President Obama had armed SWAT agents raid a law-abiding guitar factory because it was owned by a Republican donor
President Obama had armed SWAT agents raid the Gibson guitar factory, ordered the employees to leave, and seized guitars and other property from the factory – and all of this happened without any charges being filed.
It was later reported that Gibson had not broken any U.S. laws.
Obama’s so-called justification for the raid was that Gibson had broken environmental laws from India regarding the imported wood that Gibson had been using.
Gibson claimed that it had not broken any Indian laws – and even if Gibson had broken India’s laws, the U.S. Constitution does not give the U.S. government the authority to enforce India’s laws anyway.
In addition, it was also reported that Henry E. Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson, was a Republican donor.
Meanwhile, C.F. Martin & Company, Gibsons’s competitor, had used the exact same imported wood, but had not gotten raided. Chris Martin IV, the CEO of Martin, was a Democratic donor.
Obama explained his actions in the following speech (the bolding is mine)
“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies, and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us’ — if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election — then I think it’s going to be harder. And that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2nd.”
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 
Brian replied:
Agreed 100%. However, I attended the rally in support of Gibson and saw Juszkiewicz’ speech to the crowd that had assembled in his defense.
This guy acted like he couldn’t care less. One second he was in interviews complaining about overreach. The next he was just wishing it would all go away. For Chrissakes you guys, you’re going to get me in trouble and I don’t want to be in trouble!
I understand the financial toll taken on the company as a result of these thug policies but he settled. If more people fought back harder at the onset then maybe this tyrant wouldn’t have been so emboldened.
I thought it was my truss rod but it turns out that it was Gibson that didn’t have any backbone. It’s hard to stand up for someone who refuses to stand up for themselves.
May 24, 2013 at 8:40 pm. Permalink.