Does the DOJ have nothing else to do? Sounds like an agency in need of a cut back.

I used to live in Memphis and have been to the Gibson guitar factory and the club. Nice place.

But it’s going to make a stand on the civil rights of wood and wood harvesters in India?

Mind you, Gibson isn’t even my favorite manufacturer of acoustic guitars, but I can’t imagine something that would estrange musicians more from government than learning that guitar companies are being raided by government not for quality or performance issues, but for a very particular and unilateral reading of an obscure treaty.

proclaiming that he has wood

…I can tell you that Gibson has made a LOT of enemies among other companies in what we call the “musical instrument” (M.I.) business, filing lawsuits against smaller companies and such. They’re also known for cutting corners in ways such as this – like the post author said, they have a history. It wouldn’t surprise me if a competitor tipped off the DOJ. Additionally, I know lots of M.I. vets who wouldn’t take a press release from Gibson as the gold standard.

Just another way to look at this.

Maybe they’re a bit high strung and need to attack someone that doesn’t have the right political connections…

I mean really? Going after anyone on such tenuous/dubious legal grounds to start with?

I guess if the DOJ can’t find hate crimes or voting crimes while Holder is in charge and they’ve got to do something to prove their uselessness…

for DOJ people to bust evil capitalist pigs trying to make a profit by ripping off people who are forced to buy their product?

Oh wait, that was ObamaCare – never mind.

with the current admin. Okay, that was bad, wasn’t it?

Makes me wonder how liberal “artists” like Sheryl Crow and Bob Dylan who use Gibson’s will respond. Not that I care.

that the company was owned by Althea Gibson. I’m sure Holder would have left them alone being the racist scum that he is.

I have new for them the majority of the American people don’t like the corruption going on in their policies. Nov 2012 we will throw obama politically polices out of the White House and the Federal Government. Holder should RESIGN in shame for his actions NOT enforcing the laws of the US and making up his foney poppe.

FYI:

While Woody Guthrie rightly hated fascists, he was also a communist sympathizer. “This land is Your Land” was written out of his distaste for “God Bless America.”

Why were automatic weapons needed? News reports don’t detail if they were required this time, but they were felt necessary for the first raid.
This second one, following that Gibson gave evidence the contested wood was from Madagascar and not subject to the Indian law, sounds like a classic case of Big Brother deciding to prove that if they make a mistake and you challenge them on it they will simply keep on getting in your face until you back down and accept whatever they decide to do to you.

The governments over reach in having an armed police force raid Gibson
Guitars is way overboard. and shows what this country is coming to, and the world also. as a matter of fact. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth and a even nastier mantra in my mind. . .
RP in 3012

or a provision in the requirements of the DOJ that says you must know how to scramble your priorities to be good at your job. If this was meant to show that the DOJ is on top of things, it didn’t work.
The next thing is an armed raid on preschool classes looking for illegally imported crayons.

Here in Wisconsin, I spoke with a DNR forester agent about selective cutting of Firewood within MY OWN WOODS.. He mentioned that the DNR forest selection service is “voluntary” today, but that he hopes that someday soon that it will become mandatory under the “Rules of Forest Preservation Act. The DNR Agent expanded his comment to say: “We want the reg’s in place that forbid the cutting of any tree, on any land without an authorized “Permit.”
Further exclaiming that this desired tree-cutting Regulation is to be part of “Environmental Protection” and thereby come under their DNR purview..
Any tree or product there-from not having the DNR “mark of inspection” will be considered illegal and may be seized withcitations issued & fines imposed..
Will all Forest Products now require the “666 Mark of the Beast..?”

Maybe Gibson should bring the wood in across our southern border. This way if the wood does not commit some kind of mass murder homeland security and the justice department will let it stay here.

.

Gibson simply forgot to donate to Obama’s election fund. Otherwise they would have gotten a pass and a get out of jail free card. Of course the DOJ has an agenda – reelect the boss.

Invoice the DOJ for the wood they’ve confiscated. It would be no big surprise if it was lost from the evidence room/building/entire city block, as in sold to a Gibson competitor under the table. It would hardly be a first time such happened – all over the country.

It seems the statist leeches have struck again.

Who is the imbecile that dreamed up the Lacey Act anyway? I would much rather trust any self-regulating agency (or even the purchaser itself) to determine if the product being purchased is contraband. It is ridiculously capricious to trust a government agency that does not have to obey its own laws to enforce any laws at all.

