TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY
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Posted on 05/18/2012 1:13:56 PM PDT by ColdOne
Lawmakers are scrambling to save the summer concert season from federal agents poised to seize the instruments of rock and country stars because the wood used to make them may have been illegally harvested--and without their knowledge.
“I don’t want the musicians from Nashville who are flying to Canada to perform this summer to worry about the government seizing their guitars,” said Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander.
Alexander, whose state is home to famed Gibson Guitars used by bands and stars like Van Halen, the Allman Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Ted Nugent and Paul McCartney, said Friday that he and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden are working to protect the artists, their instruments and makers and eventually change the law governing illegal wood harvesting.
“Senator Wyden and I are going to write the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a letter in the next couple of weeks and try to make it clear that wood harvested before 2008 to make musical instruments can’t be seized by the federal government,” Alexander said in a statement. “The Justice Department and Fish and Wildlife have said they have no intention of doing that, but Sen. Wyden and I are going to make it absolutely clear. We hope to get a clear ruling within a few weeks, and if we can’t get a clear ruling, we’ll introduce legislation to change the Lacey Act.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
How long do we continue to tolerate these nation destroyers?
The federal administrative laws and regulations applied to Gibson Guitar are the soft underbelly of our Constitution. Under English common law, which serves as the basis for our Constitution, a person is innocent and not subject to the penalties of the law until proved guilty. Under administrative law like Roman civil law a person is subject to its penalties and restrictions until they discover a way to legally extricate themselves.
This country no longer subscribes to the concept that preserving human freedom must be a precondition to any discussion about how or if an activity should be regulated.
Pursuit of happiness first means seeking spiritual prosperity within the hazards and uncertainties of personal freedoms. Politicians and bureaucrats were never meant to care for us by requiring our subservience to rules vastly increasing their power.
omg let ‘em try to seize a guitar player’s axe.
I think they should try this with Ted Nugent.
These “feds” as they are called may want to rethink who they go after.
Sooner rather than later they will rue the day. And they will deserve it.
Fedzilla is on the hunt for its next meal!
Oh, maybe anther 50 yrs. The zombies are quit controlled as of today & the elites are having a party at control. If the sheeple haven't by now I doubt there will be a force that's strong enough later.
Even Madagascar said Gibson did nothing wrong.
FFFFUUUUBBBBOOOO!!!!!!
Let me see, do I feel more threatened by out-of-control spending or guitars made of possibly illegally harvested wood? Decisions, decisions.
I went and saw Johnny Winter on Wednesday night.
If some G-man had tried to snatch his guitar there would have been a riot!
A slow-moving, pot-bellied, gray-haired riot but a riot nonetheless!
Can one imagine someone with a zillion dollar Stradivarius violin at a U.S. concert and the Feds steal it because it is made of some protected wood?
Tom Morello, the flaming commie from Rage Against the Machine, sometimes plays a Les Paul. It will be interesting to see which artists get harassed and which ones get left alone.
I’d pay to watch that!
Ok, I'll say it again. We have overwhelming material and evidence of the huge overreach of all levels of government. A reading of the Declaration of Independence contains things like this that the British were doing.
Where are conservative politicians using this material to totally demolish the liberal nanny state politicians and govt employees dreaming up this CRAP?
This is discrimination because rappers don't use instruments!!!
Our forefathers would be shooting by now.
By letting it get to this point, we have failed.
“A slow-moving, pot-bellied, gray-haired riot but a riot nonetheless!”
Bwaaaa! How true! Several years ago, I, along with well-known guitarist Neil Zaza and famed amp builder Dr. Z, went to a Jeff Beck concert. We were up in the balcony, so we had a good view of the backs of the audiences heads. Lotsa bald spots reflecting the spotlights! Great concert, btw!
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