Obama administration is out of tune in Gibson Guitars raids

Mississippi, Natchez Trace Pkwy

Everybody told me you can't get far
on $37 and a Jap guitar.
Steve Earle, "Guitar Town."

Perhaps President Obama would prefer that Earle, a big liberal by the way, keep strumming Japanese-manufactured guitars.

From the Wall Street Journal earlier this month:

Federal agents first raided Gibson factories in November 2009 and were back again Aug. 24, seizing guitars, wood and electronic records. Gene Nix, a wood product engineer at Gibson, was questioned by agents after the first raid and told he could face five years in jail.

"Can you imagine a federal agent saying, 'You're going to jail for five years' and what you do is sort wood in the factory?" said Mr. Juszkiewicz, recounting the incident. "I think that's way over the top." Gibson employees, he said, are being "treated like drug criminals."

Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Obama's environmentalist army suspects Gibson Guitars, an ecologically responsible firm, of using illegally harvested rare woods for its famous instruments. Gibson doesn't need much wood for its guitars, so unlike a lumber firm supplying homebuilders, clearcutting forests isn't necessary for them. It supports the efforts of Greenpeace and the Rain Forest Alliance to preserve rare trees.

If the Obama overreachers can raid Gibson, is anyone safe?

Here's the latest from Politico:

The fight between the government and the Gibson Guitar Corp., maker of instruments such as the Gibson Les Paul, features some similarities with the GOP’s typical complaints about the Obama administration's regulatory agenda — especially in the impact on jobs.

"Gibson is a well-respected American company that employs thousands of people," House Speaker John Boehner said in a speech this month to the Economic Club of Washington. "The company's costs as a result of the raid? An estimated $2-3 million. Why? Because Gibson bought wood overseas to make guitars in America. Seriously."

Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz sounded a similar theme when complaining to reporters about the roughly $1 million in wood and instruments that the federal agents seized in August from company facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn.

"We aren't in the wrong, yet our entire operation has effectively been noticed to be shut down," Juszkiewicz said during a news conference after the raid. "Over the last two years, we've hired 580 American workers. Just in the last two years. We're one company that’s manufacturing in the U.S., hiring people and yet, the government is spending millions of dollars on this issue."

Technorati tags: entertainment rock music culture politics Democrats economy business law legal regulation overreach