Amen. The issues you listed are vital to the very nature of our society and the nature of our government. They're being ignored by the Department of Justice and the media. Fox News isn't even doing a good job with Gunwalker/Fast & Furious or Valerie Jarrett.
But this Fish and Wildlife Agents are doing what the law tells them they are supposed to do. The Lacey Act was amended by bipartisan support (Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who received money from Gibson's CEO, was one of the co-sponsors), was passed by a wide bipartisan margin, and was endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance while Gibson's CEO was a board member. The idea shouldn't be "stop them because Gibson was caught," it should be "amend or abolish the law because its wrong."
And the story isn't newsworthy to all the media. It's being ignored except in the conservative media and the guitar media. In the conservative media, the story is "jackbooted Obama thugs are after poor Gibson." The conservative media said "Gibson imported wood with the Indian government's permission and was raided anyway." There's no mention of changing the import code twice, avoiding tariffs, using fake final consignees, emails to tell people to ignore customs paperwork, false descriptions on shipping containers - all things that may be minor one at a time, but if listed in bulk may make people view the story in a different light if somebody had been willing to publish them.
In the guitar media, the story is "wait, let's make certain Lacey doesn't apply to sale of personal guitars and let's make certain it's easy to take personal guitars with you when you cross international boundaries. And, oh yeah, Gibson was caught doing something shady again; what a surprise."
All that said, if we could ask all federal enforcement agents to stop what they were doing for about six months and ask them simply to investigate the illegal dealings of Obama and the infestation in the White House, I would enjoy watching the fireworks with you on a large flatscreen. I'll bring the guacamole. I'd hope we could bury the hatchet.
I don’t mean to imply that I oppose what you’re saying here, no need to bury the hatchet. I most certainly appreciate your elucidation of details of this whole story that I’ve not seen anywhere else. It does implicate Gibson if what you’ve related here is true.
But...
This story in the greater scheme of things goes into my “pass enough laws and everyone will find ways around it and become criminals, therefore the plan to criminalize everyone is working to perfection” folder of WTF stories.
The laws need to be repealed. God provides a bounty of riches on this planet, and gave us the smarts to utilize said riches to our best advantage. Smartass Earth worshippers convince Poll-worshiping lawmakers to make illegal the conduction of business, the free enterprise of making things, and we’re supposed to support the law and order side of the ledger? I say Gibson is doing what normal people do when confronted with excess governmental rules and regulations.
Wood. It is astonishing that after arguing for years that outlawing marijuana is like outlawing trees, it’s almost come to pass. When is the revolution?