.

These highly publicized actions by the federal government have ramifications for any musician owning a guitar made out of certain woods by overzealous federal agents of having been obtained illegally at some point in the manufacturing process (even if years ago and by a prior owner or manufacturer). The Wall Street Journal notes that owners of vintage guitars made out of now-banned or regulated woods had “better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent – not to mention face fines and prosecution.”

Gibson’s obviously frustrated CEO, who noted during a press conference the day of the raid that every guitar his company builds could possibly be considered criminal in nature, given the widely disparate countries from which the various woods are imported and in various states of manufacture; and considering the difficulty – if not impossibility – of correctly interpreting every relevant law of every one of those countries.

The government’s treatment of this American company – one of the few bright spots in domestic manufacture of musical instruments – is disgraceful, counterproductive, and mean-spirited.

In 2000, Charlton Heston, then serving as president of the National Rifle Association, and fighting gun control proposals, held a flintlock rifle over his head and declared famously, “from my cold dead hands.” Gibson’s CEO needs to rally freedom-loving Americans similarly; raising a Les Paul Gibson guitar over his head. All Americans who believe in freedom and limited government should come to Gibson’s defense; not just those who are guitar players.

Source

It is just coincidental that Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has been a donator to Republican candidates and not to Barack Obama's election or now his reelection.  Mr. Juszkiewicz was informed by the government that they would drop all the charges against his company and return the property that was seized if he moved his production plants to Madagascar.  That means 500 American jobs destroyed and lost to an overseas company.  Thus we witness Obama's jobs program in true action.  Creation of jobs not here at home, but abroad.  Just don't take my word for it, but listen to Henry Juszkiewicz himself:

DTRT Radio Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz 09/02 by CP n Annieb | Blog Talk Radio

During the Clinton Administration this type of investigation and misuse of power was a regular occurrence.  To Barack Hussein Obama this is just normal Chicago Politics.  To the American people this is just wrong. It is time to call your Congressman, your Senator.  How many more American jobs will Sheik Obama send overseas?

America: From A “SNAFU” To A “FUBAR”

America: From A “SNAFU” To A “FUBAR”
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

In an article titled at Townhall.com entitled “Our Big Mistake,” Cal Thomas says: “The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is dismantling the America we have known and loved and transforming it into something it has never been: a socialist state. If we let them do it, there will be no forgiveness, no excuse, and no going back. And our shame will be an indelible stain for which future generations will judge us.” (SOURCE)

How RIGHT he is! Mr. Thomas is pointing something out, to his readers, which we warned of, long and loud, during the presidential campaign of 2008. We did not SUGGEST this would happen, we told you, flat out, that if WOULD happen, not because we are so darned smart, but because history has taught us that you cannot place men like Obama in power and NOT expect them to assume dictatorial powers even if that means fundamentally transforming the country into a socialist dung heap in order to secure that power unto themselves. But, then again, it was not only we who predicted this, it was Obama, himself, who promised “fundamental change” in America.

Well, America elected Obama and as the bumper sticker asks: “How’s that hopey/changey thingy working out for you, huh?” I’d have to answer as the old farm boy that I am: “Not too goooood!” The fact of the matter is – it is an unmitigated disaster!

Mr. Thomas goes on to say: The taxing and regulating has only just begun. The Obama people are not intrinsically evil. Like someone caught up in a cult, they sincerely believe in the fiction they are peddling: more taxes will produce a healthier economy; the record debt is not a problem; more regulation will result in banks and big businesses operating ethically and for the greater good of their customers and the country; nationalized health care will mean better care for the sick; unrestricted abortion and same-sex marriage are fine; unenforced immigration laws are good because Democrats need to import votes and Republicans want cheap labor.” (SOURCE)

I have a slight disagreement with Mr. Thomas here. The people of the Obama Regime may not be intrinsically evil, but, taken as a whole, I am very afraid that, collectively, they have become evil.

The country is broke and Obama and his socialist cronies with their socialist/marxist agenda for America are making it “broker.” America is so deep in a financial hole it will literally take generations to get out -- IF we are fortunate enough to survive, as a constitutional republic, far enough into the future to make survival as a single fifty-state nation worthwhile. THAT is a BIG if!

Now we know we were lied to about Obamacare. We were lied to about taxes. We were lied to about federally funded abortions under ObamaCare -- and that just scratches the surface of the parade of lies marching in lock step out of the Obama White House. And, as singer Al Jolson used to say: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Consider the following items on the Obama/democrat/socialist/marxist/progressive agenda:

Plans for OPEN BORDERS, plans for a ONE-WORLD FOREIGN POLICY, plans to LEGALIZE DRUGS, plans legalize EUTHANASIA, plans to DE CONSTRUCT THE MORAL VALUE AND ATTITUDES OF AMERICA and THE WESTERN WORLD, plans to push PROGRESSIVE IDEOLOGY OF RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTS, plans for the “get richer” scheme for America’s elite -- referred to as the CAP AND TRADE SYSTEM, and more, much more.

Just consider the Democratic Party today. Some say socialists have HIJACKED THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, AND NOW they OWN IT LOCK, STOCK and BARREL. (I’m not entirely sure the Democratic Party WAS hi-jacked by the socialists. I tend to lean toward what I believe is closer to the truth -- and that is that the Democratic Party found it had much more in common with the socialists than it did with democratic Americans and, therefore, simply embraced the socialist agenda and made it theirs. The handful of true democrats remaining in that political party are sick at heart over what has happened to their political party. But, again, if history tells us anything -- it is that the Democratic Party is lost, forever, to socialism/Marxism.
Republicans should not become complacent, for the same socialist movement is creeping into the GOP’s fold and will, if not ruthlessly stamped out, consume them, as well.

