guess i'm not surprised
Posted on 05/23/2013 4:16:11 PM PDT by raptor22
IRS Scandal: The inexplicable raid nearly two years ago on a guitar maker for using allegedly illegal wood that its competitors also used was another targeting by this administration of its political enemies.
On Aug. 24, 2011, federal agents executed four search warrants on Gibson Guitar Corp. facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., and seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. One of the top makers of acoustic and electric guitars, including the iconic Les Paul introduced in 1952, Gibson was accused of using wood illegally obtained in violation of the century-old Lacey Act, which outlaws trafficking in flora and fauna the harvesting of which had broken foreign laws.
In one raid, the feds hauled away ebony fingerboards, alleging they violated Madagascar law. Gibson responded by obtaining the sworn word of the African island's government that no law had been broken.
In another raid, the feds found materials imported from India, claiming they too moved across the globe in violation of Indian law. Gibson's response was that the feds had simply misinterpreted Indian law.
Interestingly, one of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars contain "East Indian Rosewood," which is the exact same wood in at least 10 of Gibson's guitars. So why were they not also raided and their inventory of foreign wood seized?
Grossly underreported at the time was the fact that Gibson's chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, contributed to Republican politicians. Recent donations have included $2,000 to Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and $1,500 to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
By contrast, Chris Martin IV, the Martin & Co. CEO, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee over the past couple of election cycles.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Thanks for posting. I’ve been trying to follow this story.
He was a very gracious man.
Sounds like the multi-agency coordinated harassment experienced by True-the-Vote, and its leader, Catherine Engelbrecht!
The IRS was not the only group doing this...
He played at the White House, and didn’t greet or speak to obama. He didn’t even shake his hand. The irony was in a Pawn Stars episode, the owner of the Pawn Shop tasked his employee “Chumlee” to wait outside a casino where he was performing to autograph an artifact brought into the store. Chumlee succesful met Bob Dylan shook his hand and got the autograph.
So many parts of this article are parsed or present as factual statements that aren’t correct.
Here’s the first hint that this journalist based his story on press releases and other journalists, and never read any of the court documents related to either confiscation action. He refers to East Indian Rosewood; the wood involved in the August 2011 raids and confiscation action was East Indian Ebony.
Henry J’s not remotely conservative. He’s an early member of the Clinton Global Initiative (’We are passionate about our commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative’). During the days when every room of the Clinton White House was for sale, Gibson hosted a 50th Anniversary Concert for President Clinton.
Gibson CEO Henry J. was a presenter at MTV’s Rock the Vote the year that Clinton won the Lifetime Achievement Award and Barack Obama was recognized.
He’s a founding member of the Rainforest Alliance, which believed in man-made global warming but now believes in man-made climate change.
He just made a contribution to Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee; his only other contribution to a candidate or party since 1990 was to Mike Huckabee, according to opensecrets.org.
He’s on the board of a group that sponsors poetry slams for diversity and other diversity causes.
His company sponsors the John Lennon bus museum.
And he’s on the board of a bunch of environmental groups.
Some Tea Party bloggers said he was conservative because it sounded good in the “Eric Holder’s Raids” blogs.
In 2009, Gibson knew what it was doing was wrong and they did it anyway.
Article neglects to mention Gibson is a non-union shop. The others are union. Follow that money, too.
Liberals project a lot, which is useful--it tells you what they are up to, themselves.
One problem: He got Dylan to sign the album "To Chumlee" which made it basically worthless as an item the pawn shop could sell. Who's gonna pay top dollar for an autograph directed to someone else?
Chumlee will quickly be forgotten in the next few years. He is bareky known at that.
My point was that Bob Dylan showed Chumlee more respect than he showed to obama.
I’m a guitarist by hobby. I’ve bought several guitars in the past. I currently own a Gibson Les Paul. My next guitar will be a Gibson. I’ll support them over any company that gives money to Democrats.
And now the raids do make sense. Sad that the Dems have debased themselves to such a low level. Have they no concept of shame?
They are certainly not doing anything to prevent someone(s) from reacting in such a drastic manner...
guess i'm not surprised
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