Outrage of the Day

______

Gibson Guitar CEO strikes back

Henry Juszkiewicz once again blasts feds 'violent, hostile' raids - Late in the same day that Department of Justice announced they had reached a settlement with Gibson Guitars, in which Gibson acknowledged illegally importing environmentally endangered woods, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz struck a defiant tone as he continued to criticize government actions.

“We felt compelled to settle as the costs of proving our case at trial would have cost millions of dollars and taken a very long time to resolve,” he said in statement released via the company’s @gibsonguitar Twitter account late Monday.

“We feel that Gibson was inappropriately targeted, and a matter that could have been addressed with a simple contact (by) a caring human being representing the government,” the statement said. “Instead, the Government used violent and hostile means with the full force of the U.S. Government and several armed law enforcement agencies costing the taxpayers millions of dollars and putting a job creating U.S. manufacture (sic) at risk and at an unfair disadvantage.”……. Gibson must pay a $300,000 penalty within 10 days, but the company won’t face any further sanctions by the federal government as long as it complies with an 18-month criminal enforcement agreement.  In addition, the guitar maker must pay $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation to promote conservation of protected woods used in the manufacture of musical instruments.

What an outrage!  I would like lay some foundation on this subject. I posted this on May 15, 2012.  RK

Congress Looks to Rewrite Act That Led to Gibson Guitar Raid
by Audrey Hudson
Lawmakers are reviewing legislation to amend a century-old law that led to a raid by armed federal agents at the Gibson Guitar Company in August 2011 at its Nashville and Memphis factories and, in a separate case, to the imprisonment of two Americans for importing improperly packaged lobsters,,,,, “How can this possibly be constitutional?” …..Federal agents confiscated a half-million dollars worth of property from Gibson Guitar in the August raid, including guitars and computers. The company did not import banned wood products, but is accused of violating a law in India that requires the wood product be finished by workers in that country before it can be exported. …Abner Schoenwetter and David McNab spent six years in federal prison, accused of violating Honduran fishing regulations. The lobsters they received should have been shipped in plastic, rather than cardboard, boxes…. [this] is a frightening example of over-criminalization. ….U.S. importers have been turned into policemen, who are responsible for knowing a myriad of foreign laws that are simply impossible to keep track of,”

Is this any different than the EPA's attempt to destroy the Sacketts property rights?  Notice the same pattern. It simply costs too much to defend your rights and in turn your rights are in the hands of bureaucrats with unlimited power and money. The Fourth Branch of Government! We have lost our minds and are about to lose everything else!  RK

Sackett versus the EPA: There is more

Today the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case brought by an Idaho couple represented by our friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation. It is a great victory for landowners facing the wrath of the EPA.

Wyoming Liberty Group's Steve Klein's article was a refreshing change from the dozen or so articles I read or skimmed in the liberty-media and elsewhere in the days after the SCOTUS decision was announced. I even posted a comment – in general praising Steve's work – though it has not (as of Saturday the 24th at 1800 hours MT) been screened and posted. Perhaps they thought that I was being too critical of Steve's article. To read more..... This ruling handles the surface issue but this goes far deeper than the surface issue. RK

###