Shortly after the Obama Regime took power in the US we speculated as to whom, exactly, was running the Obama Regime. Many of us, with the same question, came to refer to this behind the scenes puppeteer as the Shadow Government. It was quickly apparent to practiced observers of American politics that someone was pulling Obama’s strings and had been for a very long time.
For a young man to come out of near obscurity, with a shadowy history, to suddenly appear in the limelight and gather such a following does not just happen. It is carefully, meticulously, planned over years. Obama is that man.

Obama, with seeming messianic powers, became a fatal attraction for millions of American who bought his promises and fell in behind him as the children of Hamelin did the Pied Piper. The results are turning out to be very much alike.

Obama is America’s Big Mistake. It may yet be a fatal mistake.

This November, in the Mid-Term Election, Americans have a chance to blunt the power of Obama and the man, or men, behind him, the puppeteer, sometimes referred to as the shadow government. In order to do so conservatives must vote in record numbers against the democratic candidates and GOP candidates who have shown any inclination toward supporting Obama’s socialist/marxist agenda. We must regain control of at least one house of the Congress.

As to the title for this column – SNAFU is an old military acronym. It stands for “Situation Normal – All ****** Up! America normally is, shall we say, “messed” up. But that is the hallmark of a democratic nation. Believe me, it would have been much worse had our forefather not chosen to create a constitutional “representative” republic for the people of this country.

When Obama and his minions took control of the US government “SNAFU” was the order of the day. Within eighteen months, or so, the Obama Regime has managed to take America from “SNAFU” to “FUBAR,” which means “****** up Beyond All Recognition.” I suspect that is why so many Americans do not recognize their country anymore.

J. D. Longstreet

Is Obama Abusing the President’s Executive Order Privilege?

Is Obama Abusing the President’s Executive Order Privilege?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Is Obama using the executive order to legislate, or make law, from the Oval Office -- therefore circumventing the Congress? That is a good question and one that has been put to me a number of times recently by close friends. I must admit, as well, to a grave concern on my part about the seeming way Obama appears to be legislating from the Oval Office.

It has become apparent to many Americans that Congress needs to take a closer look, to evaluate, a number of executive orders by Obama.

Before you get your knickers in a knot, understand that we are living in extremely precarious times here, in America, under the socialist yoke of the Obama Regime.

See, the plain truth is -- the only basis in the Constitution for an executive order is in Article II, Section 1:

“The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
and Article II, Section 3:

“He [the President] shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Some of you may remember that the Supreme Court ruled that President Truman’s 1952 order to “nationalize” all the steel mills in the US, by placing them under federal control, was invalid because, according to the Court, it was an attempt to make law.

It has become clear that President Obama is ruling more as a king than a president and if the American people do not insist that Congress put the quietus on his executive order proclamations -- the US is in serious danger of losing our constitutional republic and once again becoming a people ruled by a king and a would-be dictator.

It would seem that Obama subscribes to what is known as the Unitary Executive theory. “The unitary executive theory is a theory of American constitutional law holding that the President controls the entire executive branch. The doctrine is based upon Article Two of the United States Constitution, which vests "the executive power" of the United States in the President.

Although that general principle is widely accepted, there is disagreement about the strength and scope of the doctrine. It can be said that some favor a "strongly unitary" executive, while others favor a "weakly unitary" executive. The former group argue, for example, that Congress’ power to interfere with intra-executive decision-making (such as firing executive branch officials) is limited, and that the President can control policy-making by all executive agencies within the limits set for those agencies by Congress. Still others agree that the Constitution requires a unitary executive, but believe this is a bad thing, and propose its abolition by constitutional amendment. ”(From Wikipedia HERE.)

I happen to be one of those Americans who believe that, as stated above, the President can control policy-making by all executive agencies within the limits set for those agencies by Congress.

If the rumors that Obama is about to sign an executive order to grant amnesty to the illegal aliens already within the United States are true – then the Congress needs to look into it. Should Obama issued such an executive order, then it certainly must be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court for a ruling.

The Socialist/Democrats in the US government are over reaching -- just as we warned they would. They ALWAYS do it. It is some sort of compulsive behavior on the part of the democrats. It often leads to their downfall.

The democrats in our government have become so used to manipulation by the “man behind the curtain,” the “Shadow Government,” or whoever is pulling their strings, they appear to now believe their own prevarications. They live in a world created for them by those who “run” them, who “oversee” them, and they are completely cut off from those they THINK they represent. They are living an illusion.

The Democrat’s Grand Illusion, however, is dangerous for America. They believe the American people want a shepherd. Because their fellow democrats want a “Sugar Daddy,” they believe Americans, as a whole, want a “Sugar Daddy.” And worst of all they have convinced themselves that a benign dictator is best for America, and Obama, a seriously flawed narcissist, fits the bill. To make matters worse Obama believes it, too! As a result America, under the Obama Regime, is being ruled by an oligarchy of one – Obama!

America must be set aright this November. The Obama Regime has seen the handwriting on the wall and they have plans, already in the works, to stop conservative efforts to rescue America from their socialist clutches at the ballot box in the Mid-Term Elections this fall. If conservatives are not victorious, then Obama’s executive orders will be the least of our worries.

Is rule by military fiat next -- to teach us a lesson? Let’s not find out. The Obama Regime, and its Socialist/Marxist agenda, must be stopped if America is to survive.

J. D. Longstreet