Oh, boy...this could turn into a political thread pretty quickly but now the adminstration is fucking with something close to our hearts (and pertinent to this forum). Here is an interesting take...
BTW, we should re-name this thread "Gibson gets screwed" or something so we can keep track of it.
posted on Americanthinker.com
Already we have watched the Obama regime drop a criminal conviction of Black
Panthers violating the voting rights act, rescue and repair vessels being
detained by the Coast Guard en-route to the Gulf oil spill and the Obama
appointed NLRB preventing Boeing from opening its new production facility in
South Carolina. Last Wednesday, DOJ enforcers, under command of capo Eric
Holder, raider the Gibson Guitar company facilities in Nashville and Memphis.
According to my source inside Gibson, 20 armed agents raided the factory and
seized pallets of wood, guitars and company computers (no word yet on the
embargoed wood content of the computers). Gibson Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz was
livid at this latest bullying of Gibson by the US Justice Department. In 2009,
they had staged a similar raid and, while no charges have been filed, the DOJ
refuses to return the confiscated property.
Juszkiewicz points out that the wood comes from one source in Africa and one in
India. The wood is purchased from the same suppliers as other US guitar
manufacturers, Fender, Taylor and C.F. Martin. This is the second raid on Gibson
while all other manufacturers have been left alone to do exactly what Gibson is
doing with no interference from the Federal government.
There has been speculation that these actions could be political payback because
Henry Juszkiewicz is a Republican donor while Chris Martin gives to Democrats.
Some company history here might shed more light on the subject.
The Gibson Company was started by Orville Gibson in 1894 at his workshop in
Kalamazoo, Michigan. As the popularity of Orville's instruments grew, his
company grew with it. Gibson eventually became the most respected name in
Mandolins, banjos and guitars in the world. In 1963, Gibson was having
difficulty remaining solvent and parent company CMI president H. H. Berlin hired
Stan Rendell as V.P. for manufacturing to straighten out the problem. In the
book, 100 years of Gibson, Rendell says explaining the problem the company
faced:
"The problem was the steelworkers union!" he details (the company had been
unionized during World War II, when the plant was making metal-intensive war
products). "They were dictating everything."
Rendell's solution was simple: Move all string manufacturing from Kalamazoo
across Lake Michigan to Elgin, Illinois. This reduced the crossover from job to
job and increased efficiency both in guitar production and string making. It
also sent a message to the union that Rendell was not going to mess around.
(Mulhern, 1994)
Rendell soon returned the company to profitability but labor and quality
problems persisted. Finally, the decision was made to open a new production
facility in Tennessee, a right-to-work state. Hear this Boeing! Manufacturing in
a new location with a new labor force was not easy but eventually the old
Kalamazoo plant was phased- out with products coming out of plants in Nashville,
Memphis and Bozeman, Montana.
Gibson has not only regained its former reputation for the finest quality
electric guitars, but also enhanced that reputation. Gibson (like Chrysler and
General Motors), was nearly destroyed by a parasitic labor union. The company
survived by shedding the shackles of organized labor and starting out anew. This
is not an American success story that unions, democrats or President Obama would
like to share. Consider also that C.F. Martin's whose headquarters are in
Pennsylvania while Fender and Taylor hail from California- not exactly
right-to-work states. One more thought to consider is that Martin, Taylor and
Fender also have a vast manufacturing presence in Mexico while all Gibson's are
100% US made.
You can take you pick of reasons Obama's DOJ is using their Gestapo tactics on
Gibson, but one thing is certain; this sounds like Nazi Germany, not Nashville,
Tennessee.
Felten, E. (2011, 08 27). Guitar Frets:Environmental Enforcement Leaves
Musicians in Fear. Wall Street Periodical .
Mulhern, T. (1994). Gibson: 100 Years of an American Icon. In Gibson. Gibson
Publishing.
Parsons, C. (2011, 08 26). Mai lOnline . Retrieved 08 26, 2011, from
http://www.dailymail.com.uk/news/articl ... ary-Gibson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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i still don't even have a headcab for my 45/100 
, and my pc is on the verge of death ((( which gives me an occasion to sent message in a bottle for the computer corporate pigs ; you fake greenies can you please make your shitty computers more durable , so that you can avoid producing more of those turds and doing so releasing less of your mythic "unecofriendly C02" instead of focusing energy consumption and thinning traces on pcbs ? )))((( but nah anyway , they won't do it i know cuz this def not about nature or pollution , only a retarded could believe it )))) ...
