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| 1960 Les Paul Standard |
I'm a Gibson guy from way back. I've had several Gibsons over the years, all made by hand by the family owned legendary Gibson of Kalamazoo, not today's mass produced South American giant corporate conglomerate owned Gibson of Nashville. My first decent acoustic guitar was a J-50. Had a 335, then a Super 400. I even owned a '59 tobacco sunbrust Les Paul Standard much like the '60 Standard pictured above.
So, take your silly charges of Gibson prejudice back to the confines of the Lower Winguttia hall of stupid shit ignorant tea baggers believe, where you won't be forced to endure the ringing laughter of the upright walkers. Now, here's more on the story...
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz is stirring up more faux outrage in the tea bagger/wingnut branch of the GOP. A while back we wrote about Gibson using the wingnutosphere to broadcast claims that Homeland Security (be afraid!) was conducting raids with heavily armed jack-booted thugs for absolutely no good reason except to harass the upright, honest bosses at Gibson. Ahem. Laura Clawson at DailyKos has more on the story...
The wild claims to martyrdom coming from Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz are being challenged by an unusual coalition of environmental groups, U.S. hardwood industry groups and unions. On a Tuesday conference call and elsewhere, they have made a number of key rebuttals to Juszkiewicz's claims.One of the key claims by Juszkiewicz is Gibson was specifically targeted for some unspecified political reason. Twice, no less! He's also claimed that enforcement efforts are really just an organized plot by the Obama administration to drive jobs out of the good old USA! Yes, sadly, there are people stupid enough and gullible enough to believe such absurd happy horse poo.
You'll no doubt be surprised to learn that these claims are every bit as absurd as they sound to any sane, reasonable person in possession of 2 brain cells to rub together. In fact, an affadavit filed by the Environmental Investigation Agency shows that at the time government investigators intercepted a suspicious shipment of hardwood and initiated an investigation, they had no idea Gibson was in any way involved or that there was any connection to an earlier case.
The affidavit indicates that the government did not realize that Gibson was the recipient of the ebony shipment in question when it was first held in Dallas due to irregular paperwork and suspicion of a Lacey Act violation; only upon investigation they found the parties in this shipment to be the same as those involved in the Madagascar ebony case already in process.EAI spokesperson Andrea Johnson explained that while the 2009 case against Gibson centered on illegally acquired ebony from India and the latest case involved the illegal import of ebony from Malaysia, in both cases the importer was the same company. Gibson continued to buy from this company even though they knew full well they were under investigation for making illegal purchases from the company.
As to Juszkiewicz's bizarro universe claim of a conspiracy to eliminate US jobs, Jameson French, CEO of Northland Forest Products and the former chairman of the Hardwood Federation, told The Hill...
"...illegal loggers evade environmental and trade laws and sell their products more cheaply than law-abiding companies can.Also on Tuesday's conference call was Mark Barford, executive director of the National Hardwood Lumber Association. Again, from DailyKos...
French said he is “flabbergasted by the misinformation that’s been put out there” by Gibson. In particular, he said that rather than costing jobs, the Lacey Act has “saved a lot of American jobs” by protecting American wood companies from illegal competition.
Mark Barford, the executive director of the National Hardwood Lumber Association said bluntly that the Lacey Act "is our jobs act ... we need the protections of the Lacey Act, we need a fair playing field." There is a significant economic effect: Illegal logging can cost the U.S. $1 billion per year.Gibson already faces stiff civil penalties in the 2009 case with criminal charges to be filed soon. The latest potential violation is still under investigation with criminal charges expected. It's no wonder Juszkiewicz would prefer to take his case to the tea bagger wingnutosphere. He obviously can't make a case in court. Besides, mega-corporate CEO types like Juszkiewicz know those ignorant knee jerk tea baggers are stupid enough to believe anything, as long as it's anti-Obama.
Yes, tea baggers, that's what they really think of you when they think of you at all. Welcome to reality. Enjoy your visit, no matter how brief.
Doesn't the FED's have better things to do with their time and our money? It's B.S. that those so called environmental acts are protecting our jobs. The wood was harvested in some shit hole 3rd world country, and if we don't buy it and use it the Chinese, Koreans, or some other far east company will buy it and make guitars and flood the USA with knock offs. I'm not siding with the TEA PARTY loonies of with the fat cat corp. I just want American folks to have jobs I could give a shit about where they get their raw materials. AMERICAN PEOPLE COME FIRST!
ReplyDeleteUm, "Doesn't the FED's have better things to do..."? Really? "Is are children larnin'?" Brillyent strategery! Jeenyus! FYI, these international treaties, signed by pretty much every country on the face of the planet, including China and Korea, bigot, have been in force for more than a century. Do at least try to keep up. As to your all caps provincial chauvinist jingoism, there's about 6 billion people on this rock that beg to differ.
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