I guess the DOJ is so busy looking for illegal wood that they do not have time to look for illegal aliens. If Obama’s EPA, NLRB, or Agriculture Dept. does not stop job creation then the DOJ can just come in and take the raw products needed to do the jobs thus making sure that no new jobs and old ones alike will be lost. Thank You Mr. President.

I just called both my Senators and my Congressman to ask them to look into this BS! We’re broke, the borders are wide open, and the DOJ (after Fast and Furious) takes their time and our money to raid this employer of Americans and for what???
Is there no common sense left in this Counrty???

I urge all of you to call your representatives and ask that they do SOMETHING to stop this assualt on America by the DOJ !!!

DOJ …. I wonder what does the J stand for these days because it’s certainly not JUSTICE !!! ………. department of JERKS maybe??? …. (can’t write here what I really think it stands for)

As the proud owner of 2 u.s.a. made fender jazzes, and a lakland u.s.a. bass, it makes me a bit skittish. According to the d.o.j., you have to be able to document where the wood comes from. Basses and guitars are made of a variety of woods, and wood isn’t the only problem, nuts (the grooved appliance that holds the strings in place just below the headstock) used to be made of ivory, maybe they still are, tuning keys too. All of you vintage guitar guys can have your guitars confiscated. I just found out recently how they make “tortoise shell” which is used in picks, strangely haven’t heard anything about that hideous practice. Is the pres. and c.e.o. of gibson a conservative? How about fender or lakland or any luthier for that matter? This is lunacy, because, to me there aren’t too many things that go together better than a “les paul” and a fender u.s.a. bass, pearl drums help too, oops, forgot about drum heads.

for this persecution of Gibson. Are they non-union??? Have they donated to the Republican party instead of the marxists??? It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall on this one!!!

you allowed into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels (a failed program the DOJ is now trying to cover up ) and you are going after a guitar company because you think they bought illegal wood?

There are almost no words to describe how absurd this is.

The DOJ has turned into a joke under Holder and Obama & Co. Congress needs to ramp up the investigations on Holder and the DOJ.

Funny how concerned the DOJ is with illegal wood coming into the country but not illegal immigrants.

Will the d.o.j. go after the illegal japanese copies from the ’70′s-’80′s? All kidding aside, it’s all a matter of who’s side your donating to, and up to their snuff. Look at what the clinton adminstration did to microsoft when gates didn’t pony up enough cash to billy’s re-election campaign.

The Obama administration can’t be bothered to enforce our borders but they will do their bestest to enforce Indian laws against American companies without the Indians even asking?

1: the 2009 issue has, per doj request, been pretty much frozen in perpetuity in the court system and they can (from what I understand) never get out from under it.
2: doj can raid a workplace w/o telling anyone why.
3: what are they going to do with the stock they took? can’t glue it back to the tree….
4: our doj is enforcing another nations laws inside our borders, but refuse to enforce our laws ON our borders.

we’ve let this all go too far, this isn’t just a present admin issue but has slowly been building for years.

when there are plenty of free enterprise guitarists that the writer or the graphics department should have used on this story of federal agency tyranny gonve beserk.

Maybe some of you musi-cans can write a song about this un-American raid?
Woody would have but he wood’ve twisted it with a left-wing knot of typical anti-capitalism.

This has political payback for the Marxist group Greenpeace written all over it. They are going after all kind of companies and Obama is the perfect stooge for the radical group Greenpeace.

The DOJ’s enforcement of the CRA (community re-investment Act) originally passed by Carter, re-written under Clinton and expanded into a huge beaurocracy involving the FED, FHA and ECOA to create a subtle, government imposed, quota-based, lending modification system resulting in wealth redistribution.
EVERYthing with the democrats is about wealth redistribution and/or power-grabbing. Sometimes it is deeply hidden. But it is there.

This action begs the question, “Which of Obama’s deep pocketed donors is in the musical instrument business?” This smells of government intimidation and bullying.

One of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood.” In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson’s guitars.

Martin’s Guitars also use this same wood, from the same sources. During the time that Gibsen has been harassed by two separate highly armed and threatening raids with no charges brought by the DOJ in either case against the company, which donates money for Republican and conservative causes, Martin’s Guitars has been mysteriously free from such raids. The Martin company donates to Democratic candidates and causes. (It’s the Chicago way, don’tcha